Hiya folks, I know it's been a long time, but we went out of town for 10 days! We mooched off of the inlaws and it was very nice. I came back a good couple of shades tanner and my foot is totally healed thanks to all the walking and movement. I am sad to announce that although we didn't have to spend much $$$ we are poorer than ever. So it's time to buckle down and make due with no revenue. We're leaving for Vegas in two weeks (I know what you're thinking), "If they don't have any money, what the heehaw are they doing going to Vegas, right? Well fear not, our trip is already paid for and gambling is not in the books for us. We will be driving down/over to Sin City with Adam and Emily (who have to move far away from us again and I want to cry tears of sadness and grief) so that will save multiple dollars in airfare, and we're staying at our timeshare which is FREE. F-R-E-E that spells free, Hilton Grand Vacations Club Baybeeeee. We're even getting paid $50 to go to a members "refresher" meeting (they'll try to sell us something, but you can't squeeze blood out of a trunip, know what I mean?). So we'll sit in the sun all day, walk around at night, eating on the cheap and we have a full kitchen so we can cook our daytime meals in the condo. We'll see how much we'll stick to this plan, but that's what it is as of now.
So, speaking of saving money, we have been having some not so lucky events lately that have caused us to have to spend any/all money that we put away for a rainy day. Nothing life threatening, just car/house/kid stuff that adds up quickly, but if we hadn't been paying down the debt and saving some $$ we would have been totally screwed and begging parents to lend us some bones. This is causing me to rethink our lifestyle yet again and figure out where we can tighten up the belt even more. I'm shocked an appalled to find that there are MANY ways that we can make our monthly bills even lower. I reduced our Dish Network programming severly and Greg almost divorced me so I raised it up again, not as high as it was, but significantly higher than what I had lowered it to. Does that make sense? Anywho, now I'm thinking that we need to suck it up as a family, turn the TV off and lower the programming again. Why do we need to spend so much on the TV when we can watch most of the crap we do online if it's that important to us, and it's FREE online!!! Now I just have to convince Greg of this. I also don't know why the helicoptor we need a land line when we have cell phones. Do you? We pay an ungodly amount for our phone each month AND we pay for cell phones, why not lump them into one and call it a day? Greg says that he needs a landline so work can call him just in case his cell phone is not working. Hmmm, I've had T-Mobile for eight years, and I've NEVER had any major problems with our reception, so I don't think this is good enough for me. The only reason I can think to keep the phone is that it may affect our alarm system, so I'll look into that, but that would be a $100 savings, or something close to that/month!!!!! Groceries can also be cut down, I've just discovered the beauty that is the Grocery Outlet, can you all believe that I used to think I was too good to shop there???? OK, so those of you who really know me know that I'm a snob, so that's not too surprising, but SERIOUSLY!!! I've been getting ORGANIC cereal, cookies, snacks for $1.99/box, bag, whatever!!! They have good produce, good meat, name brand groceries, the only thing that's not great is that you never know what they'll have in stock since it's a hit or miss situation, but I can live with that!! I also just read a blog that reminded me I should not buy too much at once, I can shop every week, only buy the things I need for that week and it saves a fortune and reduces waste. I also went to a second hand store to buy the kids light jackets/sweatshirts on our trip and I got a great Hollister sweatshirt for $4.99! I bought a jacket and two sweatshirs (all name brand and new looking) for under $15, those same items would have been more than twice that amount new! I tell you, I'm on the verge of making my own laundry detergent I'm finding so many ways to save money. So I have a renewed passion to make this money saving/debt paying off experiment work. We're seven months into it and I know that we can be doing so much better. If you can think of anything that would help us save money even more I'm open for suggestions.
I think I got a little side tracked with my witty stories of my crazy life, and although I love sharing these with you, I need to focus more on the saving side of things because it helps propell me on the straight and narrow. But I do want to tell you how awesome my life is since I got my new foot!! It may not be completely new, but it sure feels like it. I can't believe how bummed and sedintary I was for the last year and a half! I had gotten so used to not being able to do normal things because my foot hurt constantly that I forgot what life was like before my foot hurt. I'm finally able to walk down the stairs facing forward!!! I haven't done this in over year, it hurt so much to bend the toe that I walked down stairs backwards, like a complete kook. Mia has hardly ever seen me go down the steps facing forward so she thinks it's weird that I'm doing it now. I can trot up the steps mostly without pain (it's still healing) and it's feels so good. I'm going back to the gym on Thursday (tomorrow I'll be walking for miles at Oaks Amusement Park) and I cant wait! Life is going to be awesome again. In a few weeks I'll be able to go barefoot again and then it's all rainbows and flowers from there. I can't wait to see my Dr. to let her know how she's changed my life, this is the first week that I'm walking with no limp, I don't need the handicapped parking plackard anymore and I can feel more than half of my foot (the nerves are still healing themselves). Woohoo, I'll be on the treadmill before you know it.
Ok, enough of my boring gushing, it's after 11pm and I have to trot upstairs to bed, we have a busy day ahead of us what with riding the cheesy fair style rides at the "amusement park". Have a super day and keep an eye out for ways to save money and keep me posted.
xoxo
