Old Man Higgins is a character I created for this contest. He will give a lot advice over these next six months. I don't know how much of it will be "good" advice but I hope you enjoy his antics.

As you know, my daughter Karina's huge 15th birthday party called a "Quincenera" is coming up soon. We have been planning (when I say "we", I mean my wife) for a while now and a lot of money is going into this awesome event (by "awesome", I mean holy guacamole). It has been all worth it for me just to see the excitement on my wife and daughter's faces as they plan.It's going to be a great party and I'll fill you all in on the details as it happens.
It has been really hard saving money so far but just this week I put a little away. I had umpired one of my daughter's softball games last spring and they just sent me a check for $32.78. I had forgotten all about it so it was a surprise. Hey, every little bit helps.

As the "Old Man" of the group, I never thought that I would be a blogger. The word blogger always sounded like a dirty word to me. "You're such an ugly blogger" or "You're such a bloghead."
But here I am.....BLOGGING!
I wanted to talk about something that Kristen said in her blog. If you haven't read it yet, make sure you check it out. She talks about making money on the side. Now me being Italian, making money on the side used to mean something not so good...you know what I mean. But today it means something totally different.
She has some good ideas about selling stuff on Craigslist or doing odd jobs. This is something that my wife and I talked about from the very beginning of this contest.
I work at a church being a "very cool" media director and that pays the bills but to save money, there had to be something else that I could do.

OUTSIDE INCOME:
I am thinking outside the box of ways to make money and that has included videotaping weddings, birthday parties, bar-mitzvahs and even a child birth. (I almost passed out) Now the key for me is going to be not spending the extra money that we get from these things, but instead saving it. We all have gifts and talents that people are looking for that we can use to bring money in. Be creative! Now, my challenge is to save that money and that's what's so awesome about this contest.

EBAY:
Here is a conversation that took place between my wife Glenda and myself earlier this week.

Dave: Why don't we sell some of your jewelry on Ebay.
Glenda: (evil look) Why don't you go jump in the lake.
Dave: I'm serious....
Glenda: So am I!
Dave: Well then, what can we sell.
Glenda: How about your ABBA collection.
Dave: WHAT!?
Glenda: Who needs every album ever made by ABBA?
Dave: I do....
Glenda: Your a bloghead!
Dave: (crying as I sort through the CD's) Well, I guess we all have to make sacrifices. (singing) "Dancing Queen, only seventeen...

See you soon,
Dave

I still can't believe that our family got into the top 5 but we are really excited. What a great time I had in Omaha, Nebraska. It was a first class trip put on by a first class company and first class people. My thanks to Rajive Johri, Betsy, Teresa, Pat and everyone else who made this contest a success.

So, what do I say in my first blog that America gets to read....
First I want to give a shout out to the other four contestants. It was wonderful meeting all of you and I hope we get to meet up again.
It was also a great pleasure to meet Liz Pulliam Weston. She is a consummate professional who was very easy to talk with and get to know. I'll be talking more about her books in future posts.

OUR FAMILY:
When I got home from Omaha, I had a chance to sit down and talk with my wife about setting our goal for this challenge. The next three months are going to be very tough for us due to my daughter Karina's Quince, which is big in the Spanish culture. It is a 15th birthday party which symbolizes her becoming a woman. Lots of guests means lots of money out of Dad's wallet. :-( Maybe she will let dear old Dad borrow some of her monetary gifts when it is over....doubt it.
And of course there is Christmas. BAH HUMBUG! I brought up the idea of everyone getting one present this year so we could save money but I don't want to sleep on the couch while shaving cream is put in my hand....you know where I'm going with this.
But, needless to say, we set a reasonable goal that I'm hoping we can attain. I'll be playing guitar in the bus station on Monday and Thursday. (Just Kidding)

OUR SPENDING:
We all talked about areas that we could save money and also things we could do to make money which I will share in upcoming blogs. One of the first things that we did was change our old light bulbs to the new energy saving bulbs. I almost blinded myself putting them in but my vision is back to 90%...thanks for asking.
Here's a riddle: How many teenagers does it take to leave all the lights in the house on? Answer: ALL OF THEM! Something else we need to work on.
We also talked about eating more at home and taking lunches to work and school. This is hard for me because I love to eat out but I'm going to take one for the team. It's amazing how much you spend at restaurants.

Well, that is all for now but come back soon for a "Family Update."

ps-check out my first video (a commercial for FNBO)