Finally getting around to the coffee table...

About a year and a half ago my husband's aunt moved and did not have space for one of her gigantic coffee tables.  Fortunately, we have an enormous couch that our small old coffee table really looked silly next to.  The problem was that there were stains on the top of the table that wouldn't come off, and the paint colors really didn't fit with what I had envisioned for the room.

Before...

 Zooming in on the spots...

For a long time this table sat in our garage because I just could not come up with a vision for it.  I'm kind of struggling with a vision for that room in general.  I want it to be inviting and comfy, but right now it is pretty boring.  I'm now visualizing some good ideas for the room, but the execution will take time.

In any case, the first step was to seal in the old paint and stains.  I didn't want to just paint over it because I thought the spots would bleed right through.  I had heard that you could avoid sanding old paint when repainting a surface if you just used a coat of this first: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Zinsser-Cover-Stain-1-Gal-White-Primer-Sealer-182410/202016527#.UaLXIKKsiSo (Zinsser Cover Stain Primer) which you can pick up for less than $20 at your local home improvement store.  This is fairly sticky (oil based) and is a mess to clean up.  I'd recommend using an old paint brush that you'd throw out anyway and making sure you get it done quickly to keep the brush from getting gooey while you work.

After that, I just used the leftover paint (from painting the fireplace and wall cutouts in that room), and some stencils I bought for about $14 on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005LUSWFE/ref=pe_309540_26725410_item and
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001C2GFBS/ref=pe_309540_26725410_item

The painting and stenciling was a bit of a challenge because I had to get to it when the baby would nap.  Unfortunately, this turned out to be the weekend where the baby would only sleep for 10-20 mins at a time and then wake up screaming, so my brushes kept drying out.  My husband was doing some major yard work, so it was really hard trying to get both projects done without neglecting our son.

Here's the final product.

My only complaints with this project are that (1) I didn't know how to cover/fill-in the split in the wood, but I wish I would've made the effort to learn before I did the painting and (2) the paint I had leftover was flat so the finish on this table is quite delicate.  I'm going to look into ideas for doing some sort of a glossy finish or seal to keep the top from getting damaged by normal use and spills.  Maybe I can also figure out how to do something about the wood split without messing up the design too much...

Basically Ready

It has been a long time since my last post.  There have been bridal/baby showers to plan & attend, baby gifts to sort through and set up, thank you notes to write, and finally, a wedding to attend.  Nonstop contractions over the last four weeks have forced me to slow down on pretty much everything I was doing.  Mostly, I went to work (taking a few days off here and there when things were really bad) and did the minimum amount of laundry and grocery shopping in order to be able to go to work.  Then at home I'd just lay around and try to sleep.  I found a new show I like (Property Brothers on TLC) and could give you a full briefing on every current news story, but mostly, I found out that I hate not being able to take care of myself and my life like I normally would.  My brother-in-law's wedding was last night and I will be 37 weeks tomorrow, which means the baby will be officially full-term.  In other words, I can now stop worrying about going into labor before we're ready!  And believe me, I am sooooooooo ready!

Thank goodness I (basically) finished up the nursery the DAY BEFORE all the contractions started.  Here is how it turned out!  Note: Most of this nursery was put together through generous gifts and I haven't done much shopping for our child.  We're very lucky to put something this nice together on such a low budget!

This stenciling took weeks, and honestly, didn't quite turn out how I wanted it to.  But I used cheap stencils ($5 at Michaels) and kept re-using them (which is why the letters got thicker as I went on), a silver thin Sharpe paint pen ($3), and left-over paint from the mural, so at least it was a cheap project!

I got this glider & ottoman as a joint gift from my extended family in Wisconsin, the quilt and pillow was made by my mother-in-law and the banner decoration was made by my newest sister-in-law.  I really didn't have much to do with this side of the room, aside from registering for the glider, but I love the way it turned out!

I have posted photos of the mural wall that my cousin did before, but now I have the dresser in there!  The dresser is actually more than 30 years old.  My mom bought it used before I was born and painted it then to make it look nice.  She gave it another fresh coat of paint and now it is ready to be used again.  Last week I added the diaper changing pad and supplies to the top of it, but I haven't bothered taking another photo yet. You can't tell from the photo, but the drawers are actually filled with clothes, towels, swaddles and other gifts the baby has received from many friends and family members.

  

My parents bought a couch from Ikea earlier this year and received a $75 Ikea gift card as part of the purchase.  Since they didn't need it for anything else, we used it to buy the shelves & white basket "drawers" for it.  It is now filled up with lots of books and other baby gifts/toys that I received at my baby shower.

The crib was a gift from my parents and the mattress is from my Grandmother.  The quilt was a gift my parents received when I was born from my aunt Frances.  Sadly, she has since passed away.  The squares used to be orange, but my mom updated them to be aqua to match the color scheme of the nursery while preserving the original nursery rhyme squares that my aunt had made.  The blanket hanging on the crib was made by a friend of my mother-in-laws.  I loved a similar blanket that had been made for my sister-in-law's baby so she had one made for me.  I have since received bedding as a gift from my sister-in-law, but have not had the chance to wash it yet and put it in the crib.  Since he'll sleep in the pack'n'play in our room at first, I'm not too worried about not having the bedding in yet, but it is on my list now that I'm not too scared about over-doing it anymore!

And finally...

my diaper stash!  I did a lot of couponing in the second trimester when I had lots of energy, and then received some more as shower gifts.  I think this baby is set on diapers for quite some time now!!

So, kid, take note of this...we're ready for you!!

One Baby Step in the Pantry

I hate it when I get nothing done.  Very often I get intimidated by the projects in front of me and become paralyzed, failing to take even the smallest of steps.  My pantry is still a mess, despite organizing the dog stuff.  Here's the other side (just went shopping this morning so it's extra messy):

It's hard to tell from the picture, but there's a lot of clutter behind the food right in front.  The shelves are fairly deep.  For a while my husband has hated all the random packages of tea taking up space.  I realized I still had a little storage bin that we got as a wedding gift that hadn't been used yet.  I had planned to use it to store some type of sugar or other baking essential in there, but never really needed it.  So, now I got rid of all the random boxes and something that isn't in use.

So, a really small part of the mess was organized.  At least I got something accomplished...

The 2AM fiasco & utility bill savings

We bought a foreclosure last year, which means there was A LOT we didn't know about our house.  I won't get into all of that now, but I'll summarize by saying this:

We bought a bigger space than we needed with more bells & whistles (mostly broken) than we knew how to use...but we bought it at a fantastic price with a payment that we could afford, even if one of us lost a job.

After getting hit with our first utility bill at over $400 (with the temperature averaging around 110 degrees the first month we lived there), we knew we needed to make some adjustments.  By working with our utility company to get on a peak/off-peak schedule, we were able to use most of our energy during off-peak times to get a lower rate.  Peak time is between 3pm - 6pm on weekdays, so sometimes that means waiting to turn down the thermostat and start doing the laundry when we get home from work.  We also keep the thermostat as hot as we can handle, which amounts to 86 when we are away and 82 when we are home.  We've gotten used to this, but I wouldn't recommend this in humid climates.  When I lived in Florida, I wouldn't have gone above 84/80.  Now our utility bill has been under $200 in the summer and below $100 in the winter, which isn't too bad considering we have high ceilings, 2996 sq. ft., and a pool in our backyard.  I do think that the high ceilings help us tolerate the higher thermostat settings though!

Within the last few months we've made some minor changes: keeping our cell phone chargers in a drawer and only plugging them in to charge our phones for a few hours (rather than sitting out overnight) and unplugging out laptops and putting them to sleep when we aren't using them.

One of the previously mentioned "bells & whistles" we had when we moved in was a security system that was not actually hooked up to any company.  We feel safe in our neighborhood and we don't own anything new/fancy that would be worth a good burglar's time so we didn't want to pay for a security service.  Unfortunately, without a code or any instructions, we couldn't figure out how to disable the darn thing!  It was on my "to-do" list since it was obviously sucking down some electricity and would randomly screech every month or so to let us know the backup battery was low.  We could hit "re-set" and get this to stop...until about 2AM this morning...  Nonstop screeching during my valuable sleep time was enough to take some action.

After a google search for directions for our system, searching the whole house trying to locate the main box, and then removing the electrical wiring, we now have a screech-free system that does not use any power.  So, if you have moved into a house that has a security system still running (that you aren't using), I'd suggest going ahead and disconnecting it now.  It may save you some extra cash and a serious 2AM headache!

 

A crazy pregnancy dream saved me $13!

I've never been one to remember my dreams, but there's something about being pregnant that changed all that.  Some dreams have been ridiculous, most have been boring, but last night I actually had a practical dream.  I was standing on the side of the freeway in the hot Phoenix sun in August with a broken down car and in a panic about dying of dehydration while pregnant.  I woke up all freaked out and concerned that we had forgotten to add roadside assistance to our new car insurance when we switched policies about 7 months ago.  I remembered I paid somewhere around $1.50 per 6 months of roadside assistance and thought it was worth that small amount to have someone to call no matter where I got stranded.

So I finally went in and set up an account to "manage our policy online".  I do this with everything so I have no idea why I put it off so long and didn't really double check our coverage.  Shame on me!  But since we saved over $250 by switching companies I thought I must have given up something I had before.  Not so!  I still had roadside assistance for $1.76 (phew!), but I also had something that we'd be highly unlikely to ever use: rental car coverage!  Since we're a two car family with only one car we use regularly, we can almost always figure out a way to get by if something happened to one of our cars.  We also have a lot of family nearby who regularly use our extra car and would be able to help us out temporarily if something were to happen.  In any case, I saved $13 today by removing a coverage I didn't know I had and don't expect to utilize!

Bonus tip for saving on car insurance: increase your deductibles from $250 or $500 to $1000.  It usually pays for itself over the course of a year in premium reductions, and I'd imagine you aren't likely to get in an accident annually!  But if you're the type not to always have $1000 on hand for emergencies, then this probably isn't a good way to cut back on spending.

Common Carpool Conundrums & the Benefits of Solving Them

One of the more common ways you hear about to cut down your budget is "you should carpool."  Fantastic idea, right?  Gas is expensive and the carpool lane is usually faster than the other lanes!  Putting it into practice usually generates more excuses than a kid who didn't do his homework.

My husband and I have been successfully carpooling for about a year now.  We still have two cars, but with a baby on the way we've opted to hang on to that second car as our schedules will be changing.  I do know a few couples that have saved a ton of money by sharing one car.  If you can figure out a system that works well for your family to use one car, that's awesome, but we aren't there yet.

In any case, when we first moved out to the burbs, we had a variety of excuses for not carpooling.  Here are our excuses, and the plan we put in place to overcome them.

Problem: Husband's excuse, "I don't want to see people from work when I don't have to, let alone spend an hour a day in the car with them."  My excuse, "I don't want to have to have a set time to leave in the morning and exit at night since my schedule can change by day."  Our excuse, "If I don't go to the gym on my way home then I won't go.  A coworker carpool probably won't stop at the gym for you."

Solution: It doesn't say anywhere that you HAVE to carpool with people you work with.  You don't necessarily have to carpool with someone in a nearby office building.  We came up with the spousal carpool.   Provided that you don't work in opposite directions from your house, this could work for a lot of people that wouldn't necessarily have thought of it.  After all, this isn't something that initially occurred to us.  Our offices are about 20 minutes apart and we'd take different freeways to work.  In fact, if I didn't hate commuting and sitting in traffic so much, we may never have figured this all out.  Before, his commute was about 35 to 45 minutes NW and mine was about 25 to 40 minutes N of our house.  Now, with the help of the carpool lane, the drive to my work is about 20 minutes and then he continues on another 20 minutes to his work.  So even though it takes him approximately the same amount of time to get to work, he drives a few extra miles and rarely sits in traffic.  The drive between our offices is on a fairly deserted road, so he prefers that to the freeway.

Why it works for us: Living in the same house makes it easy to coordinate our schedules around one another.  Much easier than I expected, in fact.  We discuss when we have early meetings or might need to stay late,  we hit the gym together and work our carpool around that.  Also, you know your carpool is running late / ahead of schedule when you can observe each other's morning routine.  We can remind each other of errands and run them on the way home together.  The carpool is also a great way to sneak in some extra time together to catch up between working, doing chores, and attending various obligations.  This system also works well for us because there aren't many times after arriving at work that I'd need a car.  I work in a very "walkable" area of town with many restaurant options (in case I forget to pack lunch or am out of groceries), in addition to a bank and post office and various other errands I can get done during lunch.  I also have a few coworkers who live nearby that I can turn to if he gets stuck working late.

Financial benefits: After factoring in the extra 2 miles out of the way on his trip and eliminating my 14 mile drive each way, that saves us 24 miles of driving per day.  Also, my car gets about 7 more mpg than his car and has all the maintenance covered under warranty (including oil changes).  By using the more efficient car we save even more on maintenance and gas.  On average we save about $20 per week by carpooling.  Additionally my husband's work has an incentive program for carpooling and we end up with a check for about $70 at the end of each month.  Not bad!

Of course, no situation is ever perfect.  I spend far more time listening to sports radio now, I clean some trash out of the car that I didn't bring into it, and I end up spending a little more time at work than I might have before.  But we save money and I get dropped off at work "princess style" (according to my coworkers) without the stress of sitting in traffic.  It's all worth it!

Packing Burritos for Lunch

One of the quickest ways to save on everyday expenses is to pack lunch.  Annoying?  Sometimes...but it is fairly easy to do with a little organization.  I like to use Sundays to get organized for the week.  I clip my coupons, check what is on sale, get my grocery list together, shop, and then prepare lunches in advance so I can just grab what I've already prepared on my way out the door.  Finding something that both myself and my husband would agree to eat was somewhat of a challenge, but I finally found something that works very well for both of us.  It also stays fresh all week (despite being pre-made) in the fridge.

Introducing our creation: the lunch burrito!  Prices fluctuate slightly by week, depending what is on sale, but it should end up costing around 95 cents per burrito and tasting much better than those frozen ones that will have you hungry again an hour later.  I will usually make 10 at a time and that lasts us about a week since my husband likes to take 2 for lunch, and we don't eat them everyday.

What you need:
Large tortillas
1 can refried beans
1 can black beans
rice (we use whole grain brown rice)
1 jar salsa (we generally use medium)
1 bag shredded cheese (we like the Mexican blend from our local store)

Heat up the beans according to the instructions on the can.  I use the microwave instructions b/c it's easier and then I'll already have them in tupperware to store any leftovers for the next week.  Then just put it all together (I layer in the ingredients in the order above on the list) and wrap up the burritos in aluminum foil.  Don't forget to bring something to heat them in the microwave with!  I don't want to be responsible for anyone putting foil in the microwave!  Happy lunching.