Does 100 sqft equal bliss?

After this article on CNN posted today, I'm sure the blogs are all ablaze about these tiny little homes.


Oh, they're tiny alright. 100 sqft to be exact. I suggest you check out the article, as it will take you about 3 minutes to read but basically it boils down to people who want financial freedom and don't want to keep up with the Joneses anymore building these tiny little homes. One couple was tired of their $1,500 mortgage payment a month so the husband built their home (the top photo) for $15,000 and moved it to their daughter's property where they pay $15 ($15!!!) on utilities a month. It was put on wheels so that they could attach it to a truck and move it if they need to.


Anyway, I admire what these people are doing. I've always been an advocate of tiny living and while this is extreme (in my views) I applaud them for going against the typical American ideals. The downsides? Well, the one couple keep their clothes in their car since there's no room (ugh.) and the guy with the adorable house in picture 2 doesn't live with his wife since his place is too small (no thanks); he's building his wife a bigger house next door to him.


But in any event, just wanted to point this out to you all. Please leave your comments. Could you purge all of your goods, give up your mortgage, and live in this tiny home?

Psst...Here is another article I found relating to the same topic from the NY Times

Product of the day: Vinegar

Even when I was newly married at 19, I was always buying big jugs of white vinegar for my home. I bet a bunch of people walking past my cart always wondered why this young chick bought vinegar. Well little did a lot of them know, vinegar is one of the best and cheapest things on the market that is so versatile! You can use it for cleaning the household, use in cooking, etc. I decided today that I would highlight some of the wonderful things vinegar can do you for your home.

Here are some things that I use vinegar for around my home:

1. Cleaning microwave. Put a small amount in a microwave safe container, hit the timer for a few minutes and then the grease and grime will be able to be scraped off the microwave walls a lot easier. Vinegar is also a natural disinfectant so it cleans it as well, just don't inhale the fumes! If you need to, dilute with small amount of water


2. Cleaning cat box. After dumping all litter in the trash, hose out the cat box and dump out excess water. Put 1 1/2 inches of vinegar and a generous amount of baking soda in the bottom. The two will mix together and make a foamy mixture. Let sit for an hour, come back and scrub the box, dump out the mixture, and hose it out. Let air dry. No more stinky box!


3. Cleaning coffee pot. This is essential if you use tap water, the vinegar will get rid of the excess limescale build up. I use 4 cups of straight vinegar and run through as a regular cycle. Once done and cooled, run through coffee cycle again with just water, otherwise your first pot of coffee with have a funky flavor.


4. Excess odors. Place a small glass bowl filled with vinegar wherever there are odors; try the refrigerator, by a cat box, in a stinky cupboard, wherever! The vinegar will absorb the odors.


5. Home-made household cleaner. Mix 1part vinegar with 1part water. You can add baking soda for a good abrasive. Cheap and cheerful (As Kim and Aggie always say!).


6. Get rid of nasty lime on shower head. In England we had the hardest water imaginable and so this left our shower head and taps looking not so nice. Take a small sandwich baggie, fill it with straight vinegar and attach so that the head/taps are completely soaking in the vinegar. Finish with a rubber band. If you can leave overnight, great, but otherwise leave it on for four hours. Remove and they're now lime free!

Here are some sites to get other great vinegar tips (don't forget to use it in cooking!):

• Heinz Vinegar


• Versatile Vinegar


• Blessings for Life


• Over 70 Uses for Vinegar


• Broomhuggers (I just found this healthy cleaning blog the other day and love it!)

Enjoy! If you have any great tips for vinegar, let me know!

Pumpkins on my mind

This weekend was one of the best boyfriend and I have had in such a long time. We went out to dinner on Saturday night and then to a comedy club. Note to stand up comedians/comediennes: talking about menopause and saying the eff word every other word is not funny. This one woman in particular actually scared me and made me just feel quite awkward. Not funny. Not at all. Sunday morning we woke up and took the girls out to the pumpkin patch! It was a smooth, beautiful drive on the way to the teeny town of Willcox. Luckily we showed up at a good time because when we were leaving, it was PACKED!!

The girls got to pick out pumpkins and we got 3 very cool pumpkins, some spaghetti squash (YUM), and I got some mini pumpkins for my co-workers. It was really hot so I got some shaved ice and boyfriend of course got his favorite, kettle corn. It was just a really good day. The weather was beautiful, we got to cut the stems of our own pumpkins, and the drive was just fantastic. The girls had such a good time. We actually drove downtown Willcox and they were having a Wine and Art festival, so we unpacked the girls and walked around while I took a bunch of photos. Willcox is the cutest little town. We were wiped when we were done so I napped in the car and boyfriend napped when we got home. We only carved one pumpkin so far and it turned out really nice, I saved the seeds so that I could roast them for myself. YUM. I absolutely love pumpkin seeds and generally have a dish on my desk with them in it.

Anyway, I will load pictures later! :) I hope you all had as good as a weekend as I did! :)

This weekend...

...I am really looking forward to Sunday! Boyfriend says we're packing up the dogs and going to pick pumpkins! I can't wait. It's the same place we went to get peach pancakes. It's going to be a blast! Now that I know the dogs can come, they're going to be so happy. Unfortunately they can't go to the awesome corn maze they have, but oh well, it will be fun regardless!! Boyfriend leaves soon to go down and live by the border and work for two months so we're trying to get some fun things done. This is one of the worst months to leave because there is so much fun stuff to do and now we're not going to be able to do a lot of it. :(

Check out the sweet corn maze at Apple Annie's Orchards that's cut into 18 acres of corn and is shaped like the Arizona quarter:

Anyway, today he has lots to do when he gets off work so I don't know if I'll see him today at all. And since I'm at work, I decided to update you all on what's been happening in my life. In a few weeks the ex and I are driving back to Missouri to collect things that have been in storage for seven years...this includes wedding presents we've never used! Lol. I'm excited to go see my best friend from high school and spend time with her family. If I don't end up going to Missouri, I'm going to have him drop me off in Dallas to spend time with my family; I haven't seen my sister or nephew since Christmas so I'm excited to see them.

ALSO, I got a phone call from my new employer letting me know that I need to make an "informed decision" regarding my position that I'm supposed to start in December or January. yay. Basically I was told that they're going through "budget cuts" and their policy is "last hired first fired" so I just needed to know that. Fun, huh? So, not being one to sit around and wait, I've applied for two positions in Fort Worth and two in Dallas. I called the hiring manager in Ft. Worth and they're hiring TEN people..so we'll see how that goes. I know my family would be thrilled to have me closer to them and I wouldn't mind it that much. I would be 35 mins from my family and about 2 1/2 hours away from my BFF. We'll see what happens! I told my sister and my dad, but not my mom. I don't want to get her hopes up and I also want to spare myself from daily phone calls of "Did you hear anything yet?"

I hope you all have a great weekend. I joined Apartment Therapy's Fall Cure so I should probably go out and buy the book so that I can catch up. I took a lot of books and DVDs to the used bookstore yesterday and got $89.00 worth of credit so that helped clear the clutter so that I could get some new books and some cool stuff.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

I know, I know..

I've been away for some time now. I apologize yet I don't even know if anyone reads this away and if it even matters! Lol. Anyway, I had Monday off since I have to work this Saturday and I tend to stay away from the computer on my off days. Then Tuesday I woke up with a horrible allergic reaction that made me look like this:

So I spent Tuesday on the couch trying to reduce the swellingness of it all. And yesterday, well. I was just plain lazy! So anyway, my No Spend Month is officially finished. :( Early, yes, I know but I ran out of money. I think I would still be doing well if I hadn't had to buy dog food and flea/tick medicine. But alas, those are things that just come up and there is no avoiding them.

The realization that I don't have to spend money all of the time is really nice. I'm going to do the same thing on a two-week basis (since I get paid every two weeks). I'm going to start small so that it's easier to focus on 14 days as opposed to 31. Oh, I also didn't eat out hardly at all (maybe once or twice) which was AWESOME, I saved a ton of money that way. I definitely loved cooking again!! I also like using cash only because it has helped me not spend as much because when it's in your hands, it truly is harder to spend. So, call me a failure if you want but by not spending as much I was able to buy Christmas presents for my Dad, Mom, nephew (and his birthday!) all at once which was awesome.

Aww. So sweet. So clueless

My sweet Ruby Ayn..with a squash seed stuck on her lip..none the wiser..

Daily WTF?

I found these in the back of someone's truck as I was walking out of a restaurant one day...

Do tell, where does one buy a transparent horse or man? Better question, what does one do with a transparent horse or transparent man? Perhaps we're better off not knowing...

Wee! it's friday!

yay. i love fridays. do you know why? because i actually get to leave work before the sun goes down. tonight i'm going home to my girls, i'm going to finish my jon and kate plus eight, i'm going to sit in my jammies with my fuzzy slippers and relax. BF has to work tomorrow AM so he's not going to stop by so it's going to be a quiet girls night and i'm ecstatic. i've had this giant blister on the bottom of my left foot for over a week now and it's incredibly painful just to walk but i've been pushing through so my girls can get some exercise..but tonight we are going to relax.



tonight i will:

• paint my nails


• bathe the girls


• drink a cup of coffee


• do a load of laundry


• throw my hair up out of my face


• relax


• watch tv


• enjoy the quiet


• finish season 8 of will and grace (!)

i hope you all have an amazing weekend. it's supposed to rain tomorrow and sunday so it doesn't look like i'll be doing much. i'm down another $10 because i found gas for $3.09/gallon and figured i needed a top-off. so $29.01 is left for the remaining month, it's time to hunker down. i may check out this discount grocery store in my area and see if they have some cheap chocolate chips. i really want to bake some yummy cookies! :)

until next time,

LL

Day 10 totals:

Money spent: $10.00

Money left: $29.01

No Spend Month Update

yay, so far for the past two days i'm doing really well. i haven't spent any money although i did go to the dollar store and find doggie poopy bags 50 for $1. picked up the only box they had but since all the SAHMs decided to go shopping with their 50+ items, with only one lane open, and i didn't want to spend my entire lunch break slowly melting into the floor, i put it down and walked away frustrated. also went to the used bookstore and found lots of goodies but i resisted temptation and didn't buy anything.

since i want to work more on the girls' training i needed more training treats so bf was nice to buy those for "his girls"..now i can work more on getting them to obey more and perhaps walk ruby without incident.

i think i may call in sick tomorrow for work and enjoy a long weekend...because you know.. i'm sick and everything.....*cough*....

Day 8 and 9 totals:
Money spent: $0!!
Money remaining: $39.01

on not taking things for granted

i think the majority of americans go through our days in a rush to get to work, get home from work, eat, sleep, watch tv, spend time with families, and everything in between. it is so easy to take things for granted in our society nowadays and even though americans are going through some really tough times, i think we're all coming to the realization that we've had it pretty good all along.

ever since i was a little girl i've always had a soft spot for the homeless. i would see a guy on the side of the street that would say "will work for food" and i would beg my dad to bring him home to mow our lawn. in college i would cut class to go make food parcels at the shelter for the homeless or spend nights serving a hot meal. after living in england for six years in the rural area, i really didn't see too many homeless at all. come to think of it, the only type of individuals i encountered were gypsies. but they had their caravans and were in colonies so they weren't really homeless. after moving to tucson in june 2007 it blindsided me how many homeless people we have here. it is just disheartening to say the least.

i encounter them everywhere. if i'm walking in/out of a store they want money, if you're at a stoplight they're there looking for money..i mean they are EVERYWHERE. what does one do? i never give money. ever. so boyfriend and i have a system that if they need something, we get it for them because even if we're struggling sometimes, they always have it worse than us. i remember one time we were down to our last $10 and bf ended up spending like $9.50 on food for one guy. we lived another day and this guy finally had a meal. the most heartbreaking? a shoeless woman at the gas station approached bf and asked him if i had a tampon that she could have. i never thought about not having something as simple as a tampon..unfortunately i did not, nor did i have shoes on or any money on me to go buy her a box. i don't usually tell these stories because i was always taught that if you do something good, you don't brag about it. but i'm just bringing up the point that when i see someone like this and i'm complaining about this or that..these people generally have nothing but the clothes on their back and maybe a duffel bag of belongings.

we need to slow down, appreciate the little things in life such as a simple smile or beautiful weather, appreciate the big things in life like the ability to pay for food, the roofs over our heads, the food in our stomachs. we need to take the focus off of materialism and look to the future with optimism and gratefulness.

i know this post is different than my typical ones but i'm just tired of people complaining about what they don't have instead of focusing on what they do have. hopefully this is what this recession/economy slump will all teach us.

image via black_z's flickr

dog stress

a while ago i discussed my problems with ruby and how she likes to act like a rabid monkey when she's on a walk and sees another dog. well, it's not improving and i don't know what to do. we went on our three mile walk again today and we could barely get started before she started barking, jerking around, and trying to get to these poor unsuspecting dogs. i'm at my wit's end with her behavior and i want to be able to get her proper behavioral training, but it's definitely not in the cards right now.

i've decided that i can't take her to the three mile track anymore until i get her behavior under control. this woman walked off the track and went to the parking lot just to avoid us and my tiny terror. how embarrassing is that? so i guess i'll have to start working on her individually in the neighborhood. lots of treats, lots of praise, and even more patience. if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. i'm getting very discouraged!

well hello there..*wink* *wink*

so i'm alive and kicking and have $5 less in my wallet. *sigh* i had to have some fresh fruit for breakfast so i darted off and bought some strawberries last night and they're sooo good. although this does seem like a bad month to do this experiment, i'm going to stick with it as much as possible. i have lunch for today (leftovers) and tonight for dinner i can have more leftovers or cook up something from my cupboard. what will eventually break me though is fruit. i love fruit and it has to be fresh, not canned. i'm going to pick up some cheaper fruits though like apples and grapes (if they're on sale) to get me through the rest of the month. i have a half tank of gas so i'm hoping it will last me another two weeks or so. i really don't do much driving at all besides to work and to the park so it shouldn't be a problem.

i really can't wait to see what kind of impact this experiment will have on my account by the end of the month, i'm excited! i think it will bring an appreciation of what i do have and an awareness that i don't need to spend as much money as i have been. i'm going to stick with the cash system again because i do think it works and does make me second-guess my spending on things that could be considered frivolous. there are so many things i keep putting off doing because i don't have the money to do it. for one, i have a number of items i would love to have custom framed but they're stuck in a drawer. i would eventually love to have my a/c in my car repaired to make things more comfortable but i've always looked at it as i'd rather have that money go towards paying off debt. i just like to look towards the big picture: being debt-free.

i've been debt-free before and i can't explain how wonderful and freeing it is to be able to save a ton of money and not worry about bills. i'm being patient though, i know my time will come and i can't wait! :)

End of Day 7 totals:
Money spent: $7
Money remaining: $39.01

Update on No Spend Month/Thrift store shopping

worst month ever to start this no spend month, but alas, i'm alive and kicking and down $2. the boyfriend took me to lunch today to sweet tomatoes (or soup plantation to some of you folks).. yummmm and i feel bad for the girls running around picking up trays and plates, so i left $2 for a tip. oh well.

other than that. i'm doing well. haven't spent any other money besides that. i have gas in my car and i have food in my fridge and pantry; i should be good for a while, but i am out of fruit..a cardinal sin in my house.

can't believe it's just the 7th! i still have 3 weeks and 4 days to go.. not like i'm counting. lol. what's funny is that there really isn't anything i'm tempted to run out and buy (besides christmas presents for family!) but i guess when you take away the option, it's hard to adjust. i just want to kick start my christmas shopping so this is just delaying that..also the girls are almost out of greenies and they REALLY look forward to that before bedtime..but at $15 a package i can't run out and buy two bags (yet again, two different weights, two different size of greenies!). i guess they'll have to stick with milkbones until next month. i'm really looking forward to the end of the month simply because i get 3 paychecks this month so that means i should have a happy bank account and more money to pay towards my debt! i can't wait for that.

it's so interesting how many articles are out nowadays about cutting back, thrift store shopping, and how America is adjusting to our poopy economy. it's funny because i've been doing this for years but now "mainstream" americans are just figuring this out. it's a shame too because they probably wouldn't be in the situation they're in if they would have just cut back to begin with! i'm just grateful that i can afford to support my furbabies and myself and that i don't have children to have to fret about how i'm going to pay for this and that. hopefully when that time comes, i'm debt-free, financially set, and mentally prepared!! :)

anyway, check out this article from CNN Living. it talks about how more and more thrift stores are seeing middle class shoppers. if you have ever been to a a thrift store how can you not love them and try to find as many different ones in your area? i know someone who found a pair of manolo blahniks for $4. really, it is one of the best places to shop, but you do have to have some degree of patience. but they're totally worth it. it's sad that people are just discovering these places as good low-cost places to shop.

even though the economy is in the pooper, it is great that over spending americans are finally getting the wake up call they all deserved!

Day 7 totals:
Money spent: $2
Money remaining: $44.01

Gut feelings: do you follow yours?

gut feeling, small voice/tiny voice/inside voice, conscience, angels..whatever you may call it i believe that we all have one and certain times in our lives, it tells us to do certain things or reminds us of somethings that need to be done or not done.

i always trust my gut..no matter what it tells me. if you have ever seen Deal or No Deal you will see more often than not, those who have trusted their guts and KNOW that they have the million dollars but listen to what other people are telling them, generally do have the million dollars by the end of the show but have taken the deal.

this morning i made some pasta so that i would have some lunch for today at work and wouldn't have to spend any money. i was leaving for work and gave the girls their biscuits, grabbed my purse and bag and proceeded to lock my doors. i have two locks on my interior door and a security door with a deadbolt so it gets to be a pain in case i have to go back inside once it's all said and done. well i was getting ready to get in my car when a voice said, "check the stove." well, who am i to keep going to work and let it nag me all day when i can just go back inside even though it is a small inconvenience? good thing i went back in. for some reason i didn't turn the burner off completely but the flame was off (i have a gas stove). getting back in my car i was a little dazed and completely grateful and said my thanks and praises to those who could have been responsible for that.

what could have happened if i didn't go back inside? what if i hadn't trusted my inner voice? i don't want to think about it but honestly i could have blown my house up or completely gassed and killed my furbabies. scary thought, huh? i'm so grateful that i have my guides that help me when i need help and i trust them implicitly.

so next time you hear a tiny voice telling you something, are you going to listen or just dismiss it as nothing? today was a very important lesson learned and like i said, i can't be grateful enough that i listened to what my guides were telling me; the consequences could have been catastrophic.

fall in arizona

as a kid i loved the summertime. for one, it meant no school and bike riding, swimming, catching tadpoles, playing with my cabbage patch dolls, and making cookies with my dad, two, obviously the nice warm weather, and three, my birthday.

after moving to arizona i have concluded that i no longer like the summer. it's.too.hot. i have to work and i'm getting older.

granted we have no humidity so that helps with the heat (ever spend a summer in missouri or texas? yeah, not fun) but still. it's just miserable because i really can't get out and do much. also, my pups look at me like, mom. we want out of this house. please? please? well, if i take them to the dog park they look at me for 10 mins and then want the heck out of there.

anyway, it is now the fall and i couldn't be happier. i actually had to wear a light jacket on our nightly walk last night. and my A/C has been off for almost a week now. yay to lower electric bills! :) yesterday our walk was so beautiful and the dog park was fun because we weren't sweating to death.

ooh how i love arizona (in the spring and fall!)

is this cheating?

so for the past oh, 4 months or so i have been dealing with a cell phone provider who shall remain nameless *cough* alltel *cough*.

last september i bought my blackberry because i didn't have any internet at home and thought that it would be good for me to have (and good thing too, after i was laid off it really came in handy!). well, after getting internet at home and work, i no longer needed it or its extremely expensive phone bill. i've been trying to switch over to a different, less expensive phone so that i can pay less than $100/month. since it's my primary phone, i need it to keep in touch with my friends and family scattered across the country so i still need a good plan and i love their circle plans.

well, to make a long story short. over the past months, i made about 4 trips to two different stores, talked on the phone to one extremely UNhelpful employee, and left pissed off and not to pleased. all i wanted to do was buy a new phone and switch my phone plan. how hard is it to do that? nope. i was told i have to pay a $200 termination fee, buy a new phone, and start a new contract. even with all of that i still would have saved a few hundred dollars over the year, i was willing to do it. BUT they told me i couldn't keep the same number. grrr. so of course, i didn't do it.

well, i called on friday and spoke with an extremely helpful employee, taryn, who told me, "no problem you can buy the phone you want and we'll cancel your blackberry contract. you just have to pay the full retail price of the phone." WWHHAATT??!? yup. that easy. so why wouldn't the other employees do it? i asked. she laughed and said, i don't know, seems like an easy fix to me. well, i decided to go to the store to do it so that i could have my phone on friday, not wednesday (to be shipped out to me, etc).

walked into the store and yup, no problem, the employee did everything i asked. no hassles. no termination fee. nada. i just started laughing in the store, i told the employee about the problems i've had over the past few months and he didn't understand why no one would do what i asked either.

so i bought a new phone because over the next year i'm saving over $475 even after buying the phone at retail. i figured i was not going to wait another month and pay the outrageous phone bill one more time until the end of the experiment. so, maybe this was cheating on my no spend month, but at the same time, i have been trying to get this resolved for MONTHS now and since i could get it done, i was going to as fast as possible.

yay to saving $475, i see this as a victory not as a cheat. :)

And the money keeps disappearing..

boo. this is not going as well as i had planned. the dog food and now flea and tick medicine. the boyfriend and i took the girls to the dog park and on a three-mile walk on sunday; we get home and i find a tick on juno. the LAST thing i'm going to do is sit around and wait for more to arrive and create an infestation so there goes $30.25. ugh. i would have only bought one box for the two of them to share but since they are different weights, i had to buy two. yeah, the money is going fast.

here is an update of what i spent over the weekend:

• 10/03--groceries (1 loaf of ezekeiel bread and walnuts (to make vegan banana nut bread) = $6.10
• 10/04--groceries (2 containers of strawberries, parsley (to make hummus), 2 boxes organic mac and cheese, bottle of organic ketchup) = $12.02
• 10/05--Two boxes of natural flea and tick drops: $13.99 x 2 + tax = $30.25

Total for the weekend: $48.37

you may notice a trend with my spending. i really tend to go for the freshest, healthiest, most organic food possible. i will not skimp on my health for any reason nor will i subject myself to eating ramen noodles for the rest of this experiment. also when it came to the flea and tick medicine, i could have saved money by buying the chemical drops, i refuse to do that. my dogs health is one of my top priorities (this is why the only eat organic food and treats) and i refuse to put chemical-laden drops on them to save a few dollars, so i spent a little extra money so that they get the ones made from essential oils. i think in the long run this will benefit us all.

if it were not for the flea and tick drops, i probably would be doing quite well and really not spending any money at all, but alas, things come up and you can't do anything but just ride the wave.

Totals as of October 6:
Total money spent over weekend: $48.37
Total money left: $46.01

Update: Day three

Bought $20 worth of gas which was this close to filling up my tank, so hopefully i won't have to buy any gas within the next two weeks. Ready to get started on some weekend projects, thinking of rearranging my computer room for the heck of it.. open up some windows, let the sunshine and fresh air in.. yeah, i think i'm going to get on it this weekend. i also have a ton of books and dvds to take to my favorite bookstore. if i get enough credit that would give me something to do and get some new/used books. yay! no out-of-pocket expenses. i hope you all have a blessed weekend.

Day Three (thus far):
Money spent: $20
Money remaining: $94.38

Your Friday Afternoon Laugh...

Whew.. good thing they sent instructions.. I would have been BAFFLED as to what to do with this..

Weekend ideas..

so i'm sitting here at work with nothing to do (shocker, i know!) and blog surfing again. pretty much sticking to design blogs (as usual) and i'm just so inspired to create change in my home. i see all of these people doing beautiful things to their home and i'm just a tiny bit jealous.. {----} <--this much. i wish i had a home that i owned and could do fun changes to! yeah, my time will come but how fun would it be to build this for my dogs and kitty? :) Via Apartment Therapy.

Anyway, since it's No Spend Month here at Who Are The Joneses? I'm going to find some creative ideas to spruce up my home, but I think it's going to start with scrubbing my floors. Gag. I really hate doing that chore.

Last week at the Dollar Tree I found some fantastic felt cutouts (kind of like modern doilies) in bright cheery colors; hot pink, lime green, neon blue. (Pics coming soon) I couldn't pass up buying the only package they had. I envision them in a shadow box maybe with pics or something.. i really have been needing to clean out the closet in my spare room. it has become a catch-all for everything and is just overloaded with stuff. i really need to post some items on craigslist but sometimes i just want to take it to goodwill and call it done so it's out of my house.

i have the motivation, i guess i just need to get it done. maybe i'll even decorate for halloween. :) that would be fun. cuz guess who's not spending any unnecessary money this weekend? (even though my favorite place is having an estate sale.. please don't go there *sigh*)

End of Day Two

Last night I bought the dogs some food and myself some strawberries: $28.72

Day Two results:
Total money spent: $35.62
Total money left: $114.38

Goals, i kinda need to lay them out...

like i've said before, i looove paying bills. :) makes me happy. i'm really attacking my credit card debt hardcore and with this experiment i'm hoping i can put a lot more towards my debt.

now i should start thinking about being debt free and what i want to achieve once i'm there.

here are some of my future goals:

• have at least $10,000 in savings (no touchy touchy)
• establish an emergency fund of $5,000 (car repairs, etc)
• buy a car with cash in the next 2 - 3 years ($8,000-20,000)
• have enough for a down payment on a house, about $25,000-30000

Total: $48-65,000

So if I save $1,200 a month, it will take me 40 months/3 years and 4 months to save $48,000 and 55 months/4 years and 7 months to save $65,000.

I don't think this is too unreasonable at all to achieve, provided that I'm debt-free, in fact, I think this is very attainable! I'm quite optimistic about this. :) Nothing makes me happier than planning my future financial goals.

Day Two: how things are going

so far so fine. yesterday i didn't spend a dime (although i was tempted to buy a cute pink pen). even though it was probably $.79, i resisted the urge and didn't buy it. for the family of small notebook they had just $4.00 left at the end of the month, i need to be cautious and careful of every dime spent. i just realized this morning my dogs are going to need dog food. yikes. this is going to set me back. of course after having months of having food, it's this month that i have to go out and buy a bag. since they eat organic it's not going to be $10 but more like $25 or so. i also have 1/4 tank of gas so i'm going to have to top off soon so there goes another $25! yikes, 1/3 of my budget gone.

the only money i spent today was for lunch with my coworkers. $6.90 spent thus far. not too bad for two days, but like i said, looks like on my way home i'm getting dog food. *sigh*

Day Two results:
Money spent (thus far): $6.90
Money left: $143.10

Day One: Results

No money spent, profit $.01 (I found a penny on the ground at Walgreen's). :)

As of Day One:
Total money spent: $0
Total money left: $150.01

Plan of attack: FOOD

I've been collecting recipes, dusting off my favorite cookbooks in an effort to figure out what i'll be eating for the next month since the majority of it will be at home (which i don't mind at all). i'm scared to go to the store and buy a lot of groceries at once and then bam, $80 later, i have a lot of food, no plan, and then i'm down over half my budget. i think later on i will make a trip with a dedicated list of things i need, not deviate at all from the list, in an effort to curb mindless spending. before all of this of course, i'm going to plan what meals i'm going to cook, guess how many times one meal will feed me (i can have 5 meals on one jar of spaghetti sauce), and what days i'm having what meals.

so, i've decided to make due with what i have in the pantry, fridge, and freezer for right now so i'm not buying anything unnecessary and it allows me to get creative. problem is, i've been doing this for a few weeks now, so i'm getting limited. that's ok. i can do it. people deal with less everyday, right?

today's lunch is leftover sandwich and baby carrots, dinner is out with bf (on him) or maybe i'll make him dinner. who knows...i've already brought my vacuum-sealed thawed bag of chili to take to boyfriend's place since i eat there for lunch everyday. so now i'm prepped for friday and next week. looks like my first expense will be lunch with co-workers but it's buy one get one free so i will save a few dollars there.

another experiment (well, side effect from this No Spend Month) will be to see if i gain/lose weight this month with eating at home and not buying snacks. i guess i could always make cookies if i get the cravings, but that would still cost a few bucks.

the one thing that i'm worried about is gas. i don't really drive a whole lot but i hope i don't have to cut back on the walks the girls and i take monday am, thursday am, saturday am, and sometimes nights. we drive to the 3-mile track and do running/walking and it's a safe place to do so. it's not too far from my house, but it's too far to walk there. i'll guess i'll cross that bridge when i get there.

well, it's lunchtime. :) i'm off to eat my leftovers.

Day One: Duh duh duhhhhhh

Here's to day one of my No Spend Month. I'm going to resist the urge to surf craigslist so that I'm not tempted to spend money. I had dinner last night with a friend so I have leftovers for lunch! Now it's time to start plotting where the best grocery prices are and preparing for my weekly meals.

Tonight I think boyfriend is taking me out to dinner to celebrate our one year anniversary and my new job. :) At least that won't count towards my budget! Free food. Lol.

Anyway, I'll keep the updates coming in regards to any obstacles that I run into!

Have a great day!
Double L