Catching up on the Financial Peace Planner: Stuffitis

The problem with wanting the best
Image by Danilo Rizzuti

Have I been procrastinating on keeping up with the Planner program?  You bet I have.  One of the goals of this blog is to make myself accountable and practice building good habits.  But it’s so darn easy to fall back into the old habits.  Procrastinating, pretending my bills don’t exist, putting off the hard work.  It’s a lot easier to write fun blog posts about chicken recipes and try out new and cheaper ways of doing things than it is to face up to the major problems. 

Major Problem Number One:  According to the Planner, I have “stuffitis.”  I try not to.  But I do.  Apparently if you check more than one statement in the little quiz, you have it.  I checked two, so it’s only a slight case and, most likely, curable.  Gavin has this condition far worse than I do.  That’s not me placing blame; he’s totally upfront about it. 

Here’s the statements I checked:

1.  “It’s not unusual for me to say ‘It’s only a few dollars extra’ when I’m shopping for something I want.”
2.  “So I spent $100 on a pair of running shoes.  The top of the line lasts longer.”

I can sit here and try to justify those responses (and believe me, I can justify damn near anything), but I’m not going to.  I’m going to accept that this is a problem.  It does no good to catch a great deal on chicken if I go out and blow $40 on a dinner out because I didn’t feel like cooking.  I have several bills piled up on my desk that I could be putting that $40 towards, and there’s really no excuse. 

I do like to have nice things.  When I can get nice things at a lower price, it can sometimes be seen as a justification to purchase something I don’t really need.  This time of year is especially difficult.  I don’t just like to have nice things, I like to give nice things.  It’s fun to have someone unwrap something you got them and see a big smile on their face because it’s just what they wanted. 

If you look around our place, you might say “How can these people be in financial trouble?”  We have two desktop PCs, our son has a laptop, we have a flat-screen TV, an Xbox, a Wii… and that’s just the living room.  Well, the PCs have been mostly cobbled together (it’s nice to have a hubby who knows his way around a computer), the laptop was purchased several years ago and is no longer of much use other than as a word processor, the Wii was purchased as a family Christmas gift quite some time ago, and the Xbox and the flat-screen were both donations from people who had more than one. 

So why don’t we just sell these items and pay off the darn bills?  Well, I work online, and Gavin sometimes has to communicate online with his job, and we both really like our games.  So, come to think of it, I actually meet one more of the criteria for “stuffitis”:  “I can’t get rid of my boat/truck/Andy Warhol print.  That would leave a huge hole in my life.”  Just substitute TV/computer/Xbox for the other items.

I’ll keep working through Chapter 2.  This is usually the point where most debt plans make you actually pull out all your bills and figure out your debt.  I have to confess:  I’m pretty scared of that part.

Homemade Household Cleaners: Homemade Laundry Detergent

In our quest to continue to find more ways to cut back, we have been experimenting with homemade household cleaners.  Since the spray cleaner was such a success, we decided to go ahead with laundry detergent next (plus, conveniently, that’s what we were scheduled to run out of next). 

I prefer liquid laundry detergent (it just seems like powders don’t rinse clean), so I looked around until I found a recipe I liked. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Fels-Naphtha – this is a bar of soap that can be found in the laundry section of your grocery store.  Apparently you can use Ivory soap as well, but we went with the Fels-Naphtha since everything I was reading recommended this.  At Fred Meyer, it cost about $1.50.
• Arm & Hammer washing soda – Take note:  not baking soda, washing soda.  This was right next to the Fels-Naphtha at Fred Meyer.  The cost was about $3.50.
• Borax – We already had a box on hand from the spray cleaner experiment.  How convenient!  But, also found in the laundry section.  This was about $3.00 when I bought it.

Directions:

1.  Cut off 1/6 of the Fels-Naphtha bar.  Although most instructions tell you to grate it, it's actually really crumbly.  You can actually just chop it up with a knife the way you would baking chocolate.

The crumbled Fels-Naphtha

2.  Dump the chopped Fels-Naphtha into a large saucepan.  Add 3 cups of hot water.  Heat gently until the soap melts.  This took a little while for us.  Also, be careful how much you stir it, since it gets foamy.

1/4 cup washing soda

3.  Once the soap is melted, add ¼ cup washing soda and ¼ cup Borax.  Stir gently until completely dissolved.

1/4 cup Borax

4.  At this point we were ready to transfer the mixture to our big stainless steel mixing bowl.  First, we dumped 2 cups hot water into the mixing bowl, then gently poured in the soap mixture and stirred a bit to mix.

The melted soap combined with water, washing soda and Borax.

5.  We added another 11 cups of hot water.

At this point, the mixture needed to “set.”  We put it aside to cool.  Our whole kitchen smelled really soapy.

After letting it set for a few hours, we checked back on it.  It was congealing all right!  Using a funnel, we poured it into the detergent bottle we kept for the occasion.  Reduce, reuse, recycle!  This part was kind of tricky.  It definitely took both of us.  The consistency was rather uneven and gloppy, but apparently that’s pretty normal.  The important part, after all, isn’t what it looks like, but what it cleans like. 

Mmmmm, yummy!

This stuff is supposed to work out to ½ cup per load of laundry.  We decided to really put it to the test.  We had Elias bring a blanket from his bed that was in definite need of washing and ran it through with the new soap.

When it came out of the dryer, it smelled fresh and clean!  Victory!  Hopefully it doesn’t gel too much as it sits longer.  We’ll see how it goes and I’ll update you as needed.  The best part?  The cost of this stuff works out to about a penny per load.  Try to beat that at the grocery store.

Let’s see, what can I make next?  What else have you guys tried that’s been successful?

 

Dressing on a Budget, Part Two: Grownups

Well, I'm not this slender, but you get the idea!

Photo by Photostock

Okay, as promised, part two of our clothing on a budget series!  Better late then never, right?  (Try telling that to the bill collectors, though...)

Clothing Gavin

Gavin is rather challenging to clothe.  He wears unusual sizes and he’s practically as rough on clothing as Elias!  Thanks to his job, he gets tears in unusual places that can’t be easily repaired.  I have almost zero sewing skills – I can sew on a button and repair a seam, but that’s about it.  He wears through shoes quickly and is incredibly picky about which ones he likes.  I’ve groused at him before for buying a pair of shoes and then never wearing them again.  He complains that a lot of shoes rub him on the heel and cut into his Achilles tendon.  We can avoid this by sticking with New Balance, but those are usually pretty expensive. 

For Gavin’s clothing, we can get some stuff at Walmart, but (Walmart aversion aside) they tend to be poorly made and just not very attractive.  Gavin’s job requires him to dress a certain way – not suit and tie, but khaki pants or slacks and a polo or dress shirt.  The place we’ve had the most luck for Gavin is K&G.  You have to dig through a whole lot of weird stuff, but you can find some gems and their sales are fantastic.  We recently hit a great sale where dress shirts were buy one, get one free, and the shirts themselves were only 19.99 (and they were REALLY nice shirts) so we were thrilled. 

K&G is also a great place for pants.  Like I mentioned, Gavin wears an unusual size that can be hard to find.  For a small fee, K&G will tailor your pants on site, which is incredibly handy.  Gavin only has to worry about finding pants that fit him in the waist – we can then tailor the leg to length as needed. 

Clothing Amee

My biggest hassle is being plus size.  Plus size women’s clothing is an absolute racket.  As Kirsten mentioned on a previous post, somewhere someone made the decision that plus size women either want to wear clothing covered with nauseating kittens or deep cut cleavage, leopard print and weird baubles.   As I’m a fan of neither of those, I get pretty frustrated.  Since I’m working from home I don’t have to worry about any sort of dress code, but I still have my own sense of “what looks nice” and I’d like to be able to stick with that.  But my choices are limited.

My best luck is usually at the Avenue.  They have great sales and since I’m signed up for their mailing list, I get notifications of those, plus additional coupons.  I’ve walked out some pretty good deals.  My last good shopping trip there a few weeks ago landed me two bras (have you ever priced plus-size bras?  It’s horrifying, truly), a beautiful loose-knit sweater, a lavender button-down blouse, and eight pairs of socks.  My total was about $80.  Those of you who shop for plus size know – that ain’t half bad.  Usually the two bras alone would cost that much.

The other place I’ve recently had good luck at was the Goodwill.  I have to be willing to dig through a lot of junk and I’ve discovered that I can’t go to just any Goodwill.  The Goodwill in Bellevue has the best selection, based on my size and style.  For those who don’t live in the Seattle area, Bellevue is a suburb directly to the east, known for being a bit swanky.  If you have expensive designer tastes, you can also score famous designer products there.  When I was last there, they had shoes by Prada and Jimmy Choo in a display case.  My friend scored a Hermes handbag for $30.  I don’t know enough about high fashion to tell you if the darn thing was real or not, but if it was, that sucker retails for $2,000.  I’m not kidding.

I was able to hook myself up with a beautiful long, dark green corduroy skirt by Lane Bryant that goes nicely with either a T-shirt or a blouse, a pair of new khaki pants from Old Navy that still had the original tags attached and a cashmere sweater with a ruffled scoop neck that looks lovely with camisole or tank under it, also by Lane Bryant.  My total for this little shopping spree?  Less than twenty bucks.  Seriously.  All three pieces were in excellent condition.  If they had ever been worn before, I couldn’t tell. 

Where’s your favorite place to shop cheaply?  And what's your recommendation for cheap shoes for Gavin???

Dressing on a Budget, Part One: Kids

Your kids can still look nice, even when you're shopping on a budget.

Photo by Stuart Miles

One of the biggest challenges for our family is keeping everyone dressed relatively well, without breaking the bank.  Fortunately, none of us are slaves to trends and we prefer clothing that looks decent without being super fancy.  At the same time, I don’t think any of us are going to be wearing handmade dresses and pants made from homespun wool. 

Elias has enough challenges that dressing “poor” would only be more fuel on the fire.  Maddie is a three-year-old girl with a quickly developing fashion sense.  While Gav and I are not exactly fashionistas, we have the challenge of being, well, plus size, which brings a whole new set of clothing challenges.  Here’s how we keep everyone clothed, including two growing kids, without going into the poor house.

Madeline

Maddie is probably the easiest one of the bunch to clothe, believe it or not.  She’s cute, and little girl clothing is fun to buy, so she gets clothing as gifts on a regular basis.  She also gets adorable hand-me-downs from several friends.  End of season clearance sales at stores like Fred Meyer can fill in the blanks.  One of my favorite shopping opportunities for Maddie is at a local consignment store, Quadoo’s.  Not only are consignment stores a great way to stretch your dollar, they will also take clothing your kids have grown out of off your hands, providing credit.  Each season, I’m able to turn in Maddie’s outfits from the year before and score some new goodies.

Elias

Elias is really challenging to clothe.  He’s eleven, and that age just isn’t quite as much fun to buy for.  Plus, like most boys his age, he’s just really hard on clothes. He wears through the knees of jeans quickly and his shoes fall apart like they are made of tissue paper.  Plus, he’s already 5 feet tall.  He grows out of his clothes fast and he is terribly picky about what he wears, since he has sensory issues.  He’s in that awkward in-between period and consignment stores don’t carry his size.  I can get away with getting items for him at the Goodwill, and by combining store coupons with clearance sales, I can get some good deals at Fred Meyer. Last week we found ourselves having to replace his winter coat (the other one was destroyed).  We were able to catch a 50 percent off sale and scored a nice coat for $30.  Not quite as great a deal as the London Fog coat we found for Maddie for a measly $12.99, but I can’t argue.  It’s hard to find coats in good condition at thrift stores.  My sister likes to take Elias school shopping every year.  She has more fashion sense than we do, so Elias always manages to start off the school year looking sharp!

Tomorrow I’ll tell you how Gavin and I shop.  The truth is, we are far more likely to buy new clothes for the kids then for ourselves.  Show me a parent who isn’t, right?