Happy Halloween!

The first grade "harvest" party was today...it was fun.

Of course all of the parents contribute to the party. I bought plates and napkins on sale last year, so I don't honestly remember now how much I spent...I think I'll put $5 into the spreadsheet, though. That's pretty conservative. I've also added our bookfair expenditures - which we enjoyed on parent/teacher conference day and the subsequent holidays from school!

As IF......!

This 5th grade D.A.R.E. dinner is really milking us: Now, AS IF buying candy and tickets to the event weren't enough, we can also buy raffle tickets! I won't be surprised if we get a note tomorrow asking for raffle donations!

I have added a running total to the spreadsheet. It is pretty interesting to note that we could have easily spent $1000 on AD during the first two months of this school year. And somewhat disturbing to note that we have already spent over $350.

Where has this month gone?!

Tonight when my outraged friend asked, "Can you believe all of the notes from school we've gotten lately, asking for money?" I knew it was way past time for me to post...

I've updated the spreadsheet.

In old business:
We spent only $9.61 at McDonald's night. On just the kids. I'm guessing I spent more on gasoline waiting in the drive-thru than the school actually got back from our purchase. But we were there, in solidarity with all of the other Green Tree devotees!

AD didn't go to the movie night, so I moved that $5 from the accepted to the rejected column.

The class field trip was windy and cold, but so fun. The little bro and I drove separately from the school buses and spent $11 on ferry rides across the river(s) to get to the orchard. Money well spent, though. Made some memories...priceless. (That money will NOT appear in the spreadsheet, fyi.)

That 5th grade D.A.R.E. function is becoming a regular backpack filler. Now they are asking for donations to create the party that we will later pay to attend. First grade families are to provide a bag of candy for them to give out as prizes for the games the kids will play.

And new business:
The computer class is sending home "book-order" forms for computer software. If we expose our child to computers and other technology at home, we will give them an advantage in today's increasingly high-tech world...according to the note. It looks like most of the games cost about $29.95, so that is how much I am rejecting at this time. (We have a computer, we have some games, we have the Internet. Honestly, does he need more?) Notes came home twice on this one, it must be important.

Then school will be out for a couple of days this week and next. We have the opportunity to enroll our child in a school-day program, which was designed for working parents, at the great rate of $25 per day, per child. I'll just take the day off this time.

Oh, and I must not forget that the fall Book Fair is currently underway. I guess most parents just send the kids to school with some money for this. I plan to be there, monitoring his choices, though. We'll do this shopping together this week.

And finally, the SECOND fall fund raiser. I spent $34. And that after this weekend's sermon on simplicity. But the cover of the catalog clearly states: Solutions to Simplify Your Life. HA!

October 5

Friday's backpack was SO full!

I'm finding this difficult to digest, but we have ANOTHER fundraiser. I'll post how much, if anything, I spend on this one when I do it. This time, we are selling gift wrap and gift items, just like last year.

We also have the opportunity to spend another $15 for a Wentzville parks & rec class. It sounds interesting...it's a science class with lots of experiments.

In November, there is a D.A.R.E. dinner sponsored by the 5th graders. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for students.

Other than that, there were just lots of reminders about all of the other ways we can spend our money to support our school and/or our child and his free public education.

October 3

SO BUSY!!!!

This morning, I quickly wrote out a $6 check for a field trip. I'm really looking forward to this one. We are going apple-picking and to a pumpkin patch. Money well spent, I hope.

I also edited the spreadsheet with the following: $10 for basketball clinic, and book orders were changed from $16.90 to $3.95. I decided at the last minute to just order one book. We will have this opportunity every month, after all!

September 22

Please note the following revision to the spreadsheet:
8/24/2007 "Fundraisers - A" has been changed from $25 to $50 because we bought an additional coupon book as a gift for someone. (I'm not telling for whom - they might be reading this!)

September 21

Okay, this is actually the 22nd, but you won't believe how much stuff came home in yesterday's backpack! And I just didn't have the time or energy to calculate it all (this is going to take a calculator) last night.

Book orders: these are one of the reasons I wanted to keep track of expenses. Last year I placed an order with the book order and the following week the school had its book FAIR. Well, my adorable little AD didn't think that the fact that we had just purchased three or four new books was any reason not to attend the book fair and get about 27 more. I understand that the onus is on me to teach the kiddo about money, but a little "fair" warning would have at least been nice! I'm on the lookout for the Fair this time. Plus my precious kiddo has sworn that if we order from the book order, he won't need anything from the book fair. HA! For the purposes of my spreadsheet, I am going to tally the costs of everything AD circles on the book order form. If we order anything, I will list that portion of the costs as Books - A, while the remainder of the total sum will be listed under Books - R. By the way, the neighbor kid came home this week with at least $20 of books from his book order.

It's time for the Tri-County YMCA fall basketball league. We will NOT be spending that $85! I feel like we are totally lucky in this category. One of AD's classmates is the son of a former college bball player. Last year, he offered a kindergarten basketball program for only $10 (which he spent on trophies and jerseys for the kids.) And it was fabulous. He was teaching them skills and techniques that my husband and I didn't even know. We will be doing that again when it starts in October.

Tuesday October 9, from 4 until 8 pm is McTeachers Night. This is the most chaotic night of the year at our local McDonald's, where you can wait in the drive-thru line for 30+ minutes or opt to go inside and hope that you know someone in there so that you can grab their table when they leave. It's a fundraiser. We will probably spend about $12 there that night. But I'll post the amount when the time comes.

The first Green Tree Movie Night of the year is on Friday, October 12. This is also a fundraiser. For $5 AD can go to the school for a little over two hours to watch a movie, eat popcorn and play a couple of games with his friends. Parents get to have a night out. It's a nice concept. I'll probably volunteer at one of the movies this year. We have a little sibling at home, so to get a night out we have to hire a sitter anyway. Starting next year, movie night will definitely be a cheap date night for us!

I think that's all for now. I'll have to break out my calculator to fill out the spreadsheet, though. Happy weekend to you.