So You are Planning a Trip to Disneyland?

Disneyland (and probably Disneyworld) are destination trips that are wonderful for taking the entire family. My wife and I have been taking our kids for..., well for as long as I can remember. I could say we are expert Disney visitors, but we learn something new with each visit. This post details all my lessons learned from our last dozen visits.

When should you go? Financially I can't answer this for you. Personally, start early. Why??

Flexible Spending Account = Free Daycare

Now with baby number 3, my wife and I are finally starting to learn some important lessons. Our latest discovery is the company sponsored "flexible spending" account (or FSA). This account allows us to set aside money pre-tax and use it for dependent care. In years passed, we had a hard time with the clause that states "if you don't use it (by date), you will lose it!". There is a whole laundry list of what-ifs that stopped us from setting this up:

• "what if we commit too much"
• "what if we lose our receipts"
• "what if you decide to stay home and we don't need the money.."
• "what if your parents move closer and watch the baby!?

With a new baby in the house and my wife planning on returning to work around January, I took the plunge and signed up for my employer's FSA. I started off only committing about $300 / month to the account. I figured with infant care was about $250/week, this would be quickly spent each pay check. This was with the consideration, that any moneys in the account, not spent before end of fiscal year (7/1/2014) would be forfeited. After consulting my wife, we both agreed that we'd have no issues spending the money each month, therefore we decided to max the deposit out ($5000/year or ~ $416/month). 

Example Flex account, grossly underestimating the tax rate. 

$416 a month, SOUNDS like a lot of money out of my paycheck, but you have to remember that keyword, 401k, by pulling the money out of gross paycheck (i.e. before taxes), I am lowering my taxable income. Lower taxable income = less taken out for taxes; less out in taxes = more back in paycheck. Overall, my January paycheck (first month FSA money was withdrawn), my check was $100 less than December. In essence, we now have $300 of free daycare each month.
"pre-tax". Like investing money in a

Duh-dum, duh-dum, Valentines is coming!!!!

Valentines is one of those Hallmark holidays, that schools absolutely love. This provides the elementary schools something for the kids to work all week towards; building valentine boxes, working on love poems for the parents, and some sort of craft activity. Cap the week, (especially since it's Friday this year), with a party midday, sending the kids home full of snacks and sugar.

My wife and I like to keep this holiday low-key. After all the expense of Christmas not that long ago, we have set a 'spending' limit. Valentine gifts have to be small enough to fit into one of these little (dollar bin) mailboxes. The kids have each decorated their own mailbox. They are put onto the entertainment center with all of the other holiday decor (paper hearts from years before, little cupid mickey mouse I found one year).

On Friday after school, they'll open their mailboxes. Last year, we included candy hearts, a card rolled up inside and either a small token, like a hot wheels for my son or jewelry for my daughter. This year has been a little bit harder to stick with the budget. Both kids are a bit older, so the gifts of previous years will likely seem a bit childish. Maybe just candy?

The Dreaded Doctor's Office Visit

Infants and breastfeeding are great together, when you're the mom. Food is virtually free and instantly available. The baby never fusses about how warm or how cold the mom's milk is.

I work in IT, so it leaves me with a rather flexible schedule. If one of the kids get sick, I can easily work from home and tend to the sick kid between meetings. This lends to me doing the majority of visits to the doctors, dentist, field trips, and other yucky locations kids need to go.

Last weekend, we had a hunch that the baby had an ear infection coming on. Unfortunately, visits to the doctor's office on Monday's are always tedious. Upon entering the office, I found the waiting room completely full; 8 kids and their parents. Get ready for the long wait.

After a little over an hour, we finally made it into the back room. At this time, she just recently has pooped her diaper and is getting hungry. Quick diaper change and happily I planned ahead with a bottle.

I put about 1 cup of fairly hot water into the travel mug. The 5oz baby bottle with nipple cover fit perfectly inside, then closed the mug with the lid. When I needed the warm milk, it was actually a little hot for her and I needed to let it cool before feeding her.

Baby girl does have an ear infection and is now on antibiotics.

Time for a Little Introduction

I've been happily married to my high-school sweetheart for the last 16 years. In addition, I am a proud dad of 3 kids; daughter born 2002, surprised us having golden blonde hair, son born 4 years later also slightly red, but more blonde in the summer and my youngest daughter was a total surprise born October 2013, no obvious red hair (yet) :)

This blog will be dedicated to my on-going adventures as a family man and lessons I learn from my kids.