Things we are good at

Being in a forever relationship has given me a new perspective on how I deal with things and how Bert deals with things, as well as, what we are good at.

1. I am very good at selling Real Estate, while Bert is super duper good at selling Verizon Wireless.
2. I am very good at cleaning up after a very sick dog, while Bert is not good at all good and runs to the other room (while gagging).
3. Bert is extremely good at having a company lower our bills. Me - not so much. I will try and have it lowered a little but he can have it lowered a LOT.
4. Bert is super awesome at letting things slide of his back. If someone yells at him, he just rolls with it. If someone yelled at me I would cry and never speak to them again.
5. I am good at grocery shopping, Bert is good he just spends more.

Also, last week was a CRAZY stressful week in the Horne household. Bert has been trying for a new job here in the 'Burgh for 6 months now and hasn't gotten past the interview. BUT, two weeks ago he had a call from a manager in West Virginia, you read right WEST VIRGINIA!!! asking him to interview.

Now moving to west virginia, throws all of our plans out of the window. But we agreed that he needed to interview. SO, as he is preparing for the interview I am preparing for our house to go on the market. Last Thursday everyone knew, including Bert, that he would be offered the position in "forever far awayville". How did I handle the stress of having to - market and sell our house in the 'Burgh, find a new place to live in yuckyville, move Bert, wrap up business here, retake a real estate exam, find a company to work for, move me, learn a new territory....? I cleaned, cleaned like a mad women, cleaned like I have never cleaned before. I also painted everything that needed painted in our house and began to stage....ugh. Bert watched tv and asked if he could help :)

To make a long post longer - last Friday rolled around and between 530pm on Thursday and 8am Friday the job had been taken off the market. The big dog of that area decided not to fill the position and we are still here in the 'Burgh, WITH an interview for a position Bert wanted to begin with.

PHEW! I say PHEW!

And that is how Bert and I differ on lots of things.

Food Update

So far this week we have spent -
32.76
This includes two dinner parties and a stop at the expensive grocery store for milk and eggs!

Total Balance so far
61.04

We have 38.96 left for the month....hmmm...are we going to make it! eeek!!

$100 challenge

Nothing makes my stomach hurt more then throwing food away. I find myself every week throwing something away that we should have eaten, but were to lazy or forgot about it. I really, really want to go on an 8 day island hopping adventure to Greece in September. With that in mind I have started to initiated cut backs. Nothing drastic, nothing too intense. Just little things each month that in the end saves us money and get me what I want.

Last month we decided to cut way back on our eating out and our cleaning lady fired us, so we have been cleaning it ourselves (saves us $150 a month) This month I re-negotiated a better deal with our cable provider (savings of about $70) and we have started the $100 challenge. I bet Bert that I could spend just $100 for the entire month of groceries. This does not include eating out or wine, just food. It helps that I have a stocked pantry and my parents arrived last month with some red meat for Bert, (they think he is starving because we don't eat red meat that often)

The challenge started today - Grocery bill $28.28
I have made the following food
- Black Bean Burgers
- Turkey Tacos
- Guacamole

My mother thinks I'm crazy, Bert thinks it can't be done.... I am set to prove them all wrong :)

P.S. I will be doing all the shopping this month, Bert doesn't look at prices!

How to convince the hubby to try this

I love this website - progressivepioneer.com

I love the receipes, the posts, the greenness of her page.

Today she posted about making our own toothpaste. Below is the website with directions. http://lusaorganics.typepad.com/clean/2010/02/natural-toothpaste-tutorial.html

Bert is not the greenest person I know, or the most willing to try new things, BUT I really really want to try this, and it could save us money, then we could go to GREECE faster... how should I approach this with him??

Update

HE AGREED!!

Bert thought it would be a great idea to not have cable. SO, I called the company this morning and found out it would be cheaper for us to keep our cable (albeit a watered down version). We have our internet and phone through them, and I need the internet to work and we have our phone for our security system. BUT, we still are saving around $100 and that was the point to begin with.

Radical Idea

As we know, my husband is a mizer (sp?). His new idea for us to save money, aka - put more money in his retirment fund, is to: trade in his pratically new car to buy a newer car for me (in cash) and then he would take my car, thus eliminating the car payment he has. I say...blah. He works too hard to not have a nice car. I love my car. I have had her since grad school and she works just fine! Except when I have a large client or a tall client, but so far no one has complained.

SO, while cleaning out our backyard today I came up with a GREAT idea for us to cut back - cancel our cable.

WOO-WHAT?!?! No Cable?! What would we do all day? Below is the list that I have made to compensate for no cable....
1. We have netflix and in the summer there is nothing new on tv. If it is raining outside we can always use our netflix. It streams right into our tv from our internet.
2. Garden. We were really bad at that last year! Thankfully Bill came over a lot to garden for us, or make us garden. I want a veggie garden anyway and it isn't going to weed itself.
3. Playing tennis, walking the dog, biking the trails...endless things to do OUTSIDE, in the SUNSHINE, that are FREE.
4. Boardgames, dinner parties, bonfires in our backyard....

There would be plenty for us to do, and it would save us so much! The monthly bill for our cable is over $200 (that includes the internet and a landline) I would think we could save at least $100 dollars a month by not having cable.

Wish me luck in proposing this to Bert, who LOVES his tv :)