Well, it turns out there is just no cheap way (that I have found) to have a broken arm.  I can’t cut fruits and vegetables, I can’t open jars or cans, I can’t lift a pot of pasta in order to drain it…  Well, maybe if I had fractured something other than my scaphoid, and I had use of my thumb to grip things, I would be able to do more of those things, but I can’t.  The right hand is useless, so I am essentially one-armed.  Sure, Shane and the kids can help — and they do — but they are not always here.  So, I have to make some adjustments. I try not to use too many prepared foods (can’t open them, anyway), but I do buy pre-cut veggies and some prepared foods.  I am not baking bread or muffins, or making my own laundry detergent, or canning.  So, yeah, that costs money.

Then, there is the fact that the follow-up is actually NOT included.  I was misinformed.  Add to that the fact that I found out yesterday that I might have the cast for another 6 weeks — orthopedist will be checking at 2 week intervals, but, it turns out, an injury of this nature generally requires 10-12 weeks in a cast — and, as you can imagine, the bills start to pile up. There will be more office visits, and possibly more x-rays and another cast.  Then, there will probably be physical therapy and more follow-up appointments.  

So, that’s where I am.  I am bored, frustrated and in pain, and feeling a little overwhelmed.  Still trying to find ways to save money, but it is exhausting.  We will definitely be working to pay off these bills before we decide to do much more to fix up the house.  We are very lucky in that the only “fixing” our house really needs at the moment is cosmetic, so that can wait.  

Thanx for reading.  I will try to keep updating here, and we be sure to share any money-saving tips I discover along the way.  In the meantime, the Tip of the Day today will be:  Mind your step!  Don’t fall and break anything!  That’ll save you tons of dough :)

Just in case anyone is reading, and wondering where we’ve been, here ya go.  I have fractured my scaphoid (no, that’s not contagious — it’s a bone in the wrist).  For the record, I am pretty sure there is no inexpensive way to do this.  In addition to the initial clinic visit and brace I wore  for the first week and the $390 charge to set it (includes follow-up, so that’s good), there are the costs associated with me not being able to do as much as usual.  I have managed (with help) to cook a few simple meals.  Kids and Shane are helping with food prep, but they aren’t home as much as I, so not as much is made from scratch.  The image here is reversed.  It’s my right hand, and I am right-handed, so it’s a bit of a challenge updating this (I have not mastered left-hand-only typing).  I will try to get Shane and the kids on it.  

It happens, even to the lowest of the lowlifes.  Sometimes, life throws you that curveball, and you say, “Screw saving money, screw being eco-friendly.  We’re ordering in and eating off paper plates.”   Moving five people into a new house ~ buying a house, making the downpayment, paying closing costs, renting a moving truck, hiring a couple of guys to help lift the heavy stuff… ~ takes a lot out of a family.  And let’s be honest;  Moving?  Hard.  Moving with kids?  Harder.  Moving with kids during the holidays, when your husband is suddenly called out of town on a family emergency?  Turns out, that’s when I cry, “Uncle!”

Actually, I cry, “Maid service!”  

The girls and I managed to get the rest of the odds and ends — damn, did we have some odds and ends!  And, boy, oh boy, were some of them odd! We even managed to rent a carpet cleaner and clean all of the carpets (thanx to Justice, for keeping me company in the creepy, mostly empty house late at night).  We remembered to take down all of shelves (even the ones we had installed in closets) and curtain rods…and then, we looked outside.  We still had to move all of the potted plants (we have LARGE potted plants), clean out window boxes and other containers in which nothing was currently growing, clean up all of the lawn ornaments and toys, take down the clothesline…  That’s when we collapsed.  That’s when I gave in.  I had put in a call to Betty Blue in search of a maid who might help us with the move-out cleaning, and I hadn’t heard back.  I figured the kids and I would get everything and get it over to the new house, and then Justice and I would go back and clean as much as we could.  I even considered just leaving the mess and telling the management company to charge us a cleaning fee, but that offended my sensibilities.  I say Justice and I would go back because Kaia has a school project to finish and Hallie has a badly sprained ankle (she helped on the last few days of move-out by sitting ont he floor with a stack of newspapers and boxes, wrapping and packaging fragile items we delivered to her station).  Justice is a trooper.  She never complained about being asked to shoulder a heavier load than her sisters.  

Imagine my delight when, at 8:00 a.m. on the morning of the 2nd (the last day we could be in the old house), I received a call back from Betty Blue to schedule service.  Lucy and Adela (sp?) arrived at 1:00 p.m., just as we were finishing getting the last of the items out of the house and moving on to the outdoor work.  I dropped Hallie at home, gave her some arnica and propped her up on pillows.  Justice and Kaia stayed behind to hose off all of the outdoor toys, planters, etc., and I went back to work on taking down clotheslines, dart board, etc., and loading up the last few items from the garage.  Kaia went home on the next trip, and Justice ont he one after.  Adela and Lucy worked until 7:00 that evening, and, when they were done, the house looked like no one had ever lived there.  Totally worth $140, considering that a $2400 deposit (and my peace of mind) hangs in the balance.  They were incredibly nice, too.  Adela hugged me on the way out and told me that I have a beautiful family and wished us happiness in our new home.  

For more info about Betty Blue, check out this:  http://www.angieslist.com/companylist/us/ca/encino/betty-blue-reviews-6230455.htm

We are officially moved out of the little house on Morse Avenue, and into our beautiful new home on Willard Street.  Shane is home (having agreed to take a later flight for $200 — which, coincidentally, offset the cost of the maid service), safe and sound, and all is right in our little world.  

Happy New Year.  May 2013 be our best year yet.  

The papers are all signed and notarized, closing costs are paid, so now we are just waiting for those keys.  

In the meantime, we are packing.  When we first decided to get on a roll and start packing, Shane ran out and bought a few boxes, just to get us started.  They cost him $25, and we blasted through them in a day, leaving most of our household startlingly unpacked.  We need a LOT more boxes.  Having just paid closing costs on the house, and approaching Christmas, however, we cannot afford to spend hundreds of dollars on empty boxes (seems sort of ridiculous to me, anyway).  

Enter the magical internet.  A quick visit to craigslist.org reveals scores of listings for free moving boxes.  Just go to your local area and search “boxes” in the “free” section.  I made a drive to Agoura Hills, which cost me a few bucks in gas and yielded a big carload of boxes.  I recommend giving the boxes a good look over to make sure they are clean and in good shape, and that they don’t smell funny.  No sense moving anything you don’t mean to into your new digs.

While we’re on the subject of craigslist: check it out.  It’s a great resource if you are looking for low-priced goods and services.  I have never gotten into freecycle, but I have a number of friends who rave about it, so you might want to check out that one, too.  

We often prefer to buy used goods.  As long as things are still in good, usable condition, we would rather not see them tossed in a landfill.  In addition, we really see no need to add to the waste produced in the manufacture and shipping of new goods when we can get what we need for less money, anyway.  Honestly, we often find stuff that is more our offbeat, quirky style in secondhand stores, at yard sales and on craigslist, anyway.  Some tips I would offer: when browsing online, only look at items that include pictures, and do not commit to buy before you have seen the item in real life.  Don’t be afraid to offer less than the asking price.  The worst they can say is, “no.”  I prefer to browse only items that are for sale by owner.  Dealers tend to charge more, because their goal is to make a profit, whereas owners are sometimes just eager to get stuff out of their houses.  In fact, check in the free section before you move on to “for sale.”  You never know what you might find.

Not that we are getting a bunch of new stuff for the new house.  I will admit, we got a little starry-eyed and started shopping around, but the closing costs brought us down to earth pretty quickly.  Instead of buying new stuff, I am doing things like re-covering old cushions.  We might spring for a new cover for our futon, which is going to make the big move from the patio to indoors.  This leaves us in the market for some patio furniture.  So, I am keeping a close eye on craigslist and local yard sales for some awesome deals.  Wish me luck!

Oh…but…I digress.  We were talking about free boxes, weren’t we?

*ahem*

Next, I posted a plea on Facebook and, sure enough, a friend who recently moved responded.  Stopped by her house and picked up another big carload of boxes - and got to chat a little and see her new house, which is just lovely.  It was not only a profitable trip for me int he box department, but proved to be a nice break from the hustle and bustle of moving, too.

It’s been just a couple of days, and we have already used up all of those free boxes.  So, after I have my coffee and get the kids off to their Sunday School class  this morning, I will be checking on craigslist again.  I know there are more clean, free boxes out there, just waiting for us.   

Sorry for the lack of updates lately.  We are just waiting to close on our new house.  I hear it is always a hassle for everyone, so I guess things are going as they usually do.  It feels like all kinds of crazy drama.  Between racing all over town trying to get papers signed and  ”t”s crossed and “i”s dotted, and my health being what it is, our budget has fallen somewhat by the wayside.  

Of course, since we are buying a house (MAJOR EXPENSE), we really need to try to get back on track.  I am working on it.  Because my health has been unpredictable, at best, we have been relying a bit more on prepared foods than we usually do, but I am happy to report that, just recently, I made a giant vat of spaghetti sauce.  Had dinner that night, lunch for a couple of days, and put up 7 jars for future use.  I also remembered to can my homemade cranberry conserve on Thanksgiving, so we have a few 1/2 pint jars of that, too.  I am getting back to making bread instead of buying it, I made a batch of homemade “Kind” bars (fruits, nuts, honey & chocolate) and will make some granola bars today.  

Also, with the impending move, we are so tempted to run out and buy a bunch of new stuff.  I cannot tell you how exciting the prospect of finally owning our our home is.  Nevertheless, we are buying a house, which means we had to cough up a downpayment, and we will have to pay closing costs ~ not to mention the cost of actually moving (we are staying in the same area, so it won’t be too costly, I hope), as well as making sure we have a little reserve for whatever happens to come up once we’re living there.  

That’s going to be a big change for us.  From now on, when something breaks down around the house, we don’t get to just call management and let them handle it.  We will have to manage our own repairs, one way or another.  

So, instead of running out and buying all new stuff, we are sprucing up stuff we already have.  Today, for instance, I made new, washable covers for our old floor cushions.  I found the fabric on clearance, and unfortunately I got it so long ago that I forgot how much it cost, but it was much cheaper than buying new cushions.  Besides, the cushions are fine.  They just didn’t look fabulous.  It would have been a shame to add them to a landfill somewhere when they still had so much life in them.  

We will be doing some painting.  Our new house is tan, inside and out, and we really aren’t tan kind of people.  We prefer colour ~ lots and lots of colour.  Frankly, we have all lived with Apartment White for far too long.  We cannot wait to get some colour onto our new walls.  Instead of hiring someone to come paint, we will be doing it ourselves.  We might not do it all at once.  I mean, of course we would love to get everything painted before we move in, but that is going to depend on when we close (oh, the drama!) and how much money we have to spare after paying closing costs.  I would like to get the bedrooms, front room and party room done, at least.  I can manage to paint the bathrooms, laundry room and maybe even the kitchen after we are moved in.  

You know, it occurs to me that, when we wrote our “bios” for the Low Life, I think most of us put saving money to buy as house as one of our goals.  

We did it.  We tightened our belts, reevaluated our priorities, (mostly) stuck to our budget, and we did it.  We’re buying our house, and we should be moved in time for Christmas.  I cannot wait to hang our stockings by the chimney with care, and to wake up Christmas morning in our very own house.   

Stay tuned, and we’ll be sure to pass along any money-saving tips we discover along the way.  It’s going to be quite an adventure, and one for which we have waited many, many years.

We haven’t been updating here, and some of you might have wondered why.  The truth is, Shane and I have been busy, and a bit preoccupied, trying to pull off the surprise of a lifetime for our daughters.  On Sunday, November 11, 2012, we let the cat out of the bag. If you haven’t seen it yet, please follow the link to a fun video of the big reveal. 

Stay tuned for more “Low Life” updates.   

My new GAP sweater arrived today.  Luckily, I happened to be wearing this skirt, which I picked up at the 99¢ store, so I look like I think I am still in junior high.  (Seriously.  If we are Facebook friends, go look through my pics.  I am sure someone put up one of my cheerleading squad.  I think I even have the same hairdo.)  ”Beat ‘em!  Bust ‘em!  That’s!  Our!  Custom!”

Just in case you didn’t believe the whole rewards thing worked as well as they say it does, here’s a copy of my receipt.  Yes, I think sixty bucks is a bit much for a sweater.  That’s why I paid $5.39.  :)

Today, I had to take Hallie to Payless for new ballet slippers.  I say I had to take her to Payless because, the other day, I tried taking her to a dance store and walked out with a $36 leotard.  I decided the shoes needed to be cheaper than that.  So, Payless it is!  Well, adult size ballet slippers at Payless now run $19.99.  That doesn’t seem so cheap, but dancers gotta dance, so we bought them.  She also needed another pair of tights, which they were selling for $3.99 (better than the price at the dance store, but probably not as great quality, which is okay, since they are not performance tights), so we grabbed them, too.  The gentleman who was helping asked if I had my coupon with me.  I told him I did not, and he said, “There’s a coupon.  If you buy any three items, you get $10 off.”  ”Shoot. Well, that’s okay,” I replied.  ”We really only need these two.”  That’s when he told me to find another item, and he’d give me the discount, anyway.  Now, Hallie had been clamoring for a lipgloss she loved, and I had said no, but, after doing the math, we determined that, if we added the lipgloss and subtracted the $10, we would end up paying less than the price of the shoes.  So, instead of $23.98 + tax for a pair of ballet slippers and a pair of tights, we paid $19.54 (including tax) for ballet slippers, a pair of tights and a tube of lipgloss.  Double sided, so it’s actually two tubes of lipgloss.  I walked out with a very happy girl, and a few bucks more in my wallet than I expected.  In other news, I fell in love with these shoes: http://www.payless.com/store/product/detail.jsp?catId=cat10088&subCatId=cat10270&skuId=125460050&productId=72266&lotId=125460&category=&catdisplayName=Womens , but I can’t justify buying them.  Do you think there’s a buy one item and get $45 off coupon in my near future?  Please?

In case you were wondering, we totally blew the whole grocery budget thing over Summer Vacation.  Oops.  Now that school is once again in session, we will try to get on track.

In grocery-related news: I made out like a bandit at Target today.  Last time I shopped there, I received a coupon for $1.50 off 4 Morningstar Farms products.  We try not to use too much of that stuff, but we do use it occasionally.  They happened to be on sale for $3/package.  With my Target Red Card discount of 5%, that would have brought the price to $11.40 for 4 packages, which is not bad; however,  I also had my coupon.  That took the total cost to $9.90, which means I paid about $2.48/package.  I can’t argue with that.

Click above to see the sweater I ordered today from GAP for all of $5.39.  I’m not usually one to go around with logos emblazoned across my chest, but I think it’s awfully cute.  The retail price is $59.95, which I think is a bit outlandish for a sweater.  However, I can thank GAP card for this great deal.  I hardly ever use my GAP card.  However, over the Summer, they had a deal in which triple points were awarded for purchases.  So, for that time, I decided to use my card and pay it off immediately, just during that promo.  As I recall, I used it for gas, and to buy Justice a new swimsuit, and I think I used it while we were on vacation.  In the end, I earned $40 in rewards.  Then, there was a 25% off online purchase deal.  I was able to combine all of them and buy a warm, cozy sweater (I needed a couple, and this plus the $1 one from Rewind will about do it for me) for next to nothing.  Awesome :)   — Sam.