What I did today and yesterday and other meaningless fodder

Last Monday I was a little sick. Then my third shift co-worker said that he was sick and wasn't coming in on Tuesday. So I tried to sleep all day (but didn't), and went to work the night shift. By Tuesday morning I was a lot sick. Wednesday I stayed home sick from work myself, and by Thursday I was only a little sick again, but Brent was a lot sick. It has been a long week.

Yesterday I met a friend for lunch (hi Wendy!) at Field to Fork - yummy yum yum! We saw a lady from our church that works there and she gave us 2 cheese samples - Fresh Ricotta and Stravecchio. And then she gave us a sample of their Balsamic Vinegar. Man, I am such a sucker for that kind of stuff. If I had all the time in the world and all the money in the world, Brent and I would only ever eat gourmet, homecooked, mouthwatering meals. But instead Wendy and I then went shopping at the Dented Can Store. Not much gourmet there. Oh well. I did find some Orgainic Microbrew Rootbeer, which made me happy.

Then last night Brent and I sat and watched Desperate Housewives for 4 hours. But the second episode did not play, so we downloaded it from iTunes and watched it on my computer. It just happened to already be in the living room because I was working on other stuff, so that was very convenient.

This morning I had to work (still am), but thankfully this is the first weekend in a while that I have been able to go to bed at a normal time and wake up at a normal time. I should be done in the next hour or two, and then tonight I sing at church. I'm not really sure how that's going to work since I still am still sucking on cough drops every other minute. I'm sure I'll be fine.

After church is Starbucks with our church's newly formed sub30 group, but I'll talk about that more Monday.

Bye!

Photoshop elements

So I have been restless for quite a while now because I have had no creative outlet. I tried knitting and crochet and drawing, writing, home decor - all kinds of things, but nothing was doing it for me.

I also am the webmaster (webmistress?) for our church website, and the time came when I really needed to buy Photoshop. Brent has it on his laptop, but I can't use that during the day. I tried Gimpshop, but hated it. So I gathered all our Amazon Credit Card Rewards certificates together (which I was saving for Christmas) and bought Photoshop Elements.

Photoshop Elements saved me.

I now have no time to be bored, a place to use my creative energy, and a hobby I thouroughly enjoy.

Yay for Photoshop Elements!

The ebb and flow of blogging

So as you can see I have not been posting much lately. I had all these excuses about how I was working longer hours and busy with church and whatever, but really I just don't have much to say. :shrug:

I think I had this idea that I was going to write all these cool insightful posts all about money issues, and environmental stuff, and all these people would read my blog and it would be so awesome. But honestly I don't care enough to put the effort in.

I guess I could abandon it, but I don't want to that either. So I think I'm going to just write whatever the heck I want and not worry about if it fits into some made-up topical constraints.

There will probably be a lot more meaningless fodder and rambling about what I did today or yesterday or whatever, but isn't that what a blog is for anyway. :)

Wants vs. needs - the grey zone

When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other. Chinese Proverb

So there are things you need (food) and things you want (like HDTV), but what about all that other crap that we buy that's in the middle?

Are the two end tables for our living room a need? Is art? Is make-up? Is a spa visit? Are hobbies needs? Our microwave has started sparking occasionally - do we need a new one?

None of these things are really needs. We wouldn't die if we didn't get a new microwave, or mascara, or chocolate (that one's debatable - it is food afterall). I am pretty suprised at how often we say that we need something, that we really don't. I told myself about a dozen times today how much I needed a cup of coffee, when what I really needed was to sleep.

Most of the time these needs are the 'easy way out' for a different problem. With some creativity, they can be met for much less money. When you find the real issue, you can find something that will really fix it.

Here is a little article that talks more about that.

Wants vs. needs - the wants

Is it okay to have some wants? Of course it is. Is it okay to charge your wants on a high interest credit card with no plans on how you are going to pay for it? Probably not.

Here are how we deal with wants in our house -
-Just pay - going out to eat, movies or other dates - stuff we do together
-Allowance - Brent and I both get $20 per week for whatever. Coffee, books, earrings, video games, etc.
-Save - like our vacation, a new TV or PS3
-Ask for Christmas - my favorite way :)

For me it's pretty easy to deal with wants - either we can afford them, or we can't. The disagrement comes when Brent and I have different definitions of 'afford' or 'need'....

Wants vs. needs - the very basics

Since we're trying to save for vacation, and that means being extra frugal, I've been thinking a lot about what we buy in terms of wants or needs.

If we really went to what we only actually need, we could pare it down to living in a tent next to a river and only eating rice and beans that we cook on the campfire. We probably wouldn't need much of a job so not many clothes. We wouldn't need a car or a TV or any appliances. If you traded land rental(for your tent) for lawn care or something, you could live almost for free. But who wants to live like this? (Actually I did read a book once about a man who lived like this, and he seemed to like it pretty well. It was really interesting and unfortunately I can't remember the name of the book)

Anyway, I'm finding much grey area between want and need. Food is a need - but is steak, or chocolate, or ice cream? Probably not, but we buy these things. Shelter is a need, but not neccessarily a $10M house. What about a $1M house? What about a $100K house? (there are places you can still buy <100K houses)

I guess we could all agree that healthful food, drinkable water, adequate (meaning not condemned) housing, and clean clothing are all needs. But how frugally you go for these needs depends on a lot of things besides only money - your personal level of comfort, your community, etc. You may find it cheapest to live in a van down by the river, but if you are not contributing to society as a whole, maybe you should look into a house - or at least a trailer.

What about us? We live in a four bedroom ranch style house, which we rent. We have clean water, we eat good food - as much organic as I can justify. Brent eats steak once in a great while, we each chocolate often, ice cream not so often. Both of us have nice-ish clothes - not designer, but not bag lady either. Do we have more than we need? Oh yeah - way more.

What about you?

My Little Price Booklet

A lot of people say that Pricebooks are the way to save the most when you're shopping, and I agree that they probably are right. But I'm far too lazy to put any effort into a full-blown everything I buy Price Book.

But there are a few things that I alternate buying online and locally, and I never really know what is cheaper. So I made a little page in my notebook with the basic prices, so I can get the best deal next time.

Here's what we paid the last time we bought these items...

- Brent's vitamins - $1.00 per ounce
- My vitamins - $.50 per ounce
- Toilet Paper - $.81 per roll - this is high - we used to pay $.20 per roll, but now I try to buy recycled Seventh Generation stuff and it's more expensive. At least I know if we go to the poor house we can save a little by going back to the virgin paper stuff.
- Dish cubes - $.23 per cube
- Laundry detergent - $.32 per ounce - both the dish and laundry soap is Method brand - again, I buy it because it is more eco friendly. I have no idea how it compares to other brands
- Cat litter - $.29 per pound - this is from Big Lots. I'd much rather buy the Target brand, and if it's not that much more expensive, I probably will do that instead. The Big Lots stuff is too dusty.

Mini-rant

I would like to say that it is a gorgeous day outside - the sun is shining - the breezes are blowing. But, our lawn is being chemicalized, and it smells so bad that I have to shut all the windows. This makes me very sad.

I would also like to clarify that it was never my choice to chemicalize our lawn, but we rent and sometimes we have to do what the landlord says....

The challenge of one income

Even though I work, Brent and I live on his income.... mostly. When I get paid, my check goes fully toward our debt.... most of the time. When we go on vacation, or Christmas comes around, or the car needs repair or the insurance bill comes - then we use my check to pay for these bigger expenses.
We realize that this can not happen forever. I hope to quit my job someday, and we're still going to have to pay for Christmas and insurance and such. Also whenever we use my income, that is less money going to debt reduction.

So we have a vacation coming up, and I want to pay for it only using money we set aside from Brent's income. I suppose I should have thought of this earlier, because it's only six weeks away and we're budgeting about $600 for the week. We have about $100 for it already, so that's where we are right now.

We might have to scrimp a little more than normal, but I think we can do it.

Thinking about getting more into debt.... part 2

When I wrote that last post I was kind of in freak out mode - very worried about the future and stressing majorly. I'm more calm now. Whew.

What I mean is I'm more calm about us going back into debt. I still know it's not a good thing, but for us, I feel it's worth it.

Most people buy a house at some time in their life, and most people go into debt to do this. It's considered something worth going into debt for. Certainly our child is worth going into debt for - no matter what it ends up being in the end.

On a message board I frequent, a lady posted about how before each of their adoptions, her and her husband would sit down and weigh their financial security against another adoption. And the adoption has won out twice, and they've completely depleted their life savings twice to adopt.

I also just read a Suze Ordman book where she says multiple times - People first, then money, then things. If something happened to our child that we already had and we had to plunk down $40K, we would not think twice about it.

So I'm accepting this debt as a neccesary thing.

If we feel God is calling us to this, He's going to have to help us through it. And Brent mentioned tonight that often times when God calls us to something, He doesn't make the whole way clear or easy. But He promises to take care of us. The Bible verse that has been impressed upon me since the last post has been "Seek first my kingdom, and all these things will be added onto you" So that's what we're doing. Following God and not worrying. Easier said than done, but kind of exciting too. I look forward to letting you all know how this works out. :)

Thinking about getting more into debt.....

I know, it's a taboo subject. But Brent and I are considering getting another loan after this business loan is paid off.

I've mentioned before that Brent and I are starting the adoption process. An international adoption typically runs 30-40K**. We simply do not have this money. I suppose we could wait and save, but honestly it could take years, and I'm just not willing to put off mommyhood any longer.

We have been talking about getting a line of credit or something, so that if we need the money, we have it. If we are able to save up a bunch before we get a child referral, then we won't need to use it. And of course we are planning on applying for grants and scholorships and the like. We don't have a home loan that we can borrow against.

As far as our current debt goes, we've been able to pay off $25K in about 3 years, but that is with me working. While it kills me to think about working after we become parents, I suppose I could. But the nature of my job is that I'm flexible and work all weird hours - and we'd need childcare for that - majorly cutting into my income.

I don't want to go back into debt. We plan to adopt again someday, and I don’t want to get into this vicious cycle of paying off one adoption, only to get a loan for the next. I get so stressed out thinking about it. I'm working all the extra hours they offer me (which has been a lot lately) and we're selling stuff and being as frugal as possible. But I just don't see any other way.

Any advice for us?



**we're adopting from Russia - I know other places are less expensive, but that's not negotiable

If I had a million dollars.....

If I had a million dollars to spend however I wanted...

-I'd pay off all our debt - about 13K at the moment.
-I'd quit my job.
-I'd adopt a kid or two.
-I'd invest, so Brent could retire early.
-I'd buy a house.
-I don't know if I'd buy another car. We don't use the one we have very often. But Brent would definately want to.
-I'd donate a lot to our church.
-I'd only buy organic, local, and/or sustainable food, clothing, furniture, etc

A typical day

What I do all day (exciting, I know!)....


During the week:
3:45 - Alarm goes off
4:00 - Actually get out of bed
4:01 - Shower, eat breakfast, put load of laundry in, surf until I have to leave
4:45 - Curse at myself for being late, scramble around for my purse and water bottle, leave for work
5:00 - Arrive just in time
9:00 - Hopefully leave work on time
9:15 - Get home and try to get Brent out of bed. Fail and crawl in bed with him instead. Talk or take a nap.
9:45 - Get back out of bed
9:46 - sometimes make breakfast for Brent, otherwise turn the computer on and time stops because I am addicted to the internet
Soon after - Brent leaves for work and I get around to cleaning the house, making the bed, doing the dishes, all that domestic crapola
12:00 - Brent comes home for lunch
1:00 - Brent goes back to work. I spend most of the afternoon finishing chores, working on other projects, play the latest flash game on Digg.com, whatever. I'm trying to start helping Brent at church, but I never seem to get around to it.
5 or 6:00 - Make and eat dinner.
Evenings - Spend time with Brent, watch a movie, go out for coffee, do whatever.
9:00 - Ideally go to bed at this time. Brent tucks me in and we end up talking for too long
10:00 - Finally get to sleep.

Mondays are Brent's day off, so I usually do minimal housework and we go out on a cheapy date, or spend the day relaxing together
Tuesdays is the vacuuming, mopping, super cleaning day
Wednesdays sometimes is church in the evenings
Thursdays is knitting at 5:30 and worship team practice at 7:00
Fridays I sometimes have to work third shift so I spend the day trying to sleep when I do have to work
Saturdays is worship team practice at 3:30, church at 5:30
Sundays is choir practice at 7:00, church at 9:00 and 10:45. If the choir doesn't sing, I make Brent breakfast and go back to bed.

Whew!

Sun Bleaching

Y'know I've heard that you can bleach things with the sun, but I always thought it was kinda silly. So yesterday I was going through my drawer and found a white Tshirt at the bottom with yellow spots on it. I have know idea what it was - I hadn't worn that shirt for years. Probably just put it away without washing it. So I threw it in the wash to see if I could get the spots out. Nope, didn't work. But I hung it out to dry, and when I brought it back in, it was nice and white again. I seriously should have taken a before/after picture - I was that amazed.

I'm wondering how this works, actually, because my dishtowels don't bleach white - so maybe it is just is some stains.

I have also heard one can use lemon juice to bleach. Maybe I will try that on my dishtowels some day to see how that works.

7th Annual BADCALFF - Milwaukee, WI

Location: Silver Cinemas Budget South
4475 S. 108th St. (between Beloit &, Greenfield, WI
When: Monday, September 4, 12:00pm
Phone: 414-529-3012 (Office)

BADCALFF 7
Brent and Dale's Cheap-Ass Labor day Film Festival 2006

What the critics say:

"A jumbled, joyless affair that neither entertains nor enlightens." -- Shawn Adler IGN FILMFORCE
"Richly silly, but also solid, with something for the kids and the adults" - Les Wright CULTUREVULTURE.NET
"It's predictable, often tedious, and sounds funnier than it plays." - Urban Cinefile Critics
"Eventually, the build-up of ridiculousness just got to me." - Jeffrey Chen WINDOW TO THE MOVIES
"Hollywood cannot pollute the ozone with anything more idiotic, contrived, amateurish or sub-mental"- Rex Reed NEW YORK OBSERVER
"Again?" – Brent Homer, when asked about BADCALFF in 2006
"I giggled and laughed until I urinated." – Carolyn Baker, while daddy was tickling her

(With the exception of the last two statements, which were pure fabrication, the above comments only tangentially relate to BADCALFF.)

We managed to come up with a good run of five films and they are of sufficient quality that we're really looking forward to them. No Dark Waters, Herbies, or Garfields on the list. Here's the rundown:

The Da Vinci Code 12:00 TRT 2:30
Based on the best selling book of the same name Robert Langdon is brought in to help investigate a murder in the Louvre.

Nacho Libre 2:50PM TRT 1:40
A Mexican priest secretly moonlights as a masked wrestler in order to save an orphanage from closure.

Cars 4:35PM TRT 2:00
Lightning McQueen, a hotshot rookie race car driven to succeed, discovers that life is about the journey, not the finish line, when he finds himself unexpectedly detoured in the sleepy Route 66 town.

Dinner 635 – 715 Be quick, or you'll be late for Click – I'm going to brown-bag it.

Click 7:15PM TRT 1:40
A workaholic architect, overlooking his family in favor of his career, comes across a remote that allows him to perform TiVo-like functions on his life.

Lady in the Water 9:25 TRT 1:50
A modest building manager rescues a mysterious young woman from danger and discovers she is a character from a bedtime story who is trying to make the treacherous journey from our world back to hers.

All movies are only $2 each! You can’t get more entertainment for $10.

Silver Cinemas Budget South policy states no one will be allowed admittance to the theatre 15 minutes after the show starts – don’t be late and expect a line. We will have printed cards with the schedule to make it easier for the cashiers.

Theater info:
Silver Cinemas Budget South
4475 S. 108th St.
Greenfield, WI 53228
Message: 414-256-1321
Theater office #: 414-529-3032


Disclaimer: BADCALFF is in no way related to or sanctioned by Silver Cinemas Budget South, Associated Bank, DGA, or Peter Bart.

Put your day on a diet

What does your Time Diet look like?

I saw this little article on Lifehacker.com, and it really got me thinking… I feel like I'm busy all the time, but I also feel like I'm bored a lot. So maybe my Time Diet is full of a bunch of non-nutritional things....

So, what junk food can I remove from my Time Diet?
- Go to my Bookmarks bar and delete a message board that I am no longer a member but still read way too much
- Delete some of my RSS feeds and podcasts
- Don't watch every single Netflix that comes through our door - pick and choose the ones I really want to watch - currently Brent watches them all after I go to bed and I feel compelled to watch them in the afternoon when I should be doing other stuff.

And what health food can I add to my Time Diet?
- Clean my office daily
- Read my Bible and pray more (like, more than almost never)

What about you?

A fun TV series

The Good Neighbors (or The Good Life)

I can't remember where I heard about this, but it finally came to the top of our Netflix and we started watching it this week. It's a British TV show from the 1970, and it's pretty funny. The show is about this couple who live in the suburbs. On the husband's 40th birthday, he suddenly decides that his life is boring and he has not accomplished anything worthwhile. So he and his wife decide to turn to a life of self-sustainability. By the end of the first episode they have tilled their entire lawn to plant crops, and soon thereafter they buy a goat and chickens, much to the horror of their uppity neighbors.

I have never seen it anywhere else but Netflix, so good luck finding it - but if you do, it's oddly inspiring and really worth it.