The Way I See It, I started off very excited about saving money in order to get out of teaching and then I went and bought a house. Makes perfect sense, rrriiiiighhtt. After doing a lot of soul searching I know that I would much rather be paying for a house that will be mine than to be paying for someone else’s mortgage. I know that we are much happier in our new home where we can make decisions, do add ons, change where outlets are, paint and just have the freedom of knowing all the work you put in adds to the value of your own home, not someone else's. Now does the purchase of this home make it easier for me to get out of teaching? Uummm not even close. It does however, bring joy to my life and I love entertaining in it and changing things to make it just how I like it. As for my goal to get out of teaching, that is still there.
We are doing better on our grocery bill as far as using coupons. We have not yet met my goal of only spending $160 per month. I don't even think we are close. One thing I do need to take into consideration is the fact that we do shop at Costco and buy in bulk so the food and pantry items last for more than just a week or a month. Those costs I have to figure out, but even taking out the Costco items we are still not meeting my goal. It is hard because Chris does the grocery shopping so I can get other things around the house done and he doesn't see the real importance of shopping for just the items we are going to use for meals, using coupons and then buying nothing else extra. We are still working on it and every Sunday morning you will find me at my kitchen table cutting coupons, looking for deals and making my weekly meal plan. I read that it is better to only do your shopping once a month with the exception of fresh produce and I want to try that, but I need to find the time to get all of that together. I'm thinking in the summer when I don't have to work will be when all that comes into place.
Then my next goal is to eat healthier. Yep why not add something else onto my plate, I know. This is a need to do more than a want to do for more than one reason. First I have been so sick for over a week now and I think some of it could be avoided if I were healthier with my eating and exercising habits. Since all I eat is my three meals that can very in quality healthy ingredients and the rest of the things I eat consist of sugar and chocolate, I figure that is not the best diet to have. To improve my health I need to start eating better and adding in some form of exercising at least 3 times per week. Besides trying not to be sick all the time and get in shape, if I want to start a family soon I need to be healthier. Those who know me know I'm beyond skinny, I'm scrawny. If you saw my diet you would think I weighed in at 300 pounds, but as genetics would have it I can eat what I want and how much of it I want and I can't gain a thing. Most of you hate me now but it is just as hard to lose weight as it is to gain weight and both of them require eating healthy and exercising to improve, so easy on the hate.
My first step to eating healthy is to get this magnificent granola from Red Truck Bakery (www.redtruckbakery.com) that I first discovered at a restaurant called the Boathouse here in Richmond. It is the most amazing stuff EVER!!! It is hand made with farm fresh produce and best of all I don’t have to travel the 2 hours to get it, I can order it online. The plan is when I want a snack instead of chocolate I'll mix some of this granola that I love with some Greek yogurt and fresh fruit. So here I am all ready to get this stuff. So I place my order and it says my card was declined. So I try our joint card and it says the same thing. Then I try Chris's card and it says the same thing. Now before you think I’m weird for not being upset my card was denied, we just changed the addresses on the cards so I thought maybe it hadn’t gone through on that card yet, making it decline it because the billing address and shipping addresses were wrong. Thank goodness before attempting to put it on the credit card I check my bank accounts to see that the order has went through as far as the bank is concerned 4 times. So as of right now I have about $150 worth of granola coming my way. So I have to call in the morning to get that all straightened out, obviously. If this is any indication of how my new eating plan is going to go, I don't think it's going to be easy.
So I ask you, what are your healthy and most importantly tasty recipes that you are willing to share? How do you cut costs down on the healthy foods that we all know are more expensive?
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Holy cow I bought a... HOUSE!!!
The Way I See It, it has been a very long time since I have posted anything and one reason would be the fact that I did indeed purchase my first home. I never thought this day would come especially not as soon as it did. It all started when I was sitting around looking out the window in our rental home and I noticed the house across the street went up for sale. I did some research, found out it was a foreclosure for only $130,000 and it was much bigger than the house we were in. So I thought "why not?" I talked it over with Chris and he called his realtor friend, who is amazing!!! (If you are in VA and looking to buy I have a wonderful realtor for you.) So she came over and showed us the place and before you knew it we were looking for our first house together. The cheap foreclosure across the street, well, that one did not work out, it had a bit of a mold problem, yuck. But in 3 short weeks we found the house of our dreams. Our realtor kept saying not to expect to find a house that had everything we both wanted on our list and boy was she right. I would really like a house and Chris would hate it. Then Chris would find one he loved and I would hate it. We were looking all over our area and his sister, who is moving to Chesterfield, kept sending us links to houses in Chesterfield where I did not want to live. So of course we found ourselves adding Chesterfield to the area of places to look for houses. As we were looking at the 15th or so house which I hated and he loved, our realtor said her co-worker had a house in the area that we might like if we wanted to take a look at it. We said it can't hurt, she called the owner and off we went.
As we pull up in the neighborhood the homes here are all big, NICE homes. Not little starter homes that we figured we would end up with. As we pull up to the house and we are walking up the driveway Chris and I both look at each other and said "Yea...we can't afford this." with some disappointment in our voices of course. Our realtor says this is on the high end of your price range, but it is defenitly an option. The owner was home with her unusually protective chocolate lab and they stepped outside for us to view the house. Now I spent more time looking at houses than Chris, so therefore I had spent more time with our realtor. I was always asking how do you know if it is the house for you. Jeannette-the realtor said about 90% of the people she has worked with just know its the home for them once they are in it, but at the same time 10% don't. She said but she thinks that I would just know since I know what I like and don't like and was willing to compromise on our list of "must have's" in a house. So here we are in the beautiful home and I find myself doing a happy dance upstairs in the dressing room (yea, you read it right a dressing room) She just laughed at me while my husband was trying to keep his cool. I looked into my husbands eyes and I could tell he loved it too. So extactic about this new house we litereally drove to the realtors office to make an offer that night. Mind you this house was not on our list and we did no research on this house before we say we want to make an offer. So after the excitement wore off a bit I frantically call my friend of 25 years and have her look up everything she can about the house while I drive to the realtor office 45 mins away. Thank God nothing bad came up or I probably would have cried.
So here I am 2 months later all moved into that house we thought we could never afford in one of those neighborhoods you dream about finding yourself in. It is a wonderful colonial, 2 stories, 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, formal living room, dining room, family room, eat in kitchen with a bay window, screened in porch with an attached deck, master bath in the master bedroom and of course, the dressing room. The only thing this house did not have that was on BOTH of our lists for our dream home was a fence, which we are in the process of getting quotes for now. Aaaahhhhh I must say, life is good...
Family Room
Kitchen
Screened Porch
As we pull up in the neighborhood the homes here are all big, NICE homes. Not little starter homes that we figured we would end up with. As we pull up to the house and we are walking up the driveway Chris and I both look at each other and said "Yea...we can't afford this." with some disappointment in our voices of course. Our realtor says this is on the high end of your price range, but it is defenitly an option. The owner was home with her unusually protective chocolate lab and they stepped outside for us to view the house. Now I spent more time looking at houses than Chris, so therefore I had spent more time with our realtor. I was always asking how do you know if it is the house for you. Jeannette-the realtor said about 90% of the people she has worked with just know its the home for them once they are in it, but at the same time 10% don't. She said but she thinks that I would just know since I know what I like and don't like and was willing to compromise on our list of "must have's" in a house. So here we are in the beautiful home and I find myself doing a happy dance upstairs in the dressing room (yea, you read it right a dressing room) She just laughed at me while my husband was trying to keep his cool. I looked into my husbands eyes and I could tell he loved it too. So extactic about this new house we litereally drove to the realtors office to make an offer that night. Mind you this house was not on our list and we did no research on this house before we say we want to make an offer. So after the excitement wore off a bit I frantically call my friend of 25 years and have her look up everything she can about the house while I drive to the realtor office 45 mins away. Thank God nothing bad came up or I probably would have cried.
So here I am 2 months later all moved into that house we thought we could never afford in one of those neighborhoods you dream about finding yourself in. It is a wonderful colonial, 2 stories, 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, formal living room, dining room, family room, eat in kitchen with a bay window, screened in porch with an attached deck, master bath in the master bedroom and of course, the dressing room. The only thing this house did not have that was on BOTH of our lists for our dream home was a fence, which we are in the process of getting quotes for now. Aaaahhhhh I must say, life is good...
Family Room
Kitchen
Screened Porch
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