New Neighbors and Money Woes

Woke up this morning and had breakfast, then actually cleared off my desk. I am going to try to get in the habit of going through the mail every day. I tend to let it pile up. The most frustrating thing is that it is mostly student loan and credit card offers, so you spend time going through it, and it is pretty much useless.

After going through the mail, Meg and I talked about going out for lunch, but I wasn't sure if we had the money for it. So, I took all of our recent receipts (this I do about once a week), and put them all into Microsoft Money. Another part of my weekly "money stuff" as I call it is printing up a report of our spending by category (gas, food, bills, etc.) and plugging them into a spreadsheet budget. After doing this, I found out that we were already pretty much over in expenses for the month, and that had us both kind of bummed...

We have always tried sticking to a budget, and we do it for the most part. But, it definitely is not fun. I feel like I am constantly making a big deal about little things. For example, I was upset to see that we had already spent $550 on groceries this month. And we still have one shopping trip left. Our budget was $500 for the month. I don't really know how to cut back much more. We do all of our shopping at the Wal-Mart Super Center, which has really good grocery prices. We make a meal plan, and a list, and stick to it. We don't impulse buy. Besides groceries, we do a lot of other things well. We hardly eat out. Maybe once a week, if we are lucky. We have recently given up on those extra Wawa runs for a snack. We $0 budgeted for entertainment, and very little for travel. If we do something fun, it is because we have a gift card, or it is free. We worry about whether to have people over for a get-together, because it will blow our grocery budget.

So for a while, Meg and I were quite bummed, but then I started to thing about some GOOD things that we do, that other people don't. First off, we have never not paid a bill, ever. I always make sure there is money to pay the bills before anything else. We do have a lot of debt, between student loans, my car, the mortgage, and the ONE credit card we occasionally use, but I make sure to always make payments on those too. I know of people who can't do this. They skip bills, or don't even bother to open them. They pay credit card bills with other credit cards. And you don't see it, but I wonder if these are the same people who eat out every day for lunch, stop at Wawa or Dunkin Donuts, or Starbucks or wherever on their way home from work, and go on vacations, and the movies, and concerts and other stuff. Of course there's no way to prove it, but we must be doing something right if all the bills get paid, even if it means having less fun. Meg pointed out further that we are very lucky, here it is that we get two months of the year off, essentially paid (if you divert some of your income during the other 10 months). So all of these things made me feel a little better. We found some burgers for lunch, which were yummy, and then moved on to our entertainment for the day... getting haircuts.

Actually, this is one of my least favorite things to do. I tend to put it off, but Meg really wanted to get hers done, and I said I would go with her. I feel awkward having a stranger cut my hair. You either get a stylist who doesn't say all but two words, or you get the ones that feel pressured to talk, and then you get in the same old conversations as usual. "Where do you work?" "Do you have any kids?" "What do you teach?" "When's the baby due?" etc. Not that I have a problem revealing these things to complete strangers (I do blog, don't I?), but it just seems weird.

Anyway, we both got our hairs cut, and we both look good (Meg especially!). We went to Wal-Mart and picked up a prescription, then went to Home Depot to buy a ceiling fan and inquire about their carpet installation service, and then came home.

Meg and Max went for a swim, I started my sauce. Was a little nervous about the meat for the meatballs. It just didn't smell right to me, but I figured I was imagining things and used it anyway. The meatballs did turn out okay. While cooking the sauce (once you get it started, you have to stir it every 15 minutes for two hours), I installed the ceiling fan. After Meg got out of the pool, she baked some cookies to take to our new neighbors...

They seem pretty nice, or "he" in this case, as we only met the husband. It's a husband and wife, and they have a 3 year old girl, and a newborn boy. When I first saw the guy moving in (hey, I'm nosy), I was a little scared. He was very big and muscular, and looked like the kind of guy not to cross. But, we haven't had neighbors yet that we got along well with, so we decided to be friendly and bold and make an approach. He was actually very nice, though was busy painting. He told us about his wife and two kids, and thanked us for the cookies. They haven't officially moved in yet, as they are still painting and stuff. Hopefully they will remain good neighbors, as we were happy to see the last ones go. I know I will come off sounding like an old man here, but they were very noisy. Between the car stereo and their two dogs, it was rarely quiet. Plus, our bedroom window is right by their driveway, making the noise problem worse. The wife there was usually friendly, but her husband was basically a freeloader who rarely helped with anything, and was unfriendly as anything. When we moved in last year, I introduced myself to him, and he pretty much blew me off for some reason. Whatever, they're gone now. I have a good feeling about the new neighbors.

After dinner, I removed the tape from around the trim in the nursery. I didn't take any pictures tonight, as not much as changed. We hope to do more with the border tomorrow, so I will have pictures in my next post. Meg and I laid on the floor, and stared up at the "starry sky" for a while and talked baby stuff. I am actually going to try to get to bed early tonight, as Empire Carpet is coming at 9 tomorrow to give us a quote. Good night!