Day 2 ends with a minor annoyance!

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
Day 2 ends with a minor annoyance!
12
Tue, 12-22-2009 - 9:36pm

I signed my son up last week for the SSAT test. I tried to get a waiver from the school, but they said that I had to wait until the last day to see if anyone else needed it more than I did. I waited until the last day, called and called and no one got back to me so I finally decided to just spend the money and enroll him. A few hours after I enrolled him, the school calls and gives me the waiver! I was happy...but what a pain! I had to call the SSAT's and they told me to enroll him twice and then email them saying I wanted the other test canceled. I did that and no charges went through so I figured I was safe. But yes...tonight..the charges went through and my bank charged me 3 dollars to transfer money from savings. So tomorrow I'm going to have to call again and get this all straightened out. I really hope I can straighten it out because they made it clear when I called that they needed the cancellation email that day. I hope they got it!

I went grocery shopping today and got all of the goodies for Christmas Eve. Yum! I spent an hour today going through the sales flyer and gathering my coupons. I bought $220 dollars worth of groceries for $164. But that's still expensive!!!! I got home at 8:30 and I started putting the groceries away. My husband had just gotten home (he picked up the kids which was great!) and while I was putting things away he mentions that the kids got $25 dollars each from a family friend for Christmas. I replied "Good, I just spent a fortune on groceries" and he gets mad at me because I want to spend the kids money! I think that survival here is a little more important than our kids getting an extra $25 dollars to buy something with. I need that money!!! I think he was just really tired so that's probably why he bit my head off, but I haven't seen him in 2 days and then I see him for 5 minutes tonight before he goes to bed and he's cranky!

Tomorrow I'm focusing on music. I really hope I can pull together this Christmas Eve service.

Tomorrow I am focusing

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iVillage Member
Registered: 06-02-2009
Tue, 12-22-2009 - 10:17pm

Tis the season

Lila
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
Wed, 12-23-2009 - 8:07am
I posted about how hard my week was going to be with my husband gone for 2 days and then working like a dog the other 2 days, then me having to prepare for my Christmas Eve Music service and do all my piano lessons while dealing with my babysitting issues with 3 kids. So I'm counting down the days until this week is over!!

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-02-2008
Wed, 12-23-2009 - 9:53am

I get pictures taken of my kids each year at Sears for their b-days (now that my son is in KG I don't do pics for him b/c he gets a school pic in Sept which is the month of his b-day so its perfect) and anyway one year my mom gave my DD a $100 check. I used that towards the pictures we ordered and my DH and I had a big fight b/c he felt that was "her" money. I told him it IS being used for her.

I also told him that is our job to put a roof over their heads and I'm sure they'd rather us use their money for groceries IF we ever needed to (we never have but still) then tuck it away for them. We provide them with everything and its tough sometimes.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
Wed, 12-23-2009 - 10:08am

I'm going to have a better discussion with him today about it when he gets home from work. I think he'll be in a better mood...not so tired. I think at the least we can agree that it should be saved for them and not spent on a toy. They will be getting plenty of toys! My oldest son has a savings account, but maybe I should open one for my other two as well. I really really would like to just put it in my bank account because I need it, especially after the SSAT's took out the $110 dollars when they weren't supposed to, but I think after both of us have had some time to think about it, we can come to an agreement. My kids get so much stuff! I feel like I'm constantly throwing away toys from birthdays and Christmases. Like today, I'm going through their room and I'm sure I'll have a bag full of broken toys by the time I'm done! I hate arguing, but when two people are so tired and stressed all the time, it happens more often than not. I can definitely see why people get divorced over financial issues. It's stressful!

Also, at the beginning of the new year when all the holiday stuff is done and I can breathe, I'm going to start putting away money each week for not only my mortgage, but for my car payment, my condo fee and any other really important bills. Because I don't want to be late on those anymore! I have to be more prepared for the holidays next year because it has been really hard! And for us, it's not the holidays that get us. If we just had Christmas to worry about, it wouldn't be bad, but it's kids birthdays in October, car registrations in November, Christmas and timeshare taxes in December (not that we've taken a vacation with that timeshare in a long time!) It totally depletes any savings I've managed to accumulate over the year and I'm back to square one for the beginning of the year...broke!

Have a merry merry Christmas though!! I'm excited to get to Christmas day because then I can relax!

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2008
Wed, 12-23-2009 - 10:15am

You may disagree with me, and so may others, but the friend sent the money to the kids, not to your family for groceries.

Norma


"Patience is the best remedy for every trouble"- Plautus


iVillage Member
Registered: 04-10-2003
Wed, 12-23-2009 - 11:07am

*Caveat, I don't have kids*


I tend to agree with Norma. I think the spirit in which the money was given was for the kids. Having said that, I see nothing wrong with borrowing it until you get everything else sorted out, and then giving it back to them after Christmas. Or better yet, opening those accounts you were speaking of and put it in there. My grandparents had 15 grandchildren. Every birthday they put $10 in an account and every Christmas they put $25 in and we got $25 to spend on whatever stupid things a child wants. On our 18th birthdays we got all the money in the account to do what we wanted with it. It paid for my books first year university!


Again, since I dont' have kids, feel free to disagree :)


Bex -


"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift -thats why its called the present."


Bex -

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
Wed, 12-23-2009 - 11:35am

I don't disagree that it's a horrible thing to take the kids Christmas money, but isn't it more important that I can feed them? Or keep a roof over their head? It's expensive to raise kids. They already have all the clothes they could possibly need...more probably. They already have all the toys they could possibly need, much more (their grandparents usually go overboard on Christmas)! But what I could really use help with in raising them is making sure the electricity is paid and the fridge is full.

I totally get it if people think it's a 'smarmy' thing to do, but I think that my family friend would understand if I was having trouble and needed the money for something else. In fact, I think that's probably why she sends the money and not gifts or gift cards. She's actually a very close friend of my mothers and I'm sure my mother tells her of our struggle sometimes. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do with the money, but I think it's probably going to go in a bank account way before they get it to buy something with. I'm sure me and my husband can agree on that one!

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-11-2006
Wed, 12-23-2009 - 3:15pm

Although I am only a lurker here I have to totally agree with the previous posters and feel the need to state this. You state that you "need" this money, but is is not your children's fault that you are in financial distress and your friend did indeed intend it for your childen. If he had handed it directly to the childen would you take it away??

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2008
Wed, 12-23-2009 - 3:32pm
This may sound harsh: you chose to have kids (with or without considering your financial situation), the kids did not ask to be born. It is your job to provide for them, not your friend's.
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-04-2008
Wed, 12-23-2009 - 7:21pm

By now I hope Day 3 is done for you!


I too went grocery shopping yesterday and spent $188!!! That is huge for me, but it is groceries for the week after the holiday up at our cabin as well.




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