A Year of Giving

In 2013, giving back to the community was a theme. In the past, we have donated clothes to charities for resale and participated in food drives during the holidays. This year, we did our best to give year round. Here are the organizations we have supported and the reasons why we did.

The Second Harvest Food Bank provides food to numerous community agencies in the North Florida area. These community agencies then distribute to individuals who are struggling to provide food for themselves and their family. In March, we attended the Great Chefs Competition, which was a fundraiser for Second Harvest. 100% of the ticket sales went to Second Harvest. It was a fun event for a wonderful cause.

I also led the food drive for my work this year. It was a rewarding experience to deliver 351 pounds of food to their main warehouse!

Why did we choose Second Harvest? Bottom line? Food is really important in our home. We show love through food. And I am super cranky when I don't eat. Seriously though, the thought of families not being able to eat breaks our heart. For so many kids, their main meal comes from their school. We love being able to contribute in some way to reduce the number of hungry people in our community.

BEAM stands for Beaches Emergency Assistance Mission. Their mission is to help keep families in their homes as well as help them become self-sufficient. Among their many services include job/interview assistance, a local food pantry (including gardening boxes for people to grow their own veggies), and assistance with utility bills.  They also organize a Holiday Gift Program to help play Santa for hundred of local Beaches children.

Why BEAM? Their focus is helping people in our local Beaches community. They help folks who could be my neighbor or someone I see in the grocery store. You never know. I'm hoping to spend time in 2014 assisting people with their resumes and interviewing skills.

The Church of Eleven22 is my home church. They organize numerous mission trips each year. This year, we were able to support friends who were embarking on their first Mission trip as a married couple. They are a Godly couple who live their faith out loud.

Why support? Because the work they will be doing is important!!

Wolfson Children's Hospital is our local Children's hospital. Rather than each community hospital having in-patient facilities, our local hospitals refer all the pediatric patients to Wolfson. We've had good friends whose children have been admitted in the past. The staff is nothing short of amazing. Being a non-profit, they depend on development relationships for a lot of their funding. 

Why Wolfson? First and foremost, supporting them is a way to thank them for all the great care they have provided to First Coast children for many years. Since becoming parents, it is even more important that we do what we can to help their mission.

I learned about Friends of Jacksonville Animals (a.k.a FOJA) from my friend LL. She is very active in advancing their mission of raising funds to benefit the lives of shelter animals. They are heavily involved in adoption events around the city. The dedicated volunteers of FOJA give a voice to our animal friends.

So why FOJA? Our dog Truffle is a rescue. We adopted him from another family who no longer could care for him. They adopted him from a shelter. He had been found abandoned with his brothers and sisters in Central Florida. I could not imagine our lives without Truffle. He's not the most polite dog, but he is ours. Period.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. These organizations are all doing something important for our community!

A Life Less Styled

I love social media. Like, I LOVE it. I love reading and writing blogs. I love keeping up with friends on Facebook. I love meeting people from all over on Twitter.

In my opinion, one unintentional fallout from social media is the propensity for a highly styled life.

The rich and famous have had personal stylists for years. Stylists existed in retail shops and magazines, not in the every day home. Professionally decorated homes were for the well-to-do.
With the advent of mediums such as Twitter and Instagram, more and more people were able to share multiple aspects of their life at the click of a button. Their clothes. Their food. Their kids. Their daily lives. Even their red cups :)

Family pictures no longer consisted of setting the self-timer and running to jump into the picture. We hire professional photographers. We coordinate our outfits, but don't want to be too matchy. We pick out our location to convey a message (I live at the beach! I love nature!). We are posed. We hope that our special moments are captured, so we have the perfect picture for our Christmas cards. Believe me. I've been there. So many of us have been there.

Even our "candids" are styled. A pair of stunning high heels or logo'd flats are precariously tossed at just the right angle. They fall next to our shopping bags, with the logos that just happen to be showing. Or we show our red cups and just happen to capture a new piece of jewelry or the logo on our car steering wheel within the shot.

Is it bad? It's not. It's not hurting anyone (from my point of view anyways). But what saddens me is the loss of true candid shots of life. Will there not be pictures of family members wearing cheesy matching t-shirts anymore? How about pictures of friends who just got in a frosting fight at a 16th birthday party (ahem...)? Or worst, skipping out pictures all together because you don't look the way you want. Andrea shared this post and it really resonated with me.

Just food for thought.

Fiscal Friday: The Christmas List

For this week's Fiscal Friday post, I'm discussing my Christmas list. Not a "My Favorite Things", Oprah style list. Or even a "What I Want for Christmas" list (I keep that on Pinterest--it's how J knows what I want!). This Christmas list names who I'm buying for this year.

Aside from immediate family, I feel this list changes every year. Some years, I only buy for immediate family. Other years, I include all of my friends' kids, cousins' kids, etc etc. There was no rhyme or reason really to why I did or did not include someone.

In the spirit of fiscal responsibility, I am really giving serious thought to who I am buying for and what is purchased. In past years, we've been extremely generous. Previous gifts to immediate family members have includes a David Yurman bracelet, airline tickets, iPads etc etc. That list is not meant to be a brag, as part of our remaining debt includes those purchases. Debt: The gift that keeps on giving!

I really do want to give presents to my cousins or at least just their kids. They are always so generous with Jack. Even though we didn't have a big 1st birthday party, they still gave him presents. So one thing I'm contemplating is a family present. Both of my cousins' have kids between the ages of 3-10. Wondering if a restaurant and movie gift card combo would work? Or a Target or Walmart gift card? Or a game night themed present?

Don't even get me started on what the heck I'm going to purchase for my immediate family...

Join in on the conversation by commenting or tweeting me @natylite78, using the hashtag #fiscalresponsibility

Fiscal Friday: Perception

Most days, I think I am a fairly confident person, unencumbered by others' opinions of me. However, there are days where I completely disappoint myself.

Wait, isn't this supposed to be a "Fiscal Friday" post?

It is. I promise! Just hang for a minute.

While on a business trip, my coworker and I went to Nordstrom. Somehow, we found ourselves in the Prada boutique. Then someone who sounded just like me, proceeded to inquire about the cost of a Prada bag. Not only did I  the person who looked and sounded just like me inquire, but also walked around with the bag. What did I (let's be real here) do, but pretend what it would be like to carry an expensive bag. Then I started telling some cockaninny story that maybe I would ask my husband to buy it for me.

Um...NO.

Who was this person saying this crazy business to the Prada salesperson?

I know me. The real me. The one who wouldn't ask for that because it isn't fiscally responsible. The one who knows that would pay for several months of pre-school.

But the words were falling out of my mouth at a rapid pace. For some reason, it MATTERED to me that the salesperson and my co-worker would even remotely think that this bag would be a viable option. Their perception of me mattered.

And that, my friends, is why being fiscally responsible will always be at the forefront for me. Becoming complacent may mean I'm one glass of champagne away from a big and unnecessary purchase. Because when I least expect it, someone else's perception of me may be the reason why I say "yes" to the Prada.

Have you ever felt the need to spend for this reason? Join in on the conversation by commenting or using the hash tag #fiscalresponsibility on Twitter.

Fiscal Friday: Two Steps Forward. Two Steps Back

When I was writing the title to this post, I couldn't help but think of this guy:

Picture courtesy of www.ugo.com

While I was on maternity leave, I used my sick and vacation time to continue receiving a paycheck. After some calculations, I determined I only needed to pay myself around 60% of what I normally made to pay the bills. It was during this time that I landed my current role, which paid more than my old job. So when I returned to work, the increase was not only the difference in salary between the old and new job, but I was used to only 60% of my old salary.

J started a new job as well and we committed to not get used to the increases. Instead, we would pour it all into debts: credit cards and car payments. We paid our cars off and paid off a large amount of debt. Things were progressing better than I anticipated!

That's when things took a turn. While we were in Asheville, J's car went kaput. His car was around 8 years old. The money we would have had to pay in for repairs just didn't make sense financially. Long story short, we got a new car. Eight months of blissful (aka zero car payment) had ended.

It is a setback for sure. However, I am positive we will continue our progress. We just have to stay on task.

It's Fiscal Friday and I'd love to hear if you've ever experience a setback in your road to #fiscalresponsibility! Join in the conversation by commenting or using the hashtag #fiscalresponsibility on Twitter.

Multigeneration Family Vacation in Asheville, NC!

J, Jack and I along with my parents, my sister and her boyfriend traveled to Asheville, NC for a lovely, albeit too brief vacation in a lovely mountain home (found on Homeaway.com - message me if you want the exact listing!). As I wrote here, a multigenerational vacation is a different ballgame than a couples' getaway. There is much more downtime and true relaxation, a big difference from my previous trips. 

The home itself was a perfect location for our needs. We had 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, with each bedroom/bathroom on a different floor. This provided privacy if needed.  The common areas were not large, but were great for playing games and hanging out. The main level deck was simply amazing. Aside from the wonderful western views, the deck was fully screened. For this momma, that was a plus as my fears of Jack jumping off were tempered. 

I mean, look at this view (forgive the screen!)

Here are some of activities:

Asheville Gray Line Trolley Tour - I actually did not plan this one in advanced. My sister brought it to my attention. She thought it would be a good way for my dad to see Asheville without having to walk. She was right. We all had a good time. Jack had a blast riding in the trolley. It allowed J and I to get a good overview on the lay of the land, especially since we were going out to dinner sans Jack that evening.

Driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway - J discovered that if we continued up the mountain where we were staying, we would end up on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Even though the faciilties were closed due to the government shutdown, we were able to enjoy the natural beauty of the Parkway. Again, this did not require my dad to walk. He could relax and enjoy the views like we all did!

Grandad's Apples - A trip to Western NC would not be complete without a visit to an apple orchard. I did quite a bit of research to pick where we would go. I wanted a place where there was a good variety of apples (already picked) and a pumpkin patch, fun kids activities, and finally, apple cider donuts. We were all really pleased with Grandad's! They had some fun props to take pics with Jack. There was a little animal section, where we fed a llama and a baby goat. Jack had a blast in the pumpkin patch. My parents' enjoyed the rocking chairs on the porch. And yes, I did get my donuts!

Asheville is a wonderful town! I highly recommend it as a great location for a family vacation!

In my next post, I'll share details on our date night in Asheville!

Fiscal Friday: Coming Clean

Before I get started, does this blog post title make you think of the song by Hilary Duff??

For this week's Fiscal Friday, I'm inspired by C's post from a couple of weeks ago.  Just how did I get into debt?

I'm going to be as honest as I can deal with. :)

Girls' Weekends

In the late 1990's and early 2000's, I went on a lot of "Girls Weekends". Usually, my friends and I would head to Orlando to see a concert (ching ching), stay at a nice hotel (ching ching), eat at Macaroni Grille (hey, we were young!), and shop at the Florida Mall. I'd say every other trip would include going to Pleasure Island.

Do the math.

I don't regret the concerts, just the money! I think we saw N'Sync at least 5 times. Then 98 Degrees. Savage Garden. Enrique Iglesias, BB Mak, Christina Aguilera, Britney....and on and on. Oh, I also saw Dave Mathews Band, Barenaked Ladies (at least 3x), Billy Joel, etc etc. HOw crazy to even recall any of that!


Shopping

I'd say it started when I lived in Chicago. I was going out all the time (well there goes the money) and feeling like I just HAD to purchase a new top, earrings, jeans, etc etc for those occasions. I've always had a small case of the wants, but it really blossomed in Chicago. I also got introduced to the makeup counters at Nordstrom. Help me!!!

Long Distance Relationship

I did a lot of flying when J and I were in a LDR. I believe this was money well spent. However, it definitely added up. Investment with an emotional return?

This is the first time I've written these reasons out. This was not as scary as when I added up my debt for the first time a few years ago. But still.

Do any of these reasons sound familiar to you?


Be sure to follow our conversation on Twitter by using #fiscalresponsibility !