1. Take your kid to the dentist to have 3 cavities filled (3!) He did great btw, though he chewed up his mouth after, leaving it quite swollen. Oh and being all swollen and unable to chew properly we had to buy soup and icecream.

2. Take a busted backpack with a lifetime warranty back for replacement, they no longer make that cheap version and you have to pay the difference.

3. Send husband and son off to a marathon shopping/library trip that takes so long it crosses two meals, which are of course eaten out

4. Head out for the 'big' Christmas shopping trip of the year to buy most everyones gift before the actual Christmas rush.(actually we didn't do this yet, but will after nap)

At least I am in a good mood, lucked out on being 'high' this week .

This week my husband will be home every day, and no pay.

I could stress out about it, but. Wouldn't help much, instead I am putting him to work. Well today he mostly just helped with co-op, but now we are headed to the library before dinner.

Tomorrow I have hopes of kicking him to the garage for some cleaning, or work, or whatever.

Wednesday we have a dentist appointment, and Then Thursday and Friday are again days I hope to get some work out of him.

Stressing never helped anyway.

I just posted how we set up a deal where someone does our shopping, obviously not free. And yet for me still rather frugal.

Because I do not drive. If I drove I could go shopping during the day when husband is at work, or on the weekend while they have a lazy morning, or any number of options. But since I do not drive and our time is rather limited we made a choice.

Not driving on the other hand saves us all the car insurance, all the gas of me heading off to yet another free daytime event (there are tons around here, for homeschoolers, preschoolers and more)

Now I still will mow the lawn myself, an hour away from the kids is better than paying someone!

Finances is all about choices, so in one way we are spending more, but in others we will be cutting back to balance it all out. (Heat is still off...)

I just set up with a friend of mine a deal. She goes shopping for me, I pay her a modest sum for gas and trouble.

This is supposed to free up some time for y husband to actually spend with his kids. So far it freed up time for him to go to an AV meeting. But I have hope.

The only trouble is admitting to someone how picky we are!

so far I have learned.
1. No Aldi's cheese, no matter how cheap.
2. Must be just one brand of canned tomatoes...Not that I know what it is.
3. Saying 'juice' to friends is not the same as to husband who knows which kinds we drink...(no apple, no grape, always 100 percent, no tomato, though the one kind of veggie fruit stuff is good....)
4. I have to find out what the fat/beef ratio we buy is? I don't even know how you find that out (I never did the meat shopping....)
5. Folk do a serious double blink when they know just how much we spend on fruit and veggies.....(family of 6 we eat over 3lb of apples every week...and 2lb of veggies every dinner not to mention some of 'whatever is in season', among other staples, onions, lemons, mushrooms, etc)

Down here in NC, almost south, We don't need heat for long, and honestly while we complain a lot, we don't need much of it, compared to mountains or up north.

So some would think we totally cheat on the no heat thing. But while our start date can be later with ease, keeping it as late as possible is a challenge. See when you don't have to do more than run the heat for 15 minutes in the early morning you figure it is cheap enough no big deal to turn it on.

But cheap as 15 minutes is it is still money spent that will never come back. While a sweater I already own is free.

Course there are thousands of ways to save that money, This year I choose to try and keep the heat off to save it. (last year I didn't.) Another person might find heat more important and save by buying different foods (we are picky in many ways).

Still another might prefer to buy some expensive foods, turn the heat on early but skip eating out for the month.

Whatever gets you through the month 'in the black' is a good plan.

Finances are boring, money comes in money goes out, roughly the same every month.

The most interesting thing that has happened lately, my husband isn't going to get paid this week, instead the hours from this check will get lumped into the next one.

Happens all the time, and we don't really notice much.

Oh I peeked to be sure the checking accounts had the money in the right spots for the upcoming bills..umm wait I didn't, but I will....brb.

K yep, all accounts have plenty of money for upcoming events/bills.

See boring.

but boring is good when it comes to money. Well exciting new deals on groceries would be nice, but I'll take boring over juggling money to pay bills any day.

Just had a long conversation with my oldest about money and debt and CC's. Mostly about how we choose what to do with our money, so even though we have an average income, we don't have an average life. And don't have much to complain about money wise. (though one could always complain if one wanted!) He overhears plenty of folk complaining about paychecks being to far away, and then hears me tell my husband it is fine if his is late. (though I do like knowing so I don't take money out of the wrong account at the wrong time)

How come women can think a man sexy while he is fixing something, but a man can't think a woman is sexy while cleaning. (least not without being told he is sexist and misogynist, and backwards, and whatever else feminists come up with)

I doubt any woman really cares what that the man is working on, it is the wonderful muscles in the arm industriously employed. Arms we can imagine wrapped around us. (after the honey-do task is done, or at least begun)

And I doubt men find dusting sexy, not sure mine would notice one way or the other. It is the standing on tiptoe in that French maids outfit (even if the outfit is only in his mind).

So why is one demeaning while the other encouraged?

Speaking of French maid outfits, I was in France and didn't see a single maid wearing one. (sorry to disappoint you fellows)

Oh any my guy doesn't fix cars, and I don't dust, I just pulled generic themes.

Come to think of it, when don't men find healthy women sexy?

Every year I start to get excited about the fun of Christmas...and then more and more agitated at the red suited myth surrounding the holiday. This year Digg brought the topic up long before I normally deal with it. So far no one has asked my kids what they will be asking from a mythical creature, or if the saw him in stores, and no one has gotten upset that my kids will not lie anymore than I do. Which means I found it relatively easy to type this year! No erasing sentences filled with swearing and pent up anger .

third comment down

The comment may have moved up or down since posting, but the one that caught my eye is of 4 reasons why folk use Santa.. the exact reasons I don't. Here is their post in italics with my comments after.

..... useful purposes.
1. He keeps small children from nagging their parents about presents they want for Christmas. Tell it to Santa, I have no say.

My mother taught me I could ask for 2 thing every Christmas, this made me narrow it down to what I really wanted. (good practice in frugalism) Now I let my kids ask for one thing. (though I keep my ears open for their debate) I also am very honest about why I will not buy an item. (not worth it, bad for you, going to break to fast, you already have some, not healthy, etc) No nagging, and no lies.

2. He can be used to make the kids act better. They know that I'll still be nice to them even when they act bad. I was already planning on taking them to Chuck E. Cheese's, I wasn't going to cancel or leave one behind because one kid is being a dick, so they won't believe it if I tell them they'll get no presents if they are naughty. Santa is a more distant figure, though, and they've heard from a lot of people that he knows who is naughty and who is nice.

On the contrary, my children do know I will cancel or at least keep them in the car/corner/non-fun spot for a time while the other part of the family has fun. I do not rely on the boogie man to keep my children from going round the corner either; though it would be easier.

3. It's fun to see the kids get so excited about him coming to bring them presents.

Nothing wrong with seeing kids get excited about giving presents and receiving. Do you need a false name for the giver?
My kids love all parts of Christmas, from carols and cookies, to angel tree gifts to shoe boxes. From pageants to special books, and steak dinner. Christmas is a wonderful time of celebration and tradition. I don't need any falsehoods in my story (yes I do believe in Jesus, I never make up anything to support what is believed through faith)

4. It's good training for future atheism. When they learn that it's possible to believe in something made-up just because that's what people you trusted told you was true, it's easier for them to make the jump to not believing in God.

umm yeah....I know if you have been perpetuating the myth you tell your kids 'it's different'. And I know plenty of Christians that survive the childhood lies. But why? I also know those that found the truth about Christmas the turning point in becoming atheist. Why risk it? If you do not believe in Christ, and yet still want to celebrate the holiday, why lie? Why can't you just say the whole tradition is fun and you enjoy it and you like giving folk presents?

I think the number one reason folk do the whole fantasy thing is because their parents did it. It is tradition, and those die hard. Christmas itself is a collection of traditions adapted from various Winter Solstice celebrations.

Jesus certainly wasn't born in December no matter what all those stories show you. But Christians wanted to enjoy their traditions and the church felt December was as good a time as any to celebrate the birth of our savior. The difference between Christian symbols and the red suited myth is that we believe the stories we tell our kids.

I believe Christ has eternal life, so when I tell my kids we choose evergreen to decorate as a symbol to remember His eternal life I mean it. I tell my kids we decorate the tree with all sorts of fun tidbits of our life to remind us of all the wonderful blessings we have.

We use the advent candles and crèche to remember the story. Presents recall not only the greatest gift from our Father but also the story of the Magi giving Jesus gifts (and yes I know that was several years after birth, and I tell my kids so)

No part of our tradition requires me to lie. I never have to worry that my children will 'discover the truth' I have tried to give them the truth from day one.