Hi there and Happy Hump Day!
Does Wednesday make you happy or just mad it’s still not Friday? I will feel mad sometimes, but then optimism kicks in and I’m like “Hey, at least it’s not Monday!” So try to think of that. 🙂
The other day Going Mom and I were discussing finances and planning for Avery’s future by opening a 529 plan. We were going over our options and trying to decide what a good amount would be to make monthly contributions to ensure Avery has enough for college if and when she attends.
I say “if” just incase she becomes a superstar. She’s already our superstar, but we can’t pay her for it; sorry, Avery.
Going Mom has looked into the 529 plan more than I have and she calculated how much we’d need to start contributing now just so Avery had enough for just her first year! That’s going off the current cost of college, and something tells me it won’t go down in 18 years….
Then, discussing how much we could comfortably contribute, Kelley brought up a good point; we are paying monthly for something we only use as background noise at night! What is it? Satellite.
To begin with, we only have it for 2 channels; Food Network and HGTV. But on top of that, we don’t even watch the TV when it’s on! I guess this is better than what we were doing.
For the first few weeks after we brought Avery home, we’d sit in silence in our dark living room as Avery slept in her swinging chair. We would actually fall asleep in the living room too and really didn’t see our bed that often. We finally has success with getting Avery to sleep in her crib and the TV came back on.
But, the TV serves us better as a glowing light and background noise source. Watch the TV? Nah!
Kelley and I will have a short discussion every now and then, but we mostly just fall into a trance perusing the internet. Sadly, we might talk more to each other via Facebook than when we are sitting in the same room at night!
It’s not because we’re arguing (usually) or anything, we just both urn for some quiet time by the end of the day. I actually hate it if she goes off to bed because I always enjoy her company, even if we don’t say a word. Anyone else like that?
Hey, at least we’re “smart” and have the cheapest package you can get with DISH®, so give us a little credit. Plus, we do sometimes use the TV when G-ma is visiting since she likes to watch certain shows.
While we’re on the subject, another “pricey” thing we do is use Kelley’s iPad2 as a white noise machine. Yep, it just sits on a stand in the nursery and we turn on the white noise app at night and nap time. Why pay twenty dollars for a sound machine when you can use a $500 iPad? Don’t answer that.
Nobody’s perfect, right? For the most part we are pretty conservative and actually do really well with saving where we can. A huge savings is cooking your own food and not going out to eat. Since we don’t go out (ever), we are reaping the benefits of good health and saving cash.
Before I check out for the day, I wanted to make an update to our current nightly routine. I still prepare Going Mom’s meal so she can spend some time with Avery, and bath time goes on as usual, but Kelley is able to get Avery to sleep faster afterward. This means she is back out and sitting with me (as we don’t talk) in the living room while our light and sound box TV is on.
The part I’m starting to enjoy now that Avery is more active, is playing with her while Kelley has dinner. I’ll sit on the floor next to Kelley and do whatever keeps Avery happy. I do push my limits and Kelley has to call me out, but for the most part, it’s fun.
We found that Avery is ticklish just about everywhere..
…and really enjoys being hung upside-down.
And obviously, she enjoys eating her hand 24/7. But I actually get excited to play a little with her before bedtime, and it helps to get her to sleep faster too!
Do you have things you pay for on a monthly basis but don’t use?
Do you have a certain routine each night or do you just “wing it” every day?
Not a reply to your question, but have you or your wife looked into upromise.com to help boost your 529 plan savings? They give you a certain percentage back through several online retailers, and also have grocery “coupons” that will give you a bit toward your savings. They’d obviously prefer you to use their 529, but you can hook it up to one you already have. They also have an option to receive a check with your savings so you can deposit into a regular savings account (this is the option we use).
We’ve been using it for about a year now just for the coupons, and have managed to earn nearly $30. If we were “all in” on the upromise plan, we could potentially earn a lot more.
Yep, I have a Upromise account that I setup years ago for my little brother. I figure I’ll do this for Avery as well. Thank you for your input as I haven’t checked tin a while!