To Fundraise or Not to Fundraise?

The title of this post poses the $35,000 question: Should you fundraise or try to make it on your own?

Before I get too deep in the post, the possibility of fundraising should excite you, if you are someone who is trying to find a way to afford an adoption. The possibility should convince you that YES, you can afford to adopt. I really think this was one of the things that tipped the scales in favour of our adoption. Will we actually do it? A whole other question!

On affording adoption

The most important thing we learned (okay, it was me... the hubs is mostly just an easy going soundboard) is that you do not have to have a large amount of money saved before your adoption. 

Full disclosure, we had very little in savings when we started a few months ago, and if you were to count the savings against our line of credit from our home renovations, I believe we would have been south of $0 :S

Investigate what country you want to adopt from (including domestically.) 

Find an agency that works with your country. Not to bog you down in details, but because of the province we live in, we actually have to hire an agency for the homestudy and another one to coordinate the country side. A little odd, and definitely makes things more expensive. 

Investigate the fee schedules for the agency you like! They should be very up front with the costs. If they aren't I probably wouldn't use them.

Our adoption will never cost us more than $2,000 at one time, except for one big 5,000 euro payment right in the middle. $2,000 is about what we swallow when we renew our insurance, not that bad in the grand scheme.

You may have heard it before, but in general your expenses will be nickel and dimed away. It sounds a little depressing, but we knew we were spending money in small amounts on things we didn't really need. We could do better!

How to save the money

The method that helped us kickstart our nest egg for the first application fees and homestudy payment was all in my banking app. Every time I wanted to buy something and didn't for the sake of our future baby, I transferred that amount to a separate savings account. It didn't seem like a lot, but it added up fast!

We also went back to using our money jars like Gail Vaz Oxlade loves! We had kind of stopped because the hubby hated it and it was a little clunky to get out the cash, but boy does it work! I switched it up a bit this time by making the budget on paper and then tracking it with a budget app that uses an "envelope" system. Then I just keep the cash in an envelope in my purse, instead of needing to be home to grab cash from the jars. This works better for us, and the app allows you to quickly enter all of your purchases.

Grocery shop smarter. This is hard. Sometimes really really hard. Sometimes I just don't want to grocery shop this week. Family homes, this probably doesn't fly... two people houses can live on McDonalds and pickles. We need to grocery shop people. Its a sad reality but it does wonders for your budget. I read the flyers (sometimes we don't even get them, so I really like the Flipp app) plan my meals to be heavy on produce (better for the ol' waistline anyways) and use points wherever I can. We can get by on $45 - $60 per week, and we eat well.

....

Sorry everybody! This is taking longer than I thought. Stay tuned for part 2. I am going to catch some zZZ

Update Sunday

Hi All! 

Just a super quick update because I am dead tired! Our social worker was able to schedule 2 (count em!) of our 3 home study visits for THIS WEEK! We have been working our little behinds off to get the house into tip top shape and it is not nearly ready. It actually looks a little worse  tbh. But things get worse before they get better, right? I'm sure that's a thing...

We also need to finish our home study 'self assessment.' Which is a novel and a half, even in point form. So pray for us! We so need it. I'm exhausted and off to bed but some time warping miracles need to happen for us to be ready by Tuesday at 6:30! But we are so blessed that things are happening so quickly. I credit the summer as people are busy with other things, but let's hope this expedited schedule holds into the winter!

Later! Xoxoxo 

PS you may now enjoy the following picture of my dining room (read garbage and going-to-thrift-store room.) Because if nothing else, you can feel good about your own homes. Most of my house looks something similar :s

Bathtub Blues

I know it is same day but the two posts didn't tie into each other well! I wanted to share with you my most recent thrifty excursion! 

My bathtub is original to our house (1976)  and as such is a good quality metal tub, but was not much to look at. The finish was quite worn off and therefore was A) stained and B) very susceptible to new stains. Case in point: Your feet are dirty, you step in to shower, new stain. Yes, that quick. There were actual footprints permanently in my tub.

An exhaustive search of Pinterest turned up a tub and tile refinishing kit by Rustoleum, which I proceeded to check every box renovation store for, with no success. 

I finally took matters into my own hands! (Quite literally it turns out)

BEHOLD!

My tub now looks shiny and brand spankin new! 

What I did:

3 coats of Bullseye 1-2-3 with a small fluffy paint roller (that stuff goes on anything, I used it to paint over tile last year)

1 coat epoxy

Voila!

It was actually super easy! It is such a small space that it only took about 10 minutes a coat with the Bullseye and a little longer with the epoxy because it is more finicky to not get drips.

I may do another epoxy coat to even out a couple of rough spots, but as they aren't visible, just apparent to the touch, I might not. 

I DID NOT SAND! What a miracle, I hate sanding. Just gave the tub a good scrub-a-dub (sorry, couldn't resist)

My total cost was about $100. Not bad in my books, compared to replacing it. I have also since seen the tub n tile transformation kit at Canadian Tire for $300 so I am still very smug :)

Also don't buy that for your tile... As I said earlier, I used Bullseye on my ugly floral tile backsplash last year, followed by a coat of chalkboard paint and it worked a treat! You could easily use the Bullseye, paint a new colour, and top it with an epoxy for new looking tile! The drawback is that you would no longer have a different coloured grout, which is no problem for me, but maybe not your style. Although I am not sure how the kit works so I don't know if you would have grout lines after that either.

That was a long rabbit trail... I will leave you with a different before picture:

It still looks stained in the after photo here :( , but it is just shadow off the glossiness (I know because the picture made me question myself and I got right in there to take a second look!) My bathroom lighting is not the best... All the better when I'm naked in there I suppose! As you can see in the first photo the finish was completely gone and now it is gorgeous. 

Xxxooo

August update!

If you have read the last post you will know about our plans to adopt (or at least on a very basic level,) so now is the time to get right into the nitty gritty!

Lots has happened in my world in the last month and a bit. We chose our agency, attended an adoption workshop, applied to the program, and sent in a multitude of paperwork. Right now we are getting super close to getting our home study scheduled. All that is lacking is for our criminal record checks and personal references to come back. Hopefully the references will be back mid next week because that is when the criminal checks are ready!

We have chosen Bulgaria! Our future son or daughter will be a tiny tot from Eastern Europe and we couldn't be more excited. We are looking for 0-3.5 yr age range.

The finances are looking less bleak as we now know the exact payment schedule and it is somewhat nickel and dimed away. So that is positive! 

Wish us luck! I will do my best not to be a  stranger during this time :s 

Life is not to be wasted!

Well Thrifties,

Here I am...at a place I knew would come but always "in the future".

My wonderful husband and I have been trying to conceive for 7 months now. We experienced a miscarriage in April and have had no luck since. I know this is not a long amount of time by many standards, but it has helped us to prioritize.

We have always talked about adoption and I believe we are going to start the process. Even before I was married I had thought realistically about my fertility (and possible lack of) and I knew if I was unable to have biological children without procedures, I would be okay. I knew also that I would probably want to adopt regardless. But something has happened over the last month...my urge to adopt has hit me like a ton of bricks. I feel led like never before to a life I thought would be years down the road.

And with that, my husband and I are looking into agencies and other logistics. Financially, I am quite at peace. This is very strange for me because since buying a house we have become quite tight. But I know if God is telling us to do something he will not make it impossible.

Now to make some friends that have a clue about the subject!

All things yoga (that I know so far)

Dear Thrifties,

I am a terrible blogger. A bad blogger, much like Erin Motz the bad yogi... 

Maybe I need some kind of schedule to get me on here but I just hate servitude! (which is created by putting things in a schedule)

C'est la vie! I'm here now with a few fun things to share. First of all thrifties, if you get into yoga, (which you should, its a very thrifty at home exercise) don't become yoga merchandise freaks.

#1 a cheap-ish mat is fine. I had a cheapo $16.99 mat from Winners for about two years and it never wore out. It just got all flattened so I needed to replace it. Whatever you do, do not buy this awful purple lotus mat by Everlast. It was a reasonable price, on sale for $29.99 at HomeSense, by no means the cheapest mat, but it has decent reviews and it is a little thicker which I wanted.

Nay nay, Thrifties, this mat is poop.


Its a sort of memory foam material, which sounds great, but it means that it becomes compacted under your knees very quickly so you feel the floor more than other mats. Also the compacting under your hands and feet make the mat all smooth so you slip a LOT. How it has good reviews on Amazon, I do not know. People who haven't had any other mat before. Just no.

So I hate to admit it, but I just went and purchased another mat. As you can see a little in my picture, the mat I had also scratched really easy, I already rubbed off the print in a few spots. My latest purchase is a mat by Hugger Mugger which is really sticky! Hopefully I don't slide around on this one! This leads me to...

#2 you do not need organic paraben free fair trade vegan mat wash. You need an old spray bottle and some vinegar. I use anywhere from 1-4 vingegar-water ratio to 1-8. Its not really a science for me and I like to know things are clean. Here is my mat cleaning kit:


Note the orange shammy thing

Here is my new mat as well, hanging on my mat drying tool...


 This mat was only $19.99 at Winners. I'll let you know how it goes!

#3 You do not need a block (large softcover book), bolster (folded quilt), or strap (jump rope)

#4 You do not need yoga dvd's. This is what youtube is for! My favourites are:

•  the 30-Day challenge on the DoYouYoga channel with Erin Motz
•   the Yogatic videos with Esther Ekhart. 

Both of these ladies do simple, easy to follow, but challenging workouts without a bunch of weird accessories. Just you and your mat. The best part of doing a lot of yoga is that you will soon know enough moves to just dim the lights, play your tunes, and make up your own routine! This is what I do on my extremely lazy days. I try to do 20 minutes every day from start to finish, including the breathing warm up and the lying around at the end (shavasana). So its not much but it definitely is surprising what a difference it makes!

Sick Saturday

Still sick and pathetic here. So just a quick share on what I found today!

My hubby and I are looking to redo our kitchen soon in the 70's house that we purchased this spring, however I wanted solid wood cabinets because I feel it is better for the future, should we choose to paint or stain them later. That quickly puts most cabinets out of our price range, and my next thought was to buy used, as many people remove oak from their kitchens which actually stains quite well. Unfortunately, for as many people that think to sell them (not many) there are 3 more people who want them, typically for their garage, which is a shame. So I decided to search making my own and I found this classic design made of plywood. It looks great, and I may need to consider trying it out!

http://www.home-dzine.co.za/kitchen/diy-plywoodcab.htm

That's all for now Thrifties! Budget meetings still have not taken place here in the K household, but I will be sure and let you know.

A more organized life

Good evening Thrifties!

I am having a cozy Friday night at home sans hubby, thanks to some free hockey tickets and my cold that won't die. What better time to think excessively? I have pledged to be more organized this year, not so much a resolution as something that I always want to get around to... but all the same!
I would like to hear how people conquer their messes? I had a book recommended to me called "The Messies Manual" but alas it is only available Kindle style from Amazon, so I have not purchased yet. My mother in law gave me some advice over the holidays that I have really held on to: "Never try to learn cleaning and organizing behaviours from someone who is naturally neat. It will not stick."

What a great tidbit! I feel.... And quite liberating at the same time. I don't need to constantly feel guilty that I am not a "tidy". Instead I need to learn from people who actually struggle with their clutter and mess, not the people who have anxiety over a few dishes in the sink, because that will never be me!

So now I want to know, from all the truly horrifying houses out there, what has helped?

Taking it further than just cleaning, I am also trying to live out my "best intentions". I am the well-meaning friend who knows when your birthday is and plans to send a gift, and never actually forgets....just doesn't get around to it, which in reality, is probably worse.

Plan #1 is to get a proper planner and calendar and use them. Then when I go over my money or grocery list every week (haven't decided which) I will check up on my birthdays for the following two weeks, and add the people that I need gifts for, to my shopping list. This will give me enough time to buy and post a gift (if necessary) before the day has passed! This should work well, as my hubby and I always have gift money every week to accrue for all the birthdays and other gifts throughout the year.

Plan #2 is to buy a stove. This has nothing to do with Plan #1... We just put our stove in the basement and decided to buy a new one for ourselves, which we have not done.

When procrastinators unite in marriage....well, everyone is just surprised we got around to it!

Just a few thoughts for today :) I am going back to my couch (okay, I'm still on the couch, I'm going prostrate again) to ponder life and watch Netflix.

XOXO Thrifties

Stay tuned for my budget postings that I will share.

2014 Thrifties!

A very happy new year to you all Thrifties! I have been on a working hiatus for some time now (much like a sabbatical but where one no longer blogs because they got a job again), and settling in to our new home!

Speaking of the new home and Christmas, most of our savings are long gone, so what better time for all of you to join me at square one?? Past mistakes be damned! We WILL all save money this year, and since it is New Years we may as well add that we will be thin and our houses spotless :)

You do not need to join me in the most recent resolution which is to make baby Klassens!! Vitamins are being popped semi-regular and we are going to take the plunge. You heard it here first, and you may join in if you wish ;)

Heres to our best and sexiest year yet!