Everyone I know this year, including Santa, is broke. Times are tighter, across the board, as I have ever seen them. It's not just slimmer for those in the real estate industry, nor for just the businesses directly affected by real estate like banking, finance, building, etc. It's everyone. All of the stay at home moms I know are getting part time and/or seasonal jobs just to decorate the tree this year. All of a sudden, moms are showing up in droves to Substitute at the schools. Several of the already full time working dads are getting second jobs. One of my neighbors now delivers pizzas in the evenings, and on weekends, after his regular job. Another neighbor mentioned that they recently turned in all of the families cell phones, & got rid of cable. Everyone is worried about what kind of Christmas this is going to be for the kids! Does anyone out there have any great economical Cristmas gift ideas?
I recently watched an Oprah episode that featured the money expert, Suze Ormond. She got me thinking about our finances. This particular interview was on talking to kids about money. It, of course, greatly depends on how much your kids understand money, how old they are, how mature, etc. But, mine are almost 9 and 11 years old. Very ready and able to understand. I did not get into the nitty gritty of explaining exactly how much we earn, nor exactly what the bills are but I simply explained that money was pretty tight right now. I explained briefly about the economy, that it was tough all over right now. I explained that it was nothing they did, nor anything we did. It just was. I asked for their thoughts and ideas on how we could all help. Dad plugged all of our expenses for the last couple of months into Quicken. We could not believe how much we were wasting. Now, realize that we consider ourselves pretty darn thrifty. We have our kids download the school lunch menu each Sunday night. They get to pick one day to buy school lunch that week. The other four days they have to brown bag it! We yard sale, and even hit thrift stores prior to shopping for clothes. I know, child abuse, right? But, when dad came up with an average of us spending $300 per month on...welll, nothing really (McDonalds drive thru, Wendy's, a cash withdrawal here or there, kids lunch money, etc..) we were shocked! Suze Ormond calls this the "Latte Factor." Only we're not even Latte people.
So, during that talk with the kids, I explained that I was planning to buy more "to-go" items (pre-packaged chips, nutri-grain bars, yogurts, apple sauces, goldfish, etc.) and we were all going to be brown bagging it, full time, until things got better. Well, the kids took it all in stride. Both suggested having their next birthday parties at home vs Chuck E Cheeses or whereever else. One offered to give up their allowance for a while. The other didn't offer that... but quickly offered to do more chores for the same amount of allowance. (I had to laugh at that one...does anyone else see a potential Realtor there?) We stopped going out to eat altogether. I grabbed sodas out of the frig on my way out the door rather than hitting the drivethru. My husband withheld from purchasing any new videogames. I nixed my manis/pedis for the time being. And, the kids did well. They were well into their third week of brown bagging it when they came to me, telling me they were both soooo bored with taking their lunch and eating at home. So, one night, we were truly running behind anyhow and I knew I would not have any time to make dinner at home before getting them to Scouts. We were already out and about running some must-do errands at the Walmart on Hwy 70 in Clayton. So, I splurged and got the kids dinner from Subway on our way out of the store. No big deal, right? It was not even unhealthy or a sit down meal. But, let me tell you.. you would have thought that it was Christmas! Those kids oooh'd and ahhh'd so much. Kept saying how good it was. They even thanked me! It was amazing to me how much more they appreciated something that was so ordinary when they had not had it in a while.
Somehow, even with this new realization of the economy, money, etc... I'm thinking homemade coupons for a ride to the mall, or a movie rental just aren't going to thrill the kids the same way that dinner did! Finance friendly Christmas gift ideas, anyone?
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