Aunt Bea
Master Chef
Ask Santa for a leaf blower!
What are your goals?
- Thread starter Claire
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Ask Santa for a leaf blower!
LOL!! I was thinking a high pressure water hose...
Dawgluver
Chef Extraordinaire
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2011
- Messages
- 25,033
PrincessFiona60 said:Oh, you know I gotta ask now!!!!
Que? Do tell, Pac!
Dawgluver
Chef Extraordinaire
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2011
- Messages
- 25,033
Note to self: no power tools for DH's boxers.
Claire
Master Chef
So many people trying to pare down possessions! I grew up and lived most of my life with the military. Moving every 2-3 years with a limited allowance for your stuff can make you rather ruthless on this front. I've lived here 10 years now (a record!) and we have 4 seasons. Every spring and fall I go through all my "stuff" with a big bag for Goodwill. I try to be ruthless. If it doesn't fit, out it goes, period. Get over the concept of you might lose (gain) weight. If you finally hit your goal, you deserve something new. The hardest part for me is decorative stuff well-meaning friends and relatives give me, that I think they might miss when they visit. They don't seem to understand that that empty shelf or tabletop or blank wall -- well I either want it that way or it is a spot waiting for something I really have to have. Like for some reason, I picked up a small cat figurine as a souvenier. I was maybe 10 at the time. By the time I was 30, everybody and their uncle had given me a cat figure. I never actually meant to collect them. Finally, in my 40s we decided to hit the road in a trailer, and I had the excuse to dump them all! Well, I kept 4 of them!
bakechef
Executive Chef
2011 was both good and bad, good that I have had a great vacation and other fun times with friends, and bad losing my awesome dad.
My goal is to build my savings back up, with 3 trips to Maine this year, and a trip to Las Vegas, my personal savings is shot! Our furnace just went out and with it being 27 years old, we have decided to just replace the entire HVAC system (luckily we live in the south where small space heaters do the trick in a pinch!). We also have a paid week in Disney at the end of next month. But after all of that, I need to start feeding my personal account.
So next years goal is to get back to a place financially where I feel more secure.
My goal is to build my savings back up, with 3 trips to Maine this year, and a trip to Las Vegas, my personal savings is shot! Our furnace just went out and with it being 27 years old, we have decided to just replace the entire HVAC system (luckily we live in the south where small space heaters do the trick in a pinch!). We also have a paid week in Disney at the end of next month. But after all of that, I need to start feeding my personal account.
So next years goal is to get back to a place financially where I feel more secure.
Andy M.
Certified Pretend Chef
Tim Allen would be proud!
Claire
Master Chef
How exactly does one go about that?
When I moved from one house into this one I had a dumpster full of stuff I threw away. I thought I did good.
As I was relocating and moving in I said to myself that I could use this room for this, this room for this... but ten years later the boxes still sit in those roomsAnd they've multiplied!
I'm not saying that I'm a hoarder, but I never throw anything away unless I absolutely have to.
I need to downsize myself. All my pants have gotten way too tight.
The only way to do it is to be totally ruthless with yourself. A few friends I have have serious hoarding problems. To me it is no big deal when you're young and have all your marbles to play with. But ain't none of us gettin' any younger, and trust me, it becomes harder and harder to find stuff if you don't get rid of stuff. It gets more and more difficult to keep yourself in a decently clean household when you have, say, 5 sets of dishes, 3 sets of flat-wear, 20 coffee mugs, entire sets of furniture in your basement and garage, rolled up rugs in a storage shed. A recent example is that about 6 or 7 years ago, I threw a tea for some friends. I consulted my English friend, and did it right. I had a rice china tea pot, and asked said English friend and another to loan me tea pots for the party. It went off without a hitch, everyone loved it .... BUT .... are you ready for this? Every person invited bought me a tea pot for a present in the following year. I have no use for that many tea pots, but kept them around so no one would visit and not find their gift. Eventually I gave them all to Goodwill. As pretty as they were, what would I possibly do with a half-dozen tea pots?
babetoo
Chef Extraordinaire
still have to do my craft room. it is a huge job but is a goal. losing twenty or thirty more pounds is a big, big, job. i already do pretty much any craft that i want and read lots and lots of books. these don't clutter my house , i send back to library. i have short term goals, because i am getting up in years. don't want to leave things half done, when i shuffle off.
Claire
Master Chef
What I did with this stuff, a few years ago, was separate what I'm likely to use again and what I cannot bear to part with. Got that down to the size of one under-bed box. Then I called a seamstress/costumer friend and had her take most of the rest of it. The rest to Goodwill. I still have a problem with some fabric I bought in Hong Kong. Hate sewing any more, but cannot bring myself to throw away those few yards of fabric.
Claire
Master Chef
Oh, by the way, I use the term "throwing away" in a very broad way. I rarely throw anything that is still usable away. But I don't let it sit in my house until it rots. Goodwill or similar are great places. If I find a can of food in my pantry that I haven't used for months, then I give it to my local food bank. Good clothes that we've "out-grown" or simply have no use for any more (have you noticed life getting less and less formal?) goes to a specific church-run thrift shop.
Addie
Chef Extraordinaire
I tend to hang on to things that were given to me as a gift. Then I discovered; Aha, nobody remembers what they gave you. So if it is just collecting dust and of no use to you, toss it. 
Addie
Chef Extraordinaire
With five kids it seems like I always had a child who needed help. Or whose kids needed help. As as result if I was lucky to be able to keep five dollars in a savings account, and I thought I was doing great. So starting with this past Christmas, when I received a $100 bill, it went right into my savings account and the only person who knew it was the one who gave it to me. Since then Son #2 stops by on a good night and will give me $10 or $20 of his tip money. That goes right into the savings account immediately.
Isn't it ever parent's wish to be able to leave their kids something? Well, I am no different. Then I got to thinking.
"The kids are the ones who have needed it all these years. Now it is your turn." So I built it up enough to get my Shark Steamer and my Mini Pie Maker. Two items I wanted, but did not need. And I still have a balance bigger than I have ever had. And when it comes my time to go, if there is anything left for them to fight over, good luck to them. If not, so be it. Make it on your own now kids. I have done my job. 
With five kids it seems like I always had a child who needed help. Or whose kids needed help. As as result if I was lucky to be able to keep five dollars in a savings account, and I thought I was doing great. So starting with this past Christmas, when I received a $100 bill, it went right into my savings account and the only person who knew it was the one who gave it to me. Since then Son #2 stops by on a good night and will give me $10 or $20 of his tip money. That goes right into the savings account immediately.
Isn't it ever parent's wish to be able to leave their kids something? Well, I am no different. Then I got to thinking.
+1 the kids know that any money left was because we didn't need it or want to spend it on something for our selves. Since Shrek is 15 years older than me, I'm the one who inherits. When I go, anything left over goes to the grandkids, divided equally.
bakechef
Executive Chef
Addie said:
With five kids it seems like I always had a child who needed help. Or whose kids needed help. As as result if I was lucky to be able to keep five dollars in a savings account, and I thought I was doing great. So starting with this past Christmas, when I received a $100 bill, it went right into my savings account and the only person who knew it was the one who gave it to me. Since then Son #2 stops by on a good night and will give me $10 or $20 of his tip money. That goes right into the savings account immediately.
Isn't it ever parent's wish to be able to leave their kids something? Well, I am no different. Then I got to thinking.
I'm the only child out of 5 that since they moved out hasn't borrowed a dime from the parents, and I'm proud of that, although there were times that I really needed to, I figured out my own way. I saw it as "I may be really broke eating ramen for a week, but come payday, I won't owe anybody anything".
I told my parents to enjoy what they earned and don't worry about leaving anything.
I have a rule about having 6 months worth of mortgage payments in the bank, and I am shy of that right now. We also keep "must haves" at or under 50% of our take home pay, that way if we lose one income we can still pay the bills, with unemployment as gravy, along with savings if we were still jobless after unemployment runs out. We have no kids, so this is much easier for us, even with modest incomes.
Addie
Chef Extraordinaire
I think I have just reached the end of my rope with my needy kids. If I can raise five kids by myself, why can't two parents raise two kids together? 
(I outlived two husbands) My kids are definitely of the "Instant Gradification Generation."
I don't need to have a savings account. I just want one so that if there is something I want, I can get it. All my needs are met due to very low rent (elderly housing) food stamps, and very few bills.
(I outlived two husbands) My kids are definitely of the "Instant Gradification Generation." I don't need to have a savings account. I just want one so that if there is something I want, I can get it. All my needs are met due to very low rent (elderly housing) food stamps, and very few bills.
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