Family Camping Tradition

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We’re starting July with our favorite family tradition: camping.

It’s actually a series of trips, first a fourth of July weekend trip to Dodge Park with four other families (call us crazy to take 5 two year olds, a 4 yo, and two 5 yo to the woods!). Then the kids and my Twin Sis and I are headed to the Oregon Country Fair, including a memorial service for our father. Meanwhile, Hubby will be taking another solo vacation to mentor teens on a backpacking trip in the Olympics.

I’ve already written plenty about the logistics of family camping in previous posts:

Frugal Family Camping – Tips for planning ahead

Family Camping Gear – An earful on camp gear

Group camping is far more affordable and feasible than planning a group vacation. With our five family gathering over two nights no one has to cook more than once! Plus, there are more eyes and hands to go around, and we were truly smart this time and invited aunts/uncles without kids of their own…built-in kid entertainers 🙂 Each family will easily spend less than $100 for a full weekend including camp fees, food and gas…although gas seems to get higher and higher, good thing our destination is less than an hour from town.

Our kids truly love camping, and camping is really the best way to get out in nature. I also think its the best way to really share family time and to get together with other families. The truth is that if you have friends over for dinner/playdate, the max you’ll hang out is about three hours, which is just enough to catch up. Camping together really allows families to reconnect and bond. Growing up, we had several families who we only ever saw for annual camping trips and they are the family friends I am the closest with now. Family camping is a tradition that virtually every family can afford and the memories are priceless.

Hence, I won’t be posting until the week after next…enjoy your holiday!

Does your family save money by camping?

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Sustainable Family Finances

The story of a family creating an abundant and sustainable life.

Service Magic

With My Own Two Hands

Clean Energy Works – Evaluation

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It’s hard to believe, but it’s already been over a year since we finished our home energy efficiency upgrades through the Clean Energy Works pilot program. Since I’ve written on our experience pretty extensively, I want to evaluate the true energy and cost savings of the program now that I have a full year of bills to compare.

(See previous posts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Initial Evaluation, Poster Family)

For our natural gas use, from May to May, we used 54.56 Therms per month, compared to 70.49 Therms in the previous 13 months, which is a 22.6% reduction in energy use. This is despite the fact that we nearly froze here this May…truly I don’t remember ever keeping the heat on that long! While I’m pretty satisfied with those results, I am a bit perplexed by how the estimate of Therms saved in the bid is so much less in real life…they had projected 433 Therms saved, but in the first year it was only 207 Therms…I’ll have to check with our contractor to see if he knows why it’s lower.

As mentioned in the “initial evaluation” post, our previous natural gas bill had been $97. After the Clean Energy Works loan, it went up to $146.24. We are still on the even bill pay, so it’s taking a bit to catch up, but our new average for the past 14 months is $105, which includes the loan fee of $49.24. For the comfort factor alone, the $8 extra would be worth it. In the long run, we can expect to see our natural gas bill drop to $55 for an annual savings of about $500 a year.

Have you increased your energy efficiency and reduced your utility bills?

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Sustainable Family Finances
The story of a family creating an abundant and sustainable life.

Doggy Update

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Alas, it’s time to give an update on our doggy decision…it’s a tough topic for me.

I wrote about our decision regarding Kiki’s knee injury in the context of our finances, but in reality its much more of a personal/family decision than a pure money matter. The fact is that we’ve been challenged to keep Kiki altogether. Here’s the brief back story:

We adopted Kiki two summers ago when Girly was just five months…we adopted him on a bit of whim and I teased close friends that it was my way of distracting our desire for a third child (we had previously agreed we wanted a dog after having kids). The kids quickly fell in love with him, especially Girly (see video her lounging on him last summer), and now she walks him with me every weekend morning. Hubby and I had a steeper learning curve as new dog owners, and within the first months we had repeated trash incidents, compost digging, food nabbing, he ran away two times, plus loud barking any time he was left outside without us (which the neighbors wrote us notes about…) Ironically, we were baby-proofing our house at the same time as doggy-proofing, and I came to think of them as the same thing: provide a safe environment and everyone will be happy/healthy!

However, the fact is that Kiki’s dog ways can drive Hubby mad, and he admitted after a few weeks of having him that he brought out some OCD tendencies and that his threshold for misbehavior was way lower than mine. But don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t a happy camper when Kiki tore my stuff: two camelbacks, a sherpani work bag, our Ergo baby carrier, our Kelty baby hiker backpack, our new luggage…plus three leashes and two harnesses…yes, we’ve gotten the hint that he likes gnawing on straps/bags! Now that I think back, I wonder how I could tolerate it all…but despite his natural dog-tendencies, Kiki is truly a great dog and wonderful with the kids.

Hubby had been threatening for months under his breath to give away Kiki, and it made me cringe each time. But it was Kiki destroying a new homebrew kit that Hubby excitingly purchased that was the last straw for Hubby. That was in March. I thought long and hard, and realized that despite his sometimes destructive dog ways, Kiki is part of our family, and I wasn’t ready to give up. Since then I’ve taken over all dog duties (including poop patrol, which I vowed to never do…), and I now get up at 5:30 to walk him (nearly) every morning.

My bond to Kiki has certainly strengthened, and even with the hard family lessons, I’m glad to have him in our life.

But with more reflection, I can see that I was willing to pay the thousand dollar vet fee in part because I felt like it’s our obligation as responsible pet owners and because I feel guilty for ever considering giving him away. I know in my heart that having him in our family isn’t something you can put a price tag on, and we can’t even imagine the long term value his playful presence will have for our children. As you can see from the “dress up” photo, they love him.

As for the knee surgery, I’ve decided that with his arthritis and age, he’s not a good candidate. I also feel like expense and effort would be too much of a sacrifice on our family, but we will continue to give him the best care and love we can. Thankfully, his limp is gone for now and his full old-age vet scan came back gleaming. As I paid another $25 to renew his tags a few weeks ago, I felt like I’ve made the best decision for our entire family.

Have you ever had family pet tribulations?

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Sustainable Family Finances

The story of a family creating an abundant and sustainable life.