The kids and I had such a ball the other day that I want to share it with you. Specifically with those of you who, like me, have never taken part in that great American past-time: garage sale-ing.

Like it or not, the kids are along for this ride.

The kids have been living the get-out-of-debt dream with us for almost a year and a half now. They have adapted beautifully to our family’s new financial values.

They earn their own money each week and we coach them through saving, spending and giving. Very rarely is there any drama or whining about buying something. If you don’t have the money, you can’t buy it. If mom and dad don’t have the money, they don’t buy it either.

It makes sense, of course, to make the most of the spending money we do allocate ourselves. The Wife watches for sales, we minimize the use of paper products and other disposables, and I brew my own beer, for example. But there are dozen of other ways to stretch a dollar.

I have never made the time to visit garage sales.

For some reason I’ve never had an interest in going to garage sales. We have held our own, but most of the people who show up aren’t very pleasant so it never occurs to me to go out and be one of them.

Last weekend, however, with nary a nickel in the budget the kids and I really needed to get out of the house. They had a few dollars in their spend envelopes so I threw them in the car and we headed out looking for those hand-drawn poster boards in the nice end of town.

At each stop the kids got more excited about finding fun things for nearly nothing. A doll for fifty cents, a toy for free (just because they’re so cute). The kids learned quickly the price difference between new and used.

It was also a learning experience for me. People were really pleased to see well-behaved kids with manners show up and walk around their stuff. I didn’t buy anything, nor had I intended to, but when I do get around to replacing my tools I am definitely going to check yard sales first.

Teachable moments popped up everywhere.

In addition to getting past my own disinterest in looking at other people’s used junk, I got to see some interesting sides to the kids. One wanted to buy something at every stop, the other held back until the end.

They also were forced to walk to up to strangers and talk prices as well as conduct transactions. We learned about value and quality with more than one discussion about what will last and what won’t.

At the end of the day they spent about $2.50 each. The best find? A Baskin Robbins ice cream cake maker. We got it home, washed it up and I made a standard ice cream base. The kids then flavored it and sat there hand-cranking their new toy. It worked great and we all ate the results. Hours of entertainment for 50 cents.

I encourage you who have avoided it to brave the oddballs, stick a five in your pocket and head out early one Saturday morning. The discussions and lessons we got in return were worth a lot more than that.

the Dad

mentioned in this post:

• Sowing little financial seeds at bedtime
• Our first budget and the Dad sells his testicles
• Sum sum Summertime

© the Dad, Climbing Out, 2010. | 3 comments

Daughter A is finally agreeing to wear some other clothes besides the “zoo shirt” she’s been living in and fleecey pants. It could be the 100F+ temperatures we’ve been having, but whatever! It’s so nice to see her legs.

A Surprise Shopping Trip

So, the other day I got a $10 off coupon from Kohl’s, a local big-box department store. I decided that I would pitch in a couple of bucks and take the girls shopping and get a couple items of clothing as a treat. Something Summer-y. We spent over half an hour trying on different clothes: pajamas, dresses, shorts… I only pulled things from the clearance rack to stay in the budget I had set for myself. We finally narrowed it down to four items that would only ask about $6 from my pocket.

As we stood at the register, the girls put their items on the counter and I opened my wallet. Inside I found another Kohl’s coupon for $10 off dated June 2010. I jokingly asked the cashier if he would take that one too! He called his manager and he said YES! He rang up Daughter A’s clothes and then applied the coupon, FREE! She had picked out items that totaled less than $10. Then he rang up Daughter P’s clothes and applied the other coupon, FREE! She, too, had picked out an outfit that totaled less than $10. Holy smokes! We walked out of there with two new outfits for FREE!

People probably want to help you win.

Being on a budget and working with cash has made things easier for me at the register. Either I have the money or I don’t. Decisions are easier since there is no cushion. It is what it is. It has made me less shy about asking for help too. I have asked the cashier at the grocery store to help me put things back when I go over budget. I asked Kohl’s about an expired coupon.

You never know until you ask. Stores want to keep you coming back. Even leaving with free clothes I now have a positive experience at Kohl’s and will likely go back.

Go ahead, just ask for the deal. You never know, they might say YES!

The Wife

© The Wife, Climbing Out, 2010. | 4 comments

This post is an example of what happens when companies put customer service last and the customer realizes there are other choices after all. Everyone who engages with customers (which pretty much means everyone) should be reading Seth Godin’s blog. That really is the sidebar to this post, but I think it’s so important I’m putting it right at the top.

I am consistently amazed by businesses that seem to go out of their way to make things more difficult for their clients. Not just slow, awkward or boring but down right more difficult.

The folks at Intuit, makers of finance software Quicken, seemed to do just that this Spring.
“We see you’ve been a longtime customer, but don’t upgrade to every new version we release; that just won’t do!”

A couple of months ago we got a notice from Quicken, the software we keep track of our finances with, that Quicken 2007 would no longer be supported. They release a new version every year or so with a $50 price tag, but we rarely see the need for new features. The version we are using works great.

In addition Quicken directly connects with our bank, Wells Fargo (we pay Wells AND Intuit a small monthly fee for this ability). Accounts are magically updated, transactions downloaded, and checks can be cut right from the software. It all works quite well and I am quite entrenched in that method of paying bills and balancing accounts.

Until now. The notice from Intuit says that although we will still be able to manually enter transactions, all online activity will be disabled until we buy Quicken 2010. There is probably a good reason, like they have undated a security encryption protocol and Quicken 2007 can’t read it, but the end result is the same: “If you want to keep the functionality you originally paid for you are going to have to pay us again.”

That was just the push we needed to bail on our big bank and its big bank fees.

So we made the plunge; one I had been putting off because it seemed too much hassle. We closed all accounts at our mega bank and opened a checking and savings account at our local credit union.

You know, it was easier than I thought.

It’s now been two pay-periods since making the switch and I love it. The credit union’s website is not as flashy and polished as the mega bank’s, but with their free bill pay service we can do everything we were able to out of Quicken.

We still have all the functionality, but none of the fees or advertisements.

Updating the check register in Quicken is now a two-step process (download the data, import into Quicken), but one I can live with. Especially considering we now aren’t paying a monthly fee to both the bank and the software maker! It probably takes an additional minute to balance the account… I can handle that.

Online bill paying is just as easy as shooting a check out of Quicken. In fact, it may be easier. I wasn’t sure I was going to like the online bill pay thing, but once I bought into the concept and really tried it for a billing cycle, I found I love it. The credit union sends emails letting me know a new bill has arrived. Then I check the budget to see when we are scheduled to make that payment and with one click I can pay it. Very nice.

One last account at the Mega-bank.

All that’s left at Wells is a Visa card. It’s our largest debt (currently about $15k) and will be the last one to be paid off. Here is where our debts stand as of this month.

So if you too are thinking about ditching your big bank and finding a local bank with a soul, I encourage you to give it a try! Get on their website and test drive their service. Go into their branch and do the same.

You may be blown away like we were and get reminded that banking and customer service can still go hand-in-hand after all.

the Dad

© the Dad, Climbing Out, 2010. | 11 comments

There is an FPU class on negotiating. I should take it again.

I’m not very good at negotiating, getting the deal or walking away. That last one you would think would be easier for me. If you don’t have the money then walk away. The problem is I don’t use the power of walking away when the monetary difference seems manageable.

Today I signed the kids up for gymnastics class. I told the Dad that the classes would be $70 a month. When I went to sign the papers, I was surprised by the $35 per child registration fee! That was double what I expected to pay. That was double what we had budgeted for. Eek!

I should not have written the check, but I did.

I should have excused myself and either walked out or called the Dad for an emergency budget meeting. I did neither. Oops. I felt like I had done wrong by our budget. Then I called the Dad and he reminded me about Dave’s lesson and that I should ask to have the registration reduced or waived OR to back out entirely. My nervous, shy, little girl started to get worked up. What’s the worst that could happen? She could say “no” and I could leave with my check. I knew I couldn’t go home to the Dad without doing something.

So, I took a deep breath and walked back to the registration desk. I began to explain that I had sent a text to my husband and he freaked out about the extra money. She went to return my check. No, no, I don’t want my check. I want my kids to take gymnastics, but is there something we can do about the registration fee? She agreed that I could pay for the classes for this month plus only one registration and the rest next month. Whew. I had done it. I had spread the payments out to make them more manageable (ed: ominous music here).

I called husband on the way home, proud I had done something even if the solution wasn’t ideal. He reminded me that we don’t borrow money anymore and explained that what he really wanted was the fee waived all together. I didn’t even ask about that. She seemed very nice about splitting the fee up so I left it at that. The Dad was glad I had done something, but it wasn’t enough for him. So, he called the gym. Then he called me back…

The owner did it. She waived the fee. All together.

We have two kids and will spend a lot of money on classes and we can take our money anywhere. I need to remember that it is our money and we have control. I would like to easily give my children everything they want and everything I want them to have. I know that time will come, it’s just not today. Today we are in debt and we must exert our spending power. And ask. Ask for the deal. Ask for understanding. Ask until it’s good enough.

The Wife

© The Wife, Climbing Out, 2009. | 6 comments

One of my favorite teachers in college was a creative genius. He taught us to shift our thinking, to “get out of the box” and be original. But he wasn’t the most pragmatic person when it came to the nuts and bolts of life.

This was a man who traded his car in and bought a new one because the headlight went out. I am not kidding.

Over the years The Wife and I have become a fairly competent man and woman. We do not balk at things like garbage disposals, international airport travel, or Los Angeles freeways. Table saws, sergers, and home electrical systems are old hat.

Responsibility with money, however, is a new thing, but we’re getting better all the time.

Not just better with what we have coming in and going out, but with the things we have too. When something breaks it is so easy today to discard it and buy another one. In fact, a year ago that was my motus operandi for many of the products in our life.

Recently I’ve had two examples of a different way of handling broken things — with great results.

This time of year the occasional black out or brown out is fairly common where we live. At least once a month the lights flicker or dim for a moment and surge protectors complain. The last time this happened our network switch died. No lights, no nothing, dead.

It’s a $50 item that we’ve had for more than two years, so while inconvenient, I didn’t feel too terrible about its demise.

Then again we’re on a budget, right?

So I headed to the manufacturer’s website and poked through the support area. It turns out the switch was a “Prosafe” business model and warrantied for life. A few emails back-and-forth and UPS dropped off a new one a week later without costing us a dime.

Next up an external hard drive stopped working. My first inclination was to check Amazon. I then proudly announced to The Wife that not only is the 500GB drive we paid $112 for now only $71, but 1TB (twice the capacity) is available for $99!

Wait. We’re still on a budget.

Okay, off to the drive manufacturer’s website. Support section. Click. Click. Click… still under warranty after 18 months! New drive in the mail — for free.

These are two items I would have replaced immediately just a year ago without even blinking. I can hardly believe that now.

It would seem living on a budget, on purpose, with spending limits and control over your impulses is not only mature, it saves you money.

Now, who’s in the market for a car with one headlight out?

the Dad

© the Dad, Climbing Out, 2009. | 6 comments