Weeks 2 and 3 of our budget crunch

Ok so we have been very busy the last few weeks, so I forgot to post how we have been doing...
Week 2:
We spent $10 less than our budget this week so we are now $60 ahead of schedule. We went to Winco for grocery shopping...what do you guys think of Winco? I like the prices, but I feel like I'm in Walmart and I HATE Walmart. I read some reviews on Winco and most of them were bad reviews by employees. We bought some produce and it went bad pretty fast too. John likes it because it's cheap and they have everything. So I'm not sure if we will go back...John wants to and I don't so we'll see (I do the grocery shopping most of the time so it's really up to me I guess :)
Week 3: = Bad week
We blew past our budget this week...
I had to buy a few pairs of short and I couldn't find any that I really liked and that looked good on me at the thrift stores (I actually found a pair at Uptown Cheapskate a few weeks ago for 5 bucks and they are awesome). So I went to Old Navy (bad idea) and found a pair of capris, a tank top, shorts and a shirt for Gretal (they were on clearance) and a pair of shorts for me which I a going to return because I don't like them as much as I thought I did.
John also ran in Ragnar, which is a relay race this weekend so we ate out a lot and I drove a ton (I was the baby van...because I had Gretal and Jerome who's mommy needed to nurse him every few hours). So needless to say we spent an extra $40 this week.
This week we are going to be in Spokane and probably will blow past our budget again because we still have to get TJ a wedding present, a shower present for Bailey and food at Hoopfest. Oh well we did for the first two weeks which is a hard thing for us :)

Week One of Budget Crunch

It went well and we were even under our budget by $50!
We decided to "shop from our pantry" this week because we weren't going to eat at home much. My aunt Janene had us over for dinner a few times because of things we were doing so we ate at their house a lot. Is that cheating??? Oh well I don't care we made our budget and that's all that matters.
I had to get gas in my Jeep and that always sucks because it's usually 50 bucks :( Which brings me to my next idea...public transportation...
Here in Utah we have the trax which is like a subway but above ground. There is a stop here in Sandy that is about 5 miles from my house. Since I drive downtown probably twice a week I decided that I would try to take the trax at least one of those times to save some gasoline. This Friday John and I are going to take it downtown just to see how it works and all that. I am actually kind of excited. I was going to do it tomorrow when I go to my momm and me class but John said he wanted to do it too so I will wait until Friday. I will probably drive to the station in Sandy since Gretal doesn't like the bike trailer (silly baby), and then take it downtown. Plus I will have to take the stroller because we will need to walk about a mile from the stop to mommy and me.
This week we have to buy Gretal's passport and John and I both have to get gas so we are going to be cutting it close so we'll see.

Budget, Budget, Budget

I hate budgets. As do most people I guess but they really suck. John and I have been spending money like crazy since we moved here. There is just so many new things to do and new food places to try. We decided that if we want to pay off the Jeep, have money to spend in Germany, and keep trying new things that we need to stick to our budget :) So starting today we have a strict budget and by helping us to keep to this budget we have decided that we are going to:
Eat out less, go grocery shopping once a week, buy used, get a freezer (used of course) and buy in bulk when things are on sale, only buy things we need not what we want, and find free things to do, because there are a ton of free things to do here, plus we need to be working out more so taking walks and bike rides will help too.
To help us do all of this I decided to keep a "journal". I am going to keep track of all of our spending, activities to do that are free, keep a list of things we buy all the time so when it goes on sale I can get it in bulk, pretty much write down everything. I dont' know if this will help but we'll see.
Don't get me wrong we are not in debt, besides our house, cars and John's student loans but we would like to pay things off faster and have a bigger savings. I know we can do it we just have to really pay attention to what we are spending.

TJ is getting Married

My brother is getting married...my little brother who is still 12 in my eyes is getting married. I can't believe it but it's true. He is getting married to Bailey, a girl I actually like. She has a little boy name William and he is 3 but looks like he's 5. They are getting married Friday June 25th, yes that's the Friday before Hoopfest, and yes it will be crazy, but so is TJ :)

Megan came to visit the states for a month. She spent 2 weeks in Spokane and then she came here for 2 weeks. We had a blast...really we did :) We went swimming, to the Zoo (yes I went to the zoo again, and this time I bought a year membership), the Aquarium (I bought a membership there too), shopping for bridesmaid dresses (see next post), shopping in general, and watching the babies play together. Anton actually is kind of mean to Gretal but it's ok she will get back at him soon :)

Heinz minus one

My friend Lacey came to visit a few weeks ago. We had an amazing time. Her kids are so much fun and very well behaved! Arabelle was full of energy from the minute she got off the plane. She was showing us somersaults and doing the "dishwasher dance", plus she kept throwing the ball for the puggles so they were tired at the end of the day too.

We went to the Zoo and the Aquarium, which the kids loved...James and Arabelle rode on the carousel at the Zoo and loved it. We also went thrift shopping, and found some great deals. Lacey got a few outfits for the kids and I got a few outfits for Gretal plus a nice fleece zip up that I wear all the time :)

James was crawling everywhere, but he really liked the puggles water bowl :) And for some reason her like the slate (which scared me because I didn't want him to get hurt on it). He is such a happy little boy, and he eats like no ones business :)

We had a great time having them come visit! I hope they will come see us again...

Arches National Park

For Easter weekend my family came to visit us (Megan and Anton came from Germany too!) and we went to Arches National Park. We went hiking, saw some rock crawlers and just hung out. We had a lot of fun...well most of us :) Gretal and Anton got some new hiking backpacks which Gretal loved, Anton did not. I think he is a lot like his mom, he doesn't like to hike.
P.S. Sorry there is not a lot of writing to go a long with the post, I typed up a long post but then when I added the pictures it all got deleted...grrrr.