Today went pretty nice. My husband took a day off so he was at home almost all day. I asked him to come have lunch with me. We went to this small french cafe next to the Downtown library. My husband had never been there before so I thought I’d take him there. I love their Crabcake sandwich so I ordered that today with a side of potato salad. I also got myself one serving of their bread pudding. My husband ordered a cup of Corn Chowder and Chicken sandwich with mozzarella cheese on it with a side of order of potato salad. He said it was good. We enjoyed our lunch together. I thought it was nice of him to spend time with me during the day. We spent the whole an hour together. I wish we could do this more often. But with our jobs, it’s almost impossible.
I am sick of working at my office. I really, really, really want to resign. Everyday I am dreading coming to work. I always imagine myself winning the lottery. On my way to work I always pray for a miracle to happen. I hasn’t happened yet. I know it will. I have been praying a lot. I cannot wait for that day to come. The day when I can finally tell my boss my resignation. I just have no drive working at my office anymore. I have no passion for it. I am just there staring at the computer screens and collecting paychecks. If I think about the money I make, it’s a lot for what I do.It’s not rocket science really and I get about $64,000 a year with 20% bonus. I wish my husband would make that much then I could quit my job. I would probably work part-time somewhere to supplement our income.
I miss my husband now. I wish he was here with me. He was complaining about his sore throat earlier. I really hope he’d feel better when he gets home tonight (he’s working his part-time job until about 1AM). I think he’s just tired. He needs about a day of really good rest and he’ll feel better again I am sure. I will pray for his wellness tonight. I don’t want him to get sick.
I wish my husband did not have to work his part-time job. But I understand that he wants to save money and pay off his debts. Soon we’ll be debt-free and we can enjoy our lives better. I wish God would send me a large sum of money so I can afford to quit my job. I would spend my time volunteering. And I would help charities and non-profits. I would open my own business with my husband. Buy a big house with big yard. Donate lots of money to my church.
God please hear my prayers and grant my petitions.
Two more days to payday. Yay. I have been very good for *almost* the past 2 weeks. I brought lunches from home and at them at the office building cafetaria. During lunch hours, I sometimes have time to walk to the library or the park. Because of this I have lost 3 pounds in the last a week and a half. Both my husband and I save a lot of money by bringing our lunches from home and eating dinner at home. Tonight, I got free dinner. I went to a class held at my church and they provided dinner for free. So I thought, what the heck, I’ll go for the free dinner and extra knowledge!!
Not much happening since earlier this week really. Work is fine; so far so good. I cannot wait to get it through March next year. The time when we will finally pay off all our debts except for the mortgage. I am so looking forward to that day. In less than 6 months my husband and I will be debt free!!!!!!!!! What a feeling that will be. And knowing that for the rest of that year we’ll be able to live on my husband’s income alone is a very heavenly feeling. I gigle everytime I think about that. I have this big huge smile on my face just imagining that moment in March 2009. We’ll be able to save all my paychecks. Wow. Amazing.
You know another thing I want to talk about this evening is the power of prayers. I know some people don’t believe in God and it’s fine with me, but for those who believe in God… isn’t God amazing? I mean, I was experiencing some really hard times earlier this year and I prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed… and God answered my prayers. It was beyond happiness to me. I felt that I started getting to know God very well at the beginning of this year. Everything just happened. Just like that. And I turned to God. He has been helping me with everything in my life ever since. The power of prayers, my friends, please do not underestimate it. God hears our prayers.
Whenever I feel down or unhappy, I always seek comfort in the words of God. I now have the habit of reading the bible before I go to bed. I also read the Novena prayer before I go to bed. Sometimes, I read it during lunch hours. I read it over and over. The words are so beautiful they bring tears to my eyes sometimes.
I didn’t know what I was looking for in life before. Then I asked God for guidance. He’s been holding my hands ever since. I feel at peace. I feel comforted. I feel safe. I know that no matter what happens in this world, God is watching me and protecting me. Now I feel that I have a purpose in life.
Lately, with the way economy is going, I have seen a lot more homeless people on the streets. There is this one old man who “lives” inside a bus stop close to my office building. I see him twice everyday; in te morning and in the afternoon. Sometimes I see him 3 times! this is on one of those occasions when I decide to go somewhere with my car. Anyways. This man is always greeting everyone; good morning, good afternoon, have a good day, have a bless day, etc. So one day, I asked how he was doing and he replied, I am hungry and all I want is foods. Normally I would just pass him by but that day I stopped. I looked at him and I said, well you know there is a food bank close to here where you can get foods. He said, yes I went there this morning. He didn’t ask me for anything. I don’t know why I pulled out my wallet and I gave him the last $20 I had that day. I said, spend this on foods please Lord is watching you. He thanked me many many times. I left him and while walking to my office I thought in my head…. what if he spent that money on alcohol???? I assured myself what matters was my intention. I had good intention for him. He did not ask me for money. I gave him the money.
So later that day I saw him again on my way to the parking garage. The man was there. Sitting on the bus stop bench. He had a smile so big on his face when he saw me. When I was about to pass in front of him he said to me, Miss I would like to show you something. I stopped and he showed me a backpack filled with canned foods and crackers. He bought foods with my money!!!!!! He said to me, this should last me for 2 weeks. And again, he thanked me many many times.
I wish I had a lot more money to help homeless people. Not just to give them money but perhaps I could open a shelter for them. Perhaps I could help them to get back on their feet with some sort of job trainings. I can’t imagine the live of those homeless people. Winter is approaching soon. Where are they going to go for warmth and comfort? I don’t know. Maybe I am naive but I believe in the goodness of people. That we should help others when we can. I help people whenever I can because I want to help. Because I have a tiny hope in my heart that someday, when that person I help is back on his/her feet that he/she will help others. And many others that he/she helps will help many many others.
My husband starts his part-time job tonight. He will be working from 6.30 PM – 1 AM. He will also work on Sunday from 11AM – 6PM. This part-time job is only from October – May. He should be able to bring in an extra $400 – 600 each month from this gig. Not bad for a part-time job.
Tomorrow, we are going to a home and patio show. We plan on going to the show early in the morning. My husband’s football team is playing at 3.30 tomorrow and I have an appointment with a dog trainer at 3.30 as well. After that we are going to see Beverly Hills Chihuahua at the movie theater. Two of our Chihuahuas look like the 2 main characters.
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This week, for 5 days straight, I was able to not go out for lunch or eating out for dinner!!! I usually bring lunches from home but sometimes I get tempted to buy something else during lunch. But this week I was really good. So I am happy for that. Also, my husband and I have been eating dinner at home this whole week. Tomorrow, we might get lunch somewhere–we have tons of buy-one-get-one-free coupons. I still have some grocery that I can cook to make lunches and dinners for maybe couple days next week. My husband still has about one loaf of meatloaf. I plan to make him Turkey chili tomorrow for dinner. The weather is starting to cool and I think chili would make a nice dinner on a cool evening. I don’t know what else I am going to cook for him. I think the grocery store has some chicken on sale so I might get some for him.
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Today I was having a debate with myself on what I should really do with the money my mom is going to send. She is sending me $20,000 to fix up the house. My husband thinks we should pay off our debts (or at least some of them).
I feel bad that everytime I ask for money to my mom I always tell her it is for the house but then we always use it to pay our debts or something else. This time my mom is being super generous and she is giving us $20,000 to fix up our house. I was so excited. I want to have a pretty little house. I don’t want my house to be the ugliest house on the block. My house is pretty small comparing our neighbors’ house but that does not bother me. What bothers me is that I see very, very little improvements in my house since 3 years ago when we bought it. I really really really want to put fences around my house so I can let my big dogs outside during nice cool days. They could use more exercise in the backyard. I also want to start enjoying my porch with my dogs in the afternoon. I have nice big porch but since we have no fence, I can’t really let my dogs out in the front porch. They always run to the streets and I hate that. So having my house fenced is definitely on top of my list. Also another thing I want is to have my kitchen done. I am not talking about having a super duper kitchen. I want a real kitchen. Something simple. And I want a laundry room. I am tired of going to the laundry room every weekend. I hate it.
At the same time, I also want to save money. I wish I could save all the money that my mom sends me. All $20,000. That would make our emergency fund up close tol $24,000, which translates to 8 months of living expenses should both me and my husband lose our jobs.
To make things complicated, I also want to make a dent in our debts. That $20,000 would make a serious dent in our debts. That would actually wipe out all our CC debts–mine is about $6000 and my husband’s $14,000. If we paid off our debts, we’d wipe out about $800 in CC payments every month.
$5360 (total combined take-home income per month) – $3075 (living expenses + 2 cars payments) = $2285 —> per month that we can save!!!!
This sound SOOOOO good. I am actually tempted to do that. Wipe out all our CC debts. Gosh. That would be nice. But I also want to fix up the house. Part of me wants to use the money to completely fix up the house and part of me want to wipe out our CC debts. But I feel that our CC debts are our responsibility and it is not fair to use the money my mom gives me to wipe out the debts when she wants us to use the money for the house. If we use all the money to wipe out the debts, it will take us about 10 months to save $20,000.
In March 2009, I should be getting about $13,000 in bonus money.
Ok let’s say we used the money my mom gives me to wipe out the debts. So this month, we’d be out of CC debts. That means, we should be able to save at least $2000 (I won’t count my husband’s part-time income) each month. And by end of March, we should be able to save $12,000 (2000×6 months). Also in March, I will be receiving $13,000 in bonus money. So, $12,000 + $13,000 = $25,000 in 6 months.
My husband’s part-time job should give us extra money as much as $5000 in total by March 2009. Plus come to think of it, I should be getting a raise again in December to be effective in January 2009. I expect to get $200/month raise (after tax and after 2% increase to my retirement account).
If we want to go crazy, we could use the $25,000 saved by March 2009 to pay off our cars (should be less than $20,000 by then). This would lower our expenses by $625 to $2450 per month. Assuming our take home income was going to be $5500/month, this would make a possible saving of $3050 every month. Holy Cow. Do you know what this means? This means, my husband and I can live on one income!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! His income alone would be sufficient to support both of us!!! That would be a life transformation for us really. And this also means that starting March 2009, we would be able to save at least $3000/month. And we’d be able to use the money to fix up our house.
What do you think???
What a tiring day today.
I started my day waking up at 8.30AM. I had a 9.10AM class at the local Catholic church followed by mass at 10 – 11AM. Then I stopped by at the church’s bookstore to get some new books.
My husband and I did laundry as soon as we got home. It took us an hour to finish.
The fun part of the day was when we went to take a short cruise at the ocean. Just me and my husband. It was about an hour and fifteen minutes long. Never done this cruise before so we had fun. And then we had a nice lunch together at a restaurant in front of the marina. We overspent by $14!!!!!!!!! Budget was $40. But it was worth it. I had leftover I brought home for lunch tomorrow. My husband and I walked around the surrounding area close to the marina. It was a nice day today. I saw an Italian gelato shop and I couldn’t resist to try. I had a Banana and Vanilla gelato ($4.20). Yum. I shared it with my husband. He didn’t like it much–too sweet he said. I liked it.
The weekend is almost over. Tomorrow is Monday already. I can say this week went pretty fast but I enjoyed it. I am looking forward to another busy and fun week!!!
Lastly, this is kind of random, I want to say that I am in love with my husband all over again. I am soooo glad I married him. Can’t imagine my life without him. I am so thankful for him in my life. He is one of the best things happened in my life. I will cherish the rest of my life with him.
Well, I didn’t make my husband pasta with meat sauce tonight. I made him snow peas and ground beef stir-fry. I served it with hot rice. I made several lunches/dinners tonight. I made meat patties, Shrimp salad, eggplant in garlic sauce, and I also boiled shrimp and eggs (to make Vietnamesse spring rolls). Tomorrow, I am going to make Chicken wings, Chicken tacos, Chicken fajitas, and Chicken parmesan for my husband. As for me, I am going to make tofu and veggie stir-fry and soy crumble and veggie in oyster sauce. I might want to make Tuna melt too.
I am on diet right now, so I am trying to eat very, very light. The meals I make should last me for more than a week. My husband can be picky sometimes but I should be able to make him all the meals for the week tomorrow that way I don’t have to cook on weeknights.
Tomorrow morning after church I am going grocery to get some fruits. I should have enough veggies to last for a week. I’ll pack everything for the week tomorrow so we can just do grab-and-go for work lunches.
We have a week supply of yogurt and cottage cheese. I also have some soymilk in the fridge as well as regular milk. I am lactose intollerant so can’t really drink milk but I am fine with cheese, icre cream, or cream cheese, etc, just not milk.
Need to pick up a couple bags of cat foods and dog foods tomorrow. We’d need cat litter as well.
There is a toilet paper sale at one of the local grocery stores. $4.99 for Scott tissues. I am going to grab 2 packs (I think it has 12 per pack). Should last us till the end of the year. We still have enough paper towels I think (we go through a lot of this with so many animals in the house).
Fresh salmon is on sale!!! $5.99/lb. Might get a pound or two of that.
I am trying to serve my husband one or two meatless dinners in a week. I wonder if he’ll like the idea. I know that I have been reducing his meat portions. It’s fine if he still wants to eat meats but I think it should be reduced. People in America eat too much meats. Seems like they eat that for every single meal. I feel a lot healthier since I stopped eating beef, pork, lamb, and chicken. I still eat seafoods–occasionally. I eat lots of veggies, tofu, and fruits.
Ok. Time to go to bed.
My husband and I have been trying to eat super healthy lately–lots of fresh veggies and fruits in our diet. In general, we eat pretty healthy. I cook at home a lot so we eat home cooking most of the times. We bring lunch from home.
I feel responsible for what we eat. My husband pretty much will eat anything I cook for him but I don’t want to just cook him something unhealthy. So I started serving salads more often. We also eat more fresh fruits.
Tonight my husband had Cobb salad and I had my super duper yummy salad–yellow corn (canned), spring mix salad (premixed; in a bag), tomatoes, cucumber, boiled egg, tuna (canned), cubed white cheddar cheese, and i topped it with caesar salad dressing. It was gooooood!!!! I especially love the yellow corn. I can eat a big bowl of those corn alone!!!!
For dessert, we had fresh papaya. I bought a medium size papaya 2 night ago from the grocery. It was good. My husband didn’t grow up eating tropical fruits so he was excited eating the papaya. He thought it was good.
For lunch, I packed us salad for lunch (same as what we had tonight) and some cut watermelon for dessert. I also packed myself some trail mix for snacking.
Tomorrow evening for dinner, I am going to make some Shrimp, corn, cucumber, and avocado salad. Mmm mmm good.
We finished day 2 in Savannah with great success. We started the day with a sweet visit to Back in the Day Bakery (www.backinthedaybakery.com). Tell me what a better way to start your day than having a cupcake as breakfast? I had a Vanilla cupcake with pink icing (it’s basically vanilla on vanilla). My husband got the blue one. We sat on our little table next to the window. I loved every moment I spent in that place. I savored every bite of that cute little cupcake. I even had the courage to order 3 more!!!!!!! to-go of course. I had the chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing, coconut-lemon cupcake, and another traditional vanilla on vanilla cupcake. I left that place happy!!!
We then head off to downtown. The intention was to have small lunch at Paula Deen’s restaurant The Lady and Sons (www.ladyandsons.com) . I saw the menu online the night before and I already knew what I wanted–crabcake. That was it. I love crabcakes so every time I go to a restaurant that serves crabcakes, I always try one. Anyways. After several rounds trying to find a parking spot, we finally parked somewhere and walked to the restaurant. We saw a line–wasn’t that long. But it never moved. So I said to my husband, let me go to the gift shop (there is a gift shop next to Paula Deen’s restaurant–it’s owned by Paula). I was at the store for about 5 mins when my husband came up to me and said, we can’t lunch at the restaurant. I asked why. He said because we didn’t have a reservation. Ah what a bummer. We left the place.
I decided to visit a kitchen store called Kitchen on the Square. It is located not too far from Paula’s restaurant. I bought all sorts of cookie cutters, pie weigh, and some scoopers. I really took my time at the store. I just loved it.
Well, by the time I finished shopping, we felt kinda hungry. So we decided to eat at a small restaurant called Zunzi’s (http://www.zunzis.com/). We’ve always gone there everytime we visit Savannah. They have vegetarian-friendly menus. I orderd my favorite Portabello Mushroom’s sub (served on a baguette). Oh it is sooooo yummmyyy!!!! And it is HUGE!!!! My husband had the Beef Curry served on white rice. We both ordered African sweet tea (one of the owners is from South Africa). It was the perfect lunch. Affordable and very very good for your tummy.
After that great lunch, we decided to do some window shopping. We walked around downtown Savannah (Broughton street). I bought an antique gilded mirror ($60); bought two lottery tickets ($2); bought one supersize + super cute ring ($32); and bought 2 vintage wire caddies–different sizes and style ($21 and $10). I saw some cute clothes but they were too expensive so I didn’t buy them.
We also went window shopping on Whitaker street. We visited so many great furniture shops on that street. I found a cute little boutique called Custard (www.custard.com) that sells chic clothes mostly for under $100. The owner showed me a rack that filled with 40% off clothes. I found several pieces I loved and decided to buy 3 of them ($182).
It was already past 5 when we finished shopping. We deciced to go back to our hotel to walk our dogs. We spent few hours with the dogs before we headed back to downtown (River street) area to grab dinner. That evening we went to have dinner at Tubby’s Tank House (www.tubbystankhouse.com) on River street. The lines was long so we had to wait about 45 minutes. We walked along the River street to kill time. I bought some sweet goodies at The Peanut Shop (www.thepeanutshop). We visited many other shops as well. There were so many local artists showing off their talents that night and we truly enjoyed that. We had a good time that evening!!!
We left Savannah the day after in the morning. Before we left, we grabbed some breakfast. I ordered a to-go breakfast from the Firefly cafe (www.fireflycafega.com) –spinach and crab omelette and strawberry+banana smoothie. Breakfast was good but a bit pricey. My husband had some Gyro at a Greek restaurant on River Street. It was good–and affordable– he said.
While we were driving, we passed a Dog park!!! We decided to stop by. The dog park (www.savannahdogpark.com) is not a public dog park so you would actually have to have a membership but since we were visiting, they let us stay. The dogs loved it. They were running around–happy. We stayed there about an hour and a half. We continued our trip to the Forsyth park. We put the dogs on their leash and we walked around the park with them. Fun!!!!!!!! They enjoyed meeting new people. They sniffed and wagged their tails to everyone they met.
When we left Savannah, we felt so tired but very happy indeed. Our dogs were too tired to do anything else but sleep in the car. What a fun weekend we had. I enjoyed this trip as much as my other trips to this city. Savannah will always be in my heart.
I cannot wait to go back there again in the fall….
I made pasta in clam sauce for lunch and dinner today. It was quick and easy. I have boxes of dry pastas in my pantry and I knew I had to cook them sooner or later. I bought 2 cans of clam sauce and 2 cans of baby clams from the grocery store. I didn’t use all 4 cans. Just use one of each. Then I added a can of mushrooms. I seasoned the sauce with salt, pepper, parley, garlic powder, and a bit olive oil. It was simple, quick, and good.
We had small plate of salad before we ate dinner. I served my pasta in clam sauce with side of garlic breads (they were frozen). It was a nice simple dinner for my husband and I.
For dessert (both at lunch and dinner), we had a slice of pound cake I made the day earlier. Yummy.
Tomorrow, I am going to make Banana Custard Pie, grilled Ribeye steak, asparagus, and garlic mashed potatoes for my husband’s lunch and dinner.
Today is another gorgeous day!!!
Last night I baked Banana Bread (found the recipe here: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/recipe.aspx?recipeID=35305&Source=SearchResultPage ) and Corn and Basil tart (recipe here: http://www.bhg.com/recipes/recipedetail.jsp?recipeId=R120370 ) *you might need to register to access this recipe. I made Chicken Panini for my husband. For myself, I made Cheese Panini. Everything was good. Delicious!!!!!
For tonight’s dinner, I’d like to serve grilled Steak with sides of grilled Asparagus, mashed potatoes, and Caesar salad. For me, I’ll have everything but the grilled steak (I don’t eat meats). We still have leftover of Banana Bread but I’m in the mood to make some Pound Cake. So I am going to make it this afternoon.
Tomorrow is Saturday. I am thinking I’d like to take my husband for a picnic in the park. Just him and I. I’ll pack some lunch. I’m thinking Pound cake, grilled Shrimp sandwich and some cold watermelon and pinneaple chunks. It’ll be nice. On Sunday, I am thinking after church we can go to the beach. I can pack some hotdogs (veggie dog for me), cold fruits, and cold non alcoholic drinks.
Next week (Thursday/Friday – Sunday) we plan on taking a weekend getaway. We have several options to go to: Orlando, Savannah, or Charleston. We have never been to Charleston before. Regardless of where we are going, I am excited.
Nothing else is going on right now. Everything is good. I am happy. The work situation is looking brighter for me. I am so happy.
