Instead, I’ve decided to point out when you should not even buy your dad a tie in the first place. This way, you don’t have an unworn tie collection that needs to be made into a quilt.

When Not to Ever Buy Dad a Tie Even If It’s Father’s Day

Dad is Not a Tie Guy:  If your dad only wears ties to church on Easter Sunday, I’m pretty sure he has the tie wardrobe covered. He does not need nor want another tie and if you get him one he’ll forget about it by Easter and quite possibly will never wear it.

Dad Tells You Not to Buy Him a Tie:  This is not your father’s way of secretly telling you he wants a tie. If he specifically says “Don’t buy me any ties” that usually means he really doesn’t want a tie. He’s not trying to be funny and he doesn’t subconsciously want one. No means no.

You Think Dad Needs a Tie:  Your father should have a nice tie, right? You think you should be the person that selects it and gives it to him. However nice the gesture, just buy him the tie and give it to him. Don’t make it his Father’s Day gift or gift for any other special occasion. It’s always nicer to buy people gifts that you believe they genuinely want and will be happy with.

Ties are on Sale:  Cheap and frugal are all good in my book. Don’t be so cheap though that you buy your dad a tie because they’re BOGO at Macy’s and you can give one to your grandfather also. To tell you the truth, grandpa’s probably working on his own tie quilt anyway.

If you absolutely must purchase your father a necktie for Father’s Day, at least make sure he really, really wants one and by all means, make sure you are familiar with dad’s style. Some dad’s like bowties. Some like clip ons. At least get him the one he wants.

And you know what? I’m actually early. Have a great Father’s Day!

Hopefully my boss does not fire me.

Anyway, you are not a true blogger in the blogosphere if you don’t use your blog as a gift. By gift I  mean the kind of gift that you don’t really get anything from except a warm fuzzy feeling. If it’s Mother’s Day and you happen to be a broke blogger, your words can be a free gift for any holiday.

Things I Have Learned From My Mother About Money

You Go to School to Learn Not for a Fashion Show:  Clothes are for wearing. That’s it. Luckily, we have resources now that weren’t always available so that we can buy fancy clothes once in a while for almost nothing, but when the jeans and sneakers for a junior high aged child costs as much as a new car payment, we should reconsider how important it really is to have these items. I know I still have a small section of my brain labeled “Diva”, but I also know that there are more important things to spend money on.

If You Want Something Save Your Money:  Anything that’s worth having can wait until you have enough money to pay for it. Do not use credit if you can’t pay it off. Do not purchase things you cannot afford unless you have taken the time to save your money for it. And work hard. You are always rewarded for hard work.

Pay Bills On Time: For my entire life, my parents have been the types of people that pay their bills when they get them. No waiting until they feel like it. No waiting until the utility company threatens to shut it off. Pay the bills first and if you have any money to do anything else then maybe you can. Obviously if you have nothing left after paying bills then the bills either need to be reduced or you just don’t have anything. Either way, bills are the priority.

Eat Within Your Means: We have eaten MRE’s (military packets of food) and we have eaten simple meals. I don’t recall eating out a lot growing up unless it was a special occasion, which means we ate what was able to be prepared from the cupboards. The funny thing is, I don’t remember eating anything terrible or weird. We always had good food and MREs are even good if you pick the right one. (I’ve heard they are better now, by the way.) Always enough food. Never hungry.

Love is Free: No matter how much you mess up. Regardless of the mistake or transgression. No matter how much we may have embarrassed her at times. It may cost you rent to live there as an adult, but you can always go home.

And love is always free.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom. Thanks, and I love you.

Hope everyone has a great one, whether the person that raised you was your mom, your grandma, or even your dad, make sure you thank someone (even if it’s by blog).

This is of course, supposed to be our month to ponder the importance of financial literacy. Even though I do try to accomplish this daily, I still think it’s important to point it out, especially if this special month helps someone else jumpstart their own financial wellness.

There is a website for Financial Literacy Month which includes an opportunity to take a pledge and commit to at least beginning the journey to achieve financial literacy.

Taking the Pledge

According to the website, www.financialliteracymonth.com, 5756 people have taken the pledge to making a commitment to their financial futures. This means (among other things) accepting responsibility for changing your financial situation, believing you can change and identifying the benefits of changing. Check. Check and Check.

Clearing out Clutter

I’ve been working on this forever, and Mint.com is helping. The Financial Literacy Month website includes a handy guide for determining which tote full of paper you should toss out and which ones you should keep.

Appoint a CFO of the Household

I nominate me and no one nominates the 6 year old. So I guess that means I’m the CFO. (gavel knock…next!)

Get Copies of Credit Reports

I think Financial Literacy Month is stalking me. I just did this like 3 days ago.

Okay, wow. That’s a lot of Partying.

Just noticed there are 30 steps to taking the pledge. Maybe you’re supposed to do one step a day? I didn’t see that suggestion anywhere. I will save you all the play by play on the next 26 steps, but do know that there will be 5757 people that have taken the pledge to change their financial situation when I get finished with the rest. Check out the website and join me. There are also tips and gadgets, tools and resources for achieving financial wellness as well as handy motivational certificates.

Happy Financial Literacy Month anyway!

Oh, and by the way…Miss Bankrupt was included in the Len Penzo’s Best of the Best in Money and Personal Finance #13 Anniversary Edition! Check out the other 12 posts that were chosen. This on top of Financial Literacy Month? Break out the bubbly…cheap bubbly, that is.

Anyone on a budget (and who happens to have a Valentine) knows that Valentine’s Day can be just as spendy as any other holiday. When you consider the cost of a nice dinner, a movie, flowers, a gift, or all of these things together, you could be looking at hundreds of dollars. Does it cost that much to tell someone you love them? Not always.

So here are a few suggestions for Valentine’s Day that may be within your budget:

1. Make a Nice Meal at Home. Eating in is always cheaper, and frankly quite a bit cozier. If you feel up to it, decorate the food in heart shaped designs or red food coloring. I personally prefer eating food not decorated and transformed into Valentine shapes, but some people get a kick out of that. Find out what your Valentine’s favorite food or meal is and go from there. If you get a romantic bug pull out some candles.

2. Personal Coupons. With computers and printers, personal coupons can be created cheaply and quickly without looking like a Kindergarten craft project. Of course, I wouldn’t even attempt handmaking anything, but I would definitely consider printing some out with cutesy clip art. Coupons can be for everything of course, from kisses to massages.

3. Write a Love Letter. I write, so therefore I am a sucker for love letters. And I don’t mean a cute text or email. Take some time and handwrite a letter…yes people still use pens and paper, believe it or not. Handwritten letters are cherished and put away forever. I’m not quite sure how long a text message lasts.

4. Create a Picture Book of Love. The problem with digital cameras is that a lot of us don’t ever print out the pictures and just let them build up on the computer or camera. Print out some of those pictures that you have together and create a picture book. Even I could do this because all you need are the photos, and since my handwriting is pretty okay, I could even add comments and messages with a red Sharpie on each page.

5. CD of Love Songs. If that sounds too corny to you, just create a CD filled up with “our songs”. Every couple has songs that remind them of certain events, even if it’s Uncle Joe’s karaoke performance of Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time”. It doesn’t have to be a CD of mushy love songs, as long as you put relevant songs on it that will remind the person of you and the relationship.

There is always an alternative to spending gobs of cash on Valentine’s Day. Many couples agree to not buy each other anything. After all, love shouldn’t cost a bunch of money, nor should it put us in debt. Also make sure you know if your Valentine is going to be okay with a cheap Valentine’s Day, otherwise you could be in some trouble.

Either way, have a great one…

What’s your cheapest Valentine’s Day idea?

Please don’t assign homework that involves crafts. Daughter’s Mother is the uncraftiest person on earth. And I don’t even care if that’s not a word. You know what I mean. Why a Valentine box? I think we used to bring our Valentine cards to school in old plastic shopping bags. I’m seriously wondering if the assignment was just so I’d get glue all over my pants, my hands, my couch and everything else within a 2 foot radius of me. If it was, I deserve an A+.

Thanks,

Miss Bankrupt, the Uncraftiest

Anyway, before everyone attacks me with “why are you such a loser mom”, I’ll add that I do understand the concept of the Valentine card box and think it’s a very cute idea. But, I found out tonight that I am even worse at crafts than I had ever imagined.

Valentine Card Box Donts

Don’t try to wrap a box with construction paper. First of all, the pages aren’t big enough and you’ll have to kind of put together a patchwork design. Construction paper is also extremely difficult to fold and maneuver, especially if it’s sopped in Elmer’s glue.

Don’t wait until the last minute to make the Valentine card box. Even if you think you already have an old Valentine heart box that only requires adding a slot. Because, as life goes, you will find out the night before that you through that dumb thing away a long time ago.

Don’t try to cover the half of the box not covered with the glued, messy, falling off construction paper, with tissue paper. Gluey tissue paper is almost as bad as gluey construction paper and ends up looking really bizarre.

Valentine Card Box Do’s

Do use pink or red wrapping paper and tape to wrap the box. Much easier to work with and no mess.

Do keep trying. After all, do you want your kid to be the only one without a Valentine’s Day box? No. Most moms have probably been working on theirs since January, so I suggest taking it seriously.

Do make sure you have someone crafty to help in case of emergencies such as this. Craftiness apparently skips generations, which is lucky for my daughter.

Even with help, that Valentine’s Day box was the most difficult thing I’ve attempted in a long long time. Finally got it done with the help of Grandma, and whipped up the cutest dang Valentine’s Day box ever.

I think so anyway. And so does dear daughter…

Sure things have been rough, let’s not forget that it started with the fear of Y2K and every computer in the world shutting down at the stroke of midnight. But really, has it been worse than the 50s, 80s or 90s? Trust me, if you don’t remember fashion of the 80s or foot high hair styles courtesy of aerosol hair spray, than you can’t answer that truthfully. It is unfortunate, to me, that the last decade is naturally stuck with being referred to as the 00s, but the Decade From Hell? Wow.

In my life personally, it could quite possibly have been the best decade of my life. I’ve struggled and suffered and gone through heartbreaking events just like anyone else, but in the end (up to today), I have to say that there is very little more I could want. Okay, more money. That would always help.

Globally, even nationally I guess it might be fair to title the 00s as the Decade From Hell, or The Worst Decade Ever, or whatever (I just can’t think of anything worse than the Decade From Hell), but here are the titles I’d give Miss Bankrupt’s decade past.

Decade of Awakening (I’ve realized and learned quite a bit, but that’s too serious and I think already taken.)
Decade of Going Bankrupt and Then Just Being Broke (too long)
Decade of Running Around in Circles (hmmm….there is possibility in this one)
Decade I Can’t Really Remember (just being honest)

I have big plans for my budget and getting ahead financially in 2010 so I’m pretty excited. It has to be better anyway, after all…is there anything worse than the Decade From Hell? Not possible.

So give me some thoughts. What do you refer to the last decade as?

I am doing a little of everything, resting and drinking coffee and hanging out with my daughter after a day with the family. I am in that region that has received a couple of feet of snow (or will have) before the weekend is over so unfortunately I won’t be making good on my second holiday goal, which was taking advantage of after Christmas sales. I hate driving in tons of snow, in fact I’d be perfectly fine with staying indoors the entire winter, but I have yet to find the job that allows that.

You might be interested in knowing that I had a wonderful Christmas. Got a fantastic candy arrangement, a digital camera-for all of the great pictures I’ll be adding to my posts, a printer to print out the many coupons I’ll be using this year, my very first I LOVE MOM mug-obviously for the pots of coffee I drink and a handmade calendar from a great Kindergartener. I don’t think I could’ve asked for one single thing more, add that to being with family all day and you have the ideal holiday.

Plus, my daughter is sitting on the floor writing a pop up book. She’s actually writing a story about a girl playing in the park with no “frens”, which means that even if I never write a bestseller, she might.

Anyway, I hope the holidays are fantastic for you, that you receive or witness something so moving you almost cry, that something or someone makes you realize that we work and we budget and we scrimp and save for these moments…and it’s worth it.

Merry Christmas, enjoy the holidays!

1.  A condom- from a weed smoking aunt’s boyfriend.

2.  A flask and a travel mug…presumably for when you need to take your booze to go.

3.  A rice cooker with moldy rice in it.

4.  Canned air.

5.  A candle that had already been burned.

Of course I was reminded that it’s the thought that counts, but obviously when you look at these gifts, you wonder how much thought was really involved.

I found it heartbreaking that my mom said she never received a gift she didn’t like. When she was younger sometimes there were no Christmas presents and when she told the kids at school they didn’t believe her. Ironically, she’d end up lying and saying she received some kind of doll or something.

Given that answer, I suppose we should be thankful anytime we receive something, whether it’s canned air or a condom. But I don’t know, maybe sometimes it is better to not get anything at all, I mean moldy rice…really? At least with nothing you learn a life lesson on being grateful for what you receive. Not sure what you might learn from a burnt candle.

If you search Youtube, you’ll find a ton of videos of kids receiving gifts they don’t like and lists of top 10 worst Christmas presents.

Here is one I thought was good, unless you are the crazy aunt Jennifer they’re talking about.

I don’t know. Do you really want to be known as “crazy aunt Jennifer” or even just the person that gives crappy Christmas gifts? I’m not saying that there has to be a parade and rock and roll with every gift, but let’s decide to actually think about what we’re buying and who we’re buying for.  And yes, I like cheap stuff as much as anyone, but let’s try not to do our Christmas shopping at Family Dollar. We are all on budgets. Times are tough.

At least shoot for Walmart. And no used stuff…that’s just bad. The practice of regifting is only acceptable when regifting a gift. Walking through your house and wrapping up used stuff is not regifting.