bbq pineapple chicken

I found this recipe on Pinterest (of course) and thought it looked really good, and super simple. You basically just put chicken, bbq sauce, and pineapple in the crockpot. Then you shred the chicken and serve it over rice!

Super easy, and really good. :)

mini golf at work - part 4

Ok, so I've been posting about this for awhile. This is the last one. The final hole that I was a part of for our work mini golf tournament was Olympic themed!

Here is the hole:

 This is the very end of the hole, with the Olympic rings and the Olympic torch!

 This is the Olympic torch up close. This was my contribution to the hole.  It's made out of cardboard, spray painted. The flames are tissue paper. There is a fan in the middle of the torch, so the tissue paper fluttered slightly! (I know you can't see that in the picture, but it's happening!)

I ended up spending $8 for the torch. I bought a $4 can of spray paint, and a $4 pack of tissue paper. I'm not sure it's fair to count all $4 of the tissue paper though, as I only used 3 pieces, and there were 40 pieces in the pack.

The event itself was really really fun, and I think I will get involved again if we do it next year...but maybe not so many holes!

mini golf at work - part 3

Did I mention we also made cookies to go with our mini golf hole? They are decorated like pirates!!

mini golf at work - part 2

I mentioned in the last post that we did a mini golf tournament at work, and that I was involved with multiple holes.

A friend at work and I decided to build our own mini golf hole, which was pretty ambitious given that most of the other teams had more than 6 people on them. We built this thing all by ourselves!

Can you guess the theme?!?!

 This is the front!

And this is the back!

Pirate!! We also wore paper pirate hats and eye patches. It was pretty awesome!

Overall, to construct this thing, I spent about $20, on spray paint, other paint, and for felt for the sails.

mini golf at work - part 1

I should mention - I have a great job. For the most part, it's just a job, but every once in awhile we get to do really fun stuff.

One of the most recent fun things is a mini golf tournament! Here's how it worked. Anyone could form a team and build a mini golf hole. We got to set them up in the hallways and play!

I ended up on a few teams, because I can get really into this kind of thing.

Let's start with the team I didn't do much for - the fun committee hole. (I am on the fun committee...that's right, we have a fun committee in the building...which is how I ended up on that team.)

I didn't really contribute. One of the guys on the fun committee also gets pretty into this kind of thing and built most of it himself. But, here it is!

It's a Mayan themed hole. The sign on the back wall says something about the end of world, playing off the Mayan calendar ending in 2012.

shoe polish

Last year, I bought a pair of purple cowboy boots! I wear them to work, and anywhere else I can get away with wearing them. :) They've started to get a little scuffed up and I decided I needed some shoe polish to fix that! I think what I actually got was colored leather cream...but it worked just as well.

In the picture above, I had not polished the bottom of the boot (just above the heel) and had done the top part (the toe). 

See the difference?!

OK, maybe you don't. But I do! I love the way shoes looks right after they've been polished!

new glasses

Recently, Alex and I got new glasses and contacts. This turned out to be a way bigger expense than we thought it would be! We ended up spending nearly $800 on glasses for both of us, and contacts for me.

I never wore my glasses before.  I'd put my contacts in as soon as I got up, and then take them out right before I'd go to bed. However, having spent so much on glasses, I figure I should wear them! I'm trying to wear them at least a few times a week!

a baby shower gift

A friend of mine is having a baby boy in September, and I was invited to her baby shower. I wanted to get her a gift, but didn't want it to be too expensive. I put together this 'bath time' basket for about $25.

I included (from back to front):

a hooded bath towel

baby wash cloths

baby wash

two rubber duckies

And, I know what you're thinking. A pink rubber duckie when she's having a boy?!

Well, you'll notice there is a yellow and a pink. The yellow is for the new baby, and the pink is for his 6 yr old big sister. She got it IMMEDIATELY. 

She was helping her mom open presents, and she pulled out both ducks and exclaimed 'this one is me and this one is my brother!!!'. I was really pleased that she was excited.

toenails

I did my toenails the other day, using pieces of scotch tape cut into a point. They turned out really well. I think next time I'll go with a darker nail polish, because then it will be easier to see the design!

What do you think?!

camera trouble

I have had the worst luck with cameras lately. First, the battery on my camera died. I don't charge it or use the cord very often, so I began a search. I couldn't find the cord anywhere!! 

Luckily, I have an old camera that will take ok pictures, especially outside. I've been using that one for the past few weeks. (I have no idea where the cord for it is, but I do have the battery charger.) 

However, the other night, I broke the memory card reader in my computer! So, now although I can take pictures, I can't get any of them from my memory card to my computer!!

Today I caved and ordered a battery charger for my camera, because I couldn't find an actually computer connection cord and that was the next best thing. I also ordered a USB card reader, because without the cord to connect the camera to the computer, I needed a solution to my getting the pictures off the card problem. And, it was only $1.70. 

Hopefully they both come in soon, and I can get all the pictures I've been taking for the past few weeks!!

my anniversary

Today my husband and I have been married for one year. I thank God for him everyday, and am so glad that he's a part of my life.

He is my support system and the backbone of our household. Without him, I wouldn't be on this journey to be debt free and to live on a budget to get there. 

I'm so lucky to have him.

Oh and while we were in Illinois he got me an anniversary cake! (A month early, but that's where we got married, and where we could get more cake like we had on our wedding day.) Excuse the bum-like appearance, I was not expecting it. :)

thunder and lightning

As it turns out, the Grizzly dog does not like thunder. Or lightning. But especially thunder. It was storming hard core a week or so ago, and Grizzly barked like crazy every time the thunder roared. (I will give him that it was very loud, since we had the windows open.) We finally invited him up on the bed (he doesn't belong there while we are sleeping usually) and he jumped right up and laid practically on top of me. The poor thing.

Anyway, here's a picture of the lightning illuminating our pool. I know it doesn't look like much, but it took a sky full of lightning to provide enough light for a flash-less picture!

dreams

A lot of my posts are focused around how we are trying to save money, pay off all our debts, and set ourselves up for the future.

I'm not sure I've ever completely explained why we do what we do, why we live below our means, why we want to get all our debt paid off.

Alex and I have a few dreams for when we're done with all this.

1. Freedom. Freedom from debt, not feeling trapped or owned by the jobs that we do. Freedom to do what we want with our income, not just pay it all back to loans.

2. Saving. Saving for retirement, for kids (someday), for the someday kids' college, all the things we want to do in the future.

3. Vacation/Relaxation. We want to travel, see the world, you know. But we also want to be able to do things like visit our families on a regular basis, take frequent weekend trips, get out more in general.

Sometimes I need to remind myself what we're working towards to remind myself that it's worth the sacrifice now.

rock climbing on a budget - cont

I described the costs of indoor climbing in my previous post. (That's me, climbing at the indoor gym.)

There are ways to offset this cost, such as getting a membership to the climbing gym, or using a punch card if it is available. The gym I climb at offers a punch card with 20 punches for $220, $10/climb.

It also helps to own the necessary equipment. I have a harness that was given to me when I was in high school, as well as a belay device. I also have a pair of climbing shoes that I purchased a couple years ago.

When I moved to Colorado (2 years ago!) I bought one of the 20-climb punch cards. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I just used the last punch....

Anyway, I need a new one. Alex and I had a bit of an issue figuring out where the $220 for the card would come from in the budget, since we are really trying not to spend any extra money.

Here is the breakdown of where that money is going to come from:

$120 - Sara's slush fund

$50  - extra food budget

$50  - entertainment budget

We have also decided that I will cut down to climbing once every other week instead of once every week, to make the punch card last longer.

rock climbing on a budget - basics

Indoor rock climbing has been a hobby of mine for awhile now, on and off depending on location, climbing partners, etc.

One major con of climbing – it’s kind of expensive. Most places charge $12-$15 to climb, then about $4 for each piece of equipment you rent. (If you need/want all the equipment listed below, most places have a package price for less than the $16 it would cost to rent it all separately.)

Equipment:

Harness – This is absolutely necessary. You tie the ropes into the harness to ensure your safety.

Shoes – Shoes help a lot when you climb, but are not a necessity. You can climb in tennis shoes.

Chalk Bag – Chalk is kind of nice to have when you climb, but Alex has a chalk bag and I never use it.

Belay Device – You need one belay device, to feed the ropes through as you climb, per pair of people.

If you’re doing the math, you can see that each climbing trip could cost you as much as $30.

4th of July cookies

While I was visiting family in Illinois, my mom and I made these festive cookies! This frosting technique is one that my mom has been using for awhile. 

It's basically a simple cutout cookie, frosted with very thin powdered sugar frosting. Then we food color the frosting, and drizzle it over the already frosted (still wet) cookie.

We always end up with beautiful cookies, and they taste wonderful!