Category Archives: Family

The True Cost Of A Family Movie Night

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Yes, now that school is out, the kids wanted to have a family movie night yesterday (Tuesday), so my wife caved (probably she caved because my daughter asked, and it’s hard to turn her down when my my beautiful 6 year old daughter’s face is all scuffed up from her accident yesterday).  We both hurt when we look at her, I know I would have caved too 🙁

So, thinking about it, I decided to post the cost associated with our displaced family movie night (it’s displaced because it’s usually on Fridays).

Costs of Hosting Our Family Movie Night:

  • The movie media (DVD):  I usually go to the library to get the movies (although lately, we have been going to red box) during lunch.  Of course, when it is from the library, the cost is free.  It’s free because I typically go to the library every workday to work on this blog.  When it’s Red Box, it’s a buck plus gas…
  • 1 bag of Popcorn (4.00 for a package of 3), so since we only use 1 bag, it’s runs us $1.41 (this number includes taxes).
  • Reeses Pieces and other candies:  oh lets say 75 cents.
  • Pop for my everybody except my daughter who drinks juice still: $1.25
  • Electricity: Whoa!  I’m getting way to detailed, besides the cost for electricity would be the same since the TV would be on anyway… we’ll skip this cost!

So all told, if we average the movie media (DVD) cost between the library and Red Box, the total cost for “Family Movie Night” comes to….:  $3.91!!!  This number contrasts to my previous calculations where I underestimated that the total costs came to only $2.00

Not as bad as going to a movie theater, but still not free either!  I can honestly say, that before we just did this exercise, I just had a guess with respect as to how much we spent for a “family movie night” event!  My previous estimate was too low…

However, the $3.91 cost is well worth the family bonding & snuggling times, and laughs that the entire family encounters as we watch the movies together.

My favorite part of Family Movie Night is hearing the honest laugher from my son when he finds something funny.  It’s truly heart warming…

What is the cost of your favorite near free family activities?  Most have hidden costs that you don’t often associate with the activity itself… like gasoline cost to go to the park, etc…

Enjoy the summer!

 -MR

The Joneses Are Moving To A Larger House

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The great neighbor who lived across the street is moving. They are moving to a richer neighborhood (he’s an attorney and his wife is a nurse).

They bring in more income than we do… probably at least double the amount…

So just for some background information, their house is probably worth about $220,000 to $250,000 which in our city is a pretty decent house.  They are moving to a house that is in the range of $400,000 to $500,000.

I think it’s a bad move, here’s why:

  • They are only moving about 1 mile from where they live now.
  • The Elementary School their kids will go to will be a worse one than they are currently at (more crowded, and a bit rougher).
  • Based on how much they put into the house across the street, I’d say they are losing about $10,000 to $20,000 in enhancements and upgrades.
  • The economy isn’t that great, anything is still possible.
  • They need to start to build their non-retirement financial assets.  I know they have a lot of credit card debt.
  • They would have had their original house paid off in another 5 years.
  • Their real estate taxes will increase by double (so it will be $6,000 a year).
  • They’ll gut and refinish the new house like they did with the old one.  I’m not even going to guess how much that will cost.
  • The oldest kid is 14 and I don’t believe they have started saying for college yet for her.

So basically they are going to pay more than what it appears for this new house.  At least they did get to take advantage of the fed tax credits for moving!

What do you think of such a move?   To me, it seems like a pretty large expense!

-MR

End Of Grade School, Sad But Endearing Transition

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Yesterday morning started out with me watching a play performed by kindergartners.  My daughter did a great job as I expected, no surprises.  All of the 4th graders watched the presentation.

What was surprising was the “send off” the school Principal and teachers did for the 4th graders.  My son’s Principal’s husband also coaches my daughter’s soccer team, so I know the Principal to a certain level beyond what I normally would know of a typical principal.   As she gave her speech about the 4th grade class and started crying (a little), I knew that it was legitimate and touching.

The send off, wasn’t anything like I ever remembered!  It included awards of some type for every child.  Not one of those kids came away from the “send off” not feeling special in some way or another.

A few of the female teachers were teary eyed.  The Principal sent one of the teachers away to get a box of tissues.  I was impressed, but also tired of tired of clapping.  There were a lot of awards.  I was kind of proud of myself because I clapped as enthusiastically for the first student honored as the last student.

The grand finale was a slide show presentation of the 4th graders throughout different stages of their life.  The pictures for the slide show was from when the 4th graders were kindergartners to current times.  I was impressed with the time and effort that was put into it.  The slideshow lasted at least half an hour.

I know this post wasn’t about personal finance, but it was still a very personal experience that was worth sharing!

I have to wonder if most school systems do something comparable!  If so, I’m impressed!

Thanks for hearing my story 🙂

-MR

Team Lessons Learned From School Projects, and Family Fun

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Can you learn from your family?

When I was in grade school as a kid, I always hated doing school projects!  I thought they were stupid, and often time, I’d wait until the last moment to do them.  I always pulled it together in time, but with a lot of stress and the paint still dripping on the project… 

Now my son is at the age where he needs to do the school projects, but this time it’s different.  Instead of him doing it alone, both my wife and I help too.  He still had to do the writing part, but we all brainstormed the creative part.  The creative element was that we need to create a “Creature in a can“, which basically is a container made to look like the animal my son got stuck with, which was an amazon tree frog. 

Amazingly, we all came up with ideas that built on each others.  The end result was an amazing looking piece of art!  While it might be overkill for a 4th grade project, it’s something that our family will remember as a great team building experience!  I may even keep the project after he is done with it at school and put it in my office as a reminder of a great family time! 

So what I lesson I learned from this school project was: 

  • Doing a project with people you love can be fun!
  • With a team of like-minded people, it’s possible to create an end result that is better than any individual idea.
  • Amazingly attractive results can be accomplished with basically trash, and a little bit of wire and glue!
  • When working with a good team, cleverly innovative ideas can spring to life!

Since my 4th grader is my oldest, this is all new for me.  I’m kind of excited for the next experience with either my son or daughter! 

Have you ever learned something from doing something that you though would be a negative experience?  Not only was it positive for me, but I also think as a family we built some great family confidence! 

If you have young kids, I hope you experience as much fun! 

Best wishes, 

– MR