Budget Friendly February

Hello lovelies! 

It has been a while since I last posted.  I was doing so good there for a while and then jumped on the freeway in personal life and am just now making it back - kind of.

I thought I would update everyone on how our month is going.  We are trying really hard to purchase a house and just be more budget conscious.

We have decided that we will each start saving a certain percentage of each paycheck no matter what.  We have a bad habit of pulling more out of savings than we put it.  It kills me a little inside pisses me off every time I see our savings number go down and I decided that we couldn't do it anymore if we wanted to buy a house and have a family.  Ryan and I both compromised on what percentages we will contribute and have made an agreement that we will be saving 20% monthly of Ryan's checks and 20% monthly of my checks.  We are hoping that this will give us a better security blanket and allow us to be more aware of where we are spending our money.

Speaking of being more aware of budget, the Army told us about this great website to use when tracking our money after this last deployment and we absolutely love it!  It is Mint and we use it all the time.  It uploads your bank accounts each time you open it and it tells you exactly how much money you have where.  It also breaks it down into categories for you and shows you where you are spending the most of your money.  It gives you an estimated budget for each category and will send you emails when you are going over or getting low on a bank account.  We have found it very helpful, although it is very honest and makes you really think about what/where you are spending your money.  Go check it out!  It's free and they have apps for you phone or tablet. :)

As you can see we are doing pretty well with the minor hiccup of Movies & DVDs.  We went to one movie and those suckers are expensive now!  

To also help us not spend as much money we have been eating at home more this month.  We have planned that instead of eating out 6-10 meals a week we will only eat maximum 3!  We have changed our eating out days from Friday - Sunday, with the occasional night that we don't want to cook, to just Saturdays.  I know that this is hard for both of us, especially because Ryan gets tired of sandwiches for lunch and loves going out and I do not necessarily cook the best, but we are making it work.

We have come up with some fun dinners and have even tried new stuff, which is always exciting and terrifying at the same time.

I want to start sharing my recipes on here soon and I hope you all enjoy them.  I think that we take the best of both worlds and make something delicious.  I DO NOT hand-make everything we eat and I think that is where some people will be able to relate.  We use everyday items out of our pantry and make it the healthiest and best tasting that we can.  We are in no way, shape or form dietitians and have no real ground to stand on when it comes to what is "healthy" 

Here are some of the recipes that we have eaten most recently that I plan to share very soon :)

Hamburger Pizza - my mom's recipe that she has been making since I was a little girl

His and Hers Calzones

Raviolis with meat sauce

Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo

We are headed out to Colorado this Thursday and are so excited!  Can't wait to spend some time with our fambam.  We have been really good with our budget so we can indulge a little bit while we are there :)

Do you have any fun new recipes we should try?? :)

5 on Friday! 2014 Edition!

Today I am linking up again with the Darci for 5 on Friday.  This is the first one I have done in 2014, which I can't believe!  Without further ado:

{ONE}

I am so ecstatic that it is finally FRIDAY!!!!  This last week - and I mean since last Friday - has definitely kicked my ass.  Work was not fun, although lately I'm not sure it ever is.  Maybe time for a change in the near future?  That is another post for another time.  And who am I kidding, I won't be doing anything about my job for at least another year, if ever, but complain.

{TWO}

I am having a birthday party with my family tomorrow for me and my Grandpa's birthdays :)  Although my birthday was forever weeks ago, we only get together once a month for the adult birthdays in my family.  That way we don't have to reschedule our lives every weekend for the next birthday.  It works out nicely.  I can't wait for the ice cream cake!

{THREE}

I cannot believe we are already half way through January!  I feel as though we just had Christmas and my 25th!  This year seems to already be flying by.

{FOUR}

Ryan and I made some calls and emails yesterday to try and start the process of getting a house! :)  I couldn't be more excited!  Our lease is up in April and I don't want to extend it for any amount of time.  I am hoping our demands wants aren't too much while looking and that it comes somewhat easy for us :)  Fingers crossed!

{FIVE}

I am thinking about going back to the gym next week.  I know, I know..."thinking about it Sara?"  But I am really hoping to do it.  I went 4 days a week while Ryan was deployed and I had success.  I am hoping that we can both get in a routine and still have fun with it.  Ryan will most likely want to start going a lot due to an upcoming test that will require him to be in excellent shape when he passes! :)  Wish us luck!

I hope you all have a fantastic Friday and weekend!  Next week I am going to try and post all 5 days!  I haven't done it since the #12DaysofBlogging and I really want to make that a goal of mine.  Also, I want to finish the wedding recaps and get moving on to bigger and better things that have happened in our lives since then :)

My Hopes and Dreams for 2014...

It is a new year and a new beginning to this crazy thing we call life.  I am on Chapter 25 this year of my book and I am planning on making it the best one yet.

I have a few hopes and dreams for this chapter and I feel as though writing them down will help me accomplish them.  I don't feel as though they are unattainable - but will require some extra work on my part.

1.  Buy a house and make it a HOME.

The hubs and I are tired of renting.  We pay more in rent than we would on a mortgage.  It has never been the right time for us to purchase until now.  We have never been entirely certain where we would be with the economy.  Talk of going Active Duty is always on the back burner as a last resort.  I would go wherever he leads me, but at this time we are secure and happy with where we are.  With that we want to establish a solid ground.  This starts with a HOME.  We currently live in a house and although I have done my best to make it a home it is missing something.  That something where you know that it is all yours and it won't change anytime in the near future.  Our lease is up in April on our current residence and we are hoping to be in our very first HOME by then.  I am so excited to start this journey and see where it takes us.  We have a lot of things that we want in our house and I think that will be the biggest challenge.  The other will be finding a house that our loan will approve.  We will be taking advantage of Ryan's VA loan that he is eligible for after serving our beautiful country.  Let the house hunting begin! :)

2.  Become parents

Ryan and I got married in 2012 right before he was going to deploy.  We decided that it was the best decision to wait until after he got back to start a family.  As badly as we both wanted to start right away we didn't want me to be pregnant and alone for 9 months.  Now that he is back we had our big wedding and honeymoon to the Bahamas.  We have been having a blast these past 6 months of him being home but we are now ready for the littles.  Ryan was meant to be a daddy and, of course, I believe that I was meant to be a mommy.  We strategically want our first little not to be born in the winter.  As much as I love winter and snuggling on the couch with the pup pups and fuzzy socks we both have winter birthdays and they suck!  Ryan's birthday is 22 days before Christmas and mine is 7 days after.  We do not want our littles to experience that at all like we have.  So here is to hoping that we plan it out just right to have littles in the Spring, Summer or Fall :)

3.  Save, Save, Save

So some of you may know that I am a bit of a cheap-o frugal gal.  I refuse to pay full price for any items of clothing and I fully support coupons and secret codes for discounts.  I hate transferring money out of savings and into checking and completely get disgusted when we don't transfer from checking into savings.  While Ryan was deployed I handled the finances - I still do - and got all of our credit paid off.  I built up a beautiful savings account and was so excited for our future.  Well with life being how it is, we have not been able to save as much since he came home as I would have liked.  Now we are in no definition of the word poor or hard off.  We live a very comfortable life and I am completely happy with that, I just would like a little more buffer in case something happens.  So my plan for this year is to save at least $400 per month! :)

4.  Be a better...

I love my husband, family and friends so much.  I don't think anyone has ever doubted that I am all in when it comes to my relationships.  I know that I have high expectations of people and that sometimes when they don't meet those "expectations" I get annoyed and turned off from them.  I am going to try this year, this chapter, to be a better person in every aspect.  I want to be a better wife to Ryan.  I want to go on more dates and be more spontaneous in our marriage.  I want to be a better daughter, sister, niece and aunt.  I want my family to know that I am 100% in.  No questions or concerns.  I am all there.  I want to be a better friend.  Friendships don't come easy to me - and why I don't really know.  I am the girl who has friends for a while and then they slowly - or quickly at times - disappear.  I want to work on the friendships that I currently have and build them to be strong and sturdy.  Just like the solid ground that I want in our home, I also want that in my life.  So here is to being better! :)

5.  Learn to cook

My poor husband...  I am in no way, shape or form a cook.  I am a baker.  Always have been and probably always will be.  But this year, I want to change that for him and me.  I want to learn how to cook good food.  Now this doesn't mean that for the past 4.5 years that Ryan has been starving.  I make a mean frozen pizza and fish sticks.  I can make pasta and tacos just like everybody else.  But I want to make more fancy food.  Food that takes planning and preparation.  I want to dive into a cookbook and get excited.  I have slowly started learning recipes from my mom and make those for him and he loves them.  I just want to do more home cooking for him and make him excited for our dinners at home. :)  So here is to cookbooks entering our house and making me a cook!

6.  Be healthier

I want this year to be the year that everything changes.  I am now 25 ::mid-twenties crises?::  and am tired of being unhappy with my body and things on the outside as they appear.  This year the hubs and I will go on more walks, exercise more and eat more veggies!  Now we are not some big lazy bums that eat fast food everyday at all.  I, actually, can't tell you the last time that I ate fast food.  But we do not eat as many veggies and fruit as we should.  That is the goal for this year.  Get in the best shape ever and be happy about it.  I have cut out all caffeine and alcohol -GASP- and continue to keep it this way.  This hope and dream will go hand in hand with number 5 and my want to learn to cook.  So here is to the healthiest Hughes family! :)

*********************

I don't think that any of these hopes and dreams are completely out of reach.  In fact, I think that they are each going to come ::hopefully:: easy to us.  I can't wait to see how this chapter turns out and hope that you stick around with me as well :)

Here's to you and your new chapter as well!

XO