Blogging Away Debt

Update: Read below for my original post. But the day after I wrote this, I was offered a significant enough local contract to decide to stay put. It’s not enough to pay the bills yet, but it is enough to make staying put the best decision financially for now. We will be going with Option 2 for the time being as far as housing goes; the kids are thrilled for a number of reasons! I won’t start the new contract until sometime in March so still scrimping to get by for now…but I am so grateful.

As of May 1st we will be homeless, meaning we must move out of our current apartment and without a job, I will not be able to qualify for any other housing. This has been a HUGE stressor for me since learning about it in December.

You’ve probably figured out by now that I am willing and open to most anything as long as I have some time to get used to it. I’m very open to thinking outside the box. So here is what the plan is currently:

Option 1: If by April 1st, I do not have a job that keeps us here (or forces us to move elsewhere):

We will be packing most of our stuff and putting it in storage. We will then hit the road to travel for 4-6 weeks, staying mostly with family and camping. I currently have a route mapped out which takes us across the center of the US via St. Louis and Denver, down the California coastline and then to my parents in Texas via New Orleans. I hope to take the kids to the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and other places that they might not otherwise see, some I haven’t seen. We will then return to VA for the summer while I continue looking for a job and doing odd jobs. Income at this time will consist of adoption assistance for the twins and my part time income from my current part time job. Yes, we will have gas expenses, but we will no longer have rent, utilities and several other monthly bills. It will not be a luxurious trip, but I think it will be a lot of fun. We are calling this plan….The Nomad Experience! See below on where we will live when we return to VA.

Option 2: If I have a job by April 1st that requires us to stay here and/or when we return from the Nomad Experience:

A family friend with quite a bit of land and a couple RVs has offered to let us live on their land in a 10 person RV (where they have a hook up for water and electricity) for FREE. So we will be putting most of our stuff in storage when we have to leave the apartment and moving with just the necessities to the RV at least temporarily – I am thinking the first two months of the summer.

Now obviously, if I get a job out of state, etc. we will move there and rent a place. But since our #1 goal is to stay here if at all possible, this free living situation will either 1) let us live here while I continue to look for a job or ideally 2) let us live for a couple of months on a much smaller budget letting me catch up and get ahead a bit.

So right now…that is the housing plan come May. RV living is certainly not ideal but with far less stuff, a summer with activities and the twins working and driving themselves, I think it will be manageable and even a fun adventure. Did I mention the land we will be living on has sheeps, pigs, goat, chickens, turkeys…how fun will that be? Or at least a new experience for my city dwelling kids!

First Children’s Activity!

by Ashley

It’s been awhile since I’ve brought up the issue of paying for organized kid’s activities.

Our twins are now a little over 3.5 years old. They’ll turn 4 this June. And, to date, we have never enrolled them in a single organized children’s activity. We started our debt-reduction mission nearly 2 years ago (when they were only 18 months old) and, at the time, I didn’t feel like they were missing out on anything. I have several friends who’ve enrolled their kids in all kinds of activities even from infancy (e.g., MyGym, tot & me dance/gymnastics, swim, etc.). But at that young age, I preferred to save the money and really didn’t think we were missing out on anything.

Last April I mentioned that I was seriously considering enrolling the girls in swim lessons. At the time, however, they were attending the JCC for childcare. Over the summer the JCC did free swim lessons as part of their daily curriculum, so that satisfied me. However, looking back, the summer swim lessons weren’t the best. It was taught by certified lifeguards, but it included entire class groups of about 18 kids at a time, so a good deal of the time kids were just sitting on the steps waiting for their turn. There wasn’t a lot of actual instruction on a per-student basis. That was totally fine at the time (plus it was free!), but it means our kids still don’t know even the basics of water safety (e.g., how to grab the edge if they fall in, how to float, etc.).

Given our upcoming Cruise and all the time we’ll be spending around water, swim lessons were high on my radar at the beginning of the year of something I wanted to look into. At the end of January I did a lot of research and found a swim school nearby that’s reasonably priced and has great reviews. I officially enrolled the girls 2 weeks ago and their first lesson was this past Saturday.

The girls LOVED it!

They’re in classes that are capped at 4 people (though their first class only had 3 kids) so there’s tons of individual attention. The instructor was very friendly and made the lesson so fun.

We have 12 lessons between now and our cruise sail date and, although I’m not expecting full swimmers by any means, I’m hopeful that will be enough time for them to learn basic life-saving measures so that I’ll feel a little more comfortable around so much water on our cruise.

The total cost for one lesson per week is $65/month (per child). This seemed to be a pretty competitive rate in our area. By comparison, I saw some rates that were literally double this amount.

But I do have a question for readers. Now that we’re opening this door (the door of children’s activities)….how do you account for it in your budget? I was going to include it as an “Entertainment” line item, but it almost seems like it warrants its own category. Thoughts?

Also….this just opened the door to a whole world of children’s activities. Soccer, Dance, Swim, Karate, Gymnastics, Oh my! I can just envision them in little tutus or soccer cleats and my heart wants to burst!

I am determined, at this point, to keep our activities to a maximum of one at a time. I do NOT want to be running them to a different activity every night of the week! Plus our budget (and my time/sanity) wouldn’t allow it! But it’s already making me look forward to whatever activity comes next. They’re still young so there’s plenty of time, but it’s so much fun seeing the excitement in a child’s face as they’re exposed to something new. I could definitely see myself (if I weren’t on the debt-reduction mission) going ahead and enrolling them in multiple activities at a time.

Parents – any experience with swim classes? How does this rate compare to what you’ve paid in the past? What activities do you enroll your child(ren) in? How do you account for children’s activities in your budget?

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Housing – It’s All in Name and Our Plan

First Children’s Activity!