I may be transferring over to blogger this weekend. If I do, I will let you know with a link.
Blog.com is so slow, and I waste so much time waiting for the site, between error messages and just waiting for things to upload. So, I am a bit frustrated.
What do you use? Do you recommend it?
“Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.”
~Dale Carnegie
Jeff Yeager The Ultimate CHEAPSKATE’S ROAD MAP TO TRUE RICHES
In Jim Yeager’s book, The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Road Map to True Riches, he states that earlier in his marriage he had it in his mind that if he made $40,000/year, he would be “set.” He states that while he had a mortgage payment, he and his wife were actually living off of this $40,000/year comfortably and saving the rest of their combined income. Now that the mortgage is paid off, they live on approximately $30,000/year.
My question to you is, how much could you comfortably live on?
For us, we are currently living on approximately $45,000/year. We had 3 debts at the beginning of 2010 that totaled $25,120.85. We currently owe $14,377.10 and moving in the right direction! Once our debts are paid off (freeing up $800/month in payments!), I am pretty confident we could live off of $35,000/year. Once the mortgage is paid off, $30,000 should be a comfortable number for us. To clarify, I am referring to $30,000/year gross, not net.
How would we do it? I hate to admit this, but our debt is our biggest money leach. Second would be our utilities (though we are trying to cut back.) Third would be our mortgage & property tax (we do not have an escrow account). Fourth would be “the farm.”
What are your “money leaches?”
This morning has been a great morning.
I woke up at 5:30 to the puppy (Lana) wimpering in her cage because she had to go potty. Shortly after, Todd woke up and joined us in the family room. I made breakfast when I heard Todd’s belly grumbling. Ham, egg substitute & cheese on english muffins with OJ. Yum!
Afterwards, I decided to take Lana for our daily walk around the block (1.25 miles!). Even though she’s not even 4 months old , she is really doing great with walking since we got her new leash. It is a time for her to get her puppy energy out and for me to get my exercise in!
When we got home, I remembered that I hadnt picked red raspberries from our bushes in a couple of days. I picked a large bowl-full of berries. Then I went inside and started making some red raspberry muffins. While the muffins where in the oven, I decided to FINALLY put away my clean laundry from the past two weeks. Todd has been asking “where are all the laundry baskets? ” Well, I had 2 of them full of clean clothes, one of them is in the laundry room full of Todd’s clean clothes, and one of them was holding Christmas gifts I’ve purchased and I have to put in the Christmas closet.
So, as the muffins were baking, I decided to put away my clothes. You know, it took me less than 20 minutes to do two full baskets. Why cant I just do it when they are taken off the line? Why do they have to sit there for a week or two before I get to them?
My closet doors are now closed for the first time in two weeks and no more baskets of clothes hanging out everywhere. And it is time to sit down and read… it’s only 9 AM and I got all of this stuff I’ve wanted to get done – done!
I’m in a cooking mood lately. I’m thinking homemade pizza for lunch, watch football with hubby (I dont really like football, but I am going to try to share this pasttime with him), and have a good time with our little furry family.
Simple Sundays - I love them.
The picture shown above was taken July 4, 2009 with my niece, Annabelle.
I originally thought I did not want to use our names in the blog but what the heck. Why not. I am going to abbreviate my name because it has a different spelling (thanks mom!), and I would prefer to keep my personal life personal from the hundreds I work with across the country in my occupation.
So, hello, my name is Meg. My husband’s name is Todd. I thought it may be nice to introduce ourselves and let you know how we met and how our relationship has evolved to what it is today.
Todd and I met online at www.plentyoffish.com. When I read his profile, I felt we had a lot in common and I could relate to him. I messaged him in December of 2005 and we’ve been talking ever since. Actually, that’s not true. He never responded back to my original message, so I messaged him again. Today, he says that he thought I was “a little crazy,” but he messaged me back! We met face-to-face approximately a month later in January..
Within 6 months of meeting, Todd took me to Niagara Falls as a surprise for an evening and proposed after dinner in a beautiful suite at the Red Coach Inn.
This is the living room of the suite. Afterwards, we decided to take a walk by the Falls (we had a view of the Falls from our suite, but we wanted to go enjoy the July evening.) We were walking around and enjoying the sights when fireworks went off! It was incredible. Apparently, during the summer, Niagara Falls has free fireworks for everyone to see on Friday and Saturday evenings. We had so much fun and a lot of great memories there.
We decided that we wanted a small wedding. I am not really a girly-girl. I cannot honestly say that I had dreamed of my wedding as a little girl. Todd and I are both very family oriented so we decided that we wanted a wedding with immediate family only. We also enjoy “Amish Country.” Where we live, there are quite a few areas that have a predominant Amish population, one of them being Berlin, OH or Holmes County. My mother found this bed & breakfast called Hannah’s House. When we went to go view the property, we knew instantly that this is where we wanted to get married: outside on the back patio in front of the rock waterfall.
We got married on Thursday, May 3rd, 2007. Why Thursday? Because I always liked May 2nd or 3rd, and our flight for our honeymoon left Friday afternoon! Todd and I were both late to our own wedding…but we figured they couldn’t start without us.
We had 9 guests at our wedding. My brother, who is a Marine, made it from California and surprised me by wearing his dress blues. That in and of itself brought tears to my eyes. My only surviving grandparent, my grandmother (from my father’s side) was there, my father and his wife, my mother and her husband, my brother and his wife, and Todd’s parents.
We decided to make our own dinner as well. Even though my parents are divorced, it was nice having everyone all together at the dinner table laughing and having a great time with one another. Everyone had their own separate room for the evening – and we woke up and had breakfast together as a family the next morning. It was absolutely perfect for us.
The honeymoon was a cruise to Alaska. Todd was in the Navy many years ago, and has been to quite a few places around the world. I wanted a once in a lifetime honeymoon (within the budget!) Well, the Alaskan Cruise was just that! We had am amazing time and we cant wait to go back again one day. OK, so maybe it’s a twice in a lifetime place to see!
I will not sit here and say that our marriage has been all roses the past 3 ½ years. We have been through a lot as a couple. With the help of a mediator (our counselor) and a lot of hard work and perseverance, we are getting to where we want to be in this relationship. I am being forced to learn the meaning of “compromise.”
Advice and tips are always appreciated.
Did you know that bananas can be frozen? Peel them while they are ripe (not brown, but like a normal banana) and freeze them in a container. I do this so that when I’m cooking and I dont want to use an egg, I take one frozen banana out of the container, nuke it for 30 – 45 seconds in the microwave, and voila! Super-simple and very healthy!
This quote is from Jeff Yeager in his book, The Ultimate CHEAPSKATE’S ROAD MAP TO RICHES.
“…if time is money, then money is time. Ergo, spend less money and you’ll have more time. More time to do more, see more, be more. More time to have more experiences.”
I couldnt agree more!
Cold day, cold without you,
Ice hanging from the eaves like teeth
And the sun riding out of town before I changed
Out of my pajamas. To get warm, I opened a can
Of alphabet soup, got it boiling.
And poured it into a bowl. The bowl was warm
As your hand. I liked that, steam curling
As I carefully carried it to the table.
I drank from the lip of the bowl,
And used a chopstick to form I love you
From theh tangle of floating letters.
I drank that sentence and began to glow.
I love this recipe because it’s so simple! I prepare it the night before and cook it in the morning before work. When hubby and I get home from work, I nuke it and voila!
In medium bowl, combine ricotta cheese, cream cheese, egg, and 1 cup Parmesan cheese. Beat until blended. Stir in thawed spinach.
Bake meatballs according to package directions. Remove from oven and coarsely chop.
In 13×9″ glass baking dish, pour 1 cup spaghetti sauce. Layer 4 lasagna noodles over sauce. Top with half of the ricotta mixture, then half of the cooked, chopped meatballs. Pour half of the water over. Sprinkle with half of the Mozzarella cheese. Top with half of remaining spaghetti sauce. Repeat layers, ending with spaghetti sauce. Top with 1 cup Parmesan cheese.
Cover tightly with foil and refrigerate at least 8 hours, or overnight. When ready to eat, place in preheated 375 degree F oven. Bake for 1 hour, or until lasagna noodles are tender when pierced with fork. Uncover and bake 10-15 minutes longer until bubbly. Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes before serving. Serves 10
.
I’m not sure if it’s the time of year or if it’s just me, but I am feeling completely overwhelmed lately with a lot of things going on in my life. I have an ongoing to-do list that never seems to dwindle because I add on more than I check off.
My husband and I are currently in the process of refinancing our home. I have taken the reigns on getting everything taken care of for this. It seems that they are asking for an additional piece of information every other day to which I have to go and try to find. Needless to say, my “filing system” is not the best one right now. I have put off organizing paperwork and putting it into our BRAND NEW (9 months ago) fireproof safe for the past 6 months. Now, I need to find specific documents in stacks and stacks of paperwork. How could this be resolved? Take an hour or two and file away all of our documents!
My husband and I are also in the middle of starting a business. Again, I have taken over the reigns in getting the EIN number, Vendor’s License, getting brochures printed up, finding the best price on web hosting, etc. Today, I have a meeting with local business women in our small town of 5,000 residents. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get our name out there. I had 100 brochures printed up last week. Guess what I just noticed?!? The website is spelled wrong!!!! So…the meeting is today at 6 (to which I have to leave work early to get to fashionably late) and I have two sheets of stickers with the correct web address printed. I have to sit and apply them during my 30 minute lunch today. How could this be resolved? Quadruple check everything when it comes to business documents! AND don’t wait until the last minute to do everything!!! I have to fold the brochures into 3’s as well. It should be an interesting lunch – I don’t see myself actually eating lunch today.
I frequent the library. I have OCD tendencies (that is where the “bonkers” comes into play), and when I get something in my head that I’m interested in researching, I get every book on the topic out from the library. It’s kind of like beating a dead horse. The thing is, I read about 2 books from the batch and then end up taking everything else back without even turning a page because I am no longer interested. I looked online today to see that I have 19 books out from the library. Mind you – I am a slow reader. SO, to correct this issue, I have decided that I am taking all but 2 books back to the library. The one I am currently reading and one other book of interest. The rest are going back. I have listed them in a Word document so that if I want to read them in the future when I have more time, I can. Oh, and did I mention I signed up for BookSneeze last night? That’s another thing to add to my list.
This morning, before work, I walked the puppy around the country block which is 1.25 miles. I prepared lasagna last night at 10:30 and cooked it this morning while out with the puppy. I planted 28 tomato plants and 100 green beans in the garden this year in hopes to make my own tomato sauce and freeze green beans. This morning, I put the tomatos in the blender and because it was not enough to simmer down and make sauce, I put them in containers and put them in the freezer. I also cut and blanched the green beans before work. Mind you, I get up at 5:30AM. I leave for work around 8. 2 ½ hours seems like plenty of time to do all of this, but I was extremely rushed.
What is the point of all of this? I may be venting. I am in desperate need of organization in my life. A lot of my stress comes from no one other than me! I take control of a lot of things in our home (pets, finances, schedules, cooking on the days we both work, etc.) It is time I let hubby help out or take over completely on some of the tasks. Next week, I will provide an update as to how it all works out.
Thank you for letting me vent!
You can use a banana to substitute for an egg in a recipe.
My husband and I were trying to eat everything we had from the cabinets and refrigerator last month. I wanted to make something sweet, but didnt have any eggs. I tried this recipe from a fellow blogger, Rachel. And guess what?!? It worked! The muffins turned out GREAT!
I am watching my cholesterol, so anytime I can substitute a banana with an egg, I will. I also used applesauce in place of the oil in this recipe.
It may take a while to get the hang of this. I have a “Wordless Wednesday” post, but am trying to figure out how to upload pictures. My degree from college is Computers & Information Systems, and I feel like a complete dunce right now.
When thinking about a name for my new blog, I had many possibilities.
The only problem: most of them were taken.
I wanted to use: Simple Yet Elegant, but I felt like a hypocrite. This is a phrase I use often, but when talking about artwork, jewelry, clothing. This phrase is not something I would consider myself.
Then, out of nowhere, I thought Simply Bonkers was perfect! I strive to lead a simple and frugal life. And, well, anyone that knows me knows that I’m a little bit crazy. So, why not tie it all together?!? I’m Simply Bonkers!
You will get a personal look into the craziness I like to call “My Life.”
Enjoy!
