Happy Monday everyone! I hope you had a lovely weekend and enjoyed St. Patrick’s Day. I’ve decided to combine my Saturday and Monday life updates into one post — I figure most of you don’t need two separate updates every week. It was a fairly quiet weekend for us, especially since W was sick the entire time.
We’ve decided to wait until next year to buy our next house. We’re not ready to sell yet, and honestly we still love our current home. Selling so soon, particularly when we haven’t found anything we like more that would justify the expense, doesn’t make sense. Unless a truly perfect place appears, we don’t plan to buy this year. We’d rather wait than buy something we only slightly like and then find ourselves looking again shortly after.
That said, next year is still likely when we’ll move. We’re hoping something ideal turns up by then. For now, we’ll keep enjoying our home. Lifestyle inflation has started catching up with me, and we want to be smarter about saving so that when we do buy the next property we can pay most of it — or even all of it — in cash.
What motivated you to buy your second house? Was it lifestyle inflation, or did you simply outgrow your first home? For us it’s a bit of both. A larger yard would be nice, and having more than a one-car garage would be ideal (see my “Spending” section below for context).
If you’ve switched to Bloglovin after Google Reader shut down and would like to follow me there, please click the Bloglovin button on my site.
Spending
We had some significant purchases last week, though I’ll save the full details for another post. In short: we bought a new car that hasn’t been delivered yet.
Target had almost its entire Home section on sale at two nearby stores, and I made three trips there over the weekend. I spent a bit over $300 redoing the décor in our living and dining rooms — I bought a lot of pieces and I love everything so far. Now I just need a new side table in the living room and we’ll be close to finished, aside from installing carpet in the living room.
W and I have been living together for nearly six years, and until recently we hadn’t taken time to decorate properly. We had furniture and a few wall pieces, but nothing matched and it looked haphazard. With more time and a bit more flexibility in our budget, we’ve begun decorating properly. There are still many projects on our list; I’ll share a dedicated post on our plans soon.
Extra Income (does not include income from our main jobs)
Last week I received roughly $2,323 in extra payments. It was a great week, and I wish it would stay that way. As a reminder, this “extra income” category excludes salaries from our main jobs (I work as an analyst and W sells cars). Many readers ask how I manage my schedule and find time to handle everything. Would you be interested in a post that outlines my daily routine and how I fit in blogging, side projects, and other tasks? Tell me if that sounds useful or boring.
Affiliate income is still performing well, and I’m glad I invested time in it. I have plans to grow that stream and I’m thinking more about passive income opportunities. What do you do for passive income?
My friend and I are still struggling to settle on a name for our new business. Some readers suggested picking a name and changing it later, but since our brand identity is central to what we want to build, choosing the right name feels important. We’re holding off on further steps until we can decide on the brand and name.
Food
We stuck to a meal plan again this week and managed to eat at home five nights. I don’t have an exact total for food spending but it was minimal. We did eat out twice, both at inexpensive local restaurants near home that serve the best Mexican and Chinese food we’ve found.
How’s your food budget going? If you tried any great recipes last week, please share links or notes in the comments — I’m always looking for inspiration to add to future meal plans.
- Tuesday: Pulled pork sandwiches
- Wednesday: Chicken rollatini with spinach alla parmigiana
- Thursday: Out to eat
- Friday: Steak and vegetables
- Saturday: Out to eat
- Sunday: Breakfast for dinner (French toast, eggs, bacon)
Being healthy
I’m doing fairly well with staying healthy, though I could make better choices. I’ve been snacking on a lot of fruit as a healthier option. My sister frequently scolds me for not being healthy enough, and she’s been a helpful motivator.