Freakin' Polar Vortex

Yeah, to say that it's really cold out goes beyond the responsive 'no duh' statement. But to say that it's cold in my house, well, that's just me being whiny. Honestly, it is taking all of my reserves to not bump up the heat an extra few degrees—I've told myself that if it gets to the point that I'm wearing a hat, gloves, and a scarf inside, only then can I inch that thermostat a wee bit closer to the 69 degree mark. (Why did I not move into a house with a working fireplace?)—and for the record, we've only reached scarf level.

All self-criticism aside, I'm trying to keep my mind off the windchills by planning my Spring garden. I got a jump on my seed ordering (for fear that Baker Creek would run out of some of the more interesting varietals), and received my seed order a couple of weeks ago. It has remained, sitting on the counter in the mailer since then. You know how it goes. You get excited about something and then stuff happens, like a crowd that comes along and sweeps you away with hands outstretched as you reach for your now disappearing free time. "But my seeeeeeeeeeds!" you scream, followed by a hollow "my seeds" whisper as you realize you're not gonna' be seeing them for awhile.

Homemade Holiday Gifts on a Budget

I know it's hard to get excited about the holidays when you're broke, or nearly so. It can be pretty depressing to face the holidays with bills looming. Believe me, I know. And for most of us above the 34th parallel, the temperature is dropping and we're spending more on utilities just to keep the icicles from forming on our noses while bundled up at home. I mean, where's Han Solo with his Tauntaun when you really need one? (What? Too gross?)

Side note: I was always amazed that Mattel didn't have a Tauntaun action figure with his belly sliced open, so you could just slide your Luke action figure inside. I mean, yeah, gross—but seriously, as a 10 year old? That would've been the shit.

And if that imagery didn't get you in the mood for the holidays, honestly, I don't know what will.

Hello Winter, My Old Friend...

Modern Lumberjack—because why wouldn't you wear your flannel shirt open to the navel with a jaunty (and bulky) wool scarf touching your bare skin? Very practical.

I love Fall. I mean, I seriously LOVE fall. Not in the pumpkin spiced latte with a side of pumpkin cruller kind of love. More like the lumberjack wearing flannel everything (so long as it's not chafing) kind of love. Except, I don't love the colder weather, and I certainly don't love it getting dark or snowing before it's supposed to. (That's just rude.) And come to think of it, I don't love raking leaves. But I like the other stuff. mostly. sort of.

Christmas is Encroaching Once Again

Don't get me wrong. I love the holidays.

I am however thankful, for the most part, that stores weren't stocking Christmas stuff back in August as they've done in years past. But when one walks into Target on Halloween expecting to get that last batch of candy (to replace the all of the candy one may or may not have eaten), and finds Christmas trees set up where the costumes had been the day before, well... that's enough to cause a certain person's brain to frazzle.

Well, That Was a Bust—How We Bounced Back from a 5 Day Power Outage

There's nothing like a hurricane (or two) to completely blow your food budget for the month.

The first hurricane was a breeze. Granted, a very strong, knock-you-over kind of a breeze, but still... We managed to get through with minimal damage and only flickering power outages. (We did lose the Internet on that one, but I got a lot of reading done.) The second one, though, that was the doozy.

10 Things We Do to Consistently Save Money

By now you've seen every blog post there is about how to save money. Like me, you've probably even cycled through the same money saving sites more than a few times. And, like me, the money saving habits you initially adopted are so second hat by now that you've probably forgotten that they're still saving you money.

At this point in my frugalness, I need to be reminded of those things. I need to be reminded that, even though I'm trying to save more money than I did last month, I'm still saving more money than I was last year.

The Headache of Fixing Our Leaky Shower Pan Ourselves (with Pictures)

For the past year I've known that our shower pan was leaking. We have a one-story house with a crawl space. And had that crawl space not had plastic lining laid, I may've never known—at least, not until the floor caved in, or we tried to sell the house.

$200 Budget Laundry Room Re-do

You'd think after the disastrous shower pan re-do that we would never tackle another home remodel project again. That's what you'd think. (That's what I thought).... Silly rabbit.

Turns out that, after the bathroom re-do, both the kitchen and laundry room were a mess. Awash, if you will, with all of my tools and detritus from the shower pan project.

Thinking that the laundry room would be a nice, easy, contained space to revamp. I set my sights on it. I mean the room is only 81 inches square— bigger than the shower enclosure, but I wouldn't be tearing up the floor (or tiling) this time, so... easy peasy! (right?)

Two Major Financial Set Backs

This summer has been rough on us financially. First, we realized we could no longer put off repairing the leaky shower pan, so endeavored to take on the work ourselves. Then we had a pet emergency that blew most of our emergency savings.