Shopping Trip

I learned today that shopping for a soon-to-be 4 year-old is hard. At least when she's with you!

I had a couple of coupons I could use. The younger kids and I took off this morning because my Princess wanted to do something special today.

We went to JCPenny and to Kohl's. I had $10 off of anything at both stores! We went to JCPenny looking for something for my little man, his birthday is tomorrow! (I just can't believe it!) While we were there, my Princess found a stuffed animal that is also a purse. It's a while doggie with a blue rhinestone shirt that is actually the purse part. She could not stop looking at it.

We continued to walk around the store and I finally got her distracted enough to put the dog on the register. The lady double bagged the dog and we escaped with only paying $5 for her birthday present! Awesome!

Then we made it to Kohl's. My little man is totally into cars/trucks. He calls them "vroom, vroom"s. A couple of weeks ago, he found one of my Buddy's trucks and moved it along the floor saying "vroom vroom." So cute! No one even told him how to do that! My total at Kohl's with the $10 off coupon was not enough, so I bought me a new waterbottle...escaping Kohl's with only spending $5 again!!

Call me cheap...call me thrifty...I call me smart! Oh, and successful!

--sorry no pictures, but my Princess would totally know I got it for her if there was a picture!!---

Paying the Bills

This is how I feel when I pay the bills: like I'm wrestling my inner self.

 
Paying the bills is bittersweet. It's nice to know that we have the money to pay all of the bills, plus some. But it's still incredibly hard to see that money come out every two weeks. I wish I could just stock pile it all. Maybe somewhere like under my mattress???

I sat down to the computer today and tried to pay the bills. I am in charge of the money because Oswald spends all day every day making the money, so he can't keep track of it.

I hate money. I hate how it stresses me out and how I worry about wasting any of it. I hate how I have felt when I have no money, and I never want to feel that way again.

I feel like because both Oswald and I have college educations, we should never be poor. But, let's be honest, that doesn't guarantee anything this day and age. Life is hard. I wish I could have my life, but none of the stressers!

Anyway, back to paying the bills...when we first got married I would balance the checkbook because I knew how to do it and Oswald didn't. He tracked his spending in his head, down to the penny. But when there are two people spending money, it makes it much more difficult.

So I tracked the money back then. Somehow I managed to always miscalculate on how much money was in our account. I was always thinking we had less than we actually did. It's really bad when I would calculate we had more than we did and bounced a check or something like that.

You see, I'm a writer, not a mathematician. I remember being in 8th grade and sitting in my math class doing those stupid times tables. We would be times as to how fast we did them and how many we got right. I was never very fast and I rarely got them all right.

What are some tricks you have to keep your finances straight?

--We have a running budget that I am constantly changing to fit our specific needs. It's hard to have a budget, but it also keeps is on track. We have goals we set as to how much money we want to save, and that helps us reach longer term goals.

What's your trick for handling Monday mornings?
--I try to have something fun to do with my kids. Last night I didn't get much sleep, but today we're headed to a friends house for some fun. Plus, we're looking for a new place to live...so lots of fun in our future!

One of those days...

 A look at my messy room...I bet your room never looks like this!

Do you ever have one of those days where you just feel pitty for yourself?

Well, today is one of those days for me.

I feel like a slovenly pig because I have not been eating the way I should.

I feel as though some of the decisions Oswald and I have made in the past might haunt us the rest of our lives.

I feel as though I have so much to do and so little time to do it.

I can't wait for my mom to get here, but I am also nervous about everything I need to do between now and then to get ready for her arrival.

I feel like I am just barely keeping my head above water sometimes.

And all I want to do is snuggle my sweet kids. A dear friend of mine lost her toddler this week and it makes me realize how fragile life is and how blessed I am to have my kids here on this earth with me. It makes me thankful for the knowledge of Eternal Families. 

I feel a whole lot better writing all of this stuff down. Thanks for letting me vent.

It's always nice to get things off my chest!

Bi-weekly paycheck

For the first few years of my marriage, I worked. I was paid to write and loved my job. I worked for television stations trying to promote their late night newscast. It was a great job and very rewarding.

But, I got pregnant and being a stay at home mom was a no-brainer for me.

I wanted to be there for all of the milestones my kids experienced. I wanted to see his first smile, see her first steps, change all the dirty diapers, take her to the park, push him down the slide, everything, I wanted to do it all. But my husband was still in school and we both wanted him to finish his degree, so we moved across the country for him to work in Real Estate with an established Realtor. 

 

He continued to go to school all day and show property during the evenings. We did not think that commission work would be the end-all, but we didn’t think it would be as hard as it was either. He would work and work all summer long, make really good money and be very busy. Then the cold dreary winter would set in and no one wanted to buy a house. He couldn’t even get people to look at a house. So we would have to be creative, we would buy Christmas and birthday presents in August and save up enough money to last us for 5-6 months until his next commission paycheck came. This was no way to live.

Now, my husband is done with school and has a full-time job. We get a paycheck every two weeks. It’s heaven on earth. It’s so comforting to know that every two weeks X amount of dollars will hit our checking account. I know that if money is tight because of an unexpected doctor bill, we’ll be getting more money on Thursday. I know that my babies will always have food to eat. I know we’ll have a roof over our head. I can budget. 

Don’t get me wrong, there are great things about commission work. You don’t work for “the man”.  The sky’s the limit when it comes to how much money you make. If you don’t want to work one day, you don’t have to. I get all of these reasons to be self-employed, but when you’re working Real Estate and the bottom drops out of the market, it’s no way for a family to live. 

It’s amazing what consistency can do for my self-proclaimed worrying.

Do you prefer commission work or a steady paycheck?