We have a big girl in the house!

I am doing a happy dance!! My 3 year old is finally potty trained. I am excited, my db is excited and I believe my dd is excited. The sound of "tinkle in the toilet" is the sweetest sound on earth.

I really tried not to push the subject because she was just not interested especially after her baby sister was born. She wanted to be a baby too and she told me so. This past Monday night before bedtime I asked my 3yo to help me "teach" my 9mo to sit on the potty. I put the 3yo on the big potty and my 9 1/2 mo on the potty trainer. This trainer plays music when the child pees in it. I sat on the floor and the three of us sat for awhile and all of the sudden the potty trainer started to play music. My 9 1/2 mo pee' d in the potty. Of course she had no idea what she had done, but her big sister knew and it must of made an impression because she started wearing her big girl panties the very next day.

Although yesterday when we were at the mall she very nicely told me that she had to pee in the potty - yikes - our first public bathroom experience - I guess you have to be careful for what you wish for. LOL. The bathroom was clean and we made it just in time.

Great Giveaways at Simplemom.net

Simplemom.net is having a week of giveaways and here are three that you definitely need to check out. But hurry because the giveaway will end on Monday, February 2 at noon.

1. "NeatReceipts is a hardware/software combo that allows users to scan, organize and digitize all their paper receipts and financial documents, and automates the tax preparation process." One lucky Simplemom reader will win one of these devices. Click here for details.

2. My family never leaves home without our water bottles filled with our filtered tap water. No store bought water for us. One lucky Simplemom reader will win a family pack of water bottles from BioGreen Bottles. Click here for details.

3. And finally, 3 lucky Simplemom winners will win an entire box of Little Debbie's 100 calorie line. Click here for details.

Good Luck!

Jump-start your retirement with Kiplinger magazine

Do you need some FREE financial advice? Who doesn't?? Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine is once again joining with the National Assoc. of Personal Financial Advisers to sponsor Kiplinger's Jump-Start your Retirement Plan Days. It takes place on Friday, January 30 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST. You can call 888-919-2345 or go online. Click here for more details. What a great FREE opportunity to get your questions answered especially in this difficult economy

Creating your own Family Balance Sheet

My husband and I try to talk once a month about our finances, both personal and for our business. We usually discuss and review our cashflow, budget and any outstanding issues. Because I manage our money for both, I usually run the meeting. A few years ago I created an excel spreadsheet to make reviewing our finances much easier. I titled this spreadsheet, Family Balance Sheet, thus the name of my blog.

Even though I use Quicken and have for over 13 years, I find my spreadsheet much easier for us to review at a glance. On the left side I have 3 categories: #1 - our personal shortterm accounts, such as checking, savings, emergency savings, and health savings accounts. #2 - our retirements accounts and #3 - our business accounts. On the right is a list of liabilities or debts, such as our mortgage, dh's student loan, car loan and any credit card loans. Beside each loan is the monthly payment, total amount of the loan, final payment date, and interest rate. I try to update the balances at the end of every month, but if I can't I definitely update it quarterly.

At the bottom of the page is a list of our 2009 financial goals as a reminder for us and to keep things in prospective. It feels empowering when we can cross items off of our list as being done.

The spreadsheet is quite simple and as soon as I figure out how to post it I will do so. Lately it has been hard to look at some of our balances, especially in our retirement accounts, but on the other hand it is encouraging to see our debts dwindle down. Our balance sheet definitely keeps us focused on our goals.

Do youself and your finances a favor and consider creating your own balance sheet

What's for Dinner? 1/26 - 1/31

Monday - Meatball sandwiches, steamed broccoli
Tuesday - Beef, Cheese Noodle bake, garden salad
Wednesday - Chicken & Asparagus in wine sauce - This is a new recipe for me that I never got to last week. I can't wait to try it.
Thursday - Leftovers
Friday - Spaghetti, garden salad
Saturday - OTE

I have been doing my food shopping on Fridays, so I will plan our Super Bowl menu this week. My dh wants a Mexican theme - yummy!!

Blog Giveaway at Simplemom.net

Mornings are usually very hectic, but one thing that I do every morning while the kiddies are munching on breakfast is read the comics in the newspaper. One of my favorites is Baby Blues. It is hilarious and I have cut out several and posted on my refrigerator.

One of my favorite blogs, Simplemom.net is having a blog giveaway of the latest Baby Blues anthology, Night Shift. There will be 10 lucky winners. Click here for details.

Good Luck!

My Week in Review

We had a great week with our Family Balance Sheet. A few days ago I wrote about how we are going to save over $9000 by refinancing our mortgage. Refinancing our mortgage wasn't on our to-do list this past week, but an email from our bank alerted me of the great rate.

Next week's focus will be to work on our will. I need to do a little online research.



A couple of Thank-yous to some great articles this week that saved me money and time.

1. Thank you to "Cents"able momma.com for reminding me about the Cosmetics class action lawsuit. I bought quite a bit of department store cosmetics and fragrances over the years and I was able to score an Estee Lauder night cream.
2. Last week I wrote about clutter costing me money and I have been working on cleaning up my desk this week. I still have 2 overstuffed filing cabinets that are in desperate need of some attention. One of my favorite sites, My Dollar Plan, wrote a timely article for me, "How Long do we really need to keep those papers?". This will definitely help me as I purge this weekend.

Refinancing our Mortgage will save us $9000!

I received an email last Friday from our primary bank about the 4.99% rates on their 15 year home equity loans. The email also stated NO Prepayment penalties, NO points, and NO closing costs.

We currently have our mortgage in a 15 year home equity loan at 5.74% at a different bank. I quickly ran some numbers using an online calculator. We only have 10.5 years left on our existing loan but if we apply our current payment to the new loan we can pay off our house in less than 8 years and SAVE $9000.

After I ran these numbers I could hardly contain my excitement. On Saturday morning I applied online and received a phone call by 4:30 from the bank that we were approved. The paperwork will be processed this week and then we are on our way to pay down our house even earlier than originally planned!!

When we bought the house in September 2001, our mortgage was a 15 year balloon with a rate of 7.25%. This is the third time that we have refinanced. Is 4.99% as low as we can get? We'll see...I am going to keep my eyes open.

Have you refinanced your home recently? Let me know how you made out.

What's for Dinner?

Sunday - Butternut squash ravioli that I found at BJ's. very yummy. Garden salad.
Monday - Turkey Tamale Potpie , garden salad
Tuesday - Kung Pao Chicken, homemade applesauce
Wednesday - lasagna, garden salad
Thursday - Chicken & Asparagus in wine sauce
Friday - potluck dinner at a friend's house
Saturday - OTE

Is Clutter Costing You Cash?

My home office is located in our basement and it can get pretty cold and lonely down there. There are times when I just don't have the desire to go downstairs to do my work, but I have several jobs to do and this is where I work.


It is no wonder from these photos why I have no desire to go to my office lately. I have really let it go. I've got paper & projects in piles. My wooden IN box is stacked pretty high and ready to topple any minute. I really am not this disorganized, but by the looks of my office I might be a candidate for "Clean House". Well maybe it's not that bad, but it is one of the trouble spots in my house and it turns out my cluttered desk is costing me cash.

Late Fees
I realized this was becoming a problem recently when I found a store credit card bill on my desk the day after it was due. Not again. I did this in the spring right after the birth of my second daughter. I pay off my credit cards every month, but I do use my store cards to get additional discounts at the stores. The bill was lying in one of the piles on my desk instead of where it belongs. I have a "bills to be paid" folder that is supposed to prevent this problem. I had to race to the store with 2 kids in tow to pay the bill. When I received the following month's bill I was appalled, but not surprised by the $35.00 in fees that was charged to me. I immediately called the company and asked very kindly to have the fees reversed stating that this was my first offense and I was only 1 day late in paying the balance off in full. The customer service representative was happy to reverse the fees, but I'm afraid they might not do it for me a second time. And since I don't want to find out I have made a commitment not to let this happen again.




Lost Cash
What you can't see in this picture is the plastic 3-drawer cabinet under my desk that I use to keep office supplies. It had gotten really full of junk & about a year ago we cleaned it out and were amazed at what we found:


1. Over $100 in cash in a bank envelope.


2. $100 gift card from American Express. We were pretty excited that we found this until we called to activate the card and it had long since expired. We couldn't remember the exact year we received the card as a Christmas gift from a family member, but it had been several years.


3. $200 in travellers checks that were in my hubby's name. Thankfully these were not expired, but they were several years old as well.


4. About $50 in loose change.


We netted about $250 from this clean up, but I could not stop obsessing about that $100 gift card that was expired.




Loss of time
Because I have let my office go again, I know I am spending more time looking for missing items and less time tackling the more important things on my financial to-do list, like preparing for our upcoming tax meeting, planning for our 2009 financial goals and even paying bills on time.


So here I am again. My desk is a mess and I'm afraid what I am going to find when I clean it up, but it needs to be done. My oldest is at preschool and my baby is napping soundly so I think I will log off and tackle the piles. I will post an "after" picture once the job is done!

Free mini Mr Clean Magic Eraser

Here is a link for a FREE mini Mr Clean Magic Eraser.

3 Financial Freebies - Act Now!!

I found three fabulous financial freebies that I simply must tell you about.

1. Suze Orman was on Oprah last Thursday, Jan. 8, as part of Oprah's Best Life Series. Suze is offering a FREE download of her new book, "Suze Orman's 2009 Action Plan". Click here for details. After you read the book email me and let me know what you think. I plan on reading it this week. This is a free download until Thursday, January 15.

2. Do you need some FREE financial advice? Who doesn't?? My Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine came in the mail on Thursday and they are once again joining with the National Assoc. of Personal Financial Advisers to sponsor Kiplinger's Jump-Start your Retirement Plan Days. The two days are Tuesday, January 13 and Friday, January 30 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST. You can call 888-919-2345 on these two days. click here for more details. What a great FREE opportunity to get your questions answered especially in this difficult economy.

3. My new favorite TV show is On the Money on CNBC. The host is Carmen Wong Ulrich and she offers some awesome and timely advice on personal finance. As I was watching the other night she offered some FREE workbooks, The New Rules of Personal Finance. Click here to check them out.

These should help us move closer to our 2009 financial goals.

Breaking down my 2009 goals - Part 2

Personal Financial Goals



Since this is a personal finance blog based on our family finances this post should have been number 1, but the gym was calling and I had to write it down so that I would get serious. Besides our financial goals for 2009 need a little more of my time to sort out.



1. First and foremost we need to write a will. Shame on us for not doing this earlier, but now that we have 2 kids it must be our top priority. My first step is to decide if this is something that we should do ourselves or hire a lawyer. I will start researching this week.



2. Secondly we need to start hacking away at my husband's student loan. At 2.75%, the interest is incredibly low, but it is the 800 lb gorilla on our balance sheet. Our goal is to double the payment sometime this year. The exact date is still in question, but it WILL happen this year.



3. We are very good about maxing out our Simple IRAs. This year I would like both of us to max out Roth IRAs.



4. College savings accounts - This is something that I need to educate myself about.



5. Build up our emergency savings - We have an emergency savings account, but it probably isn't large enough especially considering the economy and the fact that we are self-employed.



6. If there is any money left - haha - we want to start a "camper savings" account. I have a feeling this year will be spent in a tent, but we would really like to buy a pop-up camper. This will probably be moved to our 2-5 year goals. In the meantime, my husband is will be drooling over camper catalogs

Breaking down my 2009 Goals - Part 1

The holidays were wonderful, but it feels good to be back on a routine. My oldest daughter is back at preschool and my youngest is napping soundly. I didn't have too much time over the holidays to spend online, but now that we are back on a routine I have a little extra time to spend on my blog.



My 2009 Goal: To find balance in my life and time for family, personal, exercise, business, housework. Isn't this every mom's goal?




Action #1. Rejoin the gym - I suspended my membership last spring right before my second daughter was born. She is now almost 9 months old and I feel more comfortable taking her to the babysitting room. My goal will be to try to get to the gym about 3 times a week. It will feel good to get back into the pool. I am a swimmer so I need a gym to work out and in the winter I run on a treadmill.




I have definitely been slackin'. Before Kids, I did 5ks and sprint triathlons on a regular basis. In fact, 2004, the year before I got pregnant with my oldest, I was in the best shape of my life. But something wonderful happened, I became a mom and I had a hard time fitting in workouts. I took up power walking with the dog and stroller, but it didn't get me to the level of fitness that I was at. Honestly I just didn't have the desire to work-out at that level, but the spark is coming back and I am getting back into the pool!!

Toby

My plan was to post some goals on New Year's Day, but an unfortunate event happened that morning that sent me and my husband into a tailspin. Our beloved dog, Toby, passed away in his sleep. He had a chronic condition that his poor body and soul just couldn't take anymore. We will miss him terribly and I am sobbing as I type this post. He was our first love and we went on to have our two girls. He was such a good boy and excellent with our girls. Rest in peace my love.