Going Green

   Last week my dad sent me an email with a link of three Meadowbrook Church sermons that I needed to listen to called "Going Green". I assumed that they would be about money, and they were. I loved them! Although I can easily (and basically unnecessarily) get stressed about money, it's one of my favorite topics to talk about. Sometimes I try to have a conversation with Michael about money - like how I'm excited to show him the budget break down and charts I made yesterday to explain how we will be able to save $4,500 by mid July if we don't spend more than we really have to! Which we will then have to use to pay the hospital "out of pocket" for Emma being born, but it's better to have that much extra money than taking that same amount out of what we have in the Baby Fund right now. But all of that can be confusing to him (too many numbers and arrows), plus he likes not having to worry about how we're doing on money since he knows I handle it very well - most of the time.

   They were offering a Dave Ramsey: Financial Peace seminar at work about a year and a half ago. I don't remember why I didn't go to the class, but one of my friends did and he told me what he learned in each class. The first thing he told me was how terrible everyone (except him) was at spending money and how the small class together totaled around $20,000 in debt. I would have gasped and yelled at everyone in the room if I had been there. I like to say/ think/ know that I have never been in "real" debt. They say house, car, and student loan debt don't count because it's something you "have to" buy and most people are actively paying off the amount owed each month. But that $20,000 was just "coffee and clothes, vacations and going out to eat" debt. How does that happen?! I would think that a rational person would say "Hey, I don't have money for this right now so I guess peanut butter and jelly sandwiches will have to do me for the rest of the week". It stresses me out just thinking about it, so I'm really glad I didn't go to the classes. I'd be like "Daaaang! I was stressed about only having $20,000 in savings! I can see I'm not needed here!" and then walk out.

   Now I keep trying to find some super good blogs that talk about money and budgeting, preferably by someone in their 20's. But the ones I am finding are "too professional" or their budget is way higher than the "pinching pennies" kind that I like. For example, I don't like people talking about how they got such a great deal on clothes because they were 80% off, "which makes the top/boots/skirt only $63". That does not sound like a super great deal to me. 80% off should make the piece about four dollars! I guess that's why I'm a big fan of Plato's Closet (for buying, not selling). Here is the best post I have read today about saving money and sticking to a low monthly budget. Did you click on the link? That's right, it's my own post. And it's a wonderful one!

   I was able to get some similar deals recently, scoring free food at work since it's Telecommunicator Week so they had ice cream sundaes for us on Monday and hamburgers/ hot dogs with mac & cheese, baked beans, salad, and cookies yesterday. Except instead of having $93 left to spend on groceries this month like I mentioned in the post from October we are kind of in "the negative" right now. Or the mode that I like to call The Pantry Diet. Hence wanting to boost up our savings while we have the chance. After Emma is born we may not be able to put money into savings for the next five years until she is out of daycare! But who knows, maybe I'm just over reacting? One kind of major thing that is not budgeted in Our Goal to $4,500 is all of the baby stuff we will need to buy. Like absolutely need. We'll see what we get at the baby shower next weekend. I'm already okay with leaving Emma's bedroom pretty plain just because it means not spending money. And obviously she won't care!

Free scrapbook garland that I made a couple weeks ago!

Although it's not really money related, I have been doing well with sticking to my minimal clothing range.

  This post doesn't have the ability to be as sunny and fun loving as "the best post" that I liked above, since I don't have any recent food or exercising pictures to post. The only note I have is that to help my chicken nuggets last longer, I cooked less and added a side of corn, then drank half of a V8 for added nutrients. I also went for a 2 mile walk since after our lack of TV last week, I'm trying not to watch very much. I'm hoping that I can write a lot more posts similar to it in the next few weeks, and also between July and December when we get a hang of the new budgets - some of which I can't even plan ahead for since I'm not sure how much I'll be making using half paid vacation time/ half FMLA during maternity leave, or how tight we will really be once I go back to work at the end of September when we start paying for daycare and I have an extra medical deduction for adding Emma onto my insurance. We still have to get her enrolled in daycare soon, which costs a decent chunk of money for the registration fee! That's one reason our grocery money is kind of non-existent right now. Eh, we'll be fiiiiiine. =)

  Above and below are some pictures of Michael and Brian working on their Benthic and Edrio costumes today after they got off from work at VAMP. (I used the 50mm lens again for these with a low f-stop and the baby room pictures.) The Star Wars convention is this Saturday and they have seriously been putting their all into this, especially this week. Working every spare minute they have, staying up past midnight just to wake up five hours later to go back to work. I already asked Michael if he would be sleeping away all of Sunday.

They seriously watch Rogue One every day!