Shannon Qualls

After you’ve decided on a reason to throw a party, you have to decide on *dun, dun, dun- a budget.  The dreaded ‘B’ word.  While budgets are the ban of some peoples existence, they can be your greatest tool and asset and they are ESSENTIAL to having a great party.  Why are they ESSENTIAL?  Because the last thing you want to do is spend $500 on a birthday party when you can only afford $100 and you’re paying off your daughters 10th birthday party at her 11th.  That’s just dumb.

Debt is not your friend.   Look, as much fun as parties are and can be, you DO NOT want to have stress on you throughout the rest of the year paying off something you couldn’t afford in the first place.  Birthdays come once a year.  They are something you CAN plan for.  Same with holidays.  They don’t change (Christmas is always the 25th of December, Easter is always in March or April, etc.) Yes, there are “life events” that can come up unexpectedly (baby showers, bridal showers), but you usually have time to plan for those (babies take -shocker!- 9 months to come along and unless it’s a shotgun wedding, you usually have a few months to plan and save).

So how do you prepare your budget?  Well, it’s going to be different for everyone. A few things you HAVE to plan for are guests (how many), food (are you going to have any, how much, will it be potluck, etc.), and everything else (decor, plates, utensils, venue, etc.).   Sometimes your budget will determine the size and scale of your party, and sometimes (for the lucky few) the budget will be determined by the size and scale of your party.

The best thing that you can do is plan at the beginning of the year what parties you want to throw, how much you want to spend, and make a plan for it.  I realize that’s not always possible, so my ideas can be used by the planners and by the more spontaneous people.

That being said, decide your budget and stick to it.  Realize that sometimes you will have to sacrifice something you want to get something you want more.  Sometimes your time won’t allow for everything you would like to do.  Sometimes your budget won’t allow for everything you would like to do.  Pick the best ideas and run with them.  If you do only a few things, make them great.

A budget that is reasonable and something you can stick to is going to be your greatest asset.

I love throwing parties.  Big, little, in between.  They are a lot of fun.  I love getting to serve my family and friends and I love getting to try new ideas.  But to throw a party, you have to have a reason.  Birthdays and holidays are the usual suspects, but you can also just want to hang out with friends and have an impromptu backyard BBQ. Whatever the case, you should always have a reason.

For instance, last year, my husband and I hosted or helped with parties of all different sizes.  One night in the middle of the summer we decided we wanted to BBQ and wanted some friends to join us.  It was a last minute thing and we asked our friends to BYOB (bring your own beef) and a side dish for all to share.  We had about 14 people show up (on a Tuesday!) and had a great time.  We also threw a more organized, larger party for my sons first birthday (more on that later).

No matter the size,  the time or money, you can have a great party so long as you have a reason and reasonable expectations.

Picking your reason:  Do you want to have a birthday party for yourself, a family member or a friend?  Are you throwing a Bridal or Baby Shower?  Are you wanting to have friends over and just have a good time?  Do you want to have a tea with some women?  Are you having a Super Bowl party?  Pick a reason and that will give you the direction and focus you need to see your party through until the end.

Reasonable Expectations:  Realize that about 10% of the people who RSVP they are coming probably won’t make it.  If people don’t RSVP, expect that they won’t make it.  Take into account that adults eat more then kids (I can’t tell you how much this helps!  I have done a few parties and did a head count not figuring this in…let’s just say there was money spent that could have been saved or used elsewhere and we were eating leftovers for some time!)  Things are not always going to go as planned.  Be flexible!  The most important thing is that you and your guests have a good time.  The other stuff is just filler.  People don’t know what you do and don’t have planned so if something doesn’t make it out, don’t freak.  They have no idea!

The biggest reason that you should have for throwing a party?  To have a good time!  That’s it.  If you are not going to enjoy it, don’t waste your time and money. It makes no sense.  Just take your child to something that you can both enjoy or your spouse to a nice dinner.  No one likes a grouchy host/hostess.

If you decide that you want to have a great party on a budget, this is the place for you!

Wow.  2009 was amazing.  It was crazy but beautiful.  Asa celebrated his first birthday, Greg and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary, and we enjoyed every trial and joy along the way.  We bought our first house in December of ‘08 (missing the tax credit by 20 days! Uggg!), renovated it throughout 2009, and opened it up to host community group, parties, and a roommate.  We saw some family highs and some family lows.  Overall, 2009 was a good year.  Thank you Jesus for letting us experience it, safe, happy and healthy.

I realize I have not been faithful to blog as much as I had planned to over the last few years.  Forgive me for my laziness (or busyness-whatever you want to call it).  I just felt like I didn’t have anything to share that would  contribute to the already saturated blog-o-sphere.

For some time now I have been thinking about doing a blog sharing tips and tricks on how to throw a party on a budget.  I have been scouring the internet trying to find a blog with this subject and seem to come up short.  All I really come across are a list of 10 or so “tips” to help you on your way to having a memorable party.  Hogwash I say!  So I am going to share tips and ideas that I have learned/come up with to throwing a memorable party on the cheap.  I’ve done parties for anywhere between $50 to $1000 so whatever your budget, I hope I will be able to help you throw the best party possible.

I should also add that this blog is not going to be about “made to order” party packages.  I understand if you are short on time and money.  I understand that your daughter is in love with Dora and the plates and party package was on sale at Party City.  I get it.  There is nothing wrong with that.  But this blog is intended to help take it to the next level of partydom.  You can use those items, but still make it memorable to the kids/parents/friends with adding more dimensions.

Throwing a great party takes time and thought.  But impromtu parties are also really fun and can be great.  It just takes having the right tools.

Thanks for joining me on this journey and I hope we can learn from each other!

Recently I got an e-mail from a friend of mine that said, “I thought you might like this”.  Typically I don’t pay attention to these e-mails, but something made me go look.  What did I find?  Paradise. (Well, not really).  But what I found was really cool.

Swaptree.com is a web-site that allows members to post items they have (books, movies, Cd’s and video games) in their member profile.  Then they get to go through and pick items they want.  When there is a match, swaptree lets you know.  You can then initiate a trade with someone.  If you both decide to trade, you get to mail your item and they mail their item and all you are paying for is shipping and handling!  Whoo Hoo!!!  It’s better then the library!!!  Users then rate each other (much like e-bay and amazon) and that’s how you build trust that you will send the item you promised.  It is so cool.

I’m addicted now.  It’s a great way to be green, save money, and get rid of items that you don’t want anymore. Go check it out!  Now, if only they would work on bundleing items…

Since I haven’t really kept up my commitment to writing one new post a week, I figured I would do a recap of the last few weeks because they have been super busy. My apologies and I will try and be better in the future.

I finished work on April 30 and am now just doing some stuff from home. The good part of that is now I can sleep in and work when I want to. The bad part is I can sleep in and don’t work when I should. Since I tend to be a procrastinator I end up doing my work later at night and then need more sleep in the morning…I guess it will prepare me for baby

Things are going well as far as baby goes. From what the midwife said, he is in position. For new mom’s this usually happens a few weeks before baby comes so we are right on schedule. We have the nursery set up for the most part. We still have a few things we need to get but they are not immediately needed (although a mattress for the crib and bedding is pretty high up there. Thankfully we have a bassinet that we can use until we are able to make the other purchases we need to). We finished our childbirth class and it was informative to say the least. I think I am going to leave myself some room to change my mind about pain meds if things get to be more then I can take. We also went to this really great GIANT “garage” sale if you will that had nothing but baby and young children stuff. That was nice because we were able to buy things that were close to brand new (in some cases they were new) for much cheaper then if we had gone to Babies-r-us or Target. Baby crap is expensive! Note to self: when you can buy it used- do it. Babies grow really fast.

My family is doing well. Mom is traveling, Andy is traveling, Quinn is in Texas, Dad is working. Greg is working and writing a lot. As for me, I’m ready for baby to be here. I’m a little freaked out about what happens once baby is here, and more freaked out about the process of baby getting here, but countless other women have done it and survived so I probably can too.

This whole election process is really starting to annoy me. I can see that Hillary rightly deserves her title as, “willing to do anything to become President”. Barring an act of God, I don’t think she will win this nomination and honestly, this process is taking longer then anyone cares to hear about. The drama that has come out is so junior high. Seriously. Granted, there are a few things that we should be concerned about, but some of it is so childish and petty.

I hope to have some tips up in the next week or two about how to have a great party with low cost. Until then, I’m just gearing up.

Greg stole my blog idea for Murphy and God fighting, so I decided to write it anyway but in a different way.

Last month we had over $1900 dollars of expected/unexpected expenses come up. We thought that we could budget some of it in (and did) but some of it was just unforeseen expenses. Yes, we do Dave Ramsey so we have our minor emergency fund in place, however, we hate digging into that money. It leaves you feeling vulnerable for those few weeks that you are trying to build that money back up again. In addition, the expenses were more then our emergency fund.

To top all of that off, we are due to have our first baby in 8 weeks and currently have a crib (no mattress) and dresser (thank you Greg’s mom Rhonda and step dad Steve!), a few diapers, a few toys, and some baby wipes. Granted, we haven’t had a shower yet, but it still makes you nervous knowing that you have a LOT of bills and need to buy things for the baby. What makes you especially nervous, is knowing that you have made a commitment not to go back into debt so it is NOT an option. Needless to say, I’ve been trying to work a few extra hours to make a little extra money, but also because I plan to leave the office at the end of April and need to finish some things there

Little did I know that God had other plans and showed up to what I thought would be really really TIGHT few months. I am humbly reminded once again what a great God we serve. He continually provides for us and is patient with me and my worry.

Below you will find an itemized list of expenses and how God took care of them all.

New Crown for Shannon’s tooth- 945.90
Doctor’s Bills- 118.41
Doola- 250.00
KGB-ahem-sorry, that was the IRS- 353.00
Travel for Greg- 65.00
Unexpected car trouble (the water pump needed replacing)- 64.94
Travel for a wedding- 100.00
Unexpected phone expense- 25.00
Other random things you tend to forget to budget for 50.00

A God who provides for His children and sends random checks to your house with your name on them that amount to over 1100.00- PRICELESS

There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else there’s God.

Top Ten List:

Things that SUCK when you’re pregnant

10. You’re maternity pants continually shimmy down your hips. Frustrating as heck when you have to get up and down continually throughout the day.

9. 1st trimester sickness and 3rd trimester tiredness/difficulty sleeping

8. Bigger everything- Did you know that your feet can grow up to a size bigger and NEVER go back?! For those of us with wide feet already, this is distressing news.

7. Getting in trouble with your midwife for putting on a little too much weight for one month (Oops!)

6. Waking up in the middle of the night wedged between two pillows that act as a barrier to keep you from rolling onto your back and realizing that you need to go to the bathroom.

5. Pregnancy gas- it’s just bad

4. Not being able to exercise to lose weight

3. The emotional roller coaster that can make any sane husband crazy because you can’t decide how you are feeling that day

2. Body pain (backaches, footaches, etc.)

1. Getting the crap kicked out of you by your little bundle of joy

I know some of you can relate. I’ve got the pregnancy blues…

Fast forward to now. Hillary, who was so sure she had this in the bag, is now sitting in a very uncomfortable second place and is doing as much damage…and damage control…as possible. Case in point:

1. Hillary suggests that Obama would be a great Vice President…more then once (I don’t know why she did this…we all know she wants Bill to be the VP). Brilliant power play if I may say so, but dirty politics that make me quiver with anger every time I read the words. I get the idea…put the thought of Obama as VP into the minds of as many democratic voters as possible before another primary goes by with the hopes that they will put her on the top of the ticket and that she will select him for a VP. Together they will be an unstoppable force to rule the world! (Well, with hubby Bill alongside them it will be an awesome threesome). I guess she realized after an embarrassing 12 loses in a row that she might not win this.

Here’s the flawed logic Hil:

1. You’re in second place. Last time I checked second place was still the first loser. Loser. I love the quote I read on CNN that said (and I paraphrase a bit here), “This must be the first time in US History that the second place person has offered the first place person their job” or something to that effect but you get the drift.

2. If Obama is not fit to be the President, what makes him fit to be the Vice President? He looks good in speedos? (Oh Lord woman, I think you and you’re husband went way wrong with Al Gore if that was your standard. Though Arnold wouldn’t have been a bad choice).
According to Hil, Obama lacks the experience to be President. I’m sorry, maybe I missed something, but how many elected offices have you held missy? Ummmmm, I think I can count them all on one hand unless some of them were in the parallel universe that you live in called delirium. I didn’t realize that being the wife of a politician offered so much experience that would qualify you to be the President. I would have to say that you and Obama are both probably equally matched in that area Senator.

Now, Hillary has tried just about everything possible to discredit Obama and he is standing strong in the polls. It does appear, however, that neither candidate will be able to secure the delegates needed to win the nomination. So what is Hillary doing? What else? She’s saying that the voting in Michigan and Florida was “fair” and their votes should be taken into account at the DNC in August. I don’t know that we can blame her for trying, but I have to say that it just makes her look like a bigger butt-head than ever. Everyone knew before the voting that Florida and Michigan had broken convention guidelines and they were being punished. She didn’t have a problem with it when she thought she was winning, but now she’s getting desperate and is unwilling to play by the rules set forth, claiming that the voters in Florida and Michigan should “have their voices heard”. If they want their voices heard, they should remember what their states did and vote out the idiots who tried to move the primary before the allotted time. If those pulling the strings were not elected officials, find the morons who made the change and stone em. No…that would be wrong. Just give them a noogie and a swirly–that should teach them to mess with the voters of Michigan and Florida!

Sorry Hil, but I just think you’re desperate attempts to get in the White House and gain power are a little disturbing and make you look ugly. I guess you’ve earned your yearbook title as the person most willing to do anything to be President.

Stupid Politics…

Regardless of political affiliation or agenda, one cannot deny that this political season has been one of intense scrutiny and has kept both republicans and democrats on the edges of their seats. If you’re a republican, you may have kept an eye on the democrat nominations to see who will be running against the republican nominee, John McCain. If you’re a democrat, you are probably glued to the edge of your seat watching every primary and caucus like it’s an inevitable train wreck in the making (especially in light of recent news).

For those of you who have read my husband’s blog, you probably know that we are Ron Paul fans. Since Ron Paul will not be the republican nominee (shocker I know), we have to decide who to throw our support to. This has been a really interesting political season for us on many counts.

1. For the first time in history the top contenders for a party nomination are either a woman or an African American.

2. Greg and I attended our first political rally.

3. Ron Paul was in the running and has some interesting ideas for change in the government (say goodbye to income tax!!)

4. Record numbers of people have showed up to vote in primaries for the person they think is best suited to be our next president.

Okay, now I need to put a disclaimer in here. You can write me all the comments you want, but if you don’t like what I have to say, just know that we are going to have to agree to disagree. I will be fair and listen to your points and if there is any good reason or sound logic, you may persuade me to change my view. Please know beforehand that I have become very convinced in my beliefs as of this point and attempting to change my mind may in fact bring untoward pain and suffering upon you in the form of tickle attacks, or if you do not live nearby, many superpokes on Facebook. That being said, the information you are about to read is not originally mine but rather that of writers much more prolific than I. You can read them on www.cnn.com. I’m pissed off and want to comment about it to the general world so there you go.

Rewind to January of this year. Primary season was gearing up to begin and Bill Richardson was still living in the delusion that he actually had a chance at being President. Florida and Michigan thought they would be smart and move their primaries before the instituted date that the DNC set up (if you don’t know what the DNC is then just stop reading now- no I’m just kidding, it’s the Democratic National Convention). As a penalty for Michigan and Florida making a power play, the DNC (you should know what that is now, if not, stop reading-really) fined both states by taking away their delegates. This move could have, and should have, been anticipated by these power hungry states.

Move to mid-January. Michigan and Florida hold their elections and the voters, the candidates, the DNC and everyone else in the the world who care at all about US politics know that these delegates have been stripped from the states and voters turn out to cast their votes anyway. Florida gives the win to Hillary with Obama winning a much smaller portion of delegates (Mind you neither campaigned there…although Hillary did do some fund raising that was apparently sanctioned by the DNC). Michigan is an entirely different story. Obama opts not to put his name on the ballot and Hillary (shocker of shockers!) won the state with some ridiculously high vote count of like 68%. At the time the candidates agreed not to campaign in either state to honor the decision of the DNC.

…to be continued