frugal underground

Yep, that’s me – a stay-at-home mom and right where I want to be. It doesn’t exactly mean though, that this is where I’ve always imagined myself to be at. After all, “a work-at-home mom” isn’t exactly the usual answer when you ask a young girl what she wants to be when she grows up.

It would be so easy to say that full-time parenting beckoned at me, or that I simply wanted to be my own self, free from the trappings that the corporate life can sometimes hold us in, but then again, that wouldn’t be an accurate picture of it, either. To put it simply,

My being a work-at-home parent had nothing to do with noble or grand aspirations, and everything to do with what needed to be done at that time.

Calling it a lifeline or a last resort would be nearer the truth.

I started a (working) life online as a freelance writer and blogger through oDesk.com less than a year ago and haven’t looked back since. In the span of 9 months, I was able to clock in 1,000 hours already just last week. I refer to it is as my millennia moment. Yey!

So, what could be cooler than this? Well, not counting the times when I wish I could just magically disappear from a bunch of screaming kids, and excluding the sleepless nights when a deadline is looming, not much actually. I earn a pretty decent income and get to be with my kids while they are still young enough to love the fact that their mom is around all the time. The clamor for attention does get to be a pain sometimes but I always remind myself to just savor these moments before the time comes when they would prefer to hang out with everyone else except (sob) me.

If there’s one common misconception about being a stay-at-home parent, it’s that of the job being easy. You read that practically everywhere. So at the risk of being called repetitive, let me just say it one more time:

Working from home is far from easy.

If only people get it the first, second, or nth time, we wouldn’t have to repeat it so often. Let me give you a quick rundown of why the job of a full time parent and freelance online worker wouldn’t be right up everyone’s alley:

Knowing all these now, would I still go up this path given the chance to do it over again? In a heartbeat. Right now, the kids are still giggling, unable to settle down without their customary goodnight cuddles. Hmmm… looks like duty calls.

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Summer never ends; at least that’s how it sometimes feels when you’re a stay-at-home parent.  The kids are out of school, and that means they need time and attention, which can be difficult when you’re supposed to be working from home.

Admittedly, we have two teens at home who can keep the seven-year-old entertained at least some of the time.  But being teens, they tend to disappear for hours at a time, themselves, leaving me to keep an eye on the youngest, as well as working. Luckily, I don’t usually have to put in a full 40 hours every week, so sometimes I can take the day and spend it doing things with my daughter.

One way to maximize that is to take advantage of my partner’s commute.  She works near DC, and we live about two hours away.  That’s just great for a day trip with my daughter.  We just ride in with my partner and while she’s at work I can take our daughter down to the Smithsonian.  We can tour museums all day, and it’s free!

In fact, we’re taking advantage of it tomorrow:  I’m going to take my daughter to the Air and Space Museum.

What’s great about it is that we don’t have to spend a lot of extra money to get there, because the trip to DC is covered by my partner’s commute anyway.  Beyond that it’s just a few dollars for the Metro to get down to the National Mall.  I’m going to pack water and snacks so food won’t be an issue.  The only expense beyond the Metro is going to be tickets to get into the planetarium.  There’s also a free children’s story time that we’re going to attend, too.

We’re getting a day out for less than $25 which isn’t bad when you consider everything.  We could cut that down to under $10 if we weren’t going to the planetarium, and just add another museum or so.

While not everyone has access to museums of this quality, you might be surprised to find what’s available in your area; especially for those who live near major cities.  Most cities have at least a few attractions that are either free or cheap, and it’s worth taking the time to check them out.

If you do decide to try this for yourself, it’s important to remember to pack a few important things.  Water and sunscreen should top the list, followed by snacks like fruit or granola bars.

We’re off tomorrow and it should be a great time.  My daughter loves space and astronomy so this should be right up her alley.

If you have similar ideas, feel free to add them in the comments section.

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A credit card and your teen may sound like a lethal combination. In fact, if you’re also a ‘recovering’ credit card user yourself trying to pay off a substantial credit card debt, you wouldn’t want your own children to touch that plastic card with a ten feet pole, lest they end up making the same mistakes. But before putting your foot down on this one, ask yourself first:

“What harm can having a credit card possibly do to my teen?“

Plenty, as it turns out — most of us who have had less-than-pleasant experiences with credit cards will probably answer. But then again, we didn’t have the privilege of hindsight and guidance before that our kids do now. If handled well enough, we can actually use this exercise to teach our kids some pretty solid lessons on handling credit wisely rather than leading them down to the path of shopping wonderland.

The first issue of course, is deciding the best time to let your child use a credit card. I believe letting your teen have a taste of dealing with credit while still in high school is most ideal. Kids in this age are old enough to understand the basics of handling money and budgeting, while still young enough to appreciate your guidance and not rebel from it. Or at least most of them would, I hope.

Fortunately for parents, the range of options for kid or teen-appropriate credit cards is varied what with the plastic-crazy world we now live in. One of your best alternatives could be getting a pre-paid credit card . This way, you have a modern way of handing out allowance every week, without giving him the ability or temptation to go off the debt deep end.

Prepaid credit cards work in much the same way as retail gift cards but are more universally accepted as your kids can use them not just in a single issuing store but anywhere Visa or Mastercard is accepted. The best thing about prepaid cards as compared to regular ones is the absence of fees and late payment charges.

Eventually, you can move on to making your child an extension of your own card, or get him his own regular credit card starting with a low credit limit. For instance, a gas card is a practical option once your teen starts to enjoy driving privileges. At this point, he is well old enough for you to see that with his needs, pocket change allowance just won’t do anymore.

If I seem to lean towards letting young people have their lessons on credit early on in life, it may be because I haven’t had the chance to do it myself and I could have avoided some painful lessons along the way knowing what I do now.

It doesn’t mean though that I’m turning a blind eye and deaf ear to the pitfalls of credit that our children could come to, the most obvious of which is:

This plan could backfire.

If left to their own devices with credit cards, kids can learn a very addictive habit. We ourselves know how easy spending beyond one’s means can be for as long as we have that Mastercard logo in our wallets.

I still say though, the risks far outweigh the benefits when it comes to giving one’s kids a preview of the travails of the adult life. As long as we keep the rules clear, help them identify which goes into what category, i.e. needs vs. wants, teach them how to track purchases (oh, and don’t forget to monitor his transactions yourself), and share with them the mistakes you’ve made yourself, you just might end up succeeding.

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The common cold is supposed to be just as its name implies – ordinary and relatively harmless. And yet nowadays, the symptoms of the cold and its more advanced “form”, the flu, can no longer be dismissed as plain coughs and sneezes that will pass in a few days.

I was almost unable to come up with this post myself as the whole family came down with the worst bout of flu we’ve seen in years. While I’m fairly confident that none of us has contracted the much talked-about and dreaded A(H1N1) virus, the onset of this new epidemic has led me into thinking about how we should pay more attention to keeping ourselves fit and healthy.

Costs can skyrocket when it comes to the treatment of serious health problems but oftentimes all it takes is a boost to the immune system to keep the viruses away. And let’s do away with the notion that living healthy is expensive. On the contrary, it could cut down on a lot of unnecessary expenses that we currently spend for.

Check out these tips and see what I mean:

Get adequate sleep. What else is there to say? Sleep costs you nothing yet does a lot for your immune system.

Quit the soda and drink water. Water is cheaper, healthier, and doesn’t bombard our bodies with sugars and additives.

Take it a step further and use tap water. I’m sure your purified water expense is way above your regular water bill. Purified doesn’t always mean cleaner though, and sometimes all you may need is a reliable water filter. PUR pitchers for instance are priced no higher than $19 but it does the job of straining out contaminants, and the water tastes great to boot.

Soak in some sun. Healthy sun, that is. Kids especially should get enough exposure to Vitamin D to help them develop strong bones and teeth. So pry them out of their console games and keep them running outdoors for some “sunshine vitamin.” Again, it’s free but the benefits are priceless.

Apply proper hygiene. A bar of soap or a small bottle of hand sanitizer shouldn’t make a dent in our budget but these are actually our first lines of defense against catching any unwanted germs.

Discover the benefits of “free” exercise. Who needs a home treadmill or an expensive club membership when a few rounds of brisk walking or jogging around the neighborhood would do just as well?

Quit smoking. With the recent rise in tobacco taxes, kicking the habit once and for all would do both our body and wallet good.

Skip the junk food and eat healthy. A healthy immune system always goes hand in hand with a healthy diet. Sure, organic fruits, veggies, and meats can be pricey, but you haven’t explored the other cheaper options yet.

As an alternative to the more expensive meats and fresh fish, some great but inexpensive alternative sources of protein are:

Fruits are the best sources for Vitamin C. The richest fruits (and not necessarily the steepest-priced) are the kiwi fruit, guavas, and oranges. Another affordable option would be to take Vitamin C supplements. You don’t get to enjoy the fruit but at least you get your needed dose of the vitamin.

Here’s to a long, healthy and frugal life!

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I once had a roommate who refused to shop at discount and second-hand stores because she didn’t want people to think she was poor.

She would rather be seen as rich than smart.

The sad thing is that her attitude is all too common these days:  with teenagers in the house I see it all the time.  They want the newest and most fashionable everything – even if it’s overpriced crap – just because it is in style.

There isn’t much you can do about a teenager’s sense of style,  some of them haven’t figured out how to wear pants yet; but it’s always possible to try and instill good habits when it comes to spending money.

This is even more important when they’re spending my money.

Today’s topic is bargains, discounts, and second-hand stores:  and why the emphasis on having people think she was rich only made my roommate look foolish. Read the rest of this entry »

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Kids sure are learning quickly these days. Between the internet and cable TV, youngsters tend to pick up a lot of stuff that in our days, we wouldn’t even begin to know about until later in life. Some of the info they manage to glean can be pretty interesting (for instance, my three-year-old already knows several Spanish words thanks to Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer), if not downright useful.

That said, I’m also amazed at how much kids can teach their parents in turn just by being themselves. I’m a work-at-home mom myself, and I’ve had the pleasure of being able to observe my sons, ages 6 and 3, at close range while they are unaware of it. I must say that the monetary lessons I’ve learned from them are just as valuable as any of the personal finance tips that I’ve come across in blogs and magazines. Let me share with you some of them:

• The best things in life are free. It’s cliché, I know. But the more I think about it, the more I’ve realized that this maxim is nowhere near as evidently practiced than in the lives of innocent kids.

  Whenever it rains, my boys are always asking me to allow them to run around in the rain and while I’m usually hesitant about it, the shrieks of pleasure I hear when I finally cave in overrides whatever concerns I have about their catching colds or slipping on the ground. Not that I still wouldn’t love having a pool in the house, but for the kids at least, a good frolic in the pouring rain will do the trick as well.

• Cheap can also be good. I can’t exactly remember at what stage in my life it was when I started to think that the good stuff always came with a hefty price tag but since then, that has always been my mindset; and this is true for many adults as well. For kids however, what is good is whatever brings them enjoyment.

  I’ve all too often made the mistake of buying toys for my kids which we could barely afford just for the satisfaction of knowing we gave the “best” to them. Well, I’ve also been disappointed many times when my gifts were met with enthusiasm that wasn’t any different from the other “unbranded” toys they received. Now I’m not saying that we should just forgo of the more expensive things in life even if we have the means to afford them and just think cheap, affordable, discounts, sales, etc. But then again, with an economic recession on our hands, it never hurts to adopt the kids’ way of thinking once in a while, and settle for less than best.

• Don’t count out the nickels and dimes. My husband and I often talk to the kids about plans of buying a new car, but we were always careful to emphasize that this would be something that would happen in the future yet as we have not saved enough for it. As soon as the goal of “saving up for the new car” firmed up in their minds however, they became quite enthusiastic about the plan (not even about the car, but more so about the saving part), putting in whatever small bills and change they manage to wangle from their grandparents or earn from doing odd “jobs” in the house, into their coin banks. We’re still nowhere near owning that dream car, but perhaps if we show even half of the zest that the young ones are doing with their nickels and dimes, we could probably get there much faster.
• Money shouldn’t be too complicated. With kids, a simple “we don’t have money for that” is taken as is. Of course, oftentimes a parent’s “no” is met with whines or tantrums or sulking for older kids, but after sometime, young children can readily come to terms with the fact that they can’t get what they want and just move on to other endeavors. Not so with adults. Every so often (or is it too often?), a “we don’t have money for that” is converted to “let’s just charge it to the credit card” – an ill-advised move considering the skyrocketing credit card interest rates these days. Why not simplify things and just let a no be a no, as kids do.

We’ve often heard about letting kid be kids, but why not let adults be kids for a change – that is, when it comes to dealing with personal finance. If only we could somehow acquire a bit of children’s resiliency in money matters, life could be so much simpler and perhaps, less stressful.

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Most of us have cell phones, many of us have teenagers:  put the two together and you have a recipe for a never-ending hole in your bank account.

Being frugal is about making smart choices; being a teenager is about making the mistakes you learn from later.  The two don’t go together.  But teens and cell phones do go together, and if you make the wrong choices you’ll be the one paying for their mistakes.

I used to work for a cell phone company, and part of my job was resolving billing problems.  I still remember the time a woman called up with a tiny little problem.

Her bill was several thousand dollars larger than normal.

It seems her son had been downloading pornography to his cell phone with predictable results.  Unfortunately there wasn’t anything we could do for her, but there are a few things I can suggest that might prevent it from happening to you.

So follow me past the cut and we’ll talk about various ways to be frugal with your teen’s cell phone bill.

Read the rest of this entry »

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