Things worth splurging on

In our house, we live on a budget. Not a crazy, super tight, no one is allowed to have fun budget, but a budget nonetheless. Our budget has "fun money" built in to it so we can go out to dinner, buy fabric (though Zac doesn't really buy fabric - he plays golf), etc.

I think we live pretty frugally. We don't buy many things we don't need, we clip coupons for grocery shopping, and we don't buy anything we can't pay for immediately.

That. Being. Said. There are a few things in this world that I will splurge on. Where it's worth it to me to spend the money to get higher quality products. Some of these things might surprise you, and I'm sure this list is different for everyone, but here's my list of things worth splurging on.

1. Bedding.
I know that nice bedding is expensive, but to me, it's worth the cost. We are talking about something that you will spend 7-9 hours of your life wrapped up in every single day. It should feel nice, you should love it, and to me, it's worth splurging on. The upside, of course, is that nice bedding lasts longer and you'll have to replace it less often.

                                         

2. Fabric.
Quilting and sewing is my favorite hobby because it lasts forever. Honestly, if I'm going to put the time into creating something for someone else, I don't want them to eat it. Or open it and throw it away. I want it to last for a long time. If I'm going to put the effort and expense into something, I want it to last. Which is why I'm willing to splurge on quality fabric.

                                           

This is not my stash. I wish. Came from here.

3. Dog food.

Weird, right? We feed our dog this all natural organic crap that I can't believe we pay a ton of money for. But... I just don't feel right feeding him something where the main ingredient was "chicken byproducts," which is what the first food we bought said. And, the better the food, supposedly the better behaved dog you'll have. Our dog is (usually) very well behaved, but I'm not taking any chances!

4. Pots and pans.

Zac got most of our pots and pans before I ever met him, but I'm an All-Clad convert. They are crazy expensive. Ridiculously expensive. But you only ever have to buy them once. Our stainless steel pans should last us the rest of our lives. Winning.

                                     

Ours are slightly more loved and less shiny than these bad boys.

5. Clothes.

This is definitely evolving as I get older. Now, it's important to me that my clothes fit well and last a long time. I am willing to invest some money in pieces that fit well, flatter my body, and are classic additions to my wardrobe (like a great black suit). I don't spend much money on "trendy" pieces, half because I admit that I'm just not trendy, and half because they tend to fall apart after one or two wears. Now, I need to say that I still buy all of my nicer clothes on clearance or sales!

6. Our cleaning lady.

I will give up cable before I give up our fantastic cleaning lady. Yes, we pay her a lot of money, but coming home to a perfectly clean house every other week is worth every single penny. We (I - Zac doesn't really care) had to accept that we were never going to be able to keep our house as clean as we wanted to. Plus, I hate cleaning. And I'm not very good at it. But it stresses me out to have a dirty house. This money is a contribution toward both a clean house and maintaining my sanity, so worth it to us.

What items do you splurge on? Is there something that's expensive but you just can't live without? What are you not willing to cut from your budget, no matter what?

I'm not a MAC, but...

I am most definitely not a Mac. I still use a PC both at home and work, and I think Mac computers seem more complicated. I know once you make the switch, no one ever looks back, but I'm still happy with my PCs.

Last weekend, my phone started acting up. Since I had an upgrade available on my plan, I thought I'd spring for a new phone. And if you're going to spring, you may as well go all out right? This was my "I got a raise at work - Yay!" present. And Zac claims my Christmas present too, which is probably true.

Here's my pretty new phone:



It's an iPhone. The cool one where you can talk to Siri like the commercials. And it took me all of 30 seconds to declare I was totally in love with it.

Let me back track to Thanksgiving weekend, when both of my sisters, my cousin, and my aunt all had new iPhones. When we were going to bed that night I asked Zac if he was having a nice holiday. He said, "Yeah, it's super fun watching everyone obsess over their new iPhones." It was totally an iPhone Thanksgiving at my mom's house.

And now I see what the fuss is about. It's way faster to ask Siri to turn on my alarm or add an appointment to my calendar or remind me to do something than it is for me to do it myself. And it's fun to ask her funny questions!

The phone is so fast, it always works (which my old one didn't), and I'm constantly discovering new things I can do with it.

If you have an iPhone, check out this list of super secret features you might not know about. I learned a few cool tricks!

So -- I'm NOT a Mac, but I'm definitely an iPhone! Anyone else have this new phone? Do you love it too, or are you avoiding this crazy technology?

P.S. Apple (definitely) didn't give me anything for writing this. I paid a crap ton of money for this phone. I just like it and wanted to let you know that it's great in case you're on the fence about upgrading!

Just Put it in my Dropbox

I always am excited to learn about a cool online tool, and I wanted to share a few I've found recently:

Dropbox is the most awesome thing I've found in awhile. It is an online storage tool that lets you access your files from anywhere. You just install the software on your computer, choose which files you want to share, and then voila! You can access them anywhere!

You can access your files online via the dropbox website, or you can download an app for your phone or iPad that lets you view files that way. I use this ALL the time... I'm at a meeting and I need to access a document for work, and I can just quickly pull it up on my phone. Awesome.

If this isn't the coolest thing since sliced bread, I don't know what is. How often have you been meeting someone for something (dinner, coffee, meeting, etc.) and tried to figure out somewhere in the middle? Use this website to make that process a breeze! Pop in both addresses and a keyword for where you want to meet (ie: coffee) and voila - a meeting place!

Note: I was not compensated by either of these companies, I just think they are great online tools that you might want to use, also!

I have an addiction to planners.

I discovered my addiction to planners when I was in my freshman year of college. When I realized that I could stick multi-colored post-it notes on the pages of my new planner to create a whole new level of fabulous, I was hooked.

I've had multiple planners from Franklin Covey.  Originally, I loved having daily pages but over the past few years I've started to prefer a weekly view instead. I love extras - like birthday pages and stickers! This year I used the MyAgenda from MomAgenda, which I LOVED, but it isn't spiral bound and I miss that.

So.... here's what I'm planning to order this week:

Obviously a beautiful cover design is a MUST.  And the weekly pages look like this:

And there are stickers!!!!!

All images from Erin Cordren

So what do you think? Do you just LOVE this life planner? You get to put your name on the front to personalize it - would it be too much to put my "new" name on the front, even though about half a year will pass by before I have that new name?!?

Too much hair

A couple of years ago (almost 3 to be exact) we adopted this little bundle of joy from the Humane Society. Her name is Sophie, and according to the experts at the shelter, wouldn't grow much larger and was a short haired cat. At that time, she weighed 2.6 pounds.

Three years and 10 pounds later, Sophie is GIGANTIC and oh, surprise surprise a long haired cat. 

I really love her, even though she sort of sucks.

Which means her hair is EVERYWHERE. And I do mean everywhere. Like covering my clothes, on your feet from the floor. It's disgusting.

So I bought this bad boy at Petsmart the other day. Turns out I spent about twice as much as I should have, but I could return it if I didn't like it.

This is called the DeFURminator, and I can't find a website for it, so you can learn about it on Amazon here.

I was skeptical, because it cost like $40, but I was also desperate. And it is AMAZING. In a really really gross way. The sheer amount of hair it removes is ridiculous, and I (due to the overall cranky temperament my cat has) can only brush her until she tires of so I didn't even get everything.

But if you are also in love with an animal that sheds,  it will change your life.  It stopped me from threatening to send Soph back to where cats don't have moms, so I'd say it's helping our family...

This is what I pulled off of her the other day. The toothpaste is there for scale. Warning: it's really gross.

Moral of the story - go buy one.