The Living Without Series

This is a series of posts that I wrote back in 2006 on living with less stuff. Check them out: liv011Living #2liv031liv04

Let’s Make Some MONEY!!

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Remember when I told you I got a job at my children’s school as their Development Director? Yes?  And I told you about Sprint, the other lady that shares the job with me.  Well, right now we’re in the home stretch of our largest fund raiser of the year.  It’s a silent and live auction with a dinner.  So far I think we’re doing well selling tickets and getting corporate support and the auction items are starting to be donated.

Last year I asked all of you what you thought were great auction ideas.  So, once again I’m counting on all of you to share your fabulous ideas with me.

As for my personal donations I will be giving a pork package and designing a Christmas tree with homemade ornaments from the students in the school’s colors (blue and gold)  I think it will be really neat when I get it done.  I might do the wine tastings that I did last year, but I haven’t decided if I have time for it yet or not.

Okay, spill your brilliance on me.  What do want when you go to a fund raising auction?  What would you buy?  What would you donate?  What is the big seller at your school/charity?

ATTENTION FUND RAISERS  read the great ideas in the comments!!!

Keep ‘em coming!  I’ll be emailing a few of you to follow up on specifics of your ideas.  Thanks for the great inspiration!!!

Living with Debt

Hello my friends. How’s the debt reduction going out there?  We are fast approaching our two year mark when we first decided to buckle down and beat this debt thing once and for all.  Traction is the word that Damn Ramsey likes to use when referring to digging in and getting serious about debt.  Sometimes, we get stuck spinning our wheels.  We got no traction, man. I have a lot of excuses for the spinning.  In all honesty it boils down to needing  focus, diligence, persistence, good planning and organization.  There are many days when I have none of those.

I’m spread a bit thin this year.  I took on a job that requires a lot of my energy.  It takes me away from the house more and more, which takes away from the kitchen control that I once had.  We are eating out more often, grabbing snacks, eating in the van…Lord, please do not judge me on the smell coming from my van…it’s a bit crazy this life on the run.

I can sympathize with all of you that work full time and try to plan meals at home, it’s very hard and I’m not even close to working full time.  Go back and read that last sentence a few times in your best whiny voice and you’ll have a good picture of what it’s like to live with me right now.

I think the biggest part of my problem is the lack of a schedule.  I have a schedule, but it’s different everyday and sometimes I don’t know what I’m doing until the minute I’m doing it, add to that the five other people I live with and you have a lady spinning, running and feeding her children brownies for breakfast.

I’m longing for the days that I can rightfully run into a store,  buy whatever I need to make my life easier and get on with my crazy dance.  When we are done with this debt thing I’m going to hire a housekeeper, a farm hand, a grocery shopper and I’m going to have my van detailed at least once a week.

Until then, I’ll be trying once again to do better, stay focused and get us out of the HOLE!

A week or so ago I was driving some volunteers to a job very early on a Saturday morning.  On the way home, I decided to follow a few garage sale signs.  It is rare that I intentionally go to garage sales, I would like to make it intentional, but I don’t.  I found the best sale, ever!  I spent $9.00 and came away with a bag of  fabric, new pillow cases, several aprons,  a lamp for one of my boys, a pretty green jar for Ellen’s room, a lot of t-shirts, two pairs of Adidas shorts, dishes, an American flag (I’ve been collecting big flags to decorate our porch with for the 4th of July parties we have) and some other things that I’m forgetting.  It was so much fun to get some things we needed and wanted and not spend a fortune.

Finding a sale like that actually helps me recharge my debt diet.  It makes me realize if I work hard enough I can beat this stupid debt.

Are you ready for some pictures of my fun finds?

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Cast Iron Dipper $0.50

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Two of the four plates and eight bowls $3.00

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Chandelier for Ellen’s room $2.00 (I found this at a different sale).

Jean Martha, tell me where I’m going to find all those replacement parts!  And then come and fix this thing for me, please!

Now, tell me how you’ve saved money lately.  I need inspiration.

The $100 Staycation

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Last week we decided, based on the whining and pouting  performed by the tall blond in the family, that we should go to Kansas City and see Union Station and Crown Center.  Look how happy everyone is to be out of the house, no work, no school, no farm chores.  Such bliss!

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You can rent a Segway to view all the sights.

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We chose to pretend we were riding a Segway and if you’re riding a pretend Segway…

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you can do lots of extreme tricks…

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without worrying about falling off your Segway.

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Look Ma!  No hands!

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Look Ma!  No brains!

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Pretend Synchronized Segway Dancing…it’s all the rage.  Just look how impressed our audience is.  Uh?  Seth?  Hello?  We just preformed a bunch of extreme pretend Segway stunts.  Did you see them?  Hello?

Pretend Synchronized Segway Dancers get no appreciation.

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There weren’t many people at Union Station.  I told the kids I had called ahead and reserved the entire space for our family.  One time Ellen and I went to a late movie on a weekday night, we were the only people there. I told her I reserved the theater just for us, and she believed me.

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We paid a few bucks to park and strolled around inside and outside the building.  The kids loved it.

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Then we bought tickets to the 3-D Imax theatre.  It was that show about the flies that go into space..I can’t even remember the name of the movie.  I fell asleep three times during the show, it was a terrible movie.  The 3-D was cool, but I had a headache and felt like I needed to puke after viewing the whole thing with those weird glasses.

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The only thing our kids asked for was to get some fudge.

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I don’t know about you, but I’m not one to say No to fudge.  We got four slices and shared amongst us.

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The model trains were being built for display.  It was fascinating, even thought it wasn’t fully operational.

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All the tiny details were astounding.  I want to take the kids back over Christmas to see it all working.

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We headed over to Crown Center through the elevated walkway aptly named The Link.  I practiced my Vegas Showgirl poses, just in case I ever find myself in a situation where I need to use these skills.  You never know, Coal Creek Farm might be bought out by some fancy schmancy casino and then what will I do?  It’s best to be prepared.

Oh, calm down Mom, I’m just kidding!

About the casino, I’m still going to practice the poses.

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This is the spot where Clay and I stopped and sang, “Kansas City….Kansas City here we come…” because we were the only people in The Link, so why not?  Although, I’m pretty sure we would have sung  if there would have been people.

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All the crowds were over at Crown Center for the Irish Fest.  We enjoyed a guy playing his bagpipes and another gentleman putting on a concert and then we ate at Fritz’s Railroad Restaraunt where you order your food with a telephone that’s in the booth and a model train drops your food down onto the table.  My boys were beside themselves with anticipation for that train to bring our food.

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And everybody gets a conductor’s hat!

So we paid for parking, Terrible Movie tickets, Fudge and Dinner at Fritz’s.  It was about $100, not bad for a day in the city with a family of six.  Then we headed over to Liberty Memorial and viewed the sights from there, so beautiful…I have no photos of that to share, but it is amazing.

And that was our $100 Staycation!  Just enough time away to have fun and not think about any of our responsibilities waiting for us back home and most importantly…it was affordable!