Planning for your child’s financial future can be complicated, particularly if your child has special needs. While some children with special needs will grow up to become adults who can look after themselves and make their own financial decisions, many will need a legal guardian and a financial plan to protect them.
It may be difficult to think about the time when you and your spouse may no longer be able to care for your special needs child, but it’s imperative that you put legal and financial protections in place to ensure your child’s happy and financially secure future. Here are the tools you will need to protect your child’s finances for years to come:
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Recycling just makes sense. Making the effort may not be simple in a world of consumerism where most items are built to be replaced instead of repaired, but you too can recycle some common items into profitable pieces with a little ingenuity. Try these 6 ideas out at home to get started.
1. Skids. Recycling skids has become one of the favorite pastimes here on the farm. We have used plastic skids to make shelters for chickens, stray cats, and dogs. The sturdy construction means these houses hold up terrifically. We’ve also found that many skids are made from hardwoods. We took these hardwood skids apart, had the local Amish lumber mill plane them down, and made a nice floor for our storage room – all for the price of the planing service and a little varnish and sealer.
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While we are still contemplating whether owning a dog is financially feasible, another significant financial decision we are facing in the future is our transportation situation. My fiancé is planning on coming with me next baseball season. The problem with minor league baseball is…I have no idea where I am going to be. This is the biggest barrier to a number of things in our lives, and the transient life we will live is molding our financial decisions now and will continue to do so into the future.
Right now we both own cars, but how will we get them where we need them? Is shipping a car a good option? What about selling/buying? We will continue to explore our options in the coming months.
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With the rising cost of fresh produce, many consumers are looking for a cheaper way to eat healthy. But is growing your own food and canning really a frugal choice or is it a budget buster? Let’s take a look at a couple examples below (Prices current as of June 2012).
Organic Green Beans
Requirements to Can Your Own
- Organic Green Bean Seeds= $5.90 for 1 packet
- Fertilizer (Miracle Gro Quart Organic Choice All-Purpose Plant Food Concentrate) = $9.97
- Canning Jars (12 count, 16 ounces)= $9.38
- Replacement bands and lids= $4.29
- Pressure Canner (Presto 01781 23-Quart Pressure Canner and Cooker from Amazon) = $79.59 plus shipping
Initial Can Your Own Investment= $105.20 plus tax and shipping for 192 ounces ($0.55 per ounce)
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My fiancé and I have been considering buying a dog for some time now. When my roommate’s fiancé came to the town we are playing baseball in, she brought their dog and this gave new life to the conversation. We could see the joy the dog brought them, but we could also see some of the difficulties involved in having a dog in such a transient time in our lives. We know the breed of dog we would like, but we haven’t decided if we want to move forward. This is a big decision and we know it shouldn’t be taken lightly. We determined there are a number of different costs we need to take into account when making this choice.
Initial Cost
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No more greasy burgers for you. No more frothy Frappucinos, hold the whip. No more fresh new duds just because you deserve it.
All great decisions, but you must also ask yourself, “how much am I really saving?”
Are you saving enough to pay off all your bills? Are you significantly reducing the strain on your wallet?
Probably not. Saving $10-15 a week will never make you rich. It will help to ease your burden a bit, but little else.
The Fact
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