Now, on to the photo. Again, with the copying Angela trend - I decided to post an engagement photo. However, this is not the "official engagement photo. We had several photos taken by one of my friends and although they were all nice enough, I really only liked one of them and that's the one that became the "official photo". I hadn't looked through them in a long time and I thought maybe just maybe I was being overly critical at the time, but I still think the one we chose was the very best one. The one I'm posting today has several flaws and I don't think I could even call it a close second but since I'd already decided to use one of our engagement photos I had to choose a one that wasn't going to make me cringe knowing people were going to be seeing it on our blog. Well, that wasn't going to happen. I'm still going to cringe. But, not as much as I would have with most of the other photos. Andy is very photogenic. However, I am not. In the other photos it was not Andy's fault that we couldn't use them, but rather mine because without fail one of the following is going on in them: my eyes are closed, my smile is weird, my expression is weird, I'm not looking at the camera, my hair is in my face, my hair is doing something funky at that precise moment, my shirt is bunching up something fierce, my vampire fangs look like they're going to take someone out at any moment, or my closed mouth smile makes me look like I'm in pain.
So, here as promised is one of the photos we did not use. Andy is sitting on a tree swing in my friend's backyard. Just remember every time you view it you are making me cringe. Nevertheless, please enjoy it (the photo, that is!)!
NOW FOR SOME OTHER TALES
As of last weekend we have revamped our money system. We re-evaluated our budget and changed how we work some things. It's actually a much better system for us. It probably wouldn't work for everyone, but so far it's working great for us so I thought I'd mention it.
First of all, we switched our cell phone provider to save money. That was a no-brainer. Then, we evaluated how much we need for our normal monthly expenses such as electricity, internet, satellite, tithing and other such items which gave us amount A. We then figured out how much we want to save which gave us amount B. And then, we took all of those items and added them up with the amount we want to save each month which gave us amount C. Then we took the least amount we bring in each month (amount D) and subtracted amount C from amount D which gave us amount E. So, for right now amount E is $500. Then, we took $500 and divided it by 2. So, both of us gets $250 a month to spend on whatever. Now, when I say "whatever" I don't mean "WHATEVER" I mean, things that were not taken into account when we came up with amount B. The reason we left out a lot of things in amount B is to give us more flexibility. So, whatever is actually things like: Gas, Food, Clothes, Household items, Entertainment, Dining Out, and Fun Money. The reason we didn't include gas and food in amount B is because these items are going to be going up in price and also, we both buy them, we have a lot of food storage that is getting old that we need to use up, I want to learn more about using coupons (for items we need), and for us knowing we only have $250 each it makes us talk more about money. For example, say there's a large purchase we need, now we do more research and say it's going to be more expensive than one of us wants to allow for our "personal budget" then we need to involve the other person and say "hey can you spare this much $ for item X?" It also helps us to make sure we really need certain groceries before we go to the store. When I was cleaning out our pantries, I found tons of stuff I didn't know we had on hand. We'd had it for 2 or 3 years. But, it was stuff we'd always go and buy figuring "oh well, even if we don't need it, it will go into food storage." The problem is...eventually a lot of stuff EXPIRES! Now, the key to the system is this. You actually have to keep track of how much you're spending. The reason we didn't go to a cash only system is because Andrew likes to use the credit cards because we get points and he likes to pay them off in full each month. And, that's ok. But, every couple days. Sometimes, every day even, we ask each other "Where are you at?", meaning "What's your balance?" And, what's really sweet is that the other day we were at Fred Meyer and he bought me a pair of tweezers with his budget... Don't ask me why but it was so romantic. We got up to the register and he said he'd get it. The other cool thing about it is that I'm learning to make more food from scratch. The other day I made spaghetti sauce from scratch! It was really good. I'd almost go as far as to say it was better than a lot of the store brands! I would never have done that before!
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