TGIF! The weekend could not come fast enough this week. And now that it's finally Friday I have one last question for you.

Has your pay check been effected by the economy?

Hope on over to the poll on the right side bar and tell us about it in the comments if you would like. Did you post an article on your blog about the paycheck? If so leave a link in the comments. We would love to hear your story. Next week we should have another update on Mr. NtJS's income. We will keep you posted!

With rising gas prices, families are suffering from more then just a lack of vacation time. They are suffering from a lack of family time. Most people today do not live where they grew up and are moving every few years for work. If you are like our family, your kids did not get to wish grandma a Happy Mother’s Day in person. So what are we to do to stay connected to family?

One of the newest things we have tried is emailing video messages. It works great and the grandparents love it! For Mother’s Day we video taped a short message from our kids to the grandmas. It was only about 2 minutes in length but was very cute. When the grandma’s watched the video that Sunday they both were moved. It was like they had the kids there for a few moments.

We have also used a webcam to stay in touch with loved ones. This can be great if your little ones can sit in front of the computer long enough. We tried this one when we where in the process of moving cross country. We where all separated for over a month. I just loved seeing my husband and daughter in the evenings even if it was just an image of them on the computer screen. For those little bits of time it was like they where sitting right there in the room with me.

There is of course mom’s standard lower tech idea of calling. With everyone having cell phones calling long distance is becoming less of a budget buster item. Sometimes nothing is better then a long chat with a loved one you are missing (minus seeing them in person).

Having lived in different cities around the country we have accumulated a lot of really great friends who live all over. I would try to send mass emails to everyone including photos. I would also find myself emailing different people the same updates on us over and over again. Then one day we got the great idea to set up a family blog. This blog is 100% geared towards our family and friends. It is basically a family journal with photos and small videos. In our Christmas cards we remind people of the URL. We have received more compliments about our blog then we ever would have imaged. In fact, our biggest fans are my 82 year old grandpa and grandma! They check it every day to see if we have added any more photos of the kids.

No mater how far away you live from family it is important to stay connected. How do you stay connected with your long distance loved ones?

The Bathrooms~

We have one and a half baths in our house. For the past 5 months we have basically be down to the small half bath with no outlets. Over Labor Day weekend we started to gut our main bathroom. That was also the weekend that Mr. NtJS had to work almost the whole weekend with no warning. After that weekend he has had to increase his hours at work a lot because of the lack of staff. We are of course grateful that he has a job, but this has been very problematic for finishing the bathroom remodeling. We started to see the light and was exciting about finishing the remodel this past weekend. Then it happened. He came home early from work on Friday sick. He was sick all the way through Monday night. The bathroom is still not done.

However we are so close you can smell it! We are also close enough that I moved us back in today. Normally when I prep for de-cluttering a room I have a mental list of what needs to be done. This time I really had no clue. Our bathroom was now divided up and broken into four different rooms/ closets.

I was surprised when I started emptying boxes by the amount of items that were expired or extremely old with no expiration date. I ended up filling a large trash bag with expired items and extremely old items! I was able to organize everything in a logical way and nothing was cramped. Our bathroom is small so that was amazing to me!

I'm extremely happy with the way things have turned out so far. I have not taken any photos yet because I want until the mirror and shelves are hung, the drop cloth is gone and the vanity doors shut all the way. Then we will show you before and after photos along with a post about the project. I can't wait to show you the new and improved bathroom!

Have you checked expiration dates on your first aid items and toiletries lately? Do you have a de-cluttered bathroom? Feel free to share a photo of your space.

This battle has been won! The next room to tackle is the office. This is by far the worst room in the house. Check back next Friday to see how the final room is shaping up or if I've lost the battle in the worst room.

Congrats to Charlene for winning our first giveaway!

I would like to thank everyone who enter to win the KitchenAid Coffee Bean Grinder. Check back often (or subscribe) to see when our next giveaway will start. While here check out some of our other great and informative posts.

I'm so excited that it is that time a year again. Time to get prepping for this years veggie garden! Yes, I know that it is mid-February and my first seeds will not be in the ground for a couple more months... Thanks for reminding me.

However, it is time to start planning out your vegetable garden for the year. Starting now will help you to have a bountiful harvest which will save you money all year long. Here is how I personally prepare for my garden.

I started by planning out my garden on paper. I use drafting paper personally. Lay out your dimensions on paper and then you know how much room you have for all your plants. Next I make a master list of all the vegetable varieties I would like to plant this year. I also pull out last year's copy of my garden layout.

Now that I have those three important things taken care of I take my handy-dandy companion plants guide out and start to figure out which plants like each other and which don't. At the same time I look to where things were planted last year. Plants are either heavy feeds, light feeders or nutrient givers. This is important information to help you from having to spend lots of money on fertilizer.

Armed with all the info I need to do my garden layout I start to layout on my paper a rough draft. It usually takes me a few stabs to get things laid out the way I want them. I take into account plant height (taller plants to the north end), which plants help each other or hurt each other, and I also try to not plant heavy feeders in the same space twice.

Once I have my master plan on paper I can then make an accurate list of seeds and plants that I need for my garden along with any special supplies I need. The biggest advantage of doing this in advance is that most seed order companies are running good deals this time of year. For instance, you can get $25 off a $50 order from at least 3 mail order seed companies that I know of. Taking advantage of these deals will help you to have an even better profit margin in your garden.

I personally have a large garden and will use all the seeds in my seed packets, but if you have a smaller space you don't have to let your extra seed go to waste or pay more for a smaller packet. All you need to do is find a gardening friend and split the cost of the seed. This allows even a small scale gardener to reap the cost savings.

Once you get your garden going and feel adventurous, try saving your seed from year to year. I personally have not done this yet but I have a couple friends who do this every year and swear by it. Neither of them have to buy seeds and they produce enough vegetables to be self sufficient. Of course you can always start your own plants inside with a grow light or in a mini-green house. I've tried this twice and failed both times. For now I'll stick with seed and starter plants for tomatoes and peppers.

Are you starting to prepare for your garden? Do you have any good prep tips to share with other gardeners?

This week I started to plan out this years vegetable garden. It really is a great way to get exercise and provide my family with affordable organic product all year long. I'm working on a post about this topic for next week, but today I want to know:

Do you grow your own veggies?

Please tell us about your garden in the comments section below. I can't wait to hear about YOUR garden.

Have a great weekend!

Wide Open Wallet is a blog by a stay at home mother of two. Ashley takes an honest look at family finances by discussing debt, budgeting, saving, and frugal living. Check out her site and if you like what you see, consider subscribing!

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We got our tax return back last week. We like getting a big tax return and claim zero to make it happen. I know it goes against the general consensus of personal finance people but hey, that's why they call it personal finance. Because sometimes you have to forget what they say and do what works for you. I've figured it out and we are losing less than $100 a year in interest. For me, the forced savings is worth the lost interest. I just like getting a tax return too much.

Anyways, we got back $10,500. Usually we pay $1,000 in extra principal towards the house out of our tax return and then put the rest in an account to cover us when overtime is low at my husband's job. But not this year. I just don't feel comfortable sending money to the house with the economy so fragile. It's already gotten way worse around here than we thought possible. So for now, we are keeping all of our tax return tucked away safe in our savings account.

I hate not sending it to the mortgage but if things don't pick up at my husband's job we may need it. And it's not going to do much good for us as equity in the house. As much as it stinks, we have to put the goal of paying off the house aside to make sure we meet the goal of feeding the kids. We'll see where we stand next year. If we can send $2,000 I will. Hopefully we will at least be able to send the regular $1,000.

I love mason jars! It all started when I was a freshman in college. I needed something to keep my pens and pencils in on my desk in the dorms. With no money to my name I decided to re purpose something. I found an old quart sized mason jar and put it to work.

Since then I have used them for everything! I'm still amazed at the number of times I solve a problem with a glass mason jar. It's almost like a woman's version of duct tape really. In fact, I just solved another problem with them just the other day. I wanted to put my bulk food into glass containers to store them instead of the flimsy plastic bags they come in. We really don't have room in the budget for the jars and I did not find any at garage sales and estate sales this past summer. I was not sure what I was going to do when I remembered that I had some 1/2 gallon mason jars in the basement that I "inherited" from my mom's best friend's mom's estate. I've never used them for canning and they have just been sitting in the basement. It was a perfect match for my bulk flours, sugar and rices.

Here are 16 of the many other uses for your canning jars other then canning.

• Pen/Pencil holder
• Utensil holder
• Bulk food canisters
• Cookie jar
• Storing leftover food
  
• Loose change container
• Hold plant clippings you are rooting
• Candle holder
• Flower vase
  
• Sorter/holder for loose screws, nuts, etc
• Store extra buttons
• Custom mixed wood stain holder
• Holds gifts like dried cookie mixes or homemade bath salts
• Bird feeders
• Use as a drinking glass
• Eye Spy container for kids
  

Today Ashley at Wide Open Wallet graciously posted a guest post written by our own Mr. Not the Jet Set. The post is called No Raises in 2009. If you want to hear the latest news on the Mr.'s employment head on over and check it out.

While you are there check out some of the other great posts Ashley has written. She stays true to her blog's name and has a wide variety of posts all related to her personal finances.

Thanks Ashley!

The Kitchen~

I was not sure the day would come, but today it happened. It is the first day in well over two weeks that I am not sick nor am I taking care of sick kids or pets for that matter. With all the health issues under control it was time to tackle the kitchen de-junking project.

When I was preparing mentally for this room I saw lots of things I could get rid of. I also decided that it was time to reconsider there things are located. When we moved in I just put everything away in the same place that the previous owner had her stuff. Two years later, it's time to decide what is working and what is not. I already have some ideas going into this project but want to see how much room I have after weeding out unwanted items.
Before:










After:









I started this project by getting a couple empty boxes to put garage sale items in. Then I start in one corner of the cabinets and went in order through all the cabinets removing items I want to sell or give away. I ended up filling 4 good sized boxes to be added to the garage sale pile. I have everything from wine glasses to a strainers. In the end I actually freed up a lot more space then I thought I would.

Next I took post it notes and put one on all the cabinet doors and the drawers. I wrote what items were staying there and what was being added to it. After I did a re-org post it style, I took the plunge and started moving things around. It all seemed to work just fine, however, it will take some getting used to the new locations. One of the biggest changes was moving the food from the pantry (which is located in the hallway) to the lower kitchen cabinets and the item's used once month or so moved into the pantry closet. It will be nice to not have to make the long walk back and forth all the time.

Before:












After:













We did add baskets that pull out for the food to make it easier to see what we have. I am also going to use large canning jars for my bulk food items to get them out of the flimsy plastic bags. When I do that I would like to put nice labels on them like the Mabel canister and spices labels. But that will be a project for another day. For now I'm happy with the way things turned out. I'd have to say that I won this battle!

How did you kitchen turn out? Did you get a box full of kitchen goodies for your next garage sale?

Next will be bathrooms and linen closet. This should be a lot of fun since we will be moving back into the full bath after finishing the remodeling this coming weekend. Right now it's still a work in progress (but at least we have a floor again). Tune in next Wednesday to see how the new bathroom comes together!

Today I received an e-mail from Environmental Defense. The email contained information on "13 facts about the realities of global warming". For someone like me, an active environmentalist, it was very sad to read. However, WE have the power to change the course! We CAN made a difference. These 13 scary facts are a great reminder that we need to stay strong and keep supporting groups like Environmental Defense because we have not won the battle yet.

Without further adieu, here are the 13 facts posted on EDF's website.

35%

Increase in the global carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels since the Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1992.

388.57 ppm

Average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in May 2008, a record high.

541 – 970 ppm

The projected concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 2100 under a business as usual scenario where we don't dramatically reduce global warming emissions.

260 – 280 ppm

Average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere before industrial emissions.

50 – 200 years

Length of time carbon dioxide stays in the earth's atmosphere before it is absorbed into carbon sinks.

1000 years

Length of time changes in the earth's surface temperature, rainfall, and sea level will remain even after carbon dioxide emissions are completely stopped.

34%

Percentage that 2008's Arctic seasonal sea ice melt outpaced normal levels.

70%

Increase in the rate of Greenland's ice melt over the last five years.

1.7 days

Number of days earlier seasons are coming than 50 years ago.

1.5 million

Number of acres of forests in Colorado destroyed by the pine beetle, which is better able to survive warmer winters and is wrecking havoc in America's western forests.

$427 million

Amount spent by the oil and coal industries in the first six months of 2008 in political contributions, lobbying expenditures and advertising to oppose climate action.

0

Number of global warming bills passed by the Senate.

0

Number of global warming bills passed by the House.

If you have taken the time to review the items in the column to the right you have noticed that we have a "Full Disclosure" section.
Here is what it currently looks like:

Update: The giveaway has ended. The winner will be announced on Monday.

Welcome to our first blog giveaway! Here at the Not the Jet Set house we have been kicking around the idea of allowing giveaways. The decision was made that as long as we feel like it fits our theme (frugal, green, and family friendly) we would do a giveaway twice a month or less. We don't want the content or quality of our blog posts to be effected by the giveaways. If for some reason our blog is "changed" too much by doing giveaways we will discontinue them. BUT, until that point, Good luck to all!

A great way to save money is to stop the Starbucks or 7Eleven stop you make every morning. The best way to get fresh tasting coffee for a good price is to make it yourself. To help with the transition we are giving away a KitchenAid Blade Coffee Grinder (BCG100OB) in Onyx Black. This will allow you to easily grind your own fair trade coffee beans.


The Details:
Kitchen Aid Blade Coffee Grinder

Features:

• Powerful Blade Action
• 4 Ounce Capacity
• Brushed Stainless Steel Bowl
• Etched Internal Capacity Markings
• Clear Top Pulse Cover
• Dual Interlock System
• Pulse Control
• Heavy Duty Motor
• Round Power Cord
• Easy to Clean

1. Simply leave your name and email address in a comment below.
2. Stumble two of our other posts, then comment saying which posts, and your stumble username.
3. Add us to your blogroll and let us know in the comments.
4. Blog about the giveaway with a link back to the giveaway post in the comments.

After lots of discussion and numerous inquiries, we have decided to allow a small amount of advertising on our blog. We will allow a limited number of ads, giveaways, and product reviews each month.


To kick start this new adventure we are offering two different advertising specials.

• Buy a 30 day ad spot and get your second month free.
• If you do a product review AND giveaway we will give you a free ad spot for 30 days.
  

Thanks to Joy at the Green Baby Guide and Valentine's Day I've been thinking about our date nights a little more lately. How frugal are our date nights? Well, I will admit that we do like to splurge on them from time to time. We are out of debt and do deserve a little "treat" every now and then. But for the most part we enjoy our cheap date nights as much as our expensive ones.

If you are struggling to come up with some frugal ideas for a date with your sweetheart here is a little help from the Not the Jet Set couple - 16 ideas for Valentine's Day.


What to do with your time together?

• Take a deck of cards and a picnic lunch to the local beach or park and enjoy a relaxing afternoon.
• After getting the kids to bed early get a fire started (in the fireplace), play some Sinatra on the stereo, enjoy some wine and cheese along with some slow dancing by the fire light.
• Go out for dessert and a movie at the discount theater.
• Spend the evening together in the hammock watching the sun set and the stars shine.
• Go shopping together (but stick to your budget!). Our favorites are estate sales and auctions.
• A long hot soak together in a deep tub (granted, we have good size tub, and we're both skinny, so your mileage may vary on this one).
  

• If you have family you trust close by you can let the kids have a sleep over at Grammy's house. Or Grammy could come over to play.
• Swap babysitting with a friend. I have several friends who I swap babysitting duties during the day for doctor's appointments and other non-child friendly events. You could do the same thing in the evening.
  
• Sometimes we just "fast forward" the night and bedtime comes early for the kids. This gives us the ability to have a date night without leaving our home. To do this you want to make sure that the kids burn lots of energy during the day and dinner is early so they don't notice the difference in bedtimes!

• Heart-shaped (homemade) cookies... or pancakes, or cupcakes, or......
  
• A mixed CD or mp3 playlist for their iPod
• I'd love a good back and shoulder massage (hint, hint...)
• The Mr. makes me creme brulee and it melts my heart every time.
  
• A love letter from the heart.
• Homemade gift certificates for helping with chores or for date nights (or other things.. hint, hint).
• Flowers are fine, but steer away from roses - far too cliche and over priced. 2 or 3 irises usually did the trick for me.
  

It's been just over a month since I set my three goals for the year. At first it was easy to remember them and to stay on track, but then life happened. Today I was reading on Biblical Womanhood's blog her newest post on "Getting Back on Track: The Kitchen Sink". It made me take an honest hard look at my goals and how hard I was really working (or not working) towards them.

2009 Goals:
1. Go To Bed By 10pm. At first I was doing good with this goal but the last two weeks I've been going to be to late. Then I came down with this horrible stomach virus and my two girls came down with a nasty cold. I'm sleeping a lot right now and I will have to work really hard to stay with the early bedtime. It is the best thing for me to stay health and have more energy. I need to make myself a priority.

2. Give More Time. This one I have been able to stay right on track with. The Mr. and I have been working hard to get our stuff together to get a new FPU class started at our Church. This does take a lot of time and effort but is so worth while. To here more about it you can check out the Mr.'s post here.

3. Get My House In Order. If you have been following along with my De-Junking series you know that I'm sticking with this resolution. It's hard to keep the rooms clean for long with the little one by my side, but I'm trying my hardest. Once I'm back on my feet again I know I do have some major catching up to do.


Are you sticking with your 2009 Goals? Let us know how you are doing. If you have a blog feel free to link back to your progress post.

Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood (CCFC) will present its inaugural TOADY (Toys Oppressive And Destructive to Young Children) Award for the worst toy of the year. From thousands of toys that promote violence and/or precocious sexuality to children and push branded entertainment at the expense of children’s play, CCFC has selected five exceptional finalists. Who will win the dreaded TOADY? It’s up to you.

Follow the link above to view the five finalists and vote. Voting is open until February 8 and the winner will be announced on February 12, 2009. Please come back to our blog and tell us who you voted for in the comment section below. Let's see if we pick the winner of this award!

As an added bonus, everyone who votes on CCFC's website,who include their email address, will be automatically entered into a drawing to win a copy of the new film Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood.

Thanks to horrible case of the stomach flu I will have to postpone Day 4, the kitchen, portion of this series. I ended up in the emergency room from dehydration Tuesday early morning and needed two bags of IV fluids. Now that I am home I have slept for over 24 hours with just a few brief 5-10 minute periods of awake time. I'm still extremely weak and now our oldest daughter is home sick from school with a different bug!

Hopefully I will be able to work on the kitchen by the end of this coming weekend. Maybe by Monday I will be able to post about my kitchen de-junking adventure. However, you might notice a drop in the number of posts during the next few days. As I'm out of commission and the Mr. is busy being Mr. Mom at home with the baby and us two sickos.

January was a month full of unexpected things. My brother's wedding was canceled just a couple weeks before hand. I wrecked our truck when I hit an icy patch on the interstate. My grandfather died. There were also some other little unexpected things as well.

It almost felt like Murphy moved in this month! Lucky for us, we have already got our financial act together. We had the cushion we needed in the budget to hand these blows.

January's Budget Recap:

• We did have just over 1k in unexpected "emergency" expenses.
  
• We were able to weather the financial storm w/out wrecking our budget.
• The money we wanted to set aside in the car replacement fund was used instead to help cover the insurance deductible.
• Under budget on food and gas.
  

• Our oldest daughter has outgrown almost all of her shoes so this month I'll be hitting the outlet looking for some good sales on shoes for her.
  
• We budgeted extra for our date night this month.
• Apply tax refund to a new larger deep freeze and the rest goes into the car replacement fund.
  
• Take home pay decreased because of increase in health insurance premium.
  

• Save for new roof (100% of funds by late spring) (Started)
  
• Start putting money in Roth again after roof is fully funded
  
• Continue to save for kids' college in 529s (Started)
  
• Continue to do company matching 401k (Started)
  
• Fully fund Roth and 529s by late summer
• Start aggressively saving for a new car (Applying tax return)