Strollerderby : budget

Dream It/Do It: Maternity Wear

editors — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:30:00 GMT

Today on Babble:

"Dream It/Do It: Maternity Wear"

by Tracy Chait

Discover an enviable pregnancy wardrobe on any budget.

Read it here.

Save the Planet, Save Money On Organic Food

Amy Kuras — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:31:00 GMT

In keeping with Earth Day, Consumer Reports (via the Consumerist) has some suggestions of how to save money on organic foods. One ideas is to prioritize your purchases: concentrate on foods that when conventionally grown have the most pesticides, like apples, peaches, strawberries and the like.

Another is to try the store brands. I swear by this –I couldn’t afford to eat anything organic were ti not for Trader Joe’s (also, almost one of their foods have high frustose corn syrup in them) and the private label organics from the two local supermarkets I prefer. Consumer Reports also suggests Costco’s Kirkland Signature organics brand. I agree – however, dealing with the massive warehouse club packaging can be a problem if you have a smaller family or a smaller house.

My personal Costco tip is to shop with a friend and split things. For example, they sell three-pound containers of organic spring mix for something like $5, less than half of what we’d spend for conventionally grown at the local fruit market. But that’s a lot less of a bargain if half of it ends up going bad before you can eat it. My solution is to give half to my mom, who loooovvves her some spring mix, whenever we buy it.

Also, look at some of the big organic brand’s websites for coupons, join a food co-op of there is one nearby, and shop in season. Some of the commenters also suggest buying a community-supported agriculture share or buying “pre-organic” from a farmer’s market. Many farmers are looking to switch to organic but have not been following those practices long enough to be certified as organic farms, so buying pre-organic can both save you money and help the farmer along in that process. Farmer’s markets, whether you’re buying conventional or organic, help the environment by reducing the carbon footprint of your food. And? They’re just plain fun for kids.

Letting the Economic Squeeze Draw You Closer

Amy Kuras — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:02:00 GMT

“Families cutting back” stories have become a little too perennial in this recession, but I liked this one about the Smith family of Schenectady. Why? Because so many of these stories seem to focus on families that might have to – shudder — send their children to the YMCA day camp instead of Camp Horseysnob or cut down to two Starbucks runs a day. Not something you can work up a big wad of sympathy over, you know?

The Smith family didn’t have a ton off cash and indulgences to begin with – both work hourly retail jobs, and dad works part time. The indulgences they cut were planned amusement park trips this summer and their Friday night dinners out, which were replaced with secondhand bikes, a swingset, and family cooking lessons taught by mom.

As a freelance writer married to a social worker in one of the hardest hit areas for this recession, I’ve been finding it pretty hard to work up sympathy for people who are cutting out things that are really high-end luxuries that no one needs. And on the other end of the spectrum some of these stories are “OMG how are people surviving --can I scrape up a check for the food bank -- thank God we still have health insurance and a house.”

I liked this story because this is a really relatable family, and they are focusing on how to maintain the right things – time together and getting to know their kids. They are, like many of us, splurging in order to save; they bought a Wii, for example, to stave off the temptation to hit the mall or the movie theater or rainy days. It seems to be the way a lot of us are struggling through – we spend a little to splug more long term money drains, we pull ourselves in closer to home, and we focus on family time together, not how expensively that time is spent.

Where is your family splurging and saving? And what are you focusing on as you make those decisions?

Airline Considers Charging for Toilet

KeriF — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:30:00 GMT

Sounds like a headline from The Onion, right?

But it's true... Ryanair, Ireland's budget airline, is considering charging passengers one euro (about $1.40) to use the toilet on board.

Really?

I understand charging for chips and soda and even aisle seats and baggage check--those are truly optional things; you can safely fly without a beverage or cramped into a middle seat.

But going to the bathroom is a necessity. How do you tell a 4-year-old to "hold it in" until you land? Who is going to want to sit next to you when your baby has an explosive poop and you don't have any change to go rinse her off and change her in the lavatory?

Chief executive Michael O'Leary says he's looking into specially designed doors that require a euro coin to open. A company spokesman, however, insists, "Michael makes a lot of this stuff up as he goes along and while this has been discussed internally there are no immediate plans to introduce it," he said.

There is one inevitable end to this debate. Someone, objecting on principle to the charge, is going to relieve him or herself right in the aisle in protest.

I just hope I'm not on board when it happens.

Does a Baby Fit Your Budget?

Amy Kuras — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 23:31:00 GMT

When making the decision to have kids, how much of it was financial? And how much of it was based on the state of your relationship, your housing situation, your career, and that loudly ticking biological clock? Or simply on emotion -- something in you just knew that now was the time?

I can't imagine that too many people make it solely a financial decision -- it's not like buying a house or opening a mutual fund. But I will acknowledge that you should probably give a little more thought to a baby's impact on your finances than, say, we did. Of course, if we'd toted up the numbers beforehand my first child, possibly, and my second child, certainly, would not be here, and that's a worse thought than the idea I may be living on cat food in retirement.

This quiz from US News and World Report scores your readiness financially based on your anwer to a few simple questions . I have a quibble with what they consider the amount of cash you should have at the ready for baby items--$5,000 to $10,000?? Seriously? Do they realize kids can successfuly grow to adulthood without a Bugaboo and even while wearing hand-me-down clothes and playing with hand-me-down toys? -- but it's a pretty simple and sobering look at the kind of impact a baby has. I don't know that it would have changed anything for us, but I do think people should give the financial aspect a little more thought.

They Say: Moms Are Cracking Down On the Budget

Amy Kuras — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:32:00 GMT

I’ve never been a huge consumer of financial news, but lately? Even what I do catch makes me want to hide under the bed and come out sometime in 2010. Even though we both have (knock wood) jobs and health insurance and aren’t drowning in debt, I am scrutinizing every purchase even more than usual these days and being even more like the spending police.

And I am not alone. Women, especially mothers, are policing the family budget with much greater scrutiny, cutting where they can and doing much more research about the purchases they do make, according to this study from retail consultant Miller Zell.

Among the findings were that women are two times more likely to make joint shopping decisions with their mate, even in such traditionally “guy” categories as electronics, almost half report being more likely to do online research before making a purchase.

Women are also showing more restraint, the survey said – instead of applying a gift card to a larger purchase, they spend the value of the gift card and are out of there.

Where else are we cutting? 68 percent are saying they spend less at restaurants; 50 percent are moving from premium grocery stores to discounters, and 87 percent are switching brands at the grocery store and a third are buying private-label clothing.

I’m noticing this too – every retailer’s ad on television seems to be emphasizing value, and the tiny amount of mall Christmas shopping I did featured unadvertised 25-30 percent off sales. If you’re affluent, learning these survival skills will help you to stay that way, and if you aren’t, it’s nice to reap the benefits from the rest of the world learning to live like you always have had to.

NY Proposes Taxing Non-Diet Soda

Miriam Axel-Lute — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:00:00 GMT

OK Gov. Paterson: I know you've got a wicked budget hole, and we all have to "share the pain." I also know that this country has a severe health crisis with escalating rates of diabetes, heart disease, etc. and that soda and related sugar-water drinks (or, more specifically, high-fructose-corn-syrup drinks) are bad for us and our kids.

But can we work through a few of the logical problems with your proposed "obesity tax" here?

1. It only applies to "nondiet" sodas (and fake juice drinks), thereby giving the implicit healthy stamp of approval to "diet" drinks full of artificial sweeteners, which cause many people a wide range of health problems, from dizziness to migraines, while to others they just taste gross. They also interfere with efforts to adjust to a healthier, lower-sugar diet. Not to mention that carbonated diet sodas still are acidic enough to eat away at kids teeth and still don't hydrate like water or provide nutrients like milk. Remember also that soda—diet and nondiet—is also a major source of people's caffeine fixes (and young kids having caffeine worries me more than their having sugar, frankly).

Basically, this just shows the folly of trying to decide on high what's healthy for people: it varies. I have some extremely health-conscious friends whose son is super allergic to tons of things—so right now he's eating a lot of Fritos (all corn, no cross-contamination). If you tried to tax "junk food," for example, you'd be hitting them hard.

2. Like any sales tax, this going to fall most heavily on the poor, who buy a lot of soda often because it's what's sold at the corner store. Study after study has shown that living in a "food desert" is a primary cause of unhealthy eating choices. Without changing that, adding a tax is like raising the gas tax without investing in public transportaiton. (If the tax is high enough to make bodega owners stock healthier drinks instead, we might see some benefit, but I'm skeptical.)

3. Recent studies have shown that it's possible to be both fat and fit. You say you don't want to make kids feel bad for being overweight. So don't. Instead encourage the good stuff, which is what will really make the difference: access to healthy food and drink, enough sleep, and exercise (recess! later school start times! healthy foods in schools! walking and biking to school!). I know that won't balance the budget. I'm sorry.

Photo by Qfamily.

More by this author:

Save Money with A Holiday Game Plan

Cole Gamble — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:31:00 GMT

I don't want to sound Pollyanna-ish, but this week you're gonna find one heck of a silver lining to the economic downturn. Retailers are slashing prices to historical lows to stave off an anemic holiday shopping season. That mean's your shopping dollars just multiplied in value many fold.

Before you get carried away with your new found richness, you should map out a strategy to maximize your spending this Friday. Actually, you don't have to map anything out. I've already done it for you. Here are a few tips for making the most of your holiday shopping (and not go broke).

Scout deals online. Go online to check out the most up-to-date Black Friday deals on websites such as www.black-friday.net, www.theblackfriday.com and www.blackfriday.info. This will save you the time and gas from driving store to store for comparison shopping.

Make a list. Know ahead of time what you want to buy for each friend and relative. Trying to guess while you're at a crowded mall is not only time consuming and frustrating, but could also lead to a hasty and more expensive decision.

Know how much you want to spend on each person before you go. Kind of goes along with the tip above.

Avoid gift cards. You can actually save a lot by finding something thoughtful and on sale rather than having to set out a certain amount on a card so you don't look cheap.

Hopefully with these tips, you'll save some money and hair pulling this holiday season.

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Recession Christmas: How Do We Scale Back?

editors — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:45:00 GMT

Unfortunately for my parents, my third Christmas fell right in the midst of that 1980s phenomenon: the Cabbage Patch Kids’ craze. One-too-many nights spent waiting in cold parking lots for the Cabbage Patch delivery truck prompted my mom to institute a Christmas giving rule: we would each get three main presents: something we wanted, something we needed, and a surprise.

It seems like a lot more parents, by choice or necessity, are coming around to this less extravagent way of thinking about the holidays. CafeMom’s DailyBuzz site offers some great tips on exactly how to handle this transition in Explaining Why Santa Must Downsize.

According to Janet Bodnar, author of the Money Smart Kids column, the first step is to realize you may not need to say anything at all. Most kids, especially young ones, won’t even remember what they got last year, let alone sit around with an itemized list comparing this year's haul to Christmas '07.

I can attest to this first hand. When I woke up on that Christmas morning so many years ago, “Santa” had made good on his promise. My brown-haired, brown-eyed Cabbage Patch Kid was propped up under the tree and I was ecstatic...or so I’m told. I actually don’t remember any of it. I was only three. My parents also say that after every gift I opened that year, including the socks and underwear, I exclaimed, "It's just what I've always wanted!" — Lindsay Armstrong

Economy? Down. Halloween Sales? Up!

Jen Chaney — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 13:02:00 GMT

We all know that the U.S. economy is in a state that financial experts describe, in technical terms, as "totally in the crapper." But despite that, sales of Halloween costumes and other assorted paraphernalia are on the upswing this year, according to this story in the L.A. Times.

Several stores in the Los Angeles area report that they are doing robust business, and a few shoppers tell the Times reporter that they plan to spend even more on their '08 All Hallow's acitivities than they did on last year's. ("My investment accounts, I'm watching it go down and down and down ... So this is an escape," explained Erich Hamner.)

That's in keeping with a survey by the National Retail Federation, which also projects more spending this year over last and estimates that the average American will spend $66.54 on Halloween.

It's hard to know if these findings are truly representative of a national trend. I am guessing that Halloween spending in, say, some of the harder hit towns in Ohio or western Pennsylvania is not chugging along to the same degree one might find in L.A., Chicago or New York. But the overall theme also dovetails nicely with this item Madeline posted on Wednesday, which indicates some families are not cutting back when it comes to their kids.

If that phenomenon -- wanting to make sure the little ones have a good time -- synchs up with the one mentioned by Hamner -- "I need to escape from my financial woes by dressing up as Batman" -- then Halloween could very well be especially lucrative for those in the costume-and-candy business. But what do you think? Will this be a bigger trick-or-treat day than ever? And how are you and your family handling the holiday this year? Throwing even more cash at it, or trying to be budget-conscious?

Related Links:

Despite Recession, Kids Stuff is the Last to Go

5 Best Halloween Children's Book

What are your kids wearing this Halloween?

A Halloween Playlist for Your Kids' Party

Defamer's Top 10 Halloween Specials

Image: Pumpkin Masters

The Four-Day School Week - Totally Weak

SunnyChanel — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:52:00 GMT

For the working stiff, a four-day work week is a great idea, but a four-day school week for our kids? Not as fabulous. Does that mean your kids will be one fifth dumber? Maybe. But this cutting down on school hours is a reality that many cash strapped school districts are forced to face. Instead of editing down electives, schools are looking at decreasing the number of school days, primarily to save the cost of gas used for the school busing systems.

There are about fourteen districts across the nation that are making the switch to a four day school week. In Minnesota, a school district came to the realization that closing the school on Mondays and thus saving on gas for the school’s buses would save them about $65,000 in fuel costs. But hey they added an additional ten minutes of class to the other days. Those forty minutes best be jam packed with some good old fashioned book learnin’.

This whole four-day school week is new to me, but about 100 American school districts opted for that schedule eons ago and some did so during the 1970s oil crunch. Along with the drastic act of shortening the school week some schools are plagued with lunch prices increasing by about 75%, field trips being curtailed or cut, using outdated school books and supply budgets shrinking (with one school having to submit to a toilet paper drive).

Less is more in many instances, but less education? Me thinks that is not one of them.

(Via AP)

Greenhouse: Organic on the Cheap(er), For Reals

Amy Kuras — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:33:00 GMT

With gas and food prices going into the stratosphere and everybody worried about their jobs, spending half a paycheck at Whole Foods or paying double for organic produce can seem a little, well, unseemly.

I found this old, but still relevant, article on Bankrate.com about buying organic on the cheap. Some of it's stuff we've all heard before: Buy in bulk, shop farmer's markets, buy in season, etc. but there are some suggestions I haven’t heard before.

For example, did you know you can team up with friends and family and start a buying club in order to place wholesale orders from certain providers? Ask at the local health food market or food co-op who their distributors are –several may be willing to work with you for a guaranteed minimum order.

This can even work with farmer's markets. Back when it was difficult to get really good, varied produce, my family belonged to what was essentially a neighborhood buying club, which was group of people who took turns going down to our big farmer's market on Saturday mornings and buying what looked good, and then splitting it between all the families. This was back when things like bagels and good cheese were really hard to find, and I had my first taste of both from the co-op. Nowadays, things like humanely raised meats or organic dairy might be good targets. And splitting up big stashes of anything with friends can reduce your individual trips to the store and tus your carborn footprint.

They also suggest "buying big" in season – buying tons of organic stuff when it's available at the local market, and freezing it for use in the winter. I've done this too, and it's great to need, say pesto or roasted peppers for a recipe in December and knowing I have my own homemade in the fridge instead of buying jarred that sits forever.

What are your "organic on the cheap" tips?

Seven Ideas to Reduce Spending on Food

Adrienne Martini — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:30:00 GMT

With food budgets getting tighter and tighter, it's time to start rethinking how we eat. One good way to start that process is to remember what it was like to be a poor college student. If you never had the thrill of long weeks spent eating ramen noodles and debating Nietzsche, convinced that you could solve every problem in the world with your big brain, imagine that you're trapped in a 10x12 room with nothing but a hot plate.

With headers like "Augment" and "Eggs," Trent's ideas are pretty easy to both follow and put into action. Is it gourmet fare? No. Is it healthy and inexpensive? You betcha.

Take all of those saved dollars and buy yourself a copy of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Just one chapter will have you feeling much better about the economic downturn, if only because you are not German, very sad and dead.

Shoes That Grow ... And Grow ... And Grow

Madeline Holler — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:01:00 GMT

They're ugly, but whatever. These shoes grow with your kids' feet!

Why ever for? Well, to save you money (though they cost nearly $100). Each pair of INCHworm sneakers can expand several half sizes, meaning they'll cover your kids feet over three sizes. You just click a button when you need to expand them and zing! bigger shoes.

Evironmentally, maybe it's a good deal (depends exactly with what and how they're made). But for budget purposes? I promise you I could squeeze more than five pairs of shoes out of $100, but I'm super cheap and not cool.

What do you think? Would you get a pair?

Low-tech Toys Inspire Creativity While Having Fun

Karen Murphy — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 18:54:00 GMT

Having four children, if there's anything I know about, it's toys. When my oldest daughter was born, I absolutely couldn't wait for her to get bigger. Know why? Legos. I so wanted to play Legos, but being, you know, a "grown-up", I figured they were off-limits to me unless I had the handy excuse of playing with them with my kid. So when she got big enough, she got not only the Legos, but also Tinkertoys and Lincoln Logs. And I was so happy.

Turns out I'm not the only one who thinks low-tech toys are cool. The annual Oppenheim Toy Portfolio is chock-full of low-tech, open-ended, traditional toys like unit blocks, jumbo animals, and an easel. There's an entire catalog, Back to Basics Toys, devoted to all your childhood favorites. Other faves in our house have been a wooden train set, puzzles, board games, Breyer horses, stuffed animals, and wooden vehicles.

On a budget? Another extremely popular and much-used toy in my house has been a collection of colored silk cloths, which can be bought blank for next-to-nothing and easily dyed at home for a fun, creative, and eventually useful project, or they can be found in a rainbow of colors here and here.

Really on a budget? Our editor Jay Allen wrote an awesome piece awhile back at Blogging Baby, and his absolute #1 toy was (and I can attest to the popularity of these) an empty cardboard box. You can turn that (free! cheap!) box into a house, a vehicle, a puppet theater, a castle, you name it! Or rather, your children will. All you need is to wield the knife for them.

Don't want the children underfoot all day? Send them outside with a couple of old stumps they can roll around and a 2x4 or two, and a wagon. Be sure there are some rocks and sticks out there too. They'll know what to do with them.