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Jun 23, 2014    |       11 comments

Toddler Party by the Numbers

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We had a great time this weekend spending time with friends and celebrating our girls’ second birthday! Spoiler alert: the party definitely made us go over on our grocery budget this month. We tried to go cheap, but it still cost more than our normal weekly grocery budget would allow.

I’m going to give you the financial run-down of the party (all costs, etc.), but first let me show you our cake.

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Homemade strawberry cake with strawberry cream cheese icing. That was as good as it gets with my level of (in)experience. Funny story real quick…..I made the cake in three layers. I let them cool properly, but tried to assemble all at once (instead of one layer, then refrigerate to harden icing and “set”, then next layer, etc.). Once the icing was all on and the layers were assembled, I could immediately see there was going to be a problem. The cake was…leaning. A lot. Then one side completely blew out.

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I put it in the fridge to “harden up” the icing. After a couple hours, I kind of shoved the side of the cake back in and iced over the side so you couldn’t see the total disaster. I tried my hand at some lettering which also didn’t go great. But it was a fun process and made some funny memories to look back on.

Still tasted good…cupcakes

So without further adieu, here are the numbers of how much the party cost:

 

Decorations:

Crepe paper = $1

Balloons = $5

Total Cost = $6

 

Paperware:

Cups = $1

Plates = $2

Cutlery = .50

Napkins = $1

Total Cost = $4.50

 

Food:

Chicken Sausages = $12 (8 links, bought from meat counter at Sprouts, $3.50/lb.)

Turkey hot dogs = $2.50 (8 links, 1 pkg @ 2.50/pkg.)

All beef hot dogs = $5.00 (16 links, 2 pkgs @ 2.50/pkg.)

Bacon = $7.00 (bought from meat counter at Sprouts, $5.50/lb)

Total Meat Cost = $26.50

 

Jalapenos, tomatoes, cilantro, onion = $7

Mustard, Mayo = $3

Guacamole = $10

Cheese = $5

Total Toppings/Condiments Cost = $25

 

Chips and Salsa = $5

Pinto Beans = $5

Fruit (mangoes, pineapple, banana, blueberries, watermelon) = $15

Total Sides Cost = $25

 

Pantry items used for making and icing a cake + candles from store = $5

Tea = $1

Beer = $12

Hot dog buns = 9

Total “other” item costs = $27

TOTAL FOOD COSTS = $103.50

 

TOTAL PARTY COST = $114

Of course, some of these things we already had on hand (some of the fruit, tea bags for iced tea, some of the condiments), but I tried to estimate as best I could the total cost, even if I didn’t purchase the item this week. I like to err on the side of caution, so I would probably add a couple extra bucks and say the full cost of the party was probably about $120ish.

We never really made a budget for the party so I don’t know what I expected. On one hand, I feel like a hundred twenty bucks for a birthday party isn’t terrible. On the other hand, I look at the cost of food items and think I went overboard again. We had a LOT of extra food and I surely could have saved money by buying cheaper stuff (e.g., pre-packaged chicken sausages and bacon instead of the fresh butcher-counter stuff). For a “hot dog” party, it was pretty pricey (though, to be fair, I won’t eat the cheap Oscar Meyer hot dogs so I splurged with the more expensive, all beef and nitrate-free franks).

At least the food isn’t wasted – we can eat it this week to save on groceries. This will be necessary because the party put us over on our grocery budget for the month (we’re already out of money with over a week to go!), so I have to institute a no-spend week for the remainder of the month.

Financially speaking, it could have gone better but it also could have been worse. The total cost though (let’s say $120ish) made me think….should I have this as part of my monthly savings? Putting aside $10/month would hardly impact our budget, but it would certainly help save the budget for the one month a year with the girls’ birthday.

What do you do to budget for children’s birthdays? Do you save a little money monthly?

Do you have a set limit on what you spend on children’s birthdays? If so, what is it?

Jun 23, 2014    |       10 comments

Employment Update

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I’d last written about my job situation a couple months ago (here, if you need an refresher). Recall that I work primarily for 2 universities (online teaching for University A and research for University B), plus I make a small amount of additional income from doing textbook reviews, selling things online, and whatever else I an hustle up.

The main thing to know is that I’m a contract employee. As such, it’s a “given” that your contract can end at any time.

Well University A (where I teach online) has been going great. We’re full swing into the summer semester. I have to do a little budget-planning because my pay is split into two lump sums: one in June, and the other in July (even though the semester goes into August). No biggie, just requires a bit of pre-planning because I don’t think I’ll get my first Fall teaching paycheck until September (meaning, no pay in August, even though I’ll still be working).

University B (where I do research)…..not so great. I mentioned in my first employment situation post that University A feels very secure while University B…not so much.

Well, surprise of surprises – I haven’t worked for University B in about 3 weeks. I’m not going to lie, it’s a major bummer as I really enjoyed this work and its relatively easy in terms of research projects. Let me give a little background into my employment situation with University B.

University B has several large, government-funded research grants. Many of these grants come from the Department of Defense (DoD). The DoD will commission University B to do research on “XYZ” (not going into specifics, as some of this information is actually classified). Often there is a short turnaround requested. So the DoD may say, “Hey, we need this research report brief done within 30 days, and a longer research report within 90 days.” I have lots of experience with this type of thing so University B will come to me and ask if I’m interested in working on the project. The problem is, when the project ends that’s it. It’s over. Luckily, the DoD is always furthering their knowledge so there are often back-to-back requests. This is what I’ve been doing since I first started working with them (I think I started in September last year??) Sometimes there are a couple weeks between projects and sometimes multiple projects are overlapping. However, I’ve never gone this long between projects. It makes me worried they may not need my help (or there may be no current requests, funds could have run out, or a myriad of other reasons why I haven’t been contacted recently).

So remember when I talked about “getting a raise” (by teaching more classes for University A)? Well, I’m especially thankful for the additional work right now. It won’t end up with me making additional money, but it ends up where the funds I had made from University B will be covered by my extra class, so at least my income won’t decrease as a result of loosing this extra employment.

So that’s all – just wanted to give an update on my employment status.

Update: I had written this post early last week and, at the end of the week, I was contacted with a new research request from University B. Woohoo!! I still don’t think my work with University B is as dependable as with University A, but I’m thankful to have it. I really do enjoy it a lot. Working directly with the DoD is great because, as a researcher, you really feel like you’re making an impact that matters (as opposed to more theoretical or basic research that may not have an immediate application).

As a related question…for those who have worked in similar situations (contract-based jobs that are not necessarily “steady”), what would you have done in my situation? If you don’t hear from people for awhile do you reach out to them? That’s what my husband was telling me to do, but it felt weird….almost like I’m “begging” for more work. But it could just be considered proper etiquette to keep in touch. What do you think???

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