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Election day has arrived! As a mom of a busy young family, I know all too well how lovely conveniences are. We try and use as many things as we can to make our lives simpler. So signing up to vote by absentee ballot is tempting. However, I’d like to make the argument that taking the time to go together as a family to your local polling place is worth the extra hassle.
You know how important voting is, I don’t need to tell you. It’s what made our country the wonderful place that it is. So lets get our children excited about it too. One way to do it is to start early and make voting a positive memory for them. Children really look up to their parents and hopefully seeing us vote, will inspire them to want to vote when they grow up. I myself have fond memories of going with my folks in their brown 1970’s Ford Mustang to the local polling place, playing in the booth curtains and running into friendly neighbors. I think its these fond memories that have driven me to never miss voting in an election.
When our children are just wee-little ones, it may be too early to have a discussion about the issues at hand, however its never too early to make a fun trip out of going to vote. Make it easier on yourself by reading up on the issues before heading over and marking your choices on the sample ballot. This will help with getting in and out quickly. Then bundle up, make a mug of hot cocoa if your so inclined and head out to your polling place. Maybe walk or bike ride, something that distinguishes it from an ordinary errand to your children. Make sure you grap some ‘I Voted’ stickers to let your little ones decorate themselves with and head home knowing that you made a difference. Not only with yoru vote, but also in your young childs life. And while you are at it, why not go out for a slice of apple pie, what could be more American?
Ready for the holiday craze? Now that Halloween is over get ready to be bombarded with holiday madness. One thing I’ve found to cut down on the last minute stresses is to order my holiday cards early. And I’d like to share with you my favorite picks for this year. They are all from Tiny Prints, of course, because everything they do is so incredible. I’ve received quite a few Tiny Print cards over the years from friends and the quality and design can’t be beat. They are lovely and better yet, many of them are printed on recycled paper!. Take a moment to shop their Tiny Prints 2008 Holiday Cards
Clockwise from top left:
Nature’s Gift, Drifting Dandelions,Holiday Nesting, Christmas Cardinals
Many of you have already signed up to receive our free budget spreadsheet, but recently this new way of budgeting has caught my eye. It’s called the Balanced Money Formula created by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Tyagi in their book, All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan.
The basic principle is that no more than 50% of your after-tax income should be spent on necessities, such as your mortgage, utilities, food, transportation etc. Then 20% should be put into savings and the remaining 30% should be spent simply on the things you want. Doesn’t that make things easy? Get Rich Slowly has a great further write up with charts, if you’d like to read more.
I will admit if you are a stay at home parent living on one income, having your needs only take up 50% of your take home money is tough. But keeping your spending in percentages is a nice way to work. Maybe at this point in your life 80% of your take home salary goes towards needs, 10% towards savings and 10% towards wants. Or 80% is needs, 15% wants and 5% goes towards savings. You can see how you can customize it for your current financial situation and as time goes on you can work towards the 50-30-20 principal.
I think this is a great concept because it makes living with in a budget much simpler and can’t we all use a little more simplicity in our busy lives? I also like how this method of budgeting gives you a generous 30% to spend on things that you simply want. As you know, I love to be frugal, but I also like to indulge in the occasional luxurious baby item or that seasonal pumpkin spice latte when the mood arrives.
How do your percentages look? What do you think of this budgeting method? If you are searching for the perfect easy to use budget spreadsheet, take a look over here.
While reading my Google Reader, I found the cutest homemade Chocolate Chip Cookie Costume made by the fabulous mom behind Make Baby Stuff. Not only will it make your little one adorable on the big day, but it doubles as a chair cushion. Who doesn’t love a multi tasking costume?
Only one more week friends until Halloween. Do you know what you and your children are going to be? There are thousands of ideas out there, but I’ve narrowed it down to a great child-friendly list of homemade, frugal and last minute Halloween costume ideas:
I know I just posted about Craftsbury Kids, but I just found out about this giveaway they are having and I couldn’t stop myself from posting about them again. If you are the winner, you win all of these lovely things plus nine other adorable baby must haves! The total package is worth $450!
Go here to learn how to enter. Hurry contest ends today!
This weekend I was reading a post by one of my favorite bloggers, Sew Liberated, who’s pregnant with her first. She wrote a really funny post about a conversation she had with her husband about why she smelled burnt popcorn as they were going to bed. You can read for yourself what turned out to be the burnt popcorn smell.
Many woman experience a heightened sense of smell during their pregnancy. I know I sure did and it didn’t help with the morning sickness experience at all! Scientists are still trying to figure out exactly what the reasoning behind it is, however having a stronger sniffer is attributed to estrogen increases. In fact this heightened sense of smell is thought to cause morning sickness. If you go even farther, some think that this attach on the nose helps the mother to avoid eating toxic things that could harm the baby.
Other strange sense things that can happen when you are pregnant is with taste. While I used to be a habitual Altoid popper, I never could finish one, or even leave one in my mouth for very long, during my pregnancies. Don’t even mention what regular peppermint toothpaste did to me! And then there’s that metallic taste that just won’t go away.
Many pregnant woman talk about having altered vision, hearing and touch also while pregnant. Amazing, isn’t it, how our bodies can change while growing a baby. What did you experience? What sensitivities did you have?
I’ll be the first to admit that I like to be frugal. I realized years ago when I chose Art as my major in college that I probably wasn’t going to be making a ton of money during my career so I would have to learn how to stretch the money I had to the best of my ability. During my working out of the home years I saved as much as I could which has served us well during this time of me being at home more with the kids.
I love seeing how much I can save with a sale and I try and use coupons at the grocery store when I get the chance. Luckily there are plenty of wonderful frugal blogs out there that I can indulge in when it comes to learning about how to better manage my money. I want to share these great links with you to inspire you too:
Once a Month Shopping-Save More by Shopping Less by Get Rich Slowly
Enjoy a Simple Christmas with a Well Planned Budget by Simple Mom
A Penny Saved is… $6,977.03! by A Dollar Plan
Works For Me: Cheap Haircare by Rocks in my Dryer
What are your favorite frugal blogs to read?
There’s been a lot of talking on the forums about the cookies that jump started my labor and I’m thrilled to see that it’s helped other woman too! Lord knows that when you are ready for the baby to come out, you’ll do just about anything. Luckily these cookies are really tasty. It’s a super spicy gingersnap recipe that you can find here. If you cut the amount of cayenne in half and roll them dough balls in turbinado sugar before baking, they are perfect holiday cookies too.
Here’s my story on how they worked:
These cookies, really can jump start your labor if spice is your trigger for labor to begin! My husband has always loved ginger cookies, so a week before my due date I decided to make these cookies for him as a thank you for putting up with my very pregnant, hormonal self. I made this in the morning and ate more than my fair share of both raw dough (yes, I know, shame on me) and baked cookies. I took a nap and when he came home from work, I went to the kitchen and grabbed the plate of cookies to present to him. Literally as I was walking toward him with the plate of cookies in my hand my water broke and we were off for the hospital. Since then I have passed this recipe onto a few friends and amazingly enough, it’s started their labors too! Give these spicy ginger cookies a try and pack your bags.
Autumn Items from Craftsbury Kids
has long been one of my favorite websites to look through when I’m shopping for baby things. I love them because they sell such a wide variety of cute, handmade and high quality things that families can treasure for years and even generations.
Recently Craftsbury Kids has opened a new shopping section and it’s filled with all sorts of autumn goodies like the ones above. Just look at those little shoes, how can you resist? And that hedgehog? Sweet! Happy Shopping!
