Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Things I spend my hard earned money on...

This post is all about priorities. 

What do you use every.single.day....?

Here are some things I use every day:
  • toothbrush
  • car
  • pillow
  • mattress
  • refrigerator
  • shoes
  • hairdryer ( i do at least)
  • shampoo
  • computer
  • cell phone
Now, here is the real question....How much do you spend on these items in a year?  Or every 5-10 years i.e. refrigerator, car. 

Getting a product for what it's worth is sometimes hard these days.  I could go out and by a new toothbrush every month, and who knows how much it would cost me....depends on what kind of toothbrush I buy. 
It also depends on it I am being drawn to the advertising or packaging on the toothbrush, the color, or if I see things this magnificent toothbrush claims it will do.   Well, here is MY answer to how to solve this problem....

Buy things that last, even if they cost more!

Examples from my own life: 

toothbrush--I used to do as said above, buy a new toothbrush every month, but now I have a Sonicare electric toothbrush.  I still have to buy the replacement heads for this which are not cheap, but I have NEVER had a cavity!  The Sonicare is recommended by dentists, and I don't have to worry about an expensive filling!

hairdryer--had one for about 4 years, killed on me last month.  I spent decent money on a new one, but opted up for one that has a cord keeper.  This saves me time and patience in the morning when I don't have to unravel the cord from my straightener. 

pillow/bed--you use this everyday!  why not get something that is comfortable?  My pillow cost at least $20... and it's not failed me yet!  Our mattress is one of the more expensive ones, but it was also the most comfortable. 

shoes--this one is the deal breaker...sometimes I find shoes that are cheaper, and that I love (cute, fashionable)  but they look cheap.  I occasionally will buy a pair of these said shoes, but most of the time I will spend more.  Especially on running shoes.  Spending over $100 dollars on running shoes doesn't even phase me.  They are going to have a lot of miles put on them, so better get something that is going to last, instead of buying a pair that the heel falls off of in the same year you bought them...this has happened to me...learned my lesson! 

car, refrigerator, computer--these three items are something that is essential for a home and/or office.  When my husband's car was beginning to crap out on us, we researched the Consumer Reports for safety, gas mileage, repair history, etc. before we settled.  By doing this, we insured that our new vehicle wouldn't cost us a fortune in a year.  We did the same for our refrigerator, and are currently doing this while looking for a new laptop. 

shampoo--I struggle with this one...it's very hard for me to purchase a bottle of shampoo that costs over 5 dollars.  I feel as though I am throwing my money down the drain when I rinse my hair.  I have tried LOTS of shampoos...and being as I like to highlight my hair every once in a while, I need something that isn't going to wash out my highlights right away.  My hair dresser mentioned I should try the knock off of Biolage that you can purchase at Sally's called Biotera for color treated hair. Yea sure, but what does it cost?  Biotera costs $8 for a HUGE bottle of shampoo.  Conditioner was the same price.  I have used this everyday since I got my hair done, and my highlights are still really good, and I still have a ton left in the bottles!!  It was a steal, but for a knockoff price...can't get much better than that!

cell phone--don't know about you, but my cell phone is my only phone.  No landline here!  I use it everyday, multiple times.  It needs to function and do what I want it to do.  It's important to me so I am willing to spend a few more dollars for a decent phone. 

All of these items are beneficial to my everyday life, and I value how long they last, and how they perform.  Spend the money once, pay a little more, but reap the benefits of your investment.  It will last longer, perform better, and save you money in the long run!

Monday, November 1, 2010

My cat was scared of me!

Happy Halloween a day later! Hope all our readers had a spooky safe holiday!  Here is our weekend breakdown...

Friday:

We ventured out to the farm to see my family for my 23rd birthday!  It was fuuuunnnn!   
Me and my little sis Greta!  We blew out some candles...

Ate some birthday cake...

And chatted...it was nice! :)

Saturday :
On Saturday, I went to work until 11 and then drove a van of cheerleaders down to the Cedar Falls Tiger Invite.  The girls showcased their state routine, and participated in the jump and lib contest. 


Lib contest...how long can they hold them!?  Our girls were 4th!

Goofing off...

What a sweetie!


My niece, Cici and I share the same birthday!

The meaning of the title of this post is behind my costume...I was a devil for Halloween, and when I walked out of my room at my house, my cat Talouse was sitting on the table, he took one look at me, and all the hair on his back shot up, he hunkered back and let out a hiss...so, yes I scared my cat on Halloween...he got over it!

Jason was a gangster...looking good!


Sunday:
No pictures from Sunday, but we went to church and then hung out at Jason's parents' house with Holly, Andy, and the kids.  Ate dinner, and played outside a little bit.  Then Jason and I went home and passed out candy to the trick-or-treaters. 

We had a great weekend and I hope you did too!! :)


 

Friday, October 29, 2010

Tomorrow I am 23!

We turn not older with the years, but newer every day. 
-Emily Dickinson
Hello, this is my first EVER birthday blog post!  Tomorrow<---I almost always spell this word wrong...never fails...back to what I was talking about... (Saturday, October 30th) I will be the old young age of 23!!!  Jason was giving me crap about it this morning until I reminded him he will 29 in March...yep stopped him mid sentence...it was epic :) 

I am looking forward to a fun/packed weekend!  Tonight, Jason and I are going to my parents house to celebrate with cake, ice cream, etc.  Tomorrow I have to work until 11 and then drive the cheerleaders down to Cedar Falls for a cheerleading invite, and then we are going to Jason's parents for a bit, and then we are hitting up Halloween party our friend is hosting...should be a fun actual  birthday day!  On Sunday we will be chilling at the Herrick house in CC with the rest of the family.  My niece Cici's birthday is the same day as mine, she's such a little sweetheart :) 

I thought about what I was going to blog about for my birthday today and yesterday, and I kept coming back to realizing how blessed and fortunate I am.  Most days I don't have a minute to stop and think or be thankful for all I have been given.  Today, I am doing just that.  So, here's the list:
  • being at a job where I work in the same town I live in, and loving my job!
  • having 2 wonderful cats to brighten my day when I come home.
  • living close to my large and crazy family :) 
  • getting to be a cheer coach for N-P, they rock my socks off and I couldn't ask for a better group of girls to have this much fun with!
  • being where I am today, married, college degree, working, happy.
  • living simply, but enjoying small treasures as needed.
  • baking anything, I love my oven!
  • being here, alive, healthy, spontaneous, thoughtful, positive.
  • friends who know just the right words to make my day bright.
  • being satisfied, with life in general.
  • hot cocoa, mochas, cappachinos, hot drinks with chocolate...yes I can be thankful for this!
  • my husband, the man of my dreams, who supports me through everything, and my very best friend. 
This list could go on and on....life is good, 23 is great!  I am satisfied...what more could I want?  God has blessed me beyond belief...life, love, and happiness All I need is what I have...
Happy Birthday to ME!

Whatever with the past has gone, the best is always yet to come.
-Lucy Larcom

Thursday, October 28, 2010

PICNIK

Here are some photos I was messing around with on Picnik, if you haven't tried out this photo editing website you should!  You can do lots of cool things with your pictures! 


Enjoy your Thursday!  :)

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Recipe Wednesday

Recipe Wednesday

This week I decided to make a casserole.  It turned out good, and of course I adapted the recipe to my own taste I chose to make an Italian Pasta Bake.  It is really quite tasty, not hard to make, and keeps well. 

Ok, so obviously this is NOT my picture, but it looked very similar to this one!  My lighting for my pictures of my bake was not good...so sorry! 

Here's the recipe!  I used whole wheat pasta, and it wasn't ziti, but it was tube shaped like those are.  Rotini maybe?  And I did not have any turkey italian sausage, so I used ground turkey.  I think it would have been really good with turkey sausage though! 

Italian Pasta Bake
Ingredients



1 (1-pound) package uncooked ziti (short tube-shaped pasta)
1 pound hot turkey Italian sausage links
1 cup chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 (14.5-ounce) cans petite-diced tomatoes, undrained
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
Cooking spray
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded fresh mozzarella cheese
1 cup (4 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese


Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.
Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain the pasta, and set aside.

Remove casings from sausage. Cook sausage, onion, and garlic in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until browned, stirring to crumble. Add the tomato paste, salt, pepper, and tomatoes, and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Combine cooked pasta, sausage mixture, and basil. Place half of the pasta mixture in a 4-quart casserole coated with cooking spray. Top with half of mozzarella and half of Parmesan. Repeat layers. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until bubbly.

I had a request to make a certain recipe for next week, so I think I will give it a try...if you have a recipe you want me to try leave a comment and I will see what I can do!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Did you know....?

A queen bee uses her stinger only to sting another queen bee.

The only king without a moustache in a deck of cards is the king of hearts.

60 percent of a Hostess twinkie is air!

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.

There is more REAL lemon juice in Lemon Pledge furniture polish than in Country Time Lemonade.

The average person walks the equivalent of twice around the world in a lifetime.

If you keep a goldfish in the dark, it will eventullay turn white.

Oak trees do not have acorns until they are 50 years old or older.

And one for Halloween...Pumpkin rule of thumb: the darker the shell, the longer the pumpkin will last.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Have you ever been in Aldi's?

This weekend, Jason and I went down to Cedar Falls to The Runner's Flat to get some new running shoes.
If you are into running, or are getting into it, check this place out! I highly reccomend them.  What you do is you go here and they put you into a "neutral" shoe.  Then you run in them on a treadmill while they videotape your feet and ankles.  They then explain to you what could be fixed for getting a better workout/run.  The girl helping me showed me the video, and how I was turning my left ankle in.  It was really interesting to see how they chose the shoes that I ended up buying.  I needed more support since my ankle was being weird.  Today, I decided to walk in them and noticed after 2 minutes that my left foot felt different.  She had explained that my foot was used to a different shoe pattern, so it might take some time getting used to...I hope not tooo long!  Jason got a new pair too, so we are set to run! 

After getting our shoes, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings in Cedar Falls.  Have you ever had BWW?  If not get there ASAP! 

We both had the boneless wings and ribs...they were AWESOME!!  Can't go wrong with B-Dubs!!

After eating, and listening to the crazy ISU/Iowa fans cheering on their teams, we decided to just go over to Aldi's which was right across from BWW to buy groceries.  We had planned on hitting up Wal-Mart, but sometimes I just don't feel like going there...does anyone else feel this way or is it just me?  I always end up buying stuff I don't need there it seems.  So we went to Aldi's. 

If there was one of these closer to me, I would buy from them everytime!  When I was little and my family had 6 young children, and my mom would shop here.  I remember sometimes having two carts full of groceries.  I new Aldi was cheap, but didn't realize how cheap it was to shop here.  Jason and I walked out of that store just $68 dollars less than what we came in with.  It was a STEAL!  I'm telling you, try shopping here for your groceries!  We got everything we should need for a loooong time!  Jason hadn't been in an Aldi for a long time, and when we checked out he was like, "Thank you!" to the checker, I gave him a look like "Oh my gosh, Jason."  and the checker kinda looked at him weird too.  It cracked me up, then that's all he talked about as we were leaving the store..."Only 68 dollars!  That would have been over 100 dollars at Wal-Mart!"

Sorry for my boring weekend post today...I'm going to eat my 37 cent yogurt from Aldi's now, toodle-loo!!