Ever looked into the cupboard, knowing a hungry husband is coming home in less than 20 minutes, and have no idea what's for dinner? Yah, me too! I know we've only been married for 9 months, but I quickly learned that my go-to dinner of singleness (scrambled eggs when I couldn't think of anything else) was not the best offering for my wonderful new spouse.
Earlier this week, I went out for coffee with a friend who introduced me to a super-neat program. It's called E-Mealz, and they've dubbed themselves a "mental maid" to help out with dinners. It's super neat! Their goal is to give you a list of dinners for the week that are on a budget (usually composed of sale items), and then give you a shopping list itemized by which section of the store it's in! Brilliant! You can choose your store, your family size (they have 2 person menus, and family of 5 menus), and specialty menus (gluten free, portion control). And all this for less than $1.25/week! Heehee, and I found an online coupon (use the coupon "Dave") and got 2 weeks free. :)
What a wonderful idea! It's fun to have new ideas for inexpensive dinners, and it's also fun to save time by having my menu planned and saving time in the store with my shopping list itemized! Right now, I've picked the Walmart plan for 2, but I think I might switch to the Aldi's one (it's the cheapest, usually <$35/wk in groceries) or the Publix one (the sample recipes sound awesome!).
I wish I had found out about this earlier. This spring, we were on an especially tight budget, and it's nice now to have more things to rotate into the dinner menu beyond chili dogs. :) You can also give gift certificates, like to young couples or busy moms. Also, the creators have a passion for families having dinner together and for saving money. Yay!
If you're interested, here's the link:
E-MEALZ Easy Meals for Busy and Frugal Families
I've been using the website southernsavers.com, which I love for finding the good deals of the week, and I'm excited to have another tool in my budgeting bag! Hope it blesses you too, and that you have a wonderful family dinner tonight! Gotta run, my e-mealz dinner is ready! :)
Friday, September 30, 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
A Celebration of Starts
To my dear friends,
Hello again! To celebrate my return to blogging, I've found a new blog spot! With all the new (and quite delightful :) changes that this last year has brought, I thought it would be fun to celebrate these new beginnings with a new blog! What changes have occurred, you might wonder? Well, here are the new starts:
The start of our marriage: David and I got married the week before Christmas and are LOVING it!!! I always hoped that married life would be great, but it is even more wonderful that I could have imagined! Perhaps living in different countries for most of last year helps me to simply be delighted that I can see him everyday... Perhaps it's as many people have told me and it's just that we're still newlyweds... Or, perhaps (and this is my favorite theory), that when God is your match-maker, He still uses some of the same prefect wisdom and wonder that He used when He created Eve for Adam. I bet God has a twinkle in His eye right now thinkin' of all the couples that He matched up! :)
The start of our real estate empire: Heehee, okay just kidding. It's not at all an empire, but it is our first rental home. A couple of weeks ago, we closed on a townhouse that someday we'd like to rent out, and we moved out of our detached house and rented it out. I'm SOOOO thankful for the help of our wonderful parents through it all! And I'm so excited to see where this takes us. We both love houses, and real estate and renovations are things that we are both excited to look into together. Anyone wanna move here and rent from us? :) You'll have nice landlords... :)
The start of a new job and grad school: David's getting a master's in Sustainablity and Resilient Infrastructure, and I (first, I learned to remember what David was getting a degree in ;) started a new job this summer in a nearby ER. Things have been kinda hairy at times (err, well, dusty for David as he works with concrete and smashing it for his research, and kinda bloody and crazy for me as I help put people back together in the ER), but we're so thankful to see God's faithful provision for us and how He's showing us where He wants us.
So, you see, we simply needed a new blog to symbolize so many wonderful new starts! Let the celebration (and blogging) begin!
Hello again! To celebrate my return to blogging, I've found a new blog spot! With all the new (and quite delightful :) changes that this last year has brought, I thought it would be fun to celebrate these new beginnings with a new blog! What changes have occurred, you might wonder? Well, here are the new starts:
The start of our marriage: David and I got married the week before Christmas and are LOVING it!!! I always hoped that married life would be great, but it is even more wonderful that I could have imagined! Perhaps living in different countries for most of last year helps me to simply be delighted that I can see him everyday... Perhaps it's as many people have told me and it's just that we're still newlyweds... Or, perhaps (and this is my favorite theory), that when God is your match-maker, He still uses some of the same prefect wisdom and wonder that He used when He created Eve for Adam. I bet God has a twinkle in His eye right now thinkin' of all the couples that He matched up! :)
The start of our real estate empire: Heehee, okay just kidding. It's not at all an empire, but it is our first rental home. A couple of weeks ago, we closed on a townhouse that someday we'd like to rent out, and we moved out of our detached house and rented it out. I'm SOOOO thankful for the help of our wonderful parents through it all! And I'm so excited to see where this takes us. We both love houses, and real estate and renovations are things that we are both excited to look into together. Anyone wanna move here and rent from us? :) You'll have nice landlords... :)
The start of a new job and grad school: David's getting a master's in Sustainablity and Resilient Infrastructure, and I (first, I learned to remember what David was getting a degree in ;) started a new job this summer in a nearby ER. Things have been kinda hairy at times (err, well, dusty for David as he works with concrete and smashing it for his research, and kinda bloody and crazy for me as I help put people back together in the ER), but we're so thankful to see God's faithful provision for us and how He's showing us where He wants us.
So, you see, we simply needed a new blog to symbolize so many wonderful new starts! Let the celebration (and blogging) begin!
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