not the jet set

5/14/2009

How to Avoid Wedding Budget Busters

The wedding season is upon us. Feel the love in the air? Hear the church bells ringing? See the rice being tossed so carefree? Hear the bride fighting with her parents over the cost of the cake?

I already covered some great ways we kept our wedding budget under control. Now we'll share some great ideas that some friends have used to keep from breaking the bank.

I’m sure my friends and I are not the only ones who had to watch what they spent on their weddings. There are lots of ways to save money on your wedding day. The first one is to create a budget based on the total amount you have to spend. Then decide what is the most important things to you. From that point you can then decide where you can save without compromising on your wedding day dreams.

If the cake is not on the top of your important list then look into having a local grocery store make your cakes. A friend of mine did just that. She purchased a small plain round white cake with white icing and just put a little topper on it she bought. The rest of the cakes where large white sheet cakes. She even got the grocery store to deliver it for free to the wedding! What a deal.

Another great way to save money is on the DJ. Instead of paying a DJ have your Ipod loaded and ready with all the songs you like. Then just ask a friend or family member to play DJ for the night as your wedding present. Same thing goes for during the wedding. We had burnt a CD before hand with the music for the wedding and one of the ushers was in charge of it. It worked out great!

What about invitations? That cost can add up fast! If this is a smaller affair with email savvy guest ditch the paper and send e-vites!

The last but best way to save money is to keep the guest list small. Most of your wedding costs are based on the number of guests. The food, cake, invitations, guest gifts, drinks, size of venue costs are all based on the number of people who will be at your wedding. So when your soon to be in-laws ask to add one more person to the list just say “Sorry, but it’s not in the budget!”.

Do you have other great wedding day budgeting ideas?

Photo from Publix.com

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5/13/2009

FPU Week 7: Clause and Effect

Halfway there! Probably my biggest fear about teaching FPU in this economy was the possibility of having families struggle to make measurable progress. Not because this stuff doesn't work - it absolutely does. More because of pay cuts and layoffs clobbering people's incomes. I'm please to say that without fail, every single week we have had multiple 'victory stories'. We don't ask for much, but tell us where you are winning. Boy have they produced:

We have families knocking out debts.
We have families that have paid off cars.
We have families that are out of debt and working on their emergency fund
And this week, we had 4 families sign and notarize their wills (including us!)

People are seeing and feeling the progress and that makes all the effort in coordinating this course absolutely worth it.

And then there's this week's lesson!

Clause and Effect is a snappy title on a snoozer of a subject - insurance. Yeah, you're super excited to read the rest of this post, BUT people were surprisingly engaged and interested in this lesson. The video is, of course, not a snoozer - Dave, as usual, takes a bland topic and teaches it with great enthusiasm. And once you realize how important this information is, you'll be awake and alert.

Insurance is like credit - in the sense that everyone will tell you that you need it, but almost none of them really knows anything about it. When we first bought life insurance (pre-FPU), we screwed it up. Well, half of it. We bought term-life for me, and for whatever reason, bought whole-life for the Mrs. After taking FPU, we found out what a terrible (and expensive) product we'd bought. It wasn't long before we bought new policies (that were MUCH less expensive) and the old ones were gone. That was a mistake we'd never make again.

The big thing you need to understand about insurance is that it is a 'transfer of risk'. The insurance company is taking on the risk of you getting injured in the form of paying your bills, or the risk of your home burning down in the form of guaranteeing it's replacement.

That said, there comes a time when you no longer need certain types or levels of coverage. Once you have a 3-6 month emergency fund, you can raise your car insurance deductible (and lower your premiums dramatically) and self-insure yourself through the smaller stuff. If you do this stuff now and are sitting pretty in 30 years when your term life insurance expires, then you don't have to renew. You can self-insure from then on - it will likely be a whole lot more expensive then anyways.

You can do those things because you have MONEY. When you have no debt, when you're saving for retirement, and the kids college funds are funded... when you pay off your house early, you don't need Visa or the insurance company to catch your slack.

What about insurance confuses you? Scares you? Do you have coverage that you don't need?

Need a will?

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5/12/2009

Our Bathroom Remodeling Project

It has taken us a long time to get a before and after post ready from our bathroom remodeling project. I think that it was just such a huge undertaking that it hard to try to get it all in one post. But I'm going to try to do just that.

We really did not want to remodel our bathroom. Of all the house projects we could have tackled it was one of the last ones on the list. However, we had a leak. A bad leak. We tried to fix the problem before but it just kept coming back. With the leak came mold. In the end we realized that taking the bathroom down to the studs was no longer a want but an actual need. So that is what we did.

We started by taking lots of measurements and making a detailed list of what we needed. Then the search was on. We did our best to get the best prices on the items we needed for the bathroom but unlike most of our projects buying gently used high end products was not going to cut it. Our bathroom is very small and it's our only full bath. This means that the standard sized items don't fit and there is no option but to buy the more custom pieces to fit our needs. We did find some great deals and found a few tricks to save money as well.

The original pink cast iron tub had to go. It was part of the leak issue. I

t was actually the first thing to go in our bathroom. The tub was smaller then today's standard tub. With the Mr. and I both being tall it made taking a relaxing bath not so relaxing. We really didn't have any room to spare so we were torn on what to do for the tub. In the end we found a tub that was extra deep and had the most space on the interior vs. thicker sides. Mr. NtJS also was able to notch out the studs to set the tub back into the wall farther. This allowed us to use a standard sized tub in our existing alcove. We did however lose the rim space to set on the edge. It was a trade off that has been well worth it.

The tiled shower walls were the number one issue with the leaks (and flooding basement). We had went from liking the tile to despising it. We could not stand the look of it and never EVER wanted tile in our bathroom again. Just the thought of all the possible leaks made us 100% against tiled shower walls. We have owned two homes and both had the same issues. Never again... After doing research we decided to go with a local Michigan company called US Marble. They make faux granite slabs for use as shower and bath walls - like cultured marble. It was reasonably priced, easy to install, and most importantly, there were very few seams. The walls look beautiful and we get lots of compliments on them.

After dealing with the water leaks for about a year we had notice that the original 60's flooring was starting to bubble. Once we removed the tub we could also see we had water damage on the subflooring as well. The subflooring and linoleum had to go. We replaced with flooring with Marmolium. We did the work ourselves and it was work. After it was finished we both agreed that we liked this non-toxic flooring but next time we will pay the high price to have it professionally installed. Marmolium is an all-natural linoleum and the adhesives have no VOCs. We would recommend it to anyone looking to replace their bathroom floors.

Because we took the tile down in the shower area, we also had to remove all the tile from the walls and vanity. This was by far the longest had hardest part of the project. It didn't take to long to remove the tiles themselves. The time consuming part was patching all the walls smooth one thin layer of mud at a time. It did take us literally months to do this.

However, the results where worth it. Having un-tiled walls really helped to make the room feel bigger. We used the FreshAire no-VOC paint for the walls. That really helped since we had to paint in the winter and the bathroom is right next to our girl's room.

In our small bathroom the front of the vanity is angled to give you the most room on the vanity top and it becomes really narrow at the bottom to save space. The vanity literally cuts into the door's trim work. There is no space to spare. We spent months searching for a new vanity to meet our needs. No luck. Then we searched for a new top to go with our vanity. No luck. The lucky part for us is that the Mr. is good with woodworking. We removed the half wall and spindles that divided the vanity from the toilet. Then we extended the vanity to the space were the half wall was by adding cubbies for towels and other goodies. This also allowed for more counter space which was desperately needed. For the counter top, we ended up going with a natural stone. We choose to go with small tiles because it would mean less cutting and make the space look larger then it was. This was a cost effective solution to our odd sized counter top space. We also decided to go with a vessel style sink to help give us more space. Our cabinet was so narrow that today's standard-sized, self-rimming sinks were to big. This raised sink gave us much more flexibility on the placement. It could even hang over the front if we wanted it too, and not look out of place. The faucet is off to the side to save space and the kids can reach it.

We also changed out the mirror since the old one was antiquing. The new mirror is smaller which helps to make the space feel bigger. We also removed the medicine cabinet and added a ledge instead for small items. In my opinion the cabinet was just an eye sore and was not big enough to really hold anything anyways.

In the end the bathroom was a huge undertaking for us to do by ourselves. It did cost a lot of money as well. We, of course, paid cash for everything and worked hard to stick with our budget. Was it worth it? It was worth every penny we spent. We have been living with the new bathroom for about 3 months now. I still walk in and feel wowed by it. Our 5 year old still tells her dad how much she loves the new wall color.

Have you remodeled your bathroom? Share your story or a link to your before and after photos.

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5/10/2009

Guest Post at Moneywise Moms

Today Gina at Moneywise Moms graciously posted a guest post written by our own Mrs. Not the Jet Set. The post is called Saving Your Marriage One Date at a Time. If you want to some great ideas for free or close to free date nights head on over and check it out.

While you are there check out some of the other great posts Gina has written. She stays true to her blog's name if a variety of ideas to shop smarter and balance the budget.

Thanks Gina and happy wedding anniversary!

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5/08/2009

Friday Feedback: Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Friday everyone! I hope that you were able to enjoy your week. We had a great week at our house. It has been a very productive one for us. I'm sure we will be sharing lots of it with you next week once we get the photos off the camera.

Sunday is Mothers day. I hope that all you mom's enjoy you day. Our question this week is:

What special thing are you doing to celebrate the moms in your life?

I was just informed that we are going to spend a relaxing day at the beach. I'm excited about the work free day.

Happy Mother's Day!

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5/06/2009

Opportunity Cost

"Opportunity cost is the value of the next best alternative foregone as the result of making a decision." as defined by wikipedia.org

Do you ever think about your own personal finances with an opportunity cost mindset? Even if you did now what the term was called I'm guessing you did. If you create a budget at the beginning of every month you decide what you will do and not do with your money for the month. This is the same thing. If you go to make a purchase and you say to yourself "If I buy X then I will not have the funds to pay for Y". That my friend is analyzing the opportunity cost of your purchase.

We have had to do a lot more opportunity cost analyzing lately because of buying a fixer upper house two years ago. All of the funds we have put into the house has meant that some other want or need has been sacrificed. By installing a new well, boiler, remodeling the kitchen and bathroom, updating electrical and phone along with gearing up for a new roof we have had to make a lot of tough decisions and sacrifices. There are lots of things we would love to do with our money other then spend it on our houses mechanical needs however we had to make a decision. Which was more important, a house with running water, heat and no roof leaks or a trip to France, cool paint colors on the walls along with a new couch? I know that we gave up a lot of wants over the past two years because of our needs. This was tough and we sometimes whine about our plight in life. However, we are grown ups. We made the decision to buy a fixer upper really cheap and then over time spend the money we saved fixing it. I know we made a very wise investment that will pay off for us in the end, but right now I really love to be in the south of France to see it's spring beauty. So for now I just keep reminding myself that it was worth the opportunity cost of running water to miss out on a spring time trip to the south of France.

What are some of the hard opportunity cost decisions that you have had to make lately?

photo from about.com

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5/05/2009

FPU Week 6: Buyer Beware

Wanna take a guess? C'mon, what do ya think?

How many credit cards are in there?

We continue to be amazed at not only the number of credit cards our class members had, but also their willingness to put them through the shredder. These guys are awesome!

If you haven't taken FPU, then you might not understand. Shredding your credit cards in not mandatory. We're not going to make you do anything you're not comfortable with (but we will strongly suggest!). In fact, you shouldn't be shredding them before completing Baby Step 1 - the starter emergency fund. It's not required to shred your cards, but after watching the week 5 lesson, it's pretty tough to hang on to them knowing the tactics the credit card companies use and the sub-industry they support... that and the fact that you really don't need them when you have money and have a plan!

The Buyer Beware lesson, week 6, is a real wake-up call. We are the most marketed-to culture in the world. We have so many advertisements flashed in front of us per day that we don't even realize most of them are there. Product placements are everywhere. None of it is left to chance and it is all done for a reason - it works!

The way a store is laid out, right down to the iced beverages by the counter. The catchy jingle and the way it is repeated, day after day, year after year. The offers of pre-approved credit, 0% APR and no payments until 2012! It's all out there, in a certain way, at a certain time, and in a certain color, because statistically enough people will react and the company will make money off of it. These are multi-billion dollar companies spending millions upon millions on research and advertising, and you think you just got a good deal on that new car?

The buyer absolutely must be aware.

As someone who spent many years of his professional career in sales, Dave is able to give some amazing insights into everything going into the other side of the deal. This class and week 5 are both good food-for-thought classes. For the most part, the students in the class are still busy trying to make their budget work and start paying down their debt.

And we've also had some great discussion in the small groups around budgets and the nuts and bolts of making this stuff work. I can tell that some of these folks are really getting in gear on this stuff. We've also seen some previously truculent folks start to let their guard down a bit and listen. It's a process, and I know it's not easy, but I really have high hopes for this class.

What advertising annoys you the most?

BTW- I may tell you how many cards are in the jar, but not before I see a few guesses! For reference - It's a 1/2 gallon jar, with a tad bit of airspace.

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5/04/2009

NtJS Household Budget Update: May 2009

I think that Murphy is finally moved out! Yay! We do have some more clean up from when he moved in (like the roof still needs replaced) but for the most things are back to normal. For the most part April was calm and there was no large budget busters. It was the break we needed for our sanity.

April's Budget Recap:

We did awesome sticking with our budget
We had extra funds left in the home repair and babysitter envelopes
Garage sale make us just over $450 which was divided equally between the kids clothes envelope and the garden remodeling fund
One last straggler medical bill came in and will be added to the May budget

May Budget:

Doubled the amount we are saving for the roof this month (moved over the energy bill savings)
Girls need tons of summer clothes but didn't add it to the budget since we have the money from the garage sale
Budgeted for a vet visit
Budgeted extra for a Mother Day's surprise and the Mr.'s birthday

2009 Financial Goals:

Save for new roof (100% of funds by June) (Purchased shingles on sale and continuing to save for the rest)
Start putting money in Roth again after roof is fully funded (Starting in July)
Continue to save for kids' college in 529s (Started)
Continue to do company matching 401k (Started)
Fully fund Roth and 529s by late summer (Hard to achieve on current income)
Start aggressively saving for a new car (Put on hold b/c of boiler & medical bills)

How did your month go financially speaking? Better or worse then expected?

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5/02/2009

Free Kitchen Garden Planner

Yesterday I received the latest Gardener's Supply Company catalog. I have to admit that I love getting this catalog. They have the neatest stuff. I'm usually end up dog earring every page. This time I noticed something new. They now have a free online kitchen garden planner. It is for doing square foot gardening in a raised bed. It is so cool! I've been playing with it all day laying out my new beds. The great thing is that I can lay out my plans and then print them. I can then take them out to the garden while planting and keep them for next year.

Check out the garden planner and let me know what you think!

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5/01/2009

Feedback Friday: Spider Help!

HELP!

Our Friday would be much better if our two daughters and I didn't have spider bites that itch like crazy. Our youngest daughter's neck is so bad that her neck is swollen and the huge bits look like they are almost raw. The doctor confirmed that they are insect bites and most likely spiders.

Since we live on a wooden ravine we are constantly fighting bugs that come in the house, mainly spiders that do bite us. I refuse to use harsh chemicals to kill spiders so I need your help to come up with a better way.

My question for you:

What do you use for natural indoor pest control?

Thanks for your help!

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