Well, Eric's off to work. Poor guy. After a crazy busy week he's got a 7-3 shift at work, plus stadium cleanup after the football game. What a long ending to a long week!
I, meanwhile, am lazing about in bed, as usual. Sometimes it feels like I'll never get off of bedrest, even though I know in reality I've only got another two months--max! Still, I hate doing this. I hate watching my husband work himself to death with work and school, only to come home to an invalid wife and stir-crazy son!
We calculated it out and, just between work, school, Air Force, and church, he's out of the house for 61 hours a week. Then he still has to come home and do homework! Since credits are calculated based on expected hours of study/homework per week, and he's taking 15 credits, that takes him up to 76 hours of work/study a week. Meanwhile, my only contribution is gestation. Good thing I spent all that time getting a degree!
Seriously, though, I said that my goal for this phase was to be happy with where I am in life. I only wish that Eric and I could be contributing equally right now. But, even from bed, there are still ways I can contribute to the family's overall well-being. I read an awesome book, The Millionaire Next Door, which takes a look at the shared traits of millionaires in America today. It's a very interesting read, if you have time. Anyway, one of the things it stressed over and over throughout is that there are two ways of accumulating more money: increasing your income and decreasing your spending. Since very few people can offer themselves a pay raise, the most accessible of these is to decrease spending. Well, I can do that!
Grocery stores are a great place to start, in my opinion. One trick I've learned for making cheap meals is to use the "search by ingredient" option at allrecipes.com. This awesome feature lets you plug in whatever random medley of ingredients happen to be on sale at your local grocery store to pull up a list of user-submitted recipes that use them. For instance, when my local Sunflower Market (oh my GOSH, I love that store!) had an awesome sale going on both chickens and dates, I used this search to find a mouth-watering recipe for medieval chicken pie, which was utterly awesome and definitely on-budget.
Or, if you've got a specific recipe in mind, there's always the good ol' "round robin" technique: visit multiple stores! This also doubles as a fun date night if you've got a store that sells cheap-o ice cream cones on the list. Strolling through the aisles with your sweetie and a sweet makes for an enjoyable evening, if you're in the right mood!
Of course, on bedrest, I usually opt for the allrecipes option, because sending my husband out for a multiple-hour grocery trip isn't quite as fun when it's a honey-do list and not a joint venture. But still!
I also pay a daily visit to all my favorite haunts: slickdeals.net, 1saleaday.com, and craigslist to see if any items we need are on sale. These sites are tricky, and difficult to navigate without spending more than you intended, but they can also be great money-savers. For instance, yesterday I bought Christmas presents for three of my friends from gaiam.com, an eco-friendly store specializing in organic, natural fibers and yoga supplies. Though the environmentally-conscious tees usually cost as much as $42 a pop, I found a posting on slickdeals that brought them down to 3/$10. When I knew I wanted to get these gals some Christmas gifts anyway, slickdeals provided a great option!
Speaking of awesome deals, here's one I found in line with today's introspection on spending: amazon.com is offering the book "Living Rich by Spending Smart" as a free e-book for a limited time. For those of us spoiled college kids who came from better lives than we're now able to afford, this is a great tool for maximizing purchasing power.
Aside from those tidbits, though, I don't plan on spending any money today, so that's all I've got! Only a few months left to go before this baby comes--it can't happen soon enough for me!
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