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May 14, 2014    |       4 comments

House Party – Playing Hostess

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Last week, I hosted a party for two of my friends who are selling things…I’ve NEVER played hostess for one of these things before.  I actually did it on a “bet” per se.  A month or so ago, I went to a friend’s party and before I would purchase any product (I went saying I wouldn’t, but I wanted to support her venture,) I had to see it work at my house.  She showed up the next day with her personal supplies in hand and AMAZED me.

norwax--table

I don’t take the best pictures, but this is the before and after of my all wood, farmhouse table that is our kitchen table, school table, craft table, just about everything table. Everything happens on this table.  It’s about 5 years old (a post marriage split purchase) and is covered in paint, glue, and a variety of other things that just won’t come up.  We have tried all sorts of cleaners, scraped it, etc. but either varnish comes off or it just doesn’t work.  When I saw her product work with very little effort, I was hooked.  And then she showed me what it would do to my glass top stove and shower.  So I purchased and I ate my words and said I would host a party for her.  So here we are.

I added my second friend who also just started selling a complimentary product 1) because it is a complementary product and 2) because I wanted to support her and didn’t think I could pull off two such house party type things.  I did check with each and make sure they were okay with it, and they were.  Yeah!

Ok, so hosting a house party can be expensive especially if I did it like I’ve seen my friends do it.  They have a cleaning service come in, buy a ton of food and alcohol, etc.  So I was terribly worried about all this for a couple of reasons….1) I am not hiring a cleaning service; 2) I don’t drink alcohol at all, never have, so not only did I have no clue on how to buy alcohol if I wanted too but I don’t have the glasses (or stemware as I was told) to serve it; 3) food, OMG, what in the world would I serve?!

So here is how I tackled my dilemmas:

  1. I paid my kids to clean the house.  Yes, it’s not as clean as a professional service, but it is clean to our standards, and I’m proud of the job they did, and they are happy with the money they made.
  2. I asked the two women that I was hosting the party for to cover the alcohol issue.  They both drink, have stemware and are aware that I am clueless and even a little uncomfortable with alcohol in general.  (It helps that one lives across the street so wasn’t labor intensive to move stemware.)
  3. I spent the last couple of weeks researching good snacks that I could make at home and again enlisted the kids to help with preparation.  We even fit it into our weekly grocery budget so no extra money spent.

So out of pocket was the housecleaning money to my kids (who as you recall, gave up their allowances last month.)  As the “hostess” I get free products based on what others buy so I didn’t actually have to purchase anything.  And to top it off, had a really great night with my girlfriends!

Now this is the way to have a house party!

May 14, 2014    |       24 comments

I’m Not Here Today

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I’m playing hooky from life today…well, really last night through tomorrow afternoon!  One of the downsides to homeschooling for my older two is that they miss some of the social aspects of public school, read dances!  So last night a large homeschool group in our extended area hosted a once a year formal. And to make it even more cool is that it is hosted at the local Great Wolf Lodge!  And to make it even more economical, they negotiate these outrageously cheap rates for homeschool families for the entire week!

So, since all the expenses for this month’s travel have already been saved and planned for, I blew the budget a bit and reserved a room for two nights.  We got here yesterday afternoon and enjoyed the water park before the boys had to get ready for formal.  Then today, we are spending the entire day just hanging out together with other homeschool families we know and enjoying Great Wolf.    We’ll resume our regular schedule tomorrow!

The cost breakdown:

Amazing 1 bedroom suite (typically $309 per night) @ $161 per night (all taxes and feeds included in that number) – this includes 6 passes to the water park for 3 days *I paid for one night to reserve the room in April, so only 1/2 comes out of this months budget

Breakfast buffet @ $50 for two ornings – ordered this with the reservation to get the discounted rate

Formal – $70 per ticket (these were paid last month so not coming out of this months budget.)

Formal clothes – nada!  The boys both wore suits they received last year for Easter and neither took a date so no flowers necessary.

Other food – we brought a ton of food from home as we have a kitchnette in our suite and will be doing lunches, dinners here.  I did budget enough for one meal out, but am not sure we’ll use it as most of the other homeschooling families are picnicking it as well.

So yes, I broke the budget this month, but I’m so glad I did.  My older boys are really finding a good group of positive friends in the homeschoooling community, they got to dress up and go to a dance and we will have had an amazing couple of days as a family.

 

 

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