Oh, hi…
Posted on July 17th, 2007 by kimc
Hubby was away manning the Vision Forum book table at a homeschool conference in California and the kids and I got busy doing a whole lotta nuthin’ this time - not like the last time he went out of town.
We did, however, accomplish the following:
- Went grocery shopping. Remember doughnut day? Maybe we should call it D-Day.
- Finished mudding, sanding and painting the last of 3 closets.
- Installed the closet organizer and arranged everything to our liking. Yay, Rubbermaid Configurations! I have to admit, I got mine on sale for a whole lot less.
- Finally did a bunch of age-old errands that I had put off for way too long. Yes, Tracy, I’m talking about you.
- Missed my hubby like crazy.
- Added a 3rd cellphone to the house, so I can leave some of the children for quick errands. We don’t have a house phone, so this was important to us - and it costs less than a house line. I keep repeating the following to the kids: “It’s not the kid phone; it’s the extra phone. Say it with me: Extra phone. No, you can’t play games on it.”
- Replaced my own cell phone with one that has an incredible camera and mp3 capability. I should be able to plug it right into the van stereo so the kids and I can listen to
musicaudio bookssermons, lectures and other edifying materials on the go. - Weed-eated. Weed-ate. Ate weeds. Whatever. The ants ate us every time we hit an ant hill, and that was quite a bit. I think the ants may have eaten more than the weedeater, but the yard looks nice again and Deanna and I got a nice upper body workout.
- Did I mention missing my hubby?
- Moved some major fixtures in the yard: the compost pile and the dog kennel. Neither was a pretty site but they’re much less unpretty now, mainly because they’re harder to see in their new places.
- We also moved a whole lot of stray rocks in one section of the yard. Why do they call this the Texas Hill Country? The rocks outnumber the hills by a million to one. I would suggest we call it the Texas Rock Country, but then it begins to sound like a music style.
- Picked up Hubby at the airport and gave him a big ole smooch. I missed him.
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Filed under: sweet lovin'
Sounds like you accomplished a lot. All things on my list too.
Good for you! Wow!
Pardon me for being personal… but I am amazed at how you make ends meet with eight kids and your husband working one job. Is Texas as good as I have heard?
We live in NY with four kids and one income and.. let’s just say that everyone here remarks about our “big” family and marvel that we can still feed our kids with one income. It is truly very hard to scratch out a living in NY, esp with a “big” family. I wonder how NY compares with other states.
Mrs. Mecomber,
Sometimes it’s a bit tricky, but quite honestly I don’t think a large family costs much more to raise than a small family - or a couple w/no children at all. Much of the difference is in lifestyle: we don’t have the house all to ourselves, we drive a larger vehicle (and pay for more gas!), rent videos instead of going to the theater, and cook from scratch rather than eating out frequently.
We’ve always been able to get by on a modest salary w/o great hardship because we don’t feel entitled to cable TV, 2 late model vehicles, and a house with at least one bedroom for every 2 people.
A while back I posted about our household expenses and the cost of raising kids.
Regarding the cost of living in Texas: yes, San Antonio has a low cost of living compared to much of the country and New York is very high. So it’s not all in the household budget. You can run a comparison by searching google compare cost of living.” It’s an eye-opener!
I could use a good post, written in words composed for a bear of very little brain, on figuring out how to get the best deal on cell phone plans . The MP3 part interests me greatly.
Mrs Mecomber, we have seven children and my husband is retired Air Force- enlisted, not officer. We have always lived on one income, and we have done it in places like Alaska, Washington State, and Colorado, where the cost of living is quite high. Some places it’s been easier than others, and some places the specific frugalities have been different. I recommend the Tightwad Gazette’s and Kim’s Frugal Blogroll over on the sidebar.=)
Thank you, ladies, for your input! I am proud to say that I am a very frugal lady, and we have no a/c, no cable, we never eat out, I don’t buy new clothes, etc. We live modestly. I think it is the very high cost of living that gets us here in NY.
Probably half– and I am not overestimating– of our income goes to taxes here, be it sales tax, property, school, and the multitude of “fees” and “surcharges” that make NYers hate NY. In the past, it was always high, but tolerable, but now it has been creeping up. Property tax in my county doubled in 5 years. I guess we are like the frog in the pan of boiling water with that…
Utiities are outrageous here. We probably pay $4,000+ a year for natural gas and electric. Don’t ask about the water bill or gasoline prices!
I love reading about people from other places. I love learning about how they make things work. I do wonder how things are in other states! I think NY should get over its uber-ego “Empire State” mentality and start following the other states who are doing so much better.
Yes, Kim, I agree that raising kids is not as expensive as some of those “family-haters” say it is! Does every kid need a brand new crib, stroller, clothes, etc?? NO!
Mrs. M,
Property taxes, yikes! Now that I think of it, the places we lived with the highest cost of living, we didn’t own any property and were blessed to be able to rent something that had long been paid for by the owner, so he didn’t need quite the same price somebody with a loan on the rental property did.
*snort* Texas Rock Country…that was hilarious!
My hubby is heading on a business trip soon…pray that I get half as much done as you did…zowie.
Living in WA State is *very* expensive, but I think that our main cost (family of ten, which includes my dad who lives with us now) is groceries. I’m not a good shopper (I adore grocery shopping), and I spend too much. But in every other way we cut back and budget and skimp. It’s good.
I wish that we paid less mortgage, too. A while back we were thinking of downsizing to a 3 BR, 1200 sf home, but in the end it didn’t work out…the crazy thing is that with housing prices what they are today, the asking price was exactly what we paid 8 years ago for our 6 BR, 3400 sf house on 5 acres (where we still live). There is not even a way, really, to downsize to reduce our mortgage…It’s crazy, I tell ya. (Course, that’s what folks thought we were for wanting to downsize so severely, but they just didn’t understand where that desire comes from…)
~Karen