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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-05-29

Misc

Birthday Parties are Evil

Finance, Parenting

This is a post from my archives.

I hate birthday parties.   Well, not all birthday parties.  Not even most parties.  Just the expensive-for-the-sake-of-expensive parties.  The bar-raising parties.  The status-boosting parties.  I’m done.

My son is seven years older than my first daughter.  In those seven years, with only one kid, we managed to spoil him regarding birthday parties.  Every party was big and there were a lot of presents. That’s an expensive way to run a birthday and it is a lot of stress.   We even moved the parties home, but still invited all of our friends and family.   It was much too stressful.

A good friend used the pizza and game place, buying tokens for everyone at the party.  That’s incredibly expensive.  Even if I  wanted to, I couldn’t afford that for three kids.   There’s an element of keeping up with everyone around me, but I just can’t make myself care about that anymore.  They aren’t paying my debt or cleaning my house.  They don’t get a vote.

My  plan this year was to have a sleepover for my son.   He had five friends spend the night, playing games and watching movies.  They giggled and squealed for eighteen hours, all for the cost of some take-and-bake pizzas and snacks.  It was a hit for everyone involved. The other parents got a night off and all of the kids had a blast.

My girls are one and two.  We’re done with parties for them, too. They got big parties for their first birthdays.  Those are parties for the adults; the kids don’t care.  In a few years–even a few months–they won’t remember the party.   My older daughter’s birthday will be a trip to the apple orchard, followed by cake and ice cream.   She’ll get presents.  She’ll get “her day”. She’ll remember that her birthday is special, without costing a lot of money.

We want them to have fun.  We want them all to feel special. We also want to manage their expectations and keep the parties from breaking the budget.  So far this year, it is working.

How do you run a birthday party on a budget?

Link Roundup

Misc

In an effort to make sure that both of my readers can’t possibly miss the things I think are important, I’m going to start doing a weekly roundup of the best of the internet.   Judged solely, and arbitrarily, by me.

On topic:

These, naturally, are the posts that fit the theme of this site.

How To Check Your Federal IRS Tax Refund Status. When I checked a couple of days ago, they were about 2 weeks out.

TurboTax has screwed up the property tax refund form for Minnesota.  Thankfully, I haven’t filed this, yet, but I did verify the problem.

Where do you want to be in 5 years? Start taking those steps, now, or you will never get there.   Find something, no matter how small, and do it.

Deficit Neutrality doesn’t count, if a massive initial purchase is offset by future intentions to cut spending.

Off topic:

This is just some of the random crap I think is worth sharing.

If you’re going to argue on the internet, make sure you have your sources right. Primary sources are better than secondary.

Bring back dueling to ensure good manners.

Here’s a guide to saving water-damaged books.

I am a shameless geek and reformed DnD player, so this room was exciting to see.

Cutting Costs While Cutting Hair

Finance

Beauty Girl Surprise.
Image via Wikipedia

About once per quarter, my wife and I have a…I won’t call it a fight.  It’s more like she-comes-home-looking-stunning-while-I-make-disapproving-grunting-sounds-while-giving-the-checkbook-dirty-looks.

I hate salons.

$80 for highlights, $30 for a haircut and $15 for eyebrow “shaping”.   It’s an afternoon of chemicals and hot-wax torture, for the low, low price of $125 + tip.  Frugal it’s not, but that’s an argument I lost long ago.

This weekend, she tried something new.

Beauty school.

For roughly the cost of materials, she got her eyebrows “shaped” and her hair highlighted and cut by a senior student at the beauty school, under the supervision of a licensed beautician/instructor.

It looks good, and she said she had more fun during her appointment than any other salon trip she’s had.   I guess there’s something to be said for interacting with someone who isn’t burned out on interacting with the general public.

What does it cost?  What normally runs $125 cost just $35.  That’s for a $5 cut, $25 highlighting, and $5 wax.   That’s a $90 savings or 72% off.  Yay!

Other services they offer include:

  • Full color, cut and shampoo for $20.
  • A Perm for $25.
  • Mani/pedi for $24.
  • Full set of acrylic nails for $15.
  • Wax for $5.  Have I ever mentioned that I am happy to be a guy?
  • Seaweed treatment for $10.  I don’t even know what this is.   A buffet, maybe?

They also have a “Princess” package that we’re going to use for brat #2’s birthday party next month.   It’s an up-do, nail polish, make-up, and tiara for $10 per kid.  We’ll take the girls out to get made up all pretty-like, then off to the dollar theater, for a $35 party.

The school my wife visited has more than 90 locations in 21 states, but I’d be willing to be every city big enough to support a Wal-Mart also has a beauty school nearby.  They don’t tend to advertise their customer services, so you’ll have to call, but for a 70% discount, it worth spending a bit of time on the phone, isn’t it?

I have two questions for you, dear readers:

  1. Would you consider going to a beautician trainee?
  2. What the heck is a seaweed treatment?
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Net Worth Update

Misc

Now that my taxes are done and paid for, I thought it would be nice to update my net worth.

In January, I had:

Assets

  • House: $252,900
  • Cars: $20,789
  • Checking accounts: $3,220
  • Savings accounts: $6,254
  • CDs: $1,105
  • IRAs: $12,001
  • Investment Accounts: $1,155
  • Total: $297,424

Liabilities

  • Mortgage: $29,982
  • Credit card: $18,725
  • Total: $48,707

Overall: $249,717.00

Here is my current status:

Assets

  • House: $240,100 (-12,800)  Estimated market value according to the county tax assessor.   This will be going down in a few months when the estimates are finalized for the year.  I don’t care much about this number.  We’re not moving any time soon, so the lower the value, the lower the tax assessment.
  • Cars: $15,857 (-4,932)   Kelly Blue Book suggested retail value for both of our vehicles and my motorcycle.
  • Checking accounts: $4,817 (+1,597)   I have accounts spread across three banks.  I don’t keep much operating cash here, so this fluctuates based on how far away my next paycheck is.
  • Savings accounts: $6,418 (+164)   I have savings accounts spread across a few banks.  This does not include my kids’ accounts, even though they are in my name.  This includes every savings goal I have at the moment.  I swept a chunk of this into an IRA to lower my tax bill, which is also why my IRA balance is up as much as it is.
  • CDs: $1,107 (+2)   I consider this a part of my emergency fund.
  • IRAs: $16,398 (+4,397)  I have finally started to contribute automatically.  It’s only $200 at the moment, but it’s something.
  • Investment Accounts:  $308 (-847)  I pulled most of this out and threw it at a credit card.
  • Total: $285,005 (-12,419)

Liabilities

  • Mortgage: $28,162 (-1,820)
  • Credit card: $16,038  (-2,687)  This is the current target of my debt snowball.  This has actually grown a bit over the last week.  I did a balance transfer that cost $400, but it gives me 0% for a year, versus the 9% I was paying.  That will pay for itself in 3 months, while simplifying my payments a bit and saving me almost a thousand dollars in payments this year.
  • Total: $44,200 (-4,507)

Overall: $240,805 (-8,912)

Well, I lost some net worth over the last quarter, but it’s still a good report.  If I disregard the change in value of my house and cars–two thing I have no control over–my overall total would have gone up almost $9,000.

All in all, it’s been a good year for me, so far, though paying off that credit card by fall is going to be a challenge.

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