Black Friday Deal

 Are you going to go out and get some clothes for the kids on Black Friday?   Be sure to check out Kohl's Black Friday sale code below....  Read my previous Kohl's shopping strategy here... 

If you go out there....have a safe shopping weekend!






If you like this post and think it would be valuable to someone you know, please share it on the social network of your choice for me, okay? All you have to do is click one of the buttons below. Then add me to your Google+ circles. Thanks --Rick

http://gplus.to/rickbolt
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Tech Punishment For Kids

Is this the new Millennium punishment?  Maybe....

I will admit, I am a pretty geeky guy.  After all, my day job that pays the bills is as a Network Engineer.  You can't survive in that world without embracing your inner geekiness!    I am also a parent of "digital kids". I am amazed at how quickly my kids can pick this technology stuff up and use it so naturally.  My youngest, who is four, is known for stealing the older kids devices to play games on and watch videos...

I found an article on Mashable that discusses what I like to call "tech punishment".  Basically it discussing setting the boundaries and consequences up front, before the inappropriate behavior happens.  Then the kids know they are going to be punished by having their tech time taken away.  I know that with my older kids, this would work like a charm.  They are constantly connected to their devices!

The article I reference is here;

http://mashable.com/2012/09/14/parents-using-tech-as-consequence/

This is a breakdown of the article is in Proactive Consequences and Reactive Consequences.  Proactive of course being predetermined punishments.  Reactive being an immediate reaction when you have had enough. I have to admit, I have been a very reactive type parent. I am the type of parent that can take quite a bit and then fly off the handle when I have had enough. Usually taking all privileges away from the kids when they misbehave.  That is something I really need to improve upon.  Don't get me wrong, my kids are usually very well behaved and I am thankful for that.  At the same time, they are kids and they will still push the limit at times. I am going to work on being a more proactive parent by setting up some guidelines ahead of time so the kids know what will happen before the inappropriate behavior happens.  Taking away tech devices is the perfect start.   I will continue to write update posts on this subject in the future to let you know how it goes.


I post this hoping it helps other parents that may not be as "geeky" as me.  It is hard enough for me to keep up with the kids, so I feel for you.  I regularly share stuff like this on Google+  take the dive and add me to your circles.  If you need more info on Google+, I wrote about that here.

Portrait of A Large Family

If you are like us, getting everyone in the family ready for a  portrait is no easy task.    First you have to get everyone dressed and ready.  Then you you have to get everyone ready in their pose.  Then you have to get them to stay there and pay attention so you can get the picture.  Sometimes I feel like I ran a marathon when I am done. Although, I don't really know what that is like because I never have or ever will run a marathon!


It is a good thing that photography is a hobby of mine.  A real photographer would take one look at my family and automatically triple his price!  So yes, I save a little extra money every year by doing this myself.  Every year we try to get a picture in Eden Park in Cincinnati, OH. This is one of my favorite places on Earth.  Here is one of my favorite pictures of this kids that I took there.   Do you have any other ways you save money with your family?   Any good stories from your family photos?  Please leave a comment below...

If you like this post and think it would be valuable to someone you know, please share it on the social network of your choice for me, okay? All you have to do is click one of the buttons below. Then add me to your Google+ circles. Thanks

--Rick http://gplus.to/rickbolt

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What is Frugal?

I write a lot about cutting expenses and being frugal.  I have never thought that frugal was a negative term at all.  It has always been more of a compliment to me. Frugal is not really just about finding ways to save money, it is more of an attitude or a lifestyle choice.  People choose to be this way for whatever their reasons are. I have my reasons, as I am sure you do yours.

For example, frugal is not about getting things at a deep discount all of the time. Or even about completely not spending money.  Right now to me, it is also about when to know not to buy something.  It does not do us any good to accumulate a lot of things we don't need or won't use just because we got a good deal on it.  

I can't help it, I think I must have been born this way. (This is not a Lady Gaga reference). It has always been an interest (note financial pun) of mine. From the time I was very young I have always been a saver more than a spender.  I love to watch my money grow and also love to get great deals at the same time.  As I grew older I began to realize that the great deal is not as important as the need of the item to purchase. 

There are so many things that compete for my attention, do I really need this new thing (whatever it is) or will it just complicate my life more? Will I throw it away within a year or will I use it over and over. I think I look at purchases now as more of a long term investment.  I guess I am at that stage of my life where I am trying to simplify things.  

Maybe I will break down my stages of frugal-ness in future posts.  The problem is, I probably have not gone through them all yet!

Enjoy your families and have a great weekend!


If you like this post and think it would be valuable to someone you know, please share it on the social network of your choice  for me, okay? All you have to do is click one of the buttons below. Then add me to your Google+ circles. Thanks

Still Have A Land Line?

Many people still have land phone lines to their homes.  Depending on the way you use it, this  can be a real expense.  The phone companies toll costs have not caught up with the rest of the world.  While I do admit it is nice to have the security of a land line when the power goes out, it is not a good way to make toll calls.

Most people use their cell phones to make long distance or toll calls because they are free or included with their minutes.  If you don't want to use your mobile or only want to use it for business, then there are some other options.

One option is an IP phone service.  With this option, you have to have high speed internet service.    The IP phone company will send you what is called an ATA adapter.  You hook this up to your home network and to your internal home phone lines.  You then can make free local and long distance calls for free. All you do is pay an annual fee for about $20 per month.  With this service, you can often transfer your existing home number to the new service and get free voice mail to email service.

Also, if you only occasionally make long distance calls, you can get a service like Magic Jack.  Magic Jack is a low cost service that hooks to your home computer to make phone calls.  Now with Magic Jack it costs money to transfer your existing number and there is also a yearly fee assessed when keeping it.  Also, Magic Jack has come out with a service called Magic Jack Plus, but it costs about the same as the IP phone service.

All in all, it is almost never cost effective to use your home phone land line to make long distance calls.  Consider other options and save some money.

Here are some common IP Phone Services:

Packet8

Vonage

Lingo 

Do any of you use other methods to save money?  Please leave  comment and let us know.

If you like this post and think it would be valuable to someone you know, please share it on the social network of your choice for me, okay? All you have to do is click one of the buttons below. Then add me to your Google+ circles. Thanks --Rick    http://gplus.to/rickbolt

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Budgeting=Boring! 5 Tips to Help You Budget Better

Everyone wants to get your money, it is up to you to decide where it goes. Here are five basic budgeting tips to help you keep more of your money.

1)  Sit down and create a very realistic budget.


You really just need to devote the time to this.  One easy way to get started is to take a month and save every receipt that you get.  I mean every single receipt.  Be diligent! It will pay off!  ( A little budgeting humor)  This will help you track where every penny of yours goes.  You can then sit down at the end of the month and make realistic budget categories.  Avoid categories like miscellaneous, or extras... they show no detail of where your money is going.  Do this and apply it to your real take home income.  Prepared to be shocked at how much money you are wasting.

For some free budgeting spreadsheets, check here.



2) Be realistic! 


I know this sounds like a recurring theme, and it is.  If you are not realistic about your budget you will never stick to it.  You need to be realistic about cutting and spending.  Assign realistic amounts to each category.  You will always have emergencies that pop up.  Try to account for these in your categories.  For example, automobile repairs always seem to pop up when they are least expected.    If you don't have any automobile repairs this month, put that money in your savings and save it for when you do have to have your automobile repaired. 


3) If you have trouble, use an envelope system.


The envelope system is a cash system.  You assign categories to envelopes and when the money is gone out of that envelope, it is gone for that category.  For some examples of envelope systems check here and here.





4) Commit to sticking to your budget.

No matter what budgeting system you use, commit to stick to it. It will pay off in the end (there's that humor again).  You will never know if it works if you don't stick it out.



5) Evaluate Constantly.

Stay on top of your budget and review it often.  The more often you do it, the easier it is to stay on top of it.

You can do it, go out there and take control of your financial life!


If you like this post and think it would be valuable to someone you know, please share it on the social network of your choice  for me, okay? All you have to do is click one of the buttons below. Then add me to your Google+ circles. Thanks

5 Websites to Help You Earn Extra Income

I am always trying to come up with a few extra ways to bring in some money to help support my family.  I guess I have some kind of crazy survival insticnt that takes over at times.  In this post I will list five websites that can be used to make some extra money.  You still have to be creative in coming up with some skills to post to these sites, but browse through them and get some ideas on where you can .

1) www.fiverr.com

On fiverr poeple post gigs that they will do for $5.  The list is very long from editing photos, doing website scripts, getting social media exposure, singing messages, editing ebooks or articles, etc.  The list is truly endless of what you can do. Fiverr is the biggest player when it comes to gig sites.


2) www.justafive.com

Again a site like fiverr, but this one has gigs for $5, $10, and $20.


3)  www.fittytown.com

 This is the same concept as the others, but the gigs can go as high as $50.  This is more of a high dollar place.


4) gigbucks.com

These are gigs from $5-$50.



5) www.nettradr.com

This is the same concept with variable prices.  You have more flexibility to set your prices for your gigs.


As with anything that you want to sell, you will have to build a reputation as a reliable and dependable person.  There are reviews for each gig, they can be positive or negative.  Fiver appears to be embracing a "super seller" program.  This link also gives you a little instruction on how to become a good fiverr seller.


Let us now in the comments below any experience you have had with these sites or sites like them. More extra income posts are coming in the future!

Top 5 Large Family-isms

Now it is your turn.  Tell us what kind of things you run into when you are out and about with your large family.  Here is a short list we see:


1) Inevitably we see people counting all of us.  This almost always happens everywhere we go.  Not just a mental count, but a finger pointing count.  It is amazing how hard it is for some people to count eight moving humans.  Someone usually answers there are Eight of us, six kids....
  

2) We also get the question "Why do you drive that big of a vehicle, doesn't the gas prices kill you?"   That is the only vehicle that will fit all of us at once. Sometimes it is nice not to take two cars to our destination of choice.

3)  My wife gets this a lot....  " You don't look like you have had six kids!"   Why does every woman that has had more than three kids have to be overweight?  I guess that is another stereotype.

4) "How do you pay for all of them?"   I just stand at the front door and pass out $100 bills as they leave...Just like you pay for your kids, only things get used more by more people.  Six colleges and two weddings.  I guess they are going to have to work a little to get what they want.  I think it will be good for them.

5) "Wow you have that many kids and you don't even wear denim skirts and home school!"  I think this is a religious reference.  Everyone thinks you are like the Duggars if you have more than three kids. We are also  fortunate to live in an area with a great school system and our kids fit in very well.   Again, that is another stereotype.  We are actually a pretty "normal" family.  There are just more of us.



I guess we just get used to it.  I will have to be more conscious of these in the future and post them here.
What are your large family-isms?   Please leave them in the comments below.

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Saving Money on Online Purchases

Hi, it's is me again

Rick... Dad to all of those kids and today I want to tell you how we save a lot of money with my online purchases.

We were once in a spot where we needed a new washer and dryer.  I can't imagine how we could wear one out with six kids!  We went around to all of the retail stores and looked at all kinds of models.  We settled on the newer model high efficiency units. These units can wash and dry more clothes in a single load. They also save water, use less soap, and wash better with less wear and tear. Only one problem, they are really expensive!!!

My lovely wife said to me "There has to be a way to get these cheaper online, why don't you see if you can figure that out?"  I could not let her down!  So away I searched and......came up with nothing. Then she said "hey, what about this website?"


What she found was www.retailmenot.com.  This is a great site!  We new we could certain models at certain stores.  So we browsed by the stores we could use online. Sure enough,  Home Depot was running a 25 % off special coupon on a one time purchase of $1500 or more if you purchased online through retailmenot.  She was looking at me with that excited look in her eye that I absolutely love!  I was the first to be the downer.  "This is probably too good to be true...Let's give it a try."

Now, the washer and dryer combo we were looking at was priced at about $1450 online (about $1600 in the store).  We needed to spend about $50 more (not including delivery) to get this online deal.  Now if you are a regular reader, you know I would never tell you to spend more money, but this is different!  We found a silence pad system for the washer that was exactly the $50 we needed to hit the $1500 price requirement.  We put in our retailmenot offer code and BAM!!!!!   $375 magically came off the price!!!!  We were ecstatic!

So, in this instance, the washer/dryer combo that would have cost us about $1600 in the store, ended up costing us about $1125 online with retailmenot!!!!!

A few days later, the washer and dryer showed up, the delivery guys installed them. They have been running great.

Now we check retailmenot before we buy anything online.  We highly recommend it to save money online!  Check out their banner below...


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Save with RetailMeNot.com Coupons

The Large Family Car...Find the Perfect One?

Recently here in my household we are on a mission.  We want to find the perfect large family vehicle.  We currently have an 8 passenger Ford Expedition.  This fits all of my family (eight of us) very tightly. The kids are getting bigger, and if you have ever seen the third row seat in the Expy, it is not made for normal sized people. 

We are currently looking for a 12 passenger vehicle.  This should give plenty of room for all of the kids and all the things that we need to bring along for them on the weekend adventures we like to take.  I was all for a brand new Mercedes Sprinter Van, but my lovely wife brought me back to reality one we saw the price.  The advantage of the Sprinter is the space, style, and extremely efficient diesel engine.

Since the Sprinter has been eliminated due to price, we need to look at others.  We are currently looking for used 12 passenger vans.  Most all of these are nice, but they mostly have V8 gasoline engines that are extremely efficient with today's gas prices.  Here are some other 12 passenger vans we have been looking at:

http://www.chevrolet.com/express-cargo-and-passenger-vans.html

http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/Nissan_NV/

http://www.ford.com/trucks/eseries/

http://www.gmc.com/savana-passenger-van.html

All of you beautiful large families out there!!!!!  I am reaching out to all of you, please, through the comment section, tell us what you think and what you drive or how you would do it differently. What vehicle are you considering next?



If you like this post and think it would be valuable to someone you know, please share it on the social network of your choice  for me, okay? All you have to do is click one of the buttons below. Then add me to your Google+ circles. Thanks

Cut the Cable TV Cord!

One thing I am always trying to accomplish in our house is to reduce some expenses. Hey after all, we do have six kids! One expense that I can't stand every month is cable TV. If it were up to me, this would be gone. Fortunately for the cable company, it is not all up to me. The rest of the family seems to have embraced them as a member of the family. I don't get it.


 I have introduced a couple of things in our house to try to persuade the family that the cable guy is a crook. One of these is the Roku. I have to say that I love this little device! It is so easy to use a four year old could run it. Go ahead, ask me how I know? Because my little Maddie is using thing to stream her shows constantly.

 Now there are a few things that you will need when you get your Roku. You will still need your high speed internet connection and a subscription to Netflix or other similar streaming service, such as Amazon Video on Demand. You probably already have your high speed internet connection. Netflix is only $9/month for unlimited streaming. This is worth every penny. There are so many movies and shows available. Even the most entrenched coach potato will be entertained for hours and hours... Some recent movies I have viewed on Netflix...From the Terrace, The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo, Scary Movie, Cat on a Hot Tin, Roof, The Three Stooges, Lucy, A Hard Days Night, etc.... Some recent shows that my four year old watches on Netflix... Dora the Exploer, Kickin it, Pink Panther, Good Luck Charlie, Dora the Exploer, Kickin it, Pink Panther, Good Luck Charlie, Dora the Exploer, Kickin it, Pink Panther, Good Luck Charlie....Over and over and over and over....you get the point! But she does love it.

Netflix is not the only option. There is also Amazon Video on Demand, Crackle, BlipTV, and numerous other channels available.

Shop Amazon - $0.99 Instant Video Deal of the Day

Crackle is great too.  Crackle gives you free advertiser sponsored movies.  There really are some good movies on here and they are rotated fairly frequently.  My older kids love to watch shows on Crackle.  They really enjoy the old episodes of The Three Stooges...

So now it is time to convince the family to cut the cable TV cord.  If you would like to try a Roku, please click our banner below to support our blog.

Google+

I have been playing around a lot with Google+ lately.  I know, I know, you are saying "You are just now getting into Google+, you are such a technological visionary.......not"   Be nice!  I am a busy guy.  OK, OK, no more excuses.  On to the Google+ post.....


 I guess it is touted as the perfect mix between Twitter and Facebook.  I have to admit that I don't know either one of those very well, but I have been learning Google+ over the last several days.  I must say, I really like it!

First, if you are not familiar with Google+, it is a social networking application that is based on groups called circles.  You can create all kinds of circles to follow people.  For example, I have some circles called Family, Friends, Photographers, Photoshop, and Bloggers.  I can add different people to each of these circles and follow their work.  If they feel like they want to see my posts, they can add me to one of their circles. 


The main reasons why I like Google+ are because you can add people to your circles that have similar interests.  In other words, you can follow people that you don't even know, but may be an authority on something you are really passionate about.  For example, I love photography, so I have added several photographers to my photography circle so I can follow their work.  There are some amazing photographs on Google+.  The beauty of the circle concept is that I can send only my photography related content to my photography circle, or only my jokes to my friends circle, or even send a note to all people (public setting).



I am still building my circles.  Once I have them close to finished, I can then share a circle.  This will allow people to "subscribe" to the same people that I have built in my circles.  This is an awesome concept that allows people to connect and share easily.  This is where I think Google+ is better than Facebook,  although I do admit, I am not a Facebook expert.  What do you guys think about the comparisons of Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.



I would love to have you guys add me to one of your circles.  Even if it is your "dorks" circle.  I am OK with that. This blog is integrated with Google+, so if you add me, you will see all of my blog posts as a Google+ post.  So please get to adding!

Here is my profile:

https://plus.google.com/101813403618499617525/posts



Or you can click the add to your circles button on the upper right area of this blog...


If you like this post and think it would be valuable to someone you know, please share it on the social network of your choice for me, okay? All you have to do is click one of the buttons below. Then add me to your Google+ circles. Thanks --Rick    http://gplus.to/rickbolt

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Extra Income Update---Part1

I read a  post the other day from  Tyler Tervooren.  It was a fine motivating piece.  It does not directly relate to large families, but it does relate to finances. Long ago in the dark ages, I studied Entrepreneurship in college, so I have always been interested in starting a side business.  I know many of you are interested in getting a little extra money to help care for your family.  So I am starting a series on earning extra income.  This is the first part in this series.
 
I have taken advice like Tyler's.  I have been working on some extra income options that have low to no start up costs.  This will be my first update.  The concept that Tyler discusses is starting a side business that does not cost more than $100. If it cost more, you don't do it. It is a great little article, you can check out his website here.  The article I am referring to is located here.  I think it is an excellent article.  I highly  recommend read it.  Also, be sure to check out part two.

Photography is  a hobby of mine, so I decided to try to make some money from it.  I already own a digital camera, no cost there, so I really only have my time in this. Here is what I have been doing.

I went out and signed up for accounts on Dreamstime and iStockphoto.  I uploaded several photos and even had some approved.  Here  are my profiles/galleries:

Dreamstime

iStockPhoto



I have actually done better than I expected from these two sites.   If I had the discipline to spend more time taking and submitting photos, I could probably do OK making a few extra bucks.  I decided I would try to go with a theme that  i was interested in.  So I chose football.  Here is my top selling image on both sites:

10 Yard Line

Honestly, I had no idea that this image would sell like it has.  I even sold an extended license to this photo, which resulted in a single $12+ sale.


All in all, I have made at least $200 in microstock photography by only putting half an effort in it. Maybe I should try a little harder at this and see out it works out.  Really when you look at the small amount of time I spent doing this it is not too bad.  The beauty of microstock is that it is residual.  In other words, you can sell the same image over and over again without really doing anything.  Now, you could always go back into the image and add new keywords to keep it fresh in the list, but it is not required. I need to come up with a few more themed ideas.  Do you guys have any ideas?  Please add them to the comments below.

If you wish to get started in microstock selling, I would suggest you start at Dreamstime.  They have a community base that is very helpful with ideas and help.  Also, I think they were a little easier to get accepted.  If you do decide to try it, I would appreciate you using my banner link below using me as a referral.  Also, don't forget, please add me to your Google+ circle....

Go Get Yourself Some Cheap Eyeglasses!!!

I guess you can't hear me sing my ZZ Top themed title.  That is probably for the best.  Weather you have a lot of people in your family or not, this is a great tip.  A friend pointed me to this site...www.zennioptical.com.

This is one of the best money saving tips that I have received in some time.  I have three children and myself that wear glasses in my family.  Rather than test my theories on my children, I decided to try it on myself first.

What you will need is  your prescription from your eye doctor.  This will usually and a few numbers on it.  My lovely wife stopped by our eye doctor and asked for our prescriptions. They printed them out and handed them to her.  We were on our way to savings!  The only problem you may run into is if your PD distance is not listed on your prescription.  This is a measurement in millimeters.  The way I understand it, it is the distance between the center of your pupils. If your prescription does not list your PD distance, download the ruler on the Zenni site to figure this out.  You can also have a friend measure this for you.




 Late one night I visited the website and created an account.  I put in all of the information required.  Then I started browsing for frames.  The frame selection is listed by cost or type.  Since this was my test, I chose some cheap frames and after all of the options I had $12.95 in my eyeglasses.  Add $4.95 for shipping and voila, two weeks later I had my new glasses for about a whopping $18.00!  That is some savings compared to the $300 plus I pay at the eye doctor.

So I tried them out for a few weeks.  I have to say that I was very pleased with them.  So now for the kids.  I went back to the website ordered two for the kids and another set to keep at work for me.  I still check out of their website for less than $60 for three pairs of glasses shipped!


Some people will say that they have progressive lenses or bifocals and this won't work for me.  I passed the Zenni info on to another friend.  He has progressive lenses and decided to give Zenni a try.  He ordered a pair of glasses from them and received them for around $50 shipped without any issues.  He normally paid almost $600 for his glasses at the eye doctor.  He has since ordered several pairs and has not had any complaints.

People, please check this out, it can help save you large amounts of money for your family. If this is for you, it is worth it!

Have a great day....until next time.

Buying Clothes for A Large Family

There are eight people in our family.  That includes two teenagers.  Everyone knows that clothes are expensive.  We always try to stretch our clothes dollar to get the most clothes for the least amount of money.

One way we do this is to shop the end of season clearances.  I know this is not a big secret, but it we doit with a little twist.  We shop at Kohls.  We always get advertisements mailed to us that can get us up to 30% off of our total order.  That my friends is a fantastic deal.  Let me give an example....


I have to wear "business casual" dress at my office.  This is really nothing more than a pair of dress pants and a button down collar dress shirt.  I regularly check the Kohls clearance rack for dress shirts, just part of my strategy.  One day I was strolling through my local Kohls when I found this shirt:

The $1.00 shirt!!!!

You will never guess what I paid for this shirt.  The shirt was marked down to $1.00 on the clearance rack and we also had a 20% off coupon.  So for this shirt alone, we only paid 80 cents! Honestly we get things cheaper here than we can get second hand.  Then we can hand these down to the younger kids.


Now I will admit that is probably the cheapest I have ever purchased at Kohl's.  Although, I regularly get shirts there for between $5 and $10 easily.   The same goes for all the kids clothes too.   We will be documenting some of the purchases we get as we continue to find bargains.

One of the great things about Kohl's is that they provide some of these great deals online too.  Don't forget to check the clearance section online! Please check out the link below to help out our blog.