Archive for January, 2009:
Good news about second-hand kids’ stuff
Whew! The CPSC has some sense. They’ve issued a press release stating that second-hand shops will not be required to test children’s products for the presense of lead or phthalates.
From the press release:
The new law requires that domestic manufacturers and importers certify that children’s products made after February 10 meet all the new safety standards and the lead ban. Sellers of used children’s products, such as thrift stores and consignment stores, are not required to certify that those products meet the new lead limits, phthalates standard or new toy standards.
The new safety law does not require resellers to test children’s products in inventory for compliance with the lead limit before they are sold. However, resellers cannot sell children’s products that exceed the lead limit and therefore should avoid products that are likely to have lead content, unless they have testing or other information to indicate the products being sold have less than the new limit. Those resellers that do sell products in violation of the new limits could face civil and/or criminal penalties.
I’m not sure how resellers will be able to know if their products have lead content or not without testing.
I’m just glad that we should all be able to buy used childrens’ clothing if we want to!
Hat tip to Smart Spending.
Financial hopes for 2009
I don’t think I recorded any goals to accomplish in 2008. Sure, I had some, but I never wrote them down. So, I can’t look back and say, “Aha! I achieved that!”
Here’s a brief year in review, and then a look ahead to what I hope 2009 will bring.
The year 2008 was a pretty good one for us. We became more adjusted to Pittsburgh. By the end of the year, I started making more trips without using our GPS (I still need it for new destinations, of course). We became more social with others. I joined a women’s group for ladies who had recently moved to the city, and they were incredible! We all had an instant connection.
Shane took a new position within his company and he’s enjoying that a lot. He likes his coworkers and boss, and most of the time he enjoys what he’s doing. Gotta love that.
We traveled to Florida for Shane’s sister’s wedding, and had a great time visiting with family, heading to the beach and general relaxing.
Oh, and we had a baby. We love Jonathan to bits!
So really, it was a great year.
Financially speaking, we started the year without any credit card debt and kept out of credit card debt since. We built our six-month emergency fund a lot faster than I thought possible. After that, we started setting aside money to prepare for Johnny’s arrival.
For 2009, I want to keep it fairly simple. I know that I will just overwhelm myself if I outline too many goals, so here goes:
- File taxes ASAP. As soon as we get our W2s and other necessary tax documents, I want to get our taxes situated. I think we’ll owe a little this year, and I want to know the exact amount as soon as I can so we can know what to expect. And, if for some reason we happen to be entitled to a refund, I’d want to get that right away!
- Eliminate our car payment. We owe about $8k on our car and we expect to own it outright by the end of the year. Given the shaky economy, I don’t know if it would be better to set aside extra cash in a savings account to pay it off in one fell swoop, or if we should try to save a little more in interest by making extra payments each month until it’s gone. Thoughts? Once this is gone, we’ll be completely debt-free!
- Increase retirement contributions, start college savings, set aside money for down payment on a house. After our debt is paid, we’ll tackle these three things simultaneously. Before we do this, we’ll need to get a ballpark figure of how much we’ll want to have in our retirement accounts by retirement, how much we want to contribute to our son’s education, and how much we’ll be able to set aside for a house. It might be slow going, since we’ll be spreading our ‘extra’ money among three goals in some way, but you’ve gotta start somewhere!
What are your goals?
My son’s birth story
Before my baby gets any older, I figured I’d better write and post his birth story! It’s a long one, but I didn’t want to forget any details. Click over to my personal blog to check it out.
Here’s the short version:
Water broke, contractions started hours later, labor was augmented with Cervidil, I developed preeclampsia, once labor got going, it progressed quickly as I went from 4 cm to the baby being born in 3.5 hours, I avoided an epidural, and we are all happy and healthy.
