The picture above was taken a few weeks ago.
One Baby, one Momma and one Papa chin.
*swoon*
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Mr. Squid currently sports a bit of a "double-double", if you know what I mean.
Happy Tuesday!
xo,
Violet
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(Anyone have any good pictures of their little-one's double chin? The chunkier the better! Leave me your link in the comment section!)
(Giveaway winner announced thursday!)
... you jump up at the sight of a fly, race down the hallway (my wheel chair needs racing stripes!) with your baby, who is still attached to your boob, in one arm and the fly swatter in the other, stand up (one leg optional, it just makes you more of a badass ;), swat the shit out of the black-bean sized fly all while keeping the baby attached and asleep.
Moms: 1
Black-Bean Flys: 0
[He hates all carriers and slings... this was taken in the twenty seconds before he started to scream.]
p.s. ~ Sorry I haven't been posting these past few days.. Squid has been really gassy and screams and INSISTS on being held. I'm only happy to oblige since his pain face tears my heart to shreds, but holding the baby = no time for blogging.
p.p.s.~ The fly is still on the floor in his room since I had both my hands full. Totally gross, but I'm learning to pick and choose my battles. Oh hey... the baby is asleep RIGHT NOW (I'm typing, duh!) and my hands are free... I swear, my breast milk must be fortified with brain cells because I seem to be losing them left and right.
.... off to pick up the black-bean!
xo,
Violet
I was driving home from the grocery store Monday when I turned the radio on and a Papa roach song that I hadn't heard in years happened to be playing. Whoa. Time blast.
As a teenager, I think most of us liked to try on different "hats", as they say. Trying out different looks and styles, making new friends and finding your "group."
From ages 14 to 16, I was very into trying on the Alternative/Skater/pre-indie Indie "hats". I wore those big, puffy skater shoes, wide-legged pants and graphic tee-shirts. I used to wear those colored rubber bracelets on both wrists. About six solid inches of bracelets from the bottom of my wrists going upwards towards my elbows. Do you guys remember those bracelets? I used to convince my Mom to treat me to a new pack whenever we went to the mall. Oh, Hot Topic. Many a weekend afternoons I spent in that shop. I was convinced that I'd work there someday and now I just laugh at myself.
I wanted SO badly to fit in with the Skater group. I wanted to have myself one of those hot, hot skater guys and wanted be a skater chick myself. That dream came crashing down the day that I, equipped with my fake leg, decided to try and actually STAND on a friend's skateboard... I carefully stepped on the board with my left (real) foot, took a second to steady myself, and I slowly put my right "foot" on the board. Yeah, the second that neither of my feet were touching the ground, my butt decided that it would do the honors for me. *whooooosh, PLUNK* No damage was done, except that of my ego.
It was a tough time in my life, trying to find my place. I wasn't interested in drinking or smoking pot or spreading my legs like a.. well, you know. ;) I wasn't interested in flirting with just anyone to get attention and didn't really disrupt class. I wasn't a class clown or super smart. I wasn't amazingly beautiful or charismatic. I was just kind of me... weird and loner-ly with a handful of friends and that was alright. I didn't mind not really having a "place", but I knew that I wanted... more.
He was just as different as I was. He wasn't a skater, but a D&D playing, videogaming, art and music loving boy. And he was HOT.
We've been weird together ever since,
and that my friends,
I couldn't be any happier about.
(Two clicks for weird love!) --->
Scene: Our bedroom, me trying on my favorite dress and discovering that it won't even zip anymore.
Me: "I'm so upset. This is my favorite Summer dress!" *sad face*
Bubby: *Trys to zip it up for me and fails*
"Well, it can be your favorite Summer dress on the hanger."
Two minutes later as I was examining my belly in the mirror.
Me: " Holy crap. My belly button is almost flat!"
Bubby: "It's gunna pop out soon."
*semi-disgusted look on his face*
"Ew! It's gunna look like the end of a balloon!"
Me: "Like a balloon nipple? On my stomach?! .... Thanks honey."
Gotta love men.
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Squiddy's name will be posted tonight around 8pm, my time.
Can't wait to share!
xo,
Violet
Last Sunday morning, I received an email from a lovely lady asking if I might want to share some of our tips for budgeting, since I've talked about it on here a few times and she was interested in budgeting for family. I got so excited as I read the email on my Blackberry as we were pulling out of the driveway -- a post JUST for Bubby! He's told me time and time again that if he could go back to school, he'd become a financial planner and help people get their lives in order.
I finished putting on my makeup and then directed my attention to reading him the email. His face lit up a little and then he tried to suppress it, but I could see the smile that was tugging at the corner of his lip. Gosh, I LOVE that secret little smile.
(I swear, his face lights up when we sit down every two weeks and plan out our spending. See the secret smile on the right? )
Without further adeu, Bubby:
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Introduction!
I’m driving down our hill, taking my wife to get a burger from In-N-Out before grocery shopping, off in my own world plotting our gaming session for that night. Laying out the time it will take us to get the food stuffs necessary for the afternoon get-together, wondering if I should draw out a few more villains before we start. (We have friends over most Sundays to play a Dungeons & Dragons type game. Don't hate, you know you sometimes wish you could be a a stealthy, kick-ass thief, complete with blow-dart gun and a cape full of secrets.)
“Will you write a blog post on how we budget?”
“Sure…someone asked for that?”
Budgeting excites me. It’s like a video game to me, a challenge that I know I can overcome. I want a big family, the ability to give, have get-togethers and barbeques and that feeling of sanctuary in my own home. I am a money nerd.
I must warn you, I am not a professional or licensed to give money advice. What is laid out below is how we handle our finances. There are two sections to this long-winded post: Guidelines, and Budgeting.
Guidelines!
Wifey has always told me I think too far ahead. I am concerned about having enough for retirement. I want to find our house, purchase it, then pay it off as quickly as possible. It simply needs to happen to build wealth. If I budget now, there’ll be no budgeting later. To make this happen, we live by some guidelines.
1. Money Must Be Spent Intentionally. The lattes will kill your income. The spontaneous handbag or eye shadows add up. Wealth is not acquired through chunks of thousands of dollars. It is the five and ten dollar contributions over the years that create an atmosphere that is not paycheck to paycheck.
Fact: Saving 100 dollars a month from age 25 to 65 will give you a return of 350,000 dollars, at an average 8% interest.
2. Live Within Your Means. Rent or Mortgage should be 25% of your take-home pay. The average house size is a bit over 2,300 square feet now. It was half that in 1950. We are still renters, and commonly look at houses built in the 40s and 50s.
Vehicles are best as used, two-year old models if you’re looking for something snazzy. Older cars work fine. Eliminating car payments allows you more saving power. Cut where you can. We use Hulu and Netflix for our cheap entertainment. Look at everything and ask if you’re getting your money’s worth.
3. List Your Wants And Needs. A newer car. That 55” HDTV. The Roomba to alleviate your cleaning duties. Kid’s college fund. Write it all down, everything you want to do and should do. It helps get a grasp of the bigger picture.
Now, writing these things out hardly helps me use them. For that, we turn to the Budget!
Budgeting!
We have always been a reactionary couple. If a bill comes in, we scramble to pay it. Friday usually meant going out for dinner and possibly a movie. Weekends meant consumption of some sort. They still do, but now we know our used book purchases aren’t cutting into our PG&E bill. Here is how we do it.
1. We Write A Paycheck-To-Paycheck Budget. I get paid every two weeks. So from the Friday I’m paid and for the next two weeks, we list all our expenses for that time. We then number the expenses in order of most important to least important.
There are four basic necessities that get funded before anything else: food, lights and water, transportation, then rent. You need all this to fight another day. Again, you are intentionally spending all your money on this budget. Every dollar is assigned to something. Our budget for the next two weeks looks like this:
(He made a chart! I Swoon!)
|
1 |
Food |
250 |
|
2 |
PG&E |
140 |
|
3 |
Rent |
1500 |
|
4 |
Car Insurance |
98.66 |
|
5 |
Netflix |
16.45 |
|
6 |
Blog |
13.45 |
|
7 |
Work Dues |
62 |
|
8 |
Gas (Car) |
80 |
|
9 |
Old Navy |
30 |
|
10 |
Target Misc. |
51 |
|
11 |
Fun Stuff - Nails |
40 |
|
12 |
Fun Stuff - Outings |
130 |
|
13 |
Left Over |
440 |
We write this out on lined paper, and it hangs on our fridge. Every time a bill is taken out/ paid, we place an ‘X’ in the margin to indicate the funds are gone.
I am now set for the next two weeks. The next budget will have our other utilities, such as Comcast and Verizon, but won't include PG&E, rent, blog fees, car insurance, Netflix, work dues or Old Navy because those ar eonce-a-month bills and were paid this month by this budget above. Food, "fun stuff" and gas will show up again. Even rent will come up again, as I split it up over the month so no one paycheck takes a heavy hit.
I have a second page of the budget that details all bills for each month, and which day they are due. I keep this and put it behind every new budget. It saves us time for the next budget.
2. Track All Your Spending. Budgets do not work if you don’t stick to them. Wifey and I save each receipt and write each expense below our budget table, much like you would a check book. At any given time, we can check the sheet and know how much we have in each category. (For example, if we plan on going to the movies and haven't spent anything from our current budget's "fun stuff" fund, we know we can splurge and get popcorn and candy, too. Or, if it's at the end of that particular budget and we have just enough for the movie, we know not to go over and spend money that's already called for somewhere else in our budget. We never over-spend because we know what we CAN spend.)
This is by far one of the most important steps. Slipping up here results in budget reconfigurations. Which leads us to my next point...
3. If Something Comes Up, Re-Write It. Treat the budget as a binding contract. A constitution. If a new expense comes up, drag everyone involved back to the table and discuss where the money is going to come from. For us, the Left Over category serves as our overage or savings. Our "Target Misc." category on the above budget table was written into the budget a day after it was made because we needed Glad bags, Kleenex, and a few other "Target" things.
4. Be a Team. If my wife didn’t subscribe to this method, it wouldn’t work. I bring this up as another important detail: budgets must be made with everyone included. Everyone needs a say in it. Our Fun Stuff – Nails category is my wife’s vote to have her nails and toes done. It’s her one splurge. And if I wanted my own stock of cash, my adult allowance if you will, then we'd discuss it and I’d write that in. Consistency is the key to a successful budget.
5. Left-overs go into savings. Going into the next paycheck-to-paycheck budget, the "Left Overs" and any money that we planned on spending but didn't, goes into our savings account.
Happy Budgeting!
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Violet here!
Isn't that simple and totally do-able?
I wanted to share what I've learned from our budgeting experience so far:
XO,
Violet and Bubby
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