Update: $25 Challenge

Dear DC,

So that $25 Challenge was a huge success...for about four days.

Now we just don't have AS much for savings as we would have liked. HOWEVER I'm absolutely committed to not spending away my paycheck on food, even if it means forgoing delicious sushi on a warm Saturday afternoon. Buh-bye Momoyama. That's a sacrifice!

What was the straw the broke the camel's restricted budget back? Only the most amazing Irish step dance troupe and their famous farewell tour! I grew up watching Riverdance on VHS and always craved to see it in person. When I was 16 I saw the Lord of the Dance show (Satan's impersonation of the truth) so I've always wanted to see the real thing. I thought my chance was gone forever when they came to Salt Lake on their farewell tour and I missed it! So when I saw them playing near DC on Friday I jumped at the chance. And by jumped, I mean spent a lot of money to buy tickets and danced an Irish jig.

Woooo hoooo!

With "I only splurge on AMAZING dance performances" Love,

Julia

The $25 Challenge

Dear DC,

Apparently Kyle isn't writing much anymore, so you're stuck with me again.

In our nearly four years of marriage, Kyle and I have always been pretty good about having a budget...not so much with sticking to it. I have a spreadsheet that I created where I input every purchase under each category and the spreadsheet tells us how much money we have left in that category. The problem is that we often completely ignore that total. Whoops.

The little number sometimes (ok, a lot of times) goes into the red....digging into the money we are supposed to be saving/paying off debt with.

These past two weeks have been pretty typical with, as always, the majority of our "rainy day" funds going toward food and eating out. It's not like we even eat that well, we just eat a lot and often.

As a result of these past two weeks of gluttony, we have challenged ourselves to sticking to a $25 budget for the next two weeks. Not just for food, but $25 FOR EVERYTHING!

Fortunately we have a freezer full of food, a half tank of gas and a fairly funded metro card.

Can we do it?

With Cheapskate Love,

Julia

Birthday Adventures!

Dear DC,

My first birthday in the district came off as a big success! I know it was a big day for all of you so now that the excitement is over you can resume breathing normally.

Of course, all the wonderful plans and gifts that my amazing husband gave me were all upstaged by a birthday surprise from mother nature, and I'm not talking about her monthly gift.

We came home from dinner/shopping to our little basement apartment FLOODED!

Happy Birthday! You get to stay up late mopping up disgusting brown water (not sewage - thank goodness) saturating all your towels then throwing them in the dryer only to have to use them to mop up the rest of the water, over and over again. But wait, there's more! You also get the opportunity to move all items that were touching the ground into the "unaffected" part of your small apartment and asses the water damage (relatively limited). But wait, there's more!! Then you get to watch the weather forecast for MORE RAIN and look forward to doing this all over again....or rather watch your husband do it all over again.

Thanks mother nature....you're the best!

With "I like my water in faucets" love,

Julia

P.S. The rest of the day was really lovely and I am enjoying the beautiful flowers my husband sent me at work.

P.P.S. I found out that my husband really does listen to me when I am talking as evidenced by his thoughtful gifts....now he has no excuse for the future. HAH!