we love estate sales, and have had a lot of luck with great finds lately. here’s the big one…
isn’t she lovely?! we had an ikea ektorp couch that was great, but we needed more seating. jed loved the back support of the ektorp, and wasn’t liking anything else. please excuse the ugly rug. it belongs to our landlord and she makes us keep it to “protect the floors”. u.g.l.y. you ain’t got no alibi…
at an estate sale in a ritzy neighborhood, we found this bigger 2×2 ikea ektorp sleeper & storage couch. it is $1200 new, and the people bought it one year ago. they had an extra brand new cover for it worth $200. they wanted $800. we bought it for $600. cash works. we loaded that sucker in the back of the truck, stuck the wicker set up front, and rolled through the ritzy part of town like the beverly hillbillies. it’s ok, i’m from arkansas. 
we called a friend to help us move the couches, and he bought our old one on the spot for $300. so, we basically got my dream couch for $300. amazing! 
what is your favorite estate sale/thrift store/flea market find? what would you love to find? now i just need some new throw pillows…
Month: April 2010
frugal friday – dinner @ home
last august we made our very first budget as a family. to figure out how much to budget we had to look at what we actually spent in a month. whoa. it was disturbing. the biggest shocker was how much we spent dining out. oh. my. goodness.
we are both work full time, and often when we come home we are too tired to cook, and dallas has so many great restaurants. the combination was proving to be destructive to our finances. we decided to set a relatively low dining out budget at $150 per month. you can spend that much on one good meal in dallas pretty easily. when the money is gone, we are done dining out. we have stuck to it since then, and it has been good for us. it is very difficult, as i’m sure you know, but we are trying to cook at home as much as possible. here is a meal we had this week:
we had a big batch of fresh strawberries that we sliced up, for 99 cents a lb at aldi. i looked at bagged lettuce and it cost $6.99 for red lettuce and spinach. i bought a head of each for $2.69 total, and they made double the salad. i added some low fat feta and black pepper. we used balsamic vinaigrette one night and raspberry vinaigrette another night. 
we also tried the barilla plus pasta this week, and it was actually good. i’ve had bad experiences with whole wheat pasta in the past, but i’m loving this kind. it has to cook a little longer, but that’s ok. we browned some lean ground turkey and added it into the mix. we tossed it together with organic vodka sauce and fresh parmesan. the whole shebang took way less than 30 minutes, and unlike rachel ray my lettuce does not show up shredded during commercials. i love dinner @ home.
dining out was our budget buster. what is yours? have you conquered it or is it a work in progress?
i’m linking to:
to the one i love….
today is my sweet husband’s birthday. i love him more than i ever thought possible. he is so good to me and loves me so well, because that’s how jesus loves him. he is a godly man who sacrifices his time and energy so that high school kids can know the love of jesus. he is the hardest working person i know, and will make an amazing father when the time is right. i am so thankful for him. happy birthday jed!
picket fence wall art, finally finished
remember that piece of picket fence i picked up off a curb, cut into pieces, and hung on my wall? you can see that project here. my crafty to-do list is approximately 9 miles long, and i’ve been meaning to finish this piece off by adding hemp clotheslines and some of our favorite pictures. the inspiration was this: 
this is the barn where we held our wedding reception. we had clotheslines hung throughout the barn with our favorite pictures attached with little wooden clothespins. one line held my pics, another held jed’s. at the end of the barn were 2 lines hung with the pictures of our dating and engagement story. my life, his life, and now our life together… 
we still have all the hemp cord and pictures mounted on cardstock. we picked out 6 of our favorites and i hung them with the same cord and wooden clothespins. now we have a piece of our wedding reception in our bedroom, just in time for our 2nd anniversary next week. 
i love it! we’ve included pictures from my baptism, our engagement at disneyworld, jed with his brother and daddy, jed and one of his best friends, our first date, and me and one of my best friends. we can always change them out later and mix things up. 
it cost absolutely nothing, and is so personal for us. it makes my heart happy every time i look at it. that, my friends, is my new decorating rule. what in your home makes your heart happy every time you see it?
i heart avocados… so let’s make some guacamole!
first – go enter my giveaway to win some of my designs and a $25 pottery barn giftcard. click here to enter.
almost every thursday we head over to our friends’ house for tacos. typically a big crowd shows up, anywhere from 8 to 20 or so folks come over, and the berres always host. how do they host this dinner each week with out going broke? they ask everyone to bring one item, and do tacos every time to simplify things. the last 2 weeks we have been in charge of the guacamole, so i thought i’d share my method.
i use fresh ingredients, no mixes or pastes. for our group (which can put down some guac) i use 8 large avocados, 2 tomatoes, half an onion, and sometimes one bunch of cilantro.
cut the avocados in half.
de-pit those beauties. watch your fingers. you’ll see why. 
scoop out the goodness. get all the way down to the skin.
taking out the pit is the hardest part. this is not my first avocado injury.
mash up those avocados with your trusty potato masher. then add salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder and garlic to taste. squeeze the juice of 2 limes on top and then stir.
this dip is husband approved. he tests it to make sure all the spices are just right.
there you go, delicious guacamole for 10-12 people. make some to share.
the golden touch – new sandals inspired by anthropologie
first – go enter my giveaway to win some of my designs and a $25 pottery barn giftcard. click here to enter.
i found these lovely “rosalita” sandals on anthropologie last week. i fell in love, but they cost $148. that, my friends, is not in the budget. here they are:
i then went to old navy and found these beauties for only $19.99. that is a little more in my price range.
i made 4 fabric roses using this silky vintage fabric i bought at an estate sale. i backed them with felt, and attached them to the sandals.
here is the finished product. they are a little different from the inspiration shoes, but i love them. i especially love that they didn’t cost very much. that makes them even more fabulous. if you want some lovely vintage fabric rosettes to add to your favorite sandals, let me know.
i’m linking to: 
thrifty thursday! 
the best icing ever – this recipe will change your life
categories: recipes
i love cupcakes. the icing to cake ratio is much better with a cupcake than with a regular cake. you need to know that i could care less about the cake part. all i want is the icing. and yes, it is icing, not frosting. i am southern.
last year we discovered the best homemade icing recipe ever. if you like good things in your life, make this now and ice some cupcakes to share with friends. they will feel very loved. unless they are diabetic, like my father-in-law. i just tried to get him to eat one and he thought i was trying to kill him. oops. it was still a great easter.
here is the recipe:
8 oz cream cheese (the real stuff)
4 oz butter (also the real stuff)
3 3/4 cups confectioners sugar – sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
last year we discovered the best homemade icing recipe ever. if you like good things in your life, make this now and ice some cupcakes to share with friends. they will feel very loved. unless they are diabetic, like my father-in-law. i just tried to get him to eat one and he thought i was trying to kill him. oops. it was still a great easter.
here is the recipe:
8 oz cream cheese (the real stuff)
4 oz butter (also the real stuff)
3 3/4 cups confectioners sugar – sifted
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
cream the butter, cheese, and salt in a stand mixer (you can use a hand mixer) until light and fluffy. gradually add the sugar until incorporated. then add the vanilla. and done. ice those cupcakes or brownies or that cake. in this instance i used strawberry cupcakes, but it is great with chocolate or anything, really. try not to lick your fingers. you won’t be able to stop yourself. enjoy.
now that you’re done, lick that bowl clean. you deserve it. you worked hard. well, your mixer worked hard, but still. 
frugal friday – cash money honey
categories: finances, financial freedom
i am now starting my 4th month as a blogger, and i’m trying to find a focus for this thing. i added a tagline to the top – living free in Christ and free of debt. i’m starting this weekend with a frugal friday post about the 2nd part of that tagline. what does it mean to live debt free, to me? freedom.
i am terrible with money. terrible. my financial past is dark and scary. i fought this whole budget thing pretty hard, until i listened to the dave ramsey show one time. i was hooked. i am a free spirit and thought that a budget would make me feel trapped and fenced in. in fact, now that we are on a budget i feel more free than ever.
we operate on a cash system now. i carry a “financial peace university” wallet that came with cash envelopes for just this purpose. it was really difficult at first to get used to cash again. i mean, has anyone used it since they first got a credit or debit card? no, ma’am. here’s the crazy thing – when you use cash, you spend less. it is science, people. your pain receptors (in your brain) are triggered when you spend cash, but don’t feel a thing when you use a credit or debit card.
with the cash system we are using, we do our budget at the beginning of each month. we then go to the bank and pull out the cash. it goes into our envelopes, and makes sticking to the budget so easy. if all the dining out money is gone, we eat at home. if all the grocery money is spent, we make due with what we have already purchased. if my “mad money” has dwindled, i’ll have to delay the purchase of that cute new dress. self control is a good thing.
you would be amazed by the looks i get when i pull out cash. people are annoyed because it takes 30 seconds longer, cashiers think i’m crazy. that’s ok. we are taking control of our financial future, and it is ok if others think we are weird. we are weird. normal people are swimming in credit card debt, and we don’t want to be normal.
what are you doing to be frugal? what system does your house use? i’m so interested in finding out what other people are doing. share your wisdom, friends.
here is a link to some of dave ramsey’s budgeting software: