A Little Life For Me

After Thanksgiving Thoughts

2008-11-28T21:20:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Ours was really good. It was the first time we hosted Thanksgiving at our house, so it was really special. My lasagna Thanksgiving was a big hit! My mom really liked it, which is quite the compliment. It was stressful getting everything ready. We spent the whole day cleaning, cooking and baking. But it was worth it. It was so nice to be surrounded by my family, it made me remember how blessed I am.
I had today off, which was good. I got out all the Christmas decorations first thing this morning. I did have to do some Black Friday shopping. There were some pretty good deals at Target and I needed a few more items of Christmas cheer!
Probably will not do a grocery shopping update this Sunday. I don't really think we're going to need buy anything besides milk and bread, we have so much stuff leftover from Thanksgiving. Unfortunately we don't have nearly enough leftover cherry pie- my favorite. Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Sorry it's a little belated.

Getting ready for Thanksgiving

2008-11-24T17:14:00.000-08:00

I'm usually not a big Thanksgiving person, but this year I am so excited! I think probably because for the first time ever it's at our house. Last year we had an apartment but we were pretty far from family and it was really tiny. So this year I'm making a big feast for everyone. My family actually really isn't into traditional Thanksgiving food, so I'm doing something a little different. We're having a big Italian meal. I'm making anti-pasta, garlic bread and lasagna and a few other treats. For the holidays we always make my grandfather's anti-pasta. My mom makes it a little different than he did and this year I'm going to put my own little spin on it. I'm also going to make a cherry pie, so there will be something sort of traditional. I went shopping this weekend for everything and it was easy because no one was getting the things I was getting!! Our grocery shopping bill was pretty high this week though. We came in at $101. Which I guess is still pretty good considering we had to buy everything for Thursday. The last couple weeks have all been under $50 so we're in pretty good shape even with the holiday. I did splurge on some things to spruce up the table and make everything look pretty. I'm also so excited about the day after Thanksgiving. I'm going to put on the Christmas music and decorate the whole house. Okay I'm gonna go make dinner for my hubby to be!

Be A Little Cheapskate 3

2008-11-20T19:57:00.000-08:00

I have been so tired this week. I caught some kind of nasty bug. I could barely drag myself out of bed for work today. Okay but now, how to be a little cheapskate. I guess I will continue with the grocery theme, although now that I think of it I don't know how much more I have as far as the how to save money on food topic. Well one thing that has really helped us save money on groceries is to keep less food in the house. I used to like the fridge and the cabinets to be stocked. It's kind of a nice feeling to know that you have everything you need. But we ended up wasting a lot, so much would go stale or bad before we could eat it. Now we buy a lot less food and I find that I don't really miss having the cupboards so full. I'm definitely a snackaholic. The only big meal I eat is dinner, so I snack a lot. I used to like to have all kinds of snack food around, but now I limit the snacks I buy and things get used up before they go bad! Genius! Anyway that's my tip for this week.

Blah!

2008-11-17T17:58:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm going to make this short as I am sick and had a bad day at work. We did pretty good with groceries this week. Only $35 for the whole week. But we are using up a lot of stuff. I found some rice mixes in the cupboard so we're going to eat those a couple nights this week. Am trying to watch tighten the weekly food budget as Thanksgiving is next week. That's all for now, I'm coming down with some kind of cold or something.

Be A Cheapskate Thursdays! 2

2008-11-13T19:11:00.000-08:00

Okay I am a little tired today so this one will not be as long as my other post about saving money. I will kind of extend on the idea of saving money on groceries from last week. Chris and I have managed to really cut our food budget down. We have done a few things. First, we (meaning mostly me) plan a menu for the week and make a list accordingly. I know many of you probably already do this. Which is good, I think this really helps you save money. I have also changed the way I look at food a little bit. When people are trying to save money on groceries a lot of times the first things they cut out are fresh fruits and vegetables. Produce can be very expensive, but also very nutritionally valuable. Chris and I don't really buy junk food anymore. Only once in awhile. Because for our money, it has very little value. It will not really fill you up and lacks vitamins, minerals, etc. Another thing I have done is really cut back on prepared food as much as possible. For example, while we do not buy cookies very often, on Sundays I usually make cookies or a cake or something for the week for a little dessert after dinner. I also bake my own bread a lot and make my own pasta sauce and freeze it. If you take a little more time to make things, you can actually save a lot of money. Also, beans and rice. We only have meat with dinner maybe twice a week but we use beans and rice a lot. They are filling, nutritious and cheap. We invested in a rice cooker a couple of months ago and it has served us well. You can also stretch meat a lot farther if you eat it with rice. Okay a lot of these are kind of obvious tips. Sorry about that. But I am beat today, so I don't want to do much thinking so that's what you get. Maybe I'll just go watch TV.

Marriage Advice

2008-11-12T20:03:00.000-08:00

When you're engaged suddenly everyone you know is a marriage expert. And sometimes even random people at the grocery store that you don't really know. I appreciate all the advice everyone has given me since we've gotten engaged. Although I have noticed that the people with the most to say are those that are divorced or unhappily married. And 90% of the advice I receive is stuff not to do. I've been told "Don't get involved in the finances!"; "Don't let him control the money."; "Don't nag him, let it go and just do it yourself"; "Don't roll over or you'll be a doormat your whole life". I have received some strange bits advice. There are some people out there living in some sort of weird Leave It To Beaver land. The most unsettling piece of advice I received was that I should make money decisions based on the financial outcome for me should we get divorced down the line. Anyway, I've gotten off topic here. My point is most of the advice I've received is stuff I should NOT do. So if anybody has advice about what I should do, I would love to hear it!

Kind of freaking out...

2008-11-11T17:38:00.001-08:00

Okay so I'm kind of freaking out. I just realized my wedding is in like 6 months!! I have so much stuff I still need to do!! How does time go by so fast...

Sunday Shopping

2008-11-09T21:07:00.000-08:00

Okay, did the Sunday shopping today for the week. I did pretty good. $60 for groceries for 2 people for one week. Mostly everything I bought was on sale except for a jalapeno and sour cream, but I'll let it slide. My best deal was on Quaker's new fancy Simple Harvest instant oatmeal. Regularly $4-ish, on sale for $1.97 and then I had a coupon so it was only 97 cents. So I'm pretty proud of that one.

Reflection on Trip to Grocery Store

2008-11-08T09:49:00.000-08:00

Early this morning I had to run out to the store for a few things for breakfast. As I was parking my car I noticed an elderly man making his way across the parking lost. He was very old, his back was hunched over pretty severely and he was limping. It was obvious that simply walking to his car was quite a difficult task for him. In his hands was a single purchase from the grocery store- a bouquet of flowers. I don't know who they were for, but I think they were probably for someone he cares about very much. After all, not many people buy flowers for themselves and they were wrapped up very nice by the florist. I was very touched as I watched him make his way to his car. I don't know how hard it was for him to make that trip to the store, put judging from seeing him walk, I imagine it was not an easy task for him. But he did it to make someone else happy, to bring someone else joy.

Twitter

2008-11-08T08:57:00.000-08:00

I'm on Twitter now! So come twitter with me. http://twitter.com/littlelife

Friday Movie Night

2008-11-07T20:30:00.000-08:00

Just had Friday night movie night with Chris. We watched "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman". I have to say, it was really hilarious.

Today I am grateful for...

2008-11-07T16:04:00.000-08:00

I am trying to be more grateful. Here are 10 things I am grateful for today/was grateful this week:

1. That it's Friday!
2. The love and support of my wonderful fiance
3. My kittens cuddling with me on a rainy day
4. Taco Night. Yummy : )
5. Autumn leaves and yellow school buses
6. Caffeine
7. My warm coat
8. My family
9. No more annoying election commercials
10. Google. I don't know what I did before google, I just don't.

What are you grateful for?

Be A Little Cheapskate Thursdays!

2008-11-06T19:16:00.000-08:00

If you're like me, then money has really been on your mind lately. I never used to be cheap or frugal but my fiance Chris has changed all that. He is very frugal and has changed my impulse buying ways! Every Thursday I will tell you how you can be a cheapskate (in a good way). I'm going to start with cutting back the food budget. We recently managed to cut our food budget in half. It was surprisingly easy once you get past the first step.
Before you set out to trim your budget in any way, you have to know exactly what you're spending. We kept track of every dollar we spent for 2 months to get an idea of where everything was going. It was painful (I spent how much?!?!) and tedious. But very rewarding. If you are trying to trim the fat from your budget start by keeping track of what you spend! At the end of the month, have a family finance meeting and add up what you spent on different areas- food, housing, entertainment, medical, etc. This will help you identify problem areas. If this is too much work for you, pay everything with your debit or credit card. Look at your account online or your snail-mail statement and add up your spending in the different categories. I know everyone says to do it, but seriously keep track of your money for a month or two. It really helps!!
Okay, my second tip this week, I know you probably hear this all the time but stop eating out. Eating out used to be a special occasion, something you did once in awhile. That's what eating out should be. It's very pricey and even fast food is expensive, especially considering the poor nutritional value you're getting. I used to come home too tired to cook and look at the dinner I had planned to make that night and say "Screw it. Let's go to McDonald's". But I discovered a trick that has really helped for those times. Safeway has these Eating Right frozen meals. They take only 10 minutes to make and you only need one pot to make them. They have meals that are like your favorite take out- chicken fajitas, chow mein. I always keep a few in my freezer for when I'm too tired to cook. Frozen pizza is also a good option. You can usually find good sales and all you have to do is pop it in the oven. Both of these options take less time that going through the drive-thru.
So in short, to be a cheapskate keep track of your spending for a month or two to see where you can cut back and stop eating out (or at least try to go less!).

Save $$$ at Rite Aid

2008-11-03T19:36:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! I just found out about this really cool program at Rite Aid drugstores. I am going to give it a try this month. It's called the Single Check rebate program. Basically you can get all the store rebates in one check each month. If you go to their website you can see everything that has a rebate this month (once you go the website, click on "Rebate List" near the top left hand corner). You can even create an online shopping list. I didn't use their shopping list thingy. Instead I created a simple spreadsheet with the item I wanted to buy, whether I had a coupon and when I had to buy it. I found that many of the items that were offering rebates I had already clipped coupons for in the Sunday paper, so extra savings! I was surprised as there are quite a few products that you basically get for free, except for the sales tax. For example, Crest is offering a rebate on their Pro-Health toothpaste that pays the purchase price. So after you get your check- free toothpaste! Okay the only thing is I can already tell that this requires a little bit of thought and several trips to Rite Aid per month if you are going to get all the good deals. While many of the rebates are offered throughout the whole month, the really great ones are only available for a very limited time. So you may have only a 2 day window to buy the product. Luckily there is a Rite Aid right by my house. Also you can only request one check per rebate period, so you have to make sure you've taken advantage of all the rebates you want before you request your check. I've made a list of what I'm going to buy so I will update you later with how it went and how long it took me to get my check.

My little life just got so much easier!

2008-11-02T18:57:00.000-08:00

My husband-to-be is the best! He just found me this great program that is going to save me so much time and effort! We use Linux, a free operating system. You can use it even if you have Windows installed on your computer. Linux has all these free programs that are really great and one of them is the Gourmet Recipe Manager. It's so awesome! Chris just installed it for me! You can store all your recipes in it. You can scan them into the program, import them from a website or type them in. Once you have your recipes in there you can search recipes, assign them categories, all kinds of cool stuff. It even helps you plan what you want to make for the week and creates a shopping list for you. The only downside is that it is time consuming to enter the recipes into the program if you have to type them in, but once they're in, they're in forever! If anyone wants to know how to get this program for Windows or install Linux on their computer, please email me (laura.alisson86@gmail.com).

Welcome to My Little Life!

2008-11-02T16:58:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! I just wanted to tell you a little bit about what this blog is about for me. I wanted a space to write about everything I'm dealing with as a young woman getting ready to be married. My fiance and I are getting hitched May of '09 and I couldn't be more excited. I wanted to write about what I'm going through emotionally, economically, etc as I run our household and prepare to become a Mrs. Any advice or tips anyone has for me would be greatly appreciated.