Living

Thank you to the Chinet® brand for sponsoring this post.

As a person who is always up for fellowship and fun times, entertaining during the warmer months is something I absolutely enjoy. We’re not super fancy or anything, so our get-togethers are often thrown together at the last minute, and stress-free. Depending on when a guest calls or texts regarding whether they need to bring anything, the assignments range from nothing to that one item I forgot to pick up at the store, like aluminum foil or mayonnaise.
I recently turned 39 and even if I haven’t figured out exactly what I want to be when I grow up, I do know that I like things pretty and I like them simple. For my thrown-together birthday celebration a few weekends ago, I pulled out the Chinet® Cut Crystal® collection of fully coordinated disposable tableware because it’s convenient and stylish!

Click image to shop!

The Chinet Cut Crystal cutlery comes in a “host-ready” container. Hello, pull off the top and we’re ready to party with sturdy and durable cutlery. My favorite part of using Chinet Cut Crystal products outside of its elegant design is the easy cleanup that comes with it—simply throw away when done.

The weather was absolutely perfect for my birthday celebration. Adrian was on the grill whipping up our usual cookout fare: barbecue chicken, baked beans, corn and a few other sides. The kids jumped themselves into a frenzy on the trampoline and enjoyed old-school games of hide-and-seek. Music laced the background and the chatter of separate conversations on motherhood, entrepreneurship, and life in general filled the air. For a last-minute, thrown-together gathering, my heart was full from spending time with some of the people that refill my cup and love me daily.

As the warmer months ensue, please take a minute from your busy lives and schedules to connect with family and friends. Don’t stress over the menu or the guest list, send a text to the last four people on your list, and grab whatever you can from the grocery store, fire up the grill and enjoy yourself. Whether you are hosting or showing up as a guest assigned something to bring, don’t forget the Chinet Cut Crystal collection!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of CLEVER and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own. Chinet® and Cut Crystal® are registered trademarks of Huhtamaki, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries.

This post was sponsored, and paid for by SunTrust.  All opinions are my own.

You know you are totally and completely adulting when the conversation at brunch turns to how much money everyone is shelling out in extracurricular fees. From lessons, fees, leotards, instrument rentals, and travel expenses the tab for those of us with more than one child can be jaw dropping.

On a very rough estimate, I calculate  between ballet, competition dance, track, music lessons, intensives and instrument rental fees we shell out close to $5,500 dollars a year on extracurricular activities. As with anything, it’s hard to swallow or think about the big number when like clockwork, you click the pay link or scribble down the auto draft date in your planner. It’s easy to downplay it as just  $230 a month but over time those expenses start adding up. It’s not just extracurricular activities, it’s finding things to also do when you have the free time. If my kids want to go to a fine art gallery how can I say no to them?

It’s the spring that really hits us hard, especially after Christmas heading into competition and recital dance season. Outside of monthly tuition this season comes with competition dance and recital fees on top of travel expenses to dance competitions and track meets. New track shoes and shoes to go with dance costumes, tights and bun nets and the additional expenses just keep adding up. Staring an unexpected but not really unexpected $1000 in the eye has me really rethinking how we will budget in the future for these expenses…..or how we will engage the grandparents. We use a piece of software called Expensify to aid with this, as it allows us to keep track of all our household expenses, as well as any tax that may be due. You can read a review of Expensify on Trust Radius.

Youth activities are big business and come with healthy price tags especially for parents like us who believe in supporting the arts and exposing our children to activities that very well may pay for their college tuition in the future. According to a recent Suntrust survey, about 20% of parents in the U.S. spend more than $2,500 year with almost 40% spending more than $1,000 annually on sports, dance, arts and other extracurricular activities. We fall in the other 40% that spends over $2,500 a year.

FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS a year y’all, and that’s being conservative.

While we do a great job at budgeting for our monthly bills to include monthly lesson fees, we really haven’t taken a close look at how to budget for spring, including the miscellaneous expenses related to their extracurricular activities.

After completing this Suntrust budget worksheet I have come to the realization that we need to be setting aside nearly $420 a month to even out our yearly extracurricular expenses. Of that amount $230 would cover each month’s expenses and we would need to tuck away the difference to avoid coming up with such a large lump sum at the beginning of the year. I’ll admit it sounds painful but the realization is it will get paid, and I would rather put aside an extra $200 a month than have to produce $1000 after Christmas.

Six in one hand, a half a dozen in the other.

I’m glad I took the time to plan out how much we are spending and how much those extras add up. With anything, breaking it down into manageable pieces makes it easier to budget and plan. Looking at the extra $200 we would need to put away a month has me thinking of ways we can encourage entrepreneurship in our children challenging each to take ownership of their activities by  attempting to raise $100 a month each, which mounts to just $25 a week, a little over $3 a day per child. A reasonably affordable option could be tennis lessons Boston. They are a fun way to engage your children in some healthy exercise. With lessons for child and adults there will be no shortage of fun for the whole family.

If you are going through the motions every month, paying for lessons and other expenses related to extracurricular activities I recommend you take out some time to look at some of the tips Suntrust offers on how to take the stress out of funding extracurricular activities. Carefully calculate those extra expenses to include gas money and take out dinner on those nights when you are just too tired to cook and you will be surprised at how much you are spending. Knowing is half the battle and by taking the time to understand how your money is being spent may help you devise a plan to off set some costs and properly save to support your child’s dreams.

SaveSave

This post was sponsored, and paid for, by SunTrust. All opinions are my own.

ON LIFE

I haven’t been by here in almost two weeks with good reason, much like a large portion of the United States we’ve been battling sickness off and on for the past few weeks. Thankfully, the flu hasn’t found it’s way around here *knocks on wood* but one child has had a pesky cold that went away and came back, then the other one caught it. Then there was a bout with a stomach virus and vomit. Don’t forget we thought she might have appendicitis and after a battery of tests found out that wasn’t the issue but another one of her labs came back a little elevated so heading to the Dr. tomorrow to see about that.It’s just been one thing after another.

Can a girl catch a break? Don’t answer that.

Through it all I’ve remained healthy and I have been taking extra doses of vitamins to keep it that way. I  keep saying if we can just make it to March as if March is some type of magical place where sickness doesn’t exist. Well, technically March is a pretty magical place seeing as how the 2nd day of “Magical March” marks the beginning of the last year of my 30s.

I still remember my 30th birthday like it was yesterday, and then there was 35 and now you mean to tell me nearly 40 years have passed.

Moving on.

MY evenings have been for reading, the one thing I vowed to do more of in the new year and am actually doing. I’ve read 4 books so far one of which was my very first audible book. Wasn’t sure if I would like listening to a book but I really enjoyed it and was educated that I can actually get audio books for free from my local library. I’m really looking forward to taking advantage of that.

I finished reading: The House on Mango Street, You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life, The Woman I Wanted to Be and Black Privilege: Opportunity Comes to Those Who Create It.

I’m currently listening to : The Mother of Black Hollywood and will be reading The Mothers and The Gilded Years respectively.

Outside of reading, I’ve been doing a little socializing and plotting and planning.

ON LOVE

So recently I’ve been organically sharing our nightly family shenanigans on Instagram stories and my DMs have been lit with people saying our family needs its own show. Primarily it’s my husband that gets the people in hysterics, he’s not that funny to me but I live with him.  I sure hope the right person/brand hears or sees that and offers us a family friendly/wholesome deal, in the meantime I’m going to do a better job at sharing our family on Youtube by bringing back our vlogs. If you want to see the foolery in real time be sure to check out my IG stories,  and follow along on Youtube.

I’ve been working on the gallery wall. Slowly collecting Dollar Tree frames and adding pictures of my family and loved ones to them. I have so many photos and the narrowing down process is taking some time.  Be on the look out for part II of the hallway makeover in the next week or so.

Thanks for hanging in there with me. More content coming soon, as long as everyone stays well and the creek “don’t” rise!

How’s life on your end? Are you ready for “Magical March” like me?

*This post contains affiliate links, which means if you buy a book, I make a few coins*

SaveSave

SaveSaveSaveSave

SaveSaveSaveSave