I've been checking in but the only new posts that were coming up were about babies, so I didn't think there was anything worth participating in.
Sorry - I'm one of the guilty ones. But it IS a big new financial change for us too. I don't know how to balance wanting to talk about that financial change while realizing some people don't want to hear about kids.
I've been checking in but the only new posts that were coming up were about babies, so I didn't think there was anything worth participating in.
Sorry - I'm one of the guilty ones. But it IS a big new financial change for us too. I don't know how to balance wanting to talk about that financial change while realizing some people don't want to hear about kids.
I think there's a big difference between posting here about the financial aspects of TTC, pregnancy and babies, and sharing semi-graphic details about semen analysis and gynecological testing.
I'm here! It's just been a busy week. Last night was our annual bookclub book exchange. We have some great books on the list for 2017 that I'm very excited about! DH's company Christmas party is tonight. It's way fancier than in years past so another wife and I are both wearing full-length dresses. I ordered one through Rent the Runway rather than add another gown to my closet that I'll never wear again and it ended up coming in barely long enough so I scored a pair of cute $14 flats yesterday since I didn't have any other shoes that would work.
I've been checking in but the only new posts that were coming up were about babies, so I didn't think there was anything worth participating in.
Sorry - I'm one of the guilty ones. But it IS a big new financial change for us too. I don't know how to balance wanting to talk about that financial change while realizing some people don't want to hear about kids.
I think there's a big difference between posting here about the financial aspects of TTC, pregnancy and babies, and sharing semi-graphic details about semen analysis and gynecological testing.
Fair enough. Although after getting to know a lot of people on this board I know I tend to let the conversation go where it naturally would in an IRL conversation with my friends. I'll make a better attempt at keeping it more prim and proper.
I'm here. Totally dropped the ball on all things holiday.
I just did the least MM thing ever and spent $45 on printing/shipping to have our Christmas cards overnighted so I can get them in the mail this weekend. That's on top of the cost per card. MM fail.
And then I realized I haven't ordered the photo book for my parents like I was planning... so that's going to be another expedited shipping charge.
I just need to admit that Outlook runs my life, and if it's not on my calendar it doesn't happen. I'm going to add holiday alerts for next November.
I've been checking in but the only new posts that were coming up were about babies, so I didn't think there was anything worth participating in.
Sorry - I'm one of the guilty ones. But it IS a big new financial change for us too. I don't know how to balance wanting to talk about that financial change while realizing some people don't want to hear about kids.
I think there's a big difference between posting here about the financial aspects of TTC, pregnancy and babies, and sharing semi-graphic details about semen analysis and gynecological testing.
Fair enough. Although after getting to know a lot of people on this board I know I tend to let the conversation go where it naturally would in an IRL conversation with my friends. I'll make a better attempt at keeping it more prim and proper.
Me too - I'll make an effort not to mention anything in that regards as well. I don't know anyone IRL that I can get advice from so that's why I let it slip.
I'm here. Totally dropped the ball on all things holiday.
I just did the least MM thing ever and spent $45 on printing/shipping to have our Christmas cards overnighted so I can get them in the mail this weekend. That's on top of the cost per card. MM fail.
And then I realized I haven't ordered the photo book for my parents like I was planning... so that's going to be another expedited shipping charge.
I just need to admit that Outlook runs my life, and if it's not on my calendar it doesn't happen. I'm going to add holiday alerts for next November.
Do you ever read the Frugalwoods blog? She has an awesome hack for super cheap Christmas cards from Vistaprint that I'm definitely trying next year! She uses the business marketing holiday cards, changes all the language and photos, and it's about 25 cents per card instead of $2 for some of the regular holiday cards.
I'm here. Totally dropped the ball on all things holiday.
I just did the least MM thing ever and spent $45 on printing/shipping to have our Christmas cards overnighted so I can get them in the mail this weekend. That's on top of the cost per card. MM fail.
And then I realized I haven't ordered the photo book for my parents like I was planning... so that's going to be another expedited shipping charge.
I just need to admit that Outlook runs my life, and if it's not on my calendar it doesn't happen. I'm going to add holiday alerts for next November.
Do you ever read the Frugalwoods blog? She has an awesome hack for super cheap Christmas cards from Vistaprint that I'm definitely trying next year! She uses the business marketing holiday cards, changes all the language and photos, and it's about 25 cents per card instead of $2 for some of the regular holiday cards.
That's awesome! I think I can usually get my Vistaprint cards down to about $0.60 with discount codes but the lower the better. I really need to get on addressing this week and getting them out. H has been sick with a stomach bug and it's been tough keep up on the house work without his help, so holiday stuff is at the bottom of the barrel.
I'm here. Totally dropped the ball on all things holiday.
I just did the least MM thing ever and spent $45 on printing/shipping to have our Christmas cards overnighted so I can get them in the mail this weekend. That's on top of the cost per card. MM fail.
And then I realized I haven't ordered the photo book for my parents like I was planning... so that's going to be another expedited shipping charge.
I just need to admit that Outlook runs my life, and if it's not on my calendar it doesn't happen. I'm going to add holiday alerts for next November.
Do you ever read the Frugalwoods blog? She has an awesome hack for super cheap Christmas cards from Vistaprint that I'm definitely trying next year! She uses the business marketing holiday cards, changes all the language and photos, and it's about 25 cents per card instead of $2 for some of the regular holiday cards.
I've seen that before, but I admit I'm skeptical. I tried Vistaprint one year, and the print quality was really bad, so I haven't used them again. I've used them for other things, and they were fine, but the holiday cards were a big miss for me.
This year I started with snapfish, and the print quality was so bad they actually gave me a refund after reviewing it (on a nonrefundable item). I finally just sucked it up and used Tinyprints because I know they do a good job. It's expensive though.
Next year I'm just going to budget for Tinyprints or Minted out the gate and order them early enough that I'm not scrambling at the very end.
@hoffse I've found I get a better print quality from Vistaprint by upgrading the paper. I usually get the recycled matte. I LOVE tinyprints and intended to budget for them this year, but it just wasn't in the cards (pun intended!) Hopefully next year! I used them for my wedding invitations and loved them so much.
MM wise, I'm almost done with shopping and have set the goal of trying to maximize every purchase at least two ways, and then documenting my 'holiday haul' on my blog. So far, I've done pretty well using coupons, portals and rebates!
I haven't tried it myself, but I am intrigued by the hack. We'll be using Vistaprint for our birth announcements next summer because our cousin works for them and gets a massive discount and he already said "seriously, do not pay full price for those, I will get you the nicest once for super cheap". From there I think I'll evaluate whether to continue using them for holiday cards. We only manage a holiday card about every other year lately but last time I used Simply to Impress and was happy with the quality.
@hoffse I've found I get a better print quality from Vistaprint by upgrading the paper. I usually get the recycled matte. I LOVE tinyprints and intended to budget for them this year, but it just wasn't in the cards (pun intended!) Hopefully next year! I used them for my wedding invitations and loved them so much.
Oh that makes sense - I should give them another try.
I do love tinyprints. Every year I'm like, "I'm not going to spend that much." And then something happens, and I end up spending that much. I just need to budget for it better. At least this year I should have enough postage leftover from last year!
I can't help it - I'm super picky about stationery and paper. I spent way more time picking out wedding stationery than I spent on my dress...
Minted is my new love, but they are even higher than tinyprints. They have really excellent quality though and lovely designs. We just received the most gorgeous baby announcement and save the date for a wedding, and sure enough - both used Minted.
I'm also here, just busy with life. I've done some Xmas shopping on Amazon, and broke down and signed up for a year of prime, which of course both is and is not MM. I'm gearing up for shopping/spending tonight, and I'm really trying to maximize coupons, sales and plain ol' not giving in to temptation if an item is too expensive.
I got our Xmas cards at Walgreens for over 50% off, so only paid $20 for 40 cards. They are the glossy photo cards and I'm happy with the photo quality.
I've been checking in but the only new posts that were coming up were about babies, so I didn't think there was anything worth participating in.
Sorry - I'm one of the guilty ones. But it IS a big new financial change for us too. I don't know how to balance wanting to talk about that financial change while realizing some people don't want to hear about kids.
I think there's a big difference between posting here about the financial aspects of TTC, pregnancy and babies, and sharing semi-graphic details about semen analysis and gynecological testing.
Fair enough. Although after getting to know a lot of people on this board I know I tend to let the conversation go where it naturally would in an IRL conversation with my friends. I'll make a better attempt at keeping it more prim and proper.
Me too - I'll make an effort not to mention anything in that regards as well. I don't know anyone IRL that I can get advice from so that's why I let it slip.
Me three - I like that this board is conversational and chatty. And I'm not saying anyone on this board doesn't like it that way. But I can see where it could be frustrating for others when things go especially off topic.
For example, I'm glad there is a post specifically for MMers and their pregnancies/TTCing/fertility challenges. I know there are other forums on TK but, for me personally, I'm not in those categories, so I don't frequent them. But I do care about the folks on this board and that is a good place for me to "lurk" and keep up with that aspect of my "MM Internet" friends' lives.
I'm here, too! And check this board most days to see what's up. I'm in a lot of financial turmoil, at the moment, for a lot of reasons. Good and bad. But especially due to my impeding layoff. Most of it, I've already mentioned/talked about in various posts. Not "in trouble", thank goodness, but a lot of uncertainty of what the future is bringing. Which frustrates me because it makes it hard to plan, lol.
One bad habit that has caused me to pick up is I've become really miserly with my credit card payments, whereas I used to pay them off. Still make at least the minimum payments (of course). However, I can't keep myself from stockpiling money in case I need it. Looking logically at my finances/budget/income streams, I've gone off the deep end, lol. I'll be fine. But I just can't let the money go while I'm feeling in such "limbo".
I actually don't have an issue with the chattiness about some of the baby stuff in general, cause as mentioned, it does affect life in a financial way. The thread for MMers who are pregnant and working on it? Totally fine, because it's easy to just not read that thread since it's clear in the subject line what it's about.
But when you log on and see 8 responses in the Monday Accountability thread, and you go click on it and they're ALL about babies, then it gets to be annoying, especially when there was already a thread to discuss it, and other boards on this site to discuss it, and TONS of other places where everyone talks about babies 24/7.
Random MM complaint of the day: I looked at my potential budget for staying at home (DH and I agreed that I'll ask for a 6 month leave instead of 3 which is easily affordable with our current savings, but I still want to work on cutting expenses to keep our options open next year) and I somehow put the wrong number for his salary in my spreadsheet! I gave him a $400/month raise. Whoops. I don't even know where I would have gotten that number from but I have a lot of retooling to do. Harumph.
I'm almost done Christmas shopping. I need to get H and my father something. I find my father to be the hardest to shop for.
I'm on track to have my student loans paid off March 16th as long as we get a tax return like we did last year (not very MM, I know, but we get usually get a decent chunk back).
I also just got a small raise at work, $1700 which isn't terrible considering I've only been here 7 months (5 at the time the performance ratings were done). I'll likely be getting a COL increase in January which will be nice.
I'm here, I just haven't been able to relate to a lot of the posts on here lately so I'm just lurking....
Nothing new and exciting with me though, just looking forward to next week off from work! My Christmas cards are out, I'm finishing up my gingerbread house I make every year, and need to finish up shopping. We are planning out our next year's house projects. Once January comes around, I will start a good cleaning in house and start painting all the trim white (it's now a dull cream/white color)
MM wise I haven't spent a ton of money, but DH just flew to Dallas for a football game. He will likely spend a decent amount this weekend.
Also, I am just waiting on the medical bills from my recent miscarriage. I had to go in a few times and now I have an HSA....which kind of sucks. Overall, better option, but in the past, I never went to the doctor other than once or twice a year. Go figure, I have gone to the doctor 4 times since starting the HSA in October.
I haven't been around much. I've been spending my "maternity leave" working on holiday projects.
I made a huge (60ish page) scrapbook for my Dad's 80th birthday on Friday, made some wood & vinyl signs for our small group couples, made some etched wine glasses for a white elephant party (HUGE HIT!!!!) and I'm still working on 4 sets of Yardzee (Yahtzee made out of 4x4 blocks and a 5 gallon bucket) that don't need to be finished until New Year's Eve.
We are hosting DH's family Christmas so I'm also doing prep for that.
On a more exciting note we booked our resort for our post-funeral vacation. I was able to get a travel agent rate at the Hard Rock Resort in Punta Cana that saved us $1,000 over our next favorite resorts and saved us $2,000 over staying at that resort without the discount. That place is pretty expensive!!!! We are waiting on final approval from our bosses before we book the airline tickets, but it looks like we will have 7 nights at an all inclusive resort for less than $3,000 including airfare, insurance and the small expenses like parking, taxis, etc. Not super cheap, but worth it to get away from an Ohio winter.
Re: Anybody still alive?
I just did the least MM thing ever and spent $45 on printing/shipping to have our Christmas cards overnighted so I can get them in the mail this weekend. That's on top of the cost per card. MM fail.
And then I realized I haven't ordered the photo book for my parents like I was planning... so that's going to be another expedited shipping charge.
I just need to admit that Outlook runs my life, and if it's not on my calendar it doesn't happen. I'm going to add holiday alerts for next November.
This year I started with snapfish, and the print quality was so bad they actually gave me a refund after reviewing it (on a nonrefundable item). I finally just sucked it up and used Tinyprints because I know they do a good job. It's expensive though.
Next year I'm just going to budget for Tinyprints or Minted out the gate and order them early enough that I'm not scrambling at the very end.
Also, H's book was released this week: http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920061977.do
I do love tinyprints. Every year I'm like, "I'm not going to spend that much." And then something happens, and I end up spending that much. I just need to budget for it better. At least this year I should have enough postage leftover from last year!
I can't help it - I'm super picky about stationery and paper. I spent way more time picking out wedding stationery than I spent on my dress...
Minted is my new love, but they are even higher than tinyprints. They have really excellent quality though and lovely designs. We just received the most gorgeous baby announcement and save the date for a wedding, and sure enough - both used Minted.
I got our Xmas cards at Walgreens for over 50% off, so only paid $20 for 40 cards. They are the glossy photo cards and I'm happy with the photo quality.
Me three - I like that this board is conversational and chatty. And I'm not saying anyone on this board doesn't like it that way. But I can see where it could be frustrating for others when things go especially off topic.
For example, I'm glad there is a post specifically for MMers and their pregnancies/TTCing/fertility challenges. I know there are other forums on TK but, for me personally, I'm not in those categories, so I don't frequent them. But I do care about the folks on this board and that is a good place for me to "lurk" and keep up with that aspect of my "MM Internet" friends' lives.
I'm here, too! And check this board most days to see what's up. I'm in a lot of financial turmoil, at the moment, for a lot of reasons. Good and bad. But especially due to my impeding layoff. Most of it, I've already mentioned/talked about in various posts. Not "in trouble", thank goodness, but a lot of uncertainty of what the future is bringing. Which frustrates me because it makes it hard to plan, lol.
One bad habit that has caused me to pick up is I've become really miserly with my credit card payments, whereas I used to pay them off. Still make at least the minimum payments (of course). However, I can't keep myself from stockpiling money in case I need it. Looking logically at my finances/budget/income streams, I've gone off the deep end, lol. I'll be fine. But I just can't let the money go while I'm feeling in such "limbo".
But when you log on and see 8 responses in the Monday Accountability thread, and you go click on it and they're ALL about babies, then it gets to be annoying, especially when there was already a thread to discuss it, and other boards on this site to discuss it, and TONS of other places where everyone talks about babies 24/7.
I'm around, I've just been lurking lately.
I'm almost done Christmas shopping. I need to get H and my father something. I find my father to be the hardest to shop for.
I'm on track to have my student loans paid off March 16th as long as we get a tax return like we did last year (not very MM, I know, but we get usually get a decent chunk back).
I also just got a small raise at work, $1700 which isn't terrible considering I've only been here 7 months (5 at the time the performance ratings were done). I'll likely be getting a COL increase in January which will be nice.
I'm here, I just haven't been able to relate to a lot of the posts on here lately so I'm just lurking....
Nothing new and exciting with me though, just looking forward to next week off from work! My Christmas cards are out, I'm finishing up my gingerbread house I make every year, and need to finish up shopping. We are planning out our next year's house projects. Once January comes around, I will start a good cleaning in house and start painting all the trim white (it's now a dull cream/white color)
MM wise I haven't spent a ton of money, but DH just flew to Dallas for a football game. He will likely spend a decent amount this weekend.
Also, I am just waiting on the medical bills from my recent miscarriage. I had to go in a few times and now I have an HSA....which kind of sucks. Overall, better option, but in the past, I never went to the doctor other than once or twice a year. Go figure, I have gone to the doctor 4 times since starting the HSA in October.
I made a huge (60ish page) scrapbook for my Dad's 80th birthday on Friday, made some wood & vinyl signs for our small group couples, made some etched wine glasses for a white elephant party (HUGE HIT!!!!) and I'm still working on 4 sets of Yardzee (Yahtzee made out of 4x4 blocks and a 5 gallon bucket) that don't need to be finished until New Year's Eve.
We are hosting DH's family Christmas so I'm also doing prep for that.
On a more exciting note we booked our resort for our post-funeral vacation. I was able to get a travel agent rate at the Hard Rock Resort in Punta Cana that saved us $1,000 over our next favorite resorts and saved us $2,000 over staying at that resort without the discount. That place is pretty expensive!!!! We are waiting on final approval from our bosses before we book the airline tickets, but it looks like we will have 7 nights at an all inclusive resort for less than $3,000 including airfare, insurance and the small expenses like parking, taxis, etc. Not super cheap, but worth it to get away from an Ohio winter.