May 17th, 2009 §
Breakfast under the Big Birch
I don’t usually post on Sundays but had to share
this article about how families can save money. A couple of the tips are specific to the Chicago suburbs, but most are not, and you’ll find some good info there.
Here’s my favorite part:
Do things your mom used to do. Remember how your mom and her friends sat around the kitchen table drinking coffee, rather than meeting out at a local coffee shop? Or how you’d be forced to bring your lunch to the ballgame or museums? That’s probably why your parents have money in the bank now. One mom suggested buying a bag of Starbucks coffee for $8 and then brewing enough for everyone.
Some of my fondest memories are of sitting around a kitchen table having coffee: with my grandma when I was a kid (yep, Swedes let the kids drink coffee with lots of milk in it), or with the other playgroup moms when I had little ones and we met weekly at each other’s homes. Who says you need money to have fun?
April 27th, 2009 §
I recently read an article in a quilt magazine about Ida Stover Eisenhower, mother of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It included several photos of quilts made by the president’s mother from the time she was young.
The quilts were pretty, and representative of their time (late 1800s to early 1900s). But what really interested me was the story of her married life.
She met her future husband, David Eisenhower, at college. After they were married in 1885, David sold the prime Kansas farmland his father had given the couple as a wedding gift, raised an additional $2,000 and started a mercantile store with a friend.
The business did very well for two years, but then local farmers began asking for credit after losing their crops to drought and grasshoppers. Eventually David and his partner had to borrow money to keep the shop afloat, but the store failed anyway.
The Eisenhowers then moved to Texas, where David found a job working for a railroad company as an engine wiper for $40 a week. These were hard years for the Eisenhowers. It was during this time that the future president was born.
After two years in Texas, David was offered a job in a creamery in his hometown, and the family moved back to Kansas and lived with relatives for seven years. Then Eisenhower’s brother, a doctor, sold them a house on a few acres at the edge of town. They would raise six sons in that 818-square-foot house. And Ida and David would live in that little house for the rest of their lives.
~.~
Ok, it’s a bit of history, but what’s so interesting about it? I think it shows that up until the mid-20th century, getting started in life was tough. People had a hard time making it. If it wasn’t drought and grasshoppers, it was financial trouble. But people persevered and got through it.
However, after World War II, our country became unusually prosperous compared to the past. My generation (the tail end of the Baby Boomers) grew up believing that life wouldn’t be so hard. You go to college, get a degree, buy a nice house, drive nice cars, and as long as you show up to work each day, you’ll keep moving up and getting in a better position financially until you retire comfortably like your parents did.
It’s not working out that way in my family. I’m one of four sisters, three of whom are married. Of the three husbands, two have been out of work for some time and one is watching his business shrink. The unmarried sister is the mom of two boys and has been out of work for over a year. The other two sisters work in the public schools and are employed, for now.
And it’s not just our family. One friend’s husband has had his hours cut and faces an uncertain future. Another quit her church preschool teacher job because of something immoral going on in the church; a few weeks later, her husband was laid off. Friends who retired early had to go back into the work force as substitute teachers because their retirement account took a beating.
Up until recently I was thinking something strange was going on, with so many people I know losing their jobs, and unemployment rates across the country skyrocketing. But now I’m wondering if the “something strange” was actually what happened while I was growing up, when for fifty years or so it was so much easier to earn a living than it had been for most of history.
Maybe it was a glitch, a blip, and now we’re going back to normal, like the normal of Ida Stover Eisenhower’s time, when making a living was a struggle, and you were grateful to have an 800-square foot house to raise your six boys in. I wonder….
April 16th, 2009 §
I’m still going through stuff from the storage unit, and am embarrassed to admit that I have boxes and boxes of bank statements with cancelled checks dating from the year we got married. Considering that we’ll be celebrating our 30th anniversary this summer, that’s a lot of checks!
My defense is that I was too busy raising kids to go through all this financial detritus sooner. Whatever. The fact is that I have to go through this stuff and shred the checks because our SSNs and credit cards numbers are all over them.
Yes, it’s time-consuming. But I’m determined to get rid of all this before we move again (which may happen this summer, but that’s another story).
One good thing about doing this is that it’s like a walk down memory lane. I’ll find a check for the ob-gyn from when I was pregnant with one of our children, or the big check we wrote for the down payment when we bought our first house, and it’s like reliving those wonderful times.
Today I found a check that really got me thinking about how we can do something very little or ordinary without knowing that the repercussions of that action will be enormous in our lives. Here are the details from that check:
Date: 3/1/84
Amount: $25.00
Pay to the order of: Moore Seminars
Memo: Homeschool Seminar – Wheaton
Who knew that my curiosity about homeschooling would still be affecting our lives 25 years later?
March 23rd, 2009 §
I wonder if the average citizen really understands just how cost-efficient homeschooling is?
Back when I was homeschooling all four of my kids, the most I ever spent in a year for “school” was probably $1500, and that was when my two older kids took high school by correspondence.
That was a while back, but I have a hard time imagining someone today even spending $1000 per child to homeschool them. The thing is, educating a child costs far more in time than in resources, and we moms don’t invoice for that time.
As for resources, a Bible, a public library and some good museums are really all you need. The rest is gravy.
And there’s plenty of gravy in the public schools. Get a load of this, from today’s Wall Street Journal:
The state now spends roughly $13,000 per public-school student in Chicago, but the money has done little to reverse a dismal high school graduation rate of 51%.
Holy cow! For $13K annually per child, most homeschool parents could homeschool their children through graduation, and pay off the mortgage early with the money left over.
March 6th, 2009 §
Most of the time, the concepts of simple living and frugal living are complementary. Simple living usually involves downsizing, decluttering, even working less and living on less money. All of that fits in with a frugal lifestyle.
But some people are a little confused on the concept. Take the editor of the “HomeStyle” section of a local newspaper. She recently wrote a column about simple solutions that save time. One of her solutions:
Pre-sort laundry: Well, I finally did it—I purchased a plethora of laundry hampers that say “lights” and “darks” so everyone in the family can help sort the laundry as we go. So far, it’s the best $80 I’ve spent in a long time.
Whoa, $80? If she had to spend money, couldn’t she just have bought white, beige and black laundry baskets and told everyone to put their whites in the white one, their darks in the black one and their light colors in the beige one?
Better yet, why spend money at all? Can’t you just put signs on the hampers you already have? Write the word on a piece of duct tape if you have to.
I can think of all sorts of uses for $80, and none of them involve labeled laundry hampers. That kind of waste has nothing to do with simple or frugal living.
October 14th, 2008 §
Every time I click on Drudge these days I see all sorts of headlines about the scary stuff going on in our economy. People are losing their retirement accounts and investments. Other countries are having money issues, too. It’s easy to become frightened.
But blog reader Jan A. emailed me something that is the perfect antidote for those headlines. Thanks, Jan!
God’s Bank Ain’t Busted Yet
By Alice P. Moss
The bank had closed; my earthly store
had vanished from my hand;
I felt that there was no sadder one
than I in all the land.
But my washerwoman, too,
had lost her little mite with mine,
And she was singing as she hung
the clothes upon the line.
“How can you be so gay?” I asked;
“Your loss don’t you regret?”
“Yes, ma’am, but what’s the use to fret?
God’s bank ain’t busted yet!”
I felt my burden lighter grow;
her faith I seemed to share;
In prayer I went to God’s great throne
and laid my troubles there.
The sun burst from behind the clouds,
in golden splendor set;
I thanked God for her simple words:
“God’s bank ain’t busted yet!”
And now I draw rich dividends,
more than my hands can hold
Of faith and love and hope and trust
and peace of mind untold.
I thank the Giver of it all,
but still I can’t forget
My washerwoman’s simple words:
“God’s bank ain’t busted yet!”
Oh, weary ones upon life’s road,
when everything seems drear,
And losses loom on every hand
and skies seem not to clear;
Throw back your shoulders, lift your head,
and cease to chafe and fret.
Your dividends will be declared:
“God’s bank ain’t busted yet!”
