My wife and 4 year old daughter were sitting at the table following their ritual Tuesday night flyer shopping when they came across a beautiful pink and white bicycle. Anytime my daughter sees something that catches her eye we have shown her to circle it and show us the flyer when she’s done. We then explain how much that item costs and how much more she has to save up to purchase it. This particular bike was something that my wife and I were thinking about purchasing for her soon anyways so we told her that soon she’d be pedaling that lovely bike down the street.
Since my cousin worked at a local bike shop (Maple Ridge Cycle) I thought that I’d e-mail him and get his advice on this certain bike and what size would suit my daughter best. To my surprise he said that he’d bought the same bike for his daughter but she had outgrown it. For a minimal price he’d let us take the bike off his hands. Since we would be saving at least half the purchase price of the bike I decided to put the difference into her account. Even though the total output was equal to what I would have paid for a new bike, her account will have benefited from the generosity of family.
Now this is one small example of what help your network can do for you. We all know how great it is when a box full of hardly worn clothes for your children is loaned to you, or when an old friend has a swing set that doesn’t get used anymore that is a perfect fit for your back yard.
I’m very lucky to have a great network who will willingly help out at a drop of a dime.
After the spoils of our daughter’s birthday and Christmas gifts, my wife and I had a discussion about teaching our children the importance of donating to those less fortunate than us. We have decided to start an account for each of our children with the intent of donating to a charity of their choice next Christmas. We have called it their giving account and are letting our kids decide whether to put spare change into their savings bank or into their giving bank. We are also encouraging family members who would normally purchase a toy (we are already swimming in plastic dolls and toy trucks) to give our children money, of which they can split between their personal accounts and their giving accounts.
As time goes on, my wife and I are trying to link the value of a dollar to the things that most of us take for granted such as basic groceries and personal hygiene items. This will make the tie in to donating to the less fortunate take on a much higher meaning for them. When my daughter puts a couple dollars in her giving account I let her know that it could purchase a jug of milk or a bag full of apples for someone who struggles to do so on their own. At preschool she colored a picture of a $20 bill and when she showed it to me I related it to the amount of food that it could purchase from the supermarket. My daughter has taken great interest in learning what she can do to help people who can’t afford the basic necessities in life. It is this thirst for knowledge that I hope will help guide my children to make the decision to keep adding to their giving accounts.
Like most couples, my partner and I have the occasional squabble over our household finances. Usually, these arguments arise because of something else — a deadline at work, illness, a difficult commute — but they often open up the door for frank, and sometimes heated, discussions about money. So, how do my partner and I broach the ‘M‘ word without spiralling into an emotional rage?
Like any relationship that deals with money, or some form of it, you must be able to trust all of the people in your network. Trust between partners (theoretically) allows each person to make comments or suggestions about finances without being snapped at and gives people the opportunity to flesh out new ideas about your spending and saving patterns.
In our house, we do a number of things that help us make budget-related issues less stressful, with fewer arguments and better long-term money management emerging as a result of our actions. Our approach relies less on a tried-and-true formula and more on open communication and thoughtful spending (sort of!). It’s an adaptable system that allows us to meet changing short-term goals while pursuing our long range targets. Read the rest of this entry »
Every December my wife and I bundle up our daughter and we head out for a couple of days on the town, looking for Christmas gifts for friends and relatives and hoping that I don’t go crazy and start yelling at random people in the middle of a huge crowd. Holiday shopping for me is a rite of passage, a trial that I must endure in order to make it to the 25th of December, and part of the reason that I do it is to check out the pre-Boxing Day ’sales’ in the final few days before Christmas. They’re a fantastic opportunity for consumers to stock up on stuff whose retail prices have been slashed by retailers.
Holiday decorations
This season, we used Christmas sales to purchase holiday decorations for next year (but only on items that were between 60% and 70% off). For example, we picked up some wrapping paper and bows that were marked at $7.99 early in December for under $3.00, three days before Christmas. Similarly, we found some indoor / outdoor LED lights for about 40% off regular retail prices.
Cheap birthday presents
We use this strategy throughout the year, but the good sales are a perfect time to pick up presents for our daughter’s friends (January - April is a popular birthday season). Over the past week, we made a few purchases of select toys and books and they were marked down between 50% and 75% below retail. While we’ve found that similar discounts can be had at many online retailers, it’s sometimes very difficult to tell if this set of Pokemon cards is cooler than that stack of Pokemon cards. Take that Pikachu!
Spend that windfall? I don’t think so.
I’d love to say that I took the cash we saved on our purchases and rushed out to buy the Nintendo Wii that I… errr, I mean my daughter, has been clamouring for since September. Instead, our strategic buying helped us save over $400 in December, money that was put into our daughter’s tax-sheltered RESP. The government provides a grant that amounts to 25% of your deposit up to $2000 so, effectively, that $400 in savings is $500.
