We are now the 24^th of December and my children are getting pretty excited! They just can’t wait to get their gifts from Santa… and I just can’t wait to eat the delicious homemade cookies they will leave for Santa before going to sleep tonight

But seriously folks, I think Christmas is more than a fancy and overly marketed Holiday abused by gifts and excesses of all kinds. Christmas is a special time of the year where you have the unique opportunity to connect with all the people you love. It is time to forget about your old disputes and call those people you call “friend”, “father”, “sister”, etc.

During this time of the year, I always take a moment to think about the people I love who left us too early. I wish they were still here with us to celebrate and sing Christmas carols. And then, I look into the sparkling eyes of my children and I appreciate these magical moments. Those filled with love, hope and happiness.  To see the world through the eyes of a child, especially at Christmas, is a magical gift.

I did my “extra” groceries

We always buy more food (and more wine!) during the Holidays. So before Christmas, I always go for an “extra” trip for groceries. But this one is not for me. This one is for those in need. Every year, we buy for about a week’s worth of food and we give it to our community center. We make sure to include good and healthy food but also a few cookies. Hey, it’s Christmas for everyone, everyone should be able to eat something sweet

My children participate too

My children are spoiled with gifts. They were fortunate enough to live in a house where they will never want for anything. But there is more than just receiving toys. Each year, they go into their play room and pick 1 or 2 toys each that they like and we wrap them up and give them to other children who don’t have the good fortune to receive so many gifts.

My older son (he is 4 years old) was quite happy to do it this year. He has started to understand that not everybody has this chance at Christmas and he really wanted to make another child happy during this time of the year.

Now we are ready to celebrate!

Now that we have given to charity, to our community center and to our church, we are now ready to celebrate. Over the year, I have realized that giving is the most amazing gift you can offer yourself. Don’t hesitate to give to those in need and everyone will feel much better during Christmastime!

I wish you a Merry Christmas and have fun with people you love!

Author: Mike.

Image source: scottfeldstein

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My wife and kids and I live a fourteen hour drive from my family and a twelve hour drive in the exact opposite direction from my wife’s family, so sometimes it is difficult to make a decision about where to spend the holidays. This  year we drove east to be with my family. Here are the numbers:

Gasoline: The trip is a thousand miles one way and our minivan gets approximately 21 miles per gallon. We will drive another 200 miles during the four day visit and then another 1,000 miles to get home. Total fuel cost: $280.

Food: We pack lots of snacks and try to keep food costs low as we travel. We always have a cooler and drink plenty of water. Even so, on a fifteen hour journey with three kids, food must be purchased. We will spend around $60 on food.

Lodging: We have not yet driven the entire 1,000 mile trip straight through. We are discussing the possibility of doing just that this Sunday, however, if we stop to stay the night in a hotel on the way home as we did on the way here, our lodging costs will be around $160 for the entire trip.

So, as far as direct costs go, the final total cost for this trip to see family and friends will be around $500. However, there are some indirect costs such as missed employment and the $1,200 car repair bill that we incurred two weeks ago while getting the van checked out in preparation for this trip.

There may be some who think that the time, distance, cost and risk associated with a trip of this length is not warranted by the need to see family – there will be a point this weekend while speeding along on some interstate where I may agree with you – but the fact is that Mrs. Stew and I place a high priority on family relationships.

We are willing cut our cable, eat bag lunches, rent a small apartment, conserve energy, grow our own food all in an effort to reduce expenses, but there are some things that we are committed to, no matter what the cost. I know too many families who do not spend time together, nay, cannot spend time together. God has ordained that I am a member of an extended family that enjoys being together. The laughs, the memories, the old photographs, the hugs, the grandchildren holding grandpa’s hand are some of the true joys that this life holds. They are too important to miss on account of 500 bucks.

And a month from now, we will drive twelve hours the other direction . . .  Happy Holidays!

Article by Stew

Photo by Grace Family

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I always think it is ironic that Labor Day is a day off of work.

Labor Day has been observed since the 1880’s. It was originally intended to be a nod toward organized labor by politicians, both in Canada and in the United States. I value the contributions of all people who work, not just union workers and I salute all who have used the freedom offered by our culture to work to earn their dream.

Nowadays, the greatest significance of this day is the end of summer. So, enjoy one last trip to the beach, one last time around the lake on a water ski, that family game of softball and a couple of grilled hot dogs.   – Article by Stew

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Mrs. Stew and I are the proud parents of three children ages six and under. We love our kids, but we still look forward to those times when it is just the two of us. Date night can get expensive, however. By the time you add up the cost of a babysitter, a movie, dinner and gas . . . well, I don’t want to think about it. Here are a few ideas that we use to keep the monetary cost of investment in our marriage low.

Get a deal on dinner

Often, Mrs. Stew and I will eat supper at home before going out in order to save money, but sometimes it is really nice to sit and talk over a restaurant meal. If you must eat out, keep a stack out coupons handy. Always be on the lookout for reduced prices to restaurants where you like to go. We have also had some luck purchasing gift certificates from restaurants.com. Some of the establishments on the site are off the beaten path, but if you do your homework, you can get a real deal. We sometimes do other things to hold the line on spending – no drinks or we split an entree.

Low cost entertainment

Mrs. Stew and I like to go to movies, but lately there just does not seem to be anything playing that we like. I only spend money on a movie if I have read all the reviews and I am confident that it is worth the cash. Sometimes we go to the first-run theaters, but we also have a couple of movie complexes in our area that only charge one or two bucks.

Movies are great, but we also enjoy going on a long drive through the countryside together. I really like to check out new roads back in the hills to find out where they lead.

I know it does not sound exciting, but a walk through a nice park always ends up being a great evening for my bride and I. The other thing we like is to take a Friday or Saturday night and walk through downtown. We do not spend any money, we take our time and get a little exercise. There is no end of things to discuss as we pass all different kinds of people. We can spend hours in just about any downtown area and not spend money on anything except for maybe a coffee.

Sports

I am a big sports fan, so this might be a little self-serving, but Mrs. Stew and I really do enjoy attending low-key sporting events. Pro sports tickets are well out of our reach, to say nothing of parking and food. Pro sports just do not make any sense for us, but tickets to minor league or college athletics are usually pretty cheap. A minor league baseball game offers real entertainment value in the event itself and my wife can do all the people watching she wants. A game like this also offers a chance to talk and maybe even cuddle a little . . . Look around for sporting events in your area. Sometimes minor league and college sports are the best kept secrets in certain areas of the country. The other advantage is that smaller sporting venues can be closer to your house and getting out of the parking lot is easier.

Babysitting

This is a tough one for us, there is just no way to get around the cost of a babysitter. Sometimes people offer to do it for free, but we always pay because the safety of our children is important to us and we do not want to take advantage of family or friends. The best solution to this problem that we have found, is to “trade” babysitting with another couple who have children that are similar in age to ours. We watch their kids for an evening for free and they watch ours at the next opportunity. The nice thing about it is that the kids usually play together so well, that my wife and I do not really have to do much more than feed the little buggers and make sure that they do not wander away.

Got any more tips? Please share!  - Article by Stew

Photo by sneakerdog

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A month ago, I shared that my wife was planning to work outside the home during this school year. We had every reason to believe that she would be hired and our children would attend that school free of charge. The added income would have reduced our financial strain significantly and if you remember the reasons, the decision was almost 100 percent financially based. However, it turns out that she will not be taking the job.

Here is how it developed: my wife was invited to apply for the position last February. She filled out the application, participated in a preliminary interview and then waited . . . and waited. . . We were told on several occasions that she was hired, but things continued to drag on – no contract, no information on a start date, no final salary numbers, no concrete details. Her job was going to be a teaching position and with school starting in less than a month, Mrs. Stew finally took things into her own hands, drove to the school and requested a meeting with the administrator. She said that she needed a final answer by last Friday and was assured that she would be called well before that day. Of course Friday rolled around and there was no email or phone call.

When the deadline passed Mrs. Stew informed all of the families for whom she provides in-home daycare that she would be continuing to provide that service for the next year – of course, then the school called her the following Tuesday and offered the job . . . but it was too late. It sounds to me like this particular organization is having some administrative problems. Even though the free education and the extra money sounded good, there probably would have been more than a few headaches with this job.

Implications

• The income for which we had been planning will now be cut in half.
• We will not be able to dig our way out of debt as quickly as originally planned.
• Our children will now homeschool.
• Our lifestyle will need more trimming.

Places where we will save money:

• Clothing – work clothing for Mrs. Stew and school clothing for the children.
• Transportation – we will not need to purchase another car.
• Food – If Mrs. Stew was working, I know that we would have eaten out more often.

Ultimately, I think our whole family is glad that mom will be staying home this year. Even though he doesn’t realize it, I know that our two-year old will be happier staying home and our overall family stress level will be lower with mom around more to “steady the ship” .

And our budget? Mrs. Stew and I went through it with a fine-toothed comb the other night and some belt-tightening will be necessary, but I think we can make it work. We will have trouble accumulating an emergency fund and our retirement savings will have to wait another year, but as I told Mrs. Stew, if we had more surplus in our budget, our faith in God will not have to be as strong!

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Okay, these ideas are not really from Stew, but Stew gets some credit because he asked his wife if she had any suggestions for a frugal wedding. Here are twelve that she listed off the top of her pretty little head. She actually claims to have more, but without further adieu, here are the the twelve:

1. Save wedding invitations that you get in the mail.  Use the ideas of others. Making your own can be fun and unique.  Enlist the help of your closest friends and family to help you assemble them.  My invitations (including envelopes and inserts) cost around $100 for 300.
2. Find a florist that will sell flowers to you at wholesale prices. Have a friend put bouquets and corsages together for you. Also use mixed bouquets from your local grocery store for fillers.  They can be separated and used in big centerpieces or cut down for corsages.  I only spent around $100-$150 for flowers and accessories, which included my bouquet. And I loved it!!
3. Decide on your theme/style, and shop after-holiday clearance.  I picked up white lights, silver candles, and silver ribbon in after-Christmas clearance, to use for our July wedding. Shop after Valentines or July 4^th for red accents, after Easter for pastel accents, and after Thanksgiving for fall décor.
4. Pinpoint the 3 most important areas to you….spend the most money in those areas, and scrimp on the rest.  To me, photography, flowers and food were most important.
5. Find out if friends or people from the church are getting married around the same time as you.  Borrow or share wedding items to save money. We were able to use an arch from another wedding the weekend before-it was already decorated in our colors! Using it saved at least $50-$100, and added a unique focal point in the sanctuary.
6. Many people are taking wedding pictures these days.  Find a college student or person starting out, and pay them a flat rate, which includes the disk with all the pictures.  Most people have really nice photo programs on their computers….. you can add special effects on your own for MUCH less. Then you can get them developed/printed in the sizes and styles that you like.  Using a site like Snapfish is also a great option.
7. Having an afternoon wedding will save money on food.  You can get by with serving finger foods, rather than a sit-down meal.
8. Find a friend or acquaintance to make the cake.  Like photography, there are many people who know how to make beautiful cakes, but do not own a business.  They will do it for a fraction of the cost. Adding fresh flowers is a cheap way to make it look elegant. We used flowers from my aunt’s garden. They looked beautiful and it added a sentimental touch that I will always remember.
9. Having an outdoor reception will cut down on the amount of decorations needed. God’s creation does not need much improvement. We held our reception on the back lawn of the church.  White tents made it look festive, and a few table decorations added color.  Other than that, we did not need much else!
10. Make the food yourself, or pay a close family friend to make it.  Careful planning ahead will cut down on costs and prep time.  Make food that is easy to put together, and that can even be done several days ahead.  Pre-cut veggie trays from Sam’s or Costco are an easy, pretty way to go.  We served tortilla pinwheels (which the whole bridal party assembled the night before the wedding ), chips/salsa (our favorite!), and fruit salad.  I assigned several of my mom’s close friends the task of putting it all together the morning of the wedding.
11. An easy way to give favors to your guests is to set up a candy buffet.  Make a fun, visually-appealing display of your favorite candies, and set out little containers or bags for guests to fill.  Candy and bags or paper containers are relatively cheap, your guests will have a blast choosing their own selections, and you will provide a fun way to say thanks and tell a little about yourselves. Put a personalized sticker on each container, and the guests have a one-of-a-kind (inexpensive) favor from the two of you!
12. Always set a budget right away, so you know how much you can afford.  Keep all receipts so you can return unused items.  Don’t overspend on the little areas-things people won’t notice anyways. For example, buy a cheap aisle runner…everyone will be looking at the bride anyway!

Entire wedding for $2,000

If I do say so myself, Mrs. Stew did a wonderful job with our wedding. Many guests commented on how beautiful everything looked.

Neither of our parents were able to contribute much to the wedding, so the future Mrs. Stew and I paid for most of it ourselves. By the way, that is a great way to inspire your kids to have  frugal wedding – tell them they have to pay for it themselves, wait until the event is over and then write them a check for the cost of the wedding. You will have given them the gift of the wedding, but you know that every penny is spent wisely. Offering to pay for the wedding of one of your offspring is a wonderful gift, but doing so with a blank check is poor stewardship and might reinforce bad habits in your children . . . Our entire, traditional wedding cost less than $2,000 in July of 2001. That includes everything – dress, photography, food, gifts, the whole thing.

Now, to be fair, let me list a few additional factors that helped us to reduce costs:

1. My wife is the daughter of a pastor, therefore we spent no money on the facility. However, most churches do not charge a fee to members for weddings held in the building.
2. We did not have a live band. Personal choice, I don’t think anyone suffered and it saved us a lot of dough.
3. There was no alcohol at our wedding. Once again, this might not be for everyone, but our respective family and friends generally don’t need to drink in order to have a good time. As an added benefit, there were no fights, no embarrassing statements made over microphones, and no hang-overs the next day – for free!

I do not want to diminish Mrs. Stew’s contribution and hard work to make our wedding a frugal success, but I think it is also important that you understand that my wife is one of those people in life that everybody likes. This factor saved us a lot of money. There were a lot of people who spent a great deal of time and energy to make the event a success – out of love for my wife.  Everyone likes her because she is always helping someone whether it is convenient or not, always making sure that every need around her is cared for. A couple of years ago, she took care of all the food at an outdoor wedding for a client of mine – out of the goodness of her heart – spent all day doing it – three weeks after giving birth to our youngest child. I guess what goes around, comes around . . .

She is a giver . . . I guess that is why she is now writing my posts for me.

Photo by: Rene Ehrhardt

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I’m taking the day off today to enjoy some time with my family and get some more work done on our yard projects.  I hope you are able to get away from work a little and spend some time relaxing or doing something you love to do.

While it is a holiday, don’t forget the reason.  Do not forget the service men and women who died while in military service.  They died fighting for us and to protect our freedom.  If you’ve lost a friend or loved one that served, there are no words that I can share to make you pain go away nor are their words that would even come close to expressing how grateful I am them.  What I can say is thank you.  I can also promise that I will never forget.

Have a safe and blessed memorial day holiday.  Stew will talk to you tomorrow, and I’ll see you on Wednesday!

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Okay, I am going to lay it all out and see what you think.

We own a home in another state. I am gainfully employed and making a decent wage – at least for us – in our new location. We are coming up on fourteen months since our move and we have had little or no interest in our home. When we last refinanced, our home was 90% mortgaged. We used most of the money from our second mortgage to improve the home just before the subprime mortgage crisis hit.

Our house has plummeted in value over the last year and a half. The mortgage is now worth 120% of the value of the home. A drop in value would not be so bad if we were living in the house, but the problem is that we now live in a different state.

We have stayed current on our mortgage, home equity loan, insurance, utilities and property taxes by rustling up extra income as best we could. We had a renter in the house for a short time, but the rent did not cover our expenses. Our monthly obligations for this house are between $1,000 and $1,200 per month, depending on utilities.

Our credit score is currently very good – in the top 10% of all credit scores, but this month we officially go into the red. We have a little bit of wiggle room since I recently took out $14,000 by virtue of a 0% APR balance transfer through March of 2010. We have exhausted our savings (other than the balance transfer money) and have cashed out most of our retirement savings.

Here are my options as I see them:

Short sale

This means we lower the price as far as possible to get it to sell. I think this means that our second mortgage probably does not get paid and our first mortgage holder gets what they gets. In a short sale, the balance of the loan counts as household income on my tax return next year. So if my loan amount is $150,000 and I sell it for $90,000, I have to report the difference of $60,000 as income to the IRS next year. Lovely.

It is unclear to me how this strategy affects my credit.

Foreclosure

Just quit making payments. I have seen some calculators where a foreclosure only dings my credit score by 100 points – which is not too bad since my rating is very high. It seems to me that there must be more to this penalty.

Bankruptcy

Thankfully, this is not strong a possibility at the moment, unless I lose my job. We could be living relatively comfortably on my income if we did not have this house. In fact, we probably could have put $8,000 to $10,000 in the bank this last year . . . instead we have stayed current on our payments and have nothing to show for it.

Deed in lieu

With this strategy, I strike a deal with the second mortgage company where I agree to pay them or they forgive the loan or let me pay it off at a reduced rate. As a result of our agreement, they release their lien on the home. I then simply give the house to the first mortgage holder and beg them not to foreclose. I have friends who made this work and it did not affect their credit, however,for most of them, they executed this strategy before this current crisis.

Status quo

Stick it out, keep making payments and hope it sells sometime in the next year. The problem is that I would be very unlikely to recoup my investment, unless home values shot up 30% in the next year. The payments I am making are not going into equity and in the meantime I am making no retirement contributions and we have no savings or emergency fund.

So you can see, we are in a pickle.

I am not desperate or worried – I am confident that God has a plan. Even in bankruptcy, He will meet our needs. However, that fact does not excuse ignorance or laziness on my behalf. I am researching every possible option in order to make the best decision for my family and our future.

Most GLBL readers are smart people – any thoughts or suggestions?

Photo by dingbat2005

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This is a guest post from the blogger behind Studenomics a personal finance blog that offers common sense advice for college students and recent graduates. Studenomics is the ultimate resource for young people looking for advice on how to survive this current recession, grow their careers, manage their finances, and still be able to enjoy the weekends.

How many times in the last 8 months have you used the excuse, “I would attend church today if I didn’t have so much homework.” Well guess what? You can longer use this excuse for not attending church since college is out for the summer. I’m realistic and I know many college students won’t read the Bible daily or attend church services regularly, but there are many ways you could help your local church.

• Volunteer at your church. If you find that you can’t sit through a one hour service then you could try providing your services to the church for free. There is so much going on at every church that any help is greatly appreciated. I have helped out in the past by serving food and offering my time to do some yard maintenance work (what can I say I enjoy cutting grass). The point here is that an hour may be nothing to you but it would be really beneficial to your church.
• Work as a church camp counselor. Not only is this an excellent opportunity to meet some great people but you also have the privilege of giving back to your community. We were all little kids at one point and I’m sure we were sent to some of the free camps offered by our local churches. This is your chance to return the favor and do some good for your community.  Even if you help out once a week it will make at least a small difference in someone’s life.
• Pilgrimage. Yes they actually exist in real life. In fact my cousin goes on a pilgrimage every summer. I have always personally wanted to try this but it is impossible for me to get the time off from work that time of year. It’s approximately 2 weeks in duration and they walk about 6 hours a day for those 2 weeks until they arrive at their destination.

We all want to have a productive summer but we just don’t know where to start.  Here’s a little secret: you can start by reading The Summer of George- The Most Productive Summer a College Student Will Ever Have:

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• Summer Jobs With Little Startup Funding Required- Part 2 @ PTMoney.com
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This is a picture of the one of the new prototypes being tested by GM now that the government is running the company.

Just kidding!

A couple of weeks ago we took our three kids to a children’s museum near our home. This particular children’s museum is not really a “museum” with static displays and plaques to read, rather it is a place for children to explore with their hands. There is something for almost every level of childhood. Seven month crawlers up through ten year-olds can find plenty to do.

Our two-year old boy spend most of his time playing in a life-sized fire truck complete with flashing lights and real fireman gear. Our four-year old girl spent all of her time in a kid-sized grocery store and kitchen, purchasing fake food, cooking it and then serving it to the customers.

Our six-year old kindergartner wanted to play with junk.

She led me over to a row of cubicles that housed simple tools and fasteners and asked me to help her make something out of junk. Along the back wall were a dozen or so bins full of empty, but clean milk cartons and plastic fruit containers. There was cardboard tubing and food boxes of every shape and size. There were small, odd-shaped pieces of wood and bins of full of yogurt cartons and egg cartons. We soon commenced on the project that you see above.

The museum personnel had placed directions for various projects throughout the area, but we soon figured out that the pieces of junk pictured in the directions did not necessarily match up with the junk that we had available on that particular day. It turned out that the product of our labor did not look like anything in any of the pictures.

We were limited to the tools at hand. Some of the tools and fasteners were not ideal for their application, so it challenged our resourcefulness and creativity. I guided the entire process, but I always encouraged my daughter try to solve a particular problem before stepping in with an answer. The pipe cleaner windshield wipers were all her idea.

I thoroughly enjoyed spending this hour with my child and observing her mind and hands at work. I delighted in watching her try to solve the problems posed by trying to reconcile the limits of the tools and materials at hand with her unlimited imagination. I could tell that she was experiencing a great sense of accomplishment as that little car took shape and seeing her excitement with the finished product brought a great feeling of satisfaction to me. Working with a pile of junk turned out to be a great way to spend an hour with my daughter.

The biggest surprise for me was when we arrived at home and my daughters ignored their store-bought dolls and other perfectly molded toys in favor of playing with two plastic strawberry containers bolted together with brass brads and milk carton caps for wheels. For about two weeks that piece of junk occupied a prominent place in their daily play before it completely bit the dust.

Leftover food containers?

Free

One hour of my time?

About $20 (according to my employer)

Leftover food containers plus one hour with my kids?

Priceless

So, what does this story have to do with money? Why are you reading an article about a homemade art project on blog dedicated to gathering “little by little to make it grow”? The truth is that I am not ready to give the answer right now, I want to see what GLBL readers think first and maybe later today, if you still haven’t figured it out, I will tell you how I think a little junk relates to personal finance.

So, who will be first?

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