Meet Our Adleigh...Saving $1,000 for her surgery is one of our short-term goals!
Hey Everyone,
On September 7, 2007, we were blessed with our first child, Adleigh JoBeth. She is so perfect in every way, but her poor little left eyelid is very weak - this condition is called ptosis. She's been under the watch of Dr. Lyon at Children's Mercy, a surgeon from Sabates, since she was very young. Once she reached the age of 3, the doctor said it was time to try corrective surgery. He would be cutting the eyelid in the crease and shortening/tightening the ligaments in an attempt to lift the lid. Unfortunately, the surgery didn't give us, nor the doctor, the results we hoped for. Some time went by and we noticed that because the lid hung so much over her eye, that she had stopped using her eye to its fullest potential - and it had become lazy, sometimes crossed. The surgeon turned us over to Dr. Grigorian of the opthalmology department. He prescribed her some glasses that correct the straightening of the eye - and we do some patching as well. However, the surgeon agrees that another surgery would be beneficial to lift the lid. Thank goodness we have insurance through my work, but we would still need $1,000 to pay for our portion of the cost. For the first surgery the operating room alone was $8,000 for the 30 minutes!!!! Some people have said that they wouldn't put her through another surgery - and her eye makes her "her". But we really have her self-esteem to think about - children these days can be so cruel - she was already telling us that her eye is broken (I'm assuming one of the children said that to her). I tell her all the time that she has beautiful green eyes. Our Adleigh has such an amazing, sweet spirit and it's our hope that The Lord will give the doctors the skills needed to successfully lift her lid and correct the strength of her eye. We're anticipating that we'll need $1,000 to be saved up for a surgery sometime this summer.
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by Beth Jeffries, February 20, 2012 at 9:26 PM | Add a Comment
Consignment Sales...A Great Way to Buy Kids Clothing...
Hey Everyone, I have to come clean - one of my biggest weaknesses (and one of the reasons we have debt) is making sure my kiddos are dressed in name-brand clothing: Mini Boden, Baby Gap and Gymboree are some of my favorites. It has been, and will continue to be, hard for me to change my ways, but I am slowly switching to more thrifty ways of purchasing kids clothing. I also need to try to remember that they really don't care about what they are wearing at this age -- that stage will come soon enough though:0)
Over the past few years I've participated in consignment sales selling Adleigh and Brooks' clothes they've outgrown . . . but only very recently did I consider buying consignment clothes for them. I have found some really cute stuff for them at these sales.
The sale I'm participating in next weekend is Just Between Friends. I'll get 65% of my sales and I can shop early . . . I've also signed up to volunteer 4 hours on Saturday, increasing my sales to 70%. The sale opens this Saturday, and there's a $2 entry fee, but you can print the coupon off the internet so you can get in for FREE!!!
You can go to leessummit.jbf.com for more sale information.
I am so glad to hear of other families that are buying clothes at the consignment sales. We are also selling Avery's clothes at the JBF sale in Overland Park in a couple of weeks. This is our first time doing it so I'm excited and a little nervous. Hopefully we can save some money on her spring wardrobe.
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by Alicia Yahaya, February 14, 2012 at 5:30 PM | Suggest Removal
Certainly Cannot Do This Alone!
How powerful is connecting and learning from others? We certainly found out in our first group session with the other families that are trying to accomplish financial control of their lives, as we are. However creative we thought we might have been in addressing our shortcomings before entering that session, the reality is that we haven't been creative at all in handling our family finances.
We have done an admirable job in controlling the basics during the first few weeks. We have been consistently dining at home, only purchasing items that we need, and are probably at a point where the folks at QuikTrip are going to call the house to see if we are OK. We have learned a lot. Eating at home is really not that bad, even though neither of us are accomplished cooks. Adleigh and Brooks really do not require McDonald's runs for weekly happiness - as a matter of fact, our kids have shown no discontent in our adjusted lifestyle. Just goes to prove that what Beth and I thought were keys to contentment were not reflecting the reality. We did have one major setback - after our first major grocery purchase, our refrigerator quit on us and we lost all but a gallon of milk and a few packaged items!!
Where we were missing the point was creativity in addressing our budget leaks. Effective coupon use, planning weekly menus, and seeking alternative purchasing avenues were all things that we were missing out on. We are very thankful for all of the wonderful strategies that were shared during the session, and cannot wait to check out the websites and specials that it seems that everyone in the world has discovered without us. Beth is particularly excited about all of the websites designed to assist moms and kids with free and discounted specials. If anyone has additional ideas, we want to hear from you!
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by Jody Jeffries, February 5, 2012 at 11:05 PM | Add a Comment
After the initial excitement of being chosen for this great opportunity and getting the chance to meet with our coaches for the first time, we could not wait to get this process started. I guess the old adage is true - you should be careful what you wish for!
After our first session, we were so encouraged and motivated to get going in identifying our budget leaks and addressing our financial behaviors. We entered the meeting anxious, and left feeling great about the course of action that TuJuania and Sandy had set for us. Well . . . as excited as we were about the first session, we were equally that depressed to visit TuJuania for the second. We had made a dedicated effort in between the sessions to plan our grocery shopping and eat at home. We thought we had done a great job, but didn't even realize our initial savings goal The reality set in that the hole that we have dug for ourselves is a lot deeper than we thought.
Two serious budget leaks that the ladies had identified for us were "QuikTrip runs" and "Fast Food free for alls." We knew this to be true, but had no idea how much we were spending on a monthly basis. How embarrassing, and actually irresponsible, to see this on paper and understand how much our pre-children lifestyle had consumed us and the goals that we have to provide for Adleigh and Brooks.
If we are going to reach our goals and create a future for our little ones, we have much work to do. Realizing that YOU are the problem is not real fun, but we discovered quickly that it is REAL.
Posted
by Jody Jeffries, January 29, 2012 at 10:16 PM | Add a Comment
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