Showing posts with label adoption. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adoption. Show all posts
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Check out 'Post Your Adoption Fundraiser Here' - sort of a diversion, but hang with me....
Hi Friends ~
This is sort of a shameless plug - except that it really is for other people no me, and there are LOTS of good deals to be had, so it really should be shared!
As anyone who has read this blog for any amount of time knows, we are super passionate about adoption - embracing a frugal lifestyle truly was born out of trying to get from 'we could never afford that' to making it a reality. We are not by any means 'wealthy' - at least by American standards, but we knew that we wanted to grow our family at least in part through adoption. We knew we could love a child no matter their DNA and there are over 147 Million documented orphans in the world. We knew we personally wanted to adopt internationally - where children are the least likely to be adopted, and when they age out they have the least amount of resources available to them. Statistically our healthy son's life expectancy was 30 years old simply because his country does not have the resources to care for these children and many can't make it on their own if they survive the institution - simply by being adopted our son now has a 'normal' life expectancy. I can't seem to put a price on that. Well, I can't, but airlines, hotels, adoption agencies, lawyers, all seem to be able to put a price on it. I'm not here to debate adoption costs - it is what it is, research can save you from scams, but even legitimate adoptions (vast majority) will have a cost.
I have had MANY people ask me when we are fundraising 'why are you adopting if you can't afford another kid and have to fundraise?' - we can afford to have another child - we cannot on our own afford the fees associated with an adoption- so we, like many others save and fundraise - the same way someone would for a missions or humanitarian trip.
So that my friends is my long introduction to my other blog....Post Your Adoption Fundraiser Here - we truly hope to adopt again soon - possibly our last adoption. We don't want to be a megafamily - but we want to do more to help those waiting for families and for those families waiting for children. So we started this blog as a place for people to post their online fundraisers and where hopefully others will purchase! - I totally get that not everyone wants to adopt or even can, but I think pretty much everyone thinks that every child deserves a home. As an adoptive parent I can tell you first hand the process is NOT easy, it is worth it, but it is not easy - one small way that people can help those who are adopting is by making a donation or purchasing an item from an 'adoption fundraiser'. Please check it out - read the families blogs, check out their fundraisers - at least bookmark it for when you need a gift - everything from books to tshirts to Ethiopian coffee - even an IPAD raffle (what?!).
If my blog has saved your family money I would really love for you to remember this other blog, consider it a personal thank you to me =)
Thanks for reading! I hope you find something fun!
Kate
This is sort of a shameless plug - except that it really is for other people no me, and there are LOTS of good deals to be had, so it really should be shared!
As anyone who has read this blog for any amount of time knows, we are super passionate about adoption - embracing a frugal lifestyle truly was born out of trying to get from 'we could never afford that' to making it a reality. We are not by any means 'wealthy' - at least by American standards, but we knew that we wanted to grow our family at least in part through adoption. We knew we could love a child no matter their DNA and there are over 147 Million documented orphans in the world. We knew we personally wanted to adopt internationally - where children are the least likely to be adopted, and when they age out they have the least amount of resources available to them. Statistically our healthy son's life expectancy was 30 years old simply because his country does not have the resources to care for these children and many can't make it on their own if they survive the institution - simply by being adopted our son now has a 'normal' life expectancy. I can't seem to put a price on that. Well, I can't, but airlines, hotels, adoption agencies, lawyers, all seem to be able to put a price on it. I'm not here to debate adoption costs - it is what it is, research can save you from scams, but even legitimate adoptions (vast majority) will have a cost.
I have had MANY people ask me when we are fundraising 'why are you adopting if you can't afford another kid and have to fundraise?' - we can afford to have another child - we cannot on our own afford the fees associated with an adoption- so we, like many others save and fundraise - the same way someone would for a missions or humanitarian trip.
So that my friends is my long introduction to my other blog....Post Your Adoption Fundraiser Here - we truly hope to adopt again soon - possibly our last adoption. We don't want to be a megafamily - but we want to do more to help those waiting for families and for those families waiting for children. So we started this blog as a place for people to post their online fundraisers and where hopefully others will purchase! - I totally get that not everyone wants to adopt or even can, but I think pretty much everyone thinks that every child deserves a home. As an adoptive parent I can tell you first hand the process is NOT easy, it is worth it, but it is not easy - one small way that people can help those who are adopting is by making a donation or purchasing an item from an 'adoption fundraiser'. Please check it out - read the families blogs, check out their fundraisers - at least bookmark it for when you need a gift - everything from books to tshirts to Ethiopian coffee - even an IPAD raffle (what?!).
If my blog has saved your family money I would really love for you to remember this other blog, consider it a personal thank you to me =)
Thanks for reading! I hope you find something fun!
Kate
Friday, May 14, 2010
The Average Millionare drives a 3 year old car & clips coupons ~ Dave Ramsey (apparently I am right on track)
I've been putting off writing this because I know it will be long, but our background is important in understanding why I endorse this program so much - bear with me - not all my posts will be this long winded...
So my husband and I finally decided we were old enough that we needed a 'real' budget.
We do OK - things line up every month, we've never been late on any bill ever, have a little saved for retirement, have a little in our savings account, in general we don't believe in carrying a balance on credit card. And our thoughts were if we were able to live within that kind of balance on one income in this economy, then we weren't doing so bad. And we had plenty of people tell us just that, that even before we tightened our belt financially that we were not enjoying ourselves enough and giving us lousey financial advice -If broke people are making fun of your financial plan, you’re on track. Dave Ramsey I wish we had read this quote and internalized it before we let a couple people get into our heads.....
But here's the thing - we save alot of money, but we waste alot of money, just because we were comfortable enough to do so, we didn't live 'month to month' - there was always enough money - but the savings account didn't seem to be growing, and we were really just one unexpected expense away from starting to rack up a credit card bill. Well, in our case it wasn't one unexpected expense - but a few....
Here's the background - in Sept 2009 we had NO CC debt, and hadn't had any in over a year (the only reason we had any at all before that is because we had several unexpected expenses associated with our son's adoption 2 yrs ago (long story)) - in the course a few months the following happened - lost two freelance clients due to their businesses closing, bought a fancy camera we didn't really need but REALLY wanted (dumb), went on a family vacation that was planned for - but not well & we ended up overspending (also dumb), laptop was ruined on vacation (which the resort eventually replaced by the way) - needed new laptop AND lost TONS of clients work inside the laptop, and a little celebration our family likes to call 'Christmas' ....spiral spiral spiral to January 2010 - and we were pretty much on par with the national average as far as credit card debt is concerned - a few short months earlier we had NONE - ugh! The most frustrating part about it is that year between paying off our credit card and then starting to rack it up again we just got comfortable - we weren't saving for anything eminent so we just bought what we wanted - we shopped frugally - but if we wanted to go on vacation, or out to dinner, or shopping, or get something fancy for the computer, etc we just bought it - I mean, we weren't putting it on the credit card - we had the cash to do it, so what was the big deal? uh - the big deal is we didn't realize it was a problem until we had dug ourselves a little hole that we didn't really need to dig. Half the stuff that happened in those last months of 2009 we couldn't have prevented - but the other half we could have.
So we signed up for 'Financial Peace University' a program run by Dave Ramsey- essentially like boot camp for your finances - AWESOME - hard core, not alot of fun - but awesome! There is nothing weird about it - just a step by step plan on how to pay down debt and eventually build wealth (with the intention of using it for the greater good) with integrity the old fashioned way - one step at a time - don't use credit, don't get caught up in stuff you can't afford, save for everything. "You can't work three hours a week and make $100,000. Get rich quick doesn't work. Crock pot mentality always defeats microwave mentality!" Dave Ramsey
It's a 12 week class. Long story short in that amount of time we paid off our only car that had a loan (a little over $4,000) and paid off $6,000 on the credit card AND put an additional $1,500 in the bank - what?! I know - we are awesome! In 12 weeks we had a financial shift of over $11,500! Now if we weren't so intrenched in our 'Dave Ramsey' plan I know so much of that money would have just been blown - we would have paid down some debt, but we probably would have had alot of fun with it too, and a few months later we would be wondering where it had gone. God willing - June 15, 2010 we will be (except the mortgage) completely debt free! *side note* February was an exceptional month - we had a royalty check come in that was fantastically bigger than anticipated that really helped roll some of that debt away - but we would have blown if it were not for our plan.
To answer everyone's first question - YES we did get rid of cable - we now have BASIC cable - it's like 18 channels and half of them aren't even in English - but we are surviving. And to answer everyone's second question - NO Dave didn't 'make' us get rid of it - we just decided it wasn't necessary & if we could save nearly $40 a month we might as well. But as Dave says 'The average millionaire can`t tell you who got thrown off the island last night.' I can't tell you who was thrown off the island, but I can TOTALLY tell you what is going on on 'The Biggest Looser' - so I know I still have a ways to go.
Our motivation for growing up finanically, we want to adopt again & we REALLY want to do it without any debt - that year after we brought our beautiful little boy home was really hard. Having that CC debt when we were living essentially on one income made things really stressful. Travel and legal fees for an adoption are expensive, but it is just something our family is really committed to doing - so right now we are really just trying to stay motivated to save, save, save and live below our means. There is nothing that makes me sadder than to hear people say 'oh that is nice that you guys adopted, we would, but we can't afford to.' It's all about choices.
So there in a nut shell is our personal experience with 'Financial Peace University' - we HIGHLY recommend it - for anyone! We are in our early 30's and really could have just used it as a 'quick fix' diet of sorts to just run off that debt quickly, but it will be a lifestyle change for us - there were people sweating in that class already at retirement age with no savings, upside down mortgages, with loan sharks calling them - not one of them said it was worth it in the end.
Check out http://www.daveramsey.com/ for more info - there are lots of free tools on his website as well as info on the next class sessions. We go to North Coast Church in Vista - I know they will be hosting another FPU in the fall - again - I cannot recommend it enough - no matter where you are in life!
Kate
So my husband and I finally decided we were old enough that we needed a 'real' budget.
We do OK - things line up every month, we've never been late on any bill ever, have a little saved for retirement, have a little in our savings account, in general we don't believe in carrying a balance on credit card. And our thoughts were if we were able to live within that kind of balance on one income in this economy, then we weren't doing so bad. And we had plenty of people tell us just that, that even before we tightened our belt financially that we were not enjoying ourselves enough and giving us lousey financial advice -If broke people are making fun of your financial plan, you’re on track. Dave Ramsey I wish we had read this quote and internalized it before we let a couple people get into our heads.....
But here's the thing - we save alot of money, but we waste alot of money, just because we were comfortable enough to do so, we didn't live 'month to month' - there was always enough money - but the savings account didn't seem to be growing, and we were really just one unexpected expense away from starting to rack up a credit card bill. Well, in our case it wasn't one unexpected expense - but a few....
Here's the background - in Sept 2009 we had NO CC debt, and hadn't had any in over a year (the only reason we had any at all before that is because we had several unexpected expenses associated with our son's adoption 2 yrs ago (long story)) - in the course a few months the following happened - lost two freelance clients due to their businesses closing, bought a fancy camera we didn't really need but REALLY wanted (dumb), went on a family vacation that was planned for - but not well & we ended up overspending (also dumb), laptop was ruined on vacation (which the resort eventually replaced by the way) - needed new laptop AND lost TONS of clients work inside the laptop, and a little celebration our family likes to call 'Christmas' ....spiral spiral spiral to January 2010 - and we were pretty much on par with the national average as far as credit card debt is concerned - a few short months earlier we had NONE - ugh! The most frustrating part about it is that year between paying off our credit card and then starting to rack it up again we just got comfortable - we weren't saving for anything eminent so we just bought what we wanted - we shopped frugally - but if we wanted to go on vacation, or out to dinner, or shopping, or get something fancy for the computer, etc we just bought it - I mean, we weren't putting it on the credit card - we had the cash to do it, so what was the big deal? uh - the big deal is we didn't realize it was a problem until we had dug ourselves a little hole that we didn't really need to dig. Half the stuff that happened in those last months of 2009 we couldn't have prevented - but the other half we could have.
So we signed up for 'Financial Peace University' a program run by Dave Ramsey- essentially like boot camp for your finances - AWESOME - hard core, not alot of fun - but awesome! There is nothing weird about it - just a step by step plan on how to pay down debt and eventually build wealth (with the intention of using it for the greater good) with integrity the old fashioned way - one step at a time - don't use credit, don't get caught up in stuff you can't afford, save for everything. "You can't work three hours a week and make $100,000. Get rich quick doesn't work. Crock pot mentality always defeats microwave mentality!" Dave Ramsey
It's a 12 week class. Long story short in that amount of time we paid off our only car that had a loan (a little over $4,000) and paid off $6,000 on the credit card AND put an additional $1,500 in the bank - what?! I know - we are awesome! In 12 weeks we had a financial shift of over $11,500! Now if we weren't so intrenched in our 'Dave Ramsey' plan I know so much of that money would have just been blown - we would have paid down some debt, but we probably would have had alot of fun with it too, and a few months later we would be wondering where it had gone. God willing - June 15, 2010 we will be (except the mortgage) completely debt free! *side note* February was an exceptional month - we had a royalty check come in that was fantastically bigger than anticipated that really helped roll some of that debt away - but we would have blown if it were not for our plan.
To answer everyone's first question - YES we did get rid of cable - we now have BASIC cable - it's like 18 channels and half of them aren't even in English - but we are surviving. And to answer everyone's second question - NO Dave didn't 'make' us get rid of it - we just decided it wasn't necessary & if we could save nearly $40 a month we might as well. But as Dave says 'The average millionaire can`t tell you who got thrown off the island last night.' I can't tell you who was thrown off the island, but I can TOTALLY tell you what is going on on 'The Biggest Looser' - so I know I still have a ways to go.
Our motivation for growing up finanically, we want to adopt again & we REALLY want to do it without any debt - that year after we brought our beautiful little boy home was really hard. Having that CC debt when we were living essentially on one income made things really stressful. Travel and legal fees for an adoption are expensive, but it is just something our family is really committed to doing - so right now we are really just trying to stay motivated to save, save, save and live below our means. There is nothing that makes me sadder than to hear people say 'oh that is nice that you guys adopted, we would, but we can't afford to.' It's all about choices.
So there in a nut shell is our personal experience with 'Financial Peace University' - we HIGHLY recommend it - for anyone! We are in our early 30's and really could have just used it as a 'quick fix' diet of sorts to just run off that debt quickly, but it will be a lifestyle change for us - there were people sweating in that class already at retirement age with no savings, upside down mortgages, with loan sharks calling them - not one of them said it was worth it in the end.
Check out http://www.daveramsey.com/ for more info - there are lots of free tools on his website as well as info on the next class sessions. We go to North Coast Church in Vista - I know they will be hosting another FPU in the fall - again - I cannot recommend it enough - no matter where you are in life!
Kate
Friday, January 15, 2010
Coffee for a great cause
If you buy coffee regularly anyway, please check out this fundraiser - for the same price as a bag of Starbucks coffee you can help out a worthy organization and a couple trying to adopt!
http://www.justlovecoffee.com/thewileyfamily is a great organization that helps remove some of the financial barriers of adoption through a very unique fundraiser. The coffee is fair trade coffee, so it helps the workers in Ethiopia. A portion of each sale goes to help the fundraising family pay for adoption expenses, the rest goes to help children still waiting for families.
As an adoptive parent myself I know how hard it is to fund your adoption process, and I know how much need there is in the world for organizations like 'Just Love Coffee'. Heck, you can probably attribute this blog in a round about way to my adoption process, we had to learn to be REALLY frugal while trying to make that happen.
So this is maybe just a shameless plug for a very deserving organization & family rather than a post of a great 'steal' - but it is no more expensive than that Starbucks bag you would probably buy as a quick present, so I am hoping you will keep it in mind. If you enjoy this blog, purchase a bag from my friend and consider it a thank you to me. =)
Just keep it in mind ~
Kate
http://www.justlovecoffee.com/thewileyfamily is a great organization that helps remove some of the financial barriers of adoption through a very unique fundraiser. The coffee is fair trade coffee, so it helps the workers in Ethiopia. A portion of each sale goes to help the fundraising family pay for adoption expenses, the rest goes to help children still waiting for families.
As an adoptive parent myself I know how hard it is to fund your adoption process, and I know how much need there is in the world for organizations like 'Just Love Coffee'. Heck, you can probably attribute this blog in a round about way to my adoption process, we had to learn to be REALLY frugal while trying to make that happen.
So this is maybe just a shameless plug for a very deserving organization & family rather than a post of a great 'steal' - but it is no more expensive than that Starbucks bag you would probably buy as a quick present, so I am hoping you will keep it in mind. If you enjoy this blog, purchase a bag from my friend and consider it a thank you to me. =)
Just keep it in mind ~
Kate
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Shameless plug alert ~ Please check out our fundraising auctions on ebay!
Hello friends ~
I just wanted to share some exciting news for our family (more details to come) by sharing our 'adoption fundraisers' that I just listed on Ebay.
Here is just one. Please check the 'see sellers other items' too. We have had a very exciting couple of weeks & long story VERY short, we need to pay some adoption fees yesterday. So I am putting my shopping skills to work! Adoption is awesome, but not free usually =(
I promise this blog is not going to turn into anything more than a 'Deals & Steals' blog - but our auctions are for really nice items, usually new, always authentic at a deep discount. I thought my readers may be interested anyway and if you find something that helps us fundraise along the way then everyone wins!
Anyway, I would be very thankful if you would check it out!
PS - remember to go thru Ebates if you want to buy - you'll get 2% back!
Happy Bidding ~
Kate
I just wanted to share some exciting news for our family (more details to come) by sharing our 'adoption fundraisers' that I just listed on Ebay.
Here is just one. Please check the 'see sellers other items' too. We have had a very exciting couple of weeks & long story VERY short, we need to pay some adoption fees yesterday. So I am putting my shopping skills to work! Adoption is awesome, but not free usually =(
I promise this blog is not going to turn into anything more than a 'Deals & Steals' blog - but our auctions are for really nice items, usually new, always authentic at a deep discount. I thought my readers may be interested anyway and if you find something that helps us fundraise along the way then everyone wins!
Anyway, I would be very thankful if you would check it out!
PS - remember to go thru Ebates if you want to buy - you'll get 2% back!
Happy Bidding ~
Kate
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