In the past six months or so, Ben and I have made a lot of major decisions for our life together. A short recap [of the major ones] for those who haven't been with us from the start:
- We decided not to proceed with adopting a child yet.
- We decided not to proceed with having a biological child yet.
- We decided to buy a house!
With these few [but IMPORTANT] decisions in mind, we are in a stage now where we have to decide what we do next. What have we decided to do? Focus on ourselves and each other.
To be honest with you, since Ben and I decided that we were not ready to expand our family yet, I have been the happiest I've been in YEARS. There is NO stress... NO pressure. My [stress-induced] allergic reactions have almost ceased to exist AND my skin is way better than it's been in a long time. It was almost as if we felt like we needed to be moving at a certain speed to make everyone else happy, and now we've decided to say "FORGET THAT," and focus on US and what will work for us right now.
All of this in mind, we're making a few more changes in our lives in the immediate-to-near future. First thing first, we are going to save up and take a fabulous vacation together next summer! Without telling you the details of our finances, I will say that Ben and I throw around a little more money than we should. We like to eat out, we like to go new places, and I like to buy clothes for myself/gifts for other people. That's a lot of money going to things that we could live without! - When I was in New York visiting my aunt and uncle recently, she told me that she was completing the 52-week Saving Challenge. I'd seen it online before, but hadn't actually considered doing it. Now that we've decided we want to take a trip to Washington D.C./New York City [a few days in each], I have the perfect end goal to actually complete the challenge!
Here's the break down of what you save per week and where you end up:
If we successfully complete the challenge, we will have a nice little vacation fund to use! I'm already excited about it and it's an entire year away!
Another thing that we are doing to help with our finances [AND OUR HEALTH] is to incorporate more fresh vegetables into our meal time plans. We have always been lovers of veggies in the summer, but during the winter our eating kind of goes to crap because the city market isn't as great. Well, we went today and decided to buy in bulk! We got three nectarines, one pound of green beans, and NINE carrots for $4. We used two carrots for dinner tonight, and then chopped up the other seven [diced, sliced, and stew chunks] to put in the freezer for later dates. We decided that if we can find great deals on stuff at the market, we can go ahead and buy it cheap and use it later. It's cost effective AND we'll be eating way healthier.
I've also decided that I'm going to really throw myself into eating better, drinking more water, and getting a little more active by walking. With my skin problems on my hands and feet, I'm pretty limited as far as work outs - but I'm excited to try to get myself to a better place health wise!
As always, thanks to everyone who reads this for your unwaivering support as Ben and I try to navigate this thing called life together. Love to you all! XXO
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