The Price of Milk

For Christmas last year, Tee gave me a subscription to Real Simple magazine. It was a magazine that I really enjoyed in my pre-Hoot years. I loved to read it cover to cover. The subscription was initially hung up and I didn't receive my first issue until almost three weeks ago. I get so little time to devote to it (yes, I know, log off and read!) that I am just now finishing off the issue.

On the cover is what seems to be the ever present "Save on Groceries" tag line. It's getting as much cover time as Brittany Spears and Harrison Ford these days. Hey, guess what, we all know groceries have gone up lately. Hey, guess what, we all want to know how to save. Hey, guess what, I bet we all knew the six tips Real Simple printed to save you money on groceries!

For those of you who don't know:

• buy cheese in the dairy aisle, avoid the deli counter
• go to a discounter like WallyWorld for shampoo, deodorant, and toothpaste
• buy frozen, not fresh, fish
• buy meat in bigger family packs
• buy produce in bulk bags
• look at the shelf sticker

Wow, really? That's amazing. Hey, and I bet if I don't drive my car, I'll save on gas, too! Yes, I know, I know it's just an article. It's just that it's the same old tired advice that has been rehashed and rehashed and rehashed. And, it has been rehashed by every magazine out there. I still love my Real Simple and I enjoyed reading it. I can't wait for the new issue, which will probably be out before I truly finish this one. But, I wish they had run an article that had some real information.

You want to save on your grocery bills? Get a Sunday paper. If you live in a small city, try to get the nearest large city's paper, as the coupons will be better. (Our local paper's coupons are full of tomato trees and old lady stretch pants ads.) Clip your coupons. Go to The Grocery Game and spend $1. That will buy you four weeks to learn how to match to ads. If you love the savings, but don't have time to match ads, at the end of your four weeks, get a real membership. It really will save you money. Heck, before the Grocery Game, I didn't know that our local Kroger tripled coupons up to thirty nine cents! I only thought they doubled to fifty! And if you do it, remember I sent you! My referral email is Siouxstone@gmail.com. (You can also use the email if you just want to drop me a line as well!)

One tidbit out of the May issue has stuck with me for over a week now. I just keep pondering it! In 1958, the average price of milk was $1.01 a gallon. But, that wasn't the WOW part. If you adjusted that amount for inflation, in today's dollars, it would mean $7.40 a gallon! That makes my Hoot's organic look cheap! Of course, a man in white doesn't leave it on my doorstep either!

Oh, and if you ever see The Price of Milk on any indy film channels or the like, I love that movie. It's quirky and from New Zealand. The Jacksons always seem to have something of mine! If it wasn't for the No Buy thing, I'd probably be searching for the DVD online since I just thought about it!

Current Reading:

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Pick it up, check it out! I've enjoyed it far more than I would've ever thought.

May Decisions

May is shaping up to be a very expensive month. It always is, but it still catches me by surprise when I see my totals and goals. There is just so much going on with gift occasions and Spring activities. I'm super glad there isn't a graduation somewhere in the mix as well!


Mother's Day is somewhat of an annoyance with me. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great to honor moms everywhere. Heck, I'm a mom! But, as with Christmas and my birthday, I hate doing the budgeting work for my own presents. This year I budgeted $100. I've already spent $18 on cards and a small gift for my mom. So, that leaves $82 in that category for DH & DS to buy me a present, or take me out to dinner, or whatever. I also keep thinking I should maybe try and meet my mom halfway between our houses for lunch or something on Sunday. That would further cut into the budget.


Our 15th wedding anniversary is on the 15th. I will be getting back in to town that evening and with the work trip, it was too chaotic to try and take that following weekend off. I do have the weekend of the 24th off, so we've thought about doing something then. But what?


DH's birthday is the 21st, so there's another $100 to put with the usual suspects. Can you see it adding up now? I also budgeted $100 for our Family Fun day because we hadn't decided on what we wanted to do. We talked a little bit about rolling Mother's Day, Anniversary, DH's Birthday and Family Fun day all into one weekend, but it's kind of driving me nuts. Collectively, that would put $382 in play for a weekend away. When I see that number, that big, and it's under the No Buy title, I just shake my head.


However, I am not one to get upset by doing things rather than buying presents. I'd much rather go somewhere and spend quality time with my family than own a piece of jewelry or a dreaded thing-that-must-be-dusted. The traditional 15th anniversary gift is crystal. (I read that as a thing-that-must-be-dusted.) The modern 15th anniversary gift is glass or watches. (Hey, I could actually use a new watch!) And according to About.com's guide to anniversary gifts, we should have booked a trip to Switzerland or Austria. Yeah, right. More like Fredericksburg or Schlitterbahn.



Overheard in the bookstore:
You got them home schoolin' books?

That's the night that the lights went out in Stoneland

We have always had great luck with our electricity in this house. Two years ago, when the entire city went dark during a blackout, ours was off for a grand total of twenty minutes. At work, the lights were out so long, we ended up closing. Parts of the town were out for five or six hours. Every other time we've lost power, our little part of the neighborhood is the pocket that comes back on first. I chock it up to the fact that we have two ambulance bays and a fire department in that little pocket of electricity. They always come back up first, while the people behind us stay dark for much longer.

While I was at Ikea on Wednesday, as we were browsing through the candle area, I almost picked up a large packet of candles for our emergency box. My mom has recently been checking the temperatures of the Gulf of Mexico on a daily basis. Because she's near the coast, it's in her newspaper along with the weather. About a week ago, they also ran an article about how the gulf is warmer than it has been this early in over a decade. This puts her in a state usually reserved for small poultry and she emails out her Hurricane prep lists. So, I stood there in Ikea staring at a giant box of cheap candles and thought about my mom. Then I thought about on of Tee's best friends, who is as far inland as we are, who lost power for over three weeks after Hurricane Rita. Then, I thought about No Buy, ran over my Ikea list, which did not contain candles, and moved on.

So, of course, we lost power for over five hours last night. Not the entire city, not even our entire little section that usually comes on first. It was just our side of the street. I'm not sure what happened, but as DH cruised the neighborhood, there were a bunch of utility trucks and downed lines.

The bonus side of this resulted in dinner out. Unplanned and unbudgeted, but good anyway. It was a great excuse. DH did a great job making sure that they did not open the refrigerator, which I think helped keep everything okay. I was a little worried about the amount of food in the freezer but it's all good as far as I can tell. I'll use caution when thawing, but the milk was just fine this morning so I feel we are okay. But, I think about the 72 hour rule. You know, the one that says you should be prepared to go 3 days on your own emergency supplies. I'll have to go through my box soon and make a few lists. But, I wish I had picked up two packs of those candles on Wednesday.

At the bookstore:
We are in the middle of finals, so we have boneless college students everywhere, draped in aisles, under tables, sitting at tables full of merchandise...
Do you have a strategy for getting a place to sit?

I can't believe it's been that long since I posted! It's been a busy week here and I had a nice little work trip out of town for two days.

On Tuesday, I picked up a co-worker and we drove to Houston to help another store with their annual inventory. It was a very nice day and a smooth trip down. We were put up in a very nice Holiday Inn Express, and it worked out so we each had our own room. Hooray! I love my boys, the big one and the little one. I really do. But, it was so nice to just have a little space to myself. In fact, I usually get a little overwhelmed by quiet time because there are just so many possibilities of things I'd like to do in peace.

We had a great dinner at Joe's Crab Shack and it was awesome to eat out. Funny, something I used to do so often and take it for granted. Now, a simple dinner at Joe's classifies as a fantastic treat! The next morning, I again was made happy by a simple breakfast at IHOP. Holy Cow!

Since Wednesday was our day off, my co-worker & I didn't rush home. We went to Ikea and I had a small list of things I have been wanting for a while. I bought Hoot some replacement utensils (his are very worn, but he loves them) and some cups. I also bought my mom a cutting board for Mother's Day. I wanted to buy the Frost folding drying rack for the back porch since I do not have a clothesline in my backyard. But, it looked way too flimsy for Hoot. I think it would've done a great job and it folded very easily, but in the rough and tumble world of our backyard, I think it had the life expectancy of 5 minutes. So, I spent about $23 out of an original $40 budget there.

Our next stop was The Galleria. When we had decided about a week before the trip that we would go to The Galleria, I really took stock of my cosmetics cabinet and made my self a list and budget for this possible splurge.

I love Philosophy skincare, and I have carefully, carefully milked every single drop of the Purity cleanser (which I've been out of for 6 weeks), The Present (a matte primer I use under my foundation during the summer and have been out of since last Fall), and Hope in a Bottle, which is my moisturizer. I decided I was going to spend the money to buy another bottle of The Present, which would've been around $25 and a small size Purity for $10. So my Sephora budget was $35 plus tax. Really? Did I just say I was going to budget my money in Sephora? Honestly, I have always had a play now, pay later attitude in that store. In the end, I spent $11. The packaging of The Present had changed from a bottle to a tube. That had me a bit concerned because I really love this product and it's always been in a bottle. The consistency was also like skim milk. The new package was a tube and it felt like a lotion. After much consultation, including a call home just to make sure I wasn't crazy, I passed on the item. If I'm not sure, I'm not going to spend on it. So, I saved $25 of my Sephora budget.

I bought Hoot one of those smash packaged wash cloths at the Disney Store and a pair of $3 sunglasses. I also spent $45 of my birthday budget for a present for DH. So, there was $50, which was right on target. At the San Rio store, I didn't find a replacement for my Snoopy key fob that Hoot broke, so nothing there, another $5 added to the unspent funds.

I will confess that I literally shook at the entrance to the Coach store. I saw this little beauty just about 10 feet from the entrance, poised on a small round table with a come hither look. The color was divine (the navy, not the tan), and I knew the leather would be oh, so supple. Please, Lord, if I ever get to own this purse, let this be the one they bury me with....

Now I have $17 saved from Ikea, $25 from Sephora, and $5 from San Rio. I decide it's splurge time, take my leftover budget and head to L'Occitane en Provence, which is a soothing experience for me to just wander around the store. I love to touch everything, smell everything and just bask in the lotions, soaps, and trinkets. In my cosmetics at home, I have only one bottle of Lavender lotion from L'Occitane. I received it for my birthday in 2005. I have portioned and rationed it so that I still have some left. I start to look for a replacement. The saleslady was wonderful. She introduced me to their new Cherry Blossom line and I fell in love with the scent. I settled on a $22 bottle of the Cherry Blossom lotion. I also bought a gift, which for now shall go undisclosed, as I haven't decided if it shall be a birthday present or a Mother's Day present, but as soon as I decide, I will deduct it from the appropriate category of my May Budget.

So, I walked away from this treat of a shopping trip with $25 in leftover funds and the $20 I was allowing if we had dinner in Houston, which we did not. I shopped and it felt great. I kept money back, which was even better. I got several gift items that I needed for May checked off my to do list. What a great day.

Current Reading: The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. You need to read this book. You really, really do. I know it's gotten lots of hype. I know it's simple for the most part. But, you need to read this book. Libraries are picking it up. Get on a list now so that when it comes available, you can read it.

This week in Stoneland

Wow, the end of April is already upon me and I haven't even begun to polish up May's budget. I also haven't gone over all we spent in April. I'll be out of town for work on Wednesday and Thursday of next week, so I'm going to have to spend some time this weekend and Monday going over it all.

April appears to be shaping up about right. I know I am under budget on our Grocery/Household category, so that's always nice. I also saved money on our tax budget. We had a few unexpected expenses when Hoot needed a present for a birthday party and we've planned out our September vacation and I scored a major deal on our airfare. I've also paid one of my sister's bills. But, all in all, it's coming out just about where I wanted to be. I like that a lot!

May is an overwhelming month for us. There is so much going on and it's hard to pre-plan. We have Mother's Day, our 15th wedding anniversary, and DH's birthday all within a ten day mid-month span. I am also taking another small work trip right in the middle of that time frame. Boy, I'm really going to have to think it all through. And is it silly that I am already trying to figure out how we can get out to see the new Indiana Jones movie? We really miss going to movies and have vowed to not wait until this one is out on video.

May is also going to be tough on DH's income. With my two trips, our schedules are not going to allow him to work as much as he normally does. I've traded away a couple of opening shifts and I hope to trade away a few more. I had originally asked to open on Mother's Day, but was given it off. I'm sad about that because it is the week I am going out of town. It means one more day that I'm off where DH cannot work.

We have several bright spots on the horizon over the next five months. I discovered our Homestead Exemption was never applied to our house when we received a letter from a third party agency notifying us that for only $200 they will correct this error. Yeah, right. I downloaded a form and walked it into our county tax office for free. That should give us a nice chunk of money back from our escrow account and reduce our house payment. Last year, we received our escrow check in August, so I can only think it is going to come around the same time this year. I also make my last car payment in August. One of our debts was recently put to rest and our tax rebate is going to cut our back taxes in half. It's all looking up and doing well.

I'm starting to work on the plans for our September vacation. I'll have my vacation budget finalized soon and am already working on having it paid for well before we go. I am pre-funding a Wal-Mart gift certificate to use for gas during our vacation. Every time I go in to buy something, I'm going to add $10 to the card in my wallet. I really want to have $100 on it by September 1st. I've paid cash for our plane tickets and saved right at $250 from what I estimated. But, I'll blog my vacation plans soon. Maybe I'll get one of those snazzy savings tickers so I can watch my progress. Yeah! I love tickers.

On the home front:
Hoot broke the lock on DH's door to his music room. Then we fixed it and he broke it again. He was using shear brute force and snapped the chain! He also has a new trick where he moves my dresser out into the hallway. He's three and a half and moves furniture, and puts his shoulder to the door until the chain snaps. What am I going to do with this kid when he's big?

I also spotted a opossum. Awesome opossum! I don't think he is our opossum as he hasn't peeked in a single window yet. Since we had "Old Opossum" when we moved in, "New Opossum" who peeked into the window, we've decided to give this one a proper name. We shall call him Slinky.

It's a family thang

Money always seems to be a family thing. If you have been raised with poor money values, it's hard to get past them. One of my biggest struggles has always been to get past the poor money values I was taught, or should I say not taught, as a child. Kids are aware of so much more than we give them credit for. If you really want to know how you are doing with your money, ask your kids. Sure, they may not want for much, or lack an allowance, but they can be pretty good indicators. If they say you are rich and you struggle with your credit card bills, maybe it's time to have a chat. If my mom had ever bothered to ask me, I would've told her a lot of stuff she didn't want to hear. Still could, for that matter.

For my mother's last birthday, I gave her a Christmas shopping trip. We set aside a day in early December so that my dad could hang out here with my hubby & Hoot. Then, we drove over to Austin for the day. We hit the outlets and Ikea in Roundrock. It was a blast. I had set a strict budget for my shopping and had money set aside for dinner and gas. I had used my think it through before you go strategy and gave myself a dollar amount exemption for my No Buy December. It was a lot of fun. However, I think I kept puzzling my mother because every time I made a purchase, I wrote it down in my notebook. She kept saying things like, "We don't have to have a nice dinner." She didn't quite follow my idea that I can have anything I want, if I plan for it. It was part of my present to her and to myself. I didn't even spend much. Gas, dinner, everything came out to $105. Not bad and we had a great time. But, I think because I kept a tally, she thought I had broke the bank!

So now, as I am examining my own habits and thoughts about money, I am also taking a look at my siblings and parents. We all have poor money habits. This is no pot calling kettle. I know I am the well seasoned skillet on the stove. That's what I'm trying to change. I am grateful that I am able to make these changes in my life. I am grateful that I haven't put myself into a situation where I can no longer see the light of day.

One of my favorite things about Larry Winget's book Your Broke Because You Want to Be is the accountability he shoves into your face. Yes, I know there are reasons that keep people in poor financial situations. I know that my sister is really unable to work for health reasons. I get this. However, when things aren't so great, isn't there still something that can be done?

I guess I'm thinking about this stuff because I am going to help out my sister by catching up her gas bill. And, I really don't mind helping. I've been in situations where I've needed help. I know that it happens and we all need a little help now and then. (Well, she needs a lot of help.) But, when I called and asked her what was about to be cut off, she told me to take my pick. She was on final notice on the electric bill, water bill, gas bill, satellite bill and phone bill. I told her I would pay the gas bill. It may seem harsh, but she can live without TV and a phone.

Holy cow! What a bummer post. Let's see if I can lighten it up! Things at home are going well and we're having a great week. I've just learned that the pool is open on weekends, so that's a bright spot on the horizon. I didn't budget it into April because I thought they didn't open until May, but I'll spot myself for the 25 swim pass this weekend if the weather is nice.

Overheard in the bookstore:
I'd like to return this please (handing over a copy of Baby's First Book of Prayers)
Is there anything wrong with it?
No. I just found out the baby's parents don't believe in God.

Taxes & my Stimulating Non-Rebate

Alas, the familiar email from TurboTax. I have been accepted once again. Or, at least my electronicly filed taxes have been accepted by the Internal Revenue Service. Pardon me if I don't leap to my feet in excitement. But, well, I didn't fall to my knees and beg for mercy this year either, so I guess that's something.



Tax debt has been a major issue for us for the last several years. Okay, much of this decade so far. When my DH was laid off in 2001, we foolishly, foolishly cashed in his 401k. It was just another warning sign that should've told us how we lived financially was not healthy. We made very good money, but dang, we spent very bad money. When I think about it now, DH made a lot more a year than the both of us make combined now. However, that's not the point. The point is that it was one bad mistake after another. Lather, rinse, repeat. If I had a time machine, I'd slap myself.



So, we owed the IRS a big wad of cash. We owed everyone a big wad of cash. We did not have a big wad of cash. The IRS will kindly take payments, for huge interest and fees. So, we set up the payment plan and mailed a check each month. Then, two years later, we owed the IRS a smallish wad of cash. No worries, they will tack on payments. I resign myself to paying the IRS until I die.



Then, DS comes along and Hubby is working as contract labor until he has completed the first 3 months of work. But, we strike our deal with his employer to stay part-time contract labor if they will work around my schedule. It's totally awesome and we're excited because we don't have to use day care! But, now we have to get our hands around this tax thing. I foolishly listened to people tell me that now we have the kid, we'll have to pay a lot less taxes. Well, as DH is self employed, it didn't work that way. I think I've got enough to cover the next tax bill and I miss it by two grand! Holy Cow! I've almost got the first big bill paid off and I'm about to add another!



Then last year, when I filed our 2006 taxes, I was shocked again. Really, I thought I had done a much better job with keeping up with everything. I paid a chunk and since I'd paid off the first two installment agreements, I was able to tack on another one.



But, in the fall of 2006, DH became a regular employee. You know those taxes everyone complains about coming out of their check? We wept in joy to have them taken! It was glorious. And these 2007 taxes weren't hardly painful at all! It took less time to prepare them and the bill was $145. Yippee! Talk about glorious.



Then, I began to wonder about the Economic Stimulus Rebates that everyone is spending before they can even get their hands on it. What would happen to it? So, I dug around on the IRS website and found my answer. We will be getting a Stimulating Non-Rebate. We qualify to "receive" a stimulating $1500. But, it's a Non-Rebate for us. The IRS will keep against what we owe and I couldn't be happier! By the time the rebate kicks in, it will pay almost half of what we have left.



On the homefront:

DH did indeed clean some residual baby powder last night, including the stripe behind the door of our bedroom. However, I am not entirely pleased. In true man fashion, he brought the leaf blower inside and worked over the room-sized rafia rug in our bedroom. True, it got more out of the crevices than the vacuum cleaner did and it was far more effective that I would've guessed had I known about the plan before hand, but really? The leaf blower? He claims he blew it all out the window. Explains why I need to clean windows today.