Money Archives - Page 4 of 32

I made it! From scratch!

September 18, 2013 by Jana 4 Comments

Last week, I decided to participate in Money Saving Mom’s Make It From Scratch Week. I already make most of our food from scratch but there are some things that I’d been slacking on, so this was a great opportunity (and motivation and incentive) to give it a try (and to restart the pioneer project that kind of fell by the wayside over the summer when we moved). I made it through 4 of the 5 projects I had planned and only one of them turned out terrible. I consider that a major success. And I didn’t have to spend much money to complete the projects, which I also consider a major success.

Here’s what I did, along with the links to the pins that gave me the ideas:

Onion soup mix–I made this so I could make onion dip without those little packets. Either I messed up by using Greek yogurt instead of sour cream or this mix is not intended for that purpose. Doesn’t really matter, though, because it turned out terrible and also the turmeric made it an unappetizing yellow. I do not suggest you follow ink my footsteps and make this. However, if you have a good recipe for homemade onion dip, I’d love to see it.

Breakfast sandwiches–now that we live 15 minutes from my husband’s work, he feels that leaving 10 minutes before he needs to be there is sufficient time. I don’t get that math but math has never really been my strong suit. In any event, he doesn’t eat breakfast at home so in order to make sure that he does, in fact, eat breakfast, I made these so he can just heat them up at work and chow at his desk. And I eat them, too. Also I cooked the eggs in a muffin tin. That was fun.

Oatmeal packets–also a breakfast idea for my husband as I do not eat oatmeal, nor does our daughter. Because we’re smart and oatmeal is gross. In addition to leaving promptly 5 minutes late every day, my husband also does not pack his lunch the night before (please do not get on me to do it. He is a grown man and can put leftovers and fruit in a lunch box by himself) and this way he doesn’t have to spend extra time putting breakfast together, too. He can throw a bag in his lunchbox and heat it up at work. It also gives variety to the breakfast sandwiches.

Salsa–the previous owners of our house didn’t just leave use carpet stains and dog hair. They also left us a dying tomato plant that we’ve brought back to life and now it won’t stop giving us tomatoes. They come off at a rate of about 5000 a day. Before one round went bad, and some have because they produce faster than we can eat them, I decided to make salsa since I actually had all the ingredients in the house. Even fresh cilantro. Which is a pain in the ass to work with.

Glitter barrettes–didn’t get a chance to make these. But they’re on my list for the next installment of Pinterest project Tuesday. Which I totally need to resurrect.

Did you participate in the challenge? What did you make? And would you be interested in following along on my pioneer project?

4 frugal methods for pest control

September 4, 2013 by Jana 24 Comments

Apparently, where I live now is considered “country”. As a suburban girl my entire life, country living takes some getting used to. For instance, did you know that here in the country, people actually talk to each other? Did you know that their kids play with each other? Outside, even? Did you know that neighbors offer to do things like lend you their lawnmower? And don’t expect anything in return? Did you know that they invite you to their homes and let you inside instead of making you stand on the doorstep?

It’s all true.

The niceness is overwhelming. You know what else is overwhelming? All the damn bugs.

You see, when you move to the country, bugs outnumber people by about 40 million to 1. Not only that, the bugs are everywhere. There are crickets in my garage right now. There are flies in my house. Let’s not even discuss the seemingly insatiable mosquitoes that are bad asses and are apparently resistant to bug spray, citronella candles, and jeans. Even when used in combination with each other. It’s disgusting. And then there’s the spiders. I’m pretty sure they’re bigger than my dogs and I’m pretty sure they’re going to eat me. Or at least wrap my house in a a cocoon of spider web, effectively making me their prisoner.

Also there are snakes. SNAKES.

My husband, who grew up in the country, thinks this is all fine and normal. My friends who’ve lived here for years are unfazed. I, however, am disgusted. It’s not that I hate nature; I don’t. It’s just that I want all the creepy, crawly, disgusting parts of nature to relocate to no where near where I live. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

However, until my creepy crawly relocation plan has had time to take effect, we’ve been having to do some pest control on our own. And while it’s somewhat satisfying to murder a spider with a flip flop (cruel? Perhaps. But when he’s as big as my fist and his web is preventing me from getting through my front door, he’s got to go), I’d rather not commit regular arachnid genocide or anything worse. So we’ve taken to doing the following frugal (and less violent) methods:

Regular lawn maintenance. Okay, fine. My husband has been taking care of this, and it has nothing to do with the fact that I am terrified of the lawn mower. But the point is that by regularly mowing the lawn, keeping the grass short and the weeds out of the plants, we’re eliminating much of the breeding ground for snakes and bugs. This is an excellent start.
Having an outdoor cat. An unintended side effect of having an outdoor cat (you can read her whole story if you want) is pest control. She’s great at killing mice, which are apparently a problem where we live. All we have to do is pay for food and flea treatment and she takes care of the rest.
Bug repellent lights. We have several exterior light fixtures. Regular light bulbs attract insects of all kinds–including the ones that fly–and you have to run faster than Usain Bolt in order to get into the house without also letting in bugs. The repellent lights aren’t perfect but they’ve definitely decreased the volume. And they’re not too expensive either.
Keeping outdoor areas clean. One of our neighbors told us that black widow spiders have been sighted in the area over the years (see, I told you that country folks are nice). No, thank you. Since these vile creatures live in dark, damp places (does it disturb anyone else that black widow spiders and mushrooms thrive in the same kind of environment?), we have to make sure that the area around our wood pile, our garden, and our outdoor storage bin stay clean and as dry as possible. Because if I ever see one of those, I’m moving.

We also plan on using a pest control company to spray around the house but we’d like to get it under control on our own before we introduce chemicals. Neither of us are a huge fan of them but if it’s going to make the unwelcomed four and eight legged, as well as the winged and the slithering, guest leave, I’m all for it.

I guess there’s a downside to living anywhere. For us, it’s the bugs. On the bright side, at least the weather is getting cooler. That’s the best free pest control I can ask for!

The economics of inconvenience

July 29, 2013 by Jana 11 Comments

Pitch Perfect. Perfect for every situation.

Quick update on the house situation: we put in an offer on another house and it that offer was accepted. We have the signed contract, we're scheduling the home inspections and, based on the age of the house, it looks like everything is done correctly and with the proper permits. And we don't think these homeowners lied. So, for now, our impending homelessness has been avoided. That's good news.

However.

We have been so inconvenienced throughout this whole process that it makes me a little sick. Now, please don't misunderstand. The home buying/home selling process is the basic definition of inconvience. Having to keep your house in “show ready” condition all the time is pretty much impossible when you live with a slob, a child and 2 dogs (or whatever the composition of your house may be. Also, I will say that some people have a very lax definition of “show ready”. Many of the houses we looked at were a wreck) so you have to do regular deep cleaning daily. Being called at random times saying potential buyers want to look at your house in the next hour or two is annoying. Living your life at the mercy of your realtor's ability to answer a phone sucks. Driving all over the place, losing numerous evenings and weekends, negotiating contracts, and going out to eat so many times you don't even want to set foot in a restaurant (because you fail to anticipate just how long things take so you don't bring food or snacks) are monster pains in the ass.

But that's expected. Most of it, anyway.

What's not expected is going through all of that and then having to go through all of it again. I haven't put a specific number or dollar figure on how much our inconvenience has cost us but I do know that, as a result of this, we've overspent our budget in a number of categories:

Gas. We're moving about 30 minutes south of where we currently live. So every time we had to drive down there, it costs us more money in gas. We have fairly fuel efficient cars but the extra trips definitely add up. At least we can drive in a way that avoids tolls. That's a bonus.
A second home inspection. We had money for one. That's it. There's no guarantee we'll get the money we already laid it in a timely fashion so we now have to pay out of pocket. Again. We only have a finite amount of money in savings and because of this nonsense, it's dwindling at an alarmingly rapid pace. And I don't know what it's like in your house, but our money gets spent a lot faster than it gets saved.
Time. Okay, this is a bit more difficult to quantify in terms of dollars but, if you ignore how much of our free time has been eaten up, my husband has had to take way more time off from work than he had planned. Like our savings, he only has a finite amount of time off, and we already had to cancel our family vacation. Now we don't even think we can reschedule at any point this year. As for me, I don't have an office job but I am trying to run a mentoring program and do some freelancing. Losing this time is time I've lost to work on both.
My child's school. Because we do not currently live at our new address. I have to go through the school choice process in order to enroll my daughter in her assigned school. And the district we are moving into is a gigantic pain in the ass about school choice (how their district rules supersede state law confuses me but whatever). Last week, I drove down to the office to hand in our paperwork. Now I have to call the office, explain what happened, drive down there again to drop off revised paperwork, and let the new school know what's going on. And if choice falls through, the child will have to miss the entire first week of school due to the registration process. At least the school supply list is online.

Given everything, I understand that the situation could be way, way worse. We could have zero dollars in savings. We could have no money in the budget available for extra gas. We could have no time off work or even have found a new house right away. We could have to pay a hotel or temporary apartment if the new sellers didn't agree to our settlement date. We could be back in debt.

So I appreciate the fact that all of this is just an inconvenience. But I never expected an inconvenience to be so damn expensive.

Do things right. And don’t lie.

July 26, 2013 by Jana 12 Comments

Here’s a few things you probably need to know about me: one of my Bachelors degrees (I received 2 simultaneously) is in criminal justice. I spent approximately 5 years working in the juvenile justice system. I then spent 3 years as an investigator for Medicaid. The takeaway? I have a very clear sense of right and wrong, and I believe that certain rules exist for a reason and need to be followed.

Also, I hate lying.

So when yesterday happened, and the purchase of our new home went south because not only did the sellers make an addition to their house illegally (and as an added bonus, they’re refusing to pay to fix it. Meaning that if my husband and I were to buy the house, we’d inherit this rather expensive problem), they lied about it on the sellers’ disclosure, I maybe went a little apeshit . Okay, fine. A lot apeshit. But it wasn’t without good reason. You see, my family was counting on the purchase of that house so WE COULD HAVE A PLACE TO LIVE. Because our house sold. And we settle in a month, meaning that now instead of moving into a new house, we have no place to live. Except maybe in the boxes we have sitting in our garage that we were supposed to use for moving.

So that’s awesome.

But what bothers me the most, besides the whole impending homelessness and money we’ve wasted and the lawsuit we’ll probably have to bring against the current owners in order to get said money back, is that this whole problem would have been solved if they had just paid the $40 permit fee when they made the addition. $40. That’s all it would have cost. And when you consider the thousands they were already shelling out, an additional $40 would have been a drop in the bucket. It would have ensured that they followed the rules, did things correctly, and this problem wouldn’t exist.

But I guess it’s more fun to do things illegally and hope you never get caught than to follow the rules. Which maybe it is. Except it’s not. Not when it comes to safety and following the law as it pertains to amending your home. Because those laws and protocols are there for a reason. And I don’t care who you are, you are not exempt from them. Despite what you might think.

As for the lying, this is why you don’t lie. You will get caught. And the repercussions will be way worse than if you had just told the truth upfront. My father always told me that I’d get in more trouble for lying than I would for anything I did (disclosure: I’m ~~was~~ am huge nerd and I never did anything that I could have gotten in trouble for. Except that one time in high school I came home really, really drunk. And then maybe a couple of other things that maybe I shouldn’t talk about). So I never lied. Because I was more afraid of the consequences for that than anything else.

It’s too bad the sellers didn’t feel the same way. They’re clearly not afraid of the consequences which makes me sad. They clearly believe that their claim of ignorance of the law will be enough to absolve them of their actions. And they clearly think that their mistake is someone else’s to clean up.

To quote the great Dwight Schrute–False. All of those assumptions are false. That goes for anyone who puts themselves in that particular situation. If you create a problem by breaking the rules and then lying about it, it will not be someone else’s job to fix. It is yours. You need to take ownership of what you did. It’s part of personal responsibility and it’s part of being an adult. And for all the kids and teenagers out there who want to feel more grown up, this is a fabulous way to start. The beer and makeup can happen later.

As for my situation, we’re working on buying another house and looking at rentals simultaneously. We’re not actually going to be homeless. Just…inconvenienced if we can’t buy a new home right away. The inconvenience factor is a post in and of itself. Because despite what people may say, it’s not that easy when you have a school-aged child and 2 dogs. And that’s a post unto itself (which it will be. So check back on Monday for that).

So, please. Just do shit legally and according to code the first time you do. And if you don’t, be honest about it. Because when you don’t and you lie, you wind up hurting a lot of people in the process.

I’m in a book!

July 24, 2013 by Jana 8 Comments

A while back, a blogger I respect a lot, Carrie from Careful Cents, wrote a post about how she increased her freelance income by more than $2000 per month (totally go check this post out. And the rest of her site. It’s got good, good stuff). One of the key points was to say yes more often. It’s a point that stuck with me since I first read it.

It’s hard for me to say yes to opportunities. I have a variety of trust issues regarding people. I’m terrible with taking chances and seizing opportunities. Some of the reasons for this stem from my own insecurities; some of them stem from experience. And, also when it comes to my career and success, I’m a pretty pessimistic person, which is attributed mainly to my lack of self-confidence

This last part is perhaps the most dangerous when you’re trying to make a living as a freelancer. When you’re trying to freelance, you need to be confident in your skills and knowledge. You need to have a thick skin. You need to network, take risks, and make opportunities come to you as well as create your own. Not an easy thing to do when you’re a textbook introvert, new people make your nervous, and you get overwhelmed easily.

But I’m working on it. Every day, I work on it. It’s getting better but I have a long, long way to go. And in the back of my mind is always Carrie’s point about saying yes.

21 Days to Healthier Finances — I’m in this book. You should read it to find out where. Like Where’s Waldo, except easier.

Which is why, when the nice guys at Credit Forums (a sort of local company. They’re based in Philly) approached me about writing a page for their newest guide, I agreed to do it. Well, I hesitated at first and did some research but I agreed to do it. I figured it was a great way to get some practice writing for a book, which is ultimately what I want to do, and who knows what else it could lead to? Everyone has to start somewhere. Why not start here?

And, I’m not going to lie to you, a bunch of really selfish factors got tossed in the mix of reasons I said yes. I’m glad I did, too, because not only has it panned out but it’s a quality finished product that I’m really proud to be a part of (and one of the other contributors is my very first mentee, Pauline, from Reach Financial Independence so that’s extra aca-awesome).

Oh, the best part? You guys get a copy of the guide, 21 Days to Healthier Finances, for free just by following this link. You don’t have to sign up for anything, register, give any information to access the guide (although there are bonus chapters that you get if you register by email. Totally your call).

It’s a really quick and easy guide to read and it gives a number of tips from a variety of experts on getting your finances under control if that’s something you’re interested it. Or, you can read it just to see what I wrote. That’s cool, too.

And, apropos of nothing except I totally ripped off the title of this post from it, here’s the video of The Lonely Island’s “I’m On a Boat”:

I made it! From scratch!

4 frugal methods for pest control

The economics of inconvenience

Do things right. And don’t lie.

I’m in a book!

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