ugh.

So.

No internet until the 10th at our house (grr.)

Fighting with employer about tips that I report EVERYDAY and then they decided to take more out because other people don't claim enough. (double grr.)

I will resume posting daily as soon as we have internet again.

Everyone, have a better day than me.

Digging out

or: "How I am slowly getting myself out of debt"

I am just like the majority of Americans...well, only in the sense that I have personal debt. Not counting our mortgage I have just about $15000 of credit card debt. That includes 3 bank cards (one that has my car loan consolidated onto it...had to do it to get the house), one best buy card (laptop only, never used it again...and never will), one express card (dumb, i know), and a partridge in a pear tree.

I am attempting to use Dave Ramsey's Debt Snowball Method but I have been unsuccessful thus far. Why is that you may ask? Well after looking at my lifestyle and payment plans I have come to these conclusions

1) I was not angry enough at my debt. Yeah, yeah, I understood that just paying the minimum means you'll be paying forever blah, blah, blah...but I wasn't REALLY pissed off at the amount of money that I spend every month on crap I don't even have anymore...like the washer and dryer that my ex still has. After cutting back on spending and looking at my budget, I realized that I spend the same amount on my debt each month as I do on all of my other living expenses

WTF?!!?

2) I thought I was being responsible by using cash for purchases rather than my debit card. Yeah, it made purchases more "real", but there was one small problem. Since I get paid daily in cash (tips) from work, if that $ never makes it into my account, I never really know where it goes. I used to put all of the "big bills" in the account and keep 5's and 1's for random spending through the day. But this led to spending more each day. Not anymore. ALL cash goes into the bank and I use the debit card for EVERYTHING and...

3) I am using my check register RELIGIOUSLY! Might seem simple to some of yall, but I had gotten in the habit of using my phone to check balances or online checking...led to 2 NSF fees in a week...WTF!? again!

4) NO SPENDING IF IT ISN'T BUDGETED! Again, may sound simple, but for YEARS I have had a budget...and still managed to spend more than I had. I had to seriously stop spending. No new clothes (I have WAY too many...more on this in a later post), no quick trips to Target or Wal-Mart, or my personal demon, the Dollar Store. Now I honestly do have some budgeted for fun shopping/house stuff since we just moved in and do need some "stuff"...but not much...and it gets recorded.

5) I set up a .ING savings account. It lets me move money electronically from my checking account into a savings account that I set up just to pay off debt. Now, you can set it up to automatically deduct, but since I never know exactly how much I will make each week/month I prefer to do small transfers every few days of whatever I can spare. Less painful than transferring $100 at a time and at the end of each month, I am going to empty this account to pay down one CC.

6) We are setting up a joint checking/savings account for house expenses. One of my problems has always been that when I have extra $ to pay on a card, I am afraid that the next month I will come up short for bills. So starting this month I am putting enough to cover next month's mortgage (since that is obviously the most important bill!) in savings and then using what's left to pay down a card.

First on the chopping block, Express. It has the lowest balance ($537), therefore I can pay it off quickly then roll that payment into the next card...Best Buy. I'll see if I can make some type of graphic to keep up with my progress.

The hardest part of this is being in my 20's and not doing the things that my friends are doing in order to save $ and pay off debt. No fancy dinners out, no big nights out drinking, no expensive vacations, no shopping sprees. But in the long run (hopefully not that long...maybe I can do this in a year?) I will be debt free and able to fully love life!

Anyone out there with me who wants to share their progress and hold each other accountable?

Getting well on the cheap!

NOTE: Mondays are going to be recipe day, but obviously there was no cooking going on this Monday. Tuesdays are still up in the air...household/garden stuff maybe? Suggestions welcome.

So I am still sick with this terrible cold thingy, but I wanted to share a few tips with yall anyway.

Growing up we never had health insurance, so going to the doctor for every little cold was definitely out of the question. Now, even though I have health insurance, I avoid the doctor as much as possible. Why might you ask? Well I personally believe that doctors are too quick to prescribe an antibiotic for every little cold/infection. By using too many antibiotics too often we are helping to build tolerant strains of bacteria IE: H1N1 Flu. You can check out some more information about this here.

The symptoms of your body fighting off an infection are often mistaken for the cold itself. Runny nose, sneezing, coughing etc are all ways that your body rids itself of the bad bacteria. That being said, I have found that the best way to deal with a cold is to make yourself as comfortable as possible, up your immune system and buck up and deal with it!

One of my favorite things to help get more vitamin C into my system are my super easy smoothies with Emergen-C. If you have never tried this stuff...buy it today. I swear by it!

Here's my no-fail, super easy, super vitamin C-immune boosting smoothie! And it's about $1 to make at home!

1 Orange

5 0r 6 frozen Strawberries

1 C. Fat-free yogurt (or fat full...whatever you like)

1 packet Emergen-C

~Blend Orange by itself 1st to make juice. Add everything else. Drink and be well!!

Seriously, doesn't get any easier.

I'll be back on top of this asap, I promise!

Sorry

Sorry guys, but I am in bed sick today. Hopefully I'll be over it by tomorrow. I'll make up for it with a super-fab double post once I recover. Have a great day!

food waste friday

So I am joining The Frugal Girl in "Food Waste Friday". While trying to cut back on grocery spending and eating out, I need to be better about using things up before they go bad. Too often I get lazy and go for the frozen stuff or Ramen while delicious fruits and veggies go bad in the fridge.

So for today I add... 1/3 head of lettuce and some pasta salad :( The pasta salad makes me upset because I make some kick ass pasta salad! But all in all, not too bad for my first week.

So my next step is to start compositing whatever leftovers we have so that when we start our garden in the spring we'll have lots of great compost for our garden! I found a cool link for making a compost bin out of recycled pallets (the ones that stores always have in the back). If you need a weekend project, check it out here.

Have a great weekend everyone! I'll be back Monday and hopefully have a format worked out better by next week as far as what topics to cover each day.

A different kind of "green" paint.

So when we moved into our house in mid December 09, it was livable (thank god) and in fabulous structural condition (thank god again) but there were a few minor changes we needed to feel really at home. After the closing costs, moving costs, food while we had none costs etc. there was little left to work with.

Solution? PAINT!!

Seriously, paint can fix most minor issues...and some of the major ones too! I was that person who used to paint all of our rentals and then just not worry about getting a deposit back, it was worth it to feel at home.

I know that there are a ton of green paint choices out there. Our main problem was financial. Now paint is definately one of the cheapest ways to change a room, and if you hate it just repaint! But even $30 a gallon x 6 or so rooms that need to be painted = a lot to us.

I'd like to introduce everyone to my favorite decorating secret of all time.

"Oops" paint. This is that large collection of mistinted paint located in the paint department at your local home improvement store. I know I have bought a TON of it at Lowes and recently discovered quite a stash at Wal-Mart. A gallon of oops paint usually runs about $5 and you can get high quality paint for a super discount. The secret is to only paint rooms/walls that you can finish with one gallon (practically impossible to get the right tint again if you need more) and to go in with an idea of the colors you want, but be flexible!

This is also a little known way to be green. What's going to happen to that paint if nobody buys it? Thrown out baby. So save your wallet and some landfill space and go for the Oops Palate in your home!

Master Before Master After "Oops" Paint

Bathroom Before Bathroom After "Oops" Paint

We even painted the terrible yellow/brown sink/vanity with white latex...seems to be working fine until we can find a replacement for free!

Now go forth and empty out your local "Oops" Paint Department, before I get there 1st!

In the beginning...

Introductions are in order. I am a 27 year old full-time bartender/mixologist at a shmancy hotel in Southern Louisiana. My SO (signifigant other) is a 23 year old construction worker/musician who has managed to put up with me for 3 years now! We just bought our 1st house together and we are excited to begin our life together.

We share our home (and our bed) with our 2 dogs Major (dachshund) and Rufus (pound-puppy/Muppet) and one fat-formerly-stray cat, Carol.

So why this blog? Well, honestly it's mostly to keep me accountable. I also hope that some of yall out there in Internet world can learn from us/our mistakes. This is our "Little Green Home" for several reasons:

1) It's little. Only 1100 sqft. Now keep in mind this is not little by our standards. In fact we find it perfect. However we do realize (mostly through other's comments that we have already heard) that this is small for the standard 1st purchased home. But it has 3 bedrooms and a GREAT yard, is in a convenient location and is not new (new homes don't ever feel "homey" to me)

2) We are trying to be as "green" as possible in everyday life in regards to environmental responsibility. Using natural cleaners, growing our own veggies...I want chickens but the SO objects currently. We know that we don't have the money to go totally green, so we will be a "little green" by doing all we can.

and 3) We are trying to spend as "little green" as we can and save as much "green" as possible. Both everyday and with renovations to our new home. Luckily, being environmentally friendly and frugal usually go hand in hand.

So welcome! And thanks for being here!