Although we may have succeeded at only spending twenty dollars this week on groceries, it has more to do with our travel plans later this week than actually being good about being on a budget.  

I'd like to say we learned lots of things by being really strict with our spending habits these last two months.

But we epically failed.

We absolutely dominated the first 3 weeks.  But then it was a quick deterioration after that.  Our jobs (=Cale's job) all of a sudden got out of control stressful which in turn made life stressful, the weather heated up, and things that needed to have money spent on came up (oven doors, car insurance, a broken phone, etc.).  

I really want to go back and re-do this and have more will power so we can save a good chunk of money.  We were reading a news story about budgeting that described us perfectly.  It said something to the effect that just because you keep track of where every penny is going does not under any circumstance mean you're actually sticking to a budget.

Where Cale and I really get caught up is in the fact that we're paying all of our bills, paying [lots] extra on each our mortgage and student loans, not charging anything on our credit cards, and saving money.  Therefore we let ourselves believe we're doing a great job.  When we actually sit down and look at our finances hurts to see how much we could have saved if we cut out out to eat stops and Starbucks (I take full responsibility for that).  I think we'll aim to try this again in September and hopefully do a much better job. 

P.S. I realize that July and August are in-between this but we have week long vacations planned in both months and some birthdays... and since we like to celebrate it would be an inaccurate depiction of really cutting out all unnecessary purchases.

On a more positive note, we found that we were able to stick to a under fifty dollar a week grocery budget with very few exceptions.  I will try to be diligent in at least this aspect of the budget (with my insane Starbucks addiction it's the least I can do to help our budget).  I'll try to keep posting progress and lists of what we bought with menus.  

You don't care?  No surprise there, but it really helps me with menu ideas to look back and see how many different things I created with chicken breasts.

Now I have to go to bed.. I'm working 10 days in a row so I can get off for a family wedding.... just have to make it to Thursday.  Wish me luck!

We were going to go grocery shopping tonight.  

But then gymnastics was on.  It's the first night that we've remembered to turn the T.V. on to watch the trials.  And, luckily for me, my favorite event was on.  

Holy cow. The pressure.  Good thing my parents pulled me out of gymnastics before I was pulled into the national spotlight.  Or before I reached 6 feet tall before the age of 13.  It was one of those things.  I can't remember which.

Something about watching flips, twists, and balancing maneuvers make my palms sweat.  One fall and their Olympic dreams are dashed.  I would definitely not survive in that kind of environment. 

Watching the craziness also makes Cale and I want to try all of their moves.  Our neighbor is probably wondering what the heck is happening because our jumps are causing some pretty loud noises and vibrations. I'm surprised she hasn't called the cops.

If we put the T.V. on mute we think everyone is amazing.. unless they do something like fall or take a step (you know the key is stuck landings).  Then we decide to listen to the announcers.  

They find something wrong with everything!  Those girls better have some good self esteem.  Sheesh!

Regardless, we're getting so excited for the start of the Olympics.  I can hardly wait.  I'm about to pee my pants.

My husband is in the banking world so occasionally he needs to make appearances at certain places.  I find this really terrible.

Not!

This has kept my cookless week streak going strong into Friday.  I'm kind of ashamed but really amazed since last night was the first night we actually got food from somewhere.  Don't ask what we've been surviving on because I'm not exactly sure in the first place.

Oh yeah, Cheetos and popcorn.

Anyways, a new frozen yogurt business opened and Cale told the lady he'd stop by.  I felt obligated to come too.

It was great.  And free.  So that means I have to go back.  Darn.

Also, we had some great Mexican food.

And then I needed to find shoes for this wedding.  Cale took me to Kohl's which I was slightly nervous about finding anything that I'd like.  Does that make me a clothes snob?  Probably, but since I'm not buying clothes for a year I think that deducts points from the snobbiness.  And I found tons of cute summer shoes.  So that should deduct more points.  Awesome.

Have a great Friday!

If you've been watching the news at all you've probably realized that it's wild fire city around here lately.  Our house isn't that close to any wildfires (probably 50 miles) but we get sweet campfire smells when we open our windows and a haze of smoke in the sky.  We would love for some rain because obviously it's super dry here but the only problem is rain for us usually comes in the form of thunderstorms which bring lots of lightening and strong winds which are murder on fighting wildfires.  So if you could pray for some nice dreary midwest days, some cooler temperatures, and for everyone who has lost their homes in the fires....

In other news...

I've been completely failing on cooking anything at all.  I'm blaming the 100 degree temperatures on my lack of desire to cook a meal but you should probably feel sorry for my husband.  While I thrive on Cheetos and popcorn for dinner he likes a little something extra.  I have no idea why.   Anyways, he made me some brats tonight and my bun was severely out-bratted.

We leave for a little getaway next week.  We're trying to decide if it will even be worth it to stay in Colorado for the 4th since we're pretty sure fireworks will be canceled (you know.. the fires) but since I most likely also have to work most of the day we're debating the benefits of an overnight interstate drive.

I, of course, am firmly against this because in our neck of the woods Starbucks is not open 24 hours a day so it would be a non-coffee assisted trek.. which kind of takes the fun out of road trips.  That along with my uncanny ability to attract deer from miles away is leading us to make an early morning Thursday trek.

It took us 4 nights to get through Sherlock Holmes (the newest movie).  We love all of those movies but we must have been absolutely exhausted (very excited for vacation!) because we fell asleep 3 nights in a row.  While this is typical behavior for me, this is really strange for my husband.  I would have thought about a friendly little doctor's visit but our health insurance is less than ideal.  Oh, and my husband has worked 12+ hour days for 7 days straight so I guess I might be tired too.  Might.

We have a wedding coming up.  I have a dress to wear but no shoes.  My New Year's resolution complicates things because even if I find a pair of shoes to wear (=buy) I then have to convince someone (=my husband) that they are the greatest thing in the world and that life will be better with them.  Unfortunately, my husband is nowhere close to being this shallow so....  Hopefully no one at this wedding looks at my feet.  

Two nights ago we were woken up to some random beeping occurring somewhere in the house.  It beeped 3 times and turned off.  Then an hour later there was more beeping.  At this point Cale got out a battery to have it on the ready to change out a smoke detector.

Umm... I've been missing Olympic Trials and I didn't know this until yesterday when our friends came over and they were all talking about the Trials.  Shoot!  I really hate missing any Olympic anything since they're hardly ever on.  

You know. Only once every 2 years.

And the Trials are on regular T.V.  Regular T.V.= channels you can get with bunny ears.  Like 5 total channels.  This is a lesson on why I should turn on my T.V. at other times other than on Monday nights at 7.

We had a great time with our friends last night.  I made sure to leave the camera out but did I remember to take a single picture?  Negative.

My sister, mom and I have been talking about a shopping extravaganza for quite some time now.  My sister finally went through the weekends and we made it through her going back to school until we found the perfect weekend.

Which would then again be imperfect based on the fact that she would no longer be here.

So on Thursday we planned it for today.  My mom had purchased on fun-filled shopping excursion basket at a charity auction that had gift cards to a paint your own pottery shop, a 30 minute flight stimulator package, and a gift card to a nearby restaurant. 

You might not be surprised to learn that the only gift card we ended up having time to use was the one to the restaurant.  

We were too busy browsing.  You also might be surprised to learn that I have not, in fact, broken my no clothes buying New Year's resolution.  Almost half way through the year and still going strong!  I actually would not have suspected that I made it this far.  Now I'm even more determined to make it to January 1st.  

Every time we meet we promise ourselves that we'll make Girls Only get-togethers more often.  Then way to much time passes and we fail to meet up again until way too late.   We're promising ourselves one more fun filled night before my sister goes back to Minnesota again this fall.  We might even invite my dad and husband. Might.  

I'm guessing this is like a 100 calorie pack for ice cream or something.  But I call it the perfect amount of ice cream for people that aren't exactly supposed to eat any ice cream.  Just enough for a taste, almost not enough for a terrible stomachache.  

And a spoon in the top?!?

Pure genius.

P.S.  We never watch the NBA at all but last night Cale looked up and saw that the final game was on tonight (you know, unless there was a come back).  I, of course, jumped on this opportunity to make a frozen pizza, chocolate chip cookies, and ice cream.  My taste buds are satisfied, the laundry is folded, and my stomach is rolling in milk and cheese.

P.P.S. Sherlock Holmes is on cue for tomorrow night.  Popcorn for dinner?  Check.  Healthiest eaters ever? Check.

Please laugh at these pictures.  This sequence was taken the night of our anniversary.  Don't ask what we were trying to do because obviously the attempt at a normal picture failed.  Well, maybe this is actually normal but we were trying to look normal for these.  

After taking about a poo-ton of these pictures we look in the car next to us and sure enough, someone 3 ft next to my face the entire time. Embarrassing!  What's new really?

As this post indicates I've done nothing productive, made nothing amazing (or at all) to eat, and apparently haven't been my usually extremely awkward self.  The heat wave that's rolling through most have taken it all with me.  Cheers to cooler temperatures tomorrow!

Don't tell my husband that I put these pictures up.  He is about 100 times better looking than these pictures suggest.  We finally got a decent picture later on.  And my decent, I mean you can't see our faces to tell the difference.  Perfect!

I know right?! Divine.

I saw this recipe here and haven't been able to get it out of my mind since.  I also knew that neither my husband nor I have big sweet tooths (teeth?) so if I made them at home, we'd each have one and call it good.

Thank goodness for parents and Father's Day.  Always a great excuse for recipe testing.  

I was absolutely correct when I thought they were going to be sugar loaded.  But here I am 3 days later and I'm kind of really craving another one of these cookies.  Darn.  Left all of them up the parents.  What I'm really thinking is that this recipe would be delightful as a filling between two layers of chocolate cake.  Are you following?  OR, in between two layers of graham crackers which are then dipped into dark chocolate.  

Oh geez.. I need to go to bed before I start a mad witch hunt of anything with sugar in my house. 

I actually ended up following the recipe exactly for the sugar cookie topped with cookie dough frosting minus a few key instructions which would have resulted in more perfect cookie.  You see, you're supposed to refrigerate the cookie dough mixture for at least 30 minutes before cutting the dough.  But I had chicken already baking in the oven (to shred because it was correctly predicted that we'd have 100 plus degree temperatures and I knew that I wouldn't want to cook anything this week).

And remember our oven door is.. um.. shattered?

Turns out that the oven door great at keeping heat inside the oven.  And even though I picked the coolest day to cook it was still 80 degrees.  And our kitchen was heating up quickly.  So I decided the cookies needed to be cooked immediately.  Regardless of the 30 minute fridge incubation period.  (Do only scientists use the word incubation?  I didn't realize that I even used it until rereading this paragraph.  Nerd alert!)

So I skipped it.  And didn't use a cookie cutter or biscuit cutter.  Which resulted in flattish cookies instead of the beautiful fluffy cookies seen in the link above.  Maybe next time.

While these were super delicious, the combo of sugar cookies plus frosting was an intense dose of sugar.  Although I can't wait to make these for the kids from our church when it's mine turn to bring snacks for small group.  Their parents will kill me!

Okay.. below is the recipe for the cookie dough frosting.  Ignore the diabetes and heart disease warning.  

Cookie Dough Frosting 
From Iowa Girl Eats, originally posted by Love and Olive Oil.. they made a whole cookbook!

- 3/4 cups of butter
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup of flour
- 1/3 cup of heavy cream
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 cups of powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla (didn't add)
- some chocolate chips (mini suggested, I ended up chopping up regular sized chips)

Mix together the butter, sugar, and flour.  Add the salt and heavy cream.  Slowly add the powdered sugar.  Add chocolate chips if you want them incorporated into the dough (which I will do for my to-die-for cake that I don't even have the pans for) or sprinkle on top. 

 Or eat the dough plain... no eggs!