$3.50 in Stupid Tax September 27, 2007
In decluttering last night I found my favorite watch. I thought it had been lost forever. All it needed was a bit of cleaning up and a new battery. Today I walked to the jeweler next door to buy a new battery. I had already taken out the old battery but the woman at the store offered to have them install the new one for me. I was happy to let them do it even though I knew I could replace it myself. I should have asked. Why did I not ask? My watch disappeared into the back room for eight minutes until a man brought it back to me and charged me $7.50. That seemed a little high, so I asked if it would have cost less if I had just taken the battery to install myself. Just the battery would have cost me $4.00. I paid $3.50 for the installation I could have done myself in less than a minute. Hey, at least he set the time and date for me.
Happy 10th! September 27, 2007
Hop over to MomTeacherFriend and wish her a Happy Anniversary – As of today, she and her husband have been married 10 years! In honor of the occasion, I’ve deviated from posting “on the 8’s” so you’ll notice the time matches the date. (Like you care, but it amuses me.)
Happy Anniversary! We love you both!
Lovin my Dave Ramsey Podcast September 26, 2007
I have been downloading The Dave Ramsey Show on my iPod. Since I’m an FPU Coordinator I can download it for free, without commercials. It’s great. There was a great call on the show last Friday that I’ve replayed once or twice already. The woman who called in had 90 credit cards in a lock box. Ninety. Having ninety credit cards is seriously sad, but this woman had such a great sense of humor about it. She had four inches of Discover, three inches of Mastercard…. A listener emailed into the show during the segment and said, “You know you’re too broke to pay attention when you measure your credit cards in inches!” The caller wondered if she should keep at least one or two of her credit cards ”just in case.” If you’re a Dave Ramsey listener you know the answer to that – NO! This woman had totally bought into the fallacy that credit cards equal security, but Dave inspired her to see the truth and to shred those cards. At the end of the call she was saying that she wanted to be weird, she wanted to be “that person that stops the Visa line.” How awesome is that?!
Good Morning! September 26, 2007
How often to you hear this message on the radio?
“Coming up next, Toto and Todd Agnew…”
…
The inside of my ear itches. (Note to self: stock purse with emergency q-tips.)
…
Luke had a big day yesterday:
1) Napped so hard he left a handprint on his forehead
2) Giggled at Mommy roaring
3) Discovered how to suck both thumbs at the same time
4) Ate oatmeal with a spoon!
I need a bigger dumpster September 24, 2007
I filled four bags of trash last weekend! I also filled two bags for donating. It’s all sitting by the front door, ready to leave my life forever. I’m really getting addicted to this.
I cleaned out the bathroom closet and had no qualms about dumping all the lotion and bath oils. They were all tucked in the back so I wasn’t using them anyway. I only kept three bottles of lotion and one of bubble bath. I threw out all the expired medicine. Now I have room to easily get to the things I use! What a novel concept.
I went through a box of mementos in the hall closet and threw away any items that didn’t tug at my heart when I looked at them, and I was surprised at how many items were like that. Many held memories that just don’t matter to me anymore, and a few items I couldn’t even remember why I kept! I still have work to do in the hall closet but at least now I can see the floor.
I am starting to really see the ridiculous irony in this country and our attitude towards “stuff.” The American definition of bettering yourself involves having more things, right? People brag about what they have. The more things you have, the cooler you are. Just watch MTV’s Cribs. Now for the point of irony: Close your eyes and picture your ideal home. Clean, wide open space, right? Where is all the stuff? It’s hiding. We buy bigger and bigger houses with beautiful closets and shelves to store all the stuff.
I saw an interesting word equation today: waste = want – need. While I don’t agree entirely with the philosophy, I do feel it’s worth thinking about. I can’t even tell you how many times I heard this question as a child from my dad: “Is it a want, or is it a need?” Think about what you have that you really need, really. Everything else is excess. Either you have room for it or you don’t. If you don’t have a home for it in your home, it doesn’t belong in your home. If you don’t have room for it, it is getting in the way of your life. Get rid of it and get back to living!
My American dream is not to have more stuff, but to have more time with my family, better time with my family. I envision my home being a place for my loved ones to chat, relax and enjoy time with each other, no stuff required (well, maybe a deck of cards or two). Let me tell you, it feels so great to be working toward this vision and to see it coming true!
Songs to Sing September 21, 2007
A coworker was asking me what the lyrics were to the Little Bunny Foo-Foo song. Do you remember? Little Bunny Foo-Foo hops through the forest, scoops up the field mice, and then bops them on the head? Well we couldn’t remember the rest of the song so of course I had to show off my internet searching skills to find it. I quickly found the lyrics on www.bussongs.com. I also found lyrics to a lot of other great songs! I have been singing songs to Luke but I am always forgetting the lyrics. This is great, now I know the second part to Pop Goes The Weasel and I can stop singing “la la la la la la la la, la la la la la la la…” The La’s get old after awhile.
I’m a big fan of sing along songs. As a young girl I remember singing along to Raffi songs with my mom on car rides. I remember she also had a giant book of sing along songs that we would sing from. It had a white cover and there were picture diagrams of hand motions that went with many of the songs. One of my favorites from the book was “On Top Of Spaghetti.” “On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese, I lost my poor meatball… when somebody sneezed!” I still think of it whenever I eat spaghetti with meatballs.
I remember singing with my cousins in the basement at the cottage up north. We used to jump around and make up our own motions and dances. We would sing songs we thought we knew, but as I got older I was amused to discover we had been taking some major liberties with some of the lyrics and melodies.
If you like to sing silly songs with your kids, or just by yourself when you are driving to work and back, check out www.bussongs.com. I think some songs even have sample audio in case you don’t know the melody!
Ketchup September 20, 2007
I totally stole this from Jim Gaffigan’s myspace bulletin, but I changed the spelling from “Catsup” to “Ketchup” because it just looked wrong. It was hard to read because in my head I kept pronouncing it “cat-sup”. I don’t know why he spelled it “catsup” but maybe he did it because he thought it was funnier that way. I think it’s pretty funny either way, but I’m a nerd and couldn’t have peace until I changed it to what I feel is the proper spelling.
This is for Sarah and all the other ketchup lovers…
“If dog is man’s best friend, then Ketchup is definitely food’s best friend. Ketchup is always there to help out or improve something you are eating. “These fries need ketchup” or “I’m having Mac and Cheese for the 4th day in a row – this time I’ll add ketchup and pretend it’s Marinara sauce”. You know what I mean.
Sadly, it seems we only realize how important ketchup is when we don’t have it. We’ve all had the moment when we discover we have more fries than ketchup. It ain’t fun brother. What if there never was ketchup? I know it’s a scary thought. What if there was no tomato? That’s even scarier. No tomatoes means no ketchup, probably no Italy. Who knows, maybe no Carla Gugino.
When was the last time you held a ketchup bottle in your hands and said “Thank you ketchup”? A while? Maybe it’s time you gave some props to the king of all condiments.”
How Important Is It, Really? September 19, 2007
“You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?” ~Stephen Wright
I’m reading a book called “It’s All Too Much,” by Peter Walsh. I’m only on chapter two but I’m already learning a lot. It’s basically how-to on decluttering, but it deals with the psychology of why we have such a hard time getting rid of things, not just on the logistics of decluttering. I think it’s the same as with personal finance, only a fraction of it is head knowledge and the remainder is behavior.
Walsh lists the nine most common excuses for keeping something. The one I struggle with the most is this: “It’s too important to let go.” Walsh tells a story about a woman who was holding onto lots of sentimental items. I’ll quote the portion that really struck me -
“I found that the root of the problem was uncovered with one simple question. I asked Sarah if her best memories with her children were in front of her or behind her. Her eyes welled up with tears; here was a woman afraid that the best times had already passed. She was holding on for dear life to those things that evoked the great memories she had had with her children. The only way to find out what the present holds is to actually live it; clinging desperately to the past seriously endangers your enjoyment of the present. If you let your sentiment overrun your house, you’re inhibiting your family’s ability to have a life worth preserving. Ironic, isn’t it?
“If something is important, give it a place of importance. Find a way to respect and display that memory. If you’re not treating it with honor and respect and you can’t find a way to do so, then get rid of it.”
Boy, I already have a mental tally of all the things that I have made that excuse about. Yet they are all packed away in boxes. If they are really that important to me, why do I keep them tucked away? I think it’s time to go back through those boxes and make some tough decisions.
