budgets are depressing

In our never ending quest to move out of our mother in laws house and into our own home again we decided it was important to make up a budget with our income and expenses laid out. Maybe we have just gotten too comfortable with the fact that we haven't paid rent in a year or maybe we just don't have as much money as we used to, but our budget is rather depressing. I just snagged a job part time at fidelity (thank you Lord) and Jake is working full time at Honda, but still the money coming in and the expenses going out leave only a tiny bit of money for spending and grocery shopping. Our days of movies, extended cable, and eating out seem to be coming swiftly to an end.
I am a little worried about all of the baby things we need to buy for the future, but we have already decided for storage we are sacrificing our long dresser and painting it a nice cream color and turning it into a diaper changing station/dresser for the baby. The townhome we are trying to move into has some awesome walk in closets so I am confident we will not miss our dresser and it will be much more efficient in the baby room. We also plan on buying most things gently used except for the car seat which we really want to get new simply for safety reasons and to put our minds at rest.
God always provides as seen by the recent jobs my husband and I were both able to get despite the economy right now. Also, we did save a large amount of money while Jake was in Iraq so when unexpected expenses come up we can use that to pay for them instead of credit cards which is always good. So, I know we will be okay, but the budgeting is going to take some getting used to, and scrupulous grocery shopping and coupons are certainly in my future. But, I guess several hundred dollars left at the end of every month IS better than nothing, plus since we are not buying a house we know we will not have unexpected expensive house repairs to do which will be super nice until we are in a better place financially.

So my advice to anyone either just starting out on their own or starting out on their own AGAIN, would be to make a budget and no matter how depressing it gets remember you can sacrifice on some things to make money stretch and always save a couple of dollars a month because sooner or later you're going to need it.

sweet tea

Dear Southerners,

I have become aware that many of you do not know how to make our favorite beverage. Many of us have fallen to the plague of ready made tea from the grocery store or Bojangles, leaving us ignorant of the fine skills our mothers and grandmothers possess. Or perhaps you just realized how much money you are spending on store bought tea and realize that you can make it much cheaper yourself. So, to the rescue I come! Here is an easy, efficient way to make sweet tea.

4 Lipton family size tea bags OR 8 regular size tea bags
1 1/3 cup sugar
gallon of tap water

Remove your tea bags from their paper wrappers and place in a small pot filled 2/3 with water. Place on medium high heat, keeping a CLOSE eye on them and removing pot right when water shows signs of boiling. (You do not want your water to boil because it will burst your tea bags. This should take several minutes and your water should be a dark brown tea color. ) Place sugar in bottom of gallon sized pitcher and pour hot tea over sugar. Stir well until sugar is dissolved. Run cold tap water into the same pot which should still have your tea bags in it. Make sure to swirl the pot around so the tea infuses into the new water. Pour this into your pitcher. Continue doing this until the tea bags are no longer coloring your water, at this point you can throw your tea bags away and fill the pitcher the rest of the way with just plain water. Give your tea bags the toss and stir your tea one more time. Your tea should be a nice dark amber color and will probably be warm, so add ice and enjoy!!