Ok so this may sound biased, (I work for DISH Network) but let me tell you my Comcastic technician story. I took the day off to have my service installed. Tech was late. One hour....ok, two hours, maybe I should call. When the customer support agent gets on the line, she informs me that my service has already been installed. What? After about 10 minutes of arguing with the lady, I ask to be transferred to a supervisor, who confirms that my service has been installed. Only when I threaten to cancel, does someone offer to contact the technician. "He is on his way." Tech comes out, install is very quick, I sign the paperwork so I can finally sit down and watch TV when the tech decides to ask "do you have any beer?"
I certainly wouldn't change my gift amount based on how many kids someone had, but I may change it based on my current financial situation. As for baby showers, I'd probably give a smaller gift for a second baby shower if the kids were close in age, but I've known people who've had many years between children and by that point had nothing left. In that case, I'd give my normal gift.
I'm all for first birthday parties, but I recently got an invite to a friend's child's 3rd birthday party. If it was my best friend, or I was the godparent or something, I'd get it. But that had a full-blown party with all their friends for their 3-yr-old. I'm sure they didn't mean it that way, but to me that just sounds like you're asking for gifts.
You know, the kids don't notice the difference until at least preschool. (I have seen photographs of the baby showers from when I and my three younger siblings were born and they are more for the parents. And the first few birthdays are more about eating cake and ripping into things!) After that age, I would want to tread gently to make sure that they all know that they are valued, so if you end up giving more to one kid to make up for something else, be explicit that that is why... or since you seem like the memorabilia type, have you thought about making them each something about what you love about them, your memories of them, what you do to show them you love them?
Also, I think having a financially stable family will help to mitigate differences in how your kids perceive their gifts. My own memories are funny... even though I was the kid who got lots at the baby shower, I also am the one who remembers the "government cheese" period, so it was kind of mind-blowing to see what all the youngest sibling would get; fortunately the fifteen-year age difference was enough distance to be philosophical about it, but if it had been seven or ten years, it might have been a hard pill to swallow.
For me this is simple. If it is a milestone it gets full gift. A third babyshower would have me begging off attending and I would give a small gift at birth. For some people though it has to do with how they budget. For my mother in law she set aside a specific amount of money per family per year for gifts covering all occasions. So, the more grandkids you gave her the smaller the gift
Besides the obvious- housing- our top expense is the gym. We just can't give it up. I fid that in order to motivate myself to work out, I have to be losing money if i don't. :)
I just finished emailing back and forth with these people. It's funny and sad that they believe some of us are stupid enough to believe their scams. Nobody would post in their ad a whole lot of wording related to God, Christianity, Lord .... as some people are not religious or have other beliefs. I told the guy that I was going to send him the entire 6 month rent payment of $6600 $1100/mo) + $700 security deposit. I was having tons of fun with him! He then picked up the phone, as this was too good to be true. I'm sure he thought he had came off. Funny because he called me at least 12 times to confirm that the payment had been made. NOT. I'm no fool, but it was lots of fun. Stupid Idiots
My biggest thing in my budget is eating out. I like it but not as much as it happens. I need to organize a grocery list, actually sit down and plan out meals, and organize my coupons. I get frustrated with the cost of eating out. I try to only get water and then get something that is cheap. It is a nice escape. My boyfriend and I meet up 1x a week at a cheap little restaurant where everyone knows who you are and what you drink and how you order. That to us is precious. I hate eating fast food, if I could pre package food to take while traveling that would help us! Fast food isn't CHEAP...
This "experiment" is reality for thousands of families on welfare in Philadelphia, where I live. The basic benefit is something like $300 (the figure has not been adjusted for inflation since about 1990), out of which a person is supposed to pay rent, utilities, transportation, clothing, groceries, medical co-pays, etc. Even with subsidized housing or Medicaid, there are so many people who live on less than even that $100 every month that this whole idea sounds truly tasteless to me.
It depends. I have a daughter (4) and an infant son. I gave away all (ALL) of my girl stuff after my son was born. But I'd like to have more kids. I saw no reason though for it all to sit in my basement when someone else could put it to use. I just hope if I need it again, what goes around will come back around to me! And by kid number three or 4, stuff does wear out. Car seats expire. Blankets get threadbare. Clothing gets stains or holes or snaps fall off or zippers bust. Toys get lost. Safety concerns change.
we no longer use credit cards. However, right before we canceled one of our cards I noticed rewards points at the top. I looked it up online and found that I could request $50 gift card. Not much, but I'm glad I saw that before we canceled it.
groceries: we eat fresh meats/gluten free foods (no coupons and a loaf of GF bread is $7) and also have a 1 year old little boy (babies are expensive but worth every penny!). I cut my grocery bill in half 2 years ago and am hoping to cut ba...ck more this year by using a price book and utilizing my new chest freezer (a super great investment that I highly recommend) along with more homemade foods rather than prepackaged GF foods. I do get my HBC/GM practically for free by using coupons and scoring deals at drugstores - and haven't bought a pack of diapers in 4 months! :)
I would think that in order to pull off an extreme budget, it would help to really stock up on stuff first. Stocking up requires money or work. Not necessarily both. For example, you could stock up on pears if you have a pear tree. You could grow your own veggies if you have space to garden. But, overall, to live for a month out of the food you have in your pantry, you must first buy or grow the food you have in your pantry, and eventually restock. The trick to this is restocking in a thrifty manner. The best things to stock up on are the tools and knowedge to keep grocery store and repair men out of your life. Start a garden, learn to cut your own hair, patch your clothes if they rip, and generally take care of problems by yourself, or with the help of your friends and family.
My fiancee and I have budgeted so efficiently that now our big ticket item is our rent, which we found out is probably not a bad amount to pay for rent in our neck of the woods. I'm sure the next step up would be to move on to ownership instead of renting, but we've learned that ownership doesn't allow us the flexibility and mobility we currently enjoy. So the next most expensive endeavor is grocery shopping! And we ALWAYS use price reducing coupons and online deals for that each and every visit...including some deals I've located right here on Wise Bread! Still wouldn't hurt to find more ways to stretch our grocery dollars though.
To answer your question.
Yes we can get by on much less. We have in the past.
I think the takeaway, as you mentioned, from Dave's experiment is that his family's "need" threshhold was lowered. That's always useful when you are in a forced frugality situation. They know they can do it and they're more resilient because of it. They also learned some frugal workarounds. The experiement was not a waste.
When traveling internationally (or on a long domestic flight), I have found that I travel better by changing into something comfortable (long sleeve t-shirt, lounge pants and heavy wool socks--no shoes), blocking out the world (noise canceling headphones on my ipod hooked up to soothing music and a padded eye mask) and going to sleep. It's a business class solution that works well in coach too.
Great Post! Very very useful for online buyers. I would also like to recommend http://dealpacific.blogspot.com and dealzon.com to buyers. These 2 also offers latest deals and coupons. Happy Shopping!!!
Rent. It eats up my income something fierce.
4/5
It really works!I tried it on my Gameshark2 and then it started working again.
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!:]
@Guest and George,
Filing 'married filing separately' doesn't help, it's not the same as filing single. See an accountant or buy TurboTax.
Childcare. We pay more for daycare for 2 kids than we do for our mortgage!
definitely rent- I have 1 housemate and we share a 2 bed, 1 bath location.
Ok so this may sound biased, (I work for DISH Network) but let me tell you my Comcastic technician story. I took the day off to have my service installed. Tech was late. One hour....ok, two hours, maybe I should call. When the customer support agent gets on the line, she informs me that my service has already been installed. What? After about 10 minutes of arguing with the lady, I ask to be transferred to a supervisor, who confirms that my service has been installed. Only when I threaten to cancel, does someone offer to contact the technician. "He is on his way." Tech comes out, install is very quick, I sign the paperwork so I can finally sit down and watch TV when the tech decides to ask "do you have any beer?"
I certainly wouldn't change my gift amount based on how many kids someone had, but I may change it based on my current financial situation. As for baby showers, I'd probably give a smaller gift for a second baby shower if the kids were close in age, but I've known people who've had many years between children and by that point had nothing left. In that case, I'd give my normal gift.
I'm all for first birthday parties, but I recently got an invite to a friend's child's 3rd birthday party. If it was my best friend, or I was the godparent or something, I'd get it. But that had a full-blown party with all their friends for their 3-yr-old. I'm sure they didn't mean it that way, but to me that just sounds like you're asking for gifts.
You know, the kids don't notice the difference until at least preschool. (I have seen photographs of the baby showers from when I and my three younger siblings were born and they are more for the parents. And the first few birthdays are more about eating cake and ripping into things!) After that age, I would want to tread gently to make sure that they all know that they are valued, so if you end up giving more to one kid to make up for something else, be explicit that that is why... or since you seem like the memorabilia type, have you thought about making them each something about what you love about them, your memories of them, what you do to show them you love them?
Also, I think having a financially stable family will help to mitigate differences in how your kids perceive their gifts. My own memories are funny... even though I was the kid who got lots at the baby shower, I also am the one who remembers the "government cheese" period, so it was kind of mind-blowing to see what all the youngest sibling would get; fortunately the fifteen-year age difference was enough distance to be philosophical about it, but if it had been seven or ten years, it might have been a hard pill to swallow.
For me this is simple. If it is a milestone it gets full gift. A third babyshower would have me begging off attending and I would give a small gift at birth. For some people though it has to do with how they budget. For my mother in law she set aside a specific amount of money per family per year for gifts covering all occasions. So, the more grandkids you gave her the smaller the gift
The biggest item in my budget is my grad school loan payment, but only because I'm paying it off as quickly as I can. Rent is a close second.
Besides the obvious- housing- our top expense is the gym. We just can't give it up. I fid that in order to motivate myself to work out, I have to be losing money if i don't. :)
I just finished emailing back and forth with these people. It's funny and sad that they believe some of us are stupid enough to believe their scams. Nobody would post in their ad a whole lot of wording related to God, Christianity, Lord .... as some people are not religious or have other beliefs. I told the guy that I was going to send him the entire 6 month rent payment of $6600 $1100/mo) + $700 security deposit. I was having tons of fun with him! He then picked up the phone, as this was too good to be true. I'm sure he thought he had came off. Funny because he called me at least 12 times to confirm that the payment had been made. NOT. I'm no fool, but it was lots of fun. Stupid Idiots
Alice.com is a great online shopping site. Free shipping. Not sure about competive prices.
My biggest thing in my budget is eating out. I like it but not as much as it happens. I need to organize a grocery list, actually sit down and plan out meals, and organize my coupons. I get frustrated with the cost of eating out. I try to only get water and then get something that is cheap. It is a nice escape. My boyfriend and I meet up 1x a week at a cheap little restaurant where everyone knows who you are and what you drink and how you order. That to us is precious. I hate eating fast food, if I could pre package food to take while traveling that would help us! Fast food isn't CHEAP...
This "experiment" is reality for thousands of families on welfare in Philadelphia, where I live. The basic benefit is something like $300 (the figure has not been adjusted for inflation since about 1990), out of which a person is supposed to pay rent, utilities, transportation, clothing, groceries, medical co-pays, etc. Even with subsidized housing or Medicaid, there are so many people who live on less than even that $100 every month that this whole idea sounds truly tasteless to me.
It depends. I have a daughter (4) and an infant son. I gave away all (ALL) of my girl stuff after my son was born. But I'd like to have more kids. I saw no reason though for it all to sit in my basement when someone else could put it to use. I just hope if I need it again, what goes around will come back around to me! And by kid number three or 4, stuff does wear out. Car seats expire. Blankets get threadbare. Clothing gets stains or holes or snaps fall off or zippers bust. Toys get lost. Safety concerns change.
we no longer use credit cards. However, right before we canceled one of our cards I noticed rewards points at the top. I looked it up online and found that I could request $50 gift card. Not much, but I'm glad I saw that before we canceled it.
groceries: we eat fresh meats/gluten free foods (no coupons and a loaf of GF bread is $7) and also have a 1 year old little boy (babies are expensive but worth every penny!). I cut my grocery bill in half 2 years ago and am hoping to cut ba...ck more this year by using a price book and utilizing my new chest freezer (a super great investment that I highly recommend) along with more homemade foods rather than prepackaged GF foods. I do get my HBC/GM practically for free by using coupons and scoring deals at drugstores - and haven't bought a pack of diapers in 4 months! :)
I would think that in order to pull off an extreme budget, it would help to really stock up on stuff first. Stocking up requires money or work. Not necessarily both. For example, you could stock up on pears if you have a pear tree. You could grow your own veggies if you have space to garden. But, overall, to live for a month out of the food you have in your pantry, you must first buy or grow the food you have in your pantry, and eventually restock. The trick to this is restocking in a thrifty manner. The best things to stock up on are the tools and knowedge to keep grocery store and repair men out of your life. Start a garden, learn to cut your own hair, patch your clothes if they rip, and generally take care of problems by yourself, or with the help of your friends and family.
My fiancee and I have budgeted so efficiently that now our big ticket item is our rent, which we found out is probably not a bad amount to pay for rent in our neck of the woods. I'm sure the next step up would be to move on to ownership instead of renting, but we've learned that ownership doesn't allow us the flexibility and mobility we currently enjoy. So the next most expensive endeavor is grocery shopping! And we ALWAYS use price reducing coupons and online deals for that each and every visit...including some deals I've located right here on Wise Bread! Still wouldn't hurt to find more ways to stretch our grocery dollars though.
Lending money to friends is always very risky...more often then not it will change the dynamic of the relationship in one way or another.
Thank for the link Amy!
To answer your question.
Yes we can get by on much less. We have in the past.
I think the takeaway, as you mentioned, from Dave's experiment is that his family's "need" threshhold was lowered. That's always useful when you are in a forced frugality situation. They know they can do it and they're more resilient because of it. They also learned some frugal workarounds. The experiement was not a waste.
When traveling internationally (or on a long domestic flight), I have found that I travel better by changing into something comfortable (long sleeve t-shirt, lounge pants and heavy wool socks--no shoes), blocking out the world (noise canceling headphones on my ipod hooked up to soothing music and a padded eye mask) and going to sleep. It's a business class solution that works well in coach too.
Great Post! Very very useful for online buyers. I would also like to recommend http://dealpacific.blogspot.com and dealzon.com to buyers. These 2 also offers latest deals and coupons. Happy Shopping!!!
What's the Biggest Item in Your Budget?
Housing.