Home with the Kids Newsletter October 26, 2004

The Editor's Desk - From Beneath the Clutter
Feature Article - Is Your Checkbook Balanced?
What's happening on the discussion boards?
Guest Article - Clutter?
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The Editor's Desk - From Beneath the Clutter

Are you ready for the election? It's only a week away.

My oldest sister and I got together with a group over the weekend to discuss the candidates and the propositions. Being in California, there were a lot more propositions than candidates to deal with. Lots of "no" votes on ones that cost money. Some of them were good enough ideas, but poor sources of funding, and let's face it, we can't just fund every cause. Lots of propositions which were good ideas, but wrong implementation. There are some I would like to see corrected versions appear on the next ballot, because they really were good ideas, but in their initial form too open to abuse.

I hope you all make the time to get out and vote. There are plenty of places where your vote might just make the difference, not only in the presidential election, but in local issues as well. Show your families that you care about where this country is going and vote next week.

Got a little scare last night. We're not 100% sure, but from the evidence, Ariel climbed her dresser last night and fell off when she was playing after we put her to bed for the evening. Thank goodness it was attached to the wall. If you have an adventurous toddler, make sure their dressers are attached to the wall, so if they do climb it, the only hurt is from their fall, not from the dresser falling on them.

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Feature Article

Is Your Checkbook Balanced?

Do you know that the rules for how quickly a check will clear are changing? As of October 28, any check you write could clear in 24 hours, rather than several days. This means if you have the habit of "floating" your checks, it is time to stop. This faster processing is due to changes in how banks send your checks to each other; they can now do so electronically rather than sending the physical check.

This can be a particular challenge for families with a stay at home parent, as money is often tight. If your family is living paycheck to paycheck, and relying on that float time besides, this could cause a lot of trouble for you. So what can you do?

Obviously, the first thing to do is to quit floating checks. Of course, this is more easily said than done. If the only way you have been keeping up with the bills has been through floating checks, you need to take a solid look at your current finances. You have to find a way to catch up right now.

Now, one catch you need to be very aware of is that although the float period has been decreased, banks still do not need to make your money available to you that quickly. It can still take your bank a few days to make your deposits available for use. So don't count on depositing a check and writing a check on the same day to protect you. You have to think a couple days ahead now.

Online banking can tremendously simplify how you cope with this. If your bank offers free online banking, take advantage of this now. This will allow you to check your account balance at the time you write the check - no need to go check at the ATM. Of course, you still need to know which checks have cleared, so don't just glance at the balance and think you're ok. Make sure all currently outstanding checks have cleared first.

Many employers offer direct deposit, which is also quite helpful. No more running to the bank to deposit the paycheck; in fact, sometimes direct deposit is available sooner than you would have been able to pick up the paycheck yourself. It may even save you fees with some banks.

You do not want to let these changes increase check bouncing problems for you. Even if you have bounce protection, the costs associated with such protection are quite high. Do everything you can to get control of your finances right now so that bounced check fees don't eat up your finances.

Not sure you can catch up? You have to. The tight budget of many stay at home parents will doubtless make this a reality for some families. It's probably time to cut back just a little more if there is any possible way so that you can catch up. This won't be easy and it won't be pleasant, especially if you made a lot of cuts before so you could stay at home. Read up on ways to save money, find more ways to clip coupons and work even harder at saving money. The efforts it will take to save your finances from being eaten up by bounced check fees will be worth your while.

Stephanie Foster is the owner of Home with the Kids, a resource that knows that there's more to staying home with your family than just business. For more stay at home tips, visit the site at http://www.homewiththekids.com/ and subscribe to the free newsletter.

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Guest Article

Clutter?

It is amazing how we can accumulate things that we think we need, yet, we never use!

A good example of this was our last move to our house in Mississauga. We lived there for seven years, and during that time there were boxes in our basement that we never unpacked. These boxes contained treasures that I felt I might someday use. Every time I went to the basement, I would look at those boxes and think, I should go through them. This resulted in not only cluttering of our home, but also cluttering of my mind - just one more thing to do.

When we moved to New Brunswick, I vowed to myself that we would not have any boxes left unpacked. Every box would be opened and unpacked. The so-called treasures would be discovered and used. Clothes that no longer fit us, or that we had grown tired of, would be gone given to the Salvation Army. We would only have the items that we use on a regular basis in our house. No more collecting, storing, and "someday I may use it" attitude!

So every box was unpacked, and we found we had duplicates of some items; we had items that we had replaced, and we had junk that we no longer wanted.

We sorted all the items and got rid of it all! Here is how:

1. Family and friends - we invited our family and friends to go through and take the items we no longer wanted.
2. Ebay - we sold items that were easy to ship, for example, books. We made a few dollars doing this!
3. Salvation Army - gladly took donations of household items, clothes and books.
4. Yard Sale - they say "one man's junk is another's treasure", how very true

We now have fewer belongings, yet it seems like we have more because what we do have gets used! We have adopted a new attitude. Before we buy, we ask ourselves, do we really need this, or do we just want this? It is amazing how much stuff you want but do not need!

Catherine Pulsifer is one of the authors of Stress Less Country - a lifestyle change! A journey to a simplified lifestyle - visit the site for a collection of articles, thoughts, quotes, and stories on: simplicity, stress, gardening, recycle & reuse, country crafts, saving money tips, and Atlantic Canada. http://www.stresslesscountry.com

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