That's Not Good Enough!

Week 8 in Financial Peace University, which is all about finding good deals, is titled "That's not Good Enough!" It's funny how as you find better and better deals, what you consider to be a good enough price becomes lower and lower. $10 for a pair of jeans? Not bad, but after the deals we found this weekend, I'm not sure that will be good enough anymore.

 

We got this dress shirt, sweater, and jeans all for less than $5! 

Here's how:

Jeans (from Target)
Original Price: $24.99
Sale price: $6.24
Used a Target printable coupon for $5 off women's denim item
Final cost for jeans: $1.24


Then Nathan and I went to Kohl's as part of our date night (what a good husband!).
Dress Shirt
Original price: $38.00
Sale price: $7.60

Sweater
Original price: $30.00
Sale price: $6.00

Used postcard I received in the mail for $10 off any purchase
Received an extra 15% off
Final cost for dress shirt and sweater: $3.06


$93 worth of clothes for $4.30...That's good enough for me. I know opportunities like this might not happen very often, but just knowing that they happen at all is very exciting!

Recipe Photos / My Photos

Isn't it great when you find a recipe that looks both amazing and so easy that you couldn't possibly mess it up? That's what I thought when I saw this recipe for biscuit and egg cups. They did actually taste great, but they sure didn't look like the pictures!

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

I really did flatten the biscuits before I put them in the muffin pan! I think I just tend to underestimate how much the biscuits will rise. It looks like this is another recipe where Grands just won't work, but I still plan on trying it again with smaller biscuits.

Dreaming of Summer

 
I honestly enjoy all four seasons, but there comes a time each winter when I'm absolutely sick of it and ready for some warm weather!

And after my car freezing to the ground at the beginning this month and the teaser of nice weather we had a few days last week, that time has come a little earlier than normal. For a few days I refused to wear my winter coat, but I decided that was a little crazy when it's snowing.

So let's talk warm weather. Between the wedding planning and moving and getting settled last summer, I didn't have time to enjoy the weather as much as I would have liked. This year, Nathan is finishing his MBA in the middle of June and taking two months off from school before working on a couple graduate certificates. In other words, we'll actually have lots of free time!

Here are a few things I'm looking forward to doing...
...Eating on the balcony
...Walking outside without a coat
...Taking long walks with Nenya
...Going camping
...Not scraping frost off my windshield
...Wearing flip-flops
...Getting a bike and going on rides with Nathan
...Visiting some parks (We haven't even explored much of the park where we were married)
...Digging my pretty skirts out from the back of my closet
...Walking places - to the library, to an ice cream shop with Nathan, wherever

 And a few of Nathan's summer plans that don't directly involve me...
...Taking a swimming and/or first aid class
...Doing some training for local triathalons
...Finding an agility course for Nenya

How about you? What are you looking forward to doing when weather is warmer?

Married Filing Jointy

It was interesting to see what happens when five W2's, tuition payments, an HSA, interest from multiple bank accounts, and two 401(k) contributions come together, especially when the two people combining them were living in different states at the beginning of 2010.

We each had a different approach to filling out the paperwork, much like our different approaches to grocery shopping. While I like zooming through the store with my ordered list and getting out of there as soon as possible, Nathan prefers to go down every aisle to make sure he doesn't forget anything and is likely to get distracted by cookware or the goldfish. So when I started zooming through the tax form, Nathan wanted me to slow down so he could carefully examine every line. It was just too much for my type A personality, but rather than doing it myself, I let Nathan take over, which worked out well. My speedy method might be great for preventing impulse buys, but the extra time Nathan spent on our tax retun helped him discover a much larger refund than I would have found myself.

I love how we complement each other like that.

Being a Good Wife

Three words I love to hear while cooking dinner are "Something smells good!" Last night, what I heard was "Something smells funky!" Needless to say, it wasn't the best meal I'd ever cooked. And after spending the weekend out of town and having a date night on Monday, I was also way behind on my cleaning.

I wasn't feeling like a very good wife.

I looked at all of the empty boxes on my check list, trying to decide where to begin, before finally sitting down next to Nathan on the love seat to read a magazine while he studied. Although sometimes I feel like a failure if I relax, I realized relaxing with my husband would be just the opposite.

"And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." - Genesis 2:18

A help meet...an assistant...someone to help with all the work that needed to be done in that garden...that's how I've always thought about this passage. But I think it's important to remember the first part of this verse: It is not good that the man should be alone. I don't know about Adam, but I know that Nathan cares a lot more about the time I spend talking to him and just being with him than the time I spend doing chores. He just wants a companion, someone to keep him from being alone.

Early in our relationship, Nathan and I read The 5 Love Needs of Men and Women by Gary and Barbara Rosberg. According to their research, companionship is a man's third biggest need from his wife, right behind unconditional love and sexual intimacy. Nathan ranked it fifth among the list of twenty options, and he put domestic help as #19!

Maybe the "perfect wife" is an expert chef who has a spotless home, but I need to quit trying to be her and just be Nathan's wife.