Claire's Homecoming 2013: The Breakdown

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On average, my blog posts reach about 15 people. I can almost guarantee I'll have 50 views every time I post a blog about one of Claire's formal events. What will I do when she graduates?!

This is Claire and her sweet friend, Mckenzie. They were 'dates' for Hayes' homecoming last weekend. Claire again went for vintage elegance with her ensemble. She was thrilled with the results, and the dress was comfortable yet classy. No unnecessary tugging and pulling, and ain't NOBODY got time for that at a dance!

You know we scored a deal with this dress! A BRAND NEW, WITH TAGS, Anne Taylor silk A-line sheath, the original tag listed the price at $198.00 We snapped it up, last July, for $5.99! The vintage brooch and earrings were a find at a quaint antique shop in the Hocking Hills, for $12.00. Claire already owned the pearl necklace, and the silver purse was a Goodwill find at $4.99.

When Claire had her interview at the Salon Schools, they gifted her a certificate for a free beauty service at one of their locations. Claire opted to get an updo. She had downloaded several pictures onto her phone, and the talented student who did her hair proved her expertise with the fabulous results! Beautiful tight curls, and even 'victory rolls!' I paid $37 for her to also get a mani-pedi, and she picked a deep, 'pin up girl' red for both hands and feet.

Speaking of feet, check out those heels! We didn't meaasure the height, but I can almost guarantee they are 4 inches tall! Jennifer Lopez for Kohl's, on sale for $22 (regularly $65!). She said they weren't as painful as some she's worn, but of course they got kicked off to dance!

Claire went as part of a large group, and she said it was the most fun she's ever had at a dance. One set of parents hosted a dinner beforehand at their home, and we donated homemade chocolate chip cookies. After the dance, another family had a bonfire, and they served the rest of the dinner, along with desserts and pop.

So, what was the grand total for the evening?

Dress, purse, jewelry and shoes came to $45. Along with the dance ticket of $10, the mani-pedi (plus tips for all 3 services)and a corsage for Mckenzie (I had the cookie fixings on hand), the total came to $111. If you remember past posts, where I listed averages prices of formal dresses, you know $100 barely covers the cost of the gown nowadays.

If, you shop new.

Essentially, Claire's dress WAS new. New with tags at thrift store prices is something you just can't beat :)

How To Have The Handbag Wardrobe Of Your Dreams

When you thrift, the sky's the limit on your handbag collection!

As far as the stereotypical female obsession with purses and shoes, I'm very late to the party.

My family had limited resources when I was growing up, so my early handbags were either gifts, hand me downs, or bought by me with my babysitting money. I remember one gross example, that I bought in high school and carried for (it seemed) a million years. Scratchy canvas and vinyl, it was ugly and utilitarian. I wasn't a particularly girlie girl in my early teens, so just remembering to carry the thing required a lot of brain power on my part. Honestly? It carried my sanitary napkins. When I could get away with it, I only carried my wallet. My need for a mirror, hairbrush and lipstick came much later.

In the 80's, I had my first handbag obsession. Remember the Liz Claiborne small patterned handbags? Oh my, I wanted one so badly. I was a young married womaan with (again) limited finances, so I worked a deal out with my mom. She allowed me use of her Lazarus credit card to buy a Liz purse, and I made weekly payments on it. Golly, I loved those things. Ultimately, the price I paid became a burden, as I didn't like to be held down to one purse. I wanted a variety to choose from in my closet, and didn't have the funds.

Fast forward to the last 10 years. All of a sudden, women are donating their designer purses to thrift stores, and I am benefitting! My first Coach purses came from Goodwill, at $14.99 a pop. Jessica Simpson has gorgeous handbags, and I've gotten quite a few second hand. Vera Bradley? YEAH BABY!! The other day, I was looking in the window of a consignment shop, and they had several new looking Coach crossbodies. There are TONS of handbag opportunities out there, ripe for the picking! The thing is, PICK QUICK! If you like it, odds are someone else will, and they'll snap it up before you come back to pick it up! I still regret not buying the Louis Vuitton totebag I saw several years ago in the glass case at my Goodwill. At $69, I felt I couldn't justify it....until I found those same totebags, brand new, ran several thousands. I'm still on the look out for another one.......!!

Now, I have quite a collection in my closet. In fact, I just had to do a major purge. It's one thing to have a nice variety in all your favorite colors. It's quite another to fight claustrophobia every time you open your closet door.

My daughter has a fabulous Dooney & Bourke crossbody she loves. $18.00, originally upwards of $300. Unlike her mama, Claire isn't going to let limited finances dictate her handbag choices! It's truly an awesome time to be alive........when you can get what you want, at the price you want to pay.

So, if you have a serious handbag craving, check out the resale market. You will be AMAZED at what you find!

HAPPY NATIONAL HANDBAG DAY!!

Health Insurance: A Very Personal Account

Mr. AFLAC duck.....so much more than a pretty face.

Health insurance is KINDA a hot button issue, if you hadn't noticed. Maybe you haven't. Miley Cyrus is pretty hot right now, too.

There isn't one, standard health insurance story on the human landscape. So many layers, emotions, experiences. If you're just now trying to find health insurance for you and your family, you have my sympathies.

This blog is all about saving money, and offering up mine and my family's experiences in that realm. Today, let's attack the FUN subject of paying for your medical stuff. Frugally, of course.

I have spent my life being very blessed in the health insurance department. My daddy worked for the government (HA!), so we had great insurance. Always got to go to the doctor, when I needed to, as I grew up. I had foot surgery and a tonsillectomy, braces and glasses. Nothing fancy, but we were taken care of.

I left the warm confines of my daddy's insurance to marry a man who made very good money. A white collar, finance guy, he also had excellent insurance with every company he worked for. My job provided the secondary coverage that took care of whatever his did not. When I was pregnant with Brendan, I remember him asking if I thought I could skip the epidural, which was not covered and cost $500. We're no longer married.

When I married Michael, we were able to purchase health insurance ourselves, as his company's policy was pretty pricey. We were able to make the monthly premiums in the beginning, and the insurance covered everything nicely. Michael had foot surgery, and also upper G.I. testing, without too much out of pocket on our part. I had pretty involved root canal surgery (pretty involved meaning the dentist had to send me, mid treatment, to an endodontist). That procedure had us paying $800 ourselves. It's not your imagination; dental work is like buying solid gold.

Our premiums jumped almost $200 per year. Finally, we just couldn't afford it anymore. We tried another insurance company, but for what we could afford, we got almost no coverage. We finally opted for no insurance at all, which to me in particular was very scary. I'd never been in this situation before.

Things began to get dicey when Michael was diagnosed with diabetes. Doctor office visits alone cost us $90. with the required (and frequent!) bloodwork averaging upwards of $200. We just bumbled along the best we could, paying cash and living that fabulous, tight lifestyle too many Americans 'enjoy.'

Last December, I started to experience some unwanted female issues. Panicking because I knew I needed to see the doctor (I hadn't had a pap in 5 years, but my mammograms were covered by the Susan Koman foundation, so I had them faithfully every spring), Michael and I started looking for affordable health care again. Finding nothing, we decided to get coverage through our employer. Alas, open enrollment wasn't for several months. When we were FINALLY able to enroll, we discovered our monthly premiums would eat up a large chunk of our already stretched thin paychecks. Michael had no other option but to start to work overtime, just to cover the $600 monthly premium. We also upped our AFLAC coverage to the maximum, and THAT alone has paid fabulous dividends. That cost an additional $40 monthly.

Aflac pays us $25 each for 6 doctor appointments per year. It was nice to receive those checks. I am anticipating my hysterectomy/bladder surgery October 18th, and since I will stay in the hospital, at least overnight, AFLAC will pay me for that, too. I can't begin to tell you how much that will help our family.

Your family's health outlook is probably much different than mine. Hence, health insurance is a very personal thing. I don't think you can make sweeping generalizations and try to fit everyone into the same health insurance box. What I CAN tell you is that it's not an area you can blow off. You need to do your research, and you need to find out exactly what you must pay out of pocket, both for monthly premiums and uncovered medical expenses. Having done all of that, if you decide you absolutely cannot afford health insurance, you owe it to yourself to somehow find a way to start a savings account, so you will have money on hand to help, should a medical emergency arise.

I share my experiences in hopes it might help you.

By the way, you may be wondering why I didn't mention my kids' coverage. They have always been covered by their father's plan, and just recently, their sweet bonus mom.

Digging For The Good Stuff

This little jewel was buried under uninteresting stuff!

Like gold and diamond miners, sometimes you gotta really dig for the valuable bling! Seriously, when was the last time you saw diamonds lining your sidewalks, or those same sidewalks secured by gold? I thought so.

I stopped in at Plato's Closet the other night. A half hour away from my house, when I get to stop there, I really do a dig, as I don't know when the next visit will be. Plato's gets so many things in, their racks and bins are always a mess, no matter how much they straighten.

Instead of doing a quick perusal of the store, I stopped and dug into the bins at the register, where they put loose bracelets and rings. Nothing on top looked good to me, so I started picking things up so I could look allll the way under the top layer. Result? That gorgeous tortoise shell bracelet, plus two others that are fabulous, yet were unseen at first glance.

Bolstered by these finds, I strolled over to check out the handbags. Oh, my goodness. What a MESS!

Looking at (again) that top layer, nothing interested me. The mess was pretty overwhelming. Wait, what was that? A beautiful gold chain? I dug and dug and unearthed a breathtaking gold purse! Who has 2 thumbs and has wanted a large gold tote/handbag for forever? THIS GIRL! The icing on the cake? A $10 price tag! SOLD!

My 3 bracelets and purse cost me a grand total of $20 and tax. I was thrilled, and once again convinced that digging for the good stuff pays off!!

We don't always have time for a dig like that. You may be running into a thrift store on your lunch hour, or on the way to another appointment. That's ok, sometimes the good stuff IS out in the open. If you get the chance though, give your resale shops a good dig every now and then.

You'll be richly rewarded.

Financial Setbacks: The Musical

Checks still get written......because life goes on.

Just like there will be rain on your parade, and ants in your picnic basket, life is full of twists, turns, disappointments and heartaches. The best laid plans can be reduced to gibberish on a piece of paper. You pray, you plan, you execute......and then you go over the first hill of life's roller coaster.

It's inevitable, folks.

This past summer, I posted a blog about how selling our boat resulted in us being able to pay off our debt, and look forward to a fabulous, SOLVENT senior year for Claire. I posted that not to brag, but to provide hope......that it can be done.

We had one blessed month of breathing easier and living like normal folks with liquid assets. Michael bought Claire and I Kindles for our birthdays. He was able to purchase two guns he had wanted for a very long time. We went out to dinner, and didn't have to sweat the total on the bill. It was a heady, brief period in our lives.

Four weeks later, we learned that our monthly income would be reduced by $850. This is a sizeable amount, unless you're a Rockefeller. We had budgeted using that amount, and now we were faced with being tight monetarily again. We had done everything right, but stuff happens that's out of our control.

How many times have you heard that scenario? Things are going great, then someone loses their job. A loved one gets cancer. A divorce, death, move across the country........stressful, but so common place.

How do you react when life hits you with a biggie like that?

I'm a Christian, and so are my husband and daughter. I know we're watched like hawks by our friends and family who are not. How do we respond to the rough stuff? 'Oh sure,' they say. 'It's so easy to act like a Christian when everything's going well. How about when the bottom drops out?' Well, it's a big responsibility. How DO we respond?

Just about everyone knows who Job is, in the Bible. An upright, Godly, rich man, Satan got permission from God to have a field day with him, and as a result, he lost his 10 children and all his earthly goods. Then, Satan struck him with horrible boils. Curse God and die? Probably sounded pretty good after all that. However, Job refused, and in the end, God gave him more than he'd originally had. You better believe everyone in the area was waiting to see how Job would handle such atrocities. He came through with flyling colors.

At this point, I will confess: initially, I didn't feel like responding to our financial setback in a Godly manner. Frankly, I wanted to hire a hitman. I wanted to scream and yell and throw things and inflict pain. Just seeing my poor daughter struggle with the realization that senior year might be a bit more lean than we wanted was enough to send me into the rages all over again.

We still have our moments of feeling hopeless and angry, but it's getting better. Once you work through the initial anger, you start to regroup. Plans gets changed, but life goes on.

And then, a strange thing happened.

I noticed that God was providing just what we needed, at just the right time. Like the manna in the desert that God gave every day for the Israelites to eat, every single need was met with just the right amount of money. Human nature being what it was, I wanted to have enough money to sock away, to 'hoard,' to ensure we could provide for ourselves. What often happens when you have a surplus? You begin to believe the lie that YOU are taking care of you, NOT God. He doesn't want our family to fall into this trap, and so, we must rely on Him for every single thing we need. Talk about true Christianity. We can't pay lip service to our faith......'oh yes, we're relying completely on the Lord, and we have $100K in the bank.' Nope. 100% reliance on God. 'If You don't come through for us, Lord, we won't make it.'

Now, I realize that I'm writing to the Christians out there. I'm sure a bunch of you are nodding your heads in agreement. But, I'm also writing to YOU, my non-Christian blog reader. You may not believe in God, or you may be an agnostic.......one who only believes what can be proven. Well, I lay open my life as proof that God exists. He not only exists, He provides.

Relying on The Lord for our finances. Living the Thriftnerd credo. It works for us :)

I Don't Have Time To Cook!

Sometimes we really don't! Having to drive straight from work to school to extracurricular activities and meetings really cuts down on the time you can spend in the kitchen. However, how many times do we use this excuse as a cop-out?

Last night, I put it to the test.

After taking Claire to school for play practice and the football game, I had about 2 hours time before Michael came home from work. I suddenly had the desire to cook him a very good meal. Something healthy but filling, as Michael is diabetic and we're both trying to watch our food intake.

I went to the store and bought Alaskan salmon patties. $8 for a box of 4.......kinda pricey, but have you eaten salmon at a restaurant lately? Yikes! I picked up two good sized sweet potatoes, a sugar free apple pie, and sugar free butter pecan ice cream. $17 and change.

Back home, I had fresh brocoli in the fridge. I steamed it while I cooked the sweet potatoes in the microwave, and baked the salmon patties. Everything was almost ready when Michael walked through the door. 10 minutes later, I served him a delicious dinner he was very grateful to eat!


2 hours from start to finish, and less than $20 total for two complete, two course meals.

I'm glad I decided to pull the dinner together myself, instead of giving into being tired after a long, hard week, and justifying another meal out. Our checkbook and our waistlines agreed!

Exercising: Free and Cheap and No Excuses!!

Except for the early 80's, when my mother and I belonged to a gym called Spa Lady, I have always been an advocate of exercising at home. I prefer it that way, actually. Even at my fittest, working out next to someone who might be more buff or athletic than me is SUCH a buzzkill. I need to protect my delicate psyche any way I can :)

Walking is the best. Next comes running. Obviously you have to work up from walking to running. Skip that first step and I'll see you at the ER.

At home weight sets rock too. Breaking a sweat in the basement by yourself is cool. Don't lift more than humanly possible, especially if you're by yourself. Again, ER visit.

Treadmills, stationary bikes, all good. Of course, there is the initial cost involved for at home gym equipment. If you actually use it and see results, that's money well spent.

My favorite at home workout was always a VCR tape. Denise Austin was my girl! After having Brendan and Claire, I had to work hard to get back into shape, and I loved Denise's tapes. She's not everyone's cup of tea, and I appreciate that. I'm not a Tony Little fan; in fact, he makes me grind my teeth. I've heard Denise has the same effect on some folks.

Anyway, I had quite a collection of Denise Austin videos. My favorite was her 'Sizzler' workout. Talk about a sweatfest! That thing had me seeing Jesus about halfway through, every time I used it. Effective? You bet your cellulite.

I replaced my 'Sizzler' tape several times, as I used it so much I wore it out. After that, my VCR pooped out, and we didn't replace it.

Most videos are now being made as DVDS. Not the 'Sizzler.' Doesn't make sense, and I did the appropriate amount of mourning.

Mourn no more, sweet, out of shape Erin. Just go to YouTube.

No longer just the website of choice for cute kitten videos, or about a million versions of the Miley Cyrus/VMA debacle, YouTube is EXCELLENT for viewing free workout videos! Guess what's there? That's right, my beloved 'Sizzler,' along with almost every other video and DVD Denise Austin ever made.

There are really NO MORE excuses for not exercising, babe. If it's important enough, you'll find the time :P