Proud Of #1

#1 started middle school last week.  He came home the first day and told me he found out if they do some work in the cafeteria, they can get free lunch every day.  He said, "I'm going to talk to the lunch lady tomorrow so I can do it."  I wouldn't have had a clue if he didn't tell me.  I really think without the budgeting challenge, he might have passed that up.

Over the summer, he also spent quite a few days helping some friends move.  I think it really helped him develop a stronger work ethic and I'm so grateful he had the opportunity.

We did go shopping tonight and he said, "Ooh!  Those sugar cookies are two for $6!  It says we would save $1.62." (something around that amount)  I said, "No, we would lose $6 buying something we don't need." 

His birthday is later this month, so I'm being extra cheap until then.  He will be thirteen!  I can't believe it.  And surprise!  He wants orange chicken for dinner.

My Name is Sarah and Sometimes I Cook Healthy Things

I'm kind of known for making things that will lead to your death.  When describing tonight's dinner to my mom, she couldn't believe the daughter who used to hate vegetables was going to eat that.  She did admit to her vegetables being soggy and flavorless when I was growing up.

I love Trader Joe's whole wheat couscous.  It has 7 grams of fiber and 8 grams of protein per serving.  It's very filling!  There's a taboule recipe on the back which I altered to my liking.  I decided it would be good with some sweet onion, fresh ground pepper, cumin, diced tomatoes, cucumber, fresh parsley, and feta.

Look how adorable and teensy tiny it is!

It's also the perfect thing to make when it's hot.  It took less than two minutes to boil the water I needed and the leftovers are good the next day too.

1/2 cup boiling water
1 1/4 cups couscous
1/3 cup lemon juice
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

This is how you start it.  After the water is boiled, take it off the heat, mix it all together, cover the pot, and let it sit for 5 minutes.  Then you add the extras that you want.


1/4 to 1/2 cup diced sweet onion
2 roma tomatoes, diced
1/2 of a large cucumber, diced (I don't peel it)
A few dashes of cumin
3-6 oz. of crumbled feta (I decided to be wild and crazy this time and use the lemon, oregano, and garlic feta)
A few grinds of black pepper

I usually keep the couscous in my pantry and watch for sales on the majority of the ingredients.  Not only did I make it pretty inexpensively, it will stop me from snacking on random things tomorrow.  It's chilling in the fridge while I baked some chicken with some salt, pepper, and extra virgin olive oil.

What would you put in couscous?

My Budgeting Everest

On February 29th, we conquered our debt.  Since then it has been a struggle to save as much money as humanly possible to make home ownership possible.

Would someone give us a home loan?  Yes.  Would it be stupid to accept the loan?  Also yes. 

It's a struggle because we really deserve a house, but that doesn't mean we can afford it.  While crunching the numbers, I realized something.  We rely heavily upon my income as a piano teacher.  If we move away from this area, I lose the students I love and it would leave us unable to pay our bills.  We will need enough in savings to supplement our income while I build my business elsewhere.

If we stayed here, it wouldn't be a problem.  The dilemma is, houses are very expensive in this area, too small, or "a diamond in the rough" which is code for a fixer upper, which often the VA won't cover.  The home has to be "habitable" and there doesn't seem to be any exact guidelines as to what that means.  We don't want to spend $400 on an inspection and have the VA reject the house.

We will need enough in savings for earnest money, inspections, possibly appliances, and for life's usual emergencies - car repairs, ER visits, etc.  We are more determined than ever not to use credit cards again.  With a mortgage payment, we would be in an even worse position to get out of debt.

We started home shopping and I was filled with terrible anxiety that made it difficult to eat or sleep.  I know there will be a certain level of nervousness that will be normal.  It's a huge decision.  But it just felt wrong.  I realize now that we weren't providing enough cushion for emergencies or the fact that our van is 12 years old.

Two weeks ago, we were getting ready for a vacation with my family when the radiator cracked and coolant exploded all over.  It was a blessing that we made an unusual visit to my parents' house without the kids because if we hadn't, it would have happened on the way to the ocean with all of our stuff packed.  That would have been horrible.  We had to take my husband's gas guzzling truck that had broken down just the week before on the way to Cub Camp, so I was pretty much about to have a panic attack.  What if both of our vehicles ended up in the shop?

Thankfully, we made it there and back, and picked up the van.  After a $750+ bill, I didn't feel reassured that everything was fine.  The engine sounded normal, but there were brief periods of time that it seemed less powerful.  I decided to take it only short distances for the next few weeks or so.  On Saturday, I took a trip to our farmers market, then to Costco, and one last stop to get gas.  When I started it, it hesitated pretty badly.  We made it home with all of our frozen food and right after I turned it off, I decided to test it.

Just the slightest noise and then it was dead.  Our mechanic wasn't in, so we decided to just enjoy the weekend and do what we planned.  This morning my husband tried to jump start it, which he has done plenty of times, but there was a large spark.  The headlights and dome light came on for a couple seconds and then it was so dead, the tow truck driver couldn't even put it in neutral using the gear shift.  Our mechanic said not to worry - it probably wouldn't have damaged the computer.

Still, I am dreading hearing the news of what's wrong and how much it's going to cost.  I'm wondering at what point do we cave and decide it's time to buy another vehicle.  We can't afford much.  When we bought our van, we had to do a $1400 repair less than a year later.  What's the sense of having a car payment if you're going to make a series of expensive repairs anyway?

I'm stressed, but I'm also grateful that we aren't currently trying to handle this situation and a mortgage at the same time.  As a friend told me recently, "My mom always said to put away savings for something you want really bad so you can use it for something you don't want."

I feel like we're taking two steps forward and one step back, but I'm trying to see all of the positive things in this situation.  We didn't break down at the side of the road.  Most of my piano students are on vacation and it would have been much harder to break down during my busiest time.  I have friends who are willing to help me.  Best of all, we have money in savings!  I'm just hoping for not terrible news tomorrow that will allow us to keep most of it. 

Food vs. Fireworks

Payday is approaching and we're really scraping the bottom of the barrell for decent meals here.  The kids were complaining a bit and I asked them, "Would you rather buy food or fireworks?"

It was unanimous.  They would rather starve than not buy fireworks for the 4th of July.  I have a coupon for $10 off when you buy $50 worth.  #3 said, "Maybe we can fast two meals a day so we can afford fireworks?"

Yeah, this will be interesting.  We do have food.  It just happens to be stuff no one really likes.  I might actually eat some canned vegetables.  Oh, who am I kidding?

With $10 To Spare!

We are trying to save as much money as possible so we can buy a house.  I'm also trying to prove that we can handle higher payments.  My goal for the month is to see if we can put everything I make in savings and only live on my husband's income.

As soon as I made this goal, my car door handle broke, but then I went to a forum that talks about Mazda MPV's and these very helpful guys said it was only $12 to buy the part on Ebay and then it was an easy fix.  I was thinking that I would ruin my door panel trying to get into it, but it really is easy!  Turns out now the part is $8.23 with free shipping.  The part would cost about $75 from the dealership.  I'm looking forward to being able to get out of my van without climbing to the other side or rolling down my window to grab the handle from the outside.

My husband needs new tires for his truck soon, so that is another issue.  He's setting money aside specifically for that issue.  It's a big truck, so it has big everything.  It will be over $1,000 to replace those tires.

Payday is tomorrow and I forced myself not to use any of the money I made at the beginning of this month.  Once rent cleared, that would leave us with $10, which left me feeling extremely on edge all day, wondering if anything else would go through that we forgot about, but we did it!  I remember the days when we could get down to $5 or less in our account as every payday approached.  One time we had 75 cents left.

I'm hoping to find some especially awesome grocery deals this month and am shooting for dinners that cost $10 or less each.  Maybe my kids can help!  They will be happy not to eat quesadillas again tomorrow.

Price Per Unit

Sweet #2 wanted to buy me a treat at the store tonight.  He counted up his change and had a little over $3 and was hoping to buy me a small thing of ice cream.  There were some tiny ones on sale that fit his budget, but there were also bigger ones on sale.  So I showed him how to look at the price per unit on the tags.  The small ones were over $2 per pint.  The larger ice cream on sale was $1 per pint.  I told him I would make up the difference.  I was also very proud of him because when I gave him money for his field trip to eat at Dairy Queen, he only got a burger and a mini blizzard instead of a full meal.  He asked, "Didn't I budget well?"

On Valentine's Day, I gave him a coupon good for a night of doing a puzzle with me and we finally got around to shopping for a puzzle tonight.  Months ago we did a large and confusing 550 piece puzzle that we didn't especially enjoy looking at.  He chose a cute deer one that's 300 pieces.  So we'll watch a movie while we work on it.  During Christmas break, we stayed up until 3am working on a puzzle!  It was crazy.  I don't plan on staying up that late tonight.

We also bought 16 oz. boxes of penne for $1 each, so that was a great deal.  A large container of strawberries was $1.98 and I thought that was for the one pound container.  Although we technically have money right now, I am forcing myself to budget on just my husband's pay and see if we can stick everything I make in savings. 

When Life Gives You Asparagus On Sale, Make Asparagus

I know.  The title is pretty deep.

So I found asparagus at Fred Meyer last week for $1 something a bunch and it was a rather large bunch.  It was also nice and thin, so it's easy to sautee.  When I was a kid, I hated asparagus - limp, rubbery, bitter stalks of torture.  Then one night I tried the sauteed asparagus my brother made out of politeness and I was very surprised to discover I loved it!

Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat.  Add a few cloves of minced garlic and heat it about 30 seconds or so, just until the garlic becomes fragrant.  Burnt garlic will ruin a meal.

Add the asparagus, tossing pretty frequently.  I cooked it for about 6 or 7 minutes.  I like it slightly tender and crispy.  Limp asparagus is lame.

Move to a large dish so you can squeeze a pretty generous amount of lemon over it, then a dash of salt, a few grinds of black pepper, and fresh Parmesan cheese. 

We ate this just now with some magic chicken (cheap) and potatoes baked in the microwave (also cheap).  That was half a package of chicken thighs, which would be about $5.  The asparagus was about $1.38 and the potatoes were only a couple dollars for the whole bag, which we only used part of.  So the whole meal was less than $10.