Get Your Finances In Line In 2009: May Recap

My husband and I are currently on our PAID FOR IN CASH vacation!!! Not that we've ever gone on vacation with a credit card before (or gone on vacation at all for that matter), but I just know this is so much nicer than getting a giant bill next month for all our vacation expenditures. :)

Somehow, by the grace of God, we were able to stash away another $1000 into our savings last month. I honestly have no idea how, because we have nowhere near that amount of extra income every month but....somehow, the Lord made it happen for us. It is so refreshing to finally be debt-free and significantly building our savings so that, in the event of an emergency, job loss, or other financial catastrophe...we would not be feeling hopeless and wondering what to do next.

I also (FINALLY) canceled our credit card last month. I've been meaning to do that for, like....ohh, at least 2 years, and I just finally got around to it. But it feels nice to know that I don't have to keep track of where that card is in our filing cabinet anymore. :) I admit I was kind of disappointed when the woman didn't argue with me to try to keep the card for an emergency. I was really looking forward to explaining to her how we've learned that an EMERGENCY is the absolute WORST time to use a credit card - the one time I can be certain I can't pay it off the next month. But she didn't even press me one bit about it. She simply complied and canceled the card.

....But I guess I'll be okay.

Alright, so on to the good stuff. (The good stuff being: the stuff you don't care about but I that I like to type up anyway because it encourages me to keep on keeping on; keeps me accountable to, um...myself; and gives me another blog post.)

;)

So here's a quick update for the month of May:

Goal #1: Save up and pay CASH for our 5-day vacation to Mackinac Island in June! :) ---- 100% completed ----

Goal #2: Fully fund our 6 month emergency fund and put into a money market account to be left UNTOUCHED unless there is an actual emergency. ---- 40.5% completed ----

Goal #3: Save for my husband to get a "new" (that means used) car.

Goal #4: Raise retirement contributions to 12% (with a 4% match).

Goal #5: Open a money market account for each of our children.

Goal #6: Begin paying extra principal on our mortgage.

Goal #7: Establish a will and testament. ---- Still thinking about working on this... ----

Goal #8: Get disability insurance for both my husband and me. ---- We're in the process of finalizing this for my husband. Who would have thought they don't even offer disability for SAHMs? ----

How are you all doing with your finances, budgeting, etc.? I know nobody will answer this question because it's just FAR too personal, but it seems polite of me to ask. :)

"Not Me!" Monday!

Well, it's time again for another "Not Me!" Monday! post! (I bet ya didn't know I could use 3 exclamation points right in a row like that, did ya?) I'm actually on vacation right now and really wrote this post last week, so there will be no linking to MckMama's specific post, but you can visit her blog to find her "Not Me" Monday Mr. Linky collection if you'd like to read more.
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Last week, my husband and I (well, mostly my husband) built a shelf and installed it into our laundry "room" (aka closet). While doing said task, we certainly did not put our 3 toddlers to bed at approximately 9.30pm, 10.20pm, and 11pm just so we wouldn't awaken them with the sound of the electric screwdriver. Our children are always in bed before 8pm, (Well, that's actually pretty true. They are almost always in bed before 8pm.) so we would never do something like that.

I definitely did not spend a good portion of the day Tuesday thinking that it was Monday. P.S. Thank you, veterans and current military persons, for all your service!

I did not spend an entire van ride home from the store thinking that I might actually crap my pants. Because I had not been so lenient as to not pay attention to what I was eating at Panera Bread and ate WAAYY too much cheese in one sitting. And while driving home, I certainly did not become so desperate as to call a friend of mine to see if I could borrow her toilet to, ya know....borrow, so I wouldn't have to clean out my pants 10 minutes later. I was also not in the least bit somewhat ecstatic to know that she wasn't home and therefore didn't answer the phone to hear me panting my desperate pleas. (I did make it home by the way, and - pun intended - by the seat of my pants!)

There is no way I encouraged my children to watch way too many movies last week while I packed for our vacation (and blogged ahead for this week) instead of standing nearby and coaching them as they diligently practiced their letters and numbers and did a host of other highly educational activities in order to further their little minds.
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Please let me know what you think of these "Not Me!" Monday! posts. Not that it matters. I think they may have taken the place of my previously favorite day of the week (Foto Friday!) in terms of blogging, so I'm likely going to keep them up regardless of what you think. But I do want to know how you feel about them. Really, I do. :)

Foto Friday!

On Monday, I had the privilege of photographing two of my nephews. I totally couldn't pick a favorite, because that would be like...favoritism. So how about a picture of each? Yes? I thought you'd appreciate that.

I admit that I really like this one mainly because I love the yellow. :)

Happy Friday! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Thankful Thursday!

We're out of town! I love traveling!

I'm shooting a wedding in Iowa this weekend and then my hubby and I are headed up to Mackinac Island for a few days while my parents watch the kiddos!

Don't worry. I've scheduled some posts for several of the day we'll be gone, so you won't be lonely without me here. :)

WFMW: DIY Shelving

It's another edition of Works-For-Me-Wednesday! A day when I can brag about my accomplishments in life! I mean, umm...a day when I hope to give you some ideas for your life. It's all about you. Really, it is.

Last year I saw a great shelving system on the Better Homes and Gardens website. Last month I designed a similar shelving system for our laundry room. And last night we finally got it built and put up!

Considering how quickly our family keeps growing, I am always in search of new storage spaces and solutions. When I realized last year that our laundry room was just FULL of empty wall space, I set it on my heart to transform that empty space into storage space. I decided to design the system myself rather than purchasing a pre-made one for two reasons:

1. It would give me exactly what I wanted, and
2. I thought it would be cheaper.

I never did really do much pricing for shelving systems, so I don't know if we saved any money, but I don't think we spent any more than if we had bought one. The whole thing cost us around $65.

When I started designing, the first thing I did was measure EVERYTHING. I measured the wall space. I measured the folded towels. I measured the laundry detergents. I measured the trash can. You get the idea. After everything was measured, I drew up the plans with exact inches. Since I'm not the math genius in the family, I had my husband figure out exactly how to divide up the boards to get the best use of them.

We purchased 8 pieces of 6ft 1" x 12"s, measured them out, cut them, and pieced them together. (Okay, so most of that was my husband. But whatever. I totally helped.)

When we finally got it upstairs and installed, I was so pleased! But I was also wishing I had painted it. Oh well. I can always paint it later.

Here is the before, middle, and after of our brand spanking new USEFUL storage space in our laundry room:

BEFORE:

See how pitiful? I know. And to think that our builder didn't put any shelving up. We had to do that sad job ourselves.

MIDDLE:





Much better! Oh, and see my new ironing board?

AFTER:





Oh how I love thee, beautiful storage space! And yes, all those bags at the top are diapers. (We have always liked to stock up before our little ones arrived.)

Can someone help me....?

I'm terrible with stain-treating. I mean, my kids (my girls, especially) have a tendency to get their clothing completely covered in....whatever....every time we're out. They just have a natural talent for this, I guess. If it would happen while we were at home, I'd have no problems. I'd simply whisk off their shirt/dress/pants and rinse it with water and some shampoo or detergent until the stain came out.

But when we're not home, and the stains have hours to set in....I don't know what to do with them. Normally, they just sit in a separate pile while I think about how I might treat them until finally I decide that I'm just going to throw them in with the wash and, of course, that doesn't work at all.

I have a few friends who swear by Oxi-Clean for their clothes. I see it in the stores all the time. I've even taken it off the shelf a few of those times but only to put it back a minute later after considering the price tag.

I know other friends who say Shout works wonders for them. But I must not be a very adept Shout user, because Shout has never done anything for me except...well...make me shout. At the lack of stain removal, that is.

I have tried baking soda, shampoo, regular liquid detergents, sprays, etc. and have found nothing to be very effective.

Aside from immediately stripping my children of their clothing and washing their clothes at that very moment, could some of you puh-lease offer me some advice on this one??? Our clothes would appreciate it!

"Not Me!" Monday! (Sshh, I know it's really Tuesday.)

A few months ago, I started reading MckMama's blog, My Charming Kids. You probably noticed the "Praying for Stellan" button go up on the side of the blog as I followed along on her journey through weeks and weeks in the hospital with her precious baby. (You can visit her blog to catch up on all that.)

MckMama and Stellan are now home and she is back to her regular blogging. Each Monday she hosts "Not Me" Monday, which is basically a really sarcastic version of explaining all the things that you would never want to admit you do each week.

Since sarcasm is right up my alley, I thought I might try my hand at participating! There are about a million and one links from her blog to others' "Not Me" Monday posts, so if you enjoy mine and want to read more...well, you're out of luck today. I was going to suggest that you head on over to MckMama's "Not Me!" Monday post and click on some Mr. Linky links, buuutt....I'm guessing because of the holiday, she did not post one this week. Or at least, she thinks that today is actually Monday, just like I keep thinking, and so it's going up today.

Either way, get used to the "Not Me" Monday posts because I have a really good time writing them! :)

Ok, so here goes....

Last week, I certainly did not allow my children to watch 2 straight hours of PBS while I napped on the floor among them, completely -- I mean, um....somewhat -- unaware of what was going on in the house.

I definitely did not make and eat almost an entire one of these, nor did I substitute that for several meals throughout the course of the week. I also most certainly did not eat way too many Oreos one afternoon rather than eating a complete lunch.

I did not feed my children ONLY grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch one day - no veggies, no fruit, no nothing else. I would never do something like that! I always offer well-balanced meals 3 times a day. No exceptions.

There is no way I left the kitchen a complete disaster one evening and instead spent a whopping 3 hours surfing the net. Because you know, that would just be irresponsible.

I did not drop 3 different items in approximately 1 minute when at church on Sunday. Pregnant women never drop things. You should know this already.

And speaking of church, I definitely did not totally start crying on the way to church just because a song on the radio reminded me of a sweet friend and her darling little girl who is now spending all her days with Jesus. I am not that emotional. And because I didn't start crying on the way to church, I also didn't have to wonder how in the world to make my mascara look remotely like it had been "uncried" with just moments before walking into the church. I also didn't wonder if said friend carries around mascara for these very moments and didn't ponder if, perhaps, I should consider doing the same thing. Since, you know, I'm not that emotional.

Alright, that's all I've got for you on this, my very FIRST, "Not Me" Monday (even though it's actually Tuesday). Hope you enjoyed it! :)

Foto Friday! (Errrrr....Saturday)

I just love the colors in this picture!

Thankful Thursday

I was just sitting here with my laptop, pondering what I might like to blog about today when I felt the wee one kicking inside me. I do love that feeling, at least at this stage in the game, so I naturally looked down and saw FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS PREGNANCY my little one's kicks from the outside. I know they've been felt on the outside for weeks, but this is the first time I've actually seen it.

It's just so beautiful to know that there is a tiny miracle growing inside me.

I'm also very thankful for the BEAUTIFUL weather we've been having this week. It's a little hot for my personal taste (mid-80s), but it sure is nice to have a week without rain, rain, and more rain.

On another note, I've been thinking about starting to write some photography tips. I know of a few other bloggers who write photography tips on their non-photography blog and I was wondering if that is something you all would be interested in, so....let me know. Or if you think I should leave all things photography on my photography blog, you can let me know your feelings on that too. :)

And as a final note today, I'd like to give the VERY LAST WARNING that this blog will soon be found only at www.todaysdailydose.blogspot.com and NOT at www.todaysdailydose.com. I know that several of you come from bookmarked pages or linked pages from your own (or someone else's) blogroll, so please check to make sure you have the blogspot address down so you can find me later. :)

I hope you're having sunny weather wherever you are! Happy Thursday!

Money Monday . . . Freebies and links

According to Money Saving Mom, you can get a free treatment at a participating salon on Wednesday, May 20th. You must go here to print the invite.

The Indiana Salons that are participating are:

Indiana

SPLASH 4659 3 82ND STREET INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46250 317.576.9200	SPLASH 4659 EAST 82ND STREET INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46250 317.576.9200	DL LOWRY HAIR SPA BOUTIQUE 1300 E 86TH STREET INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46240 317.843.2611
BOBBY COOPER SALON 725 EAST 65TH STREET INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46220 317.251.5000	SALON ROUGE 620 WEST EDISON, SUITE 128 MISHAWAKA, IN 46545 574.258.5080	THE NINES HAIRSPA 900 PARKER PLACE, SUITE F SCHERERVILLE, IN 46375 219.865.9000

And don't forget that Meijer is still having amazing deals this week until Wednesday. Go here to see coupon and deal match ups.

And if you have never heard of House Party.com, you should visit their website and check them out. Right now they are accepting applications for a Domino's pizza party where you get a $75.00 gift card to throw a pizza party. I have blogged about my previous parties on my other blog - you can hear about my Fisher Price party and Saturn party here.

Know of anymore fun deals going on? Leave a comment and let us know!