Month: August 2026

Big Summer Trip: Part 3

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I did not intend for this to be a 3 part post, but NJ had a lot more to it than I expected. Now it’s Delaware’s turn.

We arrived in Delaware on the Cape May ferry and drove straight to our hotel in Lewes. We got there fairly late, but the room was amazing. We always seem to get the nicest places when we have no intention of being there for very long! Mr. ODA was able to book it for cheaper than we expected, and it was about half the cost of what we planned to spend on a crappy motel in Wildwood.

LEWES

Our first stop in Lewes was the Cannonball House. It was a small house by the water that commemorated the early 1900s of navigation on the water. It was free and worth a visit. Our oldest got to hold a real cannonball. There were examples of how early morse code was used, and the kids got to try their hand at communicating in that language. We also visited the Zwaanendael Museum. This was also free and was very welcoming of children. There were activities for them to do on both floors, and they were encouraged to touch and explore. I wanted to do Lightship Overfalls, but their hours are very limited, and we weren’t going to be around for the timing. Lewes is an adorable, quaint town that gives New England vibes. I would definitely recommend a visit.

DOVER

From Lewes, we drove north to Dover. As I’ve mentioned in the past, we love to see the state capitol buildings, so this is a must for us if we’re nearby. There were no assigned tour times, just that the tour needed to conclude by 1:00. After visiting, I’m assuming this was because the lady giving the tours just does tours as people show up, but she wants to leave by 1. She brings her german shephard to work with her, and she was just the sweetest pup. This lady doing the tour was incredible. You could tell she cared a lot about the history. She spoke with enthusiasm instead of regurgitating data memorized. Her dad served in the House in the 1930s too! The security guards and this lady were very welcoming. We shared the awful NJ experience with them, and they said they hear it often. We ended up staying there until 2:30 when the kids finally made it known that they had to get moving and were tired of sitting around while we chatted. We walked around the area and visited the original capitol house. It was so hot, and we were hungry, so we had to give up exploring and fix that.

We grabbed some Wawa sandwiches and found picnic benches to eat our late lunch. There were quite a few homeless people around, so I kept my head on a swivel. Our youngest left his water bottle at Wawa. When I went back for it, the worker laughed and said “oh honey, you’re in the hood. That thing is long gone.” I actually laughed in her face because nothing about Dover felt ghetto or unsafe having grown up on Long Island and visiting Queens and the City.

We came back on another day to visit the Air Mobility Command Museum. This was also free. It had planes that were open for us to explore, an old air traffic control tower to explore, and several areas with things to learn about war planes and the history of communication in the military.

MILFORD

Our visit was to a friend’s house in Milford. We didn’t explore very much of Milford itself because we went to the beaches, but it was a great little area. One afternoon, we went to Big Oyster Brewery for happy hour. It’s a bar with a playground area for the kids. The weather was great with no humidity, so it was a lovely afternoon hanging out there.

BEACHES

The first day, we went to Cape Henlopen State Park. It was $20 for a day pass to enter. The beach was lovely. Mr. ODA likes to play in the waves, so we went to a place on the ocean. Turns out, the two older kids absolutely love playing in the waves also. We were on the beach for about 4 hours. We went to the food truck for lunch. It was really expensive, and, other than the fries, not great. There are lots of trails to explore the area there, but we just drove around to get the sights instead of taking tired and cranky kids on walking trails in the heat.

On the third day, we visited Rehoboth. We got there at 9:30. Parking starts at 10, which is also when people start showing up. When we got there, there were hardly any people. It filled in as the day went by. We spent 4.5 hours on the beach that day and had packed our own food. We rode a few rides at Fun Land and walked the boardwalk. We wrapped up with ice cream on the main drag. But the place was just so crowded that we were happy to head home for dinner.

SUMMARY

So for 17 days, we explored NY, NJ, and DE. In total, we spent over $1300, which included two hotel nights, but otherwise we stayed with family and friends. In DE, we bought groceries, some meals out, parking at the beaches, and gas, so the total spending came to $340 for the 4 nights we were there.

August Financial Update

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I’m tired is an understatement. The rentals have hit the point where they’ve worn me out. I can’t put my finger on it, but I’m over them. Tenants have hit an oddly needy phase where they feel the need to walk me (and my property manager) through all their days and issues instead of keeping it a professional relationship. There’s been slightly more turnover than we usually see (yet they’re from houses that had been occupied for several years, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that eventually they need to move on). On the personal front, I feel like I’m juggling a lot of thoughts even though I don’t feel like it’s too much. There’s just a lot of brain power going towards decisions and organization.

PERSONAL

Kids started school a week ago. We’re still establishing a routine, but sports are forcing the schedule more than anything. Everyone seems happy though.

I had to pay the final payment for the windows this past month. It was delayed as they had to replace several windows and sashes that were damaged. I appreciated they didn’t ask for final payment while waiting for things to be right. That increased our credit balances by $6k. Then we bought a couch. I’d say it was on a whim, but it was something being considered for months. We walked into Costco to see a sectional we liked, but as we started thinking about it, the sectional really wouldn’t work the way we want in the space. We walked around Ashley, picked an option, thought about it for a few days, and then went back to purchase it. We were able to get it for a couple of hundred less than anticipated based on final price, and it was delivered at the end of that week.

I’m volunteering on the PTA at my kids’ school. I walked in a room and ended up VP for that, but so far it’s been great. We’ve been busy; everyone wants to help, so it’s encouraging. I’m on 3 HOA boards, one of which meets monthly and has a project that we’re trying to wrap up. I’m still working a few hours; much less than I had been, but it’s still something that I need to give attention to. Gymnastics, soccer, baseball. The littlest one starts school in September. Not too much, but enough to feel it. I’m also driving the kids to school every morning, which wasn’t the plan and wasn’t how the last two years went. However, their bus stop is an hour before school starts, and I already feel like they need to wake up too early, so I committed to driving. Things are shaking out and it’s getting easier though.

I am close to finishing a bathroom renovation we started several weeks ago. It took me two months to get a mirror for over the sink. And then Mr. ODA cut and nailed in a trim piece that I need to caulk and paint still. There are a few paint touch ups I’ve been waiting to do since I knew that trim piece would need painted, so that’s on my radar. I changed how the kids’ backpacks, coats, and school things would be managed this year. I removed them from the mud room (since it’s small) and made a wall in the dining room a place for all those things to live. It’s working better at this point now that we’re less crowded. I was hoping that walking past the kitchen table with water bottles on it would help them remember water bottles, but I’m not seeing that success rate yet.

RENTALS

I don’t even know where to begin here. We have a DV case at one house, mice at two houses, had to remove someone from a lease due to a divorce, had to turnover a house with an entitled previous tenant and a less than stellar pool of candidates (but it’s rented), an HVAC call that was completely unnecessary but I did it to appease a tenant, another tenant complaining that her washer smells (that’s not on me), and another house where the tenant complained that the sink faucet base is peeling (again, not doing anything with that). I think my expectations are just off. I’m used to some time where the houses run on autopilot, but they’re taking a lot more of my time these days, even if it’s just managing who still owes rent.

This month, everyone paid rent “on time.” Actually, one was late by a day, and I did have to follow up, but she apologized and said she fell asleep before her check cleared and had just woken up. There’s one house that pays twice per month, and they’re going to be two days late on the rent that’s owed this week.

Actually, quick aside. Since when do checks clear in the middle of the day? I’ve never experienced this. On my pay day, the pay is sitting in my account after 6 am that day. Someone is claiming that her check clears at 1:00 pm. Someone else was saying they needed to wait until 12:30 for their check to hit their account. How is that happening? I pay people via Gusto at work and I can’t set a payment TIME, just a date.

NET WORTH

It’s crazy that this balance is $100k higher than last month. I updated the market values of the houses. None of them increased, but a few decreased. I’m not surprised knowing that market prices have cooled.

These posts are specifically to talk about the actual money aspect of life. It’s not meant to do anything except share regular life decision making, establish a constant reminder that the small decisions build your wealth, and remove the stigma of talking about money (while also not perpetuating the thought that it’s cool to complain about being broke all the time). So while I highlight “net worth,” I felt compelled to point out that wealth isn’t that number. Wealth is the freedom we’ve established for ourselves. We are available to take the kids to school and pick them up without a rushed/stressed demeanor. We are able to attend all the school events. We can drop everything and be at the school in 10 minutes if a kid needs us, without checking in with a boss or asking for time off. We can take trips during the week (when school isn’t in session). We can provide activities and food for our kids without stress.

None of our wealth was handed to us. None of it was by accident. 98% of the credit goes to Mr. ODA for even have the thought process (I like to take my share for being open minded and trusting his research). My dad was a blue collar worker and my mom worked multiple part time jobs. We never felt like we were “poor,” but working to earn money was what I knew. I believe all your experiences in life are for a reason, but you need to be open to seeing the lesson in those moments. I was open to Mr. ODA’s life plan and financial ideas. I went through Amway with a team that taught “think bigger” type moments for your time. I went to DC for my job way earlier than I ever planned to, and it seemed to be so I could learn the lesson that trading time for money wasn’t how I wanted to run my life.

We STRUGGLED before we were married. We wanted to buy a house, but we didn’t have 20% down. We wanted 20% down to avoid paying mortgage insurance that we feel is a waste of money. We SCRAPED together $80k to get that down payment in Northern Virginia. There were retirement loans, gifts from family, and a concerted effort to spend less than $5 per day on food. We didn’t have a mentality that we were owed anything or that we deserved to give ourselves treats for getting through the week. We weren’t poor, but we knew we had a big goal in mind, and that owning real estate was going to get us more control of our money. Things didn’t really spring board until we sold that VA house and had over $120k sitting in our bank. That’s when more investments came in. That’s when setting multiple small goals made it so that I could quit working full time without us feeling the pressure. I’ve told our story multiple times.

I just wanted to acknowledge that the point here isn’t the literal dollar amount. It’s the freedom that we have. It’s the ability to be on our terms and schedule. Mr. ODA is out golfing this morning. We played pickleball yesterday morning. We aren’t working for our weekend. We aren’t flashing extravagant spending on the weekend because we spent the week working 10 hour days to have the money to live for 2 days and carry the stress of work home with us. And so with that, just take a moment and look at your finances and see where there’s a creep in spending that could be taking you away from a goal. Think about a bigger picture of life.

Big Summer Trip: Part 2

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I discussed the first half of this trip in a previous post. We spent over a week in NY visiting my family, and then we went to NJ for two days and finally on to DE for several days. Mr. ODA thought we could use the opportunity to explore some areas we typically wouldn’t. Usually we’re just trying to get home, which takes a whole day, so we don’t make stops near NY. The whole trip only cost us about $1350, which included two hotel stays ($437). We were entertained the whole time and the kids had fun. 

I make these posts after our trips to share that you can explore different places, give your kids exposure to lots of things, and it doesn’t need to cost a lot of money. I see so many people save all year to splurge on one trip (e.g., Disney), when there’s a lot of learning experiences out there for little growing minds. I understand everyone has their own preferences, and if it works for you, that’s great! I just want to share another perspective of how we manage our trips and activities.

NEW JERSEY: PARKS

We left NY on a Monday morning. We explored northern Jersey for the day. Honestly, we could have spent more time in each place. I was surprised at how early we made it to a hotel.

Our first stop was the Palisades. While some parts of it were nice to see, it was overall disappointing. The park also requires payment to park in the parking lots instead of an access payment, and that was a surprise from all of our travels.

Stop two was Paterson Great Falls National Historic Park. The kids love to get their junior ranger badgers from the National Park Service, so that kept us entertained for a while. They give you a booklet and ask the kid to fill out a few pages to earn the badge. This one had a bingo game where you walked the park to find the images in the pictures and cross them off. Even the littlest one got into it. While the park and the huge waterfall was cool to see, I wouldn’t recommend spending much time in the area.

Stop three was Liberty Park. While I didn’t care to go to the Statue of Liberty itself, it was nice to show the kids it. We spent a while at the huge playground there, got some Mister Softee (my personal favorite), walked the waterfront trail, and drove around the park. We didn’t rush being there, but we were also cognizant of heading south before NYC rush hour started.

We stayed in Cranbury, NJ for the night. The hotel was outdated with a bunch of deferred maintenance, but they had an evening social hour that we were able to get a snack at. We hung out in the lobby and played card games.

NEW JERSEY: TRENTON

The next morning we had a tour scheduled at the Capitol in Trenton, which is why we had stayed in Cranbury (to be close, but not too close because #trenton). Mr. ODA booked a 10:00 tour. They were adamant that a tour had to be booked. He was given general instruction that he, logically, thought would be obvious when we got there. It wasn’t.

The first stop is to enter the parking garage under the Capitol. There’s a police officer sitting on the street and one sitting in the middle of the entrance area (not welcoming – giving “this isn’t safe” vibes). I pull up to the gate, and the man asks what we’re doing. I said we have a 10:00 Capitol tour. He seemed put off by us, but I think it was just his general demeanor. He then gave a bajillion instructions on where to go. Let me say what he should have: You’re on the 3rd floor. Go to the 1st floor. Park in visitor parking in section 1F. Do not go to the elevators near 1F. Go to the elevators at 1C.

The elevators are extremely important.

When Mr. ODA got the instructions over the phone, the lady said “do not go outside.” Out of context, that makes no sense. Turns out, behind all these instructions was a simple fact: the welcome center is your destination, not the Capitol security entrance. That is so unbelievably important. And yet, no one could clearly communicate that.

We got on the elevator at 1F. We followed the instructions that were printed and taped to the wall (so seemingly an important update because it required extra signage to be printed) to go straight to security at the entrance. We walked outside. Followed signs to the entrance. The lady at the security guard desk called the tour people to say we were there. It was 9:49.

Now, here, the security guard could have said, “it’s better if you go back to the welcome center and meet the tour there.” But nooooooo. She said “hang out in the vestibule. Do not go outside. She will come get you.” No one came at 10 for us. We kept asking what the plan was while we sat in a muggy vestibule with 3 small kids. “They’re coming.”

Turns out, there’s a welcome center. Turns out, the tour starts there. Turns out, they were going to get to us when they got to us and there was no rush.

So many failures on that part.

Then we take the tour. There are police officers everywhere, and always more than one. A buddy system. Inside a Capitol building. All over the building. That’s new to us. And we’ve been to a lot of Capitols. The tour wasn’t great. I tried really hard to ask myself questions like, “I grew up in NY, is this not good because I already just don’t like NJ?” and “I had to wait 22 minutes for our tour to start because of terrible communication and signage, am I just angry about that, or does this really suck?” It was bad. There was nothing all that noteworthy to NJ’s history to share. The tour guide told us twice that Abraham Lincoln walked the halls for one day on his way back to DC. One day. This story came up twice. Wow.

At the end of the tour, we’re escorted directly into the parking garage. Ummm, I have 3 kids who likely should pee even if they don’t say they need to go, and I need to pee. The tour guide escorted us back into the building, then stood outside the bathrooms while we went, and it wasn’t until we finally said “there are 3 cops here, do you still need to be here or can we look at the WELCOME center?” that he finally got permission from the cops that he could leave.

It was just a surprisingly terrible experience all around. We didn’t feel welcomed at any point. I’ve never visited a Capitol that made you feel like it wasn’t safe around every corner and that didn’t say “go ahead and explore the building” after the tour.

We were going to explore Trenton, but at that point, we just wanted out.

NEW JERSEY: THE SHORE AND CAPE MAY

We headed south through the Pine Barrens for a scenic drive and arrived at the Cape May Zoo. That was incredible and free. There was also a gigantic playground there, but it was hot, and I was ready to move on, but in case anyone has plans to be in southern Jersey – plan a day at the zoo and park. The food in the zoo was expensive, but I justified it that we hadn’t paid to enter the place.

From there, we drove over to Wildwood. Mr. ODA and I played ultimate frisbee for multiple summers on the beach there. It was a cool experience, and I wanted to do it with my kids. Originally, I had planned to pick a hotel we had once stayed in. I figured we’d walk the boardwalk, get dinner at one of the diner type places, and then just swim in the pool at the hotel. Well, the weather had other plans. Severe storms were descending on us. We grabbed the picture of the kids in front of the Wildwood sign and decided we didn’t want to ride out the storms in the little motels, so we booked the last ferry out of Cape May.

We grabbed some McDonalds just before the ferry. Since our ferry was at 6:00, we arrived around 5:15. There’s free putt putt and a playground there while you wait, but the putt putt had closed at 5 (I was also happy that my kids were not going to be holding a metal stick with lightning strikes nearby). We drove onto the ferry just before the rain started. As we’re waiting for the final loading of the cars and people, everyone’s phones start alerting to a tornado warning. The captain had tried to pull out and get through the storm, but he ended up saying we were going to ride it out back at the dock. We stayed awkwardly near the dock but not actually docked through the worst of it. A tornado came onshore right near the ferry terminal while we were sitting still at the dock, but the rain and wind was so bad, I didn’t get to see it with my own eyes! By 6:22, we were on our way to Lewes, Delaware.

SUMMARY

Look, I hate to make a part 3 on this, but I’m tired. The Capitol tour was so egregiously bad that this post got longer than I thought it would. So here’s the update for the two days in NJ, and next week I’ll finish up our Delaware activities. For a hotel, food, and gas, we spent $315 while in NJ plus $63 for the ferry.

School Supplies

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I have heard many comments about the cost of school supplies, and someone just said to me they spent $400 on two kids’ supplies in elementary school. I spent $140, and this included all the wish list items for two teachers. Pause. According to our school district, teachers can’t put things like paper and tissues on the supply list, but they can have a wish list. I assume it’s because the implication is that everyone is expected to purchase all the supplies, but a wish list gives relief. I don’t actually know. I also note that when something is on one wish list, it’s on another supply list. Even looking at other school lists now, they’re all over the place. But have you ever been in a Kindergarten classroom? I’ll supply a years worth of paper towels, tissues, and hand sanitizer. Let’s not forget that while the district is telling the teachers they can’t ask for these basics, they’re also not supplying it because we’ve had several years of poor budget management and just had to take a loan to pay summer salaries. I digress; let’s get back on track.

I shopped Target, Walmart, Office Depot, and Amazon. Amazon is actually awful in this area. I need 3 erasers, not 60. Target was working really hard to be competitive, but Walmart won out by a few cents each time (I’m also a Walmart+ member, so my preference is buying there). Last year, Office Depot ran a sale in June that was incredible, but we were so busy that I didn’t think about supplies. Their prices were fine at the end of July, but they were slightly higher than the rest.

So my main order was $84.97 from Walmart. Then I had to order two packages of white cardstock and a wireless mouse through Amazon, which totaled $22. My second needed a new backpack, which was $33. Here are items we are reusing from last year.

  • This is actually the thing I was most proud of: Ticonderoga pencils. I bought a 96 count of unsharpened pencils last year for $11 (they’re $11.87 this year) (DO NOT SEND UNSHARPENED PENCILS). I sat one night, watching tv, and sharpened them myself. If you purchase a 12 pack of these pencils already sharpened, you will pay more than double per pencil than what I paid. Everyone sees a 12 pack or 2 12 packs are requested, and that’s just what you purchase. If you stop and think, you’ll see that those few dollars will make a difference. So I purchased these last year, sent in what was requested at the beginning of the year, sent in what was requested for this year, and I still have 24 pencils waiting for the next request.
  • We plan to reuse the pencil boxes from last year, but my mother in law has mentioned she’s getting them new ones. She puts their name on them with Cricut. I said let’s just fix the name on the ones they have, but she had already purchased them. This is $1 I didn’t spend (they’re $0.49 at Walmart).
  • Each child needs a plastic blue folder and a plastic red folder. They’re plastic and don’t leave the classroom, so after one year, they’re still in excellent condition. This wasn’t about the money, as this saved me $0.92.
  • Last year, I bought a giant pack of glue sticks. I figured as teachers asked for supplies during the year, I could easily grab and send in. No one ever asked for glue! I was able to provide all requested glue sticks for this year from the left overs. I needed 24 sticks; Target has a 30 pack for $7.49 right now.
  • We are reusing the headphones they used last year. My son has had the same ones since K and is going into 2nd. Sure, there may be a time that they die and I need to replace them, but there’s no reason to purchase new every year if they’re working. Target has wired headphones for $5. Now here, when I first purchased them, I went cheap because my thought was, “surely these will get broken and I’ll be replacing them constantly, so I’ll stick to $5 for now.” Well, they’re about to enter their 3rd year.
  • We are reusing my son’s wireless mouse. My daughter didn’t need one last year, so I had to purchase her one. I spent $10. Pro tip: I added the battery to it before I put it in her supply bag; don’t make the teachers add batteries to everyone’s on the first day. 🙂
  • In the November of last year, my third got into preschool where he was wait listed. Instead of buying him a new backpack, I handed my oldest’s Paw Patrol backpack to him and my oldest got a new one. I purposely had him pick a JanSport because they last. I also purposely had him pick a neutral of some sort so that it’s not a fad that he’ll want to replace in a year. Long story, but he wanted black and that wasn’t unexpected. My daughter picked a $17 clearance backpack at Kohl’s. It was purple and sparkly, and it was so her. We didn’t go shopping for a backpack at the time, but she saw it and wanted it, so I let it happen. Well, it was $17 for a reason, and it barely made it through the school year. I pre-picked 4 or 5 JanSport options during a Target 40% off sale and she picked a pretty, neutral (black with small pink bows) option. With the sale, it came to $33. Again, great that it’s on sale, but the point is that I’m also making an investment in something that’s going to make it through many years, so I would have paid full price if I hadn’t caught the sale.

All in all, had I purchased everything, even down to another backpack, my total would have been $230. And that includes substantial wish list items (e.g., ziploc bags of all sizes, paper towels, tissues, hand sanitizer, all kinds of printer paper and cardstock). I purchased name brand where it was requested – Crayola, Ticonderoga, Elmers, Expo.

Circling back to what made this post idea: I looked up this one person’s supply list. It is about half the size of what I was asked to provide, and I would have spent $39. If I add the wish list items in, it would have been another $36.

People are quick to complain about the cost of things, but they’re not willing to take the time to stop and think. Did you purchase out of convenience? Did you buy name brands where the brand probably doesn’t matter (e.g., a Ziploc sandwich bag doesn’t work any differently or better than a Great Value zipper sandwich bag)? Did you purchase things because it’s on the list without considering reusing items? Did you purchase things that you already have in the house that are adding clutter?

So, if you’re reading this, please realize you have more control than you think.