First day!

Nate starts camp tomorrow for the first time, and he'll be going all-day for the first time. I admit these past two weeks, with no school and no camp yet, have been a little rough but we've also gotten a lot closer - I'm going to miss him! I also admit that I'm looking forward to it a lot. I have all sorts of fantasies about how much I'll get done during the day. Probably I'll just shop online for more Bento boxes, but at least I'll do it without feeling guilty that I'm neglecting him by not building the 173rd Lego tower of the day with him.

I have to send him, each day, with two snacks and a lunch. I already have the Lock & Locks for the food and yesterday I picked him up two lunchboxes at Target and let him choose. One was super-cute and non-character with a neat thermos attached. The other was a Transformers one. Guess which one he picked? Yup, Transformers. I hate the character thing, but I saw it and I knew he'd love it and I had to let him make the choice. That's what the first day of camp is all about, right?

Here's what I packed for his big first day:



Snack 1: cucumber/hummus sandwiches and pretzels filled with peanut butter
Snack 2: raw almonds, dried cranberries, and veggie sticks (Trader Joes)
Lunch: Veggie hotdog wrap, mandarins, sugar snap peas, carrots, and a little fun-pack of M&Ms hidden underneath.

As long as I'm packing Nate's lunch I figured I'd start packing Stewart's lunch:



Salad (with lettuce from the garden!) with mandarins, dried cranberries, and avocado. Cucumber/hummus sandwiches and carrots, and a fun-pack of M&Ms hidden under the dressing.

And as long as I had everything out, I figured I'd prep Jack's snack and lunch to make my day even smoother tomorrow:



Snack: veggie sticks, pretzels filled with peanut butter, cucumber slices
Lunch: veggie hotdog chunks, mandarins, avocado slices, dried cranberries, and raw almonds

It took me about 30 minutes to put these all together. I'm going to try to use the same ingredients for the lunches, even if the end product isn't the same (for example, the foods from the kids snacks were the toppings for Stewart's salad.) I'll work leftovers in as much as I can, though I haven't been cooking at night much these days (we scrounge a lot).

Do you guys like seeing these? Should I try to keep up the bento posting?

My biggest and best money-earning tip

A lot of frugal blogs, including this one, focus on all of the small ways to earn and save money. Most of the time, that's our best way to do it and for a lot of people it's the only way

But my biggest money-earning tip is this one: invest in real estate. Beg, borrow, steal - just get yourself in real estate. Think this is a bad time? It's not. There is no bad time, even when prices are sky-high. But right now when interest rates are low and housing prices are down is the best time in 10 years.

The easiest first step is to buy your own home. When you're buying a personal residence, you qualify for lower interest rates and down payments, and often there are subsidies for first-time buyers. Interest rates are going up right now but they're still very low, historically, and there many people can still qualify for mortgages. Fair mortgages that they can afford.

We have been very lucky in this area, and we've also worked hard. Stewart bought the home we live in before we started dating and I moved in here in 2003. He had the foresight to anticipate what this neighborhood was capable of and the house now has plenty of equity in it.

In 2003 we tapped that equity with an equity line and used it as the down payment to buy a house right across the street - we refinished it and now rent it to a great group of "kids" (they're in their 20's but seem like kids to me!) In 2003 they were still giving out equity lines on investment properties, so we got one and used that as the down payment on another investment property a mile away. We happily rent it to another great set of "kids."

My rule of thumb, based on the reading and research I've done on real-estate investing, is that I need to be able to charge in rent my total expenses plus 25%: so if my total expenses are $2,000, I need to be able to charge around $2,400 in rents. We do this and more on the two properties that we already own.

Each month I am able to pay the mortgages plus an extra 10% to help pay the mortgage off sooner. I'm also able to send about $1,000 to the equity lines to help bring those balances down. The balances are coming down slowly, but they're coming down. If there is a repair needed I break even that month, but I never go into the red. In about 13 years the equity lines will be paid off and in about 20 the mortgages will be paid. We will own those two homes free-and-clear and someone else will have paid every cent of it.

We intended to buy another but prices went up past the point I was comfortable with. There was no way to even pay expenses, let alone allow for any overage to protect us when the house needs repairs. So we waited, and waited, and waited.

About 8 months ago I decided to test the waters and started looking at properties online. It looked promising, so we found a new agent and I started looking. A month ago I did a blitz-weekend of property hunting and found 8 that looked like they might work. I ran the numbers, analyzed everything, and Stewart and I picked the two most promising out of the bunch. Went back for one more look and put an offer in that very day; we found out the next day that we got the house we bid on. We're currently under contract and on July 17th, it will be ours.



It's the crown jewel of our "portfolio." Two units - a four bedroom upstairs and a separately-metered two-bedroom downstairs. New kitchens, new bathrooms, new carpets, refinished hardwood floors. Central air, front porch, back deck, four parking spaces in the back. Plus it's one block from the Metro, four from Safeway, and about 8 from the new development in Columbia Heights. It's a gem.

Original woodwork:



Master suite:



Main unit kitchen:



Front porch:



Main floor:



We were able to use the balances on the two equity lines to put down the down payment. We did have to increase the equity line on our primary residence to do it, but we made it by a hair.

The market will fluctuate, housing prices will fluctuate - just buy a good house with good features in a good location and a good price. If you know that, no matter what, you can pay the mortgage with the rent you take in then it's worth doing. In 30 years the house will be paid off on someone else's dime. If the house is worth more, that's icing on the cake. If it's worth less, drat. Doesn't matter - you didn't buy it. It's a free house, and that's worth a whole heck of a lot.

For reading, I really recommend anything by Robert Shemin. His focus is on making money by being a good guy - a good landlord, an honest person who treats tenants well. I've implemented many of his techniques and have had a wonderful 6 years as a landlord.

I'm happy to answer any questions you have about this kind of investing. It's worth it, I promise!

Bento madness begins

I'm a little obsessive about new gadgets, new ideas...some stick, some don't (yoga anyone?)

So far we're still going strong with the bento fun. I've spent the last few nights trolling around for vegan bento ideas*. I found a treasure-trove at Vegan Lunch Box and I've made a refrigerator list of meal and snack ideas. I plan to do a magnet system like Biggie does but I haven't picked up the supplies yet. For now a list of ideas, along with a mental list of what food I have on-hand, will have to suffice.

Today I made Nate happy with an easy fun snack. Didn't think of it myself, obviously - thanks goes to the internet as always. I have no idea what the strawberries are around the top - I just know I had a ton of fresh ones ready to go bad and I needed to fit them in somewhere.



* We're not vegan, not even truly vegetarian, but I like to omit animal products as much as I have the energy to deal with. I keep the house mostly vegetarian (we have brisket at Chanukah and when I'm dieting I use Lean Cuisines with meat in them for a cheap filling dinner). The boys eat vegetarian hot dogs and veggie burgers; we eat a lot of veggie chili and sweet potatoes and peanut butter and nuts and salad and tofu. If we're at a ballgame, I'm getting a hot dog and so are the boys. I don't mind the occasional drive-through for McNuggets and a Quarter Pounder. If I'm at a restaurant I'm sometimes ordering a steak.

I don't subscribe to the all-or-nothing mentality of these kinds of situations; I think the less we eat of animal products the better we're treating the animals, the earth, and our bodies. It doesn't have to be ALWAYS or NEVER to make a difference. So I keep us as vegetarian as I can manage and as vegan as I can stand. I don't read ingredient lists for minute traces of dairy - if the bulk of the product is vegan it passes my test.

We're definitely whittling out the things that are easy to replace: we use soymilk on cereal and skip the cheese and sour cream at Chipotle. I buy string cheese once every 6 months or so and only the occasional organic yogurt for smoothies (though I made a vegan smoothie yesterday and Nate went bananas for it, so that might be heading out too). I feel good about our progress and about being conscious about what we're eating and it's moral implications. More progress to come, I'm sure.

Bento jackpot!

Nate starts camp in a few weeks and I'll have to send lunch along for the first time. So excited to do some fun lunches for him, and I'll start making lunches for Stewart as long as I'm adding that task into the schedule.

Just a simple one I gave the kids at the playground yesterday (fake-chicken patty, carrots, broccoli with a little asian dressing on top):



Did a bunch of research about the different types of bento boxes and really liked the description of Lock & Lock containers. Found a few here and there online but shipping was crazy and I would have had to order from 3 different stores to get the styles I wanted.

I found a listing at the Bento Store Locator at Lunch in a Box for a grocery store in Wheaton - I dragged the boys out there this morning on the way to pick strawberries at Butler's Orchard. Total jackpot! Tons and tons of different sizes of Lock & Lock containers and all of the divided ones I was coveting.



They only had a few "character" bentos but that's fine with me - they're not dishwasher safe and goodness knows I'm not hand-washing them. I'll use Ichiban Kan to buy a few more cute ones, some belts, some internal dividers, and some cute little sauce-containers and I'll have a good stock to get started with. As I do more and more, I'll figure out which ones I'm using the most and get a few extra of those.

And, most importantly, I'll stock up on a few Lunchables or something for the days I slack off. Gotta be prepared.

The Great Urban Race!

A month or two ago I saw a posting for the Great Urban Race and felt like I finally found the secret of life. I have loved scavenger hunts my whole life, and am obsessed with The Amazing Race. I got my equally nerdy sister on board and signed up to run today's DC race.

It was just as much fun as I thought it would be. And we were just as good of a team as I thought we would be.



There were 340 teams of 2 people, and my hope was to come in the top 100. Deborah was pushing for the top 50. I thought we'd done pretty well, but I was thoroughly shocked by how well - I still can't really believe it. As it turns out, we crossed the finish line 27th but when three teams in front of us got big time penalties (for mistakes they'd made during the race) we ended up 24th, qualifying to race in the National Championships in New Orleans! We have no idea if we'll go for it, but we were really proud to have done so well, and to get medals hung around our necks at the awards ceremony.



We strategized a lot in the days up to the race, and decided on some techniques:

* No laptop during the race but we'd bring one to the start line, use it to frantically Google when we got the clues, and plot out our route with that information. Then we ditched the laptop with friends of my sister who worked in the restaurant where we got started (alternate plan: ditch the laptop in the trunk of my car)

* Take the time at the beginning to make sure we understood where each of the 12 spots would be around Virginia and DC, and plot our route carefully to get through the stops in the smartest way possible.

* Use the iPhone and Blackberry Google and Google Maps features.

* Take the time to read each clue carefully to make sure we didn't end up with a time penalty at the end.

* Use friends as resources to help us with tough questions. Our Mom and Dad ended up being a huge help too!

(All of these strategies were totally legal)

Check the bottom of this entry to see our 12 clues (we were allowed to skip 1).

We started at the Crystal City Sports Pub and ran to the Metro, taking the blue line to Rosslyn. Hopped off and made our way to Ledo's Pizza to do clue number 9. We didn't make good time getting there and ended up on the wrong side of Route 50. Other teams were on the wrong side too and made their way to the pedestrian bridge; Deborah and I scaled down the embankment and crossed on foot. Mavericks. Got the spaghetti and moved on.



Headed on foot to the next two clues in Arlington. Ended up walking up a taxing hill that really slowed us down. We hit a CVS to try to find a shower liner (clue 1) but they were sold out. Made our way to the comedy venue in Arlington (clue 8) and I rocked the house with a joke that Deborah's friend supplied us with ("What kind of cheese isn't yours? Na-cho cheese!") We got our tickets and headed to Combat Sports International (clue 7) for our workout. Talk about insult to injury - we had to do push-ups, kicks, jabs, and lunges!



Headed to the Courthouse Metro to catch the Orange line to McPherson Square. We jogged north towards the cluster of clues around Thomas Circle. Got our picture taken at the statue of Martin Luther (clue 10) and tried to figure out how to handle clue 1.



This was another place where DC knowledge came in handy - when the second CVS was also sold out of shower liners, I stopped in at the 7-11 just north of where we needed to be. Bought a popsicle there (clue 6) and they directed me to a little store that sold me a liner. In truth, they actually GAVE me a liner because all I had was a credit card - I'm going back tomorrow to give the nice guy his $1.60.

We dropped the liner off at N Street Village (clue 1) and jogged south to work on the cluster of clues around the White House. First we took our picture of 12 or more people (clue 2) and had our picture taken holding up 19 fingers (clue 4). Huge thanks to Mom and Dad for solving this one for us! We actually took two pictures: one with 19 fingers up and one with 20 - the clue was open to a bit of interpretation and we didn't want to take any chances!







We got a little hung up finding the exact location of the bench (clue 5) in Lafayette Park, so we pulled a weak one and scanned around for other teams. When we saw people in orange sitting and having their picture taken, we headed their way and joined in. Voila.



We jogged off to the ESPN zone and took way too long getting a good picture of one of us shooting a basketball. Shockingly, this is the best of a whole group:



More jogging, then walking, then jogging, then walking...we had planned to make our last stop the American Indian museum (clue 11) but realized the Hirshorn was a lot closer (clue 12). Thanks again to Mom and Dad for unscrambling the letters and heading us in the right direction - the Crouching Spider statue!



Deborah planned it perfectly to jump right onto the Yellow Line, just a few blocks away, to get us straight back to the finish line in Crystal City. We had the frustrating experience of getting into the Metro and finding a 12 minute wait - lots of teams caught up to us while we were waiting for the train.

When we got to Crystal City, we were determined to just gut it out and run the whole way but our bodies just weren't up to it. We did our best, and towards the end I pushed Deborah to run a bit more. We had stayed ahead of the group we were trying to beat, so she asked what the point in keeping pushing was, and I said so we could do the best we could do. We gutted it out and ran the last block and then gasped for breath for 10 minutes.

As we crossed the line, the guy checking people in told us "You're right on the cusp." I swear by everything holy that it never crossed my mind that it meant anything - I honestly figured it was the cusp of the first half verses the second half. A few minutes later Deborah came over to tell me that we were in shot of the top 25 and 6 hours later I honestly can't believe it. In the end, the winning team came in at about 2:30 and we came in at 3:08. Mapping it out, it looks like we covered about 5.5 miles - jogging and walking when we had to.

Whether or not we go to Nationals, this will not be the last race we run!



12 clues:

1) Find a DC organization whose mission is to "empower homeless and low-income women to claim their highest quality of life by offering a broad spectrum of services and advocacy in an atmosphere of dignity and respect." Choose one of the three items below and deliver it to the guy with a guitar there:

a. A new size 42 - 54 D or DD bra.
b. A new shower curtain vinyl liner.
c. A new set of twin sheets.

You must get a 'brochure' after delivering your item to receive credit for this clue.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

2) DETOUR (choose one of the following two):

a. Take a picture of 12 or more total real people with at least two real people wearing a shirt that clearly says 'Washington, DC."
b. Take a picture of 12 or more total real people with at least two real people wearing a Washington Nationals shirt.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

3) Solve the following puzzle (it was a cryptogram). When solved, it told us to "Find the Super Shot in ESPN Zone and take a picture of one teammate shooting one of the basketballs with super shot clearly visible in the picture."
_____________________________________________________________________________________

4) The Obamas decided to have a slumber party last night and were trying to figure out who to invite to the White House. Malia, being the older child, choose to invite double the amount of Sasha. Sasha invited an odd primary number of friends, the next one up from her age. Barack said it was unfair for only the girls to have guests over so he had a few of his buddies join the party - the other living presidents. Michelle then felt left out so she called up her girl friends, Hilary, Condoleeza, and Sarah to come by as well. Then she thought about it and uninvited Sarah. Grandma Robinson decided to invite all 69 of her Chicago friends to show them the White House. If each guest and each Obama / Robinson slept in their own room, how many rooms in the White House were unoccupied that night?

Take a picture with the White House clearly visible and the answer of the above clue shown by teammates holding up the proper number of fingers.

Leah's note: depending on the reading of "their own room" the answer was either 19 or 20. We took a picture with each one held up, just in case. Mom and Dad solve this one for us - thanks guys!
_____________________________________________________________________________________

5) Victor Hugo wrote that genius and this were "one and the same."

Find the commemorative spot that marks where "the Park Bench Statesman" would wait for his.

Take a picture of both of the teammates sitting on the bench with the bronze plaque set in granite block clearly visible in the picture.

Leah's note: INSPIRATION and genius are one in the same, so we had to look for a bench where Bernard Baruch waited for inspiration.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

6) Return to the finish line with one of the following items:

a) A toothpick with an American flag attached to it.
b) A wooden Popsicle stick.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

7) Take the short lesson at Combat Sports International. After successfully completing your lesson, the staff will give you a flyer. You must return to the finish with this card! This clue is only available from 1 pm - 5 pm so strategize accordingly.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

8) Comedians are waiting to judge your best joke. Find the venue in Arlington where T-Rexx is scheduled to perform later tonight. If your joke makes the judges laugh, you'll get a ticket (return to the finish with this) and the clue is complete. If your joke doesn't make the judges laugh you must perform another joke. Your joke can be simple and does not have to include both teammates. Our judges are looking more for effort than hilarity.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

9) Find the Rosslyn Ledo Pizza. Go directly to the buffet table, take one strand of spaghetti, and take picture of both teammates eating it Lady and the Tramp style (one teammate eating it on each end).
_____________________________________________________________________________________

10) Take a picture of all teammates in front of the specific statue of "The Philosopher" shown on the right.

Leah's note: This was a hard one to find on Google. Searching on "The Philosopher" didn't yield anything. When I looked closely at the photo, I thought it said Martin Luther, and I knew that clue 1 was right next to the church that houses Luther Place (another DC advantage). We tried Googling Martin Luther and found it right away. Thank goodness for good eyesight!
_____________________________________________________________________________________

11) Take a picture of all teammates in front of a real Bombardier in the National Museum of the American Indian.

Leah's note: This is the one we skipped.
_____________________________________________________________________________________

12) Unscramble the following words and take a picture of all teammates in front of this sculpture:

GONCHUCR RIDEPS

Leah's note: I had studied the clues from previous years and had seen that Anagrams were a frequent clue. I loaded a great Anagram program on my iPhone, but when I tried to use it on this clue it didn't find anything! After the race I realized that it was searching in the sub-category of English Names, not all words. We wasted at least 5 or 10 minutes working on that one, and finally Mom and Dad figured it out for us!
_____________________________________________________________________________________

Harris Teeter triples

Easy run at HT, helped out by my long-suffering Mom who handled 20 coupons for me:





Aquafresh: $1.99 minus $.75 coupon (tripled) = free - donation
Huggies wipes: $3.29 minus $.75 coupon (tripled) = $1.04 each (69% savings)
Wet Ones: $2.89 minus $.75 coupon (tripled) = $.64 each (78% savings)
Ban deodorant: $2.59 minus $.75 coupon (tripled) = $.34 each (87% savings - donation)
Ortega refried beans: $2 for 2 cans minus $.75 coupon (tripled) = free + overage
Granola bars: $2.50 minus $.75 coupon (tripled) = $.25/box (90% savings)
Applesauce: $3.54 minus $.60 coupon (tripled) = $.87/package
Frank's Hot Sauce: $.33 minus $.50 coupon (tripled) = free + overage

The whole trip cost about $12 and was worth every penny!

Harris Teeter triples

Using my newfound "sanity meter", I had decided to skip the Harris Teeter Triple Coupon week. But I realized yesterday that I needed more milk for the freezer, so off we went.

I made it easy and stuck to just a few things I'd really use.



The grape tomatoes were on sale for $1.25 each and the boys munch them like crazy. The half-empty one was emptied by said boys right there in the grocery cart.

The dole fruit cups were on sale for $2 each and I had 3 coupons for $.75 off 2 (tripled). So each package of fruit cups cost me 86 cents!

The ziploc bags weren't on sale, but we always need them. Each package cost $2.45 and I used coupons for $.55 off (tripled), so each package cost me 80 cents!

The Ken's dressings were on sale Buy 2 Get 3 Free and I had coupons for $1 off 2. So each bottle cost me 48 cents!

The Muir Glen tomatoes were totally NOT needed since we have so many, but I can't resist the price. Each can cost $2.39 and I had coupons for $.75 off (tripled). So each can cost me 14 cents. Can't pass it by.

The end!