You know, this stuff! Magic Shell ice cream topping! Except peanut butter.

photo via

We got allll these groceries for less than $50! We discovered Aldi and it has changed my life. I was talking about this at work and everyone was like ... yes, where have you been? IN THE DARK. BUYING EXPENSIVE GROCERIES.

Look closely ... pineapple, avocadoes, oranges, strawberries, blueberries, whipping cream, pepperoni, an embarassing amount of cream cheese, coconut milk, frozen chicken, noodles, english muffins, celery, pancake syrup, crescent rolls, butter, block cheese, carrots, 3 DiGiorno pizzas, tortillas ... I can't tell what is off to the left. Milk? We are apparently really into dairy products.

This is 2+ weeks of food for us!

This year we've been trying the envelope system for some of our budgeting. I use the term "budgeting" loosely and people with legit budgets are probably aghast. But. My problem with most of the budgeting strategies I've read about is that they want you to write everything down.

Let's be real. I could put a color-coded, pretty-fonted printout in a binder and probably would never make it a month actually recording everything I spent. Even if I did by some miracle comply, there is Jon. He is not into compliance with color-coded pretty-fonted things. And what about when I go to Target and get groceries AND a sundress and hand soap with pears on the bottle and sparkly thumbtacks? I would have to do math.

How the system works for us:

1. At the beginning of the month, put your budgeted amount of cash in designated envelopes.

We are trying $200 for groceries and $50 for "flex" money (which is basically things we don't need ... like clothes, going out, and sparkly thumbtacks).

That's it! If you run out of money, eat things from the freezer or the pantry and plan more carefully next month! So plan ahead and spend carefully.

Just one step? Oh.

2. Stop going to Target.

So far this has been working for us! Well. Mostly.

We always spend our flex money within the first week, but I'm hesistant to increase the amount in that envelope because we'll just spend that too.

We do pretty good with grocery money but it does get a little short if we have a lot of people over. Also, in January we went to a movie using grocery money and then ran out the last week and had to spend some of February's ahead. No more of that.

As far as paying down our highest interest student loan, it's slowly disappearing!
Beginning Balance: $27,125.21
Current Balance: $16,299.95
Percent Remaining: 60.1%

I'm so proud of that! Mostly that was money we saved up when I was getting paid a little more and we were living in Jon's parent's basement. Here's to going strong the rest of the year! (And the rest of the loans).

Are you keeping your resolutions? Do you have a smarter system than cash envelopes that works for you? Does your grocery store make you giddy? I hope so :)


** I'm hoping to post pictures of our painting marathon soon! My camera is still lost, and I am trying to make iPhone pictures cut it. Fail.

** Update: See painting marathon before and afters here

Since setting a goal to pay off a large student loan this year, we've been more intentional about our budget. There is a popular blog about a guy paying off $90,000 of Harvard loans in less than a year. His strategy was something like this: liquidate trust funds, get 2 roommates off of Craigslist, and bring a flask out when partying instead of buying drinks. He also happened to be single and make $100,000+ a year. Other blogs about couples paying off 6-figure student loans usually describe methods like emptying hefty savings accounts or selling extra real estate and vehicles.

If I had a garage full of Range Rovers, acres of extra land, and my yearly salary was more than my student loan debt, our budget would have a little more wiggle room. As things stand, none of those suggestions work for us.

I ran across this list of money-saving suggestions online, which suggests various ways to cut back. Now assuming you smoke, drink pop, eat out frequently, have cable and a gym membership, these changes will save you $8,800 a year.
Most of the suggestions we've done already:

• Use CFL lightbulbs (Came with out house. I hate them because they are so dim and have a greenish cast)
• Program your thermostat to use less energy for heating/cooling when you are asleep or at work
• Ensure that your home is well-insulated
• Shop smart: buy out-of-season or end-of-season clothes
• Grow a garden
• Make your coffee at home
• Cook at home (Did you know the average American eats out twice a week?)
• Stop drinking bottled water
• Shop at a cheaper grocery store
• Buy store brand groceries and cleaning supplies
• Choose an energy efficient air conditioner
• Get rid of cable and Netflix
• Cancel your gym membership (you're still supposed to exercise...)
• Cancel your landline phone
• Don't smoke
• Change your own oil
• Don't drink pop. Their math assumes you were drinking a case each week
• Use a low flush toilet or sink something in the tank to reduce water usage
• Unplug unused chargers and appliances

Their remaining suggestions:

• Use a low flow shower head (save $15/year). The cost of replacing our showerhead for a nice low-flow one would take years to pay off. No thanks.
• Shop at Goodwill. We haven't bought any clothes so far in 2013. I wear scrubs to work, and lately I just come home and put on sweats. Incredible how working constantly and having no life means not requiring pretty clothes. I feel like I find good deals on clothes by comparison shopping, shopping sales, and using coupons. The key for me is not so much WHERE to shop as HOW OFTEN. The more I shop, the more I spend -- because I keep finding "good deals!"
• Turn your water heater to 110 degrees and insulate it with a heat blanket (save $90/year). I'm not sure what ours is set at or where to get a heat blanket, but I'll have to look into this.

Other little things we do:

• Drive a cheap car. Besides having no car payment, insurance is so much more affordable! We have to make payments on Jon's truck, and that makes me angry every month haha.
• Pack a lunch. For work, for road trips.
• Online bill pay. Save by not buying stamps and envelopes, and save more by setting up autopay so you don't accidentally get late fees.
• Buy staples in bulk. I'd like to do more of this with ingredients like flour, oatmeal, etc.
• Use what you have. Wear out your socks before you buy new ones, eat the cereal on the shelf before you open the next box, cook from the cookbooks you own instead or buying more. (I have a cookbook problem.)
• Bake your own bread.
• Buy digital textbooks. Jon saved a few hundred dollars this semester buying digital instead of paper. He loves it because all he carries around for class and homework is his laptop and a Kindle instead of his laptop and a stack of large books.
• Use craigslist. When we bought our first house we needed to make a number of large purchases relatively quickly. We got our washer and dryer on Craigslist for $350 and our lawn mower for $30. We've also used Craigslist to sell things we don't need, and even got someone to dig up our hedge for free (he kept the bushes and transplanted them.)

Some things I'd like to try:

• Plant fruit trees. I have a very full Gurney's shopping cart right now and need to narrow things down. I have a Gurney's order on the way, including 2 apple trees (Honeycrisp and Pixie Crunch), a peach tree, blueberries, raspberries, and rhubarb (not a tree). I bought the slightly larger apple trees because I am impatient, and what if Jon graduates and we end up moving before we get apples??
• Couponing. I'm experimenting -- my goal is to get a free toothbrush! So far I have been saving about 50% at CVS.
• Learn more about food preservation. This year I am hoping to try canning. I am optimistically thinking jam, salsa/tomato sauce, and applesauce. This endeavor may require me to buy another cookbook ... Wish me luck

The first Christmas we were married, Jon gave me a bread machine. It's a Cuisinart from Bed Bath & Beyond, back when their coupons were always 25% off instead of 20% off. Thought I wouldn't notice, BBB? I noticed.
I do love how I just leave the bread machine alone, and it produces dough or bread. It's so nice to come home from work and smell fresh bread! This particular breadmaker has a "delay start" setting so you can conveniently select when you would like it to finish. It's easy to clean, and definitely less messy than kneading by hand.

Besides all these perks, 100ish dollars seemed like a lot of money for a machine that did something I had always watched my mom do by hand. (Or you know, with a mixer and a wall oven.) I know it was a gift, but we spent our own money on it.

Since I was curious about the cost-effectiveness of a bread machine, I put a post-it note in the bread recipe book and keep a tally of each time I use the machine. In two years, I am up to 31 uses. That's not too bad considering I don't really use it in the summers, and for 8 months of 2012 it was packed up in a box. However, I think I can do better!

This year I'm resolving to bring my tally to 60, which would be approximately a two-fold increase in bread production. This would bring the per-use cost from $3.23 to about $1.66, plus the cost of ingredients. Using this calculator from Money Saving Mom, I calculated that ingredients for a 1.5 pound loaf of white bread costs $0.99. According to her post about bread machines, an average bread machine uses about 7.2 cents of electricity in one hour.

At 60 uses, my cost-per-loaf would be about $2.80 ($1.66 machine, $0.99 ingredients, $0.15 electricity).

Does this save us money? Yes! The cost of a loaf of bread that I like is around $4.29. The cost of a loaf that Jon likes was like $0.99 until he discovered potato bread, which was more like $3.50.

Jon's hair is so easy to cut, I should probably start making him cut his own.

I've been cutting it on and off since college. More "on" now that we are married, although occasionally his mom steps in with advice on how to disguise his misshapen head. (She calls them "corners").


We use a buzzer. He likes his hair so short that he usually wants a haircut every month. If it is long enough that it could be sticking in the wrong direction when he wakes up in the morning, then it is too long. Heaven forbid he should have to take time to run it underwater before he goes to school...

Anyway. With the cost of driving to a salon, paying, and tipping, I figure I am easily saving $350 a year by cutting his hair for him instead of having it done at the salon. We got our buzzer for less than $25 at Walmart. Worth every penny!

I don't think I'll be cutting my own hair anytime soon -- I'm just not brave enough. OR skilled. I only get my hair cut about 3 times a hear anyway, so that's more manageable.

PS - has anybody else discovered a lotion hoard in their closets or is it just me??

For the month of October I'm doing one thing a day that is a step towards a simpler way of living -- less cluttered, less wasteful, less distracted. My goal through this month of less is that by taking a new step every day, I will be able to live in a way that is more organized, more stewardly, more purposeful. Read more about it here, and let me know if you're joining in!

How convenient that taco seasoning comes pre-mixed in a packet... But have you read the ingredient list?

The Tastespotting blog was talking about taco seasoning and how the ingredient list includes several non-food ingredients also found in pet food and pesticides. Their easy-to-follow recipe (sans pesicides) includes the following spices:


4 parts chili powder
2 parts ground cumin
1 part paprika
1 part crushed red pepper or cayenne pepper
1 part dried oregano
1 part onion powder
1 part garlic powder
1 part salt
½ part black pepper
Directions: Throw spices and herbs in a bowl and combine.

Not only do I know what's going in my tacos, but I tend to always have these spices on hand anyway (unlike the pre-mixed envelopes).

For the month of October I'm doing one thing a day that is a step towards a simpler way of living -- less cluttered, less wasteful, less distracted. My goal through this month of less is that by taking a new step every day, I will be able to live in a way that is more organized, more stewardly, more purposeful. Read more about it here, and let me know if you're joining in!

I only get my hair cut about 3 times a year, partly because I am too busy/too lazy to get around to making an appointment, and partly because I am consistantly horrified by how expensive it is. In the town where I grew up, I could get my hair cut for less than $20. Then I moved away ... to the real world ... and started coloring my hair ... ended up paying over $100 every time. And I'm not going fancy places! I just have a lot of hair!

My natural color is in between -- not blonde and not brown. I like to change it up, sometimes lighter, sometimes darker. I had a hair appointment today, and the plan was to get my hair cut and colored dark brown. My tan is gone, and I miss wearing yellow, fall is coming...

I needed a project today to break up the baby hat crocheting that I've recently become obsessed with -- pattern here. Too hot to be outside, house already clean (mercifully), brownies already made, no money to spend ... somehow that translated into making my own laundry detergent. Making your own laundry detergent is inexpensive and helps you avoid chemicals in your laundry room.


I used this recipe from The Thrifty Couple and got everything I needed at Walmart. It's also safe for high efficiency washers, since it's not sudsy.

For this project, you'll need 1 bar Ivory soap, 2 c. Borax, and 2 c. Washing Soda (different than baking soda). At my Walmart, the borax and washing soda were right next to eachother in the laundry aisle and each cost just over $3 each. (Amazon sells the Borax and Washing Soda as a set if you're interested)


This project literally took minutes. I made 3 batches in a row because I prefer to store laundry detergent rather than soap ingredients. Also, I had already made a mess.

First, set 1 bar of Ivory soap on a dinner plate and microwave it for about 2 minutes (90-120 seconds). I found that if I did less than 2 minutes, there was some leftover bar of soap inside the big fluff. I pulled the fluffed up parts off the plate and re-heated the leftover mini-bar for anouther couple seconds until it fluffed up. It will look like this:


I hope you like the smell of Ivory soap. The Thrifty Couple said that the consistancy of the "fluff" will be dry and brittle. Mine was dry but soft, sort of like cotton candy or insulation.


Tear apart the fluff and put it in your blender or food processor. Add 2 cups of Borax and 2 cups of washing soda.  Blend until it looks like an even powder. I used the pulse/crush ice setting and occasionally poked around with a spatula because I am impatient.


I really wanted to add essential oil to scent my laundry detergent, (lavender, orange, etc.) but couldn't find them for sale anywhere except the internet. I think you add 1/2 - 1 oz. to the blender during the last step.

Update: I finally made it to Whole Foods and found essential oils there. Instead of scenting the laundry detergent, I put 3 drops of lavender oil on an old washcloth and threw it in the dryer with the laundry. Came out smelling great! This way I can control which loads I'd like scented, and don't have to commit to an entire batch of a certain scent.


Use 1 tablespoon for normal loads, 2 tablespoons for extra large or exceptionally dirty loads. 1 batch supposedly makes 80 tablespoons (40-80 loads), so my triple batch ... 240 loads ... that should give me plenty of time to hunt for essential oils to use during my next batch. $7 for 240 loads of laundry is pretty good!

I got a headache after making this and I'm not sure whether it was the Super-Ivory smell coming from my microwave or the powder floating in the air, but if you can make this with the windows open I would recommend that!

Update: I've been using this detergent for 2 months and my clothes are clean! Success.

For the month of October I'm doing one thing a day that is a step towards a simpler way of living -- less cluttered, less wasteful, less distracted. My goal through this month of less is that by taking a new step every day, I will be able to live in a way that is more organized, more stewardly, more purposeful. Read more about it here, and let me know if you're joining in!

Jon took the LSAT on Saturday, so while he was gone for 5 hours I craigslisted all our kitchen appliances. Just in case.

Hasty? We've been talking about replacing appliances since we moved in, and every meal with our slanty-burnered, knobless, mystery temperature, shelf-dumping kitchen was a little reminder that we should keep our eye out for a great sale. Well this weekend was it! It was a perfect storm of Kenmore's 98th birthday, redeemed recycle points, Sears vs. Nebraska Furniture Mart, free delivery, no interest, have some more cash back, online coupon codes honored in store, grandfather-like salesman who offered us contractor pricing, and a stream of people who for some reason wanted to give us money for our crappy appliances.

Within 4 minutes of posting, I had sold the refrigerator and the microwave, and Sunday someone came for the dishwasher. We still have one lonely, dilapidated range to get rid of. All the newbies were available for pickup except for a refrigerator. We promptly brought all our frozen food (mostly fish and apples with a few surprise Mr. Freeze's) to our neighbor's freezer and drank all our milk.

Friday the new fridge should be here, so until then we are eating anything room-temp. We had to take a special trip to the grocery store and just wander through the non-refrigerated sections. We're eating a lot of apples, bananas, peanut butter, granola bars, and oatmeal. Well, I am. Jon is eating a lot of spaghetti-O's and fruit snacks and potato chips and pop tarts.

I don't like oatmeal by itself, but it's delish with peanut butter!

Peanut Butter Oatmeal:

1/4 c. oatmeal
1/2+ c. soy milk, water, or milk
1 T. ground flax
1 blob peanut butter (2T?) or Almond Butter
1 blob honey (1T?)

Microwave 1 minute and then stir. Good with nuts or bananas on top!