Saving For Water
We don't water our lawn all year long (we have the brown grass to prove it) so that when the mean ass summer sun starts to bully Florida with red hot fire beams, we don't feel guilty when we use our water to cool down the children. It's not even June and we are hitting near 100 already, I watch Tessa fill up the wagon with water and stick the hose on her head, and as she is giggling in the shade and she has found relief from the heat, I think: "Ugh, I'm going to have to figure out a way to buy this family a swimming pool someday." Time to get out another mason jar, and mark this one with "pool" it can sit right next to the one marked "romantic dinner for two in Bora Bora."
For now, the water hose is one of the greatest things on earth in this little girls life.
And I am asking because I really would like to know-- What do you have written on your coin jar? Is it dreamy things like trips to Bora Bora and swimming pools? Or is it practical things like, a new roof, or college?
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72 comments:
Good question!
(But first-over 100 degrees already? I like outside Chicago and we've been barely scraping 50, and it's been raining like Seattle round here. It certainly doesn't feel like summer here, but my cold-weather garden veggies like it).
Our Mason Jar has two things on it: the more immediate one is new tires for my car, the longer term one is for our vacation in August to Saint Louis.
Did Cole have a good day yesterday?
@Connie- She did have a great day, thanks for asking. And yes! It has been like 96 and the heat index crept up to 100. Saint Louis vacation! You're going for the ribs I assume.
Smarty Pig is my coin jar. (I'm not sponsored, just a fan). They have high interest rates and commercial partners that get you money back when you use your money from Smarty Pig on their products (like a pool).
i miss the days of playing in the hose (uhh... that's what she said?). my masor jar is for culinary school.
My jar is for a new camera...cute pic!
I'm in Texas and summer starts in April. Add a drought and it's horrible. Ugh.
My coin jar is for the Harry Potter theme park in September for my 35th. Oh, and my citizenship but I'll be mailing it off within a week or 2. Talk about procrastination. :P
Oh man! 100 degrees. I can barely handle Atlanta's hot weather right now, so I don't know what I'm going to do when we're in Tallahassee for the 4th of July.
Hmm. Our main mason jar is for a baby. Then a camera lens, computer, and some kind of vacation - maybe to go see the clay courts at the French Open, or maybe somewhere in the South Pacific. One can dream right?
Hope Cole had a great birthday!
What about a pool like this? http://pinterest.com/pin/21962893/ - saltwater?
it's a mix. we're saving for a trip to Australia, and a mortgage. and kids. so some dreamy, some practical.
We have 4 bottles (recycle plastic) one for each coin to help teach the girls the difference in currency... The quarters is to pay for parking, pennies to donate to the school for a fund raiser, the rest nickel and dime stuff. ;D (bc ending in a . May give the impression I'm not smiling)
@Margie- Have you ever seen my Harry Potter theme park post? I loved it. It is one of the rare things I would stand in the hot sun to see. Crazed fan.
Mason Jar = all kinds of fun new camera equipment!! Love the picture, story, and the memories it conjures up of my own sweet sprinkler days.
I have a list of things I want to do, its 116 things long and its filled with amazing things in all sorts of amazing places. But my mason jar? It's labelled 'trip home'.
Ours did say 'wheelchair' but now that the half of us that needed a new wheelchair has gone to a place I fondly imagine has no wheelchairs my coin jar says 'kindness'. I'm stacking up loose change in the hope of eventually being able to help someone else who needs it, a sort of repayment for all the people who helped us.
I don't have a mason jar, but need one. I think it will be for a wagon for my daughters. I'll start small.
I have piggy bank, it's full of one cents and 2.. can't go further with that than bakery to buy bread ;) but really I should have one jar for " dream vacation" never been out of Europe and I need that soon! :)
Your weather report is so making the upcoming move to Florida less anticipated. Although, it is hard to believe that the weather can be any worse than Alabama. It is by far the most miserable place I have every lived. A pool is definitely on our must have list.
My mason jars are marked with dreams that for after military life: a real home that I never have to leave furnished with well loved antiques thrifted furnishings & accessories; handpicked by me for me, a golf cart for my son; who is obsessed with them & a boat for the husband; self explanatory. Did I mention they are 10 gallon sized?
Fashion Fund - in hopes that I actually get a new outfit once in a while.
We have a bottle named "serendipity". This is an open invitation to let life knock on our door and say come out to play. I would however love it if Bora Bora came a knockin'.
My husband has a Spring House water jug he intends on filling up with coins. The imaginary label has something to do with vacation. This jug has been 1/4th of the way full twice and we have emptied it for assistance on some trip we were taking. We have decided to apply discipline and not empty again until it's full. We want to go to Scotland.
"Tattoo Fund"
"home sweet home"
I did. You made me want to go that much more. :)
A house and a baby. It's going to be a LONG while on the house...
I love seeing the water spill out of the wagon.
Our jar is the biggest size 1800 tequila bottle: easy to get the coins in, harder to get them out. ^_^ It isn't labeled, and I know my husband ransacks it for the vending machines at work, but when it fills up we cash it and use the money on whatever is needed at the time. Last time was clothes and a mattress for the baby. I'm thinking the next time will be gas money for our roadtrip to Florida in July; hot weather, here we come!
haha oh man, "romantic dinner for two in Bora Bora" kills me.
we had a New Roof Jar and then we hit the lottery and our insurance covered the whole kit and kaboodle (talk about L U C K Y), so now it's all about kitchen remodel. uh, our oven is original to the house (built in '60) cute but far from efficient.
we're sweatin' it out in VA today too- it's almost 90 already! i just might get in that baby pool myself. :)
It's almost June and we're still lucky to get to 50 (it's 39 right now here in good ol' Oregon). We only ever have two or three jars going at a time, because we're pretty broke. So, one is a college fund for the kiddo (my hubby and I are both in college now and it SUCKS to take out loans, so we don't want her to deal with that, hopefully). Our second jar is a general emergency fund, and the last one is our "get the hell out of apartments" fund; we'd love a house, preferably NOT in Oregon since it depresses me 7 months out of the year.
Tessa's a doll!!!
Oh geez, 100 and sunny? It's 50 and crappy here in Chicago.
Our little blue ball jar currently says "camping trip to Glacier National Park," though it should probably say "new washer and dryer." But that's not nearly as fun.
Building a classrom library for my future students, and travel to everywhere :)
My change jar goes to anything on my life list. Last time it filled up I bought a lariat so I can learn to rope which is #25. Also sometimes it ends up going towards dresses for high school dances.
Our jars are the Disney/Universal trip I'd like to take our kids on in a few years (when they're old enough to remember it but young enough that it's still magical), adoption, and a future mortgage. Not as exciting as it was pre-kids, but still good.
My opinion? Hoses are more fun than private pools, unless there is a steady stream of friends coming over. Pools are in the same category as those prefab playsets. It's just SO much more fun to go to a public one than to play alone in your backyard. Hoses are somehow different - there are engineering issues you can work out, holes in the lawn to fill up, spray styles to experiment with. My happy splash days as a kid involved hoses far more often than pools.
We are saving for college and scrimping a bit to get used to a lower effective income when baby #2 comes around.
Our jar is for a new house. We need more room and a better yard for the boys.
These are all so great, keep them coming. I feel like I need 5 or 6 more jars now.
Bad Word Jar... Its full.
I should note that Jade Ana will probably say "Quarter in the jar" at least five times a day. The "Bad Word Jar" was created by her. She and Brooklyn let me know that any bad word (even stupid) deserves a quarter in the jar... We haven't decided what to do with it yet...
Glad to see Cole had a good day! I have four mason jars (which is fitting with my OCD):
1. College
2. Tara Whitney
3. Ocean
4. Camera
Jars 2 and 3 could really go together. I've thought ever since I first discovered Tara that it would be so fun to have a shoot with her and see the ocean. I'll be 25 this year and have never seen an ocean. I have a feeling I will love it, but am also afraid I will be unaffected now that I've allowed myself to believe the experience will be so great. But I keep the mason jar because... well... why not?
3 acres of land with a mid-century modern house. A BMW station wagon. Take my family to Goa. My pig will need to hold half a million dollars.
We just bought this $42 baby pool for Rory and it's a blast. I got it from Target for the free shipping but left the review on Amazon. On the main page, the 5th and 6th pictures are Rory.
http://www.amazon.com/Intex-117---53-Inch-Rainbow-Center/dp/B000KI111Y/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1306425577&sr=8-15
@Laura- I LOVE that you have a Tara Whitney jar. That makes me so very happy.
We (my husband and I) are also saving for a pool. Right now we have a few savings accounts for different things. A new car being the priority account right now.
I'm guilty of using my niece's inflatable kid pool in the backyard lol. Gotta find a way to stay cool in this FL heat.
:)
Mine says: "Pay off college."
Unfortunately our jar has "property taxes" on the side of it. blech. they are outrageous. maybe one year we will get promoted to a vacay jar!
@Connie, if you are coming to STL check out Bogart's in Soulard- AMAZING ribs! Our friend Skip is the owner/chef
Baby.
My jar says "Baby"... not that there will ever be enough in that jar to cover it...
My jar says "Baby"... not that there will ever be enough in the jar to cover the expense...
We're paying off college WHILE saving for our kiddo's college. Eh... a conundrum.
My savings were just emptied out to stop the chimney leaking into the bedroom. I've been saving so long for home repairs that I'm taking a few months out and buying shoes.
I really NEED to start quite a few mason jars. I have 3 kids (12 year old, 10 year old, and 15.5 month old). I need the jars to say Extracurricular Activities #1, #2, and #3. Also Vehicle #1, #2, and #3. And after that will be College #1, #2, and #3.
I hope that Cole had a great day working on her birthday and that you realize that you are not selfish and neither is Cole. You guys are in a marriage. Sometimes one will sacrifice for the other, vice-versa.
Tessa seriously cannot get any cuter!
Lovely photo, and i know what you mean. I live in Fort Lauderdale and we're actually headed to the beach right now!
Ours is for a 6 week vacation to Europe for my hubby and I after he finishes grad school and before we start making little babes =)
Happy Belated Birthday Cole! Hope you had a lovely day - your husband said some beautiful things about you yesterday...
Ugg...This weather is for the birds. Fortunately we have a pool in our backyard and I live about 10 minutes from the gulf. Although by July the water in the gulf gets so warm that it really isn't refreshing. Our jar is for our home. We need a new roof, that comes first. Then a raised bed for vegatables, pavers to build a small patio on the side, new fridge, house painted and so on and so on and so on....
Just wanted to say it's like Christmas around here with these daily posts! Love it. You're a fantastic writer and photographer. Keep it up:)
Back to the topic, the mason jar is always for a vacation. To me, there's nothing better than getting away from reality and responsibilities and pretending you are part of this new destination for a week.
We're in the process of building a house so we have things like "driveway" "fencing" etc on ours. Would be nice to have something more fun on them.
My coin jars are titled "Travel" and "Food" (eating out, trying new things at new places, etc).
Happy birthday Cole -- I hope you had a wonderful day at the Salon and I bet your family's birthday cake was great!
I don't have any exciting mason jars right now...they are all practical. Like money to eat aso. We're in China trying to survive a dream that fell through also. Its not fun to live abroad with no money!!!
We used o be better at keeping a coin jar. Never labeled it anything, but it should be "new roof" or "nursery decor" but will probably be "new MBP" because I'm tired of hubby borrowing mine all the time.
Too bad Florida's so far away--we took down our pool to make a big fenced-in garden & now it's all taking up space in the garden shed. I'd love to get rid of it.
We live in Japan and our jar now says "Survivors" for the thousands still living in limbo. We have a mixture of yen and quarters and nickels in it. It was my 8 year old's idea and it made my heart swell that she thought it up!
"A road trip in the US"-jar
we have a jar with "trip to visit our family in Florida" ;) maybe i should add "with 2 kids and how on earth are we gonna survive a transatlantic flight";)))
but for this summer the polish tropics are perfectly enough.
i love Tessa's hat:) my son has almost the same and wears it on the days when he's not a ninja.
A.
Oh, college needs more than a coin jar. College needs interest. We're working on setting that one up. It's complicated. We want to optimize our savings without compromising our retirement or completely shooting down our chances of receiving some tuition relief. Hub has been reading books about it all. He's a champ with this kind of planning!
As for the fun stuff, my husband's jar is for a new lens.
My jar was just emptied. It bought us an amazing new bed. I've never slept on anything so comfortable in my life! Better sleep. Better sex. SO WORTH IT!
Time to start saving again! I think I want to go to Europe with my next collection. :) Dream big!
PS: I love an imperfect lawn. I swear, it's true. A scruffy lawn makes me smile, because I know one person in the world isn't dumping a bunch of chemicals down in some futile and bizarre battle against dandelions.
My lawn always looks like crap. Nobody notices! It's a magic trick. Just distract them with a lovely garden and you're all set.
I don't have a family of my own, so my mason jar is marked with "summer." I work at a University, but I'm a 10-month position. So while it's awesome to have summers off... I'm also making no money. So all school year, I just save my change up for the summer :)
on my jar or should i say jars there is so much marked...i want a hair treatment to stop my hair being a constant frizzy pompom and i want a tv in the garden for tilly and then in my dreams i want millions to buy an estate in the country to start a house for adulkts with sms to live in full of magic and art and fun and then i want the kids on reeces rainbow all to have full adoption funds and then i want somr perfume...i flit from small dream to huge dream in an instant and have the money for neither! thank goodness reading blogs and seeing scrummy pics like yours are free. xxxxx
we use an old water cooler jug. no pennies allowed.
ours is marked lobster & taffy for our august beach week.
90&sunny here today and my kids refuse to turn off the hose!
We have 2, "Christmas in Mexico Roadtrip" and "Rent"
We have been wanting to take a roadtrip in Mexico Christmas for about 3 years now. My wife is originally from a small village in Jalisco and we've love to spend Chrsitmas there, then drive to Mexico City and then either PV or Oaxaca or some other beach town. This year, we finally have enough money to do it, but with our 1 person income and no clear financial future we may have to use it for bills and rent. Sad Face.
I used to love to run through the sprinklers as a kid.
We have a giant Mason (or some off brand canning) jar in the cabinetry above our washer and dryer. It's not labeled, but the coins are for our future trip to Eureka Springs, this little hippie town about six or so hours from here. We've rented a treehouse for our stay and since the town is nothing but artsy small businesses and unique shops, we've begun putting aside some money for the bags and bags of things we're going to come across and want to buy. Materialism wins in this situation--ere go, a coin jar!
By the way... It's not reached triple digits here (Arkansas) yet but the weather has been extra steamy and the air is thick enough to drink. It's been to the mid-nineties but has cooled to the 80s with all of the thunderstorms (and tornadoes) the past few days. Destructive and worrisome as it may be, I love this time of year in tornado alley. Something about the way the air pricks your skin and makes all of your senses much more aware of what's happening around you.
-S
Right now my coin jar is for a little trip I'm going on with friends in June, and college loans. Fun things and practical things, weee :) Though the trip is way less money in comparison to the loans and college fees. Why do things have to cost money?
Hi Ryan, My mason jar lable is for a new polaroid camera. :)
Which brings me to my next question - I am a newbie in this area! Do you have any advice on how to choose my first polaroid camera? What should I look out for? Where can I get them? Is the film easy to find? Will current models get obsolete fast? Any general advice?
Thanks very much!
/G, your loyal reader in Austria. :)
mason jar says Cottage in the south of France
The bookshelf in the front of my desk houses an old glass Martinelli's apple juice bottle, filled to the top with change. I'm hoping to save my money to one day open a bakery, you know, to be able to do what I love -- bake. I can only hope to one day find a job that I will love as much as Cole loves hers, or as much as you love Tessa and LB.
However, opening a business is expensive; everyone knows that. It's not something that a large change jar will cover. Instead of perfecting recipes, I went with the college route. After a full year of being a chemistry major, every happy and positive emotion in me has been lost and replaced with a lackluster personality. I have no idea how people do this for four years.
This change jar that I look at before I fall asleep every night haunts me -- it makes me angry that I gave up on my dreams, all because I wanted a "steady income" and "job security." Guess this goes to show what an Americanized society will teach you.
Honestly, all I want is to one day have my own loving and adorable family, much like yours. Just being able to have someone to lean on and talk to, and to have little kids to run and chase on the beach. And I don't think that is something one can find by collecting their change in an old jar.
a new roof and a kitchen remodel are for the big time stuff. the previous owners did some wacky things to our house.
our small time jar is for a vacay to san diego during blogher.
-mommymae
my mason jar says "imac"....*sigh*
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