so what have we been up to?

This has been a year of "getting things taken care of".  In February 2009 we became debt-free, minus the mortgage.  In February 2010 we had our Emergency Fund fully funded.  We'd halted saving for retirement for 2 years as we paid off debt and saved for emergencies.  This year we started saving again for retirement.  Just 6% going to retirement...I'd like to get it to 15%.

So, what did we work on this year?  Planning for our deaths.  NOT a fun topic.  We worked on our Wills and Life Insurance policies all summer long.  It was really a downer, but something that truly needed to get done.  I really didn't know ahead of time how depressing it would be to plan these things.  For our Life Insurance policies, we're assuming that DH gets hit by a bus today and is gone.  How much is needed for us to continue as we are now?  Well, more than we realized since our children are still young.  It's always been important for us to have me be at home with the kids...this would still be important to us if DH was no longer living.  We have a wonderful advisor who really helped us come to an agreement on the size policy that we needed.

The Wills were tough too, but not quite as depressing.  It's awful to think about me and DH passing at the same time and trying to decide who would take care of our boys.  After quite a bit of praying and thinking, I think we made an absolute wonderful decision.  I pray that we never had to use our named guardian, but I certainly will feel better next time DH and I travel together without the kids.

So, while we were not as aggressive with our savings this year as I would have liked to have been, we did get some very important things taken care of.  I'm very glad that these things are done and behind us now.  And with that, I can sleep much better at night.

plans for today

I have a little one home sick today so I'll be tackling some of my things to do that are here in the house....such as:

*Working on 2011 budget
*Hemming a pair of khaki pants (this has been needing to be done since April!!!)
*Tidy up craft room
*Clean off desk
*Get out stuff to scrapbook my oldest's past school year (needing to be done since May!)
*Wrapping a couple of Christmas gifts
*One load of laundry!

What's on your to-do list for today?

christmas cards

For the past two years I've spent way too much money on Christmas cards.  Even though we were working to become debt free and to build up our Emergency Fund, spending money on Christmas cards was one area where I splurged!   I normally purchased a designer brand 5x7 Christmas card where I could add my own picture to the front.  On the inside of the card, I had our names pre-printed and then would have a collage made up of our favorite pictures from the year and attach that to the inside of the card.  All said and done, our cards would be about $3-$4 each.  And that didn't include postage.  With 125 or so friends and family who we send cards to, that really was adding up.

After last year, we decided to scale back on how much we were spending on our cards.  I thought about not sending cards at all.  I thought about sending only 50 cards.  But...I have been spending some time working on projects at Shutterfly (that I'll share in a minute) and saw that they have some really cute cards that are very affordable!  After seeing what a great selection that they have this year, and seeing how much money we'll save by switching card companies, we've decided to order Christmas cards through Shutterfly.

I'm not sure which family picture we'll use, but here are some of my favorite designs.

What do you think?

Now I mentioned that I was working on some other Shutterfly projects too.  If you remember, we went on a award trip to the Dominican Republic this summer with my husband's company.  One of the awards given to the winners of the trip was a digital camera.  Everyone took pictures while they were on the trip and then the pictures were eventually shared with everyone.  But that was it.   They didn't go into frames and they certainly didn't go into an album.  Now...we usually give Christmas gifts to my husband's boss and another executive that works with DH.  I decided this year for Christmas to make and give these two families (both were on the trip) a photo book from our vacation.  It turned out great and was easy to do!  In fact, I think that each year I'm going to make and give them a photo book of our annual awards trip.

My other project that I have been working on is a 2011 calendar for each set of grandparents.   I've given them calendars for many years, but didn't realize how much they enjoyed these until I didn't give one to my father-in-law last year.  The day after Christmas, he asked me if I had made any and if I had extras because he'd like one.  He said it was his favorite gift each year.  So...I made sure I made one for him this year!

I was excited to get so much of my gift giving taken care of at Shutterfly.  Now, I just need to decide which Christmas card I want to order and which family picture I want to use.  As much as I already love Shutterfly, they sweetened the deal by giving me 50 free cards for this post. And since our Christmas card list has more than 50 people on it, I will be ordering even more cards from Shutterfly. Are you a blogger? Would you like to get some free holiday cards or invitations? Just go here.

i'm still here...

...just been reading more than posting!  But...it's November now and time to wind down the year and start thinking about goals for the New Year.  I've been busy with "busy work" and haven't been making a priority of  more important things.  I've spent the last several weeks clearing out the clutter and cobwebs and am ready (after 4 months...) to get back on track and taking care of more important things!  Stay tuned!