MakingOverMyMoney.com

Straying from all my military moving talk, I wonder if people who eat at a buffet restaurant tend to eat more because they feel like they need to ‘get their money’s worth’ (said by my husband) or if they eat more because it is all right there. Buffets typically are not very expensive and I’m sure the food is not expensive to purchase and prepare either.

We went to a pizza buffet tonight with friends, the food was okay though I know I’ve eaten enough bread to last a week or two. But my husband, who eats like a starving teenager (and still has the metabolism), always has this crazy laugh and says he’s going to get his money’s worth and proceeds to eat a lot. He always does this when we eat at buffets. Me, I eat slowly and when I’m full, I stop.

The cost was about $35 to feed four adult and four kids - a little more then $4 each. It’s true that $4 won’t buy you a lot at very many restaurants but I am always amazed to see people in buffet places going back for thirds or even fourths.

I talked to the medical guy about overseas screening today, he was very helpful even if we couldn’t make any appointments just yet. I am relieved to find out nothing will take very long. I think my husband has most of his started as they have to keep up their medical stuff in the first place. I’m sure my paperwork will be easy to fill out too. We are generally a healthy family and I can’t see anything out of the ordinary slowing us down.

Now if only we could get our orders so more then just getting questions answered can get done!

We have to rent our house out because the market is not that great. Other homes in our area have sat for months before selling, dropping their prices lower and lower as time goes on. We don’t want to lose money by having the house sit empty for months and by having to sell at just about an even price to what we paid.

Our solution is to rent. We have a property manager and he has all of our information minus pictures ready to list. I have told a few friends we are moving and to feel free to put the word out if anyone is looking for a place. We are in a nice area and I’m hoping we can find a renter soon.

I talked to a friend who also rents and she said they do a welcome packet for their renters ~ it’s a great idea and one I am going to use. We plan on having a variety of items for them when they move in, and should we have new renters as time goes on, we will continue to give the same welcome pack.

In the welcome pack we will have dish soap (both for the dishwasher and for hand washing), trash bags, notes about the house (if there is anything we need to note), notes about the HOA rules, a water filter for the fridge and air filters. I am also going to write a list of the utility companies we use, numbers associated with them, and a map of the area. I’m not sure how fast maps are updated, but when we moved here our neighborhood was not on any of them. I know it is now but it would be nice to have had a map of where we were related to where we wanted to go ie grocery stores or into town to shop.

I also plan on calling the utility companies to say we are moving but still owning the house. When we did this before they kept our name on file as the owners. One more thing to add to my to do list!

The first thing I did when I realize we were moving was shove it from my mind. Of course that doesn’t get anything done so a couple of days later I started making a list, several really. I have lists of what we need to do around the house, what errands we need to do around town, questions to ask of the new job, questions to ask of moving, and more.

I have been using BackpackIt for list making online - it is satisfying because I can make a check mark and the program moves that item into a ‘completed’ section. I created a website checklist and the items are something I need to do weekly so at the end of the week I go back in and remove the checkmarks, putting the items back in a ‘to do’ status. I love it!

So far my moving checklist has been on paper but today I am going to create a page within BackpackIt just for that - there are some online things that need to get done and I don’t want to forget about them. It would help if my local bases website was working.

I’ll be back with updates on PCS moves, especially oconus (over seas), since that is what it seems we will be doing this time around!

Today I started looking up moving info - we are probably moving. Scratch that, we are definitely moving. We are 98% sure we know when and where but of course there is that 2% left over.

Now to educate myself on dla, tla, cola, shipping cars, leaving after my husband, renting a house, taking picture of the inside, deciding what to take with us, finding out how long our stuff can/will be in storage and probably thirty four other things I’m just not remembering right now.

So far the plan is for the DH to go by himself and the kids and I to go visit family. We can hang out in my Mom’s house (she owns it but lives in another state) right next door to my Grandma, then go visit my Dad, then go on to visit Mom before leaving to our new place. I’m starting to get excited but the moving adreline hasn’t quite kicked in yet. This weekend I’m sure.

In the meantime, other then moving preparations, I have a trip to make to Goodwill, the trade a book bookstore and the post office. I have to clean up a bit before taking pictures - oh and continue to feed my family, do the laundry and be present as a mom. It’s going to be challenging!

If only that 2% would go away…

The past few weeks I’ve been reading up on finances just about anywhere I could. I have never been a great coupon user and have felt so determined to cut our grocery bill and have been frustrated when it just didn’t happen. I’ve shared that we have been doing our grocery shopping at Costco and our bills are anywhere from $250-$350. We went yesterday and spent about $330 on groceries.

We are a family of four and though my kids are ‘only’ four and six years old they eat as much as adults do AND we are lucky to have them eat just about any and everything. No picky people in my house!

I suppose spending $150 a week on food that is good for you - we have little to no junk food in the house, drink organic milk, buy a few organic things, buy good meats, veggies and fruit, etc - is okay. We decided to stop drinking soda/pop whatever you call it and we did buy one bag of chips (but not at Costco) and I think that is all we have in the house.

I can accept $150 a week on a family of four, maybe now I can get over my want of coupon’ing.

The other day was the start of the kids getting an allowance. What surprised me was my daughter moving the money that was in her spending jar, into her savings jar, before adding her allowance in there. Hopefully that is a habit that will stick!

PAYjr. has launched a new program to load money onto a Target gift card. You can set up your child’s allowance to be directly deposited onto it. You can designate how much of the allowance should be put on the card and how much should be put into a savings account. The program sounds good if you shop at Target. We do and someday this would be a good product for us.

I am an avid crafter and homeschooling Mom so you can imagine what we have in the craft room. It is a combo craft room, office, homeschool storage area. It’s the smallest bedroom in our house, which is still just a standard bedroom so it’s a decent size.

The room is always a mess. It is organized but not in a way that works well for the space, so it ends up messy. I joined a month long organizing challenge and took the pictures the other day. Today I started taking things out of the room that don’t belong here. When we painted we moved all the books into the room and a few weeks later, they were still in here. They were the first thing I put away. That cleared up a large portion of the floor!

I’m going to work around the room and continue to take things out that don’t belong. I’ve done a fairly good job of that already so I don’t think there is much that needs to be out. The next step is going to be rearranging the furniture so it works better in the room.

I didn’t take too long to put the books back - I didn’t separate them like I usually do - but I noticed two different books that I have doubles of. Just one way to save money - keeping things together helps me realize I have them and thus don’t have to buy another. I have a lot of homeschooling resources but I know I don’t have doubles of any of them.

Oh and I did find a bookstore that takes trade ins, I think it is for trade in and not cash, but that works for me!

The Bee Movie comes out this weekend, today actually. My daughter has been keeping track of today on her calendar (it looks really cute, she drew a bee on today’s square) because she really wants to go see it.

My question is what do the kids allowances pay for? Should I have them pay their own way into the movie? Or for the treats once we get inside (it is pricey but we always buy a drink and a popcorn to share - plus they are refillable so we refill at least once)? I admit it’s confusing for me to decide.

On our shopping trips they are not asking for something every time we go out, at the grocery store (usually Costco) they are allowed to have one ‘treat’ - usually they pick fruit gummy snacks. When we go to Target they look in the dollar section, I know the items are not well made so I encourage them to not buy something (or not ask for something) because the quality is bad.

So what does an allowance buy?

Today we started the kids allowance. We decided to double their age so they get $12 and $8 each. I decorated three jars for each of them - one for savings, spending and donation. At this point they are so young the savings will probably be converted into a long term investment when they get enough built up. I didn’t think we needed a separate jar for investments.

They were so excited to separate their money! I was surprised at that. I settled on a 50/25/25 split - 50% to spend, 25% for savings and donations. The same will happen when they get money as gifts such as on birthdays. For the donation I think the first one we will do will be during the holidays and I’ll let them each pick where they want to donate. My daughter is very interested in animals (she wants to be a vet when she grows up) and we’ve talked about donating to the SPCA. She even took the money that had been in her spend jar (prior to today) and put it in her savings jar. I know we started at the right age for her, maybe even a year or so late, and I think we are right on track with my son.