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Strollerderby
I rarely get to watch the news because if my TV veers away from Nick Jr. or the Disney Channel, someone usually starts crying. Sadly, Dora and her simian friend are not reliable sources for information. By the time hubby gets home and tunes into something vaguely newsy, I’m not exactly on the edge of my seat taking notes. Despite the North Korean-style news blackout in which I exist, even I’ve heard about the situation with Greece and the European Union (EU).
According to my scant understanding of current events, the EU has apparently already bailed out Greece once. Like a tween at the mall, Greece now needs more money. If Greece defaults, there is a very real possibility it could flatten the entire European economy and maybe even bowl a strike across the globe. But when the EU put a bunch of very tight spending requirements on the second bailout, Greece balked. Several EU members were irritated by this and stated that Greece should get kicked out of the EU altogether for being annoying.*
*Not their actual words.
And it was then that I realized that bailing out Greece was exactly like dealing with kids.
Pennies make dollars!
As I watched my children’s college fund disappear in the stock market free fall over the last week, I resolved to start cutting back on the extras that I am guilty of indulging in. Don’t worry, I’m not thinking about changing my entire lifestyle or anything! I just want to figure out where I can save some bucks and make some of those much-touted “baby steps” toward fiscal responsibility that the economists keep harping on about. I just recently returned from a two year stint in the UK, so I already have a lot of practice in abstention, but bringing those habits to the USA, where excess is the norm, is a bit more of a challenge. I mean, it’s awfully easy to abstain from a daily Starbucks run if you don’t have a one nearby and if that one doesn’t have a drive-though, right?
So, here’s a list of some changes that will help you trim a little fat off your profligate American lifestyle that is the envy and scourge of the rest of the world.
1. No more Target. Target is rife with pitfalls for the mom on a budget: from the Starbucks that tempts you at the door, to the “OMG! It’s so on sale, I can’t afford to NOT buy it!”, to the fact that it just plain has everything you could want or need in one place. Don’t even think about trying to rationalize a trip because of the “Dollar Spot.”
2. Time to get that eBay shopping habit under control. I’m sorry, but you’re going to have find another outlet for your competitive streak. You just got down-graded to Craig’s List: it’s either free or negotiable!
The economic crisis has forced a lot of us to reevaluate our consumer behavior. Shopping-as-entertainment has been replaced with more cautious spending. Having just survived the birthday-Christmas-birthday gauntlet with my two kids, though, I’m really seeing how much STUFF is getting peddled to kids all the time, and how crappy most of it is. My daughter wanted just about everything she saw in the toy catalogs Target and Toys R Us thoughtfully included in our newspaper, and my attempts to explain to her why she was not getting that many toys were pretty feeble, I admit. Continue reading »
Ahhh yes, the news drought of the holidays is in full swing, begetting stories like this one from the unfortunately-named “The Mommy Files” blog: The Top Parenting Trends of 2009.
Okay, despite my snark, I think this is really more or less on the money. What’s writer Amy Graff’s take on what we were talking about this year?
One was recent — a New York Times magazine article from last week that talks about being married, happily, with issues. The very long article tracks a writer’s journey through various forms of marital therapy, and was actually very interesting in that many of the appraoches seemed to dredge up more problems than they actually solved. Continue reading »
Michigan, start your ovens. Or open your pocketbooks – either one will do for tomorrow’s statewide bake sale, an attempt to raise money for the ailing education system.
From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Freep reports parents across the state will be setting up outside grocery stories, community centers, post offices and even on the steps of the state Capitol with brownies, cookies and tasty cakes. Continue reading »
The economy didn’t just hurt 529 plans financially.
After years of big jumps in usership of the state-sponsored piggy banks for higher education, the Wall Street Journal is reporting a drop in the number of parents investing in 529 plans for their kids these days.
So are parents not saving for their kids’ educations? Continue reading »
I know times are tough, but this is troubling news: Half of all American children are expected at some point to be on food stamps. That statisitic is based on research conducted at Cornell University, who analyzed the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. That study followed about 4,800 households in the U.S. over the course of 32 years.
Even more troubling, Continue reading »
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