Let's Start a Snow Storm!

Paid Twice, the Sensational Sultana of Snowflaking (*grin* Yep, I've had coffee) has pulled together the first ever Carnival of Snowflaking at Snowflake Revolution! If you haven't heard of this concept, you can go read her Snowflaking: A Primer post to tell you how it works.

I'm a recent convert to snowflaking and am proud to say that it's something that I look forward to doing. I snowflake teeny bits all the time. I snowflake when the utilities are less than I expected or I spend less than budgeted on groceries, or when I sell a book on half.com. I do wonder if it does much good, but only time will tell with that.

My recent post: Snowflaking, sort of was included in the carnival. I can't wait to get over there and read the rest of the carnival. Won't you join me? Leave a comment here and let me know if you enjoyed it!

Snowflaking, sort of

I've probably said it too many times, but Wes and I aren't the most frugal of people. We are doing better, and every step in the right direction counts in the end. But we still have a long long way to go.

I've begun a little experiment. No matter what our other spending habits, whenever a bill or expenditure is less than planned, I snowflake the difference. If the gas bill is $140 and we budgeted $150, I'm sending that $10.00 snowflake, even if the electric bill was budgeted at $150 and really came in at $180.

So far, I don't notice a difference at all. We haven't come up short in other areas and this has been fairly painless. Since my experiment with tracking my expenses every single day failed miserably, I've decided that this approach may work better. We spend if it's there, but really tighten our belts when it isn't.

Anyone have advice on this? What other ways do you throw little bits at your debts without feeling the pain?

Summer Break - Those Pesky Kids

Summer break is 5 weeks away for the children at Momma's house. Usually, my 3 bio daughters spend the summer with their father in a different state. They generally leave here the day after school lets out for the summer and don't return until a week or so prior to the beginning of school in August.

This year, their father has gotten caught in the economic downturn. He hasn't got a job and his living situation is precarious. Therefore, the young ladies will be staying home with us this summer. They're incredibly excited. This is the first time in 8 years that they've spent a summer with me. Of course, that doesn't change the fact that I have to work.

They're all old enough that they don't need a babysitter, but I think it's a miserable summer if they have to spend every day hanging out and waiting for us to come home from work. In the past summers, we've gotten them Six Flags season passes. It's a great investment for us because we always go more than twice a season (the break even point for season passes) and the Passholders Only day at the end of the season means that we get lots of Christmas gifts for next to nothing, as everything in the park is at least 50% off.

This year is different though. Wes' work situation isn't as secure as it has been in years past. I'm torn between being frugal and making better decisions with our money, and making sure our kids don't have a summer of boredom and exile. The 15 year old (in 10 days!) wants to get a job at Six Flags, so maybe it's not such a bad idea! But everyone knows that those amusement park passes are paid for with the extras... not the passes.

While I ponder this, I'll just share my snowflakes for today:
$11.30 (water bill was less than budgeted)
$4.49 (sold a book on half.com, this is the sales price after shipping and commission)
Yay for baby steps.

So, what do you think about the season passes? Good idea or no?

The Cost of Chores

When we moved into our house 3 1/2 years ago, we made a decision that the children (the 3 that live with us) would have equal parts in maintaining it. Wes and I both work outside the home, and try to cook dinner and spend family time as often as possible. In order to keep up with everything, we enlisted the girls’ aid with the cleaning.

We tried many methods for determining who did what chore. We drew chores, listed on scraps of paper, from a hat on a weekly basis. We rotated the chores out so that none of the children got stuck with chores they hated for long. In the end, we just gave the two biggest chores to the older two, and spread the rest of the workload evenly between them.

Our 12 year old daughter has been responsible for the laundry for over a year now. I have invested many … many hours in showing her how to use the right amount of detergent and fabric softener. I’ve encouraged her to break up the chore into manageable bits so that it doesn’t build up on her. Still, no matter how often I helped her get caught up on weekends, she seemed to be completely unable to keep up.

Last week, I made a new deal. I gave her an “out” from the chore she so obviously hates enough that no amount of encouragement, lost privileges, or punishment could force her to keep up with it. I allowed her to make me an offer of chores she would willingly take over in return for me taking over all laundry duties. She made me an offer that I felt was an equal amount of effort on her part, so I took it.

Today, I realized that this is going to save us a considerable amount of money in the long run. No more loads that need to be washed twice because they were forgotten in the washing machine to mildew for three days. No more loads that need to be washed and dried twice because the dryer was over loaded and the clothes didn’t get dry (and again, were left for 3 days). Less energy to dry because I hang up socks, underclothes, wash clothes, and hand towels instead of drying them in the dryer.

I really don’t know how long I’ll be able to cheerfully keep up with this dreaded chore, but I can already tell that our water, gas, and electricity bills will be going down... maybe even significantly. I won’t be adjusting the budget to account for the lower bills. Bring on the snowflakes!

**Electric Bill less than budget - $52.66 snowflake

This week's Grocery Game, and some other stuff

Every day, the first thing I do when I log in is check out my favorite blogs (listed to the right). First up is Mommy Gets PAID. She lists freebies and surveys and other really cool deals every day. So, I always go get my free stuff first thing! Yesterday, she had a link to a coupon for a free Scotch Brite toilet cleaning starter kit. Normally, I wouldn't buy something like that, but my 10 year old cleans their bathroom and I thought it might be nice for her to have something easier to use.

This week's Grocery Game lists resulted in:
Publix:
Original Price - $34.34
Price Paid - $14.53
Savings - $19.81 or 58%

Kroger:
Original Price - $221.24
Price Paid - $108.96
Savings - $112.28 or 51%

Total spent on this week's groceries: $123.50
Snowflake for debt: $26.50

Received Register Coupons:
$1.00 on two Maple Grove Farms Sugar Free Syrup
$2.00 on any size Purina Fit&Trim Dog Food
$5.00 off (plus free shipping on orders over $39.00) for 1-800-PetMeds
*****Use Code:DOG46 - Expires 06/04/08

Is my snowflake too small?

I felt a little silly yesterday, sending a Billpay for $3.11 toward a $75,000 debt. I sent one for $3.89 not too long ago. I just wonder what the people who have to process these payments think of the insane woman paying an extra $3.11. Do they laugh? Do they make snide comments?

Not that I really care what they think. I put no stock in the elusive, yet omnipresent, THEY. But, it does make me wonder about the true cost to others. The bank has to transfer the money to the Billpay company. The Billpay company has to print the checks and put them in envelopes and add postage. The post office carries the check to the company. The company's mail room delivers it internally. The payments department has to log it and apply it to my debt. All of these steps just so my little snowflake can melt against the furnace that is my debt.

But, I sent it anyway!

Cell Phone Bill - Take Two

Last month, I wrote about an adventure with our cell phone plans and my attempt at cutting some of our costs by lower the plans. After carefully combing through this month's bill, I am pleased to announce that not only is our bill correct, but it's less than I budgeted! So, that's another $3.97 snowflake toward back taxes.

Snow Flakes to date: $18.33

First Paycheck

Yesterday, we got the FIRST check made out to Wes' new company. WHEW... I have to be honest, I was a bit panicked. The payment was 30 days overdue. Our savings account was officially down to one mortgage payment and 1/2 month worth of child support. To say that Momma was a little stressed might be the understatement of the year.

So, the check has been deposited. "Payroll" has been processed. The new Business ING Direct account has been established. This morning, I feel like we're getting a little more control going in our situation.

I was able to send in the debt payments that I usually send on the 15th of the month:
$450 for Federal Tax Debt
$300 for State Tax Debt
AND! I sent in my $14.36 Snowflake (Thanks PaidTwice!!!)

I'm now off to the thrift store to find costuming goodness for an upcoming costume party. This should be fun.

The Grocery Game

Well, I've been reading about the Grocery Game for quite some time now. I'm happy to report that I decided to give it a try. I signed up for the 4 week trial for $1. Last night, I did the grocery shopping, using the Grocery Game's "game rules". Here are this week's results:

Store --- Full Price --- Savings --- Total Paid --- % Savings
Publix ---$71.00 ---- $43.93 ----- $27.07 ------ 62%
Kroger --$161.63 ---- $71.41 ----- $90.22 ------ 45%
CVS -----$42.09 ----- $23.74 ---- $18.35 ------- 56%

Total Spent: $135.64
Total Bdgt Wk: $150.00
Total to "Snowflake": $14.36

YAY for my first official Snowflake.