Some cool apps

For Christmas my husband got me an ipad mini, to keep me organized, and send me reminders of all the things I forget in one day. It has been so much fun finding apps that are helpful to my life as a busy mom. I will tell you of a few, since they go along with our goals for 2014.

Our main goals this year is to complete Baby Step 3 in the Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. It has been a few years since we have become debt free, and we have never reached the point where we have 6 months of income saved for emergencies (there always seems to be something that comes up that needs our money more!). So, if we have to save 6 months of Scott's income, we have to do one of two things...either we earn more money, or we decrease in our spending. We have opted to decrease spending, to see how much we can really budget (especially in the area of groceries, since this gets out of control)

My next goal is to watch my health (not to lose weight, or run more, or any other goal that I might not complete), but to simply track my health and make better decisions.

So, with these two goals in mind, I went app shopping.
Goal 1 - Save money - Apps: MINT and Grocery IQ
Goal 2 - Be Healthy - Apps: Seven and Lose It

Grocery IQ - Grocery shopping made quick and easy with the features you expect from the #1 grocery shopping list app. Build lists from our extensive product database using text, barcode, or voice search; sync and share lists with other devices and the GroceryiQ.com website

MINT.com-Not only does it provide a birds-eye-view of your income, spending and investments, but Mint also recommends ways to save money on bank fees, credit card rates and insurance. Best of all, it’s free.

Seven - * No workout equipment & just minutes a day
* Fun achievements and rewards to keep you motivated
* Based on the 7-minute workout featured in NY Times Magazine

Lose It - Lose It! helps you set a daily calorie budget, track your food and exercise, and stay motivated to make smarter choices and achieve your goal. We think it’s the best, most seamless weight loss system available.

If any of you know of some more excellent apps to use, please tell me. I am looking for a place to store my weekly food menus, and to collect my most favorite recipes too. 

What creates clutter?

Pieces taken from the book, Your Money or your Life...."Most clutters comes into our life through the "more is better" door. It comes from a little thing called materialism, of looking for inner fulfillment in outer possessions.
Our attics, basements, garages, closets and storage sheds are havens of clutter. Just because it is out of sight, does not mean it is not clutter.
Is meaningless activity a form of clutter?  How many power lunches, parties, long evenings in front of the computer or TV have been clutter (activities that add nothing positive to your life). What about disorganized days, full of busyness, with no sense of accomplishment? And what about items on your To Do list that never get done?
There is sound clutter. Elements in your environment that don't serve you yet take up space.
Unplanned errands are often clutter...running to the store twice a day for items forgotten.
Hobbies are clutter"

For a laugh...If you want clutter...follow the tips on this site: 20 ways to create clutter.

Spring clean your finances

When I think about spring cleaning, it usually includes washing windows, dusting and changing out our winter clothes and equipment for the spring and summer stuff.
Have you ever thought about doing a spring cleaning and decluttering your finances?
In the book Your Money or Your Life, it gives nine steps to help you develop your own personal definition of clutter and rid yourself of it. I am not going to give away the steps, you should read it for yourself (get a library card, and borrow it). But, I will say, it has helped us to rethink how we spend, why we spend, and how easy it is to stop spending so much on things that bring us no fulfillment.
Just like getting rid of clutter out of the home, or out of your mind brings a sense of relief, so will decluttering your money.

Your Money or Your Life

Our newest book of interest. Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. 
Scott and I are always looking for ways to be frugal and happy. This book makes you think about what you really value, and how much "life energy" you are spending on things that do not make you feel happy.
I am going to give brief notes on things that are of interest to us while we are reading this time....

The first thing that hit me was this from Chapter 1.
"What do we do when we are depressed, when we are lonely, when we feel unloved? More often than not we buy something to make us feel better. A new outfit. A drink (or two). A new car. An ice cream cone. A ticket to Hawaii. A bag or Oreos (or two).
When we want to celebrate good fortune, we buy something. A round of drinks. A catered wedding. A diamond ring. A bouquet of roses.
When we are bored, we buy something. A magazine. A cruise. A board game.
When we think there must be more to life, we buy something. A workshop. A self help book. A therapist. A house in the country.
None of this is wrong. It is just what we do. We have learned to seek external solutions to signals from the mind, heart and soul that something is out of balance. We try to satisfy essentially psychological and spiritual needs with consumption at a physical level. How did this happen?"

Allowance

Scott and I have decided to give the boys an allowance. We tried this a few years ago with Zach, and he did very well. He saved for an entire year, and earned enough to buy a Wii system (that we would not get for him). We stopped allowance for a while, hoping that we could use allowance as a way to get them to do chores too. We started the work pay system, because it made sense to have them work for pay. It turned out that did not work as well as we hoped. 

From the book, Kids are Worth It, by Barbara Coloroso, she states: 

"They learn to handle money, to make decisions about their own money, and to set financial pirorities. The money is given to them, without them working for it. In real life, how hard you work is only a minor factor in how much money you make.  What is important is for kids to learn that no matter how much money they have, earn, win, or inherit, they need to know how to spend it, how to save it, and how to give it to others in need. That is what handling money is about, and this is why we give kids an allowance."

A great way to start allowance is with the Money Savvy Pig. 

They must save, spend and give (and even invest!). They decide how to do all three, and how much of their allowance to devote to each. We are there to guide and give advice, but do not order them, or lecture them about where the money should go. 

Our boys have different personalities when it comes to money. Our oldest saves (we started allwance when he was five), and our middle son will spend it the minute he gets it (we started his allowance when he was six). They each get half their age every week. Zach is 8, so he gets $4.00. 

They each research the thing they want to save for, which helps to prevent them from running to the store once they have their money. Once they know how much it is, we draw a bar chart on our chalkboard, so they can see how close they are getting to earning it. It is a fun and visual way to keep them saving. 

Now, don't think that T has more..if you look closely, he is going up by $1.00, while Z is going up by $10.00. 

Debt Free and still saving...

Scott and I have worked for years to become debt free, and when we finally reached our goal, it was such a good feeling, so satisfying that our hard work had paid off. When we began reading The Simple Dollar blog, there were all sorts of ideas to help us on our road to financial freedom.
Recently, the blog had a post called: The Big Trade Off. Reading how they sacrificed so many things to have what they really wanted, made me feel encouraged to keep budgeting, spending less, and making good financial choices. Yes, we are debt free, but you can't just stop there and think everything is going to be fine. We still have a mortgage, and we know how important it is to have an emergency fund, so we are still saving. We are going to keep saving until complete all 7 baby steps in the Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. We are almost done with Step 3. It takes some work, and lots of reminders that, "We don't really need that" or "What is a higher priority?" Thinking ahead to where our money does go, and being frugal. It is tough, but it will be worth it. It is even more tough because we have a family of 5 living on one income. Will talk more about that one later...

The Chore Chart Revision

We have used the Work Pay system for over 2 months now, and have seen ups and downs. Some weeks the kids are excited to do work pay, and other weeks they do nothing. The wonderful thing has been that the must do portion has helped them learn to flush the toilet, make their bed, and keep their room clean, as well as put their school bags in the right place. It was a great non-nagging way for me to teach them to do these things.

Our seven year old spoke to me this week, and said he had a better idea...here it is:
"Mom, we should each have just one chore for the whole week..and no one else gets to do our chore"
Here is our five year old son's response: " I don't like that idea".
So, we are in the middle of change once again.

Here was a chart one of our followers sent me...it shows the task, how much it is worth, and each week one member of the family checks off which one they are going to do for the whole week. Each day, they get a star (same colour as their name) for that day, and at the end of the week, they add up the stars.



Talking to my moms group today, someone also mentioned, giving them the $5.00 (or whatever amount) at the beginning of the week. All this money is theirs if they do their specific chores. They have certain chores to do each day, and if they do not do them, one of the parents takes the money directly from the jar. For ex. Kid A is supposed to empty garbage. Moms says, " The garbage needs to go out." One warning...Kid A does not take out garbage...Mom does it...Mom takes money from the jar.

There are lots of different tactics for chore charts...I will do more research and blog what I come up with. Wow..I am starting to sound like Scott.

Work Pay and Must Do - A chore chart

As parents we want to teach our children about money management, doing chores around the house and being responsible for their belongings. So, we sat down to discuss how we are going to do that in our family.


Jenny says...let's make a chart, based on their age, of the chores they can do, and they can earn points for doing them each day...for ex. brush teeth, make bed...then they feel successful each day
Scott says...how can we keep track of points, that seems like it will be a long list...
Scott says... it is important that they do not get paid for doing things around that house that they just should do, like keeping their room tidy and brushing teeth. In Suze Orman's book there is a short bit about money with kids, maybe we should stop giving them allowance and turn it into Work Pay.
Jenny says...I like that, so they work for pay, just like the real world.


Here is what we came up with, and it has been working for the last two months.


 Work Pay                             Kid A               Kid B    
 Set Dinner Table  
 Clear Dinner Table  
 Unload Dishwasher  
 Take out the trash  
 Recyling  
 Fold one load of laundry        


 Must Do        
 Make Bed  
 Flush Toilet  
 Clean room  
 Clear your dishes


How to start...
Have fun creating a chart with your kids. Have them make a list of all the things that they are supposed to do without pay around the house (then you sit down with your spouse and pick from that list the FEW that you will start with). Then have them think of chores that will pay money (again, you will sit down later and pick a FEW). Start with a small list, and once they are successful with those, make the necessary changes. 


Work Pay: chores that any kid can do, anytime. If the garbage needs to be taken out twice a day, that is great. You want them to do the work for pay and earn as much as they can. Each chore is simple and easy to do. If they don't do a quality job, you do not pay. Each chore is worth 25 cents. Give them a check each time they complete it. When you need a chore done, you can ask, "Does anyone want work pay?"


Must Do: chores that each child must do (we have been having a problem with toilets not being flushed in our home), or they get docked 25 cents. Give them an x if they forget.


Each Week: Set a specific time when you sit down and look over the list. Add up the work pay and subtract the Must Do. That is your kid's earning for the week. Start a new chart. If they work, they get paid. If they forget a must do, they get docked. Keep it simple.

       Create the list, decide on the amount of each workpay, and keep it flexible for change.

The kids will learn math skills, family responsibility, money management all at once.

*The first week, take it easy on your kids, give them a week to adjust to the new routine.
*If you have more than one kid, this will work well to motivate the ones who do not want to work....once they see a sibling collecting all the money, they will want to work too.
*You cannot use this as a form of discipline. You cannot check them for taking out the trash and then later, when they misbehave, take away the check....they work for the pay, and you cannot take it away. This is separate from everything else.    
*It helps to figure out what each child wants to save for, so you can remind them of the object when they lose motivation for workpay.
*If your child wants to do more workpay, after the others are all done, wonderful! Leave an extra space on your chart, so you can write in the extra things you think of for them to do.

Our boys no longer forget to flush the toilet, so we can move on and replace that with something else, like hanging up their bags after school!

Good luck parents, and remember to have fun with it.