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Christmas Planning Part IV: Paying for Christmas

While scaling back can take a big chunk out of the burden of paying for Christmas, the burden won't be completely gone. We still have to buy gifts or materials to make them, and we want to do fun things around Christmas that sometimes cost money. Since I don't advocate going into credit card debt for anything short of the most dire emergencies, here are a couple suggestions on  how to pay for Christmas.  One way we have done it in the past is to set up an extra savings account at our credit union and transfer $10-$20 a paycheck into it depending on what we can afford. If things are really tight, we sometimes only move over $5. If we have a windfall (such as a bonus or tax return) we will take a portion of that money and add it to the Christmas account as well. This Christmas account pays for both gifts AND activities thorough the Christmas season. I know someone that insists that they are too poor to save even a few dollars a pay check, so they put everything they buy for ...
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Homeschooling on a Budget

We finally took the plunge. For the last year and a half we have been homeschooling.  We made the decision for a combination of academic and social reasons, and I'm telling you it was so worth it to see a once struggling student be successful and have confidence again. Unfortunately, the investment of time into my children has resulted in a dearth of postings, and will likely continue to do so. But, lucky for you, I have decided to post a few of the awesome free resources we have found that have been helping us to homeschool on a budget.  They include both secular and Christian resources, so hopefully you can find something that will suit your needs. 1.   The Good and The Beautiful  language arts curriculum.  Jenny Phillips has created an amazing Christian curriculum resource available for FREE for families.  Levels 1-5 of The Good and The Beautiful's language arts curricula are free in their .pdf formats.  The links to the free digital versions ar...
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What Little Boys Are Made Of

I grew up in a household of girls.   With four daughters and no sons, my father was, quite literally, the odd-man-out.   We used to tease my dad on a regular basis about being the only male in an otherwise all female household.   As an adult, the tables are turned at our house.   I am the lone female in a house of boys.   Granted, the numbers aren’t quite the same (I only have two boys as opposed to my father’s four), and at some point the game may change.   But for now, I have figured out that my life in a family of all girls left me woefully unprepared for little boys.   It actually took a while for me to settle down and realize that my eldest son was normal.   And it took even longer for me to curb the instinct to squelch those normal, little boy behaviors that did not make sense to me because I was a girl raised among girls. So, for the benefit of others who may feel lost in boyland, here are a few things I have learned in the la...
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