Living Simple

Spending January Week 2

2012-01-17T20:07:00.003-05:00

January 8-15 spending

Week 2:
Groceries- $49.22
Gas - $45.55
Misc- $0
Food Out/ Entertainment $0

Which means we only spent $94.77 during the second week of the month and only on the 2 necessary items, food and fuel. Yay!!! And that actually includes 2 grocery store trips, because we normally go on Sunday but since it was a crazy weekend I went on Saturday instead, so there should be $0 in groceries next week. Unless we go to the produce stand to stock up on some things...we'll see. Can you believe that we are in the 3rd week of the year already?

Oh, and I decided to look over our spending last year on mint. Oy vey! I didn't realize how bad it was!!! I'm still going through and cleaning up what I can with it, and some of the numbers are a bit skewed, but it's still eye opening. All the those little things really do add up. Just sayin'

2012 Goals

2012-01-10T18:30:00.000-05:00

I am like crazy late with jumping on this band wagon, but after a lot of thought, I decided that it would be good to have some goals in place to help keep me focused. Maybe I should have thought about them more, but they work for me now, and they give me some guidance, which is what I need.

Financial-

Track all spending. 'Nuf said. No more sneaky spending.
Replenish savings. I left my job before hubby started his new one. He's a teacher so he gets paid over the summer, so it wasn't a big deal, but there was a gap in his last paycheck at his old job and when he actually started to receive his new one. It happened to be the beginning of a month, so I had to pull mortgage and HOA and a few other big, important bills from our savings. It's been a struggle to find our groove so we may been negligent in adding too it. Maybe even going as far a borrowing from it some more...shhh!
Save for a vacation. Maybe just a small, local beach trip again. Maybe a trip to the mountains with my family. Maybe a trip to Florida to visit some of hubby's family. Not quite sure.

Health-

Start running again. Even if it's just a mile or two. It's been 4 years since my injury. A year and a half since I became preggo. I have no excuse not to be running. (Except for right now because it's way to cold out :-) )
Complete the 100 push-up/200 squats/200 sit-ups/50 dips Challenge. I'd love to do all of them, but I think the push-ups are going to be the hardest!
Do 500 miles. Walking or running, that's about 10 miles a week of conscience movement, not counting all the miles I'll put in chasing after an almost toddler!

Family-

Have one family night a week. Spending intentional time as a family, even if it's just hanging out in the nursery, playing whatever silly game baby creates.
Establish a family Bible time/prayer time. Once a week is what I'm thinking for now...maybe more later on when the baby can actually understand what's going on.
Day trip some place new. Last year when we thought I'd be working all summer we took a few day trips before I went back, including one to Baltimore Inner harbor. So fun!

Spiritual- (Why does this one always seem to be my hard one to follow?)

Stay on track with reading for my studies. I'm in 2 Bibles and I stink at being disciplined enough to complete my readings for the week.
Wake up before baby for quiet time. Lately he's been sleeping all night and waking up around 7ish, so I *should* be able to do this. I am giving myself a free passing during sickness/teething/weird schedule issues because we all know that babies can be unpredictable and if I'm up all night it won't be good for anyone around me to try and get up early :-)
Memorize 20 new verses. Oh man...I'm horrible at being disciplined to memorize! Who wants to hold me accountable??

Fun-

Read 50 books. That's less than a book a week...maybe to ambitious with the baby?
Attend at least 3 free events with Logan. Since I don't have a car, and don't know when I might have one.
Go to the pool at least 15 times. I was going to say, "actually use the pool!" but that is a bit arbitrary since we technically did use the pool last summer, but only a hand full of times. It's literally in our backyard and it's included in our HOA, so we have no excuse NOT to use it. Unless of course it rains and is cold all summer.
Find a hobby! And do it!!! I like crocheting, I like sewing, but unless it's Christmas or a baby shower I don't do them. I need to find something that I can do all the time.

That's all I got for now...here's to the next 11 1/2 months of getting back on track and having fun doing it!

A Little Fun

2012-01-10T09:30:00.000-05:00

A friend just posted this on facebook and I think it's so funny! One year isn't a long time when it comes to investments, but it's interesting...

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago,
you would have $49.00 today!

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you would
have $33.00 today.

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago,
you would have $0.00 today.

But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all
... the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for the recycling refund,
you would have received $214.00.

Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink
heavily & recycle.

It is called the 401-Keg.

And as a bonus...

A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a
year. Another study found that on average Americans drink 22 gallons of
alcohol a year. That means that the average American gets about 41
miles to the gallon!

So what do you think? I'm not a beer drinker, and I think that walking 900 miles seems a bit low, but hey on the surface it all sounds good!

Week 1 Spending

2012-01-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

Okay, I know I haven't even posted a budget or goals yet, but let's take a look at how our first week in the new year went.

We have decided to make January a "no spend" month. Which for us this time means that we won't have any frivolous spending. No eating out. No coffee. No little shopping trips. Nada.

Groceries - $50.78
Gas - $44.68
Misc - $13.77
Food Out/Entertainment - $15.45

It's sad, because as I'm doing this, it's the first time I'm looking at our Mint.com account. Which means it's the first time seeing my hubby's spending.
Let me just clarify that he's the one who said we needed to get our spending back on track...

I'm looking at Mint and I see a charge for $13.77 at Office Depot. That's odd...he no longer teaches in a classroom, so he doesn't have much of a need to be there. So I ask. And the answer I get "It was for the stuff for the thing for Young Life." If you are completely baffled by what that means, don't worry, you're not the only one. After trying to decipher man talk, I finally figure it out and he says that he will be reimbursed. I'll believe it when I see it. And by that, I mean, see the money go back into our account, not into a pocket or something.

After we get that all straightened out I look at the next item. Panera Bread $15.45. WHHAAATTT!!?!?! First of all, how do you spend $15 at Panera? Second of all, I thought we weren't spending? He had a meeting there, and thought that he had his gift card. He didn't. He also didn't have lunch and was hungry. He bought a soup, sandwich and drink. Not the half and half deal, a full sized soup AND a full sized sandwich. As you will see in our budget, there is no wriggle room right now for spending. So we now need to figure out where that money will be coming from. Time to take away hubby's credit cards... :-)

We forgot to get food for a family party we had this weekend, so our grocery bill is a bit on the high end, but hopefully it will be smaller this week since we still have some dinners leftover to make from last week.

Overall, this month doesn't seem to be off to a super great start, but it's time to crack down and stick through it. Numbers don't really matter until the 31st hits, right?

*Oh, and I got our electric bill which was $190!!! It's a bill, and it won't be paid till the end of the month so it doesn't count as spending, but whoa! Christmas lights maybe? Or heat? Or maybe the TV/computer since I'm home all day...

Life As A One Income Family

2012-01-07T09:10:00.006-05:00

Time to dust this ol' blog off and get back on track. Hubby was asking me the other day where my drive and fire went concerning our finances. Once, I stopped the accountablity here, I just fell into a routine and got lazy.

Let's be honest. Living on one income as a family of 3 (actually any sized family) is difficult. It takes more discipline and effort than paying off debt! At least for us.

It's been awhile so let me recap for you.

Just over 2 years ago in December 2009 we made our last payment to AES and became debt free! When we got married in July 2007 combined we had about $40,000 in debt, $5,000 of consumer and the rest in student loans.

The following Spring we set out to buy our first house. It was a very trying process since we live in such a high cost of living area and our price range wasn't very high.

After jumping through a TON of hoops we finally went to settlement and became homeowners (mortgage owners) on July 30, 2010.

We also bought a new (to us) car in August 2010 after hubby's was totaled. That car is now the only car our family has. More to come on that later.

On March 27, 2011 we become parents to the cutest little boy!

On July 15, 2011 I officially became a stay-at-home-mom and we became a one-income family.

Now, almost 6 months on having one income, watching our savings shrink every month, we decided to get re-focused and back on track. I'll be posting our budget and what we are trying to do in a future post. But let's just say that when we first sat down to write it up we came up in the negative. Actually, scratch that, we STILL are in the negative! Yesh! What happened?!?!?!!

9 Month Update?

2011-08-21T19:40:00.001-04:00

Hello? {Hello-o??} Echo.

Yes, it's been 9 months! I feel horrible for abandoning this blog, but I decided I'd rather try to keep up with my personal blog than this one. Sorry. :-(

So let's see....

My son was born at the end of March, so he will be 5 months next week! Eekk!!! Where is time going?
We are still completing projects on our house like crazy. Most recently we are almost finished the attic. I'll be doing a post on it soon on my other blog.

Oh, and the biggest news, we are now a one income family. I was able to quit my job to stay home with the baby! What a blessing! All (well, not ALL, God played a huge part) thanks to our finacial awareness, and getting out of debt and purchasing a house well within our means even though on paper we could have afforded more. I am so glad we did have we did. I feel sorry for some of my friends who didn't think ahead and live a lavish lifestyle, but have to leave their baby everyday. I'm not saying that to sound judgmental or anything, some people want the career, but it stinks for those who have a desire to stay home but are unable too.

I did have to go back to work after my leave was up for 4 weeks, but luckily hubby got a new job, so I could leave mine. Let me tell you, those were the longest 4 weeks of my life! Well, the week after baby was due was pretty darn long too! (He was 8 very long days late)

So yeah. Lot's of big changes. I doubt anyone will read this but if you do kudos to you! If you liked you can check out my personal blog, it's more focused on the baby, the house projects and life in general, but I'd love to get back into meal planning and frugal ventures. If you stop by be sure to say hi!

November

2010-11-02T08:40:00.001-04:00

Wow! We have less than 2 months till the end of the year. Already! I don't like how quickly time is moving.

Anyways, hubby and I sat down this past weekend to go over our budget! Yay! Is it dorky that I look forward to a date that consists of talking about a budget? I guess a date is a date, huh? I could tell that it's been way too long since we last did one because we ended up adding 5 or 6 new categories! Not cool because it means less money saved. But I guess it's better to be prepared than to ignore them. I'm sure our HOA would love it if I didn't send them a check each month because, well sorry, it wasn't in the budget. Or the water company. And now that we have the house, we need an expense fund for that. And one for the baby. And one for doctors/medical, because we were both extremely healthy so we never had medical expenses (except my insurance premium, but that's pre-tax). I'm lucky that my health plan covers the majority of my expenses, but I still have my prenatal prescription every month and the occasional ultrasound, and if any problems arise or when the baby comes if they have any extra doctor visits. Is it common on most plan to have "well" checkups covered with no co-pays? With my plan the baby can go to the doctor for all it's normal monthly checkups at no out of pocket cost to me. And an adult can go once a year for an annual checkup with no co-pay. I think it is such an awesome idea! Very preventative. Just wondering if it's an Aetna thing, or if most health care policies offer that.

This month is starting out an expensive one. Maybe it should be under last month, but I'm a bit behind. I had to get my car inspected. I knew of one major issue that needed fix (my shocks/struts), and I knew of a few minor things that they might have issues with (my passenger mirror is broke, my e-brake isn't tight) plus mechanics always find other problems. I had told hubby that I would be surprised if it cost less than $1,000. My car's a '96 and as much life as she has left in her, she still is getting older and needs a bit of work every year. I'm just glad it's not all at once. They did need to replace the shocks and struts like I had thought and they also need to replace the lateral link(?) or something like that. It's some how related. The bill came to $932, so under what I had planned! Yay! But still a nice chuck of change. Boo. They had to order a part, so she had to stay overnight. Which means that we are a one car family. Props to everyone out there who can survive on one car! No one at hubby's work was coming remotely close to our way yesterday, so I had to drive a half hour down to pick him up. Luckily, his partner teacher only lives about 10 minutes from us, so I could get up at the butt crack of dawn (actually, it was way before dawn even thought about getting up) 5:45 to be exact, to drop him off at her house so she could drive him to school. Hopefully my car will be finished so he can drive it home tonight. I got to work 45 minutes earlier than normal, does that mean I can leave 45 minutes early?

I'm just hoping that is our only big expense this month and we can stay on track with our spending and start to replenish our savings.

Confession

2010-10-27T11:14:00.001-04:00

As I said in my last post, I'm trying to get back on track. Starting in November I'm going to be diligent in keeping track of our spending and saving. But it's never too early to get back into the groove, right?

So my confession of the day is... I spent $4 on pizza for lunch yesterday. A bunch of people in the office were ordering and I normally have willpower, but blame it on the baby or hungry or whatever, I splurged and went in on it. The really bad thing? I packed my lunch and it was waiting in the fridge for me to eat. Yeah. I know. Not cool.

I realize that it could have been way worse than $4, but it's the lack of self-control. The mindset that "it's ONLY $4".

Not to mention that my waistline no long exist. I went to my 20 week appointment on Monday and according to their records I've gain almost 10 pounds since my first visit! Granted I was below my normal weight at my first appointment due to lack of hunger, but still. I don't care who you are, and if it's consider a 'healthy gain'. Gaining 10 pounds in 10 weeks is hard for any woman to bear. Especially if you're eating pizza and know that it doesn't help.

Oh well. Guess I better get used to it :-)

Back on the Wagon

2010-10-22T13:24:00.001-04:00

Hey! Remember me? It has been waayy too long! But it's time for me to get my butt in gear and be held responsible. I've been slacking. Hardcore. As in, totally not keeping track of my spending. At all. Not good.

I've been reading through some old blogs that I used to read and I came across Sallie's Niece who said she was catching up on her goals. It made me think about my goals, and how I honestly can't even remember what half of them were! That is so bad!
The last time I made monthly goal list was in May! As in 5 almost 6 months ago! Crazy!!!!

So I'm going to walk through them and see how much I've failed (or how much I've accidentally accomplished) :-)

MAY GOALS: I wish I could remember back to May to see how I did for the month, but I'll look back over the past 6 months.

1. De-clutter AMAP! (As much as possible). Umm so yeah. I ended up throwing everything into bags and moving it to our new place. Considering half my tee shirts are still in a bag maybe I should really take the time to go through and get rid of more stuff.

2. Run 4x's and do at least one form of exercise (Wii Fit, 30 Day Shred, long walk etc.) a week. Nope. I gave up on running. And exercise? What's that? I think the Wii has been used a total of 3 times since we moved, no idea where The Shred is located, it's getting cold outside and I'm limited in what I'm allowed to do with exercise anyways. No excuses though. I could at least walk around my house since the downstairs is just a big loop.

3. Apply to school. Applied, started and 2 classes completed. Oh yeah! Finally something I've done!

4. Change Gym Membership to $10/months. Nope. I canceled it. They told me in order to change the membership they had to treat it like I was closing out my current one and opening a new one, which meant I had to pay the start up fee. Um, no thank you.

5. Make time for friends. I've been pretty good with this over the past few months. We had a pumpkin carving party at our house last weekend, so we got to see lots of friends :-)

6. Work on photography. Sadly, not so much. With all the beautiful leaves I've been aching to get out and shot, but it just hasn't happened.

7. Stay level-headed with the house buying processes. I think I was in tears once and it was the third time they had to push back our settlement. But all is good and we have been happily in our home for almost 3 months now.

2010 Goals Ugg! I'm scared to look!

1. Car/House savings. This one's hard to measure. Considering we had enough to actually buy and house AND buy a new-to-us car, I'd say it was accomplished. Now to build the fund back up.

2. Increase our emergency fund to $5,000. This was completed. To be honest I'm not exactly sure where we stand on this, because some of the money is in hubby's bank and I screwed up the online sign-in, so I can't check. This will need to be increased since our living expenses have increased.

3. Read 35 books. I was chugging through them at the beginning of the year, but with the house and school I've been at a stand still. Can the books for my classes count? That will help bump me up a bit. :-) I know I have to be close, I'll have to sign into my library account and check.

4. Work out on average 3 times a week. As mentioned under my May goals, I've failed. Maybe I've done 3 times a month? Maybe. That is so sad for me. Again, I'm using the house as an excuse, and then just sheer tiredness and my classes.

5. Learn a new a new trade. I can paint. Does that count? Lol. Like I mentioned before, I started making some jewelry, but like everything else in my life, that has been put on hold.

6. De-clutter and organize. Umm yeah. Again, it needs done. Organizing has been a slow process, but slowly I'm learning what works best for our house. It doesn't help that we still have paint supplies under are bathroom sink. And the shelves for the laundry room laying on the nursery floor for the kitties to climb on.

7. Make more of an effort with friends. See my May response above. Finally something I've done!

8. Have 125 No Spend Days. No clue. Like I said, I haven't been tracking anything. Since we don't have any extra money to spend right now, I'd say we are almost there :-)

9. Read the entire New Testament. Sadly this is a complete fail. Does it make me a bad Christian that I haven't cracked my Bible open (except for church) since we've moved. To be honest, my 'house Bible' is still packed.

10. Become a Momma. Got this one covered. (As the little one inside me kicks to let he/her presences known).

So this has become quite a long post, but I want you guys to hold me responsible for my spending/saving and posting about it.
I'm trying to find more time to do so, and to comment on your blogs. I still read 'em, even if I'm silent.

Life Updates

2010-09-28T08:17:00.004-04:00

Hello friends! (If anyone still reads this)

I am finally coming out of my exhaustion phase and it is glorious! I feel like all I've accomplished in the past month is sleeping. Seriously. Not cool.

Not too much to update on the house since I've been sleeping and hubby's been caught up in lesson plans and coaching soccer. Doesn't help that our budget has run out and we are trying to focus on saving up money for when the baby comes. We sat down the other even and created a rough budget of the necessities to see how much income we need for when baby arrives and it wasn't pretty. On my income we would have just enough, but that's the one that we will be losing. Hubby will be looking for a new job, but as a teacher he can't just pack up in the middle of the year, so we have to figure things out from March until September. Actually, the summer won't be too bad b/c he still gets his checks plus works a summer job.

I'll let you guys in on a little secret. Keep in mind that we live just outside(30 minutes without traffic) a major East coast city so cost of living here is high. Remember waayyy back when I mentioned that rent for our 2 bedroom condo was a complete steal for $900/month? Yeah, it's expense. Hubby is a 3rd year teacher which would mean if he was in a public school around here he'd be making at least mid-to-upper $40's. But alas he's in a private school. Yes, the environment and small classes are nice, but the commute, lack of curriculum and pay are not. Ready for his salary? Are you sure? $27,700. That's right, not even touch the 30k mark. Doesn't help that they didn't give raises this year either.

So yeah, that's why figuring out our budget isn't going to well. We basically need to figure out how much we need so we know how much I'll have to bring in on the side. :Sigh:

On a more cheerful note I posted a few belly bump pictures on my personal blog! If you want the page just send me an email. You'll get to see the face behind the blog :-)

Our kitties are getting big, which means they are getting into everything. I'll have to load some on here so you can meet them. So cute, but so crazy. Example, the one is obsessed with the bathtub, not sure why, but he loves sliding around in there. Well this morning while play he realized he need to go potty so he hopped out of the tub into the litter box. I'm sure you all know what happens to litter when it gets wet. He didn't like it sticking to his paws, so he kept trying to shake it off and in the process threw litter EVERYWHERE. I ended up having to wash his paws off in the sink before he tracked it all over the house...fun fun fun. Gotta love 'em. I figure it's good experience before the baby comes. Hopefully by then they will have calmed down a little.

So that's an extremely quick blurb on what's been going on. I'm going to try to post more on my personal blog, so check it out if you want to stay up to date on what's been going on.

What's New?

2010-08-30T19:39:00.002-04:00

I guess the bigger question is what ISN'T new?

Let me give you a very quick overview of what our past month has looked like with what's new.

1. My niece was born.
2. We bought our new (to us) house.
3. We bought a new (to us) car. Thanks to hubby's being totaled the day before settlement.
4. We got two new kittens.
5. We're going to have a new baby.

So three out of those five are huge major life purchases/expenses and we have all 3 in one month. Never have I been more happy about having paid off all our debt and have been proactive with our savings. Sure it makes me a little nervous thinking about all of it, but I know that we are prepared and the knowledge to handle it. Obviously, purchasing the house was planned. We saved, we crunched numbers, we found the 'perfect' house, and we fought to get it. I feel totally comfortable with our decision and proud of the choice we made. I love owning a home and making it ours. It's still a long, long, long ways from being done, but it's our and it's comforting.

The car on the other hand was unplanned. We knew that hubby's car was on it's last legs, and lucky for us we had started to save a little bit towards a replace car. We just weren't expecting to replace it so soon. A guy decided at the last minute that he didn't want to turn left, but rather right, so he turned right into hubby. Luckily, he was completely fine, but his car, not so much. We were both surprised with how much he actually received for his '95 car with 220k miles. It was just enough, combined with our savings to buy a 2004 Honda Accord. It was definately a blessing that we found it for such a good price, and not a single issue with it.

Oh yeah, and the baby on the way. :-) Not entirely planned, but not completely unplanned either. As you may remember, that was one of the things on my 10 things in 2010 list. Finding out right before settlement on a new house is a little unnerving, but super exciting nonetheless. We are so excited to meet our new edition in March, as is our families.

So as you can see it's been quite an insane month.

Back in Debt

2010-08-10T11:00:00.001-04:00

A week and a half ago we signed our life (well, at least the next 30 years) away.

WE FINALLY GOT THE HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's incredible! I love it!!! It's still in an utter disarray, and the first floor is far from being finished, but it's ours :-)

I don't think I feel comfortable posting pictures on here, but I will be putting some on my personal blog, so feel free to email me and I can send you the link to it.

Things have been crazy for us, not only with the house, but with seemingly everything else in our life. I'll explain some when things settle down, but just a few involve us being a one car family now, and a new niece :-)

I Like To Move It, Move It

2010-07-14T10:23:00.000-04:00

I've been trying not to plan anything, so I have an open schedule when it comes to the house. I want to be able to go ahead with anything they throw our way. The funny thing is, I've been able to hang out with more friends! Weird I know.

I'm guessing since everyone is always so busy, I can now be flexible, which makes it possible to hang out. Schweet!!! I'll take time with friends any time!

So last night I planned to hang out poolside with one of my girls when the weather decided to be stinky and rain on and off all day. So in comes plan B. She had just joined the Y which just happens to be right down the street from where I live. We hung out at my place for a little to catch up and then headed over to the gym for Zumba class! Yes, klutzy old me survived an hour of Zumba. It was actually at ton of fun, and definitely a good workout. I may not be graceful enough to swing my hips and move at the same time, but I can totally jump and bounce around and make a complete fool out of myself to burn calories. I guess it's safe to say that if my blonde hair and blue eyes didn't give it away, I have absolutely ZERO Latina blood in me. If possible I probably have negative Latina blood!

In other news, I'm taking my first class since I graduated college 5 years ago. It's also my first web class and first summer class. It's definitely a lot of reading, but I'm enjoying it. I think it helps that I can relate to everything I'm reading and associate it with the company I work for.

I also celebrated both my 3rd wedding anniversary and my 27th birthday last week. :-) Man, I feel old! Lol.

More Housing Fun

2010-07-09T11:10:00.001-04:00

Not the fun kind of games. Nope. The real estate games.

The guess-what!-We-got-the-approval-of-sale-letter-so-let's-get-the-work-done-and-set-up-settlement-in-a-week-and-a-half games. Feeling the euphoric state of being in a house and doing work on it. The feeling of having a set settlement date, time and place. The joy of sharing with family and friends that after months of waiting and games, it's finally come to an end. Only to be followed by I-don't-care-how-much-of-an-effort-you-made-to-get-the-necessary-work-done-I'm-not-making-any-effort-to-make-sure-you-keep-your-settlement-date-you-might-as-well-plan-on-settling-at-the-end-of-August-because-I-just-don't-care-and-you-can't-do-anything-about-it.

See, after the crazy housing bubble and bursting of said bubble, the process in buying a house became much more difficult. One of the big changes is the assignment of an appraiser. There is a "pool" of appraisers that the mortgage company gets put on a list and they just cycle around. The idea is that they don't anyone to be bias and pass something that shouldn't be passed. Which I totally understand. Like totally. But of course we had to get stuck with one who is extreme. It's good because we know what we are getting, but bad because he won't bend at all.

The house we are purchasing used to have a fireplace. Keywords: USED TO. The owner thought that a wood stove would be much more efficient (which is true), hence decided to rip out the beautiful fireplace and the walls surrounding it. They didn't install the wood stove properly and that had to be removed, leaving a nice open wall and a chimney hanging in the middle of the room. Understandably, that needed to be taken care of. Obviously the seller wanted nothing to do with the place, so we had to wait (FOREVER) to receive proper documentation of the pending sale so we could go in and do the work. We received the letter late in the day Tuesday and by Wednesday afternoon (yes, the HOTTEST day of the year) hubby, his dad and I were in the house dealing with this mess. Lovely, isn't it? We were told that the chimney needed to be removed and the wall patched up. 6 hours later they finished. I left before they finished since I'm not a teacher and dont' have summers off.

Not to shabby, huh? Well the appraiser didn't like it. He said that everything needed to be spackled and painted! It had to be "move-in ready". Um, hello! We're the ones moving in, it works for us! He didn't care that we had to run electric to install an outlet on that wall and a ceiling fan in the living room so we would be removing some of the pieces any ways. Nope he wanted things his way. And too top it off he said "his guy" was going on vacation so we would have to wait a week. Hello! You're the one that never specified what needed to be done. "Putting a wall up" is pretty broad. Because last I check this is a wall.

Whatever. Hubby busted his butt to get it spackled last night and went up there again at like 6:30 this morning to paint. He called our realtor, and after trying every possible way to get ahold of the appraiser, our realtor finally got ahold of someone in the office and discovered that the appraise is on vacation already. Grrr!

So it looks like things won't even get started until AFTER our scheduled settlement date. Guess I might as well pay July's rent in full because at this rate we'll be lucky to be settled before school starts again...

To be continued...(hopefully with keys in hand)

Where I Be

2010-07-01T11:12:00.004-04:00

I have had no motivation to blog lately. I guess it doesn't help that I was at the beach last week and adjusting back to real life after vacation is super hard. Seriously.

I wanna go back to the lazy morning breakfasts on the balcony looking over the ocean. Followed by an hour walk on the beach with my mommy. Then heading down to read, sleep and play on the beach all day, with a quick break to run up to the house for lunch.

The fact that we just got out of our third (yes, as in THREE) heatwave already this summer with another one starting on Sunday. A typical summer here is in the 80's during the day and 60's at night. Occasionally a day gets into the high 80's maybe 90, but of course there are always days in the 70's too. A heatwave is classified as 5 days in a row with temps in the 90's or higher. That means we've had at least 15 days in June...that's half the month! I love the heat, it's the humidity which kills me. That and being in A/C all day. I'd much rather let my body adjust to the heat instead of shocking it every time I walk in and out.

As for the house...we're still waiting. Story of my home buying life. Seriously people, you need to have a lot of patience to buy a house! We just found out today that the lien is all worked out, so we will pay that off at settlement and also that they did sign the extension of the $8,000 tax credit! Woohoo!!! We were worried that we might miss out on it, but thankfully the House pulled through. Now all we are waiting on is a letter from the bank saying that we have permission to close up the hole in the wall so the appraiser can sign off. The one good thing in all of this is that mortgage interest rate have dropped, so hopefully we'll be able to get an even better rate!

That's pretty much it for me. My anniversary and birthday are next week, and if we do head to settlement next week it's going to be absolutely craziness!

House Update

2010-06-16T09:15:00.004-04:00

Tomorrow is suppose to be settlement. Key word: Suppose.

The title search came back with a lien on it. Until that gets cleared up, we will sit and wait. We're good at that you know. We waited to hear a "no" on a foreclosure. We wait to hear from the bank to accept our offer on this house. If anything, we are building up our patience. We're learning that our timing means nothing.

I'm going to write a series on buying a house, but one point I'm going to say now is make sure your are 100% ready to buy. Don't jump into it until you are ready to hang on for the ride. Oh, and learn to be flexible. Seriously.

Our house is half packed up. We are ready for vacation. We are ready to be finished with this whole house thing and call it ours.

May Recap

2010-06-07T08:00:00.000-04:00

I hate how all I post any more are my goals. I also hate the excuse of being busy. We're all busy. Life happens. Maybe that's my problem. I'm busy, but just with everyday boring stuff, or house stuff, which I'm holding off posting anything on.

1. De-clutter AMAP! I have about 2 grocery bags full of stuff aka clothes to get rid of. I think when it comes to packing I'm going to be picky about what I pack up, and what I ship off. No point in pulling everything out of my closet right? The clothes I got rid of this month are things that I either put on, and decided I don't want/don't fit any more, or are constantly in the way when I look through my drawers, so I might as well let them move on.

2. Run 4x's and do at least one form of exercise (Wii Fit, 30 Day Shred, long walk etc.) a week. So I went running 3 times this month! Couldn't even hack 1 a week. I think I should just say that I'm finished with running. Maybe it'll come back to me, but as of now I'll go on an occassional run, but nothing to serious. I kicked butt in alternative workouts though! Yay!

3. Apply to school. Like I mentioned in my midmonth update, I received and acceptance letter, so I should be signing up for a class, maybe two starting in July.

4. Change Gym Membership to $10/months. Not yet. Still haven't had time to go to the gym and cancel. We are planning on going to the gym tomorrow, so *crosses fingers* we will and I can reduce that expense.

5. Make time for friends. Like I said in my mid-month recap, I've had a few 'girl dates'. :-) I even had a spontaneous beach trip with a friend this weekend!

6. Work on photography. Nope. We went to New York this past week and got some awesome shots (please remind me to post some if I don't do it soon), but that's June.

7. Stay level-headed with the house buying processes. I'm getting excited! We should be closing a just a few weeks!!! Inspection went well, so I think it's safe to get excited now. :-)

So that's me right now. :-)

I not making goals for June because we are already a week into it, I'm on vaca for a week, and we will be signing papers for our house and doing all that house stuff.

May Check-in

2010-05-17T10:00:00.002-04:00

Since we just passed that halfway point of this month (ALREADY!?!) I thought I'd check-in and see how it's going...

1. De-clutter AMAP! I've thought about it, but I haven't touched a thing. Okay, I decided I need to get rid of the shirt I wore last night. I have 2 more weeks to get a movin'!!!

2. Run 4x's and do at least one form of exercise (Wii Fit, 30 Day Shred, long walk etc.) a week. I've gone on 1 run, did the Wii Fit once, 30 day shred once, and have been on one walk. Time to start running!

3. Apply to school. I received an acceptance letter in the mail this weekend!

4. Change Gym Membership to $10/months. Not yet. Still haven't had time to go to the gym and cancel.

5. Make time for friends. I went walking with friends early in the month, and have plans to hang out with a bunch of girls on Tuesday. Some of my times have gotten compromised due to work, but at least I'm getting some friend time.

6. Work on photography. Nada yet. I took a few shots with my middle school girls, but they were just your typical fun shots with my point and shoot camera.

7. Stay level-headed with the house buying processes. So far so good. My mom scared me a little, saying that she talked to someone who said it typically takes 3-6 months. But we've been in contact with the listing agent and it seems like things are moving along at the bank just fine so far.

That's my life in a quick nutshell. I've worked the past two Saturdays which has kind of sucked. But that's how this time of year always is, so not a huge deal. The weather is consistently bipolar, warm and sunny one day and it the 50's and rainy the next.

The next two weeks I need to focus on exercising!!! And on de=cluttering. We'll see how that goes.

New Month, New Goals

2010-05-06T09:24:00.002-04:00

It's May!!!

April was a good month for us. I don't have exact number in front of me, but I know that we were under in both gas an groceries!!! Which is huge for us, because they are normally high. Hubby's been picking up a lot of odd jobs, so income for the month was up too, which is good consider that someone finally accept our offer on a house!!! Eekk!!! (more on that to come later) We both went over in our misc. funds, but we didn't put too much of a dent on our entertainment fund thanks to gift cards, so I think it balances out.

We are really going to have to sit down and rework everything and create a totally new budget since things will be changing. Obviously there will be house expenses like the minor repairs it needs and paint (must have paint!)

1. Car/House savings. With paying taxes we were only able to increase the funds by $1,000. Sadly, this fund will be shrinking drastically over the next couple of months instead of growing thanks to buying a house.

2. Increase our emergency fund to $5,000. Completed! I'm sure that we will increase the amount since having a house is a bit more than an apartment.

3. Read 35 books. Totally chugging away... I just dropped 3 off at the library yesterday, so I think I finished 5 this month.

4. Work out on average 3 times a week. So I've been sucking at this. I think I went running twice in April. Twice! And you know what? I didn't go to the gym at all. Nope. Not once. I am planning on lowing my membership rate to the $10/month, but should I totally cancel it? I never go much this time of year, even when I was psycho about workout.

5. Learn a new a new trade. I started dabbling with jewelry making. Random, yes. I was going to buy different beads and stuff, but they had a starter pack at Michael's, so I bought one with a coupon and gift card to try it out. I'll post some pics of the one necklace/earring set I really like.

6. De-clutter and organize. I got rid of 2 coats, does that count? Time to step it up though, no sense in moving junk!

7. Make more of an effort with friends. I had dinner with my besties at the beginning of the month. I also went to a girls night in and met a few new friends! Fun!

8. Have 125 No Spend Days. We added 13 more NSD!

9. Read the entire New Testament. I started to skip around a little, reading from the gospels not stop started to get a little old (don't judge!), so I skipped to the back to read 1,2,3 John and Jude. I'm def. saving Revelations for the end!!!

Not to shabby of a month all things considered!

MAY GOALS:

1. De-clutter AMAP! (As much as possible). Now's the time to toss everything that hasn't been touch, worn, used whatever in the past 6 months. We really went crazy in the office over the winter, so it's time to tackle my bedroom.

2. Run 4x's and do at least one form of exercise (Wii Fit, 30 Day Shred, long walk etc.) a week. I've been so sucky lately, so I need to start somewhere and slowly push myself for more.

3. Apply to school. I started a new position a few months back (okay, I guess it's been closer to a year) and I would like to learn more about the field. Hence, taking classes.

4. Change Gym Membership to $10/months. Looks like I'll be able to cancel it before the end of the year if my company moves into the building they are looking at. They are going to build and exercise room for us! Woohoo!

5. Make time for friends. Work is busy. Life is busier. I need to make sure I schedule time with friends.

6. Work on photography. I love to take photos! I just haven't had much of a chance lately. Friday night we went to a T-ball game for some friends kids and got quite a few good ones. It's been so long that I've forgotten how much I enjoy and miss it.

7. Stay level-headed with the house buying processes. 'Nuff said.

OJB - Week 6 Finale

2010-05-04T10:16:00.004-04:00

I feel like we just started this!
It was a good challenge, and I def. feel more confident about heading into summer with my body. Although, I have to stick with it or else I'll be back to my flab again.

Weight: 117 lbs
Hips :32 in.
Waist: 25 in.

So recap:

I lost 1 pound!
I lost 1/2 inch off my waist!
I lost 1 inch off my hips!

I only had minor changes, but I feel more toned. So whether it's in my head or for real, does it really matter? I feel good about myself and that's all that really matters.

Life has been super crazy around here, especially with work, but I will post soon!

OJB - Week 5

2010-04-27T09:15:00.004-04:00

Once again I'm a day behind on posting. Oops.

Weight: 117lbs
Hips: 32 in.
Waist: 25 in.

I lost another 1/2 inch from my love handles! Woohoo!!! Since that's the first place to hold weight, I guess it's also the first place to lose.

I started to do Jillian's 30 Day Shred Level 3. Wowzers! I was shaking and couldn't keep up. It's definitely a kick in the behind.

I'm trying on working more fruits and veggies into my diet. Can't wait till summer when there is more available for a much more reasonable price!

Life Updates

2010-04-26T07:45:00.004-04:00

The last week April? What??!?!

First off, I'm in the spotlight over at Me in Millions Monday Morning Inspirations! Check it out!!!

Second of all, we put another offer in for a house! Eek!!! Actually, it's a townhouse end unit, and is crazy, ridiculously priced. If we get it, our mortgage payments (not including taxes and fees) would actually be LOWER than our rent!!! I never thought that would be possible around here. It's a short sale, so we're praying that everything goes smoothly with it. There's been a lot going on with the houses which is why I haven't been around much.

I feel like I say it every time, but life just seems to be flying by. I can't keep up with it. I love looking into our future and seeing how we'd like this to go, but I really have to learn to stay grounded in the here and now. I'm never going to get this time back.

The company I work for is receiving an award from the SBA today, so it's been a whirlwind around here trying to get cleaned up for them. We are also in the midst of our busy season, so it's just added chaos.

I just started reading a new finance book. It's definitely interesting. It's called Shoo! Jimmy Choo. It's a very girly book and I'm not very far into it, but I like the 3 points she made in the beginning. Financial Fitness, Debt Diet, and Saving Style. She puts everything on a level that most women can understand, fitness, dieting and style. Love it! I'll let you know how the rest of the book goes.

Operation Jiggly Bits Week 4

2010-04-20T10:08:00.004-04:00

Wow, week 4 already???

Not too much to report. Dropped a pound, but no inches. Not to surprising for me, it's still in my normal range.

Weight: 117 lbs
Waist: 25 in
Hips: 32.5 in

I'm starting to notice my muscle definition coming back in my arms and abs, yay! I have 2 months until the beach, so I have 2 months until I need to feel confident in my 2 pieces. :-) Although tank top season is much closer, so I need to start stepping up my arm workouts!

Operation Jiggly Bits Week 3

2010-04-12T19:25:00.004-04:00

Hellooo Easter candy! Not only do I have it at home, but everyone brought it into work too! Ahhh!!! It calls out my name every time I walk through the kitchen. I suck at willpower, and honestly can't tell you how many piece I've eaten each day. That may or may not have to do with the fact that I can't keep count on my fingers. The more I eat, the sooner it's gone, right?

I went on one run this week, and despite still being a little stuffed up from my cold it felt good. I also went on an hour walk, and spent 4 hours pulling weeds, which I must say is an ah-mazing leg workout!

Weight: 118lbs
Waist: 25 in.
Hips: 32.5 in.

I lost 1/2 and inch off my hips! Woohoo!!! Buh-bye love handles.

***Warning******Rant ahead***
So I want to vent for a minute and what better place then here since you can just click off the page if you don't want to read it :-)

I am really annoyed at stores and their sizing. I understand they want to make their customers feel good about themselves, but come on, making your clothes bigger and attaching a smaller size is not cool! Seriously. I have been a size 2 for most of my life (minus a few years when I gained 30 lbs, but that's another story) therefore, I can still wear pants from my early college years. So I know that I haven't changed, so it must be the clothes. I tried on a few pairs of pants/shorts/capris this weekend in my normal size and they were too big! Is a number that important to women that stores adjust their sizing? And what about the smaller woman? What are they suppose to wear? Juniors? I admit that I wear juniors occasionally, but they don't have work clothes. They have fun, trending items, but if you need something professional, what then?

Sorry, I just had to get that out. Has anyone else noticed this?

April Already!?!?!?

2010-04-07T08:36:00.005-04:00

Wow! I feel like I go through shock every time a new month rolls around. I guess I should just get over it, especially considering that we are a week into it already.

I'll be honest, I slacked in March. I didn't keep track of our spending nearly as well as I should have. Oops!!! But new month means I get to start over, right?

So far April has been a breeze. Let's see, we've only spent money 2 of the 6 days. Friday after church hubby's sister really wanted ice cream, so we stopped at DQ, which happens to be next to a McDonald's, and as much as I don't like to eat their food, I hadn't had dinner and was starving. I turned down ice cream for a burger! Seriously? I must have been hungry for 'real' (I use that term extremely loosely) food. Hubby's got food and ice cream, so we spent about $10 between the two places.

Then on Saturday we picked up our groceries since we wouldn't be around at all on Sunday. $41.03 later we were ready for the week. I can't wait for fresh fruits and veggies again! The local growers market will be open in less than month!!! Plus, I've started my own veggies. As of this morning almost everything has been poking through, so I can't wait!!!

I also got a slamming deal at Old Navy. For Saturday only they had their polos on sale for $5. Which is an awesome deal in it's self, plus, I had just received in the mail a coupon for $10 at each of the ON/GAP/BR stores + I can use it once online. It could potentially be worth $40. So I was able to get 2 polos (almost a $30 value) for FREE!!! Very sweet!!!

4 NSD so far for April!!!

Living Simple

Spending January Week 2

2012 Goals

A Little Fun

Week 1 Spending

Life As A One Income Family

9 Month Update?

November

Confession

Back on the Wagon

Life Updates

What's New?

Back in Debt

I Like To Move It, Move It

More Housing Fun

Where I Be

House Update

May Recap

May Check-in

New Month, New Goals

*OJB* - Week 6 Finale

OJB - Week 5

Life Updates

Operation Jiggly Bits Week 4

Operation *Jiggly Bits* Week 3

April Already!?!?!?

OJB - Week 6 Finale

Operation Jiggly Bits Week 3