It wasn’t until Jordan and I sat down the other morning (well, actually I didn’t do anything to be honest), and crunched some numbers. We took a very close look at all of our income and all of our expenses… The program asks you to insert every single expense that you have, every single thing you have purchased in the past year and every little bit of income that you have… (so? it doesn’t really matter if he doesn’t know everything I purchased… or maybe it does… but just stop talking shhh) … OK- so you press a magic number and it’s all like, “UM WHAT ARE YOU THINKING! DO YOU ACTUALLY EAT OUT THAT MUCH – You cannot afford that, idiot!”… no it didn’t say that, but it may as well have. It was basically like, you spend way too much of your income on travel expenses (fuel and train tickets), dining out, Anthropologie, and Sephora. So I was all like, OMG JORDAN! Why have you been buying so much lunch and spending SO much on your train ticket to work every day! GOSH! LEARN TO BUDGET YOU JERK! men.

Ok no, but seriously, I did nothing wrong… it’s just that like, the numbers got all screwed up and this program misunderstood where our money was going. You’d think a money program would be all truthful and not make stuff up, but whatever… We forgot and forgave.

So, not that I was spending money in places and on things that can be considered indulgent… but if I were, then I am going to have to quit it for a little while and put some money into savings …. like- an emergency money account… if there should be a disaster (like, the d key on my computer not working, or something tragic (why did I even put that out there into the Universe) then we have something to fall back on. Oh wait- no, just learned we have applecare for the comp, which means that a portion of that emergency money can be used for something fun and exciting! like boots!

The other reason we are trying to save so much is because of the damn basement… IIIII Knowwww, I knowww– I promise to stop talking about water in my basement… it’s the most boring and uninteresting thing ever! HOWEVER, it is something that I really need to save for…

I literally spent an hour on the CapitalOne site trying to change the image on the back of my card… Most people put pictures of their babies eating pasta all over their face (which is gross, I’m sorry… I totally know I’ll think it’s cute when it’s my kid), or like, a sunflower image that they stole from the photo archive on Capital One, but my idea was to put a picture of my basement on there so every time I happened to remove my card from my [fabulous vintage wallet] to pay for something at, idunno, Forever21, or Bloomies, or some really posh boutique in Westport… I would catch a glance of the reality that awaits at home, and hopefully think to myself, “OK Madds, should you really be buying that stunning vintage candelabra at Dovecote when you’ve gotta pay someone to put a french drain in your basement?” or, “Maddie. listen up. this is the deal. You need to take the money that you are about to spend on a totally adorable cardi with embellishments and put it toward paying basement systems to waterproof the wet basement so you don’t have to worry about issues down there.”… and the thought is that I would respond, “You know what, CapitalOne card– you are right! although this beautiful, material thing would make me happy every single day it comes into view or is used in an outfit, a french drain in the basement is so much sexier and (practical?).”

So.. other ways that we have decided to budget are groceries. We (jordan) did a tremendous amount of research regarding how much moolah two people should be spending on groceries per week. I won’t even tell you the number because it is the most depressing thing ever… We took our behinds to Trader Joe’s and actually had a lot of fun picking and choosing healthy meals for the week — all in our budget. As the week comes to a close we realize that we have leftover food! We’re trying to be cool now and pretend we’re totally into the budget thing like, “OH next week we should spend only half of that. right? that would be FUN! no. ok”

Food will go from filet mignon to filet o’ fish (ew jk), clothing will have to be reinvented instead of tossed out and replaced, pastimes will go from fancy nights out with friends and expensive wine to quiet nights enjoying a cup of mulled cider on the couch whilst listening to a radio program. (Actually we homebodies prefer the ladder… although I’d substitute the mulled cider with hot choco)… Things are just going to change a wee bit around here. It’s like the depression here at the Rabidou Rhodes household. We’re going to eat potatoes every day for breakfast lunch and dinner, and sell all of our belongings including our beds and couches… no I’m just kidding. I put that little snip in there for sympathy / to scare you… meanwhile all of my friends are like, OK… check Maddie of the list of fun friends to hang out with.

(please take a moment to note how much I totally love you guys, because this entire post requires me to go back and insert d’s that were left out, thanks to my non-functioning keyboard. I totally dropped my laptop the other night)

OK so if any of you care and are still reading… One of the food items that we found to be really economical is PIZZA. (which is kinda why I’m not complaining about the whole thing)… a whole wheat pizza dough at Trader Joes is 99 cents… a huge packet of shredded goat’s milk cheese is only $6 (good for a long time and will last about 4 pizzas), I make my sauce with crushed tomatoes from BJs that come in a pack of like, 12 huge cans, for $7 or something crazy like that… and then we toss on anything that we have in the house… onions, jalapenos, sausage, chicken, spinach, broccoli, peppers, fresh mozz… you get the point… anyways, it is so economical, can be healthy, and tastes freaking awesome!

Enough about this crap. Here are some pictures of affordable pizza.

Yours truly,

no more crazy spending & more saving.