Posts Tagged ‘downstairs’
Seasonal Changes
When we came back from Green Bay last weekend, we started getting to work getting ready for Will’s birthday which is coming up very soon (I’ve only got 2 weekends left to get a ton of work done!!!!) We decided that we wanted to pull my curio cabinet out of the basement (though I could really use some Corner Etageres instead — right now I’ve got it angled in the corner and it is such a waste of space!). We put my water globes, plates, figurines, and my Thomas Kincade items in there. I have to admit that it really does look pretty nice. Unfortunately, we did have to move Bill’s rocker recliner downstairs (which is he super excited about) into the man cave. However, the chair was so large that I can probably put up 3 cardtable chairs up in its spot when we have company! We also moved a ton of pictures around too (which had to be done since Bill bought me a big screen TV for the living room for my birthday. The TV is now where 3 pictures use to be). By moving some of our artwork (one piece is now hanging in my bedroom) and pictures around, it has made a big difference. I even cleaned off the top of our huge IKEA bookshelf, and we put picture up there too!
Do you rearrange your rooms when the seasons change? (Or am I the only weird one that does that?)
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Managing Your Finances
Thank you to TurboTax for sponsoring my writing about household finances.Learn more about how TurboTax can help you find every tax deduction you deserve. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.
Managing your finances is something that every family strives to do. I think in these times it is especially hard since so many people are out of work. Even Bill’s company has done layoffs, and they weren’t based on seniority. It is definitely a time that puts everyone on edge, because from day to day, you don’t know if your husband, your friends, or if your other family members are going to keep their jobs.
That being said, there are certain things you can do to help manage your finances. Something that has worked well for my family is that we hid money from our ourselves. I use a program on my computer to balance my checkbook. What I have done is that for our savings account on there, I’ve created “fake” accounts. For example, I have a “Christmas/Vacation Fund”, a “Tuition” fund (this pays for Madison’s Catholic school tuition), car insurance fund, homeowner’s insurance fund, and even a “TV” fund. I know, what’s a TV fund. We don’t buy big ticket items (like Bill’s big screen tv that’s downstairs) without having the money first. What we do is hide the money in our savings account and take the free financing. In the meantime, we are collecting interest on this money (plus it is available to use in an emergency situation).
Something else we do is charge everything. I know — you are screaming “WHAT!!??!!”. The key to this is being able to pay off these credit card charges every month. The reason we charge everything we can is because 1% of whatever we charge is taken off the principal of our mortgage. We do nothing — it automatically gets transferred there in $25 increments. This is better than any cash back or point system we’ve ever used. We slowly are paying down our mortgage doing something that we would have done anyway. We even charged the new siding we put on our house last year!
Every family has to do what works for them. Not everybody is able to hide money from themselves and NOT spend it. We are able to, and that has helped my family manage our finances. What do you do?
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Holiday Cleanup
How do you clean up after the holidays? For us, it is a tad more interesting. Madison’s birthday was yesterday (she turned 5!), so we always have the quick cleanup that needs to be done from the time we get back from visiting Wisconsin and her birthday party. I usually get about a week if we are lucky. Since we have the basement now, Bill let me keep up the Christmasy decorations, but we did pull down the Christmas tree. I need as much room as we can get, and this is pretty much the only way I was going to get it. I figure everybody will hang out downstairs for her party just like they did for Christmas Eve. The sad thing is that we are the only one on the block who still has their outdoor lights up. Now, we don’t leave them up till June or anything, but it seems that it is kinda odd that on 8th of January that everyone has packed up everything already. Now, I’ve slacked this week, and I have to get all my cleaning done tomorrow with the kids underfoot. This should be interesting. My sister is arriving tomorrow, so its not quite the end of the world if she’s the only one who sees my non-clean house.
How do you clean up? Do you have a set plan? Do you just do a little bit each day?
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