Wishes And Pixie Dust

Follow the journey of a Wisconsin family of 4 who relocated to the Walt Disney World area in July 2011

Category Archives: Expenses


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A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes

As we usher out the old year and ring in the new, we thought it a perfect time to update our readers on our life in Florida.  It seems unbelievable that last year at this time we had no idea that we would be spending our next Christmas as Floridians.  It’s funny how a dream seems to kick into gear just when you least expect it to.

Is Florida life everything we expected it to be?  Yes and no.  The weather is as incredible as  we imagined and knew it to be, and really, the weather in late July and August is not unbearable.  There’s something very satisfying knowing that the temperatures will not drop into the 60’s in August.  Wisconsin summers can be very fickle, with 90’s one day and 60’s the next.  We have definitely been enjoying the ability to walk outside and not worry about grabbing a coat.

We approach visiting Walt Disney World differently as locals, rather than tourists.  There is no need to visit every day, nor attack the parks commando-style.  When we go, it is at a leisurely pace and we simply do what we want to that day.  We’ve learned that it is not necessary to go when it is raining, or when it is crowded, because the parks will always be there for us to enjoy.  This week in central Florida all the theme parks are extremely busy, and have even closed due to capacity issues.   We originally were thinking of attending this weekend, but have since reconsidered.  Why put yourself in the middle of the insanity if you don’t have to?

So what’s there not to like about Florida?   We have been struggling with the school system with both our children, but most specifically our youngest son.  We’ve discovered that there is very little tolerance here for children with special needs.   One of their beliefs is that the student needs to adapt to the classroom environment, and there is no consideration for accommodations being made for the student by having the classroom environment adapted for the student.  Any kind of physical contact is prohibited and results in instant suspension.  High-fiving another student will result in a week long lunch detention.  Hugging another student is considered sexual harrassment.  And in Ben’s case, if you involuntary swing your legs in the classroom and unintentionally kick another student, it is considered careless and malicious intent.  We have discovered that even with an IEP, parents have very little leverage in the process, and we feel right now it’s best to remove Ben from public school and homeschool him the rest of the year.  This was not a decision we took lightly, but at this point in time we feel the public school is doing Ben more harm than good and he definitely needs to be removed from that environment.  We’re not sure what the next school year holds, if we will try public school again, but we have time to make that decision.

We were blessed that our oldest son Nick was able to fly down and visit with us for a few days over Christmas.  It was very hard to say goodbye, however.  The past couple of days we have been questioning our dream, if it was worth it, with the issues with the school (none of which would have happened in Wisconsin), and the heartache of having Nick leaving and not knowing when we’d see him again.  There have been other smaller concerns not discussed in our blog (mainly because they were to some point expected and not a major concern for us, such as the lack of dairy items in the stores and the higher cost of living) and it all kind of struck us at once.

We have come to realize that our dream did not end once we arrived in Florida.  Our dream was not to move to Florida and enjoy Disney.  Our dream is to move to Florida, enjoy Florida and live our lives out here.  It would be easy to give up now, justifying moving back to Wisconsin citing various reasons.  However, God did not move us to Florida for a few months to enjoy Disney.  His plans are purposeful, and as much as we love Disney, we’re fairly certain that’s not the reason we’re here 🙂  A dream is not always a bed of roses, even when you live 22 miles away from the magic of Walt Disney World.  Life still happens, and not how you planned it.  You can either embrace it, or you can run away to where you feel safe.  We are still in the adjustment period, and it may very well take another year before everything seems normal.  Our mantra is to embrace what we have, enjoy life to the fullest and erase the doubts.  We will always look back to Wisconsin, because we have friends and family there, but Florida is home now.

We will be shutting down our Facebook presence on December 31.  We will be keeping our blog open here and posting occasionally.  A huge thank you to all our readers who have followed our journey and supported us through the planning of the move and the relocation itself.  We have been blessed to meet a few of you and make new friendships; it’s nice to know we’re not alone.  (Sometimes it sure feels like it!)  May God bless your families and give you a prosperous and healthy New Year!  Y’all are in our hearts.


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Fall & Halloween Doings

Welcome Fall!  I love this picture, because it reminds me so much of the season of Fall in Wisconsin.   At one of our houses we had huge trees just like this in our front yard, and when I say there were leaves to rake……..we had piles of leaves four feet high!  I miss the smell of crunching leaves underfoot as you walk along, and the distinct fall aromas:  the leaves, the cool crisp air, the bonfires at night, that if close enough, fills your house with a smoky smell.  We always went to The Little Farmer at this time of year to pick out our pumpkins, apple butter, muffins and pies, and go on a hayride.  I will definitely miss the hayrides through the woods, even though it seriously messed up my allergies.  There is nothing like a fall forest hayride in Wisconsin.

This picture was taken last fall, before we knew we were moving.  Little did we know it would be our last trip there:

If you are fortunate enough to live in an area where you can witness the fall colors, enjoy it a little extra for me 🙂

There are several different farms/orchards in Lake County that appear somewhat similar to The Little Farmer, which I’ll list here:

Long & Scott Farms in Mount Dora

Santa’s Christmas Tree Forest in Eustis

Stanley Pond Adventure Pond in Astatula

Uncle Donald’s Farm in Lady Lake

Right now Santa’s Christmas Tree Forest in Eustis seems to be the best option to try.

We’re not sure what we plan to do for the day of Halloween this year, even though it is only a couple of weeks away.  We’ll do the traditional pumpkins, of course, but I’m not sure if we’ll participate in trick-or-treating.  We have discovered that there is no set time or day for trick or treating in Clermont.  In Wisconsin, we always had trick or treating the Sunday before Halloween, from 3:30 to 5:30, followed by pizza and hot chocolate (because it was always invariably cold outside).  We will buy a couple of bags of candy to give out to our neighbors’ children, but I think this year we’re going to be winging it.  Our original plan was to attend Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, but due to unforeseen circumstances, our budget will not allow for that extra expense this year.   I did win an Event Party Music CD from the Disney Planning Blog, so at least we’ll have the music to listen to!  Walt Disney World is not going anywhere, and neither are we; while we would have liked to attend, there also isn’t an urgency to do everything as soon as we possibly can.  There’s always next year, and we’re fine with that.

As always, thank you for following us.  We do plan to put out an update post soon describing what Florida life looks like to us three months after the move.

~♥~ Jen~♥~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Living Life In Florida

When we were planning our move to Florida, we were excited at the possibility of our expenses being lower than in Wisconsin.  Now that we’ve been here for over six weeks, we thought we would take a look at our actual expenses and share them with our readers. For a reference point, our apartment is 1,389 sq feet.

  • Our monthly rent increased by $186; however, we are no longer responsible for lawn care.
  • Our monthly cable bill for phone, internet and television decreased by $5.
  • No more gas bill (averaged $35-45 in summer; $300 in winter)
  • Our electric bill is $220, which is not bad considering we haven’t been careful about our usage, we had many pool days which means more towels to wash, and it’s summer 🙂  We expected it to be less, but it’s less than it would be in Wisconsin.
  • Our income increased because there are no withholdings for state income tax.
  • The biggest change is our water bill.  In Wisconsin we were paying $135 monthly. In Florida we paid $8.64.  We do expect the bill to go up for September, as the meter was read August 5 for the water, which resulted in only 12 days of water, but we don’t expect it to be a significant amount.
  • Our gasoline usage has increased significantly, due to the fact we are approximately 40-50 minutes away from Disney (one way), Clermont is much more spread out than Fond du Lac was, and approximately an hour’s worth of gas is used daily for bringing the kids to and from school.
  • Groceries are approximately 15-20% more expensive here than in Wisconsin, and significantly lacking in a variety of dairy products 🙂  We find that we shop at four different grocery stores:  Winn-Dixie, Publix, Sweetbay and Target, which is an extremely different routine for us.  (We’re used to shopping at one, and we’ve really been missing it lately).
New bills for Florida:
  • Disney annual passes are $150 per month
  • Pest control fee is $1 per month
  • Valet trash fee is $15 per month
  • Sunpass:  this varies on how often we go into Orlando, but in six weeks since we’ve been here we’ve spent $17.50 in tolls.  It will go down considerably from here on because we’re not using the Turnpike as much now.
So are we paying less in expenses than Wisconsin?  No, but we’re not paying more, either. It all seems to equal out in the end.  We do acknowledge the fact that if we were renting a house, we would be paying more in expenses; in terms of lawn care, pool upkeep and a higher bill for pest control.  We’re quite satisfied with the apartment complex and love not having the responsibilities that renting or owning a home entails.  We recognize that apartment living is not for everyone, but it suits us perfectly.  


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Car Registration

After you obtain your driver’s license, the next step in the process is to register your vehicle with the state of Florida and receive your license plate.  Florida state law requires that your car be registered within ten days of enrolling a child in school or obtaining employment.  However, before this can be accomplished you will need to provide proof of vehicle insurance, from a company licensed in Florida.  You will also need your original title. In Wisconsin we had a policy with State Farm and decided to continue coverage with State Farm in Florida, more for ease of convenience than anything else. Our previous agent helped us find a Florida agent close to home, and they worked together in transferring our account from Wisconsin to Florida.  We were able to make an appointment over a month in advance, and we recommend using the same insurer if at all possible, because it really does ease the process.

In Wisconsin we carried auto insurance, renter’s insurance and an umbrella policy.  In Florida, we have the same policies; however, State Farm in Florida does not provide renter’s insurance, so we needed to underwrite the policy to a different company, which of course required an additional $157 payment that we were not expecting to pay upfront (we are billed monthly on the State Farm payment plan and it comes directly out of our checking account).  We will be billed quarterly for the renter’s policy from this point forward.  This means our State Farm policy will remain approximately the same as what we paid in Wisconsin, but without renter’s insurance, and with less coverage (we opted to drop full coverage on our vehicle).  Vehicle insurance in Florida is considered one of the highest rates in the United States (and after the way we see people drive we so understand why), so please be prepared financially with that realization before you move.

Our appointment with State Farm was in the morning, and after we obtained our driver’s licenses, we drove to the building where we would then register our vehicle.  Keep in mind that the building where you receive your driver’s license is not the same building you register your car at.  (Another peculiarity different than Wisconsin).  You also may not make an appointment here:  you wait for your number to be called.  We had estimated our fees to be approximately $180: imagine our surprise when we discovered the actual total was $409!  We did not realize that an initial registration fee of $225 is charged if there is no Florida registration to transfer.  The tag renewal is based on the birth date, and you will pay the full fee regardless on when you register your vehicle.  We will need to renew in December, and it is estimated that our renewal fee will be $60.

It is highly recommended that you do not purchase a vehicle less than six months before you move, as you will need to pay the difference between Florida’s state sale tax and your own state’s sale tax. If at all possible, wait until you arrive in Florida to purchase that new vehicle, or do it more than six months out.  You will need to prove that you have owned the vehicle for longer than six months, so be sure to have that paperwork on hand.

We hope the posts on obtaining your driver’s license and vehicle registration have proved helpful.  We know we would have loved to have this information prior to our move, and if it helps someone out, then it’s totally worth the time it has taken to pull it together. 🙂


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Obtaining Your Florida Driver’s License

One of the huge perks of relocating to Florida is the ability to visit Walt Disney World at a moment’s notice. Residents of Florida now have the flexibility of paying for annual passes on a monthly basis, and it makes it easier for individuals to immediately experience the magic of the parks.

If this is your intent, one of the first things you will want to do after establishing a residence is to obtain your driver’s license. Walt Disney World does require your driver’s license to prove residency in order to issue annual passes. Prior to your move, set up your DMV appointment: this can be done online. Approximately 1,000 people move to Florida in one day, and the wait could prove to be extremely lengthy without an appointment. Please visit Florida DMV to identify which documents you will need to present to convert your out-of-state license to a Florida driver’s license. Florida recognizes most out-of-states licenses as a primary form of identification: this means you will not need to provide a birth certificate or passport as proof of identity. If you live in one of twenty states that Florida considers a driver’s license only as a secondary form of identification, you will need to provide a birth certificate or passport to prove your identity.

Florida law requires each individual to present identification to prove primary identification, secondary identification (your social security card), and two documents proving your address, such as a current utility bill or mortgage/lease agreement. The fee per person is $48 for an eight year license. Florida law states that you must obtain your driver’s license within thirty days of becoming a resident of Florida.

Please keep an eye out for our next post which entails what is necessary to obtain your new Florida license plate!