Bargain Hunting, Kids, and Genetics

I used to think that through careful parenting I could raise a couple of kids who were just as frugal as I am. What I’ve come to believe, however, is that like so many other things – thick thighs, unibrows, a penchant for sarcasm – there is a gene for parsimony. Those born with the nature of thrift will pinch pennies no matter how many they have to spare, and no amount of nurture will transform the imprudent child into a tightwad. How else can I explain the fact that my daughter comparison shops at the school carnival and my son can find a $6 loaf of bread at Walmart?

I’ve tried to provide my kids a decent financial education. When I worked in retail we used to hang the things that appealed to kids – stuff like Dora socks and anything made entirely out of sugar – at eye level. Kids’ eye level. Once they saw it, they had to have it and once they started screaming, they’re parents happily paid the cashier for the $10 pair of socks or the $5 lollipop shaped like a pretty princess. Aware of this evil genius, I vowed early on not to buy my children anything when they were at the store with me. When they got older I showed them how to seek out the store brands and head to the clearance racks first.

With one of my children, all my training paid off. She finds coupons for things we actually buy and knows when her favorite store is having a sale. She’s careful with the money she earns and, at nine, is already saving for her prom, her car, and her cell phone. Then there’s the other one who believes there is a fairy who sprinkles sporting equipment, Nintendo games, and Ralph Lauren polo shirts around his room at night.

I’m hoping those genome project people can figure out just which gene is responsible for the tendency to scrimp because parents need support. Even if we can’t do a thing about it – sure would be nice to know in advance who’s going to be able to care for us in our old age.

This post is part of a Parent Bloggers Network Blog Blast.

**Don’t forget to check back Thursday for the contest!

Confessions of a Dirty Housewife

A couple of years ago I started enlisting the kids in a weekly ritual I like to call The Hour in Which My House No Longer Smells Like Dog and Used Kleenex. I followed up throughout the week with nag-the-children-to-pick-up-their-things-until-mommy’s-saliva-dries-up. But somehow it’s not working. Somehow I am still slightly fearful that I’ll pick up a staff infection from my own bathroom.

I feel guilty. But not because my house is a hot mess. I feel guilty for feeling like I should be able to do it all and not getting help. Because really – when there’s a quarter inch coat of dust that actually changes the color of that lovely glass vase you got for your wedding – when the dust bunnies have turned into a pack of vicious jack rabbits – when there’s stuff in the fridge that you can’t identify – when it’s that bad – you need help.

So a couple of weeks ago I finally broke down and called the woman who used to clean our house. And wouldn’t you know that poor dear was out of work? Providing a regular gig was the least I could do. Besides, now the kids and I can work on the deep detail cleaning more often so as to thwart the landfill-o-crap that threatens to overtake their bedrooms.

As I waltzed through the house on a lavender and Pledge scented cloud of happiness, I felt better. Not just because all the tiny hairs had been whisked away, but because I had a hand in the financial recovery of our nation.

Stimulate the economy: hire a housekeeper.

Can’t enough of my wit? See these gems:

Treat Your Husband This Valentine’s Day: Morph Into a 1950s Housewife
Cleaning the Children’s Suite – It’s No Earth Day Up There

Should you desire to clean your own house, check out tips and tricks over on Parent Bloggers Network.

Are We Done Living Green Yet?

Is it just me or are the rest of you about over this whole ‘green living’ thing? I mean really. How natural are we supposed to be? It’s just a lot of stress is all.

That said, the one change I’ve been trying to make (not too successfully I don’t mind adding) is in the area of cleaning products. And not even so much to be green, I just think it’s sort of ridiculous that we have to buy all this special stuff to clean our homes. Is the dirt today that different than the dirt a hundred years ago when all they had was a jug of vinegar, some baking soda, and a whole lotta elbow grease?

Ranting aside, I have as yet been unable to make all my own cleaning products. (I told you I was over it!) So the next best thing is natural store bought stuff. I swear by Mrs. Meyers.

This week Parent Bloggers is helping SC Johnson get the word out about Nature’s Source cleaners, which is another off-the-shelf cleaner with natural ingredients. No matter what you choose, I think it’s a wonderful thing that we’re getting better ingredients in everything we buy.

Because let’s face it, we’re going to buy most of it. Unless you’re homesteading out on a farm somewhere, life is just too busy to be making your own furniture wax and baking cookies from scratch. Honestly!

Now gardening…. that’s something I’d like to try.

The Family That Laughs Together… Is Happy

How do your kids know you love them? What are the small silly things you do to remind them day in and day out that they are the light of your days? Little signs of love are what make a happy family.

In our house, we bust each others chops quite a bit. For example, last night at the dinner table we did the pencil-lead-on-the-edge-of-a-quarter trick on my son. There’s always a plastic cockroach going around the house to startle some family member reaching for her underwear or drinking his orange juice. And then there’s my kids’ constant attempts to tack a ‘Kick Me’ post it on my back. I like to think these high jinx convey a loving message, but just in case the teasing isn’t taken well, there’s also a mushy side.

I’m not going to bore you with the secrets I whisper to tuck them in, because the kids are getting older now – and some things are sacred. But I would encourage you to have a little expression of love you share with each child that is as special and unique as they are.

Help Parent Bloggers and Insure Your Love spread the word about love. Write your own post or comment here.

3 Steps to Creating Balance

It’s a new year. This will finally be the one we get it all together. Sound familiar? While 2009 may not bring everything into perfect alignment, it could be the year you achieve a new level of balance.

What’s Balance?
Balance isn’t about getting everything done, or doing everything right, but examining your values and goals, and accepting your limits. It has been said that your true values are exhibited in the way you spend your time. Make 2009 the year you pay attention to all the things that demand your attention.

Step 1: Review Steven Covey’s rocks and sand analogy. Are you spending time on the big rocks first? Write out a list of your rocks and post it somewhere you will see everyday. Or take advantage of a digital service like gtdagenda‘s vision reminders to keep important goals in front of you.

Step 2: Take time to plan. Most things don’t happen on their own. They don’t happen until you decide to make them happen. Set aside some time at the beginning of your week to identify and schedule the most important things you must accomplish that week.

Step 3: Honor your emotions. When you feel happy, scared, nervous, uneasy, or excited – stop. Take just a moment to acknowledge what you’re feeling. Paying attention to emotions is important because it’s nearly impossible to create balance if you’re just charging ahead all the time.

More posts you might enjoy:

2009: The Year of the Vision
How to Build a Home Organization Notebook
GTD For Moms and Other Homies: The Lists
Empty Your Email Inbox
Improve Your Life With Long Range Planning

This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by BOCA.

Help Them Buy a Cow

These are the people who need a few hundred dollars to buy a cow that could forever alter their economic situation. When’s the last time you spent a few hundred dollars at Target? How about just $25?

After reading Tom Watson’s CauseWired this week, I decided to give Kiva a try. If you’re interested in the dynamics of online social activism – or if you just want to understand the social ramifications of the coming of age of the millennials – I highly recommend CauseWired. Or you can check out Watson’s posts on the site.

If you’re interested in having a direct impact on an individual person with a specific economic need, log on to Kiva and plunk down your $25. Kiva pairs hard working, developing world citizens with lay lenders like you and me. These micro loans change lives. And that’s what they are – loans – not donations.

Contributing to the solution of the world’s problems can be overwhelming. However, contributing to the solution of a single challenge for a single person is something each of us can do. I’m hoping to get my kids involved as well, now that they are accumulating some hard earned allowance money.

Bright Idea: Wouldn’t this make a great class project? If everyone in a single elementary school class put a dollar into the pot, the whole class could fund a portion of a loan. Who’s with me?

Anyway…. it’s not much. It’s only $25, but it’s something we can point to with a tangible result. I like that.

Philantropy That Sticks to Your Ribs
As usually happens when faced with challenging times, Americans seem to be banding together for good. (Let’s hope it sticks!) Quaker Oats is getting in to the game – From January 12 through February 28, for every UPC from a Quaker Oatmeal hot cereal product families enter at http://www.startwithsubstance.com/, Quaker will donate one bowl of oatmeal to Share Our Strength, a childhood hunger organization. (You’ll need to be a Facebook member to participate.) Nice. I’m off to the pantry now!

This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by The Quaker Oats Company.

Games Families Play

Over the holiday I tried to engage our family in games. Really I did. Somehow they all fell flat. I couldn’t even rally the troops for poker. And I have chips. I guess the extended fam just doesn’t like to hang with the game. I don’t blame them – games are corny. But it’s their corn factor that makes them so great for families. That and the rules. Everyone sits down together and agrees to play by the same rules, no matter how silly.

Within our cozy nuclear family, the board game of choice is Sorry. There’s no skill involved so you don’t have to think too hard, and the quick changes of fortune make for a lot of laughs and pseudo-drama. We also like Cranium Cadoo. And poker. Because the kids need something to fall back on.

Some of my best childhood memories revolve around Monopoly, Risk, Gin Rummy, Yahtzee, and Life. Then came Atari… I never could have imagined as I blocked that little ball on Pong that I would one day be swinging a plastic stick through the air and watching a corresponding tennis racket on a plasma screen the size of our Honda Civic.

And how did our parents ever survive road trips before the Nintendo DS? Before the Sony Walkman? It makes me wonder what kind of crazy stuff our kids will have one day. And what kind of memories we’re burning today.

This weekend Parent Bloggers and Electronic Arts want to know all about the games your family plays. Blog it and you could win video games for the kids, or yourself!

Me and Bob Barker – We Go Way Back

Parent Bloggers is asking us to remember our favorite game shows today. The first one that pops into my head is The Price is Right. Everything about it enthralled me. From Bob’s skinny little microphone to the sparkly $1.00 on the wheel, and every price guessing game in between. I’m pretty sure I learned practical economics from that show. And then there were the Hollys – I was completely captivated by the enthusiasm with which the models carressed cars and washing machines. What little girl growing up in the 70s didn’t aspire to be a Price is Right model? Surely that wasn’t just me….

Sometimes at the dentist The NEW Price is Right will be on. My kids get all mesmerized. And sometimes during summer break they find it on TV at home. I can’t sit still for it anymore. However, I do still enjoy the catchy tune. And I can still hear old Bob in my head….

Lela Davidson – Come on Down!

Black Friday Deal -> I wrote this post for Parent Bloggers to help promote Olieollen.com’s holiday sweep. Each day, from November 28 through December 1, Oliebollen.com will hide 5 totally FREE items around their site. Find them and scoop them up along with at least one other paid item, and those freebies will be yours (while supplies last). Surprise door-buster deals will be sprinkled here and there to add to the fun!

Best Homemade Gift Ever: Rice Sock

When I was pregnant with my daughter, my doula made me a rice sock. This is one of the best gifts I have ever received. I understand physical therapists recommend these a lot. When you heat the rice in the microwave, you get moist heat that lasts quite a while. I use it every time my neck or back is hurting. Even if I’m just cold I’ll nuke it up and put it in bed while I’m brushing my teeth or wrap it around my neck while I’m working at the computer. (It really is best that I work at home now.)

My sock is kind of skanky. It’s only the second one I’ve had since my daughter was born eight years ago. I’ve been thinking about making a new one, and then I read this post about making rice socks from finger tip towels instead of socks. And then I thought about the Linens and Things next to my house that’s going out of business. But THEN I remembered the handy remnant box at my favorite fabric store!

Don’t you think some great chenille would make the BEST rice socks ever?
And seriously, do you think that’s a good gift? Or will people just think I’m a freak. And cheap?

This post was inspired by Klutz for Parent Bloggers!

Farewell to the Days of Sweet Halloween Costumes

This year my daughter had wanted to be an evil bunny rabbit. Then it was hotdog, John McCain, and finally a ‘business woman’.

(Note: The fact that she chose John McCain is less reflective of the political tenor of our home than her desire to oppose her brother, who had wanted to be Barack Obama. That is a whole other story.)

Now, inspired by a clown mask and the breif case she had planned to use to be a business woman, she’s been running around the house saying ‘Put the money in the bag!’. She calls it a bank robber. I say hedge fund manager.

Anyway… all this to say – it’s a far cry from last year when she was none other than prairie-sweet Laura Ingalls Wilder. As soon as she said she wanted to be this wholesome figure, I rushed down to the Salvation Army and bought up all their lace and ruffly pillowcases. Mind you, I’m not crafty. That’s why this costume will forever be my masterpiece.

Could she be any cuter? She’s wearing a gigantic grin. Trust me. (If you’ve been here for a while you know I don’t like to post my kids’ pictures.) Now, I’m no photograper. I probably won’t win the Halloween photo contest over at Parent Bloggers, but I’m entering this anyway under the category of–

Best Homemade Costume.

Because it is. Hands down.

Note the crafty use of ruffles….

… the home spun petticoat and apron

… the genius re-purposing of a too-small blouse.

I outdid myself. I really did.

And this year she’s a bank robber. Lovely.

By the way, was posted in part to promote Blurb’s super cool DIY photo books. You really ought to check them out!

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