My wife and I haven’t had much success growing our own fruits and vegetables since we bought our house a few years ago. There are a ton of trees and we get very little direct sunlight. And since our yard backs up to a pond we have all sorts of animals running around including rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, deer, and the occasional fox. As soon as we get some nice ripe tomatoes that are ready to be picked, they disappear. In fact about the only thing we’ve had luck with is some herbs like basil and parsley.

photo credit: tillwe

But despite our lack of success we understand the benefits of growing your own fruits and vegetables. If you don’t already have your own backyard garden, here are 4 benefits of gardening that should convince you to get started.

1. You can save money on groceries. For the price of a few small tomato plants you can have all the tomatoes you’ll need through the entire summer. And the same goes for green beans, squash, and whatever else you want to grow.

2. Fresh is best. Forget about sifting through piles of fruit that have been sitting around for a week or more and are no longer ripe. There’s no substitute for freshly picked foods delivered right from your garden to the dinner table.

3. When you grow your own, you know what’s in it. No unwanted pesticides, fertilizers, or contaminants in your food.

4. You’ll get off your butt and get some exercise. Gardening isn’t like running a marathon, but it does require a little elbow grease. A little fresh air and exercise could do you some good!

So what are you waiting for?  Grab some seeds or plants and start enjoying the benefits of gardening!

This was a tough week. A trio of unexpected expenses really took a bite out of our bottom line.

First, I brought my car to my mechanic because I had two dashboard warning lights on…the ABS light and the airbag light. Obviously I want to get both taken care of for safety reasons, plus we’re planning on selling that car since we just inherited my father-in-law’s 2003 Camry. We’re going to sell the third car and use the money to pay off some debt.

So far the bill is at $350, but the light keeps coming back even though 2 of the wheel sensors have been replaced. Not sure what the total charge will be yet.

We’ve also been having some remodeling done in our house and the contractors found a colony of carpenter ants. The damage wasn’t that bad thankfully (luckily we were having some work done otherwise the ants might not have been found until the damage was much worse). After reading about how hard it is to completely eradicate a carpenter ant infestation we realized we needed a professional exterminator. Total cost $290.

Finally, because of the construction at our home we’ve been parking on the street so the contractors could fit their trucks in the driveway. On Wednesday night I moved my wife’s minivan onto the street.

I came home from work Thursday evening to find a parking ticket on the minivan. DAMN!!

Unfortunately the July 4th holiday mixed me up and for some reason I forgot what day it was. So it was a real kick in the ass to get a $30 parking ticket when your car is parked directly in front of your own house.

All in all these three unexpected expenses cost me $770.

Hopefully next week will be better!

July 4th is right around the corner and you know what that means…fireworks, bikinis, and barbeques!

photo credit: Design By Zouny

Fourth of July celebrations can get pretty expensive, so if you’re looking for ideas for saving money on a big party then this article is for you.  There are plenty of ways to keep your costs down without sacrificing the quality of your party.

You can save a lot of money right off the bat if you stick with non-alcoholic beverages.  Soda, water, and iced tea are just as good as beer, wine, and sangria…right?

Right?

Seriously though, these days money is tight for many of us.  Your friends and family will understand if you have to cut back a bit on the booze.

Organize a potluck party where everyone brings a dish.  One person brings the hot dogs, another brings some rolls, someone else brings some beer and so forth (my wife makes killer potato salad!).  Potlucks are great because no one person has to bear the full cost of the party.  Plus everyone gets to try out different recipes they’ve never had before.

If a potluck isn’t practical for whatever reason, why not take up a collection to help cover expenses?  Have each person kick in a few bucks to pad your budget and you’ll be able to afford more food and decorations than if you were footing the entire bill yourself.

Just a quick post to wish all of you moms out there a Happy Mother’s Day!

I also want to share a quick poem by Herbert Farnham.  My wife lost her mom last year and this poem always makes her tear up…

God’s Masterpiece is Mother

God took the fragrance of a flower…
The majesty of a tree…
The gentleness of morning dew…
The calm of a quiet sea…
The beauty of the twilight hour…
The soul of a starry night…
The laughter of a rippling brook…
The grace of a bird in flight…
Then God fashioned from these things
A creation like no other,
And when his masterpiece was through
He called it simply – Mother.

Happy Mother’s Day everyone!

Mother’s Day is right around the corner! You forgot didn’t you? Well have no fear! In today’s post I’ll share some ideas for inexpensive Mother’s Day gifts so you don’t show up empty-handed.

1. Flowers. What mom wouldn’t love a beautiful bouquet of flowers? You don’t have to spend a fortune either. You can order flowers online and have them shipped right to your mom’s front door for as little as $30 to $50.

2.  A Family Portrait. Get the whole family together and have a professional portrait taken.  It won’t cost much if you split the cost.  Another option is to gather a bunch of old pictures and make them into a personalized photo album.

3.  Home Movies on DVD.  If your mom has old home movies laying around on VHS or 8mm tape you can have them transferred to dvd so she can enjoy watching old memories whenever she wants.

4.  Have her grandchildren make her something. It could be as simple as a card made with construction paper, crayons, glitter, and glue.   Or it could be a do it yourself project like the ones offered at Home Depot.  I take my kids to Home Depot on the first Saturday of each month for the Kids Workshop.  This month they made little planters with pretty flowers for their mom.

5.  Burn a CD of her favorite tunes.  You can download free legal MP3 songs and then burn them onto a CD so your mom can listen to them at home or on the road.

6.  Make her dinner at home.   How many thousands of meals did your mom cook for you while you were growing up?  Well guess what…now it’s your turn!   Grab a cookbook and some groceries and prepare a homemade meal for your mom.  She deserves it!

Do you have any more suggestions for inexpensive Mother’s Day gifts?

My wife and I have always been big movie fans.  Before we were married we went to the movies almost every weekend.  But now that we have a mortgage and 3 kids to feed, our movie-going ways have been cut back significantly.

But we still need to get our movie fix somehow, so we came up with some ideas for saving money on movies.

Going to the Movies

As parents of little kids, matinees are perfect for us.  We can enjoy a late afternoon movie and still be home before the kids have to go to bed.  And of course they’re less expensive than later show times.

There are lots of ways you can get cheap movie tickets.  Some theaters offer discounts for children, senior citizens, or AAA members.  The Entertainment Book includes coupons for many popular movie theaters.  Your employer might even offer discounted movie tickets to employees.  Try asking someone in your HR department.

Of course ticket prices are just part of the problem.  Popcorn, snacks, and drinks will cost you an arm and a leg too.  Unless you can find a way to sneak your own snacks into the theater. When I was a kid my mom used to bring an extra large purse full of Twizzlers candy.  Just be careful not to get caught!

Movies at Home

You can save even more money by skipping the movie theater altogether and watching movies at home instead.  Personally, I hate watching movies that have been edited and contain commercials…but they are free.  Even better is my cable provider’s movie package which gives me dozens of premium movie channels and OnDemand channels.  I can enjoy dozens of movies at home each month for less than the price of a single trip to the movie theater.

We’ve saved a small fortune on rental fees since we started renting movies from the library. Our local library has a huge collection of movies and tv shows and they’re all completely free to borrow for up to 2 weeks at a time.

Sign up with Netflix and you can rent an unlimited number of movies for one low price.  The more movies you watch the more money you’ll save!

Visit your local Redbox machine and rent a movie for just $1 a night.  Just make sure you bring it back the next day to avoid being charged again.

I’m sure you’ve seen the recent Toyota recalls plastered all over the evening news and newspapers, but not every consumer product recall gets that kind of media coverage.

Pretty much every day there is at least one product recalled due to safety or quality concerns.  Some of them could be in your home right now. 

Fortunately there is the Consumer Product Safety Commission web site where you can find information on over 4,500 (and counting) product recalls. 

You can search by date, product type, manufacturer, type of hazard, and more.  Plus you can sign up for product recall alerts so you can receive immediate notification whenever a new recall is announced.   You can subscribe to their RSS feeds or you can have new alerts delivered right to your inbox via email.

Since I have 3 young children I subscribed to the Children’s product recall list and I’m amazed at how many products are recalled.  I probably receive an average of 3 to 5 alerts each week, and some of those alerts contain more than one recall notice.   The most common recall reasons I see are toys that contain lead paint and shirts or jackets that have drawstrings which can strangle children if they are caught on something.

You can research various recalls and sign up to receive product recall alerts at CPSC.gov.

One of my favorite Adam Sandler movies is Click. Sandler plays a workaholic who comes across a magic remote control that allows him to pause or fast forward over parts of his life. But he quickly loses control and discovers he’s missed out on most of the great moments of life. He’s also neglected his family…he ends up old, divorced, and alone, and he has missed out on most of his children’s lives. They grew up without him.

Lying in a hospital bed after suffering a massive heart attack he realizes that his mistakes are about to repeat themselves as his son is going to skip his honeymoon to attend to business. There’s a touching seen at the end where Sandler is struggling to catch up with his son to tell him “Family comes first.”

When I first sat down to watch Click I thought it was strictly a comedy, but it ended with with a powerful message that really struck me hard. As a dad I struggle to balance work and other responsibilities with family time. I’m sure you do too.

Our lives are so busy and full of chores, errands, and responsibilities that it can be easy to lose sight of what really matters. Nothing is more important to me than my family, but at times I still find myself putting other things before them…working, blogging, projects around the house, etc.

Then I have to sit back and remind myself of what’s really important. When the kids are pulling at me to come play it’s easy to say “No, daddy has work to do.” But it breaks their little hearts.

Time moves fast and before long they’ll be all grown up. So I make sure to spend some quality time with them every single day now while I can. It doesn’t take much to make my little ones happy…it can be as simple as sitting on the floor coloring or doing a puzzle together. I cherish that time because I know it won’t last forever.

I hope you understand the importance of family and children. If you find yourself pushing them aside because you have other things that need to get done…stop. Look at their little faces and remember they won’t be little forever. If you don’t stop to enjoy them now you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.

Man, there is a mean virus out there and it’s been whipping through my family for the last week. 

My one daughter got it first last Sunday and she’s still not 100% a full 8 days later.  Her fever got up to 104.5 and she had pneumonia and has been on antibiotics and nebulizer treatment.

My other daughter has been mostly fine except for a nagging cough though she had a slight fever last night.

The baby has had a horrible cough and he is also on the nebulizer.

I’ve had a fever, cough, congestion, and that “just got hit by a truck” feeling since Thursday.   Today’s the first day I’m not glued to the couch and I’m still far from 100 percent.  My head feels like it is 10 feet underwater and I barely have any voice at all.

All together I had 3 copays to pay for doctor visits for me and 2 of my kids (so far…we’ll see if my wife and other daughter make it through).  Plus there were more copays for the prescriptions as well as a couple of over the counter items.  All in all I’m out about $150 because of this lousy virus. 

I know it would be a lot worse if it weren’t for insurance, but geez.

We got about a foot of snow here in New Jersey yesterday.  Took this pic of my backyard while I was playing with the girls in the snow.

Looks like a winter wonderland huh?