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Riders on the storm of lawnmowing

June 17, 2015 by Jana 38 Comments

In case you missed the announcement on Instagram, we’ve added a new member to our family. His name is Willard. Here he is. And yes, his name is from exactly where you think.

As a suburban girl, born and raised, I’m still struggling with adapting to country living. Buying a riding lawn mower? Well, I guess that means I’m officially country folk and I need to leave the suburban girl at the mall.

It’s a been a long process to acceptance and when we bought Willard the other day, here’s what went through my head:

So that’s what $1500 looks like. I feel like it should be prettier.

It’s cheaper in the long run than hiring the neighbor’s lawn service.

But where the hell are we going to get $1500? Might be time to start hooking.

Who am I kidding? I can’t do that. Might be time to start growing some stuff instead. We have the space.

He’s going to make me use Willard. I’m going to have to help cut the grass now. I don’t want to help cut the grass. It’ll probably turn into that scene from Mad Men.

My husband is going to host lawnmower races. I just know it.

It’ll probably look like that scene in Footloose. Thank god there’s an emergency room less than 10 minutes from the house.

He’s going to play “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” REALLY loudly.

Oh, shit. He’s actually making a playlist of songs about tractors. What did I do to deserve this?

Wait, did he just refer to a lawnmower as a tractor? Isn’t a tractor a type of truck and a lawnmower, well, a machine for mowing the lawn? When did they become synonymous? I feel this is wrong.

I’m so glad we have a two car garage so the cars can park on the driveway and the lawnmower and the inflatable pool can go in the garage.

OMG, we have a riding lawnmower AND an inflatable pool. His music of choice is country. We’re one pickup truck away from official redneck status.

My life has taken a strange and unexpected turn. I need to process how I feel about this.

Did he and the child just have a conversation about which headphones they need to buy for when they use Willard?

Wait, did the child just say she wants to use him, too?

He’s planning winter activities for Willard. I just know it.

I hope none of them involve pulling the child behind Willard on a sled.

I think I just inadvertently gave him an idea. He doesn’t need more ideas.

I can deal with the rest but I swear, if he drives the lawnmower to the neighbor’s house instead of walking, I’m asking for a divorce.

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Home sweet home

November 25, 2014 by Jana 24 Comments

I’ve been thinking a lot about the direction for the blog and what the content will look like in 2015. Thanks to your input, as well as what I’m finding myself interested in (and immersed in) lately, I have dozens of post ideas and I’m looking forward to sharing them with you guys in the coming months.

One of the themes I’ll be covering is inviting you guys into my home more often. What I’m cooking, how I’m attempting to organize, thoughts on parenting and marriage and having pets, some finance stuff, and some of the home decorating projects I’m working on. I want to open that up instead of keeping it all to myself.

I’m that generous. You’re welcome.

In the meantime, here’s a quick look in my house (with no pictures because I’m feeling exceptionally lazy. #sorrynotsorry):

There are shoes and cups and books and dog toys everywhere.

It’s pretty obvious a child lives here, too.

We have approximately 34243 iDevice chargers and 5 devices.

The kitchen counter is way too crowded with appliances, and there’s usually a cup in the sink (despite my efforts to prevent it).

Whenever I clean, it rains and basically defeats the purpose because muddy paws and shoes.

The beds are made.

The toilet seats are down.

The floors are clean.

The mantle and blinds need to be dusted.

The walls aren’t covered in art; they’re covered in family pictures. Some are hand drawn.

They’re also in need of new paint.

The office is in desperate need of a professional organization.

The pantry could use some help, too.

The furniture is well loved.

The smell of candles or home cooking fill the house.

Sometimes the smoke detector goes off.

The TV is typically on (unless I’m home alone. Then there’s music).

We watch sports and crime shows and popular comedies and kids shows and lots and lots of movies. Sometimes we pretend to be smart and watch the news.

We treat our pets like they’re our children. If you don’t like them, don’t come over.

There are only 3 of us but sometimes, it sounds, and looks, like 47 people live here.

We laugh a lot. We yell, too. Someone is usually talking.

Our garage is the most hated place in the house. Except the basement. That’s worse.

The laundry room is NEVER empty.

We lose things often. We usually find them. Sometimes we just give up and surrender to the item’s inevitable fate (probably eaten by a dog).

I’m sure there’s stuff I’m leaving out but now you know the truth: we’re about as close to normal as you can get so if you come over, you know what to expect. And when I do share pictures, you won’t be shocked at the sorry state of parts of my house.

But I’m apologizing in advance.

Coming up tomorrow: my Thanksgiving thankfulness list.

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The November in which I get organized (sort of)

November 5, 2014 by Jana 27 Comments

I think today is the day we’re supposed to report on our results of October’s Wallet Watch and I think tomorrow is the day we link up for our Choose Your Own Adventure Challenge but I’m pretty much a mess and since I’m remembering both now, they’re getting crammed into one post.

If you want to break it up, read the first half today and the second half tomorrow but that seems a bit ridiculous to ask of you guys so you probably should just knock it all out today.

Let’s cover the Wallet Watch first.

This is what went down:

No unplanned going out to eat. The results: HAHAHAHAHA! I never should have even made this a rule because we didn’t even make it past the first weekend.
Stop abusing my Starbucks gift cards. The results: I still have $5 left on one of them (which is half of the $10 initial amount) and I started drinking more tea at home. This was aided by the fact that my daughter said “Mommy, you should drink tea from home. It’s cheaper.”
Stay away from nail polish and makeup. The results: I bought no new makeup. I bought no new nail polish. I spent $0 on anything beauty related, except for what was necessary like face wash. But I’m committed to getting the Naked or Naked2 Basics palette for Christmas. Or Hanukkah. Either will do.
Find free stuff to do. The results: I think I did okay with this. Um. Well, except for the I can’t mention what it was family road trip the first weekend of the month. That was CRAZY expensive and maybe we used the money we had saved for our new dishwasher to do it but every minute was worth having to hand wash my dishes every day for the forseeable future.

So, to sum up

And now, the Choose Your Own Adventure Challenge.

I had one goal. To not drink diet soda. And I mostly achieved it. Except on the 7 or so days that I didn’t and had the deliciousness that is diet soda.

And it was glorious. #noshame

For November, the theme is organizing which I love more than words can say. I need to get some of my shit organized because I keep losing important things like bills and my daughter’s homework and gloves. And I really want to start using Pinterest more than just a place to internet hoard (between Pinterest and Pocket, I am set for DAYS with things to do and read). So I focused my organizing to these areas:

My daughter’s homework station. She doesn’t have a desk yet and we needed somewhere to keep her craft supplies and homework and assorted school stuff. It’s impossible to find anything. It needs to be dealt with.
My hallway closet. First of all, it smells like feet. So that needs to cease immediately. And the piles of winter accessories need to be sorted and stored in a fashion where my daughter doesn’t wind up wearing my gloves and my husband doesn’t have to use my polka dot umbrella.
The living room table. I don’t know how to describe this situation. It’s essentially a table that gets filled with junk daily. I hate looking at it and if we didn’t need it, I’d set it on fire. Since we need it, it is a moral imperative that I figure out how to tame it.
Pinterest. I need to cull my pins, reorganize my boards, and sort some into my new boards so that when I want to do a project, I can go to my board of projects I’ll actually do and when I want to menu plan using save recipes, I can find ones that fit my time constraints and my budget, and I need to do something with my secret boards, too.

I’m pretty sure I could attack my whole house so I might revisit this challenge on my own in a couple of months but for this month, the above list will do.
And this is how I feel about it.

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How to be a terrible neighbor

October 9, 2014 by Jana 28 Comments

A little over a year ago, my family moved from our townhouse into a single family house. We lived in the townhouse for 9 years and, overall, we had great neighbors. Specifically the houses on either side of us and we knew that when we moved, we’d probably not find neighbors as good as them.

We know how lucky we were. And we remember it. Every day.

When you move from houses that are attached to houses that are not attached, it not only puts physical distance between you and your neighbors, but it also creates a bit of a personal distance. We all live in our own little bubble and I swear, I haven’t seen the family that lives 2 houses down from us in about a month. That said, we have gotten to know our neighbors within our immediate vicinity and despite our differences, we all have one thing in common.

We all hate the same house.

Maybe hate is a strong word. How about we all dislike them immensely and with great passion? Sounds a little better. Anyway, the reason we all can’t stand them is because they’ve essentially written the manual on how to be crappy neighbors. And, because I’m nice and thoughtful, I figured I’d share that manual with you guys in case you ever want to make your entire block dislike you (which you might, so consider this a PSA).

It’s a pretty easy process, and as long as you follow these steps, you’ll put yourself on track:

1. Be unfriendly. Never smile, wave, make eye contact, acknowledge or do anything that would remotely look like a friendly gesture. Forget small talk; that’s not for you. Nope, for you, it’s essential that you deliberately and purposefully ignore everyone.

2. Be noisy. Especially at inappropriate times, like midnight on a Tuesday. How are you going to make everyone dislike you if you’re not yelling at your spouse or revving your engine late a night, while people are trying to sleep?

3. Be flagrant with your smoking. You smoke and everyone needs to know it. For you, it’s not enough to sit on your front steps smoking. Nope, you need to take that into other neighbor’s garages and leave your cigarette butts in front of other homes.

4. Never control your dogs. It’s not enough that your incessantly yappy dogs bother you. They have to bother the whole street! So make sure you have them outside, where they can serenade the whole block but also make sure that you don’t put them on a leash so they can shit in different yards. Variety is the spice of life, amirite? And as a bonus, never clean it up, either. You consider that a gift!

5. Let your kids run wild. And make sure you’re not watching them, either. It takes a village, isn’t that what they say? Well, to you, you’re not actually part of that village but it’s totally okay to let your kids run loose and let the village take care of them while you’re inside doing who knows what. You need a break, after all.

Remember, you can balance all of this out with making sure your lawn is mowed, your trash isn’t strewn about, and you only have a few house calls from the local police (which might or might have to do with the drugs you might or might not be running out of your garage. I don’t know, though. I’m not here to judge how you make a living. If you can afford your mortgage, then have at it).

Okay, so in reality I know that my neighbors could be much, much worse. But this kind of behavior takes a lot of getting used to and I have a really low threshold for bullshit, drama, and people who don’t watch their pets, children, and have a blatant disrespect for others around them. And to be fair, it’s mainly the mom. The dad is an okay dude and the kids are necessarily horrible. I know they’re doing the best they can.

I just wish they’d be quieter.

And corral their dogs.

I don’t think that’s asking too much.

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Carnival of Personal Finance #446: The To-Read Books Edition

January 7, 2014 by Jana 8 Comments

I am a voracious reader. It’s not uncommon for me to be in the middle of two or three books at a time. I’ve been known to finish 3 books in a week. I have an ever growing to-read list that will never be tamed. I’m pretty sure the librarians at my local library are pretty sick of me. And I’ve only been living here for 4 months.

Which is why, when I joined Goodreads 2014 reading challenge, I only picked 37 books instead of 50 or more (which is what I’ll most likely wind up doing). I didn’t want to force myself to finish a crappy book just to meet an arbitrary goal. There are too many books for that. So I went with a more reasonable and sane 37 (insert quote from Clerks) in honor of my 37th birthday this year.

But you’re not here for that. You’re here to see what posts made this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance. You can read on for that. And I’ve also included a few of the nonfiction books on my list just in case you’re looking for ideas to round out (or start) your to-read list:

Editor’s picks

Lenny from Best Money Saving Blog presents You can embrace Digital Marketing even on a Small Business Budget, and says, “While digital marketing definitely has its merits many small business owners are hesitant to use it simply because of the time that they believe it takes to make it work.”

Sam from The New Business Blog presents How to Build a Brand People will Adore, and says, “Many people outside of marketing think of a brand as sort of this false cover that is given to a product or service in order to con them into buying something that they do not actually want or, even worse, do not need.”

Marissa from Thirty Six Months presents The Joys of Freelancing, and says, “One of the things that I really enjoy doing is mentoring freelancers. I work in the start-up world, and freelancers are a big part of that. I get to see the ups and downs of that world every day. It is fascinating to see how people price their time, and creative abilities.”

Alexa from Single Moms Income presents Resolution #2 ? Digital Organization and Putting Systems in Place, and says, “You know when you do not check your email for a few days and then you start to dread it because you just know you are going to have like 100 messages in your inbox? That is how I was feeling yesterday.”

Amanda from My Dollar Plan presents New Year’s Resolution: Frugal Ways to Cut Back on TV Time, and says, “Cutting back on TV is a great idea! But how do you do it without filling your time with costly activities? Here are some ideas!”

Kylie Ofiu from Kylie Ofiu presents 10 Steps For Success With Goals, and says, “Setting, sticking to and achieving goals feels great, but can sometimes be a little hard. Here’s 10 steps plus tips from others on how to do it all from setting your goals, staying motivated and right through to completion of your goals.”

New Year’s Resolutions

Mario from Debt BLAG presents Don’t make New Year’s resolutions; set smart intermediate goals instead

Stefanie @ The Broke and Beautiful Life from The Broke and Beautiful Life presents 5 New Years Resolutions Worth Making

Sean Smarty from Growing Money presents 10 New Year Financial Resolutions 2014

Pauline from Savvy Scot presents New year financial boot camp: utilities and bill check-up

Real Estate

Miss T. from Prairie Eco Thrifter presents Inefficiencies in Homes to Look for as a First Time Home Buyer

Pauline from Reach Financial Independence presents Are You Ready for the Challenge of Real Estate Investing?

Pauline from Make Money Your Way presents Real Estate Investing

Marissa from Finance Triggers presents How to spot a good mortgage broker from a bad one

Investing and Retirement

Jim from Critical Financial presents Powerwave Technologies | My Ah Ha Investment Moment

Jeff Rose from Good Financial Cents presents The Prosper Vs. Lending Club Experiment

David from Financial Nerd presents Trends in Interest Rates in 2014

Aaron from Aaron Hung presents Looking for investment advice on Twitter? These new Tools will help

Michael Kitces from Nerd’s Eye View presents Understanding The Two 5-Year Rules For Roth IRA Contributions And Conversions

PK from Don’t Quit Your Day Job… presents Expected Real Returns on BAA, AAA, and 10 Year Treasuries

Graham Clark from Moneystepper presents FTSE 100 diversification ? performance of the top 10 consitutents

Emily from Evolving Personal Finance presents When to Pass Up a Company Retirement Match

Ray from Squirrelers presents Taking a Pension or Lump Sum: What Would You Do?

Bob from Dwindling Debt presents What’s the Secret to Early Retirement?

Personal Finance and Saving Money

Daniel from Make Money Make Cents presents Want to make smarter money decisions? Use these tips from Economist Noreena Hertz

Jay from Daily Fuel Economy Tip presents Hypermiling ? 5 Tactics to Reduce Gas Consumption

Oscar from Money is the Root presents Need to binge shop? Your local dollar store has bargains, but maybe not all of them

Katie from IRA Basics presents Benefits of a Budget

Alexa from Defeat Our Debt presents 7 Ideas for Saving Money on Food

Lily from Paying Debt Down presents Money Saving Holiday Shopping Tips 2013

Jason from The Money Makers presents Olivia Wilde is Having a Baby: What are the first-month expenses?

Monica from Monica On Money presents How My PT Cruiser Saved Me $27,600

Eric from Narrow Bridge Finance presents 4 Uncommon Ways to Start Saving Money this Year

Jack from Money Saving Ethics presents Holiday Travel Tips 2013

Miscellaneous Money Stuff

Natalie from Debt and the Girl presents Joy is Separate from Circumstance

Larry from KrantCents presents Technology Has Made Me Lazy or More Productive!

Holly from Club Thrifty presents Social Framing

Sustainable PF from Sustainable Personal Finance Blog presents Would You Use an Alternative Currency?

Andrea from So Over This presents Movers Destroyed My Belongings ? Saga Continues

Hadley from Epic Finances presents Why did the Founder of Barnes

Amy from Money Mishaps presents Why do some Credit Scores FALL after paying off a Loan?

Matt from Budget Snob presents Don’t Worry about your Credit Score being affected by These 5 Things

Justin from Edward Antrobus presents Is that awesome Review a Fake?

FI Pilgrim from FI Journey presents Would You Become Self Employed For Less Money?

Riders on the storm of lawnmowing

Home sweet home

The November in which I get organized (sort of)

How to be a terrible neighbor

Carnival of Personal Finance #446: The To-Read Books Edition

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