Just when I thought I could save money

I am a huge saver. I stress when I don't save every month. And every time Nate spends, I sigh. Did you have to spend that money? We could have saved it. It's silly really. But I never want to be in debt. I never want to put something on a credit card that I can't pay for that month. I think is has come from doing without time and time again.
I should have known when I left the newspaper that we wouldn't save. In fact, we would be taking money out of the savings. But it would eventually pay off in the end. Summers off!
Finally at the start of the 09-10 school year I am making nearly what I did when I left. And with the additional money I make freelancing for the newspaper and waitressing, I well surpass my newspaper salary.
Yet, we still won't save any money. We got rid of two cars that were in need of many repairs, but we added a new car payment since then. And I just bought a much needed laptop. Since I will be doing a lot of paperwork for school in the comfort of my own home, I didn't want to be confined to the PC. Unfortunately, I came one year too late to get a laptop. All the funds for classrooms for the future ran out and I am stuck laptopless.
Oh, and we have a dog. Last month, we spent nearly $300 on cat food, dog food, vet bills and other pet supplies. Wow. That is a lot.
I try to remember that I am in my late 20s and saving isn't really all that expected from someone my age. I mean, doesn't everyone think that my age group spends and spends and spends?
So, here is to hoping that maybe, just maybe, we will save some money in October!

Thirft store treasures

It's really no secret that I love to shop at thrift stores. There is nothing more thrilling than finding a great piece of clothing for a fraction of the cost. It allows me to shop without guilt. I am supporting a wonderful nonprofit as well as my shopping habit without breaking the bank. It's pure bliss.

Up until today, I never shopped there unless it was a Wednesday. It's because regular thrift store prices aren't cheap enough for me anymore, I need to go when it's 50-percent-off day. However, my sister-in-law, Hannah, came to visit me today and we stopped by. I found better deals than on 50-percent-off day. They had shorts, sweatshirts, sweatpants and long-sleeve sweaters for 99 cents. 99 cents!!!! A soda is more expensive than that. And, on top of it, blue tags were 50 percent off. I got the most beautiful purple pea coat from Gap for $3. I found a nice black cardigan for my teacher look for 99 cents and an awesome teal hoodie from Gap for 99 cents. My back-to-school shopping has been CHEAP!

If you are up that way, The Danskin Outlet on State Street in York is going out of business . Everything in the store is marked down. Hannah got a bathing suit for $4. I found great workout clothes for cheap. I am sad, really sad, that it is closing. That is where I purchased my triathlon suit for $15. If I would have ordered it, it would have been closer to $100. Most of my running clothes are from there and I will be sad to see it go. So, of course, I had to stock up a bit!

Insomnia

Oh how I loathe falling asleep at a decent hour only to wake up an hour later unable to return to my blessed slumber. It's been happening a lot lately. I lay there and think about how I should really cut my toenails. But the toenail scissors are downstairs, and I risk waking the dog to go get them. I think about how I would really like to lose 10 pounds, but never seem to stick to anything I try because I always have an excuse. I think about the book sitting beside my bed and how much I want to finish it. I think about the students returning to school in a week and how I am going to get them energized to start the school year off right. I wonder if my dress clothes still fit and if the 9th graders I have for Reading will be as good as the ones I had last year.
All of these wonderings are happening while I am supposed to be resting for a 60-mile bicycle ride tomorrow.
So, I get out of bed, sign onto Facebook and read status updates, look at photos and waste time. I check my e-mail over and over hoping something new and exciting will pop into it, even though it won't.
I toss and turn and try to get comfortable. I looked at old photo albums which makes me want to lose 10 pounds even more.
I turned on the TV for a few minutes, only to be disgusted at the lack of programming (despite my $75 a month satellite bill and hundreds of channels).
I have to get up at 6 a.m., drive to Lancaster and fight the heat to ride 60 miles. And, I can't sleep. The cruelty of it all!

Where has the summer gone?

I didn't make the cucumber soup yet. For some reason I can't get to the grocery store to get the sour cream. It's so hot today. I wanted to go swimming, but I feel to hot to do anything other than lay on my air contitioned room and read. When I took Moose to the vet today, the car seat burnt my legs.

This is how my summer went. My thoughts are all over the place. I have grand ideas and big plans, but I end up getting little done. I did find a summer to-do list I made during the school year and I hit almost every thing on it. But for having 10 days off, I didn't really accomplish all that much. I hope I can me more committed and organized during the school year. I certainly didn't keep up with this blog like I wanted to.

I did make tuna steak for dinner. It was yummy. I marinated 1 pound of tuna steaks(bought frozen at Giant) in this mixture:

1/4 cup vegetable oil, half of 1/3 cup of soy sauce, tablespoon of garlic, tablespoon of sesame oil, and teaspoon of ground ginger.

Then I broiled it on high for 15 minutes, turning it once and adding more marinade a few times through! Yum. I love, love, love tuna. I ate it with wasabi may (a mixture of wasabi powder and mayo) and pickled ginger.

Glorius garden treasures

I ventured out to the garden this morning and what I found was a jungle of green vines entangled among each other. The tomato and cucumber plants have taken over everything else in the garden. I think the green beans and zucchini are finally done producing, which gives me time to focus on the peppers that are dangling from the plants. The tomatoes are going to inundate me in a few days. With Nate keeping an eye on Moose, I had some time to tackle the over abundance of fruits and vegetables I have been collecting.
I blanched the green beans and froze them. I chopped up the hot yellow peppers and froze those, too. I gave away some cucumbers when I was at school for meetings, but still found more this morning. I am going to try this recipe from Real Simple for Chilled Cucumber Soup. I mean, a girl can only take so much cucumber salad.

Here it is:

3/4 cup sour cream
4 scallions, roughly chopped
2 jalapenos, seeded (which I happen to have a ton of growing in my garden)
1/2 cup fresh basil (another ingredient that has gone ape wild in my garden)
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
3 pounds cucumbers, about 4 peeled, seeded and roughly chopped
Kosher salt and pepper

In a blender, puree sour cream, scallions, jalapenos, basil, lime juice, half the cucumbers, 1/4 cup water, 3/4 teaspoons salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add the remaining cucumbers and puree, adjusting the consistency with water as necessary, until smooth. Serve with baguette slices, thin slices of salami, feta and olives.

Recycling makes me crazy...in a good way

I don't know when it happened, but something touched my heart when it came to saving the earth. Maybe it's my fear of unwanted waste, but I HATE to see a plastic bottle go into the regular trash. SO many places I have worked don't recycle. I bag up my bottles and take them home. Today, I threw a soda bottle in the trash can at school. I felt sick to my stomach. I recycle EVERYTHING at home. Do you know if it's paper or cardboard or anything really that you could probably burn like paper, you can recycle it with the newspapers? I just added an extra trash can in the office to make it easier for me to collect unwanted papers and trash that I could recycle. I have a compost bin and that helps reduce our waste. We might throw out one trash bag a week, even though we pay for four bags a week.
I do every bit I can. I do vaguely remember Earth Day in 4th grade and how much I wanted to be someone that saved the earth. I think as I get older, it's more the fact that I see how beautifully blessed we are with farms and forests and other natural resources, that I really would like to save them!