If this worked before why do you want to be different this time? I've seen strong and weak couples with joint and separate accounts. I think the way people do their bank accounts is just what works for them logistically. The ability to have open conversation between the couple about how to manage their money is the bigger indicator about relationship health.

Oh yes I can totally cut my tea and fun drinks expenditure. I have a tea leaf collection at home and I have a hard time saying no to Thai Ice Tea but, neither of those are needs.

My mom and MIL will share things about family members and friend's news and stuff. Small talk fodder in some ways and some ways just keeping me in the loop on family goings-on that I may not know about, not every shares all the things on social media. My mom lives in another country so those relatives are far away, so it's easier if she updates me on their things rather than me constantly google translating the family chat. MIL updates me on family members I've met once or twice and I update her on the family member that somehow only figured out my FB account so I give her the updates on her on that family (pictures, fun stuff). The weirdness of this is the statement that this ends up being a list of great achievements. I mean when I get these updates and small talk fodder it's really a mixed bag of good news, bad news and neutral news. So and so got a promotion but such and such also had a heart attack; such and such nephew might also have gotten their wisdom tooth taken out, while some family members decided to have dinner together last week. I'm getting an update on real people. Real people have ups and downs in their lives. So a great achievements list sort of just sounds like the parents are giving a Christmas card update of everything which wouldn't everyone already know from the Christmas card.

We did that with DS7 this year. Spelling solidifies the phonics. We don't miss the reading curriculum at all. We do a book that he is reading next to me so he can ask what words are (he didn't get to the part in the reading program where they cover words like psychology, Greek and Latin roots). I taught him how to use a dictionary, but I don't make him use it all the time because that seemed a bit tedious when he's enjoying the reading.

In absolute terms it'd be cheaper to feed just me, because DH eats more and needs more meat/protein in his diet (he works out a lot). However he encourages me to make more foods from scratch than I otherwise would so calorie-wise I'd spend more per calorie.

I find it useful to look at images of fancy rooms decorated with the colors I'm needing to work with for inspiration. I don't know the technicalities of why colors go together. To me they just look like they go together, but my husband can't see it at all until the whole room comes together.

Yum!

I started making my own sandwich bread for this reason. I was buying $9+ bread. Although on occasion I still do but from local small bakers. I've tried to make bread like theirs and have not succeeded. Plus, I like to support a local business that I can see pays their workers well, and at least tries to do their due diligence on their supply chain. Yes I have a lot I can cut out and that's fine because my budget right now allows me to afford these things and I like to support people getting paid a decent wage. I understand that not everyone can do that, but if I am able then I'm going to. Inexpensive things are sometimes inexpensive for not so good reasons.

I think you have to do the Teaching the Classics seminar from Center for Lit before you can do the Ready Readers.

I have not been in the same situation, but there are other curricula out there that use literature that teach more about literature (literary devices, deeper dives into what the story is really about, etc.) The two I can think of is Bravewriter (here you can even select the books you want to do, they include some more modern literature as well) and Center for Lit Ready Readers (they use classics). Maybe those can be what you are looking for.

If you want to paint to sell then go with the lighter/whiter color. The darker warm colors will make it more cozy for living in but a lighter/whiter color will make it look more clean and larger for sale.

Accesible beige looks like it's the 2nd color from a sample color strip. My rule of thumb for that is the first 2 colors on those strips are basically white (no matter what color you get) the third color is the one that starts to differ from looking white on a wall. Also if you find someone else's paint color that you like you can bring it into Sherwin Williams and they'll make that color for you.

Well the way my family eats we are. I get more money back from the rewards program than the annual fee and we can actually use up the bulk food items before they go bad. If my children and husband didn't exist the membership may not be worth it to me. Sometimes a neighbor or friend will ask me to pick up a Costco item for them because they only buy the one thing once or twice a year.

I could do without this. A luxury I couldn't do without is the clothes washing machine. A few weeks ago we discovered the drain for our washing machine doesn't work for our washing machine. I looked up how to wash clothes by hand ... nope. I'd rather have unsightly hoses everywhere so I can use the machine. The dryer though I could do without.

There's a lot we can cut out. Eating out Grocery bill: We make a lot from scratch but we like nice stuff. So yes less nice cheese (I don't need Gouda, I can buy less nice parmesan), I don't need avocado oil, I can use regular diced tomatoes and not San Marzano sort of stuff. I'd hate to quit our fresh farm food subscription on principle (I really love the farm we support) but we could cut that if finances are dire. More rice and beans for the kids. Snacks Timing the usage of our appliances. Shorten everyone's shower. Keep the house less comfortable. Be more intentional with our gardening or quit it all together. I don't know it's always been just a fun thing so I don't know if we could use it to cut down food bill or if that's a lost cause. Preserve more of the fruits we get and ask friends for more of their fruits. Reevaluate homeschooling and I definitely could cut down my spending here. Plus we could evaluate if me going back to work makes financial sense compared to sending my children to school and necessary childcare expenses. Depending on the situation it could just be a swap of teacher depending on who finds a job first. Reduce the number of extracurriculars for adults and kids. Amazon prime and Netflix. Avoid book stores. CPA haircuts I know I have a long list. We are doing well financially and these are all intentional expenditures.

I don't know if it's this exact one but I have a similar thing in the kitchen. It's wonderful. I take the rings off in the kitchen a lot (working with dough or something). The other place I take it off often is the bathroom, but there I have the ring cleaning machine that I put it in.

Yes!! I used to do that until I lost mine. We ended up finding them under a leaf on the sidewalk of a busy street at 10pm at night. (I used to do that when I went to ballet class now I just leave them at home. Better field people's questions about whether DH and I are still together than to lose the most expensive jewelry I own.)

I think my thoughts are Target, Amazon and then Ulta.

Well my MIL has given up now that her son is over 40... .

I'll start. I don't put levels down because most of it's just going to be where ever we are. Math: Beast Academy ELA Reading: We are past the learn to read stage so currently I'm envisioning assigned reading. (Maybe I give him some choices and he chooses.) This year has been very interest-led in this area but some of the books he picks sometimes has questionable grammar and punctuation. (I think this year this approach was fine because we are just working on writing a sentence, any sentence. Moving forward though I'd like us to be reading well written books.) Continue with read alouds. I would like to do Chronicles of Narnia (I'm hoping his little sister (to be first grade) will be able to enjoy it with us.) Writing: HWOT (handwriting), Reading Poodle books and Grammarland, do some madlibs for grammar. Explode the Code focusing on phonics rules and spelling. Copywork and narration from the reading. Writing across subjects with The Writing Revolution. Science: Mystery Science History: Curiosity Chronicles Medieval. I will supplement with SOTW because I can borrow that. Extracurriculars: Piano, PE class, Baseball, and Chinese.

So I bought a scrub daddy 10+ years ago and I wasn't impressed in fact I felt like it didn't work at all... Did they improve am I missing something? It was scrubby when the water was cold but when the water is cold the dish soap doesn't work as well?? When the water is warm it didn't scrub at all. Interested because I'm getting nervous about cleaning the enamel cast iron with the OXO nylon brush... I'm nervous maybe the rigid plastic piece with making marks on it.

I found golf pencils to be really good at teaching grip. The regular pencils are too long I think making it uncomfortable for little hands. But ditto everything @Rosie_0801and @HomeAgainis saying. For most children they will just get the hang of it after lots of play (seemingly unrelated to handwriting) and lots of scribbling and coloring (if they enjoy this it comes quicker, if they don't they'll still be able to write). I have one who liked to draw and one who doesn't. DS7 who doesn't like to draw he got legible handwriting at around 5. Google what children's writing looks like. There you can see the progression because at 5 and under you are still expecting them not to always write from left to right, top to bottom (especially if they are doing it on their own).

I'm reading a used version of this book. Really opening my eyes to the why of literary analysis.

Thanks for this I read/saw some of her stuff and I'm starting some stuff too.

Don't feel like you need to apologize if you don't think you actually have anything to apologize for. I know what I said before but I was also not there so perhaps you did nothing to dismiss his thoughts. You can also just have a conversation about how you could address him when you think he's overreacting or getting too worked up. For example a specific phrase so that you can disengage from a discussion that is turning into a screaming match (and that topic really isn't important).