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!!

bbq beef

• I borrowed this recipe from HERE,
• But I have made my own changes to some of the ingredients based on what I had in my kitchen. The lemon juice has been swapped out for vinegar and the amount of onions have been changed. Also, instead of ketchup I have swapped it for leftover spaghetti sauce from dinner last night. Always remember that as long as you have the basic flavors you can really make a recipe your own based on what you have, don't be too hasty to run out to the store to buy things you don't need!
  
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• oil to coat the bottom of the pot
• 1 (3-4 lb) boneless beef chuck roast
• seasoning salt or white salt
• fresh ground black pepper
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 small green bell pepper, seeded and chopped

• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbsp white or cider vinegar
  
• 1/2 cup left over spaghetti sauce
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• dash red pepper flakes

1. Set oven to 325 degrees F.
2. In a bowl combine all the sauce ingredients together until smooth and well combined
3. Heat oil in a 5-quart Dutch oven over medium-high heat (use enough oil to cover the bottom of your Dutch oven).
4. Season the roast liberally with seasoned salt and fresh ground black pepper; add to the pot and brown well on all sides, then remove to a plate or bowl.
5. Add in onions and bell pepper; saute for about 3-4 minutes or until softened).
6. Add in the sauce; bring to a medium simmer.
7. Add the roast back to the pot and turn a few times to coat in the sauce.
8. Cover with a lid then transfer to oven.
9. Cook for about 3 to 3-1/2 hours turning the roast over every hour of cooking or you may turn halfway through cooking (cooking times will vary depending on the size of your roast).
10. Remove the roast to a cutting board and slice thinly, transfer to a serving platter.
11. Remove any fat the has accumulated on top of the sauce, then drizzle some on top of the beef slices.
12. Serve remaining sauce on the side.

Growing Garden

Here are some pictures of the progress of our garden. The zucchini is looking best so far, right along with the cabbage. The lima beans are growing a second set of new leaves, but the watermelon and cantaloupe are taking awhile to grow, possibly due to the cooler weather. Hopefully it will warm up soon and the plants will continue to grow instead of being stunted.

Cheap night at the movies

We are all looking for ways to save money. Im sure most of you know this tip as they have been doing it for awhile but Carmike Cinemas has what they call "recession Tuesdays". You can go to any movie during the day (go to a matinee to save extra bucks) and get a $1 small popcorn and $1 small drink. The small popcorn is just enough to share with my hubby and the small drink is actually a good size! While most Carmike theatres are not the best theaters they do present their movies digitally which makes the picture MUCH clearer than other nicer theaters. So, get your kids or husband or friends together and go see a movie on Tuesdays!!

"Real Leaves"

No pictures from this week...yet. But lots of things have been happening in the garden! The zucchini, cucumbers, watermelon, and cantaloupe are getting their "real" leaves! Pumpkins and butternut squash were planted yesterday! Don't worry, the pumpkins were placed well away from the rest of the garden!! The carrots are also starting to get their frilly leaves and the tomatoes are trying their best to break out their grown up leaves!! It is really starting to look like a garden out there. We did not till up our garden in a large section but rather turned over individual rows. While it took me awhile to get used to the look, I now LOVE the rustic look of our rows with our rock signs. Had there been more grass in the yard we probably would have had to till a large section to keep the weeds out, but Im glad there wasn't!

Garden day

Since the weather was so nice today we decided today would be our garden day. Our day started early, at a bit after eight. We headed out to Lowes and picked up 8 bags of organic compost and a bag of sand. We mixed our soil, and used the sand for our melon rows(watermelon and canteloupe) and carrot bin so they would have good drainage and the proper soil. After a long day(about seven hours) of composting, mounding, and mulching here is what we have as a start to our garden!!

Some garden tips learned: for melons and other hot weather plants place a black ground cover over your mounds then cut slits and plant your plants, on top of the ground cover place a nice layer of mulch to help keep in heat and moisture.

Give beans or cucumbers something to grow up! Place dowels at each end of the row and one in the middle, string garden twine across the bottom, middle, and top of the dowels giving your plants a good structure to vine up. Also, place some twine diagonally so they can grow up to the next level of string easily. You dont want to try this for heavier vegi's such as squash or melons because they will break off!!

Need a simple gardening website? There are plenty out there but this one I like because it is so simple and straightforward.