Money Spending

I think I've known this for a while, but I'm really going to try to do something about it this time, I swear. Ok, here it is. I spend money, I like to spend money and admittedly, I will sometimes spend more than I should on an item or while doing something, but I've also come to the realization that when money is tight I really, really want to spend even more. It's sick. I know that I shouldn't be buying something I really don't need or I definitely shouldn't be going out as much as I have been because things are tight and I have to use my stupid credit card more than I should, I just can't help it.

Why all this coming out now, you may ask. It's because I've been catching myself really looking at all the ad e-mails I get and the little nic-nak magazines and thinking hmmm what can I get and not even thinking what do I need. I'm even looking at items thinking, wow, I should by that for so-and-so, why? no reason, just because I think they'd like it. It's not their birthday or anniversary or any special occasion. Now, I know that this would be something nice to do for a person and they'd probably even feel really great when receiving it and I have done this on many different occassions. I just need to know that I cannot do that right now, when money is a little tight, but it's so hard. "Look at those adorable wine bottle stoppers." I was even wandering the aisles of the local hardware store trying to find stuff to buy, just because.

So, I'm really going to make an effort to watch it this time - no more debt will be my mantra. I will concentrate on thinking about buying the necessary things...
privacy fence
decking/pavers for back yard
new windows to replace the two original windows left in the house to help conserve energy
things for the housewarming party

I did breakdown and go to Costco over the weekend and get stuff, most of it I will say is stuff we needed, but did we really need so many of them? I don't know, but I loved spending the money - hehe - we now have plenty of sandwich bags at the house - I can go crazy with them and I won't run out.

Condo closing date set for April 4 - can't wait - need to go on shopping spree - haha - but it's good things I want to spend the money on - I want the perfect window for the house - more money than the basic looking one, but it will make the house look so much better and I'm going to fight for getting pavers/stone put in for our front walkway instead of getting in re-concreted. See I get to spend money, enjoy it and justify it - better resale value for whenever we move - like never...

Housewarming Party Invitation

Since we are very proud of our invitation to our housewarming party - which we are finally having a year after moving into our house - I wanted to post it. :-) A wonderful collaboration between the two of us - Jason's idea to do it as a movie poster, mine to use the pose and background (OK, maybe it's a little of a stretch) like the painting American Gothic, wording and quotes from both and my excellent work in PowerPoint and viola.

P.S. Condo sale going great! We should hopefully close on it on April 4.

Mother-in-Law Visit + Yardwork/Housework = Wonderful House

This past weekend was a good one. I was worried in my own way about Kathy, my mother-in-law, coming for a visit because I knew a lot of things needed to be done around the house in order for me to feel good about letting her in the door. Also, she has a lot of energy. She is constantly moving and doing things. I was trying to think of when I've really seen her relax and be lazy - I'd say NEVER :-) So very unlike me.

This weekend's visit was so that she could come up to our house and help with getting the front of the house's landscaping in order (done - almost complete). Me, not being the great work in the yard type of person, was a bit apprehensive about her visit and said to my husband that I would probably stick in house and do housework most of the time while he helped his mother. And, this is basically what happened.

Kathy arrived on Saturday morning around 11:00 a.m., her Highlander stuffed with pine nuggets, little bushes (not a fir, pine or evergreen to be seen - she had really listened to my disdain of such trees - hooray!), azalea plants, some pansies and garden tools. She was ready to go to work immediately. She edged and lined out three beds, planed the shrubs, azaleas, pansies (woo hoo - I actually helped plant a few of the pansies - mind you there were only about 8 of them - whew :-)) and artfully arranged the pine nuggets around all of the beds. This was all accomplished by about 6:00 p.m. Kathy and Jason did take a break around 2:30 where I provided them with hamburgers and hot dogs which I grilled and some french fries. Before heading to dinner we made a stop at the Home Depot for some more nuggets. By the time we arrived back home we were all ready for bed. Though we did watch a tv show before crashing. Kathy's mind going the whole time actually making lists of things that still needed to be done and what needed to be picked up on Sunday. I'm sure they were more tired then I, but I had done a bit of house work that day as well.

Up on Sunday by 9:30 (I know late for some people, but early for others (me)). I made us breakfast and then it was out in to the yard again for Jason and Kathy to spread more nuggets. Another quick trip to Home Depot and we were done at least for this weekend. We had a wonderful dinner with his mother and Aunt Maryanne to top things off.

The house is coming along. The front is looking nice. We still have a bit of work to do on the back - I'm thinking we can just deck a major portion of it - no? We have to be ready for our housewarming. Now, I just have to hope that I can keep the plants alive. I know it's weird to have all this worrying, but I'm not really good with this type of stuff. Though I was excited to help plant the pansies until I saw all the worms in the ground - yuk. I'm hoping that my veggie growing will be a success once I get the planters. We will see, we will see.

Tons of thanks to Kathy and can't wait for you to come back for a visit - perhaps we can teach you to just laze around :-)

Necessary or Unnecessary Purchase

I received (about two months ago) an advertisement for these planters called The Grow Box and I wanted to order some for our back yard so that I can grow vegetables in them. When I mentioned to Jason that I wanted to buy these he said no automatically and that we did not need them. He said "We have a yard now, you can grow things there - make a garden. Our neighbors have one in their yard." I pointed out to him that said neighbor has said that his garden is a bunch of work and that he has to work with the soil - adding composte and fertilizer, etc. to even obtain a proper soil for vegetable growing. Jason still nixed the idea. So, like a good wife I've put off buying them - until today.

I found the ad again recently and have decided I want to buy them. I like growing vegetables and prior to and through the first year of dating Jason I used to always grow tomato plants on my balcony at the condo and I enjoyed doing it and being able to eat the resulting tomatoes. I like vegetables a lot and I actually end up spending a bit of money of them during the summer months when they are fresher and for some reason I am more apt to buy them. So, I don't think this will be a waste of money. I just couldn't decide on what color to get them in - Terra Cotta or Green so I exchanged e-mails with Jason:

Me: Green or Terra Cotta
J: no
Me: Green or Terra Cotta
J: I said no
Me: Thanks for the input. Green it is.
J: We don't need it

That's where that ended and then came the phone call:
J: What are you buying?
Me: Something?
J: Well whatever it is we don't need it - especially if its something that comes in green or Terra Cotta.
Me: I want it. I'm getting it, I mean, it's already too late. I got it.
J: Well if that's the case then you should change it to Terra Cotta because if I would have picked Terra Cotta.
Me: Ok, I'll do that - it's those plant boxes by the way.
J: Didn't we discuss this already and I said it wasn't necessary
Me: Yes, but I want to grow vegetables
J: Fine, but I'm writing a letter about your unnecessary spending and I want you to post it on your blog.
Me: Fine

So, watch this space for the upcoming letter from Jason. I personally don't think that this is unnecessary spending. It'll save us money on vegetables which we can eat, I can give some to friends - who will adore me for it - and it will give me something to do that is outdoorsy :-) If I don't use them, then they'll be unnecessary. I'll let everyone know - if I'm still blogging by that time...

Fullfilling weekend?

I have to say, I had a pretty productive weekend or really Sunday as I spent a lot of time on Saturday recovering from the fun on Friday at the Irish Channel. The only big bummer was not being able to go see my sister and her kids when they were up at our parents house on Sunday because I knew that if I took a break I wouldn't get back into the swing of things when I returned. Now, it took me most of Sunday to accomplish what I did, but that's because I took my time and plodded along. Everything I did had to be done, but would I have been such a stickler to get it all done normally - Nope. What was the driving force? It was the biggest driving force one could have - my mother-in-law is coming to visit us next week. Wonderful woman, glad to have her come and visit but there is no way I could have her in our house in the condition that it was. She actually probably has some idea since she knows her son, but I still don't feel comfortable having her know that I get tired of it all and the house suffers.

Now, I'm not saying that if I lived by myself that my house would be spotless, but it would definitely be in better shape than it is. Anyways, it is always easier to clean up after yourself than to have to clean up after more than yourself - if that makes sense. The sad thing is is that my husband just seems to create mess where ever he goes. He's not doing it deliberately but he just doesn't think sometimes (most of the times) about carrying through with an action - if you're opening up a new gallon of milk and you remove the plastic piece which secures the lid don't just place it on the counter, the top of the pantry or better yet in your pants pocket, put it in the trash - especially because when he is doing this he is standing literally 2 feet from the trash can.

Ok, ok, I'm getting too deep into this... I did laundry (loads and loads), went through weeks of mail - the junk mail and shredding all the credit card offers and other pertinent stuff to avoid theft identity, etc., picked up the place, took down the X-mas ornaments from the tree (yes we still had it up - didn't I say we are lazy) and boxed them up, vacuumed, washed dishes, helped take down the tree, helped store the tree and decorations in the attic/crawl space, took the trash out, cleaned the toilet, let the dogs in and out, in and out, played with them, made sure they didn't feel neglected, etc. etc. etc. So, basically a pretty full day.

He ran a few errands - spent about an hour at Kmart buying different things - I think that he originally just went for a belt and a tote for me to put X-mas items in and finally arrives home ($90 later), helps take the tree down, helps store the decorations and vacuums our bedroom and he's exhausted, has to go to bed early.

Now, I appreciate his help with everything don't get me wrong, but I think that it is funny that he thinks he has done so much more than he actually has. When I said that my back hurt because of all that I had been doing, he looked at me and was like well I've done a lot to - I've helped. Which is very true, I just was stating a fact that my back hurt, I wasn't accusing him of not helping. It has been my experience that when guys do something around the house, they need it acknowledged "oh wow honey you emptied the dishwasher. that's great." It doesn't matter that he emptied it once during the week, while I've emptied it every other time. I just know that I didn't get any praise and I didn't have to be asked to do it. I just did it.

You know, I have no idea where I'm going with this post, so I am just going to end it and definitely chalk it up to a wild rambling while on a quick break at work.

P.S. He never did bring in all the bags from Kmart - I wonder what he spent all that money on?? Probably some stuff that wasn't needed, will take up space around the house and I'll have to clean eventually. But I love him!!

P.S.S. I do have to admit that I probably would have spend just as much or maybe even more, but I probably would have done it at Target, but could do it at Kmart, or even CVS or the Supermarket. And, it wouldn't have been on clothes, just on little nic-nacs. I get lost in those stores sometimes and just can't help myself from spending money or too much time. It gets so bad that he won't let me go unsupervised sometimes, just so I don't spend an hour in there when I really and truly am only going in for one item and I actually only do buy the one item - can't understand why I need to spend an hour just looking at everything.

I can relate to most of these....

Received an e-mail with this list in it and thought I'd post it as I can relate to many of them though I don't think I think these with as much attitude. And, I have to say I'm guilty of having done #9 - it really is a stupid question to ask - duh.

9 Things I Hate About Everyone

1. People who point at their wrist while asking for the time..... I know where my watch is pal, where the hell is yours? Do I point at my crotch when I ask where the toilet is?

2 People who are willing to get off their ass to search the entire room for the
T.V.. remote because they refuse to walk to the T.V. and change the channel manually.

3 When people say 'Oh you just want to have your cake and eat it too'. Damn right! What good is cake if you can't eat it?

4 When people say 'it's always the last place you look'. Of course it is. Why the hell would you keep looking after you've found it? Do people do this? Who and where are they? Gonna Kick their asses!

5 When people say while watching a film 'did you see that?'. No Loser, I paid $12 to come to the cinema and stare at the damn floor.

6 People who ask 'Can I ask you a question?'.... Didn't really give me a choice there, did ya sunshine?

7. When something is 'new and improved!'. Which is it? If it's new, then there has never been anything before it. If it's an improvement, then there must have been something before it, couldn't be new.

8 When people say 'life is short'. What the hell?? Life is the longest damn thing anyone ever does!! What can you do that's longer?

9 When you are waiting for the bus and someone asks 'Has the bus come yet?'. If the bus came would I be standing here, dumbass?

Update on Condo Sale

The open house this past weekend went great! We had a lot of interest and we have been meeting with our realtor's to discuss the 3 or was it 4 offers which have come through. This includes the first guy who after our counteroffer originally did not want to change his original offer at all. His tune changed once he realized we were waiting to see what other's were offering. We have just sent a counteroffer to another guy, so we are waiting to get back the ratified contract - we have a verbal agreement at this time. You can tell it's definitely a buyer's market since we are already at a really low price (and I mean really low) for our area and he was still trying to beat us down - dickering over what would amount to him about $7.50 a month over his 30 year mortgage. Jason really wanted to tell this guy to go take a hike, but the realtor and I really liked the fact that he was coming in with a conventional mortgage and not a VA like the other 3 offers.

There was this one lady who we actually met at the open house and she was really interested in the condo and we were presented with a great offer and if it had been a conventional loan and not VA, we would have totally gone with her - a) because it was a great offer and b) we really liked her and would have like to see her move into our house. The thing with the VA loans is that the VA is really stringent on their appraisals and sometimes with a conventional you can get a little more lee-way and given the way the market is falling, our realtor did not think we would be able to have the condo appraise for what she was offering.

We are still selling under what everyone else is selling for, under our asking price and even under what our property was tax assessed for - sucks. It just really gets me that this has to come down to this because of all the stupidity that was allowed to go on in the past where sellers were allowed to ask for almost whatever they wanted and people who shouldn't have been approved for outrageous amounts were. This is now bringing the market way way down because of all the stupid buyers who bought places when they should not have been buying them. I don't' care that they were approved for that amount of money, where was their common sense - hmmm, I make this much a month and they want this much in mortgage, plus, duh, I have to still pay utilities, get back and forth to work and eat - yeah, all my paycheck can go towards just the mortgage - I will not have any emergencies come up, my car won't break down unexpectedly or anything like that. I really do blame the buyers as much as I blame the shoddy work ethics of the loan people who processed and approved their loans. Now people who need or want to sell are being forced to sell at under appreciated prices, because there is so many foreclosures and a glut of houses on the market. I find it funny that the government is only just now stepping in - they should have been stepping in way before this - what were they making money hand over fist just as well - probably. It sucks further because all these stupid asses (buyers) are getting help with their mortgages so they don't foreclose. People like me aren't getting helped, we are getting screwed - can you tell I feel strongly about this :-)

I guess some of this goes towards the fact that while we just bought a new house last year and it was heading to a buyers market not a sellers, we did not screw the people who were selling their place. We asked for reasonable things while giving their asking price. We did not try to screw them over, we could tell that they took good care of their house, etc. Maybe, we should have screwed them, but I'm glad we didn't two wrongs don't make a right and I feel good about our house buying experience. Though I can't say the same for Jason - lol - he is so mad at this guy's dickering that he has said he's taking out of the house everything that he can that's not conveying over - he says he's taking out every single light bulb out of the house. lol - i can't wait to see if this happens.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to finally having this over. I can't wait to have this extra money every month with not paying the two mortgages - though it just needs to got to the bills which have started to accumulate trying to keep up the two households.

So, please continue to keep fingers crossed that all goes well and we close soon.