Since moving into our house over two months and a half months ago (how has it been that long?!) we've dropped our fair share of change on the house improving things. There was the bathroom and kitchen repainting, the new appliances, sink and countertops, the dog door, the new lighting fixtures. Dan poured concrete to extend the patio to under the dog door so the dogs would be on a cleaner surface than dirt before stepping inside. He also stained the shabby looking wooden gate to the backyard. I think that's all the major stuff. However, that was all expected. Last night we came upon our first unexpected expense: the garage door opener.
The darn thing has been kind of a pain since we moved. For some reason, at certain times of day, the safety sensors mistake sunlight for a small child (or something, I don't know how these things work) and won't close by itself. We have to sit there and hold down the button the whole time. Pain in the behind. Dan was researching how to move the sensors to eliminate the problem and had gone to Lowe's to get a tool and something else, and when he came back - irony of ironies - the motor on the opener burned out. By the time he figured out what was going on with it, Lowe's had closed and we were SOL for getting a new one. So that's on Dan's agenda for tonight: replace garage door opener.
The rest of our weekend was great. We spent Friday night with Dan's coworker Jake, watching Jackass 3, which - as a lover of all things Johnny Knoxville - was hilarious. I'm officially obsessed with the Roller Buffalo skit. I've played it on my phone probably 10 times since Friday night and downloaded the song as a ring tone. Yeah, obsessed. On Saturday we headed to our friends' house for a BBQ. We'd intended to watch the rapture, but that clearly didn't happen, so it was just a normal BBQ.
Oh, and yesterday I sold out. Call it what you will - sheer curiosity or too many DVR'd episodes of Extreme Couponing, but I went and did some coupon shopping. Seriously, people, deodorant and body wash for $0.67? Sugar-free Snack Packs for $0.77? Not to mention, better prices on quite a few things we use often. I didn't go crazy or anything, but it was definitely worth the time it took to cut coupons out of three papers. I had stocked up on meat in the last couple weeks and didn't have to buy any, so I was able to spend less than half my weekly budget and I won't have to buy deodorant for either of us for about 3 months, or Snack Packs ever again, and our fridge is stocked full of fresh veggies for this week's meals, which brings me to....
:: flashing lights::
Meal Plan Monday!!
This one was actually fun to do. Dan and I went out for dinner last night and planned the week's menu together, which was a nice change from flying solo.
Dan's requests: a lot of veggies
Monday: Spaghetti squash topped with veggies. This one was Dan's idea, and he's cooking it. I'm curious to see how it turns out. Honestly, I'm just thankful I'm married to a man who loves his veggies.
Tuesday: Enchilada casserole with beef. Again, Dan's apparently cooking this one
Wednesday: BBQ chicken and corn. Dan had a marathon of Best in Smoke on TV as he was doing stuff around the house yesterday and it got us both craving BBQ
Thursday: Bangers and mash. Only we're using turkey kielbasa and we're going to try a cauliflower "fauxtato" recipe I found. Hopefully it works out.
Hope you have a great week!
2 comments:
Our first unexpected expense was a washing machine. The old owners left theirs for us and it seemed decent when we went on all the tours but the second time we used it, it broke. Hmmm. I have always wanted to make fauxtatoes out of cauliflower. I have heard it's pretty good.
Our first unexpected expense was the shower in the master bath that started raining into the kitchen. Although, technically, we haven't spent the money yet. We decided we want to re-do the bathroom to make it bigger, so we repaired the kitchen ceiling, but we just don't use the shower until we are ready to rip apart the whole room.
As for couponing...I have a post coming up, but I tried it too. I will never be a stockpiler and I will never shop at more than one store just to get a better deal. However, I did pretty well on some things and I saved about $200 over three shopping trips.
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