Expenses | Wishes And Pixie Dust

May 4, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 3 Comments

Great News!

If you follow us on Facebook, you already know our great news: our apartment application was approved, and we will be living at The Gardens at Citrus Tower. Doesn’t the name just sound like someplace you want to live? Of course that’s not the reason we chose it! We feel very blessed to have completed the process so quickly, and we are relieved that we have a permanent address to call home once we arrive in Clermont. This will allow us to provide forwarding addresses before we leave, as well as set up the kids in school before school ends for the summer. It’s hard to believe the end of the school year is fast approaching, though we certainly are looking forward to what the summer brings us!

Tonight we attended an awards ceremony at Catie’s school for high grade point average achievement, and realized this would possibly be the last time we would see the inside of her school. At the elementary school where Ben attends, this will be our eighth (and final) year there. It’s hard to walk away from an institution that you have been going to regularly for eight years! We would have this feeling with or without the move, as Ben is in his last year, but it somehow seems amplified given the fact we are walking away from everything.

We’ve been experiencing a lot of “lasts”. We have tossed around the idea of composing a list of the things we want to do before we leave Wisconsin, similar to the Top 100 List we published for our Florida to-dos, but it possibly will not happen. It may be too depressing to see the things we never got a chance to do, and given the rising price of gas, it is very likely our summer entertainment budget will be minimal. Ben will have his camp trip at the end of May, and Catie will be going to Six Flags (Great America) before school ends, so the children will at least get a fun trip in each before our move. And of course, there’s Walt Disney World on the horizon! It is just going to be so AWESOME to be able to go there whenever we want.

We are slowly paring down our furniture. Our oldest son, Nick, will be staying in Wisconsin and renting an apartment, so he will be taking some pieces, but others we are putting on Craigslist and/or Freecycle. Right now our goal is to do one box each in the younger kids’ rooms, and they are doing a great job of donating a lot of their personal belongings. We are very proud. We started the decluttering process with the idea of keeping only the things we absolutely wanted, motivated primarily by the cost of the move. Now that we are locked into our price, we have found that our focus has not changed. We are still going through every item and deciding whether to keep or toss. We will get a small refund if we go under our estimated weight, but we really like the idea of being able to start over, and we want to do that with as little items as possible. We will have 2 walk-in closets, as well as other closets, but we are losing approximately 600 square feet than what we currently live in. It’s all good, we will be one less person with Nick staying in Wisconsin, so I don’t anticipate that we’ll feel crowded in.

Thanks for following along! Please feel free to friend either one of us on Facebook if you have not already. We will only keep our Wishes and Pixie Dust profile on Facebook through our move (and settling in period), though our website will stay up indefinitely.

April 26, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust 3 Comments

Random Thoughts…

As we continue with our packing and moving forward with our dream of relocating to Florida, we thought this would be a good time to update you on different things related to our move.

Packing : The boxes are slowly being packed, and we continue making our weekly trips to Goodwill. We are up to 47 boxes packed. 🙂 We have all our holiday decorations and supplies in plastic totes, and we have decided to transfer them to moving boxes, for two reasons. One, it helps us to cull what we have, and two, it prevents probable breakage and ensures our holiday belongings will not be rolling inside a Mayflower moving truck! We have not yet decided if the totes will be moving with us, or if we will buy new ones in Florida.

We did not reach our goal of completely packing the downstairs by Easter, but we have made a considerable dent in it. Our oak video cabinets, secretary, and wooden fish stand are on Craigslist, but we have not had much success in obtaining a buyer. We will leave them on there for now, but will soon be reaching a point (because of space issues) where we will need to make the decision to donate the items and forego the cash we may have earned from the sale. Another option is a rummage sale, but we really do not feel it is worth our time and energies to pursue this, to possibly earn a few dollars.

Medical : We are making sure that all our medical appointments are scheduled in before we leave. We are really fond of the doctors that we are established with here locally, and it will be hard for us to make the adjustment to find new ones in Clermont, but we don’t want that to be a pressing issue at first. Vision and dental appointments have been taken care of, and the children will be obtaining physicals this summer before we leave. This is a requirement of the school district in Clermont. We are just waiting to finalize our housing plans in May, and then we will be able to obtain the appropriate form needed.

Soccer : Our daughter is gearing up to begin her soccer season: she will be able to attend all practices and games except for the final tournament, which we believe will be held on the Saturday after we leave. The schedule is not up yet, so we don’t know for sure. We will need to purchase new cleats and shin guards this year, but she loves soccer and plans to continue it in Clermont once we move, so it is a worthwhile expense. Due to our move, Mark decided not to coach her team this year, a decision we feel is best for all concerned.

It’s Getting Closer! We are getting more and more excited as our moving date draws closer. We are thankful that we have had time to sort through all our “stuff” and weed out the unimportant things. We feel that we are on a good time table– we are under three months but we have a lot accomplished. No, we did not meet our downstairs packing goal, but we are not far off from it. In the month of May we should be able to finalize our apartment choice, which is awesome!, and while June and July will be busy months, we will not be frantic and stressed out because there is so much to do. Jen plans to do some scrapbooking in May and June, as the craft room/sunroom will be the last room packed. We have discovered that staying organized is the key to a successful move. We have tried to anticipate all our potential expenses and needs, set up a time table and work a little bit every day doing something in preparation for the move. A box packed, or a file folder of papers shredded is one less thing that needs to be done in July. Every night we listen to one of Lou Mongello’s podcasts, which really inspires us to keep moving forward and realize our dream of living in warm, sunny Florida with Disney World just a short drive away.

Thanks for following along!

April 18, 2011
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50 Ways to Finance Your Dream

Dreams….. we all have them. Whether your dream follows our path (relocation to Florida) or a completely different road (such as investing in a small business), there is one common denominator necessary to see our dreams through. Of course we are referring to the financial backing….money….. needed to reach our goals. You may be at a point in your life where you feel you will never attain your dream, short of a miracle or winning the lottery.

Disneyland and Walt Disney World are the result of one man’s dreams. As Walt Disney himself stated: “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” You will find reference to hopes and dreams in most (if not all) Disney movies, from Snow White and Cinderella to The Princess and The Frog and Tangled.

One of the reasons we made the decision to relocate to Florida is to have the opportunity to live within close proximity of Walt Disney World, and be able to experience the magic and dreams that exist wholly throughout the parks. When you visit Walt Disney World, it truly is a magical and unique experience, one that we feel shouldn’t be relegated to occurring on an infrequent basis, such as once a year. We want to be immersed in the Disney magic on a weekly basis.

In order to make our dream a reality, we need to financially be able to afford it. We have come across several ways of saving money in the past five or so years that we’ve dreamed about our dream, and we want to share them here with you. We haven’t utilized all of these ideas, but wanted to include them, because what works for us may not work for you, and vice versa. It includes ideas for direct savings, as well as ways to reduce your everyday expenses. We hope this provides a way for you to jump start your dream. Please remember that it is never too early to start saving to make your dream a reality.

1. Start purging your items now if you are planning a long-distance move. Trust us, it is never too early to start this!

2. Think about how often you use an item. Unless it is an heirloom piece or something that holds sentimental value, consider tossing it. Only keep things you love or you know you will use on a regular basis. The less things you have to move, the easier and cheaper your move will be.

3. Donate your unwanted items to Goodwill or other thrift stores and take the charitable donation deduction. The IRS puts out Publication 561, which helps you to determine the value of your donated property. http://www.irs.gov/publications/p561/index.html

4. Sell your unwanted items on Craigslist. We have had limited success with this avenue. We do recommend that you start early with this process, and not wait until a week before you move. It tends to be a slow process, because people have a tendency not to show up.

5. Sell your unwanted items on Ebay. This is a great way to sell certain items, but we recommend searching the site before you list to ensure there is a demand for what you want to sell.

6. Have a piggy bank and put all your spare change, and Craigslist/Ebay sales into it. Target has some cute piggy banks available in their stores, but it can be as simple as a decorated coffee can. (We did this for our last trip to the World). It doesn’t matter what you use, as long as you apply the concept.

7. If you primarily use debit/credit cards, make a special trip to the bank to get a roll of quarters (or bills) to put into your piggy bank.

8. Set up automatic transfers to a separate savings or checking account designated primarily for your goal. You can either do this through your bank, or through your employer. We recommend setting this up through your employer, because you will not miss the money if it comes directly out of your paycheck.

9. All raises should go to your goal.

10. All bonuses and tax refunds should go to your goal.

11. All unexpected money should go to your goal.

12. Use coupons at the grocery store and Walmart, and put the savings into your piggy bank or separate account.

13. Use cash only. It’s harder to overspend when you run out of cash.

14. Consider opening up a Disney Rewards Visa account or other rewards type account that offers you cash back on your purchases. We currently have $150 in Disney Dream Dollars that we will be able to use at Walt Disney World.

15. Eliminate a “want” from your budget and stash the savings into your account. An example would be cutting your soda consumption: if you currently drink one-12pk of soda each week, try reducing it to 2 12 pks per month. This is a savings of 2 12pk of soda each month: 2 x $4 x 12 = $96 yearly.

16. Bring your lunch to work.

17. Limit the amount of times you eat out. With few exceptions, it is much cheaper and healthier to eat your meals at home.

18. Stop wasting food. All leftovers should be eaten, and only buy enough fresh vegetables that you will eat before they spoil.

19. Utilize your library: *rent* videos for free. check out audiobooks, and read new releases.

20. Use less detergent in the dishwasher. Try a couple of tablespoons per load; you can always add more the next time. Too much detergent can damage dishes.

21. Use the least recommended amount of laundry detergent. I use liquid detergent and I never fill the cap past the “1” line, even for heavy loads. Using a full cap of detergent is primarily a marketing technique to make you use more product faster.

22. Invest in reusable microfiber cloths instead of using massive amounts of paper towels.

23. On every ATM withdrawal, take $10 and stash it away. At the end of the month, deposit these stashes into your separate savings/checking account.

24. If your company offers work at home alternatives, consider utilizing this option: you will save money on commuting costs, wardrobe costs and lunch costs. This will also allow you to relocate a lot easier, as you will not need to find a new job.

25. Reevaluate your automatic withdrawals. If you have $50 a month removed from your checking account for membership fees to a health club you never go to, cancel the membership and divert the money into your goal.

26. Reevaluate your car and home insurance. Can you raise the deductible and reduce payments? Do you have full coverage on older vehicles? Contact your insurance agent to see if there are any savings you are not taking advantage of.

27. To reduce heat costs, apply weatherstripping to drafts and turn down the thermostat. For every degree you set back your thermostat for 8 hours, you can save about 2% on your bill. Install a programmable thermostat, which automatically turns the heat down at night or during periods when you’re not home.

28. Electricity: About 20% of your electricity bill goes for lighting, but only 1/10th of that amount actually produces the light. The rest is wasted on the heat that incandescent lightbulbs produce. Switch to CFL’s (compact fluorescent bulbs) and you can save significantly on your bill.

29. Unplug devices you do not use on a regular basis. Even if not used, these items are still using power. Items to unplug include the microwave, shredder, toaster oven, and extra TVs.

30. When planning to save for a relocation or other dream, be sure your savings goals are specific, realistic and measurable. To say: “I’m going to save $100 this month by transferring $25 a week into my savings account” is much better than saying “I’m going to save $1200 this year”.

31. Check out http://www.freecycle.org for a local Freecycle group in your city or area. This is a great way to acquire items you need at very little cost to you (only your time and gas required to pick the item up). It is also a great way to dispose of other items you no longer need.

32. Once you pay off your car loan or credit card bill, continue making those payments to your savings account.

33. Consider downsizing your vehicles. Do you really need a second car, or is it more of a convenience? We recently sold our second car, and we were able to pay off the loan on our first car, plus reduce our insurance costs.

34. Move. If you live in a high-cost area, consider moving to a low-cost area if possible. We expect our utilities to be cut in half once we move to Florida.

35. Shop the thrift stores. Name brand clothes can be acquired for a fraction of the cost.

36. Consider taking on a part-time job to vamp up your savings goals.

37. If you subscribe to cable, drop the movie channels and rent new releases. We were able to secure a copy of Tangled at a Redbox and only paid .53 cents to see it.

38. Give up one luxury item for one month.

39. When writing a check, write it over so you receive change and put it in your piggy bank.

40. Before ordering online, do a search first to see if there are online coupon codes that will save you money.

41. Check out the “free” listings on Craigslist

42. Use social media to gain free items: “Like” pages on Facebook and “Follow” on Twitter to enter giveaways and contests.

43. Pay your credit card bills on time to avoid late charges. Set up an online account to monitor your charges.

44. If your supermarket offers mobile coupons sent to your cell phone, take advantage of them.

45. Sign up for a Target Redcard. Every purchase made with your Redcard will give you a 5% savings.

46. Transfer your prescriptions to Target. For every five prescriptions filled, you will receive a coupon in the mail for an additional 5% off your next purchase. That’s 10% off your purchase using your Redcard.

47. Have a rummage or yard sale.

48. Only use ATMs that do not charge you a fee.

49. Buy a Sunday newspaper for the coupons. And then use the coupons. :=) Our Sunday paper costs $1.50, and we typically get $4-$5 each week worth of coupons that we use.

50. Go paperless as much as possible with bill payment. It saves on the cost of stamps, checks and envelopes.

We’d love to hear if you have any money saving tips not mentioned here. Thanks for following along!

March 28, 2011
by wishesandpixiedust Leave a comment

This ‘n’ That

We have been slowly moving along, and just wanted to share our latest thoughts and activities.

We did hear back from The Gardens at Citrus Tower, and right now they remain our #1 choice. As we mentioned before, we really cannot apply until mid-May, so we are kind of in a holding position until then. Our original plan was to apply at all three complexes in May, visit them all once we arrive in Clermont on July 25th, and then make our final decision. However, all three complexes do require an application fee, as well as a deposit. The deposit is non-refundable if we choose not to live there. In the interest of not throwing money away, we have decided to make our decision here in Wisconsin, without physically viewing the apartment. We realize this does pose some risks, but we feel we can get a fairly good feel from the websites, we have friends in Orlando who have promised to scope out the area for us, and we go with the realization that we can always move in twelve months if we’re not satisfied with either the neighborhood or the apartment. We will feel more secure leaving Wisconsin knowing that we have an address we are moving to. We will probably have to stay in a hotel in the Orlando area for a few days, if for no other reason then we have to wait to get beds delivered. We are looking for feedback on the best place to buy beds in the Clermont area.

We are slowly packing up our belongings, and our new goal is to pack one box a day. If we do more, great!, but the minimum is one box daily. We average about one Goodwill trip per week now. Downstairs we are pretty well at the point where most of what is left are things we are bringing with us. Mark is working on moving our music CDs over to our external hard drive, and we are both trying to duplicate our videos to DVD. Our Disney videos we will need to make a decision on, as they are write-protected. We may look into re-purchasing them over the next four months, and only saving the ones that are currently not available on DVD.

Our second car is listed on Craigslist, and we have an interested party coming by to look at it this afternoon. If all goes well, this will allow us to pay off the loan on our other car, plus have a little extra to bank. We’ll go back to being a one-car family, but with Mark working at home full-time, it’s not too much of an inconvenience for us, and it will save us approximately $150 per month. It will also save us on our renewal fees for AAA, coming up in June.

It really is amazing to see how God is blessing our family with every aspect of this move. It’s exciting to see how all the details are coming together nicely, and at times even better than we expected. We really feel Florida is where we are meant to be, and while we will miss certain aspects of Wisconsin, we are so looking forward to creating new memories and experiences in Florida. In some aspects, it’s difficult to believe that two months have passed since we first made the decision to move. It’s hard to wait four more months, but we both feel it will be here before we know it.

Thanks for following along,

Mark and Jen

March 23, 2011
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Itinerary

As I listen to the freezing rain hitting against our house, it feels weird knowing that this is our last winter in Wisconsin. While this is one of the awesome things about our move (no more brutal winters), it also hits home that we are leaving everything we know. The second half of Ben’s IEP meeting was today, and as team members left, individuals I have known for years, it occurred to me that I would probably never see them again. It’s a bittersweet feeling knowing that we are achieving our dream, but with it comes the cost of familiarity of our surroundings, in both material possessions as well as friendships.

We have set our itinerary for our trip down and wanted to share it here. When we drove down to Walt Disney World in 2009, we had three drivers and looking back, we pushed ourselves by driving far more miles in a day than we should have. In July we will be at two drivers, and because we are looking at this as an adventure and not a marathon driving experience, we will be taking three days to arrive in Clermont. All of our hotel reservations (except the arrival day in Orlando) have been secured, using our AAA discount.

Thursday, July 21 : As the movers will arrive by 8am on Friday, July 22nd, we decided the best option is to spend the evening in a hotel in Fond du Lac. Today will be spend finalizing any last minute details.

Friday, July 22 : Our goal is to leave Fond du Lac by 5:00 pm and spend the night in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. Our original thought was to spend a second night in Fond du Lac and leave early Saturday morning, but decided that this at least gets us to the Illinois border and a jump start on our travels. We estimate the movers will be completed by 1:00 pm, and a 5:00 departure time allows us to make sure the house is in check-out condition, with still time to deposit the security deposit check in the bank (that we’ll get back from our landlord).

Saturday, July 23 : We will leave Wisconsin by 9am, travel through Indianapolis by approximately 2pm, and stay the night in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Sunday, July 24 : We plan to leave Kentucky and enter Tennessee by 8:30am. We hope to be able to stop along the way and take scenic pictures of the landscape. We were awed by the beauty of the mountains, and are looking forward to this part of our journey again. We will spend the night in Lake Park, Georgia.

Monday, July 25 : Our goal is to arrive in Orlando by 2:30pm. We have not yet booked the hotel reservations for this night. Our original intent was to stay at an extended-stay hotel for a week while we finalize our housing plans. However, Mark and I have narrowed down three apartment complexes that we really like, and one in particular we may be able to move into before August 1st. If so, this would affect how many nights we need to stay in a hotel, so we are waiting before securing those reservations.

We are really looking forward to the drive down to Florida. As a family, we love taking road trips: just driving to a new city within the state that we haven’t been to before with no expectations of what might be there. We hope to be able to do a little more of it this summer before we leave Wisconsin, but we also have to be mindful of rising gas prices, and the upcoming expenses we will have for the trip down to Florida.

Thanks for following along!

~Jen