Buckling Down

As summer comes to a close and Tyler's vacation days end we are buckling down in several aspects of our life. Together Tyler and I budgeted every. dollar. of our earnings this month in an effort to name our money and where it goes each month instead of looking at each other on the 30th and saying, "Where did that go?"

I do love an excel sheet, the thrill of separating, naming, and using each dollar for what is it labeled, but it is hard. It takes discipline and to be fair, we don't always have that discipline. One big aspect of our budgeting is my planning and cooking meals at home -- to include lunch -- a major weakness of ours. So, I come to you, whoever is still out there, to share my struggle, honesty, and meal plan.

Since we were married I have felt that unless I have a full meal -- meat, a few veggies, possibly a salad -- on the table, we should go out. Tyler HAS NEVER made me feel that way -- it is a pressure that I put on myself and felt I had to live up to. Over time I have come to terms with the fact that a sandwich or grilled cheese is just fine and we are starting to go with it. So without further ado ...

Tuesday -- Salmon, baked sweet potatoes (Emma's favorite!), and broccoli
Wednesday -- Church
Thursday -- Chicken, Broccoli Alfredo Bake
Friday -- Hot Dogs, chips and leftover corn or fruit
Saturday -- London Broil, potato casserole, butterbeans -- all from the freezer
Sunday -- Homemade pizza

Not only am I trying to cook at home more, but I am trying to use what we have in our freezer and pantry efficiently to lower our grocery bill and be less wasteful with the food we have.

Let me know if you want to exchange some recipes and/or ideas to make ingredients go farther!

The Great Computer Debate

As we can see, my blogging has been non-existent over the last two months. There are many reasons for this, but one of the biggest is the computer debate.

Last July my computer putzed out and I thought it would be best to buy an iMac -- desktop -- for our family for a wide variety of reasons. I argued for parental controls, better security for the girls when they start using it (years from now), better time management, etc. etc. Unfortunately, all of those ideas sounded good at the time, but the longer I had that computer the more I HATED it. I HATED being restrained to the desk and I found that I spent an annoying amount of time on it.

So, I began the month of August with a goal to sell my computer in order to purchase a laptop. I listed the computer on Facebook and Craigslist and within the week it was sold, YAY!! So, Tyler and I took that money to Best Buy to purchase a computer that he felt was best (he is our resident tech researcher and purchaser because I just don't care that much). We put the girls to bed, opened my shiny, new laptop and found a glitchy screen. It would flutter through screens and colors and was just mind boggling. Sweet Tyler took that bad boy back less than 3 hours after we purchased it.

Upon his return we confidently opened computer #2 knowing that the first was just a poorly produced computer and this would definitely be better. Unfortunately, not so much. I kept the computer for one week to see if it would grow on me, but in the end it was returned, too.

We took a week-long hiatus from the computer drama to Washington, DC got home and finally settled on a Lenovo and I love it. I have had it for two weeks, we have had no glitches along the way and I couldn't be happier. What do you prefer -- laptop or desktop?? I see the value in both, but for me, the laptop is definitely the way to go!

Now that I am back up and running I plan to import my summer pictures and update you on my cute girls!