The Importance of Vacations For Kids

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When my wife and I were first married and no children were in the picture yet, some years we would skip going on vacations.  Instead we preferred to invest the money that we saved, hoping to accumulate enough to make a down-payment on a house or cars.

Well we got the house and had kids, but we also kept the habit of skipping vacations every other year, or we would go on a cheap local vacation so we could use money for extra payments on our house or cars.

This vacation skipping tactic was great when the kids were younger, and to tell you the truth, the kids preferred swimming in the hotel pool instead of the traditional traveling vacation that people normally go on.

Checking Out The Coast

At around 8 years old, my kids had a change in direction.  No longer were the simple hotel pool vacations good for them every other year, now they wanted to go somewhere unique each year, especially at the beach.

So even though we are still working with our debt, we have altered our vacation strategy and now we take a traveling vacation each year.  You see we realized that we can always save money, but our kids are only their given age once.  So the experiences encountered when a child is 8, will never be the same in later years again.  To use the cost is now worth it to go on a destination vacation every year.  Plus, there is a strong probability that once our kids are older, perhaps they won’t want to go on vacation with their parents.  So perhaps by going somewhere each and every year, we’re setting up a vacation tradition.

To make it more affordable, we now use a vacation piggy bank, while kind of corny and the amount saved only make a medium size ding in our vacation cost, it’s still nice to have part of the vacation funded by such a financial mechanism.  It also serves as a rally point that the entire family can use as a focus point and reminder.  After all, half of the fun of going on vacation in the anticipation of the day when the family packs up and flies (or drives) to our yearly destination!

So while we don’t regret skipping taking traveling vacation when the kids were young, after the age of 6 or 7, we found that it’s better to take normal, destination oriented vacations instead of local, weekend vacations at a local hotel.

Posted in Family

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Saving Money By Doing Small Repairs Yourself

by TUJ group | 8 Comments

We have two kids that we like to spend money on for things such as sports, birthdays, and other activities but money is not limitless in our household, so when things break, we can’t afford to hire a repairman to come out and fix our problem(s).  So instead, I happily play the role of an frugal repairman in our household!

Small non-critical breaks has happened this year that have built and up required me to finally fix them.  I decided to start my repairing efforts this April.  I estimate that for the month of April, I’ll save over $500, up to $800 for work that I’ve done (the $500) and work that I plan on doing (the $300).  The list of repairs includes the following:

  • replace a bathtub drain (this was harder than it sounds).
  • replace a broken shower head
  • replace the gears in my garage door opener
  • replace the bathroom sink plugs (requires me to take the drainage trap off).

Granted it takes me twice as long as a pro, but I save money that I would have wasted by calling a repairman to come out and fix it while I would have watched TV.

While it wasn’t exactly fun, it was educational in a way that I normally don’t learn.  Luckily I have a history of DIY (Do It Yourself) projects so I felt very comfortable taking on the roles of a plumber (drainage only, except for the shower head) and a garage repair man (motor only, no spring or door work).

Of the tasks that I performed, the easiest was the replacement of the shower head.  Surprisingly, what appeared as the easiest (replacing the bathtub drain) was actually the hardest task so far.  The problem with the bathtub drain was that it was so old and solidly set that I had to get a hacksaw and saw a small notch in the lip of the metal drain itself and use a hammer and a screwdriver to tapping it loose by hitting it at an angle so that it would unscrew (took about 500 hits).   The trick was not to hit the drain so hard that it might crack the plastic casing.  A more preferred approach would be to buy a special tool for the job at a hardware store, but since the cross-hairs were broke on my drain, I went with the method I described above…

If you find yourself in a similar situation as I was in, use google to research your problem and then go to videos (youtube) for possible great examples.

 

 

Posted in Saving

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Staying Healthy While Busy

by TUJ group | 4 Comments

As we all know, staying active and healthy can be difficult when life gets busy. Before you know it, you find yourself running from this to that with very little in between. You may start to sacrifice precious hours of sleep and this only contributes to the further decline in your health. Not only does this mean that you are not getting enough sleep for your health, but it means that you have even less energy to go for a run or take a bike ride.

I have faced this very issue. With juggling the many tasks and responsibilities that I have taken on lately, I have found my health slip away and a few extra pounds become the new normal. Never in my adult life have I struggled with weight issues. I have always been about 165 pounds and now I am staying around 10 pounds heavier. AHHH! To me, this is unacceptable. So, I focused and came up with a plan to get healthy.

Setting Goals:

Establishing goals is a great way to motivate yourself to achieve something. Whether that means writing out a list or just preparing a mental list that you are working towards, it helps you stay focused. More importantly, it is easy to track your progress. If your goal is to lose 10 pounds in 6 months, you can weigh yourself at the end of each month and see how you are doing. If you find yourself off pace, that should give you more motivation to work harder.

Just Doing it:

This may sound over-simplistic, but setting goals will never help some people. Setting goals is one thing and accomplishing them is another. Sometimes, you just have to push yourself to crazy limits. It’s hard work sometimes, but it’s not impossible.

In order to push myself, I am going to sign up for a 5k race. I will be forced to get in shape in order to finish the race and that alone should help me lose the pounds that I want to lose.

What have you done to lose weight and accomplish your goals?

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Three Tips to Increase Efficiency

by TUJ group | 1 Comment

The seasons are changing and before we know it, 2012 will be long gone. Have you worked on your New Years Resolutions lately? Or have you forgotten all about them. I am typically a person to stay really motivated and working towards my goals, but I have been in a slump lately. I have been really focused and busy, but there are days when I completely let go of my goals. In fact, this is the time that many people often fail to continue with their new years resolutions – not because they no longer care about them, but because it is hard to stay with it. As we all know, time gets the best of us sometimes and we need to learn to be efficient with everything we do.

Here are three things that have helped me re-focus my energy and continue to work hard to achieve my goals:

  1. Create a Schedule / To-Do List: This is one of the things that we often let slip when we get really busy. If we are really busy, creating a list of things that we need to do may overwhelm us. Not only does it remind us of everything we need to do, but it’s one extra thing. Yet, staying disciplined with keeping this updated is a great step to being intentional with your time.
  2. Stay Active: Are you stuck in an office building 24-7? With the spring weather around, staying active and healthy is not only a great release, but it increases your emotional health. Instead of being down or depressed, staying active and healthy can help improve your overall productivity.
  3. Take Intentional Breaks: No one can work 24-7. Everyone needs time to relax or breathe easy. A great way to increase your efficiency is to plan your time away from it all. Whether this is spending time with your family or watching TV to let your mind rest for a little bit, taking this time will do wonders on your productivity.

What have you done to stay motivated and keep your productivity at a high rate?

Posted in Time Management

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How to Get a Second Job

by TUJ group | Comments Off

If you are short on money, you may be looking for a second or side job.  It may not be the easiest thing to do, but it is never impossible. You may be wondering how to get a second job. How will you juggle the extra work hours? How will you handle the chores while paying the bills?

Determine Your Free Time

The first thing that you need to do in looking for a second job is to determine how much extra time you have to work and what hours they will be. If your regular job is a 9-to-5, then you will probably look for an evening of weekend job. It might be harder to find a job if you are on swing shift, but as long as you have a steady schedule, you should be able to manage a few extra hours.

I have taken advantage of blogging. It takes a lot of hard work to build up your income with blogging, but once your blog is established, it is possible to earn some decent income with a blog. It allows me to work on it outside of my regular commitments, without having to commit to late hours or giving up my weekends. This is just one example. There are many other great opportunities.

Use Your Strengths

Some people, when they are looking for a few extra hours, just look for any time of job. Whether it is serving at a restaurant or working a grocery store, there are lots of places to get an easy job. Yet, it isn’t always the best option. There is no reason why you shouldn’t use your training or specialty to secure a second job. If you are a seasoned expert, why not use your experience to serve as a consultant? The short story is that you shouldn’t waste your time with just any job. Make sure to play to your strengths and don’t just settle for any side job.

When you are looking for a second job to add a little extra income, take sometime to consider how much time you have and what strengths you have to offer. Play to these strengths and find out what will be the best option will be for you.

Posted in Family, Life, Money

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