Let's talk money

I am currently re-working our budget for this year. If you remember, it began in January as my New Year's resolution. I.. took a break.. for a few months and am starting back again so I decided to make the new budget (which includes house and Molly) go from July09 - June10. It works out well since we get our new salaries this time of year at my company. I had plans to revamp my budgeting model I put together but once I started I didn't feel like doing that anymore so instead I just reworked the categories and numbers.

Now, I know this is a very simple financial question and one that I can find the answer to on the internet, but I am always looking for good advice from friends. What do I do with our savings?? Currently I contribute to my 401k but beyond that the money just sits in an account and makes a little interest. I want to plan a specific amount to save every month and actually put it somewhere useful. So, what is the next account or whatever you go to after a 401k? I have a Roth IRA that I haven't contributed to in about 2 years :-/ Is that where it goes next? Or should we buy CDs or something? Any amateur financial advice is greatly appreciated :)

We have been continuing work on the basement in hopes that it will actually be use-able someday soon. This weekend Matt put in a new door (one that can't be easily broken into like our last one) and we also took up all of the old linoleum tile from the floor, cleaned the floor, and so far have painted one coat of this water proofing stuff on it. Once the second coat goes on and dries, we are clear to put our cheap rugs down there and move stuff down there - yey!! Here is a lesson in construction work - Matt got a piece of wood in his eye this weekend while working in the basement - NOT wearing protective goggles of course. It was really bad yesterday (Sunday) but we didn't think it was worth it to go to the ER and thought it was a scratch that would heal itself. This morning it was still bad so he went to the opthamologist this afternoon and sure enough there was wood in there (I couldn't see it when I looked yesterday). So he's all better now and it only cost about $50 out of our flex spending account so all in all not that bad except for the pain he went through!

We will be busy cleaning the house for the next two weeks to get it ready for our party. I also want it clean this weekend because my mom and sister are coming to stay - time for the Peachtree road race again!! Speaking of running, I have stuck to my marathon schedule so far which is really exciting. Three miles Tues-Thurs last week and then 6 miles on Saturday. It feels great!

Now for some pictures that I haven't posted yet. These were taken on Father's Day at Matt's parents house.

Molly in the plantsMatt working the grillMe with Molly in the plants. I was trying to get a perspetive of how small she is because when her cousin dog Thomas lays in the he takes over them and she gets hidden in them.

Marathon Training, Day 1

Today marked the start of Emili and I's marathon training. Three miles.. about what I typically do anyway. The run wasn't so good today. I learned that I can't run an hour after eating dinner. I think I'll have to do a small snack after work and then a light dinner after my run. I also bought one of those water bottle carrier things that go around your waist and sit on your back. I guess on a guy it would sit on the hips but on me it sits around my waist and makes me feel like I can't breathe as deeply. Any tips?? I think I just need to get used to it. This is what I got:

We are also trying to get our house ready for our house warming party. Turns out a ton of people are out of town that weekend. Oh well. It will still be awesome :) We can't fit a ton of people in our house anyway. This weekend I am going wedding dress shopping with Crystal!! Very exciting, I can live vicariously through her trying them on. I only tried 5 on and wish I had tried on more, just for the fun of it of course, not because I didn't like my dress.

Not much else to report on. Happy Tuesday!

I wanted to post some pictures from this past week. I am excited that I feel like I'm in a place where I am not go-go-going all the time. Hopefully it will stay like that for a while. Like I mentioned before, this past Thursday was my flex day off of work and I spent it cleaning, having lunch with Lindsey and Chrissy and visiting Amelia and new baby Anya. It was so great to see everyone!

Anya - what a cutie!!

Friday night and Saturday morning I finally painted the guest bathroom. We love how it turned out! Before and after pictures:

(This is a before shot.. kind of hard to take pictures of this bathroom) I know you can't tell from this picture but this bathroom had holes all over the walls and pencil markings and stuff

After!

More after.. I love our mirror in here. I am also going to hang a few pictures probably.

Saturday after lunch my dad brought my sister over to stay with us for the night. I had to take her to Lawrenceville this morning to catch a bus to Affirm which is a Lutheran week-long summer camp that I used to go to. It is Erin's third year attending. The woman signing people in asked me twice this morning about me riding the bus too. Just another day where I am mistaken for a high schooler. I suppose my waking up at 5:45, not showering or wearing makeup probably contributed to that.

In other news, Matt's gig at Smith's Olde Bar is tomorrow night - hope some of you can come out! And I sent out an Evite for our housewarming party on July 11th.. if you didn't get it (and think you should have) then I probably don't have your email address so let me know!

Peachtree Road Race

I think this is my fourth year running the Peachtree. I LOVE it! Today I got my number in the mail. I was so excited. Open up the package, and I'm in time group 9! What the heck! Terrible luck. Time group 9 is for the casual walkers (last time group) but you can still get placed there if you are a runner. The start time for time group 9 is 8:56am whereas the actual race begins at 7:30. I will be running with Matt and with my sister. They have not received their numbers yet but even if they are ahead of me they have to come back to time group 9 and run with me. And when I say 'run', I mean try to dodge the walkers :(

Any walkers out there want to exchange numbers???

More babies!

Not too much new to report around here. As my home life becomes a little more quiet (thank goodness), my work life gets a little crazier ('little' being an understatement). Tonight I bought the paint for the guest bathroom and I can't wait to paint it! That is the final touch for in there. I will post before and after pictures when finished. Matt is at band practice tonight preparing for his upcoming gig at Smith's Olde Bar. If you are interested in coming we would love to have you! The band is supposed to bring 30 people in, so I hope that many show.

Tomorrow I have a flex day off of work and I am having lunch with two of my favorite people downtown. Lindsey and Chrissy often have lunch together because they work so close together but since I'm 20-30 min away this is a treat for me to get to go see them! And afterward I am going to visit Amelia and new baby Anya Giuseppina who was born on Sunday morning. I can't wait!! And even as all of these babies are being born, it is almost a daily occurrence that I find out about a new pregnancy (congrats to Scott & Laura Beth's second baby on the way!).. they can be found on my blog list on the right. What an exciting time in everyone's life. I hope our friends are still having kids in a few years when we start so they can all be friends ;-)

In other news, it looks like my sister will be coming to stay with us this Saturday evening before catching the bus to camp on Sunday morning. So she will get to meet Molly! I am thinking about breaking out the ice cream maker for the first time and putting it to good use.

Molly is starting to grow.. I can tell she is getting heavier. She is getting better about letting us know when she needs to go outside. She is such a funny dog. Chasing her tail around, always wanting a belly rub. We are fortunate to get such a sweet puppy. She is currently dreaming.. I can see her twitching in her sleep.

No pictures for you tonight. The only new ones I have of are things I am posting on craigslist to sell. Too bad no one has contacted me yet!

Hope you are having a great week!

T-minus 12 days until marathon training begins...

Falling off the wagon

Falling off of the wagon of budgeting and couponing. Not that I don't have plans for us to return. First the budgeting went a little.. not that we are spending all kinds of money or anything, it's just that we have stopped entering all our receipts into the nice little spreadsheets I made. Next, the couponing. I used to get my coupons [for free] from work on Monday morning out of the Sunday paper that waited there for me. Well guess what? They stopped delivering the Sunday paper to us! So for weeks I did not have my coupons. Now I am just committed to buying the paper every Sunday which is a waste to me because we don't read it. (A waste as far as the newspaper goes. I'll just have to recycle it.) But today I have two copies of the AJC to rip into and file those coupons!

So my new goal has been that by July 1st we will be back in the swing of all of it. And of course when I say 'we' I mostly mean me. Matt helps by entering his receipts but I'm the couponing / grocery shopping one.

Ok onto a little of what we have been doing lately. On Tuesday night we threw a baby shower for John and Stephanie (we being Crystal, Nancy and I) but it was held at Matt and I's house so lots of cleaning!



Wednesday night Matt and I went to see The Decemberists at The Tabernacle. While it was a good show I have to say it was not worth the money we paid for it. Oh well. The theater was WAY oversold and it was definitely 100 degrees in there. Everywhere you stood they told you you couldn't stand there but there are no signs anywhere saying that. And there was not enough room in the theater for everyone. The night ended with a homeless guy busting us out of a parking lot and then demanding $5 from us. Matt drove away while the guy chased us.. a little scary. And we never did pay for the parking which I feel bad about but what am I supposed to do now? We weren't going to try to pay with scary man there.

Molly over at Maw and Paw's house

Cousin Thomas shared his basket of toys with Molly

Matt and I have been trying to work on the house a little this weekend. Oh and speaking of the house, the basement is (almost) finished!! The professionals came in on Wednesday and did the waterproofing. While there is still a lot of work to be done, this takes care of a huge chunk of it.

This is far from what we envision of the basement but we are getting there