Tips

While doing some research on Alltop on Twins blogs, I came across this blog post that will help you save money today! Some of these ideas we have already started implementing. Here is the article: 10 Ways to Make Ends Meet on a Constricted Family Budget

Based off of their list, here is what we have done:

4. Restructure your debts –

We are actually following the Dave Ramsey approach and have listed our debts from lowest to least and have started making extra payments just to get them down the quickest.

9. Cancel subscriptions that you no longer use –

We just canceled 3 magazine subscriptions that we have no longer been reading as much. And since there is so much free content available and most of the magazines have their content free anyway. Saves money and saves space, because I often collect all of my magazines and read them all in one day.

10. Watch free movies and television through legal online sites –

Even though I have to say that I haven’t really gotten into the free movies, I do need to call Comcast now that our contract is up.  We don’t need all 5 of the movie channels now that we have the kids and honestly, we can save the extra money to use toward paying down additional debt.

We are probably more focused now than ever before to save money today. In order for us to reach our financial goals, we have cut out a lot, but still need to do better to have everything paid off sooner than later. And then we can put more money in our 401k and our boys college funds.

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Today at breakfast, we had a slight scare. We had taken the boys for a weekend getaway to some friends house out in the country. We gave the boys a very small piece of an egg omelet. A very basic egg, cheese, onion omelet and since the boys had eaten eggs before, we did not think anything of it.We quickly noticed that one of our boys started rubbing his face and what started out as rubbing once or twice, quickly turned into a lot of rubbing and his face turning red. After a few minutes, we removed any of the food that was on his high chair tray and washed his hands and face. It was then we could see that he was having an allergic reaction to something that he had rubbed on his face.

We did not have any benadryl cream at the house, so our friend took a benadryl pill and broke it down and made it into a liqud form and rubbed it on his hands and face.  We were able to get some cream and that seamed to take care of the problem, but it was never the less a pretty tense few moments.  He was able to rest and has been fine ever since. But it got me thinking about food allergies. I didn’t have them growing up and neither did my sister and my wife did not have them either.

My wife will be calling the Doctor tomorrow morning, not only to let them know, but to also see when/if we can reintroduce eggs again.  In the mean time, I’ve found two articles that have been very beneficial.

  1. Food Allergies from Kids Health
  2. Guide to Food Allergies from Parenting.com

When introducing  new foods, it is very important to be on the look out for food allergies. Consult with your doctor and watch your child, as food allergies can be very serious. We are just fortunate to not only be with our friends that have raised 3 children of their own, but that the reaction was not that serious.

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I’ve been asked several times now how do we travel with two infants. So far, we have made 3 trips to see my family, which is a 6 hour drive for us. Honestly, it hasn’t really been that hard. We try to leave right after giving the boys a bottle, so that we know that we can get at least 3 hours in of our drive. There is a Starbucks that is exactly 3 hours from us, we pull in, I get my standard Non-Fat Mocha, let the boys play and get another bottle and keep on going. Here are a few tips that I’ve come up with

  • Take breaks as possible – The boys sleep pretty well in the car, so we can usually get 3 hours at a minimum at a time.
  • Give them toys to play with – We have a little toys that they can hold on to and play with.
  • Interact with them – We like to talk with them, and even though we can see them in their mirrors, they can’t see us, but they can hear our voices.
  • Play music that they like as well – This is important esp on the start of the trip.
  • Find a comfortable stopping place

Trips are hard, both for the kids, b/c they are strapped into their car seats for a long period of time, not understanding why they can’t move around. And for the parents, for the additional packing and also when the kids do fuss and there is really nothing that can be done. Make traveling with your children fun, not a chore.

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That is what I kept telling myself last night after the UNC vs Dook game where Dook hit a 3 pointer with 1 second to go to win the game. It is just a game.
I was trying to think of ways to justify the loss this morning, not defending the 3, poor fouls, fatigue, etc, but it is just a game. And then I got thinking, how can I
use this for when the boys are older and UNC loses a game? I’m still working on that one, but it really is just a game. Today, the adults are sitting around their offices,
sending text messages, emailing, making calls etc talking about the game, what they would have done differently and what should have happened.

But at the end of the day, it is just a game. The players were probably in class today. Study hall later. Practice, film review, hitting the weight room and trying to prepare
for the game this weekend. And though, like the rest of the fans, I’ve been texting my brother and Godfather about the game, how we feel, what we would have done
differently if we were coaching and it comes back to one ringing fact, it is just a game. I just hope that when my boys are older and we watch UNC Basketball games,
that I can remember that it is just a game and not get too caught up in it.

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As for so many weekends, I end up having to make a shopping trip run, either to Target or to the local grocery store or both. So, with my list on my phone (Out of Milk app for the Droid is awesome) I ran over to both Target and the grocery store. The primary objective was baby food from Target and food for the crock pot from the grocery store.

20 bags later, I am home and my wife asked how much I spent, to which I replied, total, $215 for both stores. And to give an idea, there were 3 bags of baby food, no formula, just the solid foods. We now have enough baby food for 3 months and we have enough food for 5 meals in the crock pot. And, best of all, I was able to save $75 for the trip.

So, watch your sale ads and if you get a chance, stock up on the things that you know that you will need for the future. Save money today, for tomorrow.

All in all, I think that it was a successful weekend shopping trip.

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To help prepare our two boys for their future, we setup a savings account for them at our credit union. To start off, we put $25 a month, per child to open the accounts, but have tried to maintain depositing another $50 per child a month. We have also been able to add about another $200 per due to gifts from their christening at church. This year, instead of gifts from both my grandparents and also my wife’s grandparents, they will be giving them money for Christmas to help with our long term savings goals for the boys.

A few things to consider:
1) Setting up an account at your local credit union. The benefits that I found were: no monthly fees, higher interest rates, and they provide a monthly newsletter, so when the boys get older, they will be able to color the handouts and also learn more about saving money.
2) Ask parents/grandparents for money for your children than a gift, esp. when the children are young. Why get a toy that will have a short life span, when money can grow in interest over the years.
3) You are teaching your children a valuable lesson about money and saving money. Our goal is $50 a month per child, not factoring in interest, gifts from others, etc. So by the time the boys are 18, that will be a nice starting point for the boys.

Hope these help.

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