This past Saturday I had the amazing opportunity to spend the morning talking about money! LOL!
I know I'm CRAZY like that!
PAR-TAY!!!!!
No, seriously, I am so happy my wonderful friends thought to invite me. I learned SO MUCH! Not only that, I met some fellow bloggers...(a couple of the women teaching the classes) WOW! It really astounds me how much FREE information is out there for us if we only know where to look!
First of all, MONEY SAVING WEEK is going on right now in Fond Du Lac, WI. The workshops I attended were on Saturday, and cost a whole $5 to attend--complete with breakfast, 4 classes (of your choosing), and a Thrift Store Fashion Show (Poppin' Tags!) Oh, AND, I just happened to WIN a PLANT! Best $5 I've spent in a LOOOONG time!
Let me run you through a little bit of what I learned...
The first class I took was Tips on Launching a Business. There were so many great handouts we received: Basically a checklist of all the MUST DO items you'd need to start your own business. While it was SUPER informative, after the next 3 classes, I realized that it just wasn't what I am looking for right now.
We did however meet a local business owner, Tanya, of
Inspired by You. She flash freezes flowers and creates beautiful keepsakes out of them....never even knew about this process. Anything from wedding bouquets to funeral keepsakes. Just Gorgeous. You can check her out
here.
Next Up was: Meal Planning
Now we're talkin'! Dannelle is the blogger behind
Operation 40K. She has the most infectious personality! So many awesome ideas to plan meals and SAVE money, from WHEN to buy, WHERE to buy, and WHAT to do when you STOCKPILE. YIKES! that word does still scare me a bit. She taught a Couponing 101 right before the Meal Planning session which I did not attend. Not saying that Couponing doesn't work or save money, I totally believe if you are organized and have the will to do it, you can SAVE a ton! I'm just not...and I do not. With 3 kids (well, 5, counting the husband and the dog) I'm good with mela planning and shopping ALDI for now. LOL!
I still learned a TON from Dannelle! Not to mention, she's got SO MUCH info on her blog about Couponing, Meal Planning, Recipes, Shopping Tips, PLUS read about how she and her family saved OVER $40,000 in one year!
She also has some GREAT tips for saving money at Disney....which will come in handy for us, since we're going back in December...we've already started the kiddos saving:
just an old vase and some duct tape cut into Mickey!
My final 2 classes were taught by the same woman: Pamela Otten, the
Financial Mom.
Could listen to her ALL DAY! What a Wealth of Information! She spoke on The Importance of Financial Intimacy with your Spouse and Financial Organization.
Financial Intimacy. TALK ABOUT IT with your spouse. DO IT. My SIL and I were cracking up the whoel time because Pamela kept referring to couples as being usually a Nerd paired with a Free Spirit when it comes to money. In many cases, the husband is the NERD....not so in our households. When I got home and told Randy about this, he immediately pointed the finger at me and crowned me Nerd. I graciously bowed and accepted said crown. ;) At any rate, it's so important that both of you knwo what's going on with your finances, and Pamela gave us some great tips on having these vital conversations.
Financial Organization: I SO NEEDED THIS! And Randizzle is going to fall over if my plan to set this in place this week goes well. I NEED to get organized. GONNA DO IT. SO EXCITED.
you can find Pamela's blog
HERE with lots of other great tips...she also does a radio show online.
I'm hoping this means I get to buy a label maker! LOL!
Nerd.
Probably not....
But, I did make a trip to St. Vinny's yesterday and picked up this beauty....it's being transformed as we speak!
