We've had out dc pay for their tertiary education themselves through student loans. We help with living costs as needed & as we are able.

Ds#2 is missing those teeth. We've chosen after discussing it with him to just leave things as they are as he has no trouble with his teeth.

Isn't this just like what happened in the Trail of Tears? People are occupying a piece of land you want, so lets move them off to somewhere far away.

This is the first year that one of our dc won't be home for Xmas / Boxing Day. We plan to put some $ into his NZ account for his gift as with his fly in / fly out job we aren't sure that anyone will be home to receive any package we send. I had been hoping to send him a box of homemade Xmas baking, like my m-i-l did for dh when he first worked overseas. but ds#1's job situation is different. Dd & Ds#2 will both get home on the 23rd for a few days. I plan to still continue our traditions of baking heaps of cookies + a fruitcake for dh. Ds#2 has been told he still has to bake the pavlova for Xmas dinner. Xmas breakfast has been the same items for the past 20 years & we will continue this. Boxing Day is usually a day at the beach where dh spent his holidays growing up & weather dependent we will visit again this year. In recent years I have had a puzzle on the coffee table for us to put together over Xmas week. This is a more recent tradition & one I hope to continue.

When my 3 dc were young we went with the 4 gifts (something they want, something they need, something to wear, & something to read), but as they began to move in to adulthood I changed the focus to "eat, drink, & be merry." Last year their gifts from us were largely gift cards. Not very exciting, but were very appreciated. For the boys I got them gift cards from Subway (for the "eat" part), Countdown (a NZ grocery store for the "drink" part), & iTunes (for the "be merry" part). Dd doesn't have Apple devices so she received a gift card to the movies as she & her bf like to go to the movies. She also received a larger amount on the Countdown card, but no Subway card as she prefers to cook instead of eat fast food. This year I'm struggling to find ideas as ds#1 is in Oz & I'm not sure if he'll even be home to receive mail. Dd & ds#2 will most likely get similar gifts to last year as both are focusing on saving for bigger future goals. Gift cards allow them to treat themselves without losing focus on their goals.

Ds#1 started shaving at 15.5yo, while ds#2 didn't start until he was 17yo. Ds#1(23yo) now can grow in his beard in less than a week, while ds#2 (almost 20yo) only needs to shave a couple times a week to not look scruffy.

I like the Vivienne Files as well. I had been trying to do the P333, but never seemed to really commit to it. When I found Vivienne Files "Whatever's Clean 13" list, everything just clicked. Each season I now aim for a WC13 set for work & a WC13 set for home + a couple nice, going out outfits. This adds up to about the 33 items that P333 recommends, but is easier for me to follow. I have plain bottoms, mostly print tops, & plain cardigans. This allows me to mix & match all items, making getting ready in the morning stress free. I vary the numbers depending on the season. Winter's set has 4 bottoms, 5 tops, & 4 cardigans, while summer's set has 5 bottoms, 6 tops, & 2 cardigans. For colors I try to have a couple core colors and 2-3 accent colors. I've just packed away my winter work set. That had bottoms in black & navy, while the tops & cardigans were in turquoise, maroon, & purple.

We're seeing the need for more frugal habits as well. Dh is officially retired now, so only his gov't super + my relief teaching (subbing) income for us. We are finishing up major home renovations & need to cut back to pay off those. As I have been moving things into our new kitchen I am noticing that a lot of food stuffs have been overlooked in the past due to not being organised. I aim to "shop" my pantry, freezer, & garden first from now on. This will help to cut costs for us over our low / no income period of summer holidays (mid-December - mid-February) I've begun taking 2-3 meats out of the freezer each week & planning our meals from those items, with the aim of not buying extras, but finding items in the pantry & garden to fill out the meals. Last week I found a pack of sirloin steaks that had gotten lost in the bottom of the deep freezer. They looked a bit freezer burnt, but I decided to marinate them in hopes that would save them. Those steaks were delicious & one of the most tender steaks we've had in years. I'm glad I didn't throw them out. Other odd bits of meat I've stuck in the slow cooker with a sauce (BBQ, curry, etc.) & they have cooked up beautifully. My downfall is cleaning products. I hate cleaning & when I see something new I get it thinking the cleaning will get magically done. :laugh: I've come to realise the cleaning only gets done if I do it. Cleaning products only work when used.

I use the recipe found on the Tasti fruit cake mix. Our first Christmas in NZ dh told me to make sure I got his mum's fruit cake recipe. Well, after talking with her I found out that she never followed a single recipe, but instead took bits & pieces from many different recipes each year. I bought some of the Tasti fruit cake mix at the shop & have followed the recipe on the back for the past 25 years. Key to a good fruit cake is the long baking at low temperature IMHO. Dh gets fruitcake twice a year (Christmas & his birthday) as I personally don't like it. :-) I like the icing best, but dh doesn't like icing, so our fruitcakes are not iced. The past few years I've been baking our fruitcake in a ring pan & find that it bakes more evenly as I don't have to worry about the outside drying out before the middle is cooked.

They have a number of options for that type of service here in NZ. I am very tempted to get them for dh & I, but I am still waiting until my new kitchen is 100% finished. I, also, need to have us eat down our stock pile in the freezers. They look to be a bit more expensive than shopping for yourself, but I've talked to people who get them & they say the quality is great & the convience makes the extra cost worth it.

I agree with kiwi mum. Mid-December through to beginning of February are the busiest times of year for camping & domestic travel in general. If you don't have reservations already for campgrounds, ferry crossing (between North & South Islands), & a camper van you may find it hard to get them. Mid-February through to end of March is a much better time to tour NZ as most NZers are back at work / school. And the weather is usually warmer & more settled during that time. A difference you'll find in traveling in NZ is that the basic price for motels & campgrounds is for 2 people. Each extra person, even staying in the same room, is an add-on charge. Children are usually cheaper than extra adults, but only infants are free. Also, few motel rooms would allow 5-6 people in one room. Some campgrounds have cabins that have more than one bedroom that would accommodate larger families. Eating out is more expensive than what you're used to in the States. We tend to aim to shop every couple of days & eat breakfast before we depart for the day. Lunch is sandwiches we make up out of sandwich fixings we have in a cooler in our vehicle. Dinner can be a cooked chicken, salad, & fresh bread from the shop or a quick meal cooked up on the BBQ or in the kitchen at the campground. Most motel rooms & cabins in the campgrounds have small dorm size fridges, so keeping things cool over night is possible. Do make sure you try the fish & chips, as well as the meat pies, though, as they are yummy! NZ is a wonderful country to see, but try to make some preliminary plans so you don't get disappointed if you arrive to find everything booked out. JMHO,

Not in Europe, but the fridges here in NZ are smaller than what I see back home in the States. Much of what is normally kept in the fridge in America (sauces, fruit, veg, eggs, etc.) are fine in the cupboard. Jams, worchestshire sauce, soy sauce, & eggs are never kept in the fridge. We do keep our maple syrup in the fridge as it is real VT maple syrup & growing up in VT we always kept maple syrup in the fridge after we opened the jug. My dad keeps unopened jugs in the deep freezer. Golden syrup & treacle are kept in the pantry. We're just finishing up our kitchen renovation & when I moved the fridge last week I gave it a real good cleaning. I ended up throwing away quite a few opened bottles of condiments that had been in there at least a year or two. I only buy cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving & I had two opened jars of that. I'm aiming to buy smaller amounts more often (as needed) from now on. My challenge today is to go through the box of spices & seasonings before I put them away in the new pantry. How long are spices good for after they are opened?

A lot of schools use chrome books, especially for ages 8-14. Ages 15+ tend to use laptops as chrome books are a bit too limited for what senior students need in high school. I like chrome books in the classrooms where I've taught. Most schools use Google Classroom, so chrome books work very well with that. Ds#2 found that google docs, etc. was what teachers expected students to use. A lot of papers were expected to be handed in via Google Classroom. The one thing you can't do with a chrome book is install programs. I've looked to getting one for my relief teaching (subbing), but I would want to be able to use the mimio, & other e-devices that need installed programs to work. JMHO,

I order my deli meat either by price (i.e. I'd like $3.00 worth of ham) or by number of slices (i.e. I'd like 5 slices of ham). No confusion. I think in American measurements, but here in NZ we use metric, so no one would understand a third if a pound anyway. For subs I often ask for my sub to be sliced in 4 pieces. Again no confusion for teens that do seem hopeless dealing with fractions.

Remember. Remember, The Fifth of November, Gunpowder, treason, and plot. We see no reason, Why Gunpowder Treason Should ever be forgot! Happy Guy Fawkes' Day everyone. :party:

I would take inventory of what you have on hand now. If you need to stock up during the month because you ran out, add what you buy to the inventory. At the end of the month note what you have left. This will give you a more accurate idea of what you normally use each month. From that you can try to stock up when your preferred brands are on sale, saving you $$ without dropping in the quality. Remember some things (i.e. toilet paper, dish soap, etc.) spending a bit more ends up saving in the long run as you end up using more with cheap brands. I ended up doing this a few months back after ds#1 went overseas as it was just dh & I at home now. I found that that month we used 7 rolls of TP, 7 bars of hand/bath soap, 1 tube of toothpaste, 1kg of laundry detergent, 1 litre of dish soap, & 3 boxes of tissues. I use vinegar for most cleaning & add to the rinse cycle of my laundry. I use laundry powder to scrub my shower. We use very little disposable paper products (other than TP & tissues) so any I have will last for months, if not years. A roll of paper towels will last for most of the year as I normally use them only to drain greasy items (i.e. bacon, donuts, etc.) & even then I put one paper towel on top of some newspaper. My shampoo / conditioner / face soap lasts for months, so when I open my spare I will add that item to my shopping list to pick up another when it is next on sale. When our kitchen renovations are finished we will again have a dishwasher to use, so I will need to stock up on dishwasher tablets, but our dish liquid will last heaps longer, so the costs will even out in the end. For trash bags, we reuse shopping bags in the bins in the house & those go into our wheelie bin outside. We recycle most paper products & most plastics, as well as composting all veggie scraps. Any other food scraps go to a friend's dog. So take inventory this month to see what you normally use. See where you can switch to reusables without adversely affecting your daily routine. It will either cost time or money.

If she has money in her NZ bank account, the bank should be able to give her a new ATM card on the spot, but a VISA debit or VISA card does take a week or so. Have her check today as tomorrow is the weekend, so most banks are closed then. Some banks in Auckland are open weekends, but not in the smaller towns. Exam time has enough stresses without this happening to her :-( Was she traveling or just in town? HTH,

I sent you a private message.

I use these & love them. I have the wingless ones as I bought them over 13 years ago. My daughter uses LunaPads & likes those. I do have a Diva Cup now & use that as well. As I am getting on in years & my cycle isn't as regular as it use to be I wear a regular New Moon pad each day, just in case. I'd be in real pain if I hadn't found cloth pads as disposables cause rashes for me. JMHO,

What we have required in our OE years: housing paid for including 24hr hot & cold water (we lived in the Pacific Islands) clean drinking water provided electricity costs covered airconditioning &/or heating provided work truck yearly flights to home country for family shipping of household gear beginning & end of contract necessary VISA for work, etc. living allowance to cover excess costs of living in a 3rd world country Other things worth asking for: schooling costs for any children to local international school (our dc were under school age for most of our ex-pat years) medical insurance, if required (the countries we lived in all had universal healthcare & anything really serious the company would have medivaced us to NZ) phone / internet costs (our ex-pat years were before the internet was common, we didn't even have a phone in our house) make sure that the flights are not a set $$$$ amount. We were caught out on our last ex-pat job as when we moved there our dc were 4mo & 28mo old. When we moved home to NZ our dc were 3 & 5 years old & their tickets cost 75% of an adult ticket not 10%. JMHO

A lot of international airlines now have 7kg (15 lb) carry-on weight limits, so 10 kgs is actually more than normal. Here in NZ carry-on bags are weighed when you go through exit immigration, not when you check in with the airline to get your boarding pass. Only Hawaiian Airlines still has the old generous carry-on weight allowance. Dd said that backpack style carry-ons were sometimes waved through without being weighed, but all bags with wheels were weighed. She traveled to Europe last year with just a 22" soft sided carry-on bag that had backpack straps that zipped away when she wanted to carry it as a suitcase or tote bag. She took very little for her 25 days of travel & found even the little she took was more than enough.

Here's the carry-on allowances from the AA website. Make sure your ds's backpack is within the allowed size. Take note of the last sentence. Is he flying on an AA plane all the way or could some of his flights be on code-share planes? If he could be on another airline's plane as a code-share passenger, check their carry-on restrictions as well. You say he's a "clothes horse." How long is he going for? Less is more when traveling IMHO. Also, remember that all liquids must fit in the 3-1-1 bag, no exceptions. JMHO American Airlines Carry-on allowance Carry-on: 1 personal item and 1 bag Personal item Your personal item must fit under the seat in front of you. Dimensions should not exceed 18 x 14 x 8 inches (45 x 35 x 20 cm ). Basic Economy customers are only allowed 1 personal item. All other bags must be checked. Diaper bags (1 per child), child safety seats, strollers and medical or mobility devices don’t count as your personal item or carry-on. Carry-on requirementsShouldn’t exceed 22 x 14 x 9 inches / 56 x 36 x 23 centimeters (including handles and wheels) Must fit in the sizer at the airport If your items don’t fit in the overhead bin or under the seat, they may need to be checked. There may be additional carry-on baggage restrictions at certain airports or on certain airplanes. Here's the carry-on allowance for Japan Airlines (who do code-share with AA) Free carry-on baggage allowance One bag per person You may carry onboard one bag containing personal belongings (shopping bag, handbag, etc.) and one additional bag that meets the following conditions, with the total weight of both bags not to exceed 10kg (22lbs). Length + Width + Height Size limits Maximum weight Within 115cm (45in) W: within 55cm×H: within 40cm×D: within 25cm (W: within 22in×H: within 16in×D: within10in) Within 10kg (22lbs) *If your baggage is oversized or overweight, or unable to be appropriately stowed in the cabin due to the stowage limitations, it may need to be checked in cargo compartment at the boarding gate or cabin. Please switch off electronic devices in your checked baggage. Valuables should not be included in your checked baggage.

Is he flying with AA all the way? Most international airlines have weight restrictions as well. Some international airlines are beginning to restrict the number of carry-ons to one bag, not one carry-on + a personal item. It would be worth checking to see if any of this could apply to your ds. Domestic airlines in the US tend to have very generous carry-on allowances when compared to the rest of the world. My dc prefer to have backpack style carry-ons, not wheeled carry-ons as wheeled bags are heavier & aren't as easily carried outside of the airport (i.e. on buses, trains, up stairs, etc.) HTH,

I work as a relief teacher (sub) as well. For my working wardrobe I find that having 4 cardigans, 5 nice print tops, & 4 bottoms (dress pants or skirts) is just right for me. I chose colors that allow me to have any combination of cardigan / top / bottom match, so getting dressed for those early morning calls is simple. With 80 possible combinations I don't get board. Early & late in the school year I replace my long-sleeve tops with short-sleeve tops & replace a couple of the bottoms with capris. My cardigans are merino, so work year round as an extra layer when needed & don't take up room in my bag when it gets warm later in the day. For shoes I wear sketchers during the warmer seasons & short ankle boots in the winter as most days I will have playground duty. Dinners are hit or miss on my busy weeks, but with only dh & I home most days we survive. I find if I can manage to cook a decent meal 2-3 times a week, we will have enough left-overs for the remaining days. I do try to have easy to grab lunch options in the fridge & pantry to help me to avoid grabbing some fast food. When our kitchen renovation is finally finished later this month I plan to make a week's worth of mason jar salads each Sunday to have healthier lunches & easy dinners for those busy weeks when I just have no energy when I get home. Glad you enjoyed your first day back teaching :-)

Many of the classes at our local intermediate school use Google Classroom. When I relieve (sub) there it makes my job much easier as the students can easily access their assigned work. Most of the students use chrome books, but I just need to have a student pull up Google Classroom on the classroom desktop for me to see it.