Cheap Christmas Cards

Our typical Christmas card production usually involves a lovely family update letter, printed on lovely Christmas stationary, accompanied by a lovely family photo-card, addressed with lovely homemade labels, and mailed with lovely Christmas stamps.  We usually send approximately 100 of these blessed cards for this time-honored expectation.  Then we set up a family assembly line of stuffing, licking, sticking, and mailing.  It's just lovely 100 times over!  (PS. This usually occurs somewhere around December 22 in a mad rush!)

Stationery:  $25
Ink cartridge: $25
Photo cards: $75
Stamps:  $50
Total Christmas card cost:  $175

This year, I have to give a LOUD SHOUT OUT to my friend Darcy who discovered a screamin' deal on a whole different method.  Cardstore.com is the best thing to hit the Christmas card planet.  Ever.  Not only do they have cool cards, but you can add photos, text (not a whole letter, but some) and......you'll never believe this.....they MAIL the cards for you!  THERE'S NO STAMP COST!!  Right now they have a 70% off deal (which just today changed to a 75% off deal!)--that means we spent only $47 on the whole Christmas card package!  That's less than the price of stamps alone!

I now have all my addresses entered into their system--ready to go for next year too!  You can choose the date you want them to be mailed.  And they have zillions of cards, not just for Christmas!  Full price cards are about $2.29.....still cheaper than going to the store.  And did I mention there's NO STAMP COST!  Without the 70% off deal, the total cost for the photo card I chose, would have been $190--then they gave a discount for a "large order" of 100+ cards, then the 70% discount to end up at $47.....holy moly!  And I'm already done and it's not even Thanksgiving!  This has never happened in the history of Williams Christmas cards!

Darcy my friend, you rock!

Money saved:  $128

The First 30 Days

30 day check-in on how our Financial Fast is going so far....

    Changes to monthly bills:
Sold the RV (had a meltdown first, but now I'm over it!)  =  $207
Discontinued one of our expensive, non-cashable, and essentially useless life insurances = $25
Paid off appliance credit card = $50
Saved on groceries = $120 (all the credit to my amazing hubby on this one!)
Stopped cable = $45
Total monthly savings = (drum roll.....)  $447!!!

    Debt paid off:
RV loan = $8600
Appliance store credit card = $780
Emergency credit card = $235
Total debt paid = $9615!!!  (holy bleep!)

   Still yet to come
Decreased auto insurance without RV
Stopping cat insurance
Stopping dog insurance

Disclaimer:  we were not perfect this first 30 days.  And we are only able to do this through the grace of God and his mercy on our past failures.  And I prayed about whether to include actual dollar amounts, as I don't want anyone to attach their own opinion (good or bad) to the amounts. 

But I'm still going to revel in our awesomeness for one night!

The (First) Meltdown

If you're just joining this blog, click on the link to find out why we're doing a financial fast.

Today was the first sacrifice that really hit hard--tomorrow we're selling Harvey, our RV, and tonight I had a complete and total meltdown.  (Still having it as a matter of fact!) 

I knew it would be hard, and I knew I would shed a couple of tears, but I hadn't planned on the complete water works that erupted when we brought him home to empty him out.  I cried over the bed I love to "rest" on and read a book in the afternoons.  I cried over the baby blankets in the storage compartment remembering our babies camped in the portable crib.  I cried over the kids' toy closet and the anticipation they have when getting to play with "camping toys".  I cried over the dishes, the pillows, the radio, the coffee pot.....mostly I cried because this was not how it was supposed to be.  We were supposed to grow old in this trailer, long after the kids moved out to sleep in tents of their own.  The memories were a waterfall pounding down on my head, and I suddenly felt suffocated with the weight of this choice we are making.

This choice.  We are choosing to do this.  We are choosing to be obedient to God's desire for our money.  I was suddenly reminded of Jesus in Gethsemane knowing full well that his obedience was going to be very painful.  I felt reassured that even Jesus prayed "Please take this cup of suffering away from me" asking if there was any way to be released from what was about to happen--yet still praying "but I want Your will to be done, not mine."

I do want His will to be done.  I do want to be obedient.  I do believe we will be rewarded for our obedience.  I do believe God has a better plan for us than the life we're living.  But obedience is sometimes hard, and it sometimes hurts.  And sometimes God asks us to stop holding on so tight to things of this world.

I went back and read how our financial fast started, and I reminded myself of the financial gains I wrote about.  Selling the SUV and RV is a win-win-win on multiple levels--no more monthly RV payment, less gas to spend, decreased auto insurance, and less cost for campsites! This will be something we'll immediately benefit from, as well as all year.  Later this month when I don't make that loan payment for the first time in 8 years--I know my grief will be lighter. 

But for now, the water works continue.  Tonight I thank God for my sweet supportive husband, who probably thinks his wife has gone off the deep end.  And I thank Him for some long-distance girlfriends who can cry with me, and help me see the cross and redemption that's waiting behind that RV sale.

I did actually go off the deep end for one brief minute.....I cried over the kleenex boxes at each kid's bed because "the kids had nosebleeds in this trailer boo hoo hoooo".....then I called myself a crazy mother who'd totally lost it.

6 Money Tips...or is it 7?...or 5?

Now that we are doing a financial fast, it seems everywhere I look there's some kind of money saving tip.  Why am I just now noticing all these?!  Funny how God opens our eyes to exactly what we need to see.  And when those tips are in list-fashion, why it's all the better!

Check out this article from MSN Money:  6 Mindless Ways You Waste Money.  I love this sentence in the first paragraph:  Despite the benefits of putting money away, many of us have trouble actually doing it.  This has been one of our financial goals for years.....but who has the funds to actually save anything?!  Part of the reason for writing this blog is because I KNOW there are others out there in the same boat we are--you know, the one with all the holes in the bottom where the money keeps leaking out!  The headings of the 6 money wasters:

1. Convenience stores--not really an issue for us, but it could potentially be one when we go on road trips and stop at the gas station/mini-mart.
2. Cell phone plans--I'm still struggling with the news that it seems we're already on the cheapest plan.  My gut tells me there is still money to be had in this department....
3. Soft drinks--since I'm a one-specific-drink-and-nothing-else girl (diet creme soda), this is not an issue for me.  But.....good to know.
4. Unnecessary bank fees--also not an issue, and do people actually PAY their bank?!
5. Magazines--I agree that subscriptions cost way less, but here's an even better idea:  go the the library and check out a copy!  Or sit at the library--a nice quiet relaxing place--and read a magazine.
6. Annual credit card fees--ummm....see #3!

Here's another great article from MSN money:  7 Things That Cost Way Too Much.  I have to admit, I often fall into the "I didn't realize there was a better deal" group.  I'm sort of a naive shopper who thinks all stores have the same basic prices, right?  So what's a couple dollars difference in the end?.....I'd spend that on gas going from store to store.  BUT--this article was helpful to know what to watch for.  It appears we've already made our first mistake on Thing #1:

1. HDMI cables--hoo boy, we already bought one to attach our laptop to our TV, and my-oh-my we paid more than this article suggests.  And we got it from the very same store the article mentions as a price-hiker store.  Yikes.
2. Apple accessories--we don't have an iphone, but it does reinforce that my cheap-o headphones that came with my phone are just fine for me.
3. DVDs--this was an eye-opener to me, but just like giving up cable, I'm now wondering why the heck would you want to spend money on actual DVDs anymore?
4. Anti-virus software--this is where I have fallen into the "surely I will be safer with the one the store recommends" trap.  But even still, this article shows that with a little shopping around, you can find the exact same product for cheaper.
5. Hotel minibars--ok are there really people in the world who don't know how over the top this is?  Why would you even open it?!
6. Movie concessions--last summer my lovely husband and kids took advantage of Regal Cinemas $1 movies for kids.  But he got sucked in when he bought popcorn.....and then ya gotta have a drink too!....and the $1 movie turned into $14.  The boat got a little more leaky that day....
7. Travel size toiletries--not really an issue for us, but I have to admit I have a weird attraction to the travel-size aisle.....they're just so cute!

And lastly, I found this great little video (short and sweet) on The 5 Best Ways To Save On Food.  Good stuff to know.

Hope you enjoy lists as much as I do! Ha!

Goodbye Cable

If you're just joining this blog, check out the beginning of the story to understand why we have made the decision to financially fast and therefore eliminate cable.

This week's financial journey revolved around finding the best method to eliminate cable, yet still watch the shows we regularly enjoy--at least some of them.  Our local cable-internet company has had great service but by removing cable--and therefore the bundle package--our internet bill was not as low as I had hoped.  So shopping around, we found a better deal for us.  Our rates will change after one year, so we'll re-evaluate then--after our year of fasting, we'll see what we really need and what we don't.

So here's what we've discovered this week:
(that's right, it's another list!)

• Almost all networks have episodes of their shows on their website.  However.....this would require we either buy a laptop or five of us crowd around our desktop computer.  We could (hypothetically) watch those internet shows via our smart phones or our e-reader tablet, but it would be very small and very grainy.  (And yes, we could give up watching our shows for a year.....or not!)
• You can watch a lot of shows through a streaming media player like a Wii (which we already have) or a Roku or many others.  You can then subscribe to Netflix or Hulu Plus for only $8 a month, and they have a gazillion movies and TV shows, some even have current episodes.  Or you could do regular Hulu for free with a smaller selection.  However NO ONE has shows from CBS--my guess is this is a CBS we-won't-play-in-your-sandbox issue, but no one seems to really know why.  Want to guess what network the majority of our shows are on?
• There's also this cool contraption that is a TV adapter thing (I never figured out what it's actually called!) and it allows you to use internet through your TV.  Some TVs are "smart TVs" and already come with this high-tech function, but not ours.  However.....we learned immediately after we bought it, that it's not exactly internet browsing--it's more like downloading apps, and it's fairly limited.  And yet again, guess which network doesn't have access? So we returned it two hours after we bought it.
• We also discovered that--lo and behold--it seems we are actually behind the times with getting rid of cable.  Turns out tons of my Facebook friends have eliminated cable years ago!  Many of them use one or more of the methods above, and it's way cheaper.  Where have we been?!?

So, our emotions went from "oh good we're not going to spend any money at all!" to "oh no, we're going to have to spend a lot of money!" to "oh we'll only have to spend a small amount" to "oh we're going to have to spend a fair amount" to....."why are we doing this again??"  In the end, we ended up buying a laptop which will (we hope!) connect to our TV and we will watch shows via the internet.  Yes--it's spending money in order to save money.  BUT, with the selling of our Civil War football tickets, we were able to buy the laptop without any debt involved!  Woo hoo!  And we will save money on the no-cable thing in about six months.....and if we decide not to return to cable after the one year, it will keep saving us more and more!

The bad news?  We got the very last laptop in stock for the sale we found, so it will take a week to ship from the warehouse.  So for this week, we're doing the ole rabbit ears and just have a few basic stations--plus a one week trial of Hulu Plus.  So as I type this.....Bryan is out in the garage by himself, reclined in his lawn chair, wearing a coat, drinking a cold one, and listening to the Beaver game on the radio.  Such a devoted fan!

What We Didn't Spend

This past week Bryan and I went out of town while Grammy came to our house to watch the kids.  I went to a conference for my work, and Bryan got to come along.  The mucho lovely part was that my work paid for not only the conference but the hotel, (Hilton in downtown Portland, yee haw!) gas, and food.  AND I was able to get the reimbursement check ahead of time--so I didn't even have to put any expenses on my credit card.  On past business trips, I would put expenses on the card thinking "I'll pay it right back as soon as I get the reimbursement check"....but....by the time that check actually arrived, something always happened and we "needed" that check for the general finances.  And thus the credit card bill remained....

The nice thing about car trips is the chance to talk for several hours, so we strategized what we would need to spend money on and what we would be diligent about not spending.  We knew we would in fact need to eat, but we could curb the amount we usually spend on eating out.  We also are making an effort to not only minimize Christmas presents, but to spread out the shopping over three months, and therefore avoid the massive chunk of change in December.  Therefore we would go to specific stores, not just randomly browsing and risk succumbing to "impulse buying."

Here's our list (you'll soon find out I love lists!) of what we didn't spend:

• Fancy restaurant:  normally we would "justify" a spendy dinner by rationalizing that 1--we had some time to ourselves without kids! 2--we're in the big city, we have to go to a nice place! and 3--we've been working really hard to trim our budget, we deserve it!  Instead, Bryan went on a little exploration to check out The Food Truck Capital of the World and we got some inexpensive lunches that were new to us and very tasty!  Everywhere we went, we spent less than $20 for both of us together.  (If you haven't tried these, you should check out Noodles & Company, Five Guys, and Einstein Bros Bagels.....seriously good food that doesn't taste cheap but is.)  And we actually stayed under the amount I was given for my food allowance!
• Gas driving all over Portland:  we mapped out where we'd be and who we were meeting up with and lumped the same areas together.  Not only did this save on gas, but it saved on Bryan being perturbed with Portland drivers!  And....since we were in downtown Portland--we walked!
• OSU Beaver store:  picture a 37 year old dad acting like a 7 year old kid on his birthday and you have my husband at the Beaver store.  But.....he showed great self-restraint and it probably helped that we showed up five minutes before closing--and the store clerks let us know this in more ways than one.  (Note to self: This could be a good strategy for future stores!)  We did buy his Christmas presents from the kids--which he picked out himself of course--and he will have three months to be practicing his surprise face.
• Mall purchases:  We did browse around quite a bit but we ended up not spending at the Hello Kitty store (Maezie), the Lego Store (Graeson), and Claires (Kaela).  We ultimately decided that we could get similar items at home from a non-brand-name store, and we could also watch for sales over the next few weeks/months.  We did the same thing at the calendar booth--we found really cool calendars the kids would love, but instead we grabbed the online postcard which has the code for free shipping, and decided to wait and see if we still want them later on.  If not, we could always send the online link to one of the Grandma's and give them a no-thinking-involved gift idea.
• Cell phone upgrade:  back in the first blog entry, on our "not to spend" list is cell phone "everything" plans.  We learned that we are in fact on the cheapest plan already, and even though I am currently a free agent, it would cost us more money for me to leave the multiple-lines-family-plan and get something cheap on my own.  And nowadays, there actually aren't any plans without data.  (So I get to keep checking Facebook 45 times a day after all!)  But we did decide not to get the "free" upgrade which would include a new phone I may or may not actually enjoy, an extra $10 a month, and an extra $35 activation fee.  So in the end we saved $45 and some (probably unnecessary) bells and whistles.

I hope I'm not the only Saved By The Bell girl out there!

It was a very successful out of town trip!  Next on our agenda:  laptop shopping.  Cable ends in two more days!

Finding Free Stuff

I came across this article by accident (or not?) today--I'm not totally sure what the liability is with re-posting other people's stuff on my blog, so go check it out yourself at 21 Things You Should Always Try To Get For Free.  I'm not so sure we would actually utilize a lot of these, but we're going to be trying out #7 (free TV) for sure!  And I'm already three posts in on #10 (free speech) by blogging!

Here's some free stuff that we do on a regular basis:

• Library--not just for kids!  We've discovered this new fangled thing called e-books--woo hoo!  We've taken the kids to tons of different age level programs, and while they're doing their thing, we can sit in a comfy chair and....you guessed it, read a book!  Uninterrupted!  Check out your own county library website and see what they have to offer.
• Home Depot kids workshop--first Saturday of every month they have a pre-packaged kit with wood, nails, and instructions.  Kids Kaela's age (10) can do the entire thing without help, while kids Maezie's age (5) need some parental help but can definitely feel they've accomplished building something!
• Lowe's Build and Grow--same concept as Home Depot, but it's the second and fourth Saturdays of the month, and the kits are slightly different.  Altogether, we're building something three Saturdays a month!
• Browse your local parks and recs website and see what kind of parks, trails, and bike paths are available.  And if you've already been to the library, parents can sit and read a book while kids play!
• During the summer, lots of towns have a free lunch in the park for kids ages 1-18.  Totally free!  No low-income verification required, just show up and eat.  (Kids only--parents have to bring their own, or they can pay for a lunch.)  Then play at the park!

When the weather gets colder, it's a bit more of a challenge.  But when the alternative option is staying home with fighting kids.....somehow I'll manage to find some free activities!