Tag Archives: benefits

A Child’s Eye View of Parents

‘What are Moms and Dad for?’ was one of the questions our local paper asked kindergarten children recently. Their answers are interesting. One said ‘to take care of you.’ Another a said, ‘taking care of you and buying food for you,’ ‘For caring and sometimes helping with homework.’ But this answer saddened me. ‘They are for going to work and paying for things.’ It made me wonder what sort of home life this child had and how much he actually saw his parents. Now I admit I was a stay-at-home Mom. Mick and I decided early on I would stay … Continue reading →

Preparing for Worse Times Ahead

While we would all hope that the economy is going to get better soon, the reality is that it will probably get worse before it starts getting better. Leading analysts say that it may be 2010 before we can expect an improvement. This means that there will be further job losses, higher prices and the possibility of shortages as business fail and manufacturers have to reduce their production. To give yourself peace of mind, start doing what you can to prepare. Ideally, you should have three to six months of living expenses squared away in an emergency fund. While this … Continue reading →

How Much Are You Planning to Spend on Your Kids this Holiday Season?

Recession? What recession? Seriously, I often wonder how much the media has skewed our view on the nation’s economic situation. Every headline, every news ticker, every “top story” has to do with how poor our country’s financial situation is, and how things are only going to get worse before they get better. While news anchors are reading stories about record unemployment, mounting foreclosures, no money here, less money there, my friend’s 10-year-old daughter is heading to the spa. No kidding. Young Keera scored an invitation to yet another birthday party, this time at a local spa that caters to tweens. … Continue reading →

More Wisdom From Proverbs

Yesterday we looked at Proverbs 30:5-6. Today we’ll look at Proverbs 30:7-9, where the writer asks two things of God. The first is: ‘Keep falsehood and lies far from me.’ This could be read as keep me from telling lies to others. We often want to grade lies. It’s easy to slip into what we term ‘white lies,’ so as not to hurt another person’s feelings, or because we want to please them or make ourselves look good but God makes no distinction. Lies are lies. Proverbs 19:5 says ,’he who pours out lies will not go free.’ The idea … Continue reading →

Money Strategies That Worked in Our Marriage

Today I’ll tell you some ways we approached the money issue in marriage. Mick and I always worked out our finances together. There were no secrets, except for the ones around Christmas, anniversary or birthdays. The main thing is to work out a budget and stick to it. But each person should have a little mad money they didn’t have to explain. This can be spent on clothes, saved for gifts, or used for whatever. Shop less regularly for groceries. We grocery shop once a month. Unfortunately fruit and vegetables have to be more often but stick to only that. … Continue reading →

Money in Marriage

The concern for many today is ‘Money, money, money’ to quote the Abba song. Yes we saw Mamma Mia a few weeks back, can you tell? With the current economic situation the way it is a lot of people are worried about money, coping with day to day expenses and the prices of basic items rising all the time, banks looking shaky and the share market in a slump. As well as those struggling to support families, it also affects those with retirement funds and investments as they see what they thought was a retirement nest egg shrinking before their … Continue reading →

Three Fun Ways to Prepare Your Marriage to Survive an Economic Depression

Last night while I was watching Mad Money, Jim Cramer said something which helped to slightly ease my worries about another Great Depression. He said we’re likely not heading into one. However, the key word was “likely.” Even he’s not 100 percent sure where we’re headed yet. That’s why my mind was only slightly eased. But as Cramer offered money and investing advice, I got to thinking about a couple of things. One was the movie Life is Beautiful. I loved how the main character found a way to make a game out of living in a concentration camp. The … Continue reading →

Marriage During the Great Depression

Yesterday I wrote about how I’m bracing my marriage for a depression. I also admitted that I’m afraid of what’s to come…but that I’m going to face that fear head on and find a way to make all this benefit my marriage. I’m still not entirely sure how I’m going to do that, but I figured knowledge is power so my best bet is to start off arming myself with some of that. Researching the Great Depression If only my grandparents were still alive. Both sets survived the Great Depression. They could advise me how they made it, maybe give … Continue reading →

Bracing My Marriage for a Depression

I hadn’t been too worried about all the economic doom and gloom swarming the news these days until a couple of weeks ago. My husband’s job is sort of dependent on investors being able to get credit to buy businesses. If people can’t get financing, that means there won’t be any deals and he’ll be out of work. Needless to say the number of banks going under, some of which have financed projects Wayne’s worked on in the past, alarmed me. But yesterday I grew even more concerned. Causes for Concern It started when Today interviewed Jim Cramer of Mad … Continue reading →

Bad Economy + Tooth Fairy = Unhappy Kids

How much money does the Tooth Fairy leave at your house? My brothers and I used to get 25 cents per tooth, but in the decades since our teeth fell out it appears the Tooth Fairy has adjusted her rates and is now paying out a pretty penny (in the form of 5 and 10 dollar bills) for baby teeth. Evidently, the days when the Tooth Fairy could get away with leaving a couple coins and a pack of Trident gum are long gone. Our neighbor’s 6-year-old son ran over to our home yesterday flashing a new toothless grin and … Continue reading →