A Nice Relaxing Weekend

Our babies on four legs...

 Our new baby on four wheels...

Sorry, it was dark when I took the picture

We went to see Fiddler on the Roof at the Murat with Kyle's parents on Friday. It was a great performance. It's an excellent musical if you haven't ever seen it. And I didn't fall asleep during it (like I do when watching the movie).

The rest of the weekend we spent hanging out with Steve and Susan (Kyle's parents). We checked out their new house. Picked out an outfit for Lucy to wear home from the hospital. Picked up our new car. Watched college basketball. 

It seems like we usually see Steve and Susan for a few hours and then head back home. It was nice spending a longer time with them.

Our Poor Man's March Totals:

Dog Food: $10.30 (I had some coupons and a left over gift card)

Popcorn and Soda - $2

Soda and Water - $6

Gift - $12

Contact Solution - $13

Red Box - $1.28

Grocery Store - $6.48

Fast Food Totals: Michelle - 2, Kyle - 2

I checked our credit card bill this morning. Holy moly, it was low :) I actually don't remember it ever being so low. The only other things on it was our phone bill and gas for our cars (which wasn't very high, since we haven't been traveling much).

This week I may get to sneak in a few extra "free" Starbucks trips too (Thank you, Christine Lynn!)

P.S. for the last few days, I haven't been able to get this out of my head:

"If I were a rich man,
Yubby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dum."  

Hopefully Lucy enjoys that song, since I'm constantly singing it, and she has no choice but to listen. I should probably learn a few more lines to make it more interesting for her...

P.S.S.  We decided that maybe Kyle will drive the new car and I'll drive the mazda3. Parking the Xterra in a busy parking lot was quite humorous. Though, I think the cars around me were getting quite annoyed. I felt like I kept backing up and doing the same thing over and over again. I felt like I was parking a school bus... or at least a minivan! Now I know why they have you just leave the vehicle out front after the test drive, instead of having you try to maneuver it into a tiny parking spot. Sheesh!

Poor Man's March = Epic Fail and 32 week milestone

Well... we decided that we’re not going to buy an ipad 2. That’s because we bought a Nissan Xterra instead.

It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles as the Xterra we were originally looking at, but this one was much closer to our budget. We pick it up on Saturday (we'll post pictures this weekend). After months of looking, we can finally check “buy a new car” off our to-do list. We’ll add “make car payment” to the list in its place. Those few months of driving free were fun.

 

In other news, Lucy is the size of another type of squash, weighing in at 3 pounds. My sister has been waiting for today. Some days she works in the NICU and terms babies "feeder babies" once they make it to 32 weeks. Meaning that even if Lucy were born now, she'd most likely only need to be fed to build up body mass, and probably wouldn't need major surgeries to be kept alive.

Super excited to pick up our new ride this weekend.

We'll continue to practice Poor Mans March, despite this one minor setback...

Day 222

Either I've got it good or some pregnant women complain... A LOT. 

Kyle and I attended our first childbirth class at Union Hospital last night. The instructor started by having the women list their symptoms, and the list went on, and on, and on...
and on...
and on. Luckily Lucy hasn't been giving me too much trouble. The class was informative and goes on for 6 more Tuesdays (only 5 more for Kyle, since he will probably skip the breast feeding class). The instructor had a fake baby that was the size of a baby born at 28-30 weeks, he was way too tiny. We decided that Lucy needs to cook for at least another 7 or 8 weeks. I telepathically sent her the memo.

I've been feeling much better and am finally over whatever it was that I had the last few weeks.

Poor Man's March has been... trying. I've used up one fast food credit. I also cheated this morning and stopped at Starbucks. Then I convinced Kyle to stop too, so I didn't feel so bad. We had to buy the dogs food (I think they might be our  largest expense after restaurants!) We've done well at cooking at home, using up items in our pantry/freezer and eating left overs. I've been tempted to buy some things, but I've banked them in the back of my head as "things to buy on April 1st". Hopefully by April 1st I'll have either forgotten about them or realized that we don't really need them.

Tonight we're going to go to Indy to look at a few Nissan Xterras. Every time we find a car we like, it sells before we can even go look at it. This time we're not dilly dallying around. Hopefully we find something we like at a reasonable price.

Poor Man's March

No, we're not striking, or joining any occupy movement.

On Thursday March 1st, Kyle and I will begin what we've termed: “Poor Man’s March”. We are going to see how little we can spend throughout the month of March.

That is why before Thursday, I plan to do a whole lotta shopping and rack up a whole lotta credit card debt (just kidding). *Side note: One of Kyle’s pet peeves is when people eat horribly the week before they start a diet. Similarly, spending a lot of money before a spending-fast

Instead of calling it "saving money" we're opting for the term "not spending money"

Here are some ways that we’re planning on not spending money this month:

1. When analyzing our credit card bills, the majority of our money goes towards food. So we’re starting with this rule: No sit down restaurants for the whole month (unless of course someone else is buying)

2. Fast food only four times throughout the entire month.

3. Use our gift cards. We still have a Q’doba gift card and 2 subs worth of a Jimmy John’s gift card. That’s two extra meals this month that won’t show up on our credit card.

4. Starbucks on Saturdays only. This is actually very cheap entertainment for us. We each get a coffee, and I print out a USA Today crossword online, and we spend an hour or two sipping our coffee, chatting, and completing a crossword together. This is one activity we hope to someday enjoy when we're retired (but on a daily basis).

5. Eating freezer and pantry food – You’d be amazed how much food we have stocked away that we just haven’t eaten yet

6. Eat leftovers. How many times have we thrown out an entire meal of good food?!? Not happening this March!

7. Set a menu. We do better when we set a menu. It prevents us from stopping at Subway or BWW. We're thinking a healthy menu too.

8. Go in to work one hour earlier. If I go into work an hour earlier, I leave an hour earlier. This gives me more time to start on cooking those delicious home-cooked dinners.

9. No alcohol. This has obviously been a given for me. I haven’t had a drink since Ireland. However, this means no beer purchases for Kyle too. Let’s just call it a 31 day sympathy detox. Though, he is allowed to finish the 3 beers left in the fridge.

10. DIY haircut. We do this anyways. I enjoy cutting Kyle’s hair, and I’ve gotten better and quicker at it. An added plus: he doesn’t have to schedule an appointment or spend the time to go to the barber.

11. Cheap and productive entertainment. Like fertilizing our lawn, bathing the dogs, fixing up things that we already have the supplies to fix.

12. No shopping (in stores or online). Yep, I won’t be buying a thing. No matter how cute or what a great deal it is.

*One exception: If the i pad 3 comes out in March and they drop the price on the i pad 2, we may be purchasing an i pad 2 for Kyle

To Car or Not to Car...

I bought the TT back in 2006 and double paid my car payments. I had it paid off in about 2 ½ years. For a while I was car payment free.

When I took my job in Terre Haute, we purchased a Mazda3 and Kyle started driving the Audi; and the car payments started again. A few weeks ago, we sold the Audi, paid off the Mazda3 and eliminated our car payment. My parents have been lending us the Miata until we buy our next car.

Quick storyline: I bought the Miata when I first graduated college, I then flipped it into a swamp and State Farm totaled the vehicle. My dad bought the car off of State Farm for a reduced rate, fixed it up, and got it running again. Mom and Dad said we can borrow the Miata for as long as we want... (My parents are totally cool!)

We sold the Audi so we could purchase a  "family car". You know, one of those super nice, 4WD, all leather, luxury SUVs with the never used headlights on the top. We’ve had our eyes on this:

 

A brand new Nissan Xterra. Yet, Kyle's still driving the Miata. Why? Because every time I think we're ready to go take on another huge car loan, I watch this video: 

Here's a direct link to the video: http://www.daveramsey.com/media/flash/elearning/drive-free/player.html

Every time I watch that video,  I keep thinking, "maybe we could get by without the fancy schmancy SUV for just a few more months"