Fave Five and Coffee 3.25

It's Friday, time for Fave Five and Company Girl Coffee! (I missed all of last week due to the flu, we were all sick.) Time to list some favorite things from the past week and catch up with the Company Girls. Visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for the Fave Five details.

Here are my favorite things from the past two week. The snow falling outside my window is not one of my favorite things.

• We got a surprise package in the mail! My sister made us St. Patrick's Day goodie bags! The kids were excited about their stickers and gold coins. I got coffee!
• Warm sunny days! We've had a taste of what is to come and I can't wait! I love sunshine!
  
• Everyone is healthy again! It was a very long week with everyone sick, but we are better now, the house has been aired out and disinfected. This is also the reason for my very short SRT list. My TBR list is growing daily!
  
• Coffee! I was coffee free for seven days! Only partly by choice, I just couldn't stomach it with the flu. Coffee is back, happy dance!
• A trip to the craft store! I found some clearance yarn for a scarf. It's a very easy scarf that spirals; I started a purple one and thought it would be pretty in this yarn too. I may even have them done by the time it's cold enough to wear them.
• Baskets. I replaced basket A with B it was hidden in the closet. Basket A is now a collection point for things that need to be carried to the basement. It looks so much better than a pile of stuff sitting by the steps. The best part…$0!

Please visit Rachel at Home Sanctuary and check out what other Company Girls are up to!

Spring Reading Thing 2011

Happy Spring! That means warm breezes, sunshine, flowers, and muddy children and…

I'm looking forward to the challenge this year for all the new books I'll find out about. My "to be read" list is pretty empty. I only have 3 books on my list, so far. I am reading two new authors and one old favorite.

Lady in Waiting: A Novel by Susan Meissner

These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf

One Simple Act: Discovering the Power of Generosity by Debbie Macomber

For all the details and to link up visit Katrina at Callapidder Days! Thank you Katrina for hosting! Happy Reading!

Money (Saving) Monday

Today's money saving idea, have a child come down with the stomach flu on the scheduled Stuff Mart day. Add to that snow (yes, snow) and that makes for a stay home day for me! I'm sending Honey! How does this save me money? Well, Honey doesn't have to take the children (the children choose not to go, Dad says "no"), he's better at sticking to the list, and he doesn't "remember" what I forgot to put on the list.

Bean had this on Friday, Punkin started today, wonder who is next? It's all good as long as Honey doesn't get it. He has a BIG, HUGH project at work starting Friday, he can't get sick! So, with Lysol in hand, I'll be couponing, reading, maybe a little knitting and waiting to see what else this first day of Spring Break will bring.

Allowance update, I'm leaning to giving Punkin allowance. Giving her a few "must" do chores tied to privileges not money. That was she has money and we can start to learn some money management skills. I have very low expectations for this project to be successful but I hope to get the skills in there so she can draw on them when she gets older. A big Thank You goes out to Karen at Over the Back Yard Fence for sharing her ideas and kind words of encouragement!

Fave Five and Company Girl Coffee

It's finally Friday! The sun is shining and the temp is suppose to go up a little today! Woo hoo!

It's time to link with Suzanne at Living to Tell the Story and have coffee with the Company Girls.

My favorite things this week were...

Today's sunshine! It does this body good!

I got 2 hand lotions and a can of ravioli free with coupons this week! Completely free, no additional purchase required!

Katrina at Callapidder Days is planing to host Spring Reading Thing 2011!

Time to be creative. I finished two shopping bags and have a third cut and ready to sew.

Quilt night. We did a little quilting, a little knitting and had brownies!

What were your favorite things this week?

Stop and have coffee with some other Company Girls! Hosted by Rachel Anne at Home Sanctuary!

Money Monday

Allowance, to pay or not to pay? Cash for chores or entitlement? We are currently giving allowance based on chores. I'm question this because my teen is doing just enough chores to get the amount of money she wants in the moment. If she want $3 she'll do just enough chores to earn $3. She has to pay for her texting. When that bill is due she asks if she can do extra chores to pay the bill but often that's all she earns and has no cash for the rest of the week. I know she understands you have to work to earn money. I wonder if that is the lesson I need to be teaching her at 16 or if teaching her budgeting is where my focus should be?

On Friday she had money, by Sunday night she didn't have enough cash to buy a soda. I'm suppose to be preparing her for adulthood. When it comes to money management I'm failing. I know if I give her allowance she won't do chores, she complains about simple chores when she does get paid for them. Do I give up her helping around the house to be able to teacher her how to manage her money?

How do you handle spending money for kids? Do you micro manage how they handle money or let them learn by fire? Is it ever too late to teach money management? I would love to hear how you teach or were taught money management!

February Project Wrap-up

I've survived my second month of not making daily trips to Stuff Mart. I've also learned a few more things this month.

It is possible to run out of Stuff Mart plastic bags.

We can get what we want/need without running out to the store every time we have a need. Bean and I learned this lesson because he can wear sunglasses to school tomorrow. He asked if we could go to the store to get a pair, I told him we could go on Wednesday. Having a plan seemed to defuse the urgency for him, and frustration for me, he didn't ask every day if we could go. Wednesday came, we went to the store got the shades, it's all good!

Using a calculator helps me re-think my need for those extras that run up my total.

Where my butt goes, so does my mind and my money. At home I make the shopping list of what we need and some of our wants. Then when I'm walking around the store, things I didn't know I needed at home end up in the cart. Sometimes I do remember something we need, most of the extras are just that extras.

The total trips to Stuff Mart for February are 4! Honey 1, Me 3! We eliminated 10 trips this month. The store didn't have to close it's doors and I don't feel the pressure to go just because some one wants something.

Money Monday

I've been changing the way my family I shop. I could say it is because of the economy, college, teen driver, rising gas prices any of these reasons would be a good one. The real reason is that after looking at our spending last year, I was shocked. I do most of the shopping so I can't blame anyone else for my habits. I was motivated to make changes, the first was The Project. Then we looked at what we actually spent and up dated our budget. The only reason I wouldn't be able to stay with the guidelines of this budget is mindlessness. That's what I'm working on changing now. It started with fewer trips to Stuff Mart, making lists, grocery shopping once a week and couponing. My goal is to keep us with in our budget, not get 300 toothbrushes for $1.00; I want to work up to coming in under budget.

I just started coupon 3 weeks ago, in the 3 shopping trips this month I got an extra $60 worth of groceries from my coupons. I'm not calling it saving because I'm not to the point where I'm under budget, yet. This is coupon central; I got 2 Sunday news papers, I was given some more coupon inserts, and printed some from the internet. I spent about 3 hours over the month printing, clipping, sorting, and organizing.

I'm using a 3 ring binder with currency protectors to store the coupons. I ordered these from Amazon; they were cheaper than "coupon" organizing pages. I use coupons for items that we use, not buy something just because I have a coupon. I make the grocery list and then find coupons for things I'm going to buy. I also make a list of things that I would like to get if the budget allows. These are the things I can stock up, but until I'm under budget, stocking up only goes as far as the money allows. Yes, I do take the binder with me to the store.

I discovered some bonuses to shopping weekly rather than bi-monthly like I had been doing. We aren't wasting as much food especially fresh food or being completely out of items as often. I also don't seem to be forgetting as many things due in part to a shorter shopping list. This is a work in progress and I'm sure it will evolve as I learn more.

What are your tips and techniques for saving money?