A few years back we went on a vacation to Disney World.  While we were down there we took a few days and went to visit a friend that owned a hotel in the Tampa area.  While we were out we decided to check out real estate prices.  When we saw that we could purchase a sizable home for far cheaper than we can up here in New Jersey hubby said that he would look into it.  We started looking at some places and thought that it would be nice.  We saw how a lot of homes had enclosed pools, tampa fence, and enough space in the home that I could easily lose hubby without trying.  With the economy as it is we could easily sell our house in New Jersey and repurchase another house in Florida without going deeper into debt.

What I didn’t think about was how hard it would be for hubby to reestablish his business in another state.  It took a few years to get to where he is now, and at his age he doesn’t have years to establish a profitable business again.  Dreams are great.  The homes were 2 to 3 times the size of what we have here.  Maybe we can retire to Florida when our daughter is old enough to buy the house off of us.

Ever since the 90′s when hubby started his business the only thing he has ever done for advertising is business cards.  He has done very well being that most of his customers are repeat customers, and they all trust him.  Recently he said that he wanted to do the Ocean County Fair again.  I told him that I would have to think about it and see what could be done.  Money has been tight, and we are also going away one month after the fair so the money we spend at the fair needs to be considered.  I told him that maybe we should look into some local advertising, and maybe some web advertising like Triangle Direct Media does.  He said that the local advertising sounded fine, but web advertising is tough only because he isn’t a store, and doesn’t leave our area.

I told him that we would look into some different avenues to help bring him in some business.  He told me to watch the funds.

We have been going to Florida to vacation for many years.  Throughout our trips we have evaluated ways to save money, time, and other factors.  Over the past year we have found that traveling on Amtrak Auto Train is very convenient.  The pricing is comparable to driving.  They serve us dinner, and breakfast.  There is a smoking car.  The train makes it so we don’t have to stop on the way down to sleep.  It also helps by not allowing us to stop for shopping, or miscellanous breaks.  We take our car which makes it so that we don’t have to rent a car for driving around to attractions, etc.  This is also nice because auto breakdown service coverage on a car has its own disadvantages.

Several people I know have not fully understood the scenario.  They will continue to swear on airline flights.  I know that after the wait at the airport, fees, and everything else that flying is just not the way to go.

We have already started to watch pricing for our upcoming trip in December.  I have emphasized to my wife that we don’t want to wait to long to book because the price will go up based on demand.

I haven’t had to work for quite some time.  Hubby has made it so that I can stay home and take care of the little one so that we can avoid sitters, etc.  We do not like to leave the little one home alone at her age.  Unsupervised children do not usually get anything productive, or condoned done.  This is very nice of him, but sometimes I really wonder what I would, or could do when it came to getting a job.  I have been talking to hubby about going and getting my GED, and he has made some very good points.  At this point of time in my life I would need to make extremely good money for it to be beneficial to us.  After paying for the gas in the car, work clothes, and any sitters that are necessary my paycheck would be mostly gone.

I only regret not finishing up my GED back when I first met hubby because I only failed by 2 points, and it was because I had just met hubby, and my mind wasn’t where it belonged.  Not having a H.S. diploma, or a GED makes it hard to get something like physician assistant jobs, and to top that off you can’t even get a job at a McDonalds without one of them.

I love when I get XMas cards with photos on them.  Everyone always looks so nice and dressed up.  One year we made our own and I thought that they were nice, but wished that they looked better.  It is all in the clothes.  Maybe next time I will see if I can find some good Ralph Lauren coupons so that I can pull off the perfect holiday look like some of the cards that we get.  I could really go all out and make my card look like a holiday ad that you would only see in one of the magazines.  In order to pull this off I would need some really good coupons.  Until I do get the right clothes, and coupons I will just stick with the cheap holiday cards unless we win the lottery.

What do you think?  Don’t you find that the clothing makes every picture look better?

We’ve been watching all of the new television shows such as Storage Wars.  It’s a show about four professionals that bid on storage units that have been defaulted on.  These units get auctioned off for all kinds of money.  Sometimes they go high, and sometimes they go low.  They never know what types of treasures they will find.  It seems like every time they find something worth a lot of money my hubby looks at me and says that we should look into doing this type of thing.  That sounds good, but what he doesn’t realize is that if they found something of value like a fender hot rod deluxe amp then they need to know someone that knows about this type of stuff.  They can go and get it appraised so they know its value and then sometimes this person will buy it off them.  He doesn’t know anyone, and last time I looked we don’t have thousands of dollars to buy any storage units.

This Christmas our little one had put an Ipod touch on her list.  She’s been doing really good in school so we were thinking of getting one for her.  I asked hubby what he thought about it.  He asked me why I would go out and spend that kind of money when he could get the same thing cheaper.  You see Sprint came out with the IPhone and her contract for her phone is up.  He said he can get one for $100.00.  This made me happy.  I get to save money.  What I failed to realize is not if he has anything to do with it.  He doesn’t tell you that by the time you get done buying a car charger, and a good IPhone case so that it doesn’t break you only save @$30.00.  I couldn’t believe it when he told me how much this case costs that he wants on the phone.  So I was wondering if it was worth doing it if I am only saving $30.00.  He says its a better deal than getting her the IPod Touch, but I’m still not sure.  I even asked her if she could chose which one would she pick thinking this would help me.  I don’t know what I was thinking by doing that because she now wants both.  We asked her why she needed both.  In being fair we told her to put one or the other on her list.  She got upset with us and said she needed both because you cant listen to music and talk on the phone at the same time.  Life is so hard when your 12 and you can’t get every thing you want.

My hubbys Uncle L comes to visit us from time to time.  When he does he sometimes bring some wisdom with him.  I said sometimes.  The last time he came up he was complaining that he made a very unwise decision to not invest in a few things that are now worth quite considerable money.  A few of them were Gold, and Silver.  I can understand because money is hard to come by with our economy.  Having a solid investment is wise at this point.  If you have the money, then find a way to invest it.  After we were talking he mentioned that some dollar coins like the Morgan dollars are made of solid silver.  Things that are made of solid items are worth far more than plated items.  We told him that with our money plan we don’t have a way to invest in much right now.  I wish we could invest in something that is solid money, but we invest in the “Now.”  Things like family, house, vacations… Those are how we invest.

Over the years of driving to Disney World it has opened my eyes to many things.  One of them being hubbys need for speed.  I also found out that no matter what state you get a ticket in a lawyer from that state will send you letters offering their services.  When he got a ticket in VA. for speeding we got 4 letters from lawyers by the time we got back from vacation.  The best was when he got a ticket in N.C. we must have gotten 10 or more letters from Raleigh lawyers offering to help him.  I guess they figure it’s a long drive and if you cant afford the points you will just pay.  Most of the time he just pays the ticket off.  I find myself telling him that it would be cheaper to take a plane or train to FL.  I asked him what the rush is to get there so fast anyway it’s not like Disney is going anywhere anytime soon.  Think of all the trees he would save if he did the speed limit and all these lawyers don’t have to send him letters.  Maybe they should find a way to go green at these lawyer firms.  Ask the police to get an email address when they give a ticket.

Last night to be nice I took the little one and 3 friends roller skating.  It turned out to be the longest ride of my life.  The things that 11 and 12 year old kids talk about make no sense at all.  One crazy thing was about eyelashes made from fake feathers, makeup, and all the way to the best eyelash growth products.  One kid keep saying how long her eyelashes were even when they were not talking about that any more.  I don’t think I will ever understand why at this age they are worried about stupid things like that.  I remember when I was their age we talked about Barbie dolls.  We didn’t care how we looked.  I think I need to look into good ear plugs because I don’t what to hear what they talk about, or even listen to their music.  The price I pay to be the nice parent.  When you were this age what did you and your friends talk about?

When our daughter was christened we asked some people to be her godparents.  I have always thought the godparents were supposed to be around, and also be very involved in the lives of the children they were godparents of.  For the most part our daughter knows her godmother and godfather, but she never really sees them.  I don’t even recall her getting any gifts like they have out from them to her.  Some sign of their feelings would have been nice.  I have seen many nice things that I never received as a child from my godparents.  Things like the godson gifts, and goddaughter gifts that you see in stores that specialize in gifts of this type.

I wonder if I made a bad decision when we chose her godparents.  What do you think?

I have often wondered why things are named what they are.  There are many things that seem backwards, or even wrong.

Check out two of these words and tell me what you think…

• ladies teddies:  There is nothing snuggly about teddies themselves.  You may get some snuggling, but not from the outfit.
• computer mouse:  Mice move on their own and are scary to some people.
• bathroom:  A bathroom isn’t just for bathing… It can have a shower, toilet, bathtub, or any combination of these.
• driveway & parkway:  You park in the driveway, and drive on the parkway.

Throughout the years that I have been with my husband I have received “Anonymous” gifts.  In the beginning my husband had me paranoid about receiving them because he was concerned that they may be from my Ex, and that he may have done something to them to get back at me.  One year I received a box from John and Kiras that had candies that looked like ladybugs.  I only wished that they were chocolate strawberry gifts.  Just about 2 years ago I found out that the gifts were coming from his Uncle L.  He does things to make people feel special, or sometimes to just nudge a little bit.

He is a very sweet man.

Do you have someone in your life that does things for just No specified reason?

Each year I write up a list for hubby telling him what I would like for Christmas.  Each year it seems I only get one, or two things from the list.  Hubby never ceases to amaze me.  He tries very hard, and that is why I love him.  He seems to do things that are more practical.  Last year he looked through the kitchen and decided that I needed some new cutting tools… aka knives.  The year before that he got me a few appliances.

This year I know that money is tight so we have agreed to not go overboard on each other.  I just hope that he doesn’t get me something that I will not use.  I am not that into lingerie, books, or games.

Do you have a situation like me?

How much should you budget for a 2012 Disney Vacation?
Every family and every holiday is different, but before you take a vacation, it is good to have some idea of what costs are involved so you can budget for trip and decide on what you can and cannot afford.
A vacation to Walt Disney World is an exciting prospect for families, but you want to have an idea of what you can expect to pay for. This guideline will help you to assess the costs you may incur.
The basic itinerary and costs of a vacation at Walt Disney World
This basic itinerary assumes that you are travelling as a family of four, with one child older than 10, and one child younger than 10. Obviously if this is not the case, you can adjust prices accordingly but it does give you some idea of the costs involved.
This budget includes food, park tickets,accommodations at a Walt Disney World Hotels, separate meals, as well as special event tickets.  Fortunately, transportation between Disney World destinations and your Walt Disney World Resort Hotel is free; and if you are flying into Orlando International Airport, you can also get free transport on the Disney Magical Express to your Disney resort – just be sure to sign up for the service.
Budget
All prices are after tax and tips.
·    Park tickets for 8 days will come in at about $975.
·    Disney Dining plan for 8 days will cost about $1300; and another $230 will cover snacks, breakfasts in your room, and refillable mugs.
·    For 8 nights at the Polynesian, you will pay around $3285; and for eight nights at Pop Century, you will pay around $865.
·    Budget $925 for extra special tickets, meals outside the dining plan and events.
Total estimated cost:
With this basic itinerary for a family of four for 8 nights, you can expect to budget over $6,700 if you will be staying at the Polynesian or $4,300 if you will be staying at Pop Century.
Remember, this budget does not include the costs of getting you and your family to Orlando and back (the price will vary depending how far way you are and how you choose to travel).  In addition, you may need funds for souvenirs, snacks and other miscellaneous items.
With the proper budgeting, you can take the stress out of what promises to be a fun-filled and exciting adventure for you and your family.