Life Lately

Things have been crazy! It got me thinking... how do you keep your marriage going when the two of you are on completely different schedules?

Let me explain. The wonderful hubs has started working nights 4 nights a week until he finds a full time permanent gig. I am so thankful that he has chosen to help support us this way and it is wonderful that he is able to. While he's been working nights, he also decided to continue to work temp jobs. The past few weeks he's been working this temp job that has an hour and a half commute as well as working the night shift. Now, if that's not enough, throw in continuing to attend church and small group, while balancing family life. He is pretty busy. I love him so much!

Now, while the hubs is busy with all of that, I am working a full time job teaching, tutoring two different kids outside of school, doing grad school, and taking care of the house, all while trying to spend time with the hubs.

A few weeks ago, I decided, mostly after picking up Fridays We're In Love, (where a young wife writes about dating her husband) that we need a date night. I know the hubs has wanted to find time for us to be together and focus on our relationship, as we're still newlyweds and readjusting to living together again, so, next we had to decide what day to have date night...  This actually came pretty easy as he works four nights a week, and I tutor 2 nights a week and we have small group one night a week. We picked the one day we both were free.

Last week was our first date night. It was my night to plan so I decided we would go classy. I chose to make shrimp scampi (I had two packages of Campbell's Skillet Sauces, you will want two).

So, I decided to cook some shrimp, make some spaghetti, and toss a salad. When I got home from work, the hubs had a surprise for me. After a short scavenger hunt, I came upon 2 cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake! So good!

So, I made the hubs set the table before I started cooking as I had to get our activity ready. I decided that we would ask each other questions that I found online, mostly fun questions for couples. This turned out to be pretty great. I found a cute mason jar, decorated it, cut the questions into strips and stuck them in the jar.

We ate dinner and just enjoyed being with each other. It was nice to just sit an enjoy a meal together. After dinner we spread a blanket out on the floor, sat down with some candlelight and dove into the questions. This was my favorite part of the evening. It was nice to sit and be able to just have a conversation about life.

What do you do to keep your marriage fresh? Any fun, cheap ideas for date night?

Saving Diva

Since I got married 2 years ago,  I have become a self proclaimed saving diva. Now, don't expect that I am going to write about how to save hundreds of dollars a year and be one of those crazy extreme couponers. I just like to save money. Perhaps its become more important since the hubs is no longer a full-time employee.

A little background on that... We got married and moved to Maryland with no jobs. I know, looking back it was kind of crazy. Well, I was hired on as a teacher after about a month while the hubs continued to be unemployed. He did temp jobs and some private contracting but no luck finding a full-time permanent gig. Then, he was offered a position on a political campaign in January.  The kicker? The job was in Massachusetts. I know, being newlyweds this sounded.... um... great? Well, not exactly and it didn't make sense for me to relocate with the hubs as this job was temporary, so thus started our 11 month separation.

While we were both unemployed, I got pretty coupon savvy. I mean, to the point where I stock piled toiletries and have not paid full price since we got married. Most of the soap, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, even laundry detergent, has been free or a few cents. Then the hubs went away to work and I got all the money sent home to me... I got pretty good at spending. This is when I decided to start graduate school. Let the bills start flowing!

When the political hoopla was over, in November, the hubs arrived back home. This is when he started, yet again, his search for full time employment. Well, now we had student loan payments, graduate school, savings, life all happening. Couponing and saving started again.

SO, with ALL of that said, here's how I do it. (Keep in mind I am not a magician nor do I think I do this the best possible way. All I can tell you is that this works for me.)

1. I buy my meat at Costco and freeze it. I only make a trip to Costco about once every 2 to 3 months. But, the quality of meat is worth it for the price.

2. I clip coupons whenever I remember. Really, the best way to do this is to follow Hip2Save. This woman, Collin, posts deals and tells you what coupons you need to get the best deal. I use this for Target trips and when I need to buy toiletries. This is how I get almost free and free stuff.

3. I take advantage of sales at the grocery store and do not buy out of season or processed stuff if at all possible. I have found ways to make homemade english muffins and all kinds of other things, thank you Pintrest!

4. I cook and freeze. This means that yes, I do cook a new meal almost every night (I HATE leftovers). And then we have food to eat either for lunches or I freeze things. I have frozen anything from soup to lasagna. If only I had a deep freezer.... yes, my freezer looks crazy and has things JAMMED in there... it happens though and we make it work.

5. We don't go out... and I mean we don't eat out, or buy fast food, I have even given up Starbucks... I know, for some this sounds crazy but it means having more money to pay the bills.

6. We make a budget. Perhaps this should be number one since it is what dictates where all of our money goes for the month. In January, we did Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. This was eye opening and really taught us some great tips on how to be smart with money. I STRONGLY suggest looking into it. Yes, he is a Christian and yes, he teaches about money with a Christian perspective. BUT (and this is a J-Lo BUT as the hubs would say), he provides really great information about how to handle money from day to day life all the way to saving for retirement. We learned SO much.

I think these are all the money saving tips I've got but I'm sure I will come up with more. I got a sewing machine for Christmas so I am trying, somewhat unsuccessfully, to make some clothes of my own and revamp some thrift store finds...