tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39366785706164266542024-03-13T06:34:08.386-07:00The Frugal OptimistMonica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.comBlogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-22760228363730773062015-01-07T06:55:00.002-08:002015-01-07T06:55:49.847-08:00Month in Review- December<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">December was filled with family and fun. It also brings us into month 10 of the Frugal Optimist. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">December also proved to bring some financial planning satisfaction. We had saved up every month for Thanksgiving and Christmas and went into the holiday season with a little nest egg to cover gifts and travel. This was actually an idea I got from my mom's financial planning. She puts aside money each month into her "Christmas Fund." Great idea Mom, and I hope to keep it up for next year. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our short term savings was diminished with Thanksgiving and Christmas, and somewhere in the last two months we stopped saving for the "unexpected" costs. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I got the flu the week before Christmas and I've never paid attention to how much getting sick can cost! Holy crap, I am glad that it was just the flu and thankful that Nick and I are both healthy! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our AAA and Sirius Radio membership are both due at the end of December, and I forgot to save up for these two items. We are looking at January's budget to get these covered, but it is not looking good for January's saving goal....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Additional Income: </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">AirBnB income over Christmas, as well as a referral bonus by a Watertown friend in our apartment building! Both, helped us get through the holiday's without any debt :) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>December Splurges:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The holidays are a splurge by themselves! We had a great time with family and even made it into the Watertown Daily Times for our Christmas morning run with my sister and brother. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Fun Memory: </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 23px;"><span style="line-height: normal;"> </span> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For my nephews Christmas presents, we gifted an experience. We went to a place called Wonder Works in Syracuse, NY. This place was amazing. Nick and I had just as much fun as the boys- if not more! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Wonder Works is an interactive museum that is filled with scientific experiments, a ropes course, laser tag, an life size games! </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I have had dreams of this place :) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thanks for an awesome day Richie and Camden! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Lessons Learned: </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our short-term savings each month have been a financial life saver! It has covered oil changes, hair cuts, gifts and life's little needs that come up in a given month. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For December and November, we've used this line item to cover our trips home and we are now feeling the pinch of not having that little nest egg. I've learned that savings really needs to be considered a bill, and I hope to try harder to not compromise on our short-term saving goals. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is really difficult to do, and forces me to say no to things I want to do in the moment. A consistent battle of living now versus saving! </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Total Payment to Debt: $302.00 </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I really didn't like the idea of giving up payment to our loans for our travel plans in May. So, I decided to take on a few cocktail shifts to help pay down my loans. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><i>Current Debt: </i></b><i><span style="color: red;">$163,963.25</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> We are on to our <b>33rd of 35 Student Loans</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-54824098672363830282014-12-22T09:15:00.000-08:002014-12-22T16:32:47.135-08:00Edward the Car<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I bought Edward, my 2004 Pontiac Vibe, the summer before my senior
year of college. Nick and I finished paying him off about two years ago, and
like most people- this car was the first thing that I officially owned!!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Edward has gotten into two fender-benders over the past 6 years,
and the first one got us a new bumper and a little cosmetic work to the frame.
Other than that, we have had no problems with the car and have done our regular
maintenance and drove our 8 hour trip to Long Island and Watertown usually 4-5
times a year. He is now sitting with roughly 132,000 miles and a heater we
sometimes need to hit to get it to work :/ <o:p></o:p></div>
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Last month, while commuting home, a driver of a SUV decide to make
a U-Turn in rush hour traffic right in front of Edward! Nick was amazing and swerved
to the left so that the car was only hit on the wheel well of the rear
passenger side of the car; otherwise we would have been T-boned on the
passenger side- aka where I was sitting. Thanks Nick!!<o:p></o:p></div>
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We are lucky that the car is still drivable car and what looks to
be only cosmetic damage was done to the car. The other driver took full blame
and there insurance was willing to pay for all damages. So we brought the car
in for an appraisal and took home a rental car.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The next part of this story can be summed up with one quick
analogy: you go into the dentist for a cleaning and they tell you you’ll need a
root canal or better yet, a new set of teeth :( <o:p></o:p></div>
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Our Insurance Company called to tell us, our car had been TOTALED
:(<o:p></o:p></div>
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Mind you, when Nick and I dropped the car off, it was driving fine
and really just needed some cosmetic work on the rear wheel well, so this came
as a bit of a shock!! We soon learned that "Totaled" for an insurance
company equals the repairs adding up to more than 75% of the value of the car.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We were left with two choices, either we get the Kelly Blue Book
value for the car now and our Insurance Company buys the car off us<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
OR<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
Take roughly $1,000 less and keep the car, but it will be labeled
as "Totaled," and we will need to get a new title for the car and
re-do our inspection. This will also mean that we will be accepting the final
payout for our car. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
So Nick and I had to make a hard decision and figure out
financially what was the better option. If we sold the car we would get more
money for it, but we would need to add a car payment to our budget. If we took
the smaller check, we get less money for the car but hopefully get to keep
Edward for another year or two before we need to start looking for a car, which
would also means less student loan debt and hopefully more wiggle room to add a
car payment into the budget.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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So, needless to say we went with the smaller check. Our final
rational really ended up being that we didn't plan on making money on this car
to begin with. We planned on driving Edward until the repairs were worth more than
the car, so we think we made out well. Plus, I like Edward and want to keep him
around for a while longer!!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
Financial decisions with emotional undertones are hard, but really
laying out the pros and cons of this decision helped us come to a conclusion we
are happy with. We will need to spend a little money on car cosmetics, but the
rest can go into savings or the stock market to hopefully make us money until
we need it to buy a new car. <span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-73625363652002136862014-12-17T08:56:00.000-08:002014-12-17T09:18:57.951-08:00Month in Review- November<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">November and 9 months in...</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">
We got back on track for November and did fairly well staying in budget, even with
Thanksgiving. Saving money every month for the holidays really paid off!!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">
I was reminded this week by a good friend and mentor that this quest to live
debt free is not always about paying off debt, but also about the shift in your
mindset to stop living in debt. Making financial decisions based on money you
have vs. spending money and finding a way to pay for it later. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">
With this in mind, Nick and I have decided to attend a wedding in Egypt this
upcoming May. We found an amazing deal on flights and looked through our budget
to ensure that we could save enough money for the trip BEFORE we depart. We
will be saving every penny we can and must stay within our monthly budget to
make this happen. In total, we will be trying to save $3,500. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">
This will also mean that additional payments to our student loan debt will fall
to the back burner for the next few months. It is important to us to adjust our
fina</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, serif;">ncial goals to ensure that we are not missing amazing
opportunities to live life! Debt can be a shackle on our ankles, but we are
lucky enough to have the ability and option to adjust our financial goals and
still make progress toward a debt free lifestyle.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">November was filled with new financial decisions and a shift in
our financial goals. </span></div>
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<b style="line-height: 15.6pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Unexpected Costs: </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Happily nothing! We planned out ahead for Thanksgiving and we
stayed within our monthly budget. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Additional Income: </span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">AirBnB income over Thanksgiving helped to cover gas and drinks
out with friends over the holiday weekend :) </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">November Splurges:</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">I don't think we had any splurges this month, but we definitely
did enjoy ourselves with friends and family throughout the month!</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NpE8vIQ0kVQ/VJGy0OGGelI/AAAAAAAAAwA/QQhxoeTABUs/s1600/image%2B(33).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NpE8vIQ0kVQ/VJGy0OGGelI/AAAAAAAAAwA/QQhxoeTABUs/s1600/image%2B(33).jpeg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">5kTurkey Trot on Thanksgiving Morning- brrr!!!</span></td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Fun Memory: </span></b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Nick and I both completed our first half marathon. It was called
a Half-n-Half, you have to run half the race and eat a half smoked (A sausage
like thing from Ben's Chili Bowl) and then run the second half of the race! It
was a good day :) </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 23.3333339691162px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: normal;">We also hosted a going away dinner for our two best friends in
DC. It was alot of fun and also a very sad end to our November. We worked hard
to plan the meal within our budget and adjust elsewhere so that we could put on
the get together we really wanted to for their going away! </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> </span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Lessons Learned: </span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">We need to go back to a cash system for weekly expenses. This
has worked well for us in the past. It keeps both Nick and me in check on how
we spend money throughout the week on all the little things. If we forget
toothpaste or bread at the grocery store and we each go out and spend money
here and there it adds up quickly over the month to $100, something $200
dollars. This can really screw up our budget :) </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Total Payment to Debt: $0.00</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Our additional money this month, $180 was moved to our Christmas
fund. Nick and I originally weren't going to do Christmas presents for one
another, but then changed our minds and decided to move the $180 to Christmas
gifts. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Current Debt: </span></i></b><i><span style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, serif;">$173,746.44</span></i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">We started with a total of <b>35</b> Student Loans.
We are on to our <b>33rd Student Loan</b>.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: Georgia, serif;">#33 is currently at <b>$1,711.16 </b>with an interest
rate of 11.5% . </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Current Savings for Trip: </span></b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #6aa84f; font-family: Georgia, serif;">$0.00</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #6aa84f; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-43528024164040831082014-11-10T08:18:00.003-08:002014-11-10T08:18:52.579-08:00Month in Review- October <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;">October was month #8 in this debt elimination story and if you read my last post, <a href="http://frugaloptimist.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-bad-decision-train.html" target="_blank">The Bad Decision Train</a>, you might think that it had been 8 YEARS. We hit a hard brick wall and neither of us where able to help the other one over the wall to get back on track. We were a bit irresponsible, but we have decided that November is a new month and we need to get ourselves back on track. </span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;">We went a little over board on our spending splurges, but somehow managed to not over spend our total income for the month. Student loans and our savings suffered from our financial decisions, but we are happy to say that the credit card did NOT get used to cover costs, so there is our silver lining! </span></h3>
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<b style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;">Unexpected Costs: </b></div>
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We got in a car accident this past month (we are both fine, the car is okay, and it wasn't our fault), but even with insurance it ends up costing a few dollars here and there. Our car is now labeled "Totaled," but I'll do a follow-up post on the car in the coming week.<br />
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<b>Unexpected Income: </b></div>
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We dog sat for our friends and stayed at their place for Columbus day weekend, Thanks Jason and Leslie :) The apartment went up on AirBnB, and we made an extra $290 this month.<br />
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<b>October Splurges:</b></div>
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Nick and I celebrated our 4th Anniversary in October and treated ourselves to an amazing 5 course tasting menu dinner at Birch and Barley. We had always wanted to do their tasting menu, so we bit the bullet and enjoyed EVERY bite :) It was an added bonus to have a $100 gift certificate to use from a summer beer fest we worked. Volunteering has its perks!!<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SyQt6PdSn0c/VGDk8LW-WWI/AAAAAAAAAvA/4VeoqOhbXls/s1600/photo%2B1%2B(8).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SyQt6PdSn0c/VGDk8LW-WWI/AAAAAAAAAvA/4VeoqOhbXls/s1600/photo%2B1%2B(8).JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;">Fun Memory: </b></div>
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Halloween is not Nick and my favorite celebratory day. We rarely dress-up and most likely won't go out, but this year we found a play to go to on Halloween. We got tickets through our membership with Fill-A-Seat, a yearly membership provides you tickets to shows in the DC area for free. We bought the membership at 45% off, and have used it for three shows, so far, so I definitely think it has already paid for itself.<br />
<br />
So anyways, we went to the show and then stopped into our friends restaurant for a cocktail! Our friend is simply amazing and covered our bill- Thanks Gabby :) and so for the price of tip and street parking we were out on Halloween and had a blast people watching :)<br />
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I don't seem to have any action photos for Halloween, so here are some pretty fall hike pictures!<br />
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<b>Lessons Learned</b><b>: </b></div>
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We need to find a way to let off steam in the money arena before letting our impulses take over our decision making. Something for us to work on. </div>
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<b>Total Payment to Debt: $0.00</b><br />
<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;">Yup... Well the positive side is that we didn't go into debt this month, and trust me when I looked at our expenses that was a miracle :) </span></div>
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<i style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;"><b style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;">Current Debt: </b><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;"><span style="color: red;">$173,746.44</span></span></i><br />
Same as last month...<br />
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We started with a total of <b>35</b> Student Loans. We are on to our <b>33rd Student Loan</b>.<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">#33 is currently at </span><b><span style="background-color: white;">$</span><span style="background-color: white;">1,737.79 </span></b><span style="background-color: white;">with an interest rate of 11.5% . </span></div>
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Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-48384732136587382932014-10-29T11:03:00.001-07:002014-10-29T11:03:22.237-07:00The Bad Decision Train <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
This is not a pity or a woe is me post. This is a "Now and Again in Life" post.<br />
<br />
I've hit a point where their is nothing wrong, there is nothing to do, and there really is not much to worry about. When I hit these moments instead of embracing them and relaxing I usually try to find a project or I seek out problems to fix, usually where there is no problem.I love to be busy!<br />
<br />
Over the course of October, I think I created my own problems so that when November rolled around I would have something to fix. October can be summed up in three words the <b>BAD DECISION TRAIN</b>. I even have a song and choo-choo train motions that go with the song! It is absolutely fabulous. Everytime I was about to or just finished making a irresponsible decision I turned to Nick and sang my song with the choo-choo motions. I think it made the decision even better :)<br />
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Now, let me put this quick caveat on this discussion- I don't regret a single decision I have made over the past month, but our bank account might feel a little different!<br />
<br />
Everyone has different daily priorities in which they base day-to-day life decisions. At this moment and time, my priorities include: My Husband, Work, Finances, Fitness, and Food. With all five areas chugging along why not spice it up a bit???<br />
<br />
<b>Husband</b>- No complaints and celebrated our 4 year anniversary this past month :)<br />
<b>Work</b> is awesome. Loving the job and my review last week was the best it could have been.<br />
<br />
So now was the time to play with life and hop on the bad decision train!!<br />
<br />
<b>Fitness</b>- Though I have kept up a decent workout routine, training for my half-marathon next weekend, I have not seen the inside of the gym, in which I pay a membership, in 2 months. All my clothes are back to pre-workout tightness, oops!!<br />
<br />
<b>Food</b>- Fast meals with no regard to calorie intake have been the norm for dinner and we have eaten out more times then I can count in October. We treated ourselves out to a fabulous dinner last week that was a five course experience all in itself :) We have gone out to brunch with friends, fed burger cravings after hikes, and indulged in pizza Fridays.<br />
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<b>Financially</b>- I have yet to balance the budget this month and lord knows it is going to be rough, but yet I am not dreading it and I know we over spent by a lot in October. Also, with the blog- yeah I haven't posted since October 8th, that's pretty lame on my part...<br />
<br />
So, why do I get in these rut where I just say screw it and do whatever I want, even though I know I am making some irresponsible decisions?<br />
<br />
Finances really wind me up pretty right, and now and again I just need to spin out!! It is irresponsible and financially detrimental. But now and again, sometimes making bad decisions really are the RIGHT decision.<br />
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This is not healthy, especially when in last four weeks. So my next step is to figure out how to integrate fun decisions into our budget, so every 6 months I don't hop back on the bad decision train without looking back.<br />
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November provides us with a clean slate and hopefully Nick and I can both get back on track. I am in the process of refocusing my priorities and trying to get back into some kind of routine that will allow for a better fitness and healthier food. <br />
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I'll let you know how it goes and please enjoy this month's review later in the week because we sure as heck enjoyed this past month!!<br />
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Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-19150686269104031812014-10-08T07:15:00.000-07:002014-10-08T07:15:03.326-07:00The Stuffed Pumpkin <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Tis the season to cooked gourds :)<br />
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Nick will tell you that I am simply obsessed with all things squash at this time of the year. By the time we get through the Fall, if I even bring up an acorn squash, butternut squash, pumpkin, or spaghetti squash I am banned from the kitchen :)<br />
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I finally found a recipe that fills my need for a dinner gourd and Nick's need to not feel gourd overload... The Stuffed Pumpkin!<br />
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1 3lb Pumpkin<br />
1/4 lb of sourdough bread, cut in 1/2 in' blocks<br />
1/4 lb of cheese (we use half cheddar and gruyere), cut into small 1/4 in' blocks<br />
4 pieces of crispy bacon broken into small pieces<br />
4 cloves of minced garlic<br />
1/4 c of minced shallots<br />
1 T of thyme<br />
1/3 c Heavy Cream<br />
Pinch of Nutmeg<br />
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Super simple recipe from <i>Around my French Table </i>by Dori Greenspan call a <a href="http://www.doriegreenspan.com/dorie_greenspan/2008/09/pumpkin-packed-with-bread-and-cheese-a-recipe-in-progress.html" target="_blank">Stuffed Pumpkin with Everything Good </a><br />
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I love how Dori writes her recipes in a story telling- Julia Child format, so it is worth clicking on the link above for her full recipe, but the quick run through is below:<br />
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees<br />
Cut lid of pumpkin and clean out- like a jack-o-lantern<br />
Mix all other items, except cream and nutmeg, in a bowl<br />
STUFF your pumpkin!! Keep squishing it in :)<br />
Mix nutmeg and cream together and pour inside the pumpkin<br />
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Attempt to place your lid on the pumpkin!<br />
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Cook 2 hours, you can remove the cap with 20 mins left to help liquid evaporate<br />
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It is AMAZING :) Though it does take two hours to cook, it is a great plan ahead meal and can be served when ready. I am thinking pre-dinner party with friends or a lazy Saturday :)<br />
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Financially, depending on the cheese you choose to use, this can be a cheap or a treat meal! We did a bit of a more expensive cheese so this meal cost us around $14. It provided us 4 portions, so one dinner and one round of lunches- appx $3.50 a meal. Not too shabby for an amazing dinner :)<br />
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Happy Fall and enjoy your gourds :)<br />
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Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-56115296243617921412014-10-02T06:31:00.002-07:002014-10-02T06:31:29.805-07:00AirBnB- The Good and Bad <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">I hope anyone reading
this blog who is traveling somewhere looks into using AirBnB for
accommodations. The AirBnB model is something I enjoyed when Nick and I were
traveling in Belgium and now, as a host, I truly see the hard work many people
put into providing these accommodations at a low rate. If you missed last
week's post, check out our <a href="http://frugaloptimist.blogspot.com/2014/09/airbnb-financial-breakdown.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">Financial AirBnB Breakdown</span></a>.</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">When breaking down our AirBnB
experience, Nick and I came up with the good, the bad, and- because this is the
frugal optimist and not some negative Nancy blog- the fabulous.</span><span style="background: white; color: #500050; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Good</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #500050; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hearing about our visitors experiences</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">. We got some really nice thank you letters, and one family even
left us a picture of them at the Washington Monument. Nick and I took a hand's
off approach with the AirBnB and gave people their space, but you could tell
that some guests would have preferred to meet us, so in the future perhaps when
we are in town we will try to swing by and say hello. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="background: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">New sheets, towels, and a lamp shade</span></b><span style="background: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">. In order to host we needed to get a few new
things to spruce up the place. It was nice to come home to a few new towels and
an extra set of bed sheets. These items even come in handy when we have family visiting.
It was a great excuse to add a few new pieces to our linen closet and get a
much needed lamp shade. </span><span style="background: white; color: #500050; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">AirBnB offers a <b>free photography service to hosts</b>. They hire a
local photographer to come to your apartment or home and take photos. These
photos are then added to your<b> </b></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">host page and make
your space look incredible. Nick and I are pretty sure this service was one of
the main reasons we had success booking so many reservations! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Bad</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #500050; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="background: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">On Vacation, you're not fully on vacation</span></b><span style="background: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">. Nick and I had to keep our phones with us just
in case there was a problem. We got called twice by the front desk to go
pick-up delivered food from the lobby. We quickly realized that we needed to
add a note in the welcome letter indicating the food delivery policy for our
building :) </span><span style="background: white; color: #500050; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="background: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Cleaning the Apartment</span></b><span style="background: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">. This makes having a BnB a job!! By the end of
the process, Nick and I were not interested in having any one-night guest, and
two nights was pushing it. Our favorite guests were those with 4-5 nights
:) Cleaning an apartment you are not using gets to be tedious and
frustrating. </span><span style="background: white; color: #500050; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Use of items, not met for Guest use</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">. Nick and I unfortunately left out some wine and expensive beers
during our most recent AirBnB stay and our guests decided that met it was for
them. So, we did lose a few good beers, so that sucked, but it is only stuff. This experience has put us on high alert to
make sure anything we don't want touched is put away. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Fabulous</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #500050; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="background: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Making money on an apartment not in use</span></b><span style="background: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">. This was a great way to use a space that we
were already paying for and make it work for us. We have also learned that
the rent we paid for the apartment during the days it was used can be a tax
deduction. I am not sure how this works yet, but I will let you know!</span><span style="background: white; color: #500050; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="background: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">A Clean Apartment</span></b><span style="background: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">!! Even when we came back to the house, most guests
left the apartment in great shape. We only had two guests that left it a bit of
a mess, but at the end of a month and a half our apartment was still just as
clean as we had left it and it felt great to come home to a clean clutter free
environment. </span><span style="background: white; color: #500050; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">An opportunity to travel
and usually close to free lodging.</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> It has made weekend getaways not only doable now, but enjoyable. We have
gone out of town a few times and been able to use the money made on AirBnB to
cover our AirBnB stay. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">That sums up our
experience with AirBnB in a tiny nut shell. We have kept our apartment up on
the market and added days of availability as opportunities to duck out of town come
up. We have been very fortunate to book almost all of our available days! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">To all those looking to
travel check-out AirBnB for a more frugal accommodation option, to all the
AirBnB hosts reading- happy cleaning :) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #500050; font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">**<i>Sorry for the lack of photos **</i></span></div>
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Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-63636419286955446592014-09-30T10:35:00.000-07:002014-09-30T10:35:00.718-07:00Month in Review- September <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;">September has hit and the crisp air is starting to settle us into fall. Nick and I have had a great month and had an opportunity to really test our financial goals. We have had multiple opportunities to give up and a few moments of excitement when we realize we are making really good progress. </span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;">We are now <b>Seven months </b>into this debt elimination quest and we had a fairly good month staying in budget and even pre-planning for our spending splurges. We are getting to see where we fall short when it comes to budgeting and how to help each other stay focused, while still not giving up living life :) </span></div>
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<b style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Unexpected Costs: </b></span></b></div>
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Gas :) We spent like double this month on gas. Oh well! The car adventures were worth the extra money. We just had to dip into our AirBnB money to help cover the extra trips.<br />
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<b>Unexpected Income: </b></div>
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We had signed up for the Dogfish Head Dash a few months back, and so we put our apartment up on AirBnB for the weekend of the race. We ended up getting renters and had extra income to use toward food and a place to stay for the race.<br />
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We also worked a beer fest and were paid for our time! Nick also got a tip, so yay for Nick :) </div>
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<b>September Splurges:</b></div>
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Nick's Birthday is in September, so his mom came down and joined us for a long birthday weekend. We planned a good number of our meals in, but we also went out to dinner and I would consider this our monthly splurge. A huge thanks to Olga for covering a fabulous meal at <a href="http://lediplomatedc.com/" target="_blank">Le Diplomate</a> :) </div>
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<b style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;">Fun<strike>niest</strike> Moment: </b></div>
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Calling Nick at work and telling him that we could pay off loan #34. He was having a kinda crappy day and being able to tell him that we had made it 3 months early was really AWESOME :) Loan #35 was one of my loans and so this is Nick's first loan we've paid off.<br />
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Yay US :) </div>
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<b>Lessons Learned</b><b>: </b></div>
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We are doing well with our short-term savings! Each month we put a good chunk of change away in our short-term savings. These amounts are pre-determined based on when they will be needed, but saved in smaller chunks. </div>
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For example, we need an oil change every three months and that cost $30, we save $10 a month and at the three month mark we have $30 ready to go and have no excuse not to get our oil changed. This has worked great for haircuts, "get away fund", holidays, and medicine. </div>
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This month we had our race in Delaware and I was excited to see that we had been contributing to our "get away" category, so magically we had money to help cover a AirBnB and gas money! This also came in handy when Nick went to get his hair cut. Sometimes it is the little things, but it feels great to know that pre-planning comes through :) </div>
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<b>Total Payment to Debt: $366.04*</b><br />
*This amount is in addition to our minimum payments</div>
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<b>WE PAID OFF NUMBER 34 :) </b></div>
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<b>YESSSSSSS!!! </b></div>
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<b>12.5 % Interest GONE!!</b></div>
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<i style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;"><b style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;">Current Debt: </b><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;"><span style="color: red;">$173,746.44</span></span></i><br />
<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;">This amount does not go down no matter how much we pay :( Nick's Federal loans are on a income-based repayment plan, so we continue to make monthly payments but they are not as high as the interest, so it just keeps going up, 'Tis our financial life! </span></span></div>
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We started with a total of <b>35</b> Student Loans. This month we eliminated #34 and now we are on to our <b>33rd Student Loan</b>.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">#33 is currently at </span><b><span style="background-color: white;">$</span><span style="background-color: white;">1,737.79 </span></b><span style="background-color: white;">with an interest rate of 11.5% . </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;">We anticipate this loan taking us </span><span style="background-color: white;"> 7 months to pay off- April 2015. </span></div>
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Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-6007803172075914302014-09-25T13:23:00.001-07:002014-09-25T13:23:23.640-07:00AirBnB- Financial Breakdown <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've mentioned our successful summer with AirBnB enough times now that I think it is worth sharing with you the overall financial impact of our experience.<br />
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Nick and I moved out of our apartment on July 3rd and didn't move back-in until August 17th. In that time, Nick and I have hosted 11 groups through AirBnB.<br />
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We divided our income into four categories:<br />
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<li>Set-Up/Management Expenses</li>
<li>Taxes</li>
<li>Summer Vacation</li>
<li>Student Loans </li>
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<b>Set-Up and Management </b>of the AirBnB had various small expenses that I am glad we used income to help offset,; otherwise we would have been dipping into grocery money. These expenses ended up equalling <b>12%</b> of our overall earnings. They included things like new bed sheets, cleaning supplies, and breakfast treats for our guests. We also set a little money aside for gas, as our commute to and from the apartment became a business expense.<br />
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We decided that it would be best to save <b>30% </b>of our earnings for <b>Taxes</b>. Come March, I think we will both be happy to have this money on hand rather then be surprised by an impending amount owed. If we don't owe it all then we can put it toward a student loan payment, but we'd rather be safe and have it sit in our savings account until we complete our taxes.<br />
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One of the reasons we originally decided to put our apartment up on AirBnB was to earn money to stay a few nights in Vermont on our <b>Vacation</b>. We made that money, and then Nick and I did not stay on budget for our vacation at all :( It was a very Bad frugal vacation. So we used <b>28%</b> of our income to offset the money we had saved to cover our expenses. We came back from vacation without anything on our credit cards- first time I can say that in like 7 years!!<br />
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We were also able to put<b> 30%</b> of our income toward our<b> Student Loans</b>. This allowed us to pay down our highest interest rate loan (12.5%) down in 5 months, versus the 8 months we thought it was going to take us. This was a huge accomplishment :)<br />
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Nick and I will be hosting our 12th group this upcoming weekend, who are helping us pay for our weekend in Delaware for the Dogfish Head Dash. AirBnB has been a great way for us to make money while we aren't at home and keep us off our credit cards.<br />
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This post would not be complete without a HUGE thank you to Rob and Sally for their over the top generosity. Over the summer, they allowed Nick and I to stay in the guest room, while making money on our own place. We truly appreciate the support :) </div>
Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-1098006253411470512014-09-24T09:34:00.000-07:002014-09-24T09:34:34.477-07:00Month in Review- August <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;">Hey Everyone! This has been a crazy summer filled with some great opportunities to make extra income through AirBnB, but it has also been a summer filled with trips and the first crazy work season at my new job. Now that we get into Fall, I think it is about time I got back on this writing horse and get you some new posts. </span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;"><b>Month Six </b>provided an opportunity to evaluate where we stand financially and determine if we are on the right path toward financial security. </span></div>
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Nothing unexpected. We were living in three different places for three weeks and stayed in budget, but as soon as we got home from the gypsy lifestyle we were living, we realized we needed to bulk up on staples, so we went a bit over budget on groceries. Thanks Costco :) </div>
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<b>Unexpected Income: </b></div>
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I get paid bi-monthly and Nick gets paid every two weeks. We always budget for a 4 paycheck month, so when Nick (twice a year) gets a third paycheck in one month it is always a happy surprise!! August happened to be a three paycheck month, which helped us cover overspending in our grocery line and put a dent in our student loan payments. </div>
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<b>August Splurges:</b></div>
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We bought a membership to a program called Fill A Seat. It provides tickets to theater and art events around the DC Area. We found a Living Social coupon for 45% off and have already been to one event. </div>
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Basically, they give away seats to productions on days that they aren't selling enough tickets. We go and "fill a seat" with our membership and don't need to pay anything extra. Nick and I give up a lot of opportunities to go out, for the sake of saving money, so this provides us a great chance to actually keep exploring the city we live in for the next year without paying anything more then our membership fee.</div>
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We already went to a Shakespeare play and we are headed to another play on Thursday :) Fun little date nights! </div>
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<b style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;">Funniest Moment: </b></div>
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We got to dog sit for TWO dogs in August, Beth and Chopper. Now we both can't stop talking about dogs :) Seriously people, we ended up calling my uncle a few weekends ago and asking if we could pick-up the dog and take it on a hike. We just missed her :) </div>
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Yup, getting a dog would not be frugal of us and not really fit into our work schedules so it is probably not happening, but I do think that a dog walking volunteer gig is in our future. Or perhaps more of our friends should get dogs so that we can dog sit!! </div>
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<b>Lessons Learned</b><b>: </b></div>
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We have a breaking point!! As a couple, Nick and I have been pretty flexible for two months, but we both came to a point roughly two days before we got home that we knew we needed to just STOP. </div>
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We have been out of a normal routine, normal commute, and normal cooking habits for 2 months. We were ready for home base. I had two work trips and Nick had been over the top fantastic about dog sitting alone for a few days and managing the AirBnB. </div>
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When we finally got back to our apartment mid-August I think it took us a week just to run the dishwasher. We wanted to do nothing but SIT and watch TV, hence my lack of posts for the past month :) </div>
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We both agree that our crazy summer was worth a great vacation and the extra payments to our student loans, but we also learned how to work as a better team which was even more important. </div>
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<b>Total Payment to Debt: $1,386.65</b> , on top of our minimum payments for August<br />
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AWESOME month for us with an extra paycheck and AirBnB income :) </div>
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<i><b style="color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;">Current Debt: </b><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;"><span style="color: red;">$166,777.53 </span>This amount is out of date, but I'll have an updated amount for you next week in the September run down! </span></i><br />
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We started with a total of <b>35</b> Student Loans.<br />
We are currently at <b>34 </b>Student Loans<b> </b>and we need to pay <b>$358.06 </b>more in order to reach #33 :)<br />
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Student loan #34 has our highest interest rate at 12.5% ! We originally anticipated this taking us a total of 8 months, this being month 4, but I think we may be able to get rid of this one in 1 more months, cutting off 3 months from our initial plan!!</div>
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Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-43409225066245643932014-08-26T07:42:00.006-07:002014-08-26T07:42:59.222-07:00Guest Post- Colorado Bound <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I had the opportunity to go out to Denver for a work trip. At the end of my trip, I took three personal days to go and visit my good friend Amanda. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Amanda and I grew up together from basically my birth , since she is a year older. After spending a great frugal weekend with her in Colorado, I asked if she'd be willing to guest blog for me on her rendition of the weekend :) Thanks for a great weekend Amanda and for the great write-up! </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Being frugal isn't a choice, it is our life. Paycheck to paycheck, being grateful the bills get paid on time and we have beer in the fridge. It's sharing and getting creative, being realistic and understanding the reality without letting it get you down. It's also nice to know you're not alone in this struggle. We all have our ups and downs, our unique relationship dynamics and issues. We are all taking it day by day, penny by penny as best we can. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The anticipation of the weekend visit from Monica had hit it's peak on Thursday night after work. It's been a little over a year since our last adventure and there was so much to do. The reality of the situation also needed to be addressed- How were we going to feed three people and drive approximately 250 miles, while still having some money for groceries until the next payday? I sat down and looked at the numbers. We would have to be extremely meticulous with our spending, but I knew if anyone could do it- Monica and I could! </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-raz14j0BkxQ/U_ya_tJspII/AAAAAAAAAqo/WtgXUaGDO5o/s1600/image%2B(1).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-raz14j0BkxQ/U_ya_tJspII/AAAAAAAAAqo/WtgXUaGDO5o/s1600/image%2B(1).jpeg" height="240" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I arrived in Denver on Friday afternoon, parking in front of Pam's (a good friend from high school) adorable house. We picked up Monica and decided it was time for a beer. Splitting a few sample flights of beer we each only paid $8 w/tip for the opportunity to try 15 beers. For dinner, why sit in a stuffy restaurant when we could hit up the local food trucks? We parked downtown and grabbed a quinoa wrap for dinner- $8.50 each. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We reminisced over our individual money woes while window shopping down the 16<sup>th</sup> street mall. It's encouraging to hear others frustrations that so closely resemble your own, yet we are all getting by. After walking for a while, we decided to skip the crowded/expensive bar scene and buy a 12 pack of beer and head back to Pam's, saving us all at least $20 each by not going out for drinks. We enjoyed the fresh air on the back deck, great conversation and local craft brews until 2am.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The next morning, Monica decided to take Pam up on he offer to do her dirty laundry at the house, rather then wait till we got to the mountain and use the coin operated machines. While the load washed, we took a stroll around the neighborhood, fueled by Luke's (Pam's Husband) pot of strong coffee and a banana. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It happened to be the weekend of a neighborhood garage sale, so we took the opportunity to make someone else's trash our treasure. The garage sales sunk me in a whole $2 for Cranium. Pam and Luke scored a pair of skis for a whopping $25! (If only that guy had thrown in the sex swing for another $5) and Pam also found a $5 espresso machine, with all the parts!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yes, that is a sex swing tastefully laid out at a garage sale, next to a slimy chemistry set, oh the irony :) </td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We went back to Pam's and switched the laundry over before hopping in the car and heading to the farmer's market. Lunch of empanadas and coffee ice cream totaled $7.75. We also picked up a bag of fresh fire roasted pablanos for $3, a great addition to our dinner ingredients. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Stomachs satisfied and laundry complete we got on the road.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Two and a half hours of driving up the mountains later, Monica and I had arrived in time for happy hour. We split a nacho and each had a couple drinks, <b>our priciest venture so far</b>. Thankfully we had pre-planned dinner, so we could keep costs down by heading home. We utilized the peppers from the farmers market and made a homemade dinner of spicy turkey burgers and hand cut french fries, sipping on left over beers from the night before. We even pored a few into plastic cups and soaked in the hot tub before heading to bed. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The next morning Monica made breakfast- Eggs and hash made of leftovers french fries and a broken down burger. Great fuel for a 6 mile hike! On our way to the hike, we grabbed a few snacks to keep us going, roughly $12- that would be $4 per person :) We could not have asked for a better day to hike. The air was comfortable and the views were spectacular! </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">After descending through the forest and making our way back to the trail head we were feeling hungry. Leadville had the perfect fix- meal deals of burritos/burgers and fries- $6.50 each. Satisfied and content we headed along a winding road of cliffs and valleys to a neighboring ski resort, Vail . The village was packed with artisans, farmers, bakers and more. The sun beat down as we wandered through the crowd. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Tired and thirsty, we decided it best to run to the store for a few essentials and then head home. We even scored a mix and match 6 pack of craft brews for $5.99. Homemade pina-coladas, salmon, rice and spinach was the perfect end to a long day. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The next day, since we'd gone to the store the night before, we were able to make breakfast, lunch and dinner at home. We decided a Monday evening get together was a great way to end a long-weekend and kick start the week. So we invited friends over and made five homemade pizza doughs, grabbed cheese and sauce and friends brought over libations and pizza toppings. Potluck style get together are a smart way to spend time with fiends and keep costs down. Homemade pizzas were a hit with our friends and we were also able to enjoy that $2 Cranium game. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">With my friend Kristen flying out of Denver Tuesday morning, Monica was able to save $30 by hitching a ride rather then purchasing a bus ticket. Overall, a very successful frugal weekend!! </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">-Amanda P. </span></div>
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Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-19629623812468580602014-08-13T07:23:00.000-07:002014-08-13T07:23:04.644-07:00Month in Review- July <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;">I am not doing well on posting this past month, but I am also sleeping in my 10th bed in the course of a month- so throw me some slack :)</span></h3>
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Month Five has been amazing! We kicked off the month on a 10 day vacation and I finished the month in Denver on a work trip, and squeezed in a great visit with an old friend! </div>
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Financially, Month #5 was pretty amazing. Nick and I have spent this past month renting out our apartment on AirBnB and have had a total of 11 bookings! I will do a full write-up on our AirBnB experience in the coming week.<br />
<b><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Unexpected Costs: </b></span></b><br />
Our vacation was a little more then anticipated. That whole "<a href="http://frugaloptimist.blogspot.com/2014/06/vacation-on-budget.html" target="_blank">Travel Budget"</a> is still something that Nick and I need to work on, or we just need to be more realistic about our travel costs when coming up with a budget. We ended up going over our budget by $607.90. Not our best frugal trip...<br />
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<b>Unexpected Income: </b><br />
No unexpected income this month! We have a very well laid out budget with our AirBnB income and expenses. We tracked these along with our monthly expenditures letting us track the expenses related to our AirBnB business; hopefully, this will help us later when we are doing our taxes.<br />
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<b>July Splurges:</b><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7f-j0h42Nbs/U-txccSIgHI/AAAAAAAAAqI/TUUBHXBjhSo/s1600/photo%2B(6).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7f-j0h42Nbs/U-txccSIgHI/AAAAAAAAAqI/TUUBHXBjhSo/s1600/photo%2B(6).JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a>Definitely our vacation, but we also went to a Billy Joel concert! We did pull back on a number of "wants" on the vacation, but all in all we went out to a few fantastic restaurants, drank some great craft beer and we even got to visit an awesome, though expensive, museum in Vermont.<br />
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If you are ever in the Burlington area you should check out the <a href="http://shelburnemuseum.org/" target="_blank"><b>Shelburne Museum</b></a>. I think it may be one of my favorite museums :) It comes with a full steam boat, a barn full of old sleighs, a steam engine, a collection of beautiful artwork and even a toy museum!<br />
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However we did choose alot of free activities as well, like hiking Mt. Mansfield in Vermont and hiking White Face Mountain in NY :)<br />
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<b style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.4;">Funniest Moment: </b><br />
When we left our apartment on July 2nd for vacation, we left our apartment ready for our first renter. This meant that Nick and I had to take what we wanted to have/use during and after vacation. We quickly started to describe our car as the Gypsy mobile. We had a Costco size bag of rice, old fashion oats, and enough ground coffee to get us through a month.<br />
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As we've moved around over the past month, we have brought our three "must have" grocery items with us from location to location. I keep joking that our priorities must seem totally weird to others, but for Nick and I oats and fruit for breakfast, and rice with beans for lunch is something close to the only routine we've kept over the past month :)<br />
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<b>Lessons Learned</b><b>: </b><br />
My biggest lesson learned this month was to not be so hard on myself, or on Nick. Money is tricky and our emotional attachment to those numbers in our bank account can push me to make irrational emotional decisions.<br />
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Let's just say my husband had to "talk me down" after I freaked out that we "only" made a $700 payment to our student loans. Sometimes you need to be brought down to reality and that's when I thank goodness that I have my awesome husband. I needed to be reminded that I should be thankful and excited for any movement forward we make, and not to regret the great moments we have, even when they do cost money.<br />
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Any movement forward is better then staying exactly in the same place :)<br />
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<b>Total Payment to Debt: $737.75</b> , on top of our minimum payments for July</div>
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Not too shabby for month 5! </div>
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<b>Current Debt: </b>$166,777.53</div>
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We started with a total of <b>35</b> Student Loans.<br />
We are currently at <b>34 </b>Student Loans<b> </b>and we need to pay <b>$1,744.71 </b>more in order to reach #33 :)<br />
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Student loan #34 has our highest interest rate at 12.5% ! We originally anticipated this taking us a total of 8 months, this being month #2, but I think we may be able to get rid of this one in 4 more months, cutting off 2 months from our initial plan!!</div>
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Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-79808467052163510672014-07-23T06:53:00.001-07:002014-07-23T06:53:45.397-07:00Dinner Improv <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I know I have a few Improv actors and "Who's Line is it Anyway?" fans on this reading list, but I am hear to talk about frugal improvisation. My favorite frugal vacation memory took place while we were staying with a good friend in Plattsburgh. Let's call him Jake for simplicity sake.<br />
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Jake has just moved into a new apartment the day before we arrived and started a new job roughly 8 hours before we arrived in town. Needless to say, he had not fully "unpacked," while it was more like he hadn't bought anything for his apartment :)<br />
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So after a night of going out to eat and drink like old college students, we decided that we should cook dinner at home on the second night. We were all tired and trying to keep costs down, so eating at home is cheaper then eating out.<br />
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What could we do with very little kitchen items? We decided on a fest of picnic food: hot dogs, french fries, mac-n-cheese, beans, and a salad :)<br />
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Key kitchen items needed: A knife, a sauce pan, a frying pan, a baking sheet, a large bowl.<br />
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It wasn't until we got home from the store that I actually inspected what was available, and we started to improvise!!<br />
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French Fries: We had a baking sheet and spray olive oil... now if only we had something other then a butter knife to cut potatoes. Nick managed and the fries were in the oven cooking before we knew it :) <br />
<b>Salad</b>: No Large Bowl Available...<br />
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Paper towel with cleaned lettuce, and a small bowl with grapes (the only thing the butter knife could cut easily). Just to make it a little more commical, we bought the seeded grapes...<br />
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<b>Mac-n-Cheese</b>: We made it easy on ourselves and bought two boxes, rather then do anything fancy. I realized when we got back to the apartment that when Jake says he has a sauce pan, he meant a sauce pan the size of my hand! So, we made mac and cheese in batches and heated both batches in the oven in a casserole dish once they were ready. PERFECT :)<br />
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I think as soon as we were done with the pan for Mac-n-Cheese we threw the beans to warm up as well. So this small little sauce pan got a work-out!!<br />
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All in all, dinner was an adventure and we got to sit on the porch drinking out of our improvised beer mugs and discussing politics over a 6 year old's dream dinner :)<br />
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Thanks for the fun memory Jake!!<br />
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Sorry for the lack of posts over the past 2 weeks. With vacation and our AirBnB rentals, I am still a little off schedule and trying to get back into a routine. Bare with me for a few more weeks :) </div>
Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-86344002687536467052014-07-17T06:12:00.001-07:002014-07-17T06:12:07.603-07:00Month in Review- June <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Sorry for the Month in Review Delay :) More to come on our vacation tomorrow and next week!<br />
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Month Four was a whirlwind. I was looking back at my <a href="http://frugaloptimist.blogspot.com/2014/06/month-in-review-may-2014.html" target="_blank"><b>Month In Review- May</b></a> and it made me smile! All the fun activities we did and all the time we spent with friends and family. June seemed to have buzzed by without a second thought. Financially, I think Nick and I are starting to get the hang of our discretionary funding, or at least how to track it, we still need to learn how to spend less.<br />
<b><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Unexpected Costs: </b></span></b><br />
Car had to go in for repairs. This ate into our "extra" income, but we were fortunate to have the wiggle room to cover repairs when needed. Otherwise, it was a pretty straight forward month! By adding the Alcohol and Family/Friend lines to our budget, unexpected costs didn't occur, they were budgeted for :)<br />
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<b>Unexpected Income: $ 1, 928</b><br />
We signed a new lease on our apartment last month, and so this month we didn't need to pay rent, meaning it all went toward student loans! This was a very exciting and took a huge dent out of the 12.5% loan we are trying to tackle!<br />
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We also sold our old AC on Craigslist and did our weekend <a href="http://frugaloptimist.blogspot.com/2014/06/strike-pose.html" target="_blank"><b>modeling gig</b></a>.<br />
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<b>June Splurges:</b><br />
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Nothing really extra this month. We did buy pizza twice, which has been uncommon for us lately, so I guess it has kinda become a treat :)<br />
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<b>Funniest Moment: </b><br />
This is a bit of a May/June funny moment, but it all began with me trying to stay in budget. We were having a lot of people in and out of the house, so I tried to be frugal when picking up a case of beer and bought Miller High Life. Now I understand that some people love Miller High Life, but I am just not one of those people. We get home, I have one beer and I was done. I was not interested in drinking 23 more of those, that was for sure!!<br />
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So as the saying goes, "turn lemons into lemonade," I just decided to ADD lemonade. I knew it wasn't going to HURT the beer : ) The next thing I know we were having Summer Shandy's with our <a href="http://frugaloptimist.blogspot.com/2014/05/lemonade-on-tap.html" target="_blank"><b>homemade Cran-Lemonade</b></a> :) Carbonated Lemonade with Miller High Life became my new favorite beer on a hot day. I do believe we ended up buying at least 2 more 6-packs of Miller!!<br />
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<b>Lessons Learned</b><b>: </b><br />
I finally figured out why we don't have money for groceries at the end of the month... COSTCO. I never budget for <b><a href="http://frugaloptimist.blogspot.com/2014/06/costco-breakdown.html" target="_blank">Costco</a> </b>but typically take it out of the grocery line! We are saving money from buying in bulk at Costco, but on a week to week basis we still have to buy staples at the grocery store.<br />
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I have been paying attention to how much we were spending at the grocery store, roughly $75 a week. When making our monthly budget, I was simply taking $75 and multiplying it by how many weeks in the month. By the last two weeks of the month, for the past 3 months, we are down to pinching pennies and trying to use everything in the freezer and cupboards because we don't have money in the grocery line.<br />
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I finally asked myself WHY does this keep happening. When I looked through all three months I realized that we may spend $75 weekly, but that is not possible without a $100 Costco trip for staples. For July, I have adjusted the budget to read $100 for Costco and the $75/week in Groceries. We had to move other money around to make this work, but now we should actually be able to stay in budget or hopefully duck in a little below budget!<br />
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<b>Total Payment to Debt: </b>$1,868.08, on top of our minimum payments for June</div>
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TOTALLY AWESOME MONTH :) I think it is our best yet! Yay to no RENT :) </div>
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<b>Current Debt: </b>$170,382.01</div>
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We started with a total of <b>35</b> Student Loans.<br />
We are currently at <b>34 </b>Student Loans<b> </b>and we need to pay <b>$2,535.20 </b>more in order to reach #33 :)<br />
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Student loan #34 has our highest interest rate at 12.5% ! We are ready to get rid of this one as soon as possible!<br />
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Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-63053882639404699152014-07-02T06:41:00.003-07:002014-07-02T06:41:22.207-07:00The Art of Spices <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I love those racks with glass jars for your spices. I like how they make a wall statement. To me, they become a piece of spicy artwork :)<br />
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I thought it was a little impractical to buy a few jars and racks for storage knowing that I would still need to buy a jar of the spice from the grocery store and go home to place it in the storage jar. It is just a wee bit impractical, but for art- eventually I took the leap!<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_yKuyPKDMF0/U7P2SCe2gFI/AAAAAAAAAoQ/z3ylPIHJ9Hs/s1600/photo+5+(2).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_yKuyPKDMF0/U7P2SCe2gFI/AAAAAAAAAoQ/z3ylPIHJ9Hs/s1600/photo+5+(2).JPG" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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A few days after buying my jar and rack supplies at IKEA I wondered into a cute market right around our apartment, the <a href="http://www.broadbranchmarket.com/" target="_blank"><b>Broad Branch Market</b></a>. This Market is set-up as a deli, organic store, classy 7.11, candy shop, and ice cream parlor all in one. This place is beautiful, but most of their products are either too nice for a frugal budget, or cheaper at Safeway...except their bulk goods.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pAkSGstgfAw/U7P2RVUtIkI/AAAAAAAAAoA/QlTpqBI54xs/s1600/photo+1+(3).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pAkSGstgfAw/U7P2RVUtIkI/AAAAAAAAAoA/QlTpqBI54xs/s1600/photo+1+(3).JPG" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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They bring jar spices to a whole new level, and sell their spices by the pound in little ziplock baggies. They also do this for a few dry goods, but thats for another post. We have been buying spices from this location for the past two years, but my inquisitive nature got the best of me last weekend, when I wondered if we were just buying less then a jar so the price of our bill was lower, or if by unit costs we were actually saving money.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0JlOfdMb7Z0/U7P2RRJvueI/AAAAAAAAAn8/mSTEMpCGZYg/s1600/photo+3+(3).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0JlOfdMb7Z0/U7P2RRJvueI/AAAAAAAAAn8/mSTEMpCGZYg/s1600/photo+3+(3).JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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So I took down a few of their prices and I have compared them to our grocery store below:<br />
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<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 431px;">
<colgroup><col style="mso-width-alt: 5229; mso-width-source: userset; width: 107pt;" width="143"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 4498; mso-width-source: userset; width: 92pt;" width="123"></col>
<col style="mso-width-alt: 3693; mso-width-source: userset; width: 76pt;" width="101"></col>
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<td height="20" style="height: 15.0pt; width: 107pt;" width="143"></td>
<td class="xl64" style="width: 92pt;" width="123"><b>Broad Branch </b></td>
<td class="xl65" colspan="2" style="border-left: none; width: 124pt;" width="165"><b>Safeway</b> </td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl63" height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;"><b>Cinammon</b></td>
<td class="xl63" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">9.99 lb</td>
<td class="xl63" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">0.88oc x 16 =</td>
<td class="xl63" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">14.08 lb </td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl63" height="20" style="border-top: none; height: 15.0pt;"><b><br />Garlic Salt</b></td>
<td class="xl63" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;"><br />12.99 lb</td>
<td class="xl63" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;"><br />0.49oc x 16= </td>
<td class="xl63" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;"><br />7.84 lb</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl63" height="20" style="border-top: none; height: 15.0pt;"><b>Curry Powder</b></td>
<td class="xl63" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">17.89 lb</td>
<td class="xl63" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">3.75oc x 16 = </td>
<td class="xl63" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;"><br />60.00 lb<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl63" height="20" style="border-top: none; height: 15.0pt;"><b>Parsley</b></td>
<td class="xl63" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">16.59 lb</td>
<td class="xl63" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">3.85 oc x 16= </td>
<td class="xl63" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">61.60 lb</td>
</tr>
<tr height="20" style="height: 15.0pt;">
<td class="xl63" height="20" style="border-top: none; height: 15.0pt;"><b><br />Crushed Red
Peppers</b> </td>
<td class="xl63" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">21.99 lb</td>
<td class="xl63" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">2.46oc x 16 = </td>
<td class="xl63" style="border-left: none; border-top: none;">39.36 lb</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
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Except for Garlic Salt, Broad Branch takes the win :) Buying where they sell in bulk, even in lower quantities, seems to be the way to go!<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Xfo2ZXOP7fA/U7P2RqwXsyI/AAAAAAAAAoE/8K5_N01-QZ8/s1600/photo+4+(2).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Xfo2ZXOP7fA/U7P2RqwXsyI/AAAAAAAAAoE/8K5_N01-QZ8/s1600/photo+4+(2).JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-91338576832717166902014-06-30T05:33:00.002-07:002014-06-30T05:33:34.870-07:00Vacation on a Budget<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="320" src="http://cdn.sheknows.com/articles/2012/04/isolated-vacation-jar.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="184" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Taken from www.sheknows.com </td></tr>
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Nick and I are only four days from the start of our 11 day vacation. As we begin packing our bags for vacation, I began working through the vacation budget numbers.<br />
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We have been saving money each month towards a summer getaway and then with our AirBnB reservations we were able to up that budget by a few hundred dollars. Again, thank you to everyone who shared our BnB listing over the past few weeks!!!<br />
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Setting a vacation budget, for me, is just as important as setting a monthly budget. Understanding where we are going to spend our money and on what helps me to mitigate my fear of over spending. It also helps me to set an expectation to what we can afford to do, rather then spend money just because we have money. <br />
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This will be our first vacation since we let go of the Credit Card safety net. In the past, Nick and I have always gone on vacation enjoyed ourselves, ate and drank ourselves silly, and basically did whatever we wanted or our credit cards allowed. At some point in the trip I would usually say "okay we are spending way too much," but by that time- we had spent too much and usually it was even worse then I had thought. We lived life and payed for it later.<br />
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Unfortunently, I can't say that we have totally gotten rid of this "buy now, pay later" mentality. We've gotten a lot better, but when a need arises and we know we'll have money in a few days or in a week, we've thrown a few things on the card. For example, prepping the house for our AirBnB reservations has taken roughly $200 so far in cleaning supplies, new keys, and other items. We won't receive our first guest payment till next week, but that money is already spent on the cards and will be paid for in a week.<br />
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Needless to say, I am a bit nervous that we will slip into our bad money habits andworry about staying in budget while havign a good time. We have made rough estimates for food and gas, and think that we'll be okay with our allotted totals. We also typically find fun ways to save money while we are on the road, but I'll share these tips next week!<br />
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So here are a few "precautions" Nick and I plan to take to try to stay in budget:<br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Keep a running total of our gas charges in a notebook in the car. I would say we would use cash for gas, but honestly, who really wants to go into a gas station to pre-pay for gas? So we'll use our debit card and track it as we go. </li>
</ul>
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<li>Cash Money!!! We are going to have a daily allotment for food and beer. Depending on what's planned for the day we will alter the daily allotment, but in looking at our rough schedule we will spread out food/drink money out over the 11 days we are out and about. This will be carried in cash to help us eliminate going over budget. When we can see our money we tend to spend less of it on things we don't really need or want. </li>
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I'm hoping by taking these two precautions Nick and I can keep each other on track and still fully enjoy vacation! Wish us luck as we work through going on vacation with a budget :) </div>
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Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-8585990818138996892014-06-27T06:53:00.000-07:002014-06-27T06:53:23.082-07:00Summer Goals <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Back in April, I decided to write up a post with <a href="http://frugaloptimist.blogspot.com/2014/04/spring-goals-and-weekend-review.html" target="_blank"><b>Spring Goals</b></a>. Here is a quick breakdown of what I decided to accomplish during those 12 weeks :) </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">My three goals for the remainder of spring are:</span></span><br />
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<li style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Run a half-marathon, not a race just be able to complete 13.1 miles</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Pay $5,500 toward our debt, to include our minimum payments</span></span></li>
<li style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To write three blog posts a week, so 33 more by the first day of Summer</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Summer began on June 21st and here is where I stand with my Spring goals: </span></div>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">My longest run was 11 miles completed on June 8th, not a full half-marathon so I'll need to keep working up to that 13.1 mile run. This goal really did make me run more then normal to try to get up to the 13.1 mile marker. So cheers to running more! I am actually starting to enjoy running, which I never thought would be possible!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">We payed over April, May, and June in minimum payments $4,381.39 toward our student loans. In extra payments, we have paid, to date, so not including all of June :) $1,795.26 in additional student loan payments. Giving us a grand total of <b>$6,176.65</b> in student loan payments since setting my SPRING GOALS! So we knocked this goal out of the park!!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Blog posts for the Spring: I was hoping to get in 3 a week, but realized that I still haven't figured out the perfect writing schedule to really make that happen. I was able to get a total of 28 blog post completed before June 21st. Not too shabby :) I hope to keep bringing this blog new and interesting posts. I may need to come up with a better time management plan in order to get all the research done and have time to write up each post. I am still learning how to be a consistent blogger, bare with me folks! </span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I was only successful at making 1 out of 3 goals, but still deem this a very successful season. Setting goals really made me focus on the three things I wanted to do over the next 12 weeks, so I figured that setting some Summer Goals might also help me accomplish more over the next season. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So by September 23rd, roughly 13 weeks (The First day of Fall, which seems sooooo far away right now!) I hope to: </span></div>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Put $2,500 toward student loans,<u> in addition</u> to our minimum payments. I think AirBnB will help us accomplish this goal :) We have gotten some great reservations! Thank you for sharing our link!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Write at least 2 posts a week, but aim for 3- So a total of 39 posts.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Repeat Goal: Run a half-marathon- get myself up to the 13.1 mile marker :) </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Start and finish a new book, I'm thinking something related to personal finance... </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Learn 100 new Russian Vocabulary Words</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We have a very exciting Summer planned and it all kicks off this weekend, so here's to a great summer and fun memories! </span></div>
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit;">What are your Summer Goals? </span></h2>
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Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-1780329029417543412014-06-23T08:28:00.001-07:002014-06-23T08:28:13.404-07:00Strike a Pose <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Nick and I found a Craigslist AD this past week for a modeling job for non-models. We are going to go on a mini-vacation in a few weeks and have been saving up money, but thought a few extra bucks certainly wouldn't hurt our bank account :) So, we emailed the company and received confirmation to come in as models this past Sunday.<br />
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I received a second email asking if I was available to come in on Saturday in addition to Sunday for a few additional shots. YES!!! to Two days of compensation.<br />
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I got very nervous on Saturday that I was going to walk-in and they were going to decide they couldn't use me, or I didn't wear the right outfit- so needless to say it was a little nerve racking! It made me feel better, in an odd way, when Nick had the same exact feeling on Sunday :)<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CxoZ-01E98M/U6hGfoEJTMI/AAAAAAAAAnU/v2h7tujzo9w/s1600/photo+(2).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CxoZ-01E98M/U6hGfoEJTMI/AAAAAAAAAnU/v2h7tujzo9w/s1600/photo+(2).JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a>Saturday, I was to be dresses in my suit and ready to be photographed as a congresswomen. The company does political ads, so I was told that though you will be able to see my body, you may not always see my face! I guess photoshop is their friend.<br />
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We did some treadmill walking, in heels :/ and then some weight lifting! I started off with a modest weight, since I knew I had to hold a pose and I wasn't trying to get my workout in, but ended up with a 20 lb weight so that we had something "bigger" for the picture. I can't wait to see how that photo turned out but my bicep certainly got a workout.<br />
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After our workout photos they had a few healthcare AD's to work on, so out came Dr. Monica :)<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dAV1uaywgb0/U6hGfebZXyI/AAAAAAAAAnQ/wR2V1qGhMCQ/s1600/photo+1+(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dAV1uaywgb0/U6hGfebZXyI/AAAAAAAAAnQ/wR2V1qGhMCQ/s1600/photo+1+(1).JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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Sunday was about families and women's rights. So there were a few "women" shots. Groups of women acting concerned or happy, and then we did couple shots.<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vWW1CjbGttc/U6hGfWd3sKI/AAAAAAAAAng/GhUKQrcD2Pw/s1600/photo+2+(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vWW1CjbGttc/U6hGfWd3sKI/AAAAAAAAAng/GhUKQrcD2Pw/s1600/photo+2+(1).JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a><br />
Best part of the whole weekend: Nick and I got shot pretending to pay bills :)<br />
We nailed those expressions of frustration and worry!!!<br />
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The second "couple" shot was playing with a little kid and doing cute family photos. To all my readers with kids, I'm still not sure how you manage to toss around a child and smile at the same time, but hopefully Nick and I mastered it by the end of the shoot.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I-J7StXTDV0/U6hGgSdQ2MI/AAAAAAAAAnY/HwHk-hqRp1I/s1600/photo+3+(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I-J7StXTDV0/U6hGgSdQ2MI/AAAAAAAAAnY/HwHk-hqRp1I/s1600/photo+3+(1).JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a><br />
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All in all we walked out with roughly $200 for 4 hours worth of work, so I would say it was a successful weekend!<br />
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Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-23251361539504831652014-06-18T07:04:00.001-07:002014-06-18T07:04:44.411-07:00Costco Breakdown<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Buying in bulk is a great way to save money, but can also be hard mentally when you're try to save money in the short-term. For this post, I've decided to put to the test our recent Costco purchases and figure out if we found some great deals or if buying in bulk actually cost us money.<br />
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My key rules for a Costco purchases is that it has to be an item we can store, food items have to be able to last at least 3+ meals and it needs to be an item we were going to buy anyway. </div>
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Here is a laundry list of what we picked up this month at Costco. Then, I went to our normal grocery store and took the price, including sales, of each item and adjusted the quantity of each item to a like unit cost. Here was my breakdown: </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">Costco<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -5.4pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">Safeway<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: -5.4pt; margin-right: -5.4pt; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 44.1pt; text-align: center; text-indent: 5.4pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">Quantity per…<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: -5.4pt; margin-right: -5.4pt; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">Costco<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 47.6pt;" valign="top" width="63">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -5.4pt;">
<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">Safeway<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.45in;" valign="top" width="139">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">Charcoal<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .75in;" valign="top" width="72">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">33.2
lbs $15.89<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">12.5
lbs $9.99<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">1
lb <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">.48<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 47.6pt;" valign="top" width="63">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">.80<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.45in;" valign="top" width="139">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">Chia
Seeds<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .75in;" valign="top" width="72">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">32
oz $13.99<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">16
oz $14.29<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">16
oz<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">7.00<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 47.6pt;" valign="top" width="63">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">14.29<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.45in;" valign="top" width="139">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">Flour<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .75in;" valign="top" width="72">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">50
lbs $9.49<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">10
lbs $5.69<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">10
lbs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">1.90<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 47.6pt;" valign="top" width="63">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">5.69<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.45in;" valign="top" width="139">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">Brie<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .75in;" valign="top" width="72">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">19.6
Oz $7.29<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">16
Oz $17.59<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">1
oz<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">.37<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 47.6pt;" valign="top" width="63">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">1.10<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.45in;" valign="top" width="139">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">Quaker
Oats<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .75in;" valign="top" width="72">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">10
lbs $7.89<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">18
oz $2.00<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">1
oz<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">.05<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 47.6pt;" valign="top" width="63">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">.11<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.45in;" valign="top" width="139">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">Mozzarella<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .75in;" valign="top" width="72">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">32
oz $8.89<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">8
oz <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">$4.50
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">8
oz<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">2.22<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 47.6pt;" valign="top" width="63">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">4.50<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.45in;" valign="top" width="139">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">Walnuts<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .75in;" valign="top" width="72">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">48
oz $18.99<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">16
Oz $8.79<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">1
oz<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">.40<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 47.6pt;" valign="top" width="63">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">.55<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.45in;" valign="top" width="139">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">Granola
Bars<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .75in;" valign="top" width="72">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">48
Ct $12.79<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">6
Ct<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">$3.89<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">1
Bar<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">.27<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 47.6pt;" valign="top" width="63">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">.65<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.45in;" valign="top" width="139">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">Peeled
Tomatoes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .75in;" valign="top" width="72">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">6
lbs 6 oz $3.99<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">28
oz $1.49<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">1
oz<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">.04<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 47.6pt;" valign="top" width="63">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">.05<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.45in;" valign="top" width="139">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">Bratwurst<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .75in;" valign="top" width="72">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">14
brats $10.89<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">6
brats $3.99<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">1
Brat<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">.78<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 47.6pt;" valign="top" width="63">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">.67<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.45in;" valign="top" width="139">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -5.4pt;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">Ground Beef
(88/12) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .75in;" valign="top" width="72">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">5.08
lbs $16.75<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">1
lb <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">$4.50<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">1
lb<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">3.30<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 47.6pt;" valign="top" width="63">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">4.50<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.45in;" valign="top" width="139">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">Chicken
Sausage<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .75in;" valign="top" width="72">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">12
at $8.99<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">4
at <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">$5.00<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 49.5pt;" valign="top" width="66">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: -5.4pt; margin-right: -5.4pt; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">1 link<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">.75<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 47.6pt;" valign="top" width="63">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: #0400;">1.25<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Safeway won for Bratwurst! They were having a great sale this past week on Brats, but typically they run for a dollar more at $4.99- giving them a unit cost of $0.83/brat. So with a sale Safeway wins, but otherwise Costco for the win.<br />
<br />
I have found that our weekly grocery bill has decreased by roughly $40 dollars each week, which would account for the appx $150 we spend at Costco per month, $40 x 4 weeks= $160. We tend to pick up a lot of meat products that can get rolled over into the following month, but so far the overall grocery line item in our budget has not decreased. I guess we have to feel this out for a few more months to see if we start making a dent in our budget, but for now our freezer is still stocked with food and we are halfway through the month, so that is a good sign. <br />
<br />
Buying in bulk can provide long-term cost savings, but be careful what you buy! I know we are always tempted to get things we normally wouldn't, but we try to stick to the basics that we know we'll use or can store. </div>
</div>
Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-10937076647856158872014-06-16T05:58:00.003-07:002014-06-16T05:58:53.870-07:00Takoma Park <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The DC area is made up of small neighborhoods. Everywhere you turn you're walking into a different community with it's own feel and style. One of my favorite things to do when we first moved to DC was to explore a different neighborhood every weekend. Nick and I haven't done this in a while so when asked what I wanted to do on Saturday I decided it was a good day to explore.<br />
<br />
Exploring new neighborhoods can be a great way to get out in your own city and do something different on the cheap. Whenever I explore I also like to taste, so going out into a new neighborhood can sometimes be dangerous for my wallet. But this weekend we were dog sitting, so bringing the dog with us ensured that we wouldn't end up "exploring," aka spending money, in the local coffee shop or cute breakfast places :) I am happy to say that the dog was much more interested in the grass outside and so my dog deterrent worked and we didn't spend a dime.<br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FoI1_7otDBg/U57nwIntMzI/AAAAAAAAAmo/l8yGVZdI3Sc/s1600/photo+(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FoI1_7otDBg/U57nwIntMzI/AAAAAAAAAmo/l8yGVZdI3Sc/s1600/photo+(1).JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a><br />
<br />
Many of the neighborhoods link directly up to the metro stops, such as the red line stop Takoma Park. We had driven through this area before but have never stopped to walk around.<br />
<br />
Nick had heard about the Takoma Park area from many of his co-workers who live or were moving to the area. It was a residential neighborhood with beautiful Victorian homes. The feel of the neighborhood felt like you were outside of the metro area. I think I recall seeing only 2 large apartment buildings and the downtown area of the community was roughly 10 blocks long. It was lined with a few cute boutiques, a few small restaurants and artwork.<br />
<br />
I loved the artwork up and down the main road. It is part of the <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/64000777@N05/sets/72157645017084052/" target="_blank"><b>reCYCLE project: Please sit on the Art</b></a>. They've used recycled materials to create chairs/benches throughout the neighborhood. I found a map of the chair locations and made Nick walk around with me to find almost all of them. It is a great idea to get people involved in the community and also decorate the place with creativity.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YMKfZBoqrFs/U57k5fYFllI/AAAAAAAAAl8/aGDyQL2lKTk/s1600/photo+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YMKfZBoqrFs/U57k5fYFllI/AAAAAAAAAl8/aGDyQL2lKTk/s1600/photo+1.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
They also have a giant <a href="http://tpss.coop/Departments/Produce.html" target="_blank"><b>Co-op</b></a> that was filled with amazing fruits and vegetables. Though I know more must exist, I think this may be the only one I've seen close to our neighborhood in DC.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0V8DAPFZUHE/U57k5q1eFJI/AAAAAAAAAmA/Q5jSq_8KwBw/s1600/photo+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0V8DAPFZUHE/U57k5q1eFJI/AAAAAAAAAmA/Q5jSq_8KwBw/s1600/photo+2.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A very looong shot of the Co-Op. Pictures of this exploration were not the best :( </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Sunday we went back to <a href="http://frugaloptimist.blogspot.com/2014/05/catoctin-mountain-hike.html" target="_blank">Catoctin Mountain</a> and took a different loops of trails. The dog took us through every mud puddle possible and it was awesome! Here are a few shots from Sunday :)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PYW5NZvEtCg/U57k5djTtSI/AAAAAAAAAmQ/5QK2nEM7OR0/s1600/photo+3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PYW5NZvEtCg/U57k5djTtSI/AAAAAAAAAmQ/5QK2nEM7OR0/s1600/photo+3.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--vsilddEaqk/U57k7P8cHkI/AAAAAAAAAmc/U4WmvUGaEaM/s1600/photo+5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--vsilddEaqk/U57k7P8cHkI/AAAAAAAAAmc/U4WmvUGaEaM/s1600/photo+5.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The dog is camera shy, but there she is :) </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I hope you all had a good weekend and are just as rested as I feel for the week ahead! </div>
Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-26445905353325292352014-06-13T06:34:00.001-07:002014-06-14T14:55:10.304-07:00AirBnB Listing <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Hello Readers :)<br />
<br />
Over the past three days I have received a few comments from family, friends, and coworkers about my blog posts and I can't tell you how happy I am that you are reading! I appreciate your support, kind words, and at times commiserate around the topic of getting out of debt!<br />
<br />
Today, I am reaching out to you to help me in a frugal quest!<br />
<br />
Nick and I have saved money over the past few months to take a weeks vacations in early July. Nick came up with the great idea of throwing our apartment up on AirBnB to help supplement our vacation expenses. Perhaps being able to go on vacation and use the money in savings towards our student loans instead!<br />
<br />
So we worked on posting pictures of our place and a write-up last night.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/3310069?s=JZml" target="_blank">Here is our listing!</a> </b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Hn03_s4F8h4/U5r9uNkwH9I/AAAAAAAAAlk/zRs0fnw6jNk/s1600/AirBnB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Hn03_s4F8h4/U5r9uNkwH9I/AAAAAAAAAlk/zRs0fnw6jNk/s1600/AirBnB.jpg" height="318" width="400" /></a></div>
<b><br /></b>
<br />
We tried to keep the per night asking price low to allow those coming into town a cheaper option then a hotel, plus they get a personal touch to their stay in DC. Our photos are iphone quality, so we know it is not the best looking listing on AirBnB, but we offer a clean and cozy apartment at a good rate!<br />
<br />
Nick and I have used AirBnB on our trip last year to Belgium and loved the ease of connecting with folks on AirBnB. We loved having a kitchen to make breakfast or dinner. It really helped us keep costs down during our trip!<br />
<br />
We would LOVE your help in getting the word out about our posting. Please re-tweet or re-post the link to our AirBnB on your Facebook page.<br />
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There are a lot of housing options in DC, so we would appreciate your help in getting the word out to your friends and family specifically about ours. If someone is on the fence about spending this 4th of July in the Nation's Capitol and watching the fireworks over the Capitol Building on the National Mall let this great deal push them over the edge to get down here! There is also a Baseball game on July 3rd that they could attend!!<br />
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Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated! Also, if you haven't seen our digs it is a great insider look to the Frugal Optimist estate :)<br />
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Thanks for your help and have an AWESOME FRIDAY!!!<br />
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Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-55103524565497959632014-06-11T08:10:00.001-07:002014-06-11T08:10:12.978-07:00Expansion on Income Based Repayment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
President Obama announced this week an expansion of the Income Based Repayment (IBR) plan for qualified loans prior to 2011.<br />
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This program's expansion will be a great asset to many student's but still doesn't fix the problem of having student loan debt to begin with, but it does make it more manageable for many. Nick and I have some of our loans in the <a href="http://studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/understand/plans/income-based" target="_blank"><b>Income-Based Repayment Plan</b></a>.<br />
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The Department of Education, actually does a really good job, at the link above, of describing the process for Income-Based repayment. The basics of the program include: a monthly payment capped at 10% of your income based on your previous tax return, they are adjusted annually, and after 25 years any outstanding loans are forgiven. Upon re-reading this link today, I was reminded of the blessing this payment option was to us as a newly married and fresh out of college couple.<br />
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Each year, Nick and I must turn in our previous years tax return to help determine what our monthly payments will be for the next 12 months. This past year we received an increase of $67/ month, roughly 45 days before our first payment was going to be due. I was happy with this years increase, but the process of receiving an adjusted yearly bill for the next 25 years seems daunting. Nor does it guarantee that you will actually repay your student loans.<br />
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When asked as a young adult, "where do you see yourself if 5, 10, 25 years?" I don't think any of us think, I'll (still) be paying off my student loans :) I certainly don't plan on owing Sallie Mae or the Dept. of Education a check in 10 years, let alone 25 years!!!<br />
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This week the Senate will be voting on a <a href="http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/2432/text" target="_blank"><b>Bill</b></a> by Sen. Elizabeth Warren to allow students to refinance their loans at today's interest rates. If this would help you to repay your student loans quicker, email or call your Senator.<br />
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You can view a Tumbler conversation at the White House on the expansion program and advice to high school students currently looking at their upcoming college education <a href="http://whitehouse.tumblr.com/" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a>.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-z45S1LUHt4w/U5hwojfmPOI/AAAAAAAAAlU/0VuHwNFSbVQ/s1600/pres+obama.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-z45S1LUHt4w/U5hwojfmPOI/AAAAAAAAAlU/0VuHwNFSbVQ/s1600/pres+obama.gif" height="178" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Fun Take Away from the a</b> <b>tutorial in the NY Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/opinion/student-borrowers-and-the-economy.html?ref=opinion&_r=1&smid=tw-nytopinion" target="_blank">here</a>: </b><br />
This tutorial highlights that students paying back debt are not able to spend money to bolster the economy, creating a domino effect which leads to a lack of employment opportunities and economic growth.<br />
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Nick and my participation in the Income Based Repayment plan has allowed us to have additional income to put back into the economy, which we are happy to do! However, by deciding to take this "extra" income and make additional payments toward our student loans we are not, in the short term, funneling money into the economy!<br />
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Therefore, by making additional payments to our student loans we are part of the economic problem created by a generation of student loan debt!! I guess this calls for a "splurge" on a expensive 6-pack of craft beer! Drink Local to help boost the economy :)<br />
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In the long-term, the collateral effect of 25 year repayment plans will still have a greater impact on the economy. I guess I would rather be part of the economic problem now, rather then still have debt in 20 years and not be able to save for a down payment on a house! </div>
Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-70248927249047880252014-06-09T08:04:00.000-07:002014-06-09T08:05:12.181-07:00Discussing the Budget <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I think one of the things I dislike most about the end of each month is reconciling last months purchases and adjusting our budget for the following month. Each month, I feel like an auditor sitting down in front of the bank account and our spreadsheet to ensure that all of the purchases made are accounted for in the budget spreadsheet.<br />
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Then comes the uncomfortable conversation if we went over budget and how to adjust next month's budget to account for upcoming expenditures.<br />
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Finances are like an emotional roller coaster, with both positive and negative emotions that dictate how you react to your partner and your mindset going into the next months budget.<br />
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You can be excited about the additional payment toward a student loan, but also unhappy that it wasn't more.<br />
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You can be excited about all of your great memories from the previous month, and also frustrated that you didn't plan ahead.<br />
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When planning out our monthly budget here are a few lessons I've learned to set the stage for a rational and productive conversation:<br />
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1. <b>Set-up a time to discuss finances</b>, if it takes Nick and I over 30 minutes we lose concentration, so I try to keep these conversations brief and to the point.<br />
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2. Money invokes emotion, so I try to remember to <b>be sensitive in how we talk about money</b>. Being sure to approach all decisions as a team and talk through our options. Learning to talk about finances has truly changed how Nick and I communicate as a couple in general.<br />
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3. <b>Don't beat yourself up for the decisions you've already made</b>. The money was spent- Move On! What can we do differently to avoid going "over budget" on a line item next month? Being proactive in our conversations rather then regretful helps to keep the mood positive.<br />
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4. <b>Don't leave money on the table</b>. Nick and I were trying to have our "extra" money go toward additional student loan payments, rather then setting an exact amount to pay off each month. This lead to month two and three having lower payments. When looking at our income IN versus expenses OUT, we've worked to make them zero out. We plan on putting every dollar somewhere- including extra payments or savings. Giving our money a purpose.<br />
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5. <b>Smile and Laugh</b>. It is hard to do a budget each month and discuss ways to cut costs when you feel like you're already living on a tight budget. So find ways to put fun in your budget. Account for extra gas to go on a long hike or an impromptu BBQ with friends.<br />
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These 5 tips have worked well for us, but maybe you approach talking about finances differently. As long as you're talking about finances you've already jumped one hurdle :) <br />
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
What helpful tips can you offer others about discussing financial decisions? </h2>
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Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-83820605524124108722014-06-06T07:44:00.002-07:002014-06-06T07:48:05.853-07:00Month in Review- May 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Month three was not as "bad" as month two, but we certainly still did not reach the concentration and dedication that we had in month one. We are still adjusting and readjusting our budget to account for life's ever changing priorities. Here is a snapshot of where we stand after month three:<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W4SjLrGNPVU/U5HRzWzlSeI/AAAAAAAAAjI/GZa08ZovfLw/s1600/image+(8).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W4SjLrGNPVU/U5HRzWzlSeI/AAAAAAAAAjI/GZa08ZovfLw/s1600/image+(8).jpeg" height="200" width="150" /></a><b><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Unexpected Costs: </b></span></b><br />
<ul>
<li>Kick off to SUMMER activities... for Nick and I this means a lot more impromptu meet-ups with friends and family, so we need to adjust our budget but also plan ahead for impromptu get together and strategies how best to use our money to account for snacks, a bottle of wine or a 6-pack. </li>
</ul>
<b>Unexpected Income:</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Nothing extra this month, but we did get a grill through the apartment building so I consider that a bonus because now it is something we won't need to buy :) </li>
</ul>
<b>May Splurges:</b><br />
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Hmmm.... I guess I would have to say the week of my birthday we had a few unneeded purchases. I ended up buying a new bike light and cleaning supplies so that my bike is ready to go for the summer. We also had some guest in town, so a few happy hours that were not originally in the budget, but I wouldn't have given up a single visit :) May was a pretty fantastic month filled with alot of fun activities.<br />
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<b><br /></b><b>Funniest Moment: </b><br />
Funniest Moments this month become "May Events." We have so many great stories and memories from May that I can't just pin point ONE moment. So here is a list of the key events of May:<br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Close Friends Wedding Weekend, a fabulous weekend filled with alot of laughs, dancing, and bloody marys<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-edEWLsqKzqs/U5HRyoGcQII/AAAAAAAAAjE/z94l51oRDHc/s1600/image+%25286%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-edEWLsqKzqs/U5HRyoGcQII/AAAAAAAAAjE/z94l51oRDHc/s1600/image+%25286%2529.jpeg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
</span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Women's Build Day with Habitat, tore up a tiled floor and painted</span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Mother's Day </span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Picking Up a Church Garage Sale, this was a day of hard work and rummaging</span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-36HSsRNuTFw/U5HRzgWeh0I/AAAAAAAAAjQ/pZ_gu1XFp_U/s1600/image+%25289%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-36HSsRNuTFw/U5HRzgWeh0I/AAAAAAAAAjQ/pZ_gu1XFp_U/s1600/image+%25289%2529.jpeg" height="200" width="150" /></a>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Getting my bike back on the road for commuting</span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Worked at a Summer Beerfest</span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Visit with Grandma Boulter</span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Brunch at a new bakery </span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">My Birthday :) and a trip to the top of the Washington Monument </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">5K in Herndon, VA </span></li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Visit from 2 of Nick's siblings</span></li>
</ul>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9nkDxDTxQW8/U5HRxo7C5II/AAAAAAAAAjg/bCXUFLkSmHs/s1600/image+%252811%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9nkDxDTxQW8/U5HRxo7C5II/AAAAAAAAAjg/bCXUFLkSmHs/s1600/image+%252811%2529.jpeg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li> First summer visit to Jazz in the Garden </li>
</ul>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-83oLNaV4cyA/U5HR0NoVbdI/AAAAAAAAAjY/Iwu8OMu_0XY/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-83oLNaV4cyA/U5HR0NoVbdI/AAAAAAAAAjY/Iwu8OMu_0XY/s1600/photo.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Day trip to Harper's Ferry</span></li>
</ul>
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<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Visit from a good college friend</span></li>
</ul>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kJKo4iCIJb8/U5HRxrFiqtI/AAAAAAAAAi0/pv0oYH-4esk/s1600/image+%252812%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kJKo4iCIJb8/U5HRxrFiqtI/AAAAAAAAAi0/pv0oYH-4esk/s1600/image+%252812%2529.jpeg" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent;">A fabulous month filled with great memories and zero credit card debt! </span></div>
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<b>Lessons Learned</b><b>: </b><br />
We really need to break out purchases in our budget. We don't go out to restaurants because they cost more than we have right now, but we do a lot of pot-luck style get together. I think it is an unwritten rule between our friends that no matter the location, everyone attending helps supply drinks and at least one food item.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qTE0EWMZyLE/U5HRyhFuuxI/AAAAAAAAAi8/NCvuRNY9RWw/s1600/image+%25287%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qTE0EWMZyLE/U5HRyhFuuxI/AAAAAAAAAi8/NCvuRNY9RWw/s1600/image+%25287%2529.jpeg" height="150" width="200" /></a>I love these get together because I still get to hang out with people without a tab or check. The only problem is that they always seem to be impromptu and the menu is never planned more then an hour in advance. So we will be driving home from a hike and find out we are bringing beer and say a desert to a friends BBQ. Okay no problem! We swing off at a grocery store and pick-up what we need.<br />
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These quick grocery store stops add up and unless Nick and I plan extra money weekly for these spur of the moment get together we end up going over budget. So June is all about trying to be realistic with our budget and actually HIT below our target line items.<br />
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To address this issue we are breaking up weekly expenses into 3 lines:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Groceries</li>
<li>Alcohol</li>
<li>Friends/Family</li>
</ul>
<div>
My advice to friends this month- Make plans with us at the beginning of the month :) We'll have more money then toward the end :) </div>
<div>
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<div>
<b>Total Payment to Debt: </b>$92.50, on top of our minimum payments for May </div>
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PLUS we signed a new lease on the apartment and got a month free so June's rent went toward our student loans!!</div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b>Current Debt: </b>$170,587.09</div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br />
We started with a total of <b>35 Student Loans.</b><br />
We are currently at <b>34 Student Loans </b>and we need to pay <b>$2,740.28 </b>more in order to reach <b>33</b> :)<br />
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We are tackling a large student loan at #34 with a 12.5% interest rate! It is really exciting to see our overall balance go down each month, but also to see our minimum payments keep falling! More money to put toward our student loans!!<br />
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Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3936678570616426654.post-57465577836883004192014-06-04T06:39:00.001-07:002014-06-04T06:39:26.862-07:00Summer Salad<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We found a great recipe in this months Cooking Light for a <a href="http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/farro-cherry-walnut-salad-50400000135368/" target="_blank"><b>Faro and Sour Cherry Salad</b></a>. I love to use recipes as a template for what we have or what we can afford, in some cases.So we took the basic idea behind the recipe and then tweaked it:<br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EG3s0F_T9g0/U4cxj4V7rPI/AAAAAAAAAew/UUv_jtfqmDo/s1600/image+(4).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EG3s0F_T9g0/U4cxj4V7rPI/AAAAAAAAAew/UUv_jtfqmDo/s1600/image+(4).jpeg" height="150" width="200" /></a><br />
<b>Base Ingredients: </b><br />
Celery<br />
Walnut<br />
Sour Cherries- currently not in season, aka expensive, so we substituted this for Mango's at $1 each<br />
Parsley<br />
Faro- not at our grocery store and a bit expensive at others, so we subbed it out for Buckwheat<br />
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<b>Dressing: </b><br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CoPEdW_WWwo/U4cxdFmj3MI/AAAAAAAAAek/bOAq7rJa4yA/s1600/image.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CoPEdW_WWwo/U4cxdFmj3MI/AAAAAAAAAek/bOAq7rJa4yA/s1600/image.jpeg" height="150" width="200" /></a>Mustard<br />
Olive Oil<br />
Lemon Juice<br />
Pepper<br />
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Once you get the mango cut this comes together quickly and is quite filling. If you're look for a fun summer salad give this a try. It is easy to make ahead and have ready to go for a quick meal or a picnic with a few forks! If we aren't eating it like crazy people it can last us at least 2 meals :)<br />
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Don't be afraid to look at your recipes and sub out a few higher priced or out of season ingredients. There are plenty of recipes that this will not work for, but there are also plenty of recipes that it does work. So be creative and give it a try, you never know until you try!<br />
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I try to stick to common textures when subbing out ingredients. In this case, the fruit substitute for the cherry needs to be hard enough to withstand it's shape in the salad and also provide a bit of juice and a sweet taste, so mango seemed to be able to support the purpose of the cherries where a raspberry would have fallen apart when mixed with the Buckwheat!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Check back on Friday for May's Month in Review. </b></div>
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Monica Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11426269766677536571noreply@blogger.com0