Is 3000 miles too far to go to flower school?

Image from Saipua's Flower School Blog located here.

I say, "No!" Okay, well maybe it's a little far. But seriously...have you seen the fun classes lined up over at Saipua? Now all I need to do is convince Andy that we need to go back to New York.

Spending a little less: Week 1

Not spending money on food is harder than I thought. And not spending money on non-necessities is pretty tough, too. And when I say tough, I don't mean that it's hard for me to not buy everything I want. What's hard is REMEMBERING that I'm not spending money on certain things for awhile. But all things considered, I did pretty well this last week. My momentary lapses in savings concentration resulted in me buying the following:

-Two cups of coffee from Starbucks. (Though this was only because I decided to buy a cup of coffee for a homeless fellow, rather than watch him sift through the trash to get a used cup and get himself a refill for 50 cents.)

- A large bag of Peanut Butter M&M's that were not purchased on a grocery shopping trip. Whoops.

-A whole lot of tasty snacks from City Market. But I totally blame Andy for this because he reminded me that I had been wanting some French butter and he thought they would have it. They did. (Along with few other things that I just had to have to eat while watching the Super Bowl.)

Yummy.

Double yummy.

So, that's what I bought. I stuck to the $40 budget for weekend eating out  and the goal of only getting take-out once during the work week. And I even stopped myself before renting a movie through Comcast OnDemand! I give myself a pat on the back for a week fairly well done. This week is going to go even better.

02.08.10

Last night I had one of those moments when suddenly my mind cleared up, my heart lightened up and my mood improved. It was like a mental reset that happened all the sudden. And I really needed it I'm grateful for moments like that. I'm grateful that I'm not bound to be sad "just because." Even if I do get a case of the blues, I'm learning that perhaps my mind doesn't want to stay that way. I'm learning that getting sad and staying sad are different. I can't change the fact that I get sad...but I can change the staying sad part. And for that I am grateful.

I am going to post my "spending a little less" update this evening. I did pretty well this first week, though I will have a little confessing to do. Stay tuned!

Best website ever!

Image from Selleck Waterfall Sandwich.

 

It's called Selleck Waterfall Sandwich. Don't ask...just check it out. It's amazing. (I'm so happy my husband finds goodies like this on the internets.)

Spending a little less.

OK, first of all, I am the only one thinking this new version of Blogger is WAY better? You can actually SIZE your photos without a bunch of code manipulation. Hoo-Ray!

Now, for the business: I'm participating in the Spending Hiatus proposed by Joslyn over at Simple Lovely. (Read all about it here.) When I first started thinking about joining in the fun, I tried to think about what I spend money on. I am not much of a shopper; I rarely buy clothes and I can't really buy too much homeware type stuff because of limited space. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that I spend a crazy amount of money on food. I had already started to curb the food budget for us and I have been working on being more conscious of how much we spend on take-out or going out. I think having this hiatus is really going to help me get even more in control of myself and my random spending.

So, here are the guidelines I have given to myself:
- Packing lunch 4 days of the week and buying lunch only once, if at all.
- Going out to dinner (or getting take-out) no more than once during the work week and setting a $40 max for eating out on weekends.
- Allowing for the purchase of craft materials for one project per month. (Enough yarn for a scarf or enough fabric for a bag.)
- No spending on books, music, clothes, shoes, home-wares, games or other non-essentials for at least 1 month, possibly 2. (I kind of already broke this one, because I had to buy a book yesterday, but I got a used copy and it was really cheap!)

The only exception is that I do have plans for the one day this month that I know I am going to spend money on and I am not going to change that (hello, eggs Benedict and pedicures!) But being mindful of money is actually really important to me and I think that this whole process is going to help me adjust my thinking about what is important and what I can do without.

So if you were going to cutback on spending, what would you have to adjust?

Pretty hot water

 

Chemex Kettle image from Canoe 

I have tried for a year to stop thinking about this kettle. I tell myself it's too much money for something to boil water in. I told myself that my stove wasn't pretty enough for this beauty to sit on. Then we moved and our stove is much prettier but I still can't bring myself to buy it.  So, I've decided that I am going to buy it the next time I buy myself a special treat. Because I firmly believe that if you still want something after waiting a really  long time, you should go ahead and get it.

02.01.10 and The Weekend Recap.

I've been trying to post all day long about what I am grateful for and I just finally am able to take the time to do it. It's been a busy day and time just kind of flew on by.

This morning I woke up really thirsty. And I noticed I was thirsty most of the day. I kept drinking water and it kept tasting really good. (That's when I know that I am REALLY thirsty.) Anyhow, I got to thinking about how grateful I am to have drinkable water. Now, I know that with the way things are in the world we're all aware that there are lots of places that don't have clean water to drink and it's kind of hard to not be grateful that I do have clean water. But today, I really thought about it and I was genuinely glad that I could get up and get that 4th pint of water as soon as I wanted it.

I hope the weekend treated you right. I actually scheduled a lazy day for myself on Saturday. I resolved to no work of any kind and it was wonderful. We went on a date Saturday night (hooray for steak dinner and donuts!) and watched movies. Sunday was a busy day of chores and school, but I felt so good from the day before it didn't even matter. What did you get up to?