Chore charts

I bought these simple little chore charts in the dollar bin at Target ages ago. Claire has been begging me to get going on them and I finally put them up, oh, back in January.

I came up with what I thought were some age appropriate chores ... some things they should just do anyway as a member of our household, like brush their teeth and pick up their toys ... and other things that they could do to earn money, like unload silverware and cups from the dishwasher, set and clear the table and help sort laundry.

Claire was very excited about the money chores ... and Claire was very diligent to do her chores the first couple of weeks.

See the kids below hard at work putting away things from the dishwasher.

Unfortunately, Will and I never really sat down and worked out the whole allowance plan, and the chore charts filled up quickly and it was hard to change out the stickers every week. So, the chore charts kind of fell by the wayside.

Claire still asks about them though. Go here to see the plan we would really like to implement. I think her allowance rates are good too.

Now we just need to keep some cash around the house! We've got to get back on the ball with this before summer since my kids will be home every. single. day.

What chores do your little kids do? How do you handle allowance?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Just call me Ms. Cheap

For those of you who do not live in the area, "Ms. Cheap" writes a bi-weekly column in the Life section of our newspaper sharing local freebies and other tips to save money. She even has a contest every year to proclaim the cheapest of cheapos. Now some of the people that enter this annual contest are pretty extreme in their cheapness and I would never come close to comparison, but I love a good deal just as much as the next gal. (The person who won first prize this year got the flowers for her wedding by collecting live flowers that were thrown out by a local funeral home the day before her wedding. That is just a little too morbid for me.)

Here is the tale of my most recent cheap adventure. We started our shopping trip at Off Broadway (an awesome shoe warehouse) where I had $175 in gift certificates from last Christmas that I still had not used (who wants to buy shoes when they are pregnant?). Anyway, I also had a 20% off one item coupon from my handy Citipass book. All in all, I got 5 pairs of shoes with my gift certificates + $15. Three of the pair of shoes were summer shoes that had been marked down. The other two pairs were full price, but I used the coupon on one pair to save an additional $12.

While I was shoe shopping, Will strolled the kiddos down to Auntie Annie's for a buy-one-get-one free pretzel snack. In the meantime, I stopped at the Disney store where I bought several items for Claire when we go to Disneyworld in a few weeks. That will definitely cut down on our spending while we are at Disneyworld (I hope). They had t-shirts for $5 and stuffed animals 2/$20, which is a steal compared to the prices of similar items at Disneyworld. We finished off our visit with a stop at the Gap Outlet where I got Claire a pair of jeans and David a pair of pajamas (on sale for $8.99) with a $25 gift card I had. We grabbed lunch on the way home at McDonald's with buy-one-get-one free sandwich coupons that we got out of the newspaper a couple of weeks ago.

Sorry to bore you with my shopping saga, but I get pumped up about a great day of savings. I won't bore you further with photos of my loot. Stay cheap!

This is Alabama Football ...

Well, not quite since we weren't in Tuscaloosa. But, a Clemson butt-whoopin' was a nice way to start the season and Will and I had a nice parents' weekend out in the ATL. We dropped the kids off at my parents' house early Saturday morning and headed to Atlanta where we checked into our hotel and then grabbed lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. We got a super-great deal at the Doubletree Suites in Marietta, where we were greeted with a warm chocolate chip cookie at check-in. We booked our room through Hilton's website and got a deal because we booked a non-refundable room. I think we paid $80 for our room and it was super-nice (see photos below). After lunch, we headed downtown to the Georgia dome via Marta (Atlanta's public transportation). Even more than 4 hours before the game, we were packed like sardines on the train. Once we got there, we met up with some friends at the CNN center where we hung out until game time. I have to say, after spending many a Labor Day weekends in Tuscaloosa for the first game of the season, where it is sooooo HOT, it was nice to be in the air-conditioned dome for the game. When we were assured a Bama victory with 7 minutes to go in the game and a 21 point lead, I convinced my husband to head back to the hotel since the clock was quickly approaching midnight. So, we packed back onto the Marta train and headed home. Let me just say that the Clemson fans we saw after the game were the most gracious losers. We rode the train home with mostly Clemson fans since they were really the only ones leaving the game. We were in quite the minority to say the least and if I had been packed on the train with a bunch of UT or Auburn fans, I don't think I would have felt quite as safe.

Here is my funny story of the trip. We got into the stadium about an hour before the game started and decided to go ahead and get something to eat before the game started. We stood in line for about 20 minutes and finally got our 2 orders of chicken tenders and fries. As we were walking back to our seats, I stepped in a very large spill of beer on the floor and BUSTED! Will was walking right behind me and said I fell hard. I mean, my feet just slipped right out from under me and I landed on my butt. I was a little sore and bruised the following day, but fortunately, I did not have any major injuries. I did however, loose my chicken tender meal (to the tune of $8) and smelled like beer for the rest of the game. Honestly, I was more upset about the food than anything else.

We finished off the weekend with breakfast a Cracker Barrel and a stop at the Georgia outlet mall on the way home. The kiddos survived the weekend with Meme and Poppy despite the fact that Claire came home with a black eye (see photo below) and David apparently spent the night on the dog bed in my parents' room. (It made a good pallet according to my mom. Hope that the dog didn't mind giving up her bed to the baby for a night!)

A photos of Claire's "boo-boo" under her right eye. She ran into the corner of my parents' kitchen table. I am surprised she did not make me put a band-aid on it. She is all about band-aids right now. I think she thinks they are stickers. She is also very attached to the masking tape name tag they put on her back in the nursery at church and wants to wear it all day long.

I am a cheap date!

This is what my hubby told me on our way home from dinner last night. I consider that a compliment in today's economy ... especially when a date involves the added expense of childcare. We can thank the Entertainment and Citipass coupon books for our cheap date. We ate dinner in Nolensville at Bricks Cafe for $16 (including tip) and then stopped at Cold Stone Creamery on our way home for buy-one-get-one-free ice cream for $5. The babysitter cost $26 for a date-night total of $47 (not including gas of course). I am very proud of our thriftiness. NOTE: Several people have told me that you can check the Clipper magazine for good deals too and they typically have coupons for Bricks Cafe, which I highly recommend if you are not in a hurry. The food was great and they have a good variety of food, but the service was SLOW!