I just finished mowing the lawn. I actually enjoy mowing the lawn, except for the occasional rock in the yard. We have rocks everywhere around here. You should see the size of the granite boulders dug out when we had the pool built!
It was worse when Sparky was still around, she carried rocks all over the place and would leave them scattered throughout the grass.
When Stuntman was deployed, I hired a gardener. It was difficult to justify a gardener now that we are fully-staffed at home, so we let him go. Just because the majority of my neighbors don't mow their own lawn, doesn't mean that we can't.
I've revived my thriftyness as of late. I've always been relatively frugal, but the key term here is relative... compared to most people that I know. The deployment and the subsequent pay issues on re-deployment have whittled down our liquid assets. We're not in actual financial trouble like many are right now, so I'm not complaining... OK, our so-called house value dropped $200k, but does that really affect me day-to-day? No. I'm just taking this as a wake-up call.
I remember when I was in college and lived on $5 spending money a month. This broke down to one candy bar (peanut butter Twix) and nine 50 cent beers. OK, not the best financial plan, but it worked.
One of the easiest places to trim our budget has been our food bill. We were never really big on eating out, maybe 2 or 3 times a month, but that has changed to one or zero. I'm planning our meals better, and doing the majority of my shopping at my new favorite store. The produce is ultra-cheap, and fresh. It's a bit of an adventure the first time, but you just need to realize that some people have different definitions of personal space, or courtesy.
I have found a great site, via a comment on Spousebuzz, Gayle, at the Grocery Cart Challenge, has great posts regarding her family's food budget. I have found fresh ideas from the site as well as from those who comment at her site. Plus, I'm always up for new recipes and she has tasty ones each Friday in a recipe Swap.
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why Stuntman?
Daily...well when I can, thoughts from my life as a mom , a wife, as an American, as a woman.
My Hubby-Stuntman
why Stuntman?
Meet the family:
Susan: Me, a 40 something WAHM
Stuntman: My wonderful husband of 13+ years
E1: 8 yr-old daughter
E2: 6 yr-old daughter
E3: 3 yr-old son
the dogs:
Roxie: 11 yr-old pit that thinks she's a lab
Emma: 3 yr-old composite; corgi, terrier?
Cinnamon: Boxer puppy
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6 comments:
Hookahs? Really? What an INTERESTING store!!;-)
Did you change something in your template, Susan? I got a lot of white space and no header when I came by today.
Buck,
Hookahs are very popular around here it seems. Lounges are opening all the time. The store is very interesting, many fruits and vegetables that I have never seen before.
I didn't change anything, and it looks ok for me now on Safari and Firefox, but I'll keep an eye on it, thank's for the heads up!
I like the new look and I am way behind in the reading.
It looks "normal" today, Susan, which is to say I see a header and all the other stuff one is supposed to see. Yesterday might have been one of those periodic hiccups one gets with Firefox.
I hear ya on being thrifty. We dont own a house so no loss in value there but our IRA is now resembling more of an allowance then a retirement fund! I'm trying to get everything I need at the commissary and cut out the trips in between and really stretching meals. Leftovers can be something else! The plus side of flyboy not being around, our food bill goes down a TON!
Thanks for the link - how did I miss it at SpouseBUZZ? I guess we're all tightening the belts together :)
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