I love Kijiji

Check out these beautiful chairs I just found on Kijiji for a steal of a deal:

Now check out how great they look in our dining room:

And to think, I almost didn't buy them because they didn't match anything in the room. I beg to differ with myself.

To DIY, or not to DIY?

By: Melanie

When one is furnishing and decorating a new home under strict financial constraints, the question of the Do It Yourself project inevitably comes up. My husband and I are not DIY-ers. We don't do it ourselves. We buy it. I personally love the idea of DIY, but I also love the idea of running a marathon, being a ballerina and living in the south of Spain. You see where I'm going with this.

Recently I've been perusing an assortment of home decor magazines and I've come to a few rather stark conclusions:

#1. I have expensive taste.
#2. I have wildly opposing ideas about how I want my house to look.
#3. I do not possess the talent and skill of an interior designer.

In light of these discouraging findings, I have begun to revisit the idea of DIY. If I can find a few fairly easy and convincingly not-cheesy looking projects in these magazines, it might just be worth my while to undertake one or two in an effort to save myself from a) applying for another department store credit card and/or b) sinking into a deep depression, surrounded by cardboard furniture.

So far, I've found an article about making an upholstered headboard out of a tartan blanket. I'm not a big fan of the tartan, but I like the idea of a plush corduroy or maybe a bright floral, if the rest of the room is fairly neutral. Too ambitious? I have also been tossing around the idea of fuzzy zebra print cushions to liven up our black and white dining room chairs. The fact is that there is no shortage of ways to cut corners and save a few bucks, but will I be happy with the results, or will I just glare angrily at my crappy creations and end up spending more by paying for both the project and the retail replacement of said project?

Any DIY success and/or horror stories out there to help nudge me in one direction or another?

Rational Budgetization

By: Melanie

I realize that this blog has recently become more about money matters than organizing, but I promise you that once we move into our new house in June I will get right back on track with the little green book. For now though, all I can do is daydream and think about things I can't afford. So you're going to have to bear with me for the next three weeks as I rant and ramble about spending, or not spending, the money I don't have. Let's start with spending, shall we?

Yes, yes, we're not supposed to be shopping right now. But here's the way I see it. We need new luggage. In the last four years we've gone through approximately 10 suitcases. That's a lot of suitcases. Not surprisingly, the only ones left standing belong to the set that my parents gave me in high school before my very first international adventure. Everything since then hasn't made it past the 2 year mark. Between shotty craftmanship and violent baggage handlers, none of the last 10 even stood a chance. 

Now it's true that we can make do with the handle-less, dented and torn fragments that remain. Sure, it's not the end of the world. But the fact remains that at some point we will require new, better luggage. And while it's something that we could put on the back burner until a few more important household items have been purchased, I strongly believe in taking advantage of limited windows of retail opportunity. While leafing through the paper earlier this week, my mother-in-law noticed that The Bay was having a one-day, 75%-off sale on luggage. 75%. In my opinion, it would be terribly unwise to pass this up, only to end up saving a paltry 40-50% or *gasp* paying full price later on. I mean, sales come and go, but 75%??! 

We bought beautiful Samsonite suitcases and carry-ons that were regularly priced at $360 and $300, respectively. Total regular price without tax = $1320.00. Ouch.

What we paid including tax = $335.21. Yes.

What if I tell you that I also fell for the oldest trick in the book and signed up for a credit card to get an extra 10% off? You might lose all respect for me, but I can live with that with an extra $132 in my pocket. And a 1-800 number to cancel the card next month.

Now, what to do with our brand new luggage?

I want this.

Homesense. $200. What budget?

The List

By: Melanie

As I mentioned in my last post, my husband and I are putting ourselves on a crash financial diet. No. More. Spending. When you're moving into a new home in a new city, that's a tall order. For a lot of people a new space is carte blanche to buy all new furniture, a new city offers the perfect excuse to embark on a credit card-bruising tour of the best restaurants in the area, and heck, the stress alone can account for all manner of regrettable impulse purchases. Not us. We're no strangers to being strangers. We've had more new spaces in the last four years than I hope to have ever again. We don't need to fall into that trap, we can do things differently. For once.

What follows is a list of things that we want, but that we will only purchase once we have saved up enough cash to do so. Please feel free to check up on us regularly to see if we're staying strong, or if we've buckled under the pressure of the I WANT IT ALL RIGHT NOW philosophy. And please, wish us luck.

A couch. We don't have any seating of any kind for a living room, so this will be one of our first purchases.

A BBQ. This will be tough, as we're moving in the heart of bbq season, but I really think we should get a couch first, no?

A guest bed. For now we have an inflatable queen sized air mattress, which is better than the floor.

A new bed. We've never purchased a new bed. It's time. Once we have a couch and a bbq, although it might beat out the guest bed.

Bed frame and night stands. The old mattress-on-the-floor combined with water-on-the-floor-to-be-inevitably-knocked-over phase has run its course.

Patio furniture. We'll probably get through this summer with two camping chairs and a donated lounge chair. It's a good thing the winters in Ottawa are long.

Outdoor playset. We're really hoping that the novelty of just having a backyard will keep the little one occupied for a few months before she realizes that it would be much cooler with her very own swing/monkey bars/treehouse.

TV. If only our unused TV had made it into the U-Haul, but space issues excluded it from the trip. And though our consciences are in no rush to flood our daughter with hours of brain-numbing garbage, it sure would be nice to watch a football game or a movie now and then.

These are the major items we're pining for at the moment. Rest assured that the list will grow longer as time goes on, and the order may change with our priorities. But now you have a basic idea of what to look for when you come to visit and demand to scan our credit card bills.

Whatever helps you sleep at night

By: Melanie

There has been a lot of talk of money around our "house" these days. Of course, keeping in mind that we don't have a house these days, there has been a lot of talk in other people's houses, in the car, in coffee shops, walking down the street, and the like.

J and I have recently come to realize that our lean years are only just beginning. We've gotten off pretty easily up until now. What with parental generosity, past earnings and more student loans than one might imagine possible, there hasn't ever been a time when we've really felt the pinch. Until now, I'm afraid. This year we will finally have actual salaries again for the first time in over four years, but with mountains of debt to begin repaying and that bombshell that is Preschool dropping into our laps in September, times will be tight. We're also in the process of buying a car, as we can no longer rely on the mecca of public transportation that was New York City. Oh, how I wish Gail Vaz-Oxlade was renting a room in our new unfinished basement. But there is hope.

The other day, during our third commute to Ottawa in a week, my husband turned to me and said: "You know what we need to do? Make a budget. And I'm one hundred percent on-board this time. Put me on an allowance." Swoon. He then proceeded to lay out a plan where we save up money each month to buy whatever is on our list of items we want for the house (couch, new bed, bbq, tv, etc.) and only buy something once we have the money to pay for it as a treat for sticking to the budget. I love this man.

That evening I went online and started making our budget on Gail's website. I also "Owned Up" to my debt...it wasn't pretty...and discovered that I am a "Compulsive Shopper". Needless to say, tightening the purse strings and operating solely with cash is going to be wonderfully good for us. Though I sure will miss the online retail therapy.  But the way I see it, even if I don't sleep quite as comfortably as I would have in our new $1600 Sofitel king-sized SoBed, at least I'll rest easy.

Budget update

By: Melanie

For those of you who might have been concerned by my last post and are thinking of sending cash donations for my grocery expenses, you're sweet. But I have some good news. After a little recalculation (read: less money going to savings), we now have a whopping $60 a week to spend on groceries. And the even better news is that I have almost completed my grocery shopping for the week and it looks like I'll be coming in under budget! I have $8.12 left with which to buy an onion, some mint and bananas. No problem! That's even considering the fact that I misread the price on a bag of shrimp and paid $14 instead of $6. Oops.

The meal plan helps immensely with budgeting. I now take the cost of groceries into consideration when planning the meals, and stick stringently to the list in my hand. No more impulse buys. I am also completely boycotting several grocery stores that have exorbitant prices or carry only specialty brands. Goodbye Union Market, Hello C-Town! Thankfully, I can still frequent my favorite produce place, which has the remarkable combination of having exceptional produce and extremely reasonable prices, and is on the way home from the Y.

Last night we enjoyed this delicious meal, and also this week we will be having Coconut Mango Chicken with Black Beans and Spicy Shrimp with Creamed Spinach. Not bad for a family on a budget.

Can I Eat the Pie Chart?

By: Melanie

It's done. I have a budget. I finished it just now. I feel strangely emotional - on the verge of tears although here at the coffee shop it would be difficult to explain dissolving into a watery mess over my laptop calculator with pages scribbled with numbers scattered around me. Wait, that probably wouldn't be very difficult to explain. Especially in this economy. Well, it would be embarrassing anyway.

Along with the weepiness I feel a titch giddy, a dash excited and more than a molehill of pure, unadulterated fear. Can we really do this? Over the last few years we have gradually become better at tightening the purse strings, but this new budget is taking things to a whole new level. We're very broke. I know it's tacky to talk about finances, but isn't it also fun to pry into people's personal lives? Here it is:

I measure my financial stability in food. If I can buy groceries freely based on what recipes I've been reading without having to shop exclusively from the "Dinners for $5 or Less" articles, then I'm doing okay. This is what I've always done. It's sort of the one area of my spending that I have, up until now, been unwilling to compromise. And actually, I was surprised to learn that last month I only spent $398 on groceries. That's less than $100 a week, which is what most budgets seem to allow for groceries. I just assumed that I was through the roof in that category. Sounds like good news, right? It's not. Under our new budget, we now have $45 a week for groceries, which includes booze, cleaning supplies and dog food. So there's probably about $5 or so in there for actual sustenance, assuming wine doesn't count.

To make it more of a game, I'm going to do the whole cash jar deal, where you put the weekly amount for each category in a jar and only use cash. I think it's for the best, considering that I withdrew over $2200 from ATMs last month and have absolutely no way to account for it. Oh, maybe that's where the rest of the groceries went...

Ignorance is Bliss

I know money. I know how to save it, I definitely know how to spend it, but I also know lots about credit and investments and interest rates and all of that. I worked at a bank for 4 1/2 years in yet another past life, where it was primarily my job to process applications for loans and mortgages and credit cards. You know, the stuff that you can only get if you can prove that you don't need it, but if you didn't need it you wouldn't be applying for it. Right? I am also pretty well educated about credit worthiness and the ins and outs of a credit score. I've always been proud of my excellent credit rating, especially after seeing so many terrible, and I mean really rotten, credit situations out there. Back when I had a regular income I felt safe in the knowledge that if I needed to apply for credit to take care of the unexpected, I would be able to get what I needed.

Things took a little turn for the not-so-credit-worthy about 3 years ago. I left my job, Jeff left his cushy paid grad student gig, and we left the country. Oh, and before we left we borrowed as much money as we could get our hands on to pay his medical school fees, our moving costs, as well as living expenses for the next 4 years when he would be a student and I would be only sporadically employed. Well, guess what happens when you're in a new country with no credit rating, almost no income and a mountain of outstanding (albeit in good standing) debt? Have you heard the phrase "Mo' money, mo' problems?" I don't buy it for a second.

So I took what I consider to be the obvious course of action. I've taken my financial prowess and tucked it far away into a deep, dark corner of my brain that I only go to a couple of times a year when I get bored. I don't want to know. Unfortunately, I have a very good mind for figures, so most of the key information is still floating around pretty close to the surface and continues to cause me fairly continuous, low-level amounts of stress. But the big picture, like what my credit score looks like now, the sum total of all of our outstanding debt, any sense of our debt ratio and how much we should be spending compared to what is coming in, all of that is in the deep, dark corner. I feel that it's better that way for my mental health.

But maybe I'm wrong. I'm not entirely convinced, but I'm willing to give this financial responsibility thing a shot again, as ugly as it may be. I'm already giggling, after Ms. Berry's recommendation that my fixed expenses should be no more than 65% of my income. Giggling, and feeling a little nauseous.

I've been at it for a few days now. I've managed to compile a pretty comprehensive list of all of my income sources and expenses, and I've separated the expenses into Fixed, Variable and Controllable. Now it's time to figure out exactly how much I have to work with in my Controllable category and divvy it up. I've been avoiding this part a bit...is there an easy way to divvy up negative numbers?

Okay, enough stalling. I just thought I'd share my struggle with you in case there is anyone else out there who feels that hiding from the problem might just solve it. I know better, and thanks again to this book and this challenge I'm going to get in that ring and face the beast. It may just be without that extra cappuccino from the Fall Café this week...

Lists

By: Marca

The minute my head hits the pillow my brain switches to worry mode. Everything I forgot to do or didn't have time to do starts running through my mind on repeat. All the calls I didn't make but needed to do add to my ritual evening worry. What is the most difficult part is that I can't do anything about it at this insane hour of the night since I am relatively sure that no one wants to hear from me at 12 AM.

Because it is on repeat I stay awake for hours tossing and turning, mulling things over in my head and usually instead of solving anything it all rolls into one huge insurmountable problem that I can't solve in the middle of the night. It becomes more than the few things I didn't do or have concerns about because I get less sleep which affects the start to the coming day which then affects how organized I am, which in turn affects the peace of mind I have and what I am able to accomplish. Then the whole ordeal again repeats itself.

So, I made a change a while ago. Lists. I love them anyway. I make them all the time. Sometimes, I make them on paper and sometimes, I make them in my head. I put a pad of paper by my bedside. Not just any scrap of paper either. It is beautiful paper. When I see it it beckons me to write on it. I love stationary and it is a pleasant experience for me to use it. So, here this beautiful stationary sits. And, instead of letting those things I can't control at 2 AM keep running in my mind on repeat I write them down, neatly, on my beautiful paper. I write down the "thing" and all the little bits about the "thing" that are running around in my thoughts along with what I need to do to take care of it. It doesn't take long. It isn't a journal entry. It is in list form. I take all the clutter out of my mind and I place it neatly and carefully on my paper. Then, I set it beside my bed and I let it go. I know it sounds crazy, but it works. It makes sense. In the morning I look at my list with fresh refreshed perspective I take care of matters. Sometimes, that means realizing it isn't worth taking care of. Sometimes, it takes care of itself. If it is something I need to do I write it on another list - that day's list of things to do - that sits in my kitchen. And then with great satisfaction I check it off.

This week is about organizing our minds and finding an inner peace. Getting those nagging tasks out of our minds and onto paper is a simple thing to do that can make a big difference. Not only does it help remind us of the things we need to do but it compartmentalizes them so that we can focus on the task at hand and not all those others that are waiting for us. While writing this entry a couple of important things came to mind. I am reaching for my day's list to write them down right now. Here are some great "list" papers to inspire you to get started on your own lists.

These two are from Expressionary. They allow you design your own, as well.


If you live in the city (NYC) perhaps you have visited Kate's Paperie? I love it. I love the smell of stationary and the beautiful visuals and textures of different paper. Here are a few faves from her site. Journals are great for bedside lists, as well.









Also at Kate's Paperie

I also try to get a lot of recycled paper or green friendly. Eco jot, a paper company out of Canada has some beautiful products.

A lot of these papers and journals can be expensive. I like to hit the sale baskets at local shops and grab from their bins of "so last month" designs. I also enjoy the discount I get at Barnes and N*oble. They have a great selection.

Those are a few places to get started. Enjoy!

Even shoestrings cost money...

By: Melanie

...and in NYC they cost twice as much. No one knows "living on a budget" better than we do. Have a look at this equation:

1 full time student + 1 stay at home mom + 1 baby protected under the child welfare laws + 1 outrageous medical school tuition bill = x, where x is a very, very large mountain of student loan debt.

Now this would be a tricky situation living in an average city, but living in New York really ups the ante. We have to be creative. But the city does provide for us in ways that you don't see elsewhere. People here, at least in our neighborhood, really seem to get the whole idea of trying to get the most out of what they have, and passing things along when they are finished with them instead of just throwing things away. You would be utterly amazed at the things we have found on the curb and have carried, dragged, or had willing cab drivers take home for us. Like, for example, these two lovely pieces of furniture:

No kidding. And often what's not free is dirt cheap at stoop sales on the weekend. Almost every weekend morning from April to October, my husband and I pack up the girl and the dog and spend a couple of hours wandering around the neighborhood, picking up toys and clothes and books and all sorts of random goodies for a buck or two, or fifty cents. 

Another great resource has been the online parents group I joined in our neighborhood. People are always listing things that they are selling or giving away, and often it's really good stuff. I've been able to pick up quite a few storage bins/baskets/cabinets this way, which can be very expensive at stores. 

Generally speaking, I have found that if you're willing to do just a little bit of extra work you can make a big difference to your bottom line. Walking just a bit farther than the bodega on the corner not only means that I get a better selection of groceries, but they are much cheaper as well. Doing my own laundry at the laundromat can be a real hassle in February with a baby strapped to my back and my laundry cart getting stuck in the unplowed sidewalks, but it is still much cheaper than having it sent out. Listing for something I need on the parents group before going out to buy it at the store means I'll have to wait a bit longer for it, but can I really complain if I end up with a freebie? 

I'm fortunate in that I have the time to spend on these things. Not everyone does. Every family has a unique situation to deal with and must find their own unique solutions. Our lifestyle works for us, but not everyone loves the idea of using other people's hand-me-downs or of walking everywhere instead of having a car. When you sit down to figure out a way for your family to save money, make sure you consider what is realistic for you. It's the only way to find a solution that will really work in the long haul.