den decisions

Hello, world! I'm back. A little tanner, a lot more tired, and still with a few bucks in my pocket (just barely).

Disney went swimmingly. I spent a bit more money than I anticipated - maybe about $50 more - but overall, it was good. Buying snacks & fruit in advance definitely helped. By the time we go back for the next race (in two years), I'll be a pro.

Today, I want to talk about our next big purchase: Re-doing our den. Which, actually, will be a series of smaller purchases. Last night, we decided it's finally time to stop procrastinating and start doing. The reason is kind of gross. For the past two summers, Molly has gotten fleas. I don't know how she's getting them because we put the drops on her (and now, she wears a flea collar too), plus I vacuum and wash everything more frequently than I'd like to. I've come to the conclusion that they must be living in our Berber rug and the only way to totally eliminate them is rip it all out and start over.

We don't plan on staying in this house very long (if it were up to me, I'd put it up for sale tomorrow), so we're looking to do some smaller updates instead of spending a large amount of money on a total renovation. Our first objective is to figure out what kind of flooring to put down.

I've been in luuurve with the idea of staining the concrete underlayment since I saw Chris & Julia do it in their basement. The hubs is digging it too, and it's currently the front-runner. My favorite bloggers on the planet, John & Sherry at Young House Love, did it too (& then, they re-did it with an oil based floor paint).

The second option would be to install some kind of hardwood or laminate flooring to match the existing flooring in entryway/living room/kitchen. We estimated we'd need about 300 square feet of flooring; The room is shaped like a wide "L" & is 21' feet long.

rough rough rough sketch

Our design dilemma is how to make the room function. Currently, the TV is mounted on the wall directly across from the sofa,  about 6 feet away, which means you're always kind of staring up at the TV & it can get uncomfortable (we watch a lot of TV). That also leaves a lot of empty space on the other side of the room. We're having a hard time trying to integrate the room as a whole or divvy it up into two separate, but equal spaces.

But this isn't a design blog- it's a money blog. Back to the flooring. Staining the concrete looks like it might be our best bet financially. To tell the truth, I had a bit of sticker shock when looking at flooring prices. Of course, everything I liked (bamboo/cork options) was between $3 and $5 per square foot. Realistically, we need to be under $2 per square foot, plus any additional tools we'd need like underlayment. We haven't set an "official" flooring budget yet, but I think anything over $800 is out of the question (& that's for everything, not just the flooring).

Yesterday, I spoke with our contractor/handyman, Jack, whose done most of the work on our house so far and he's going to email me a quote for prepping the concrete that's already there. While this is a step we could do ourselves, I think buying or renting the tools we'd need might be about the same as paying him to do it. Plus, we can barely hang a picture, so I'm not sure this is the first major project I want to jump into.

We don't have many local flooring places in our neighborhood (in fact, I can't think of any), so we'll most likely be shopping at Lowe's. The hubs has a credit card there and we'd get 5% back on any purchases, which is nice. I'm going to do some Craigs List-ing, too, but I don't know how successful that will be considering the amount of flooring we need.

Any one else have a current house project going on or have any experience with flooring? The hubs and I are definitely not DIY-ers; I prefer reading about it to doing it any day of the week!

all made up

I think I've discovered July's challenge - no going to Target unless absolutely necessary (like for food). I cannot go into that store without dropping the big bucks. See this post for an example. Or just keep reading.

Last night, I stopped by after work to pick up three Father's Day cards. I walked out with $70 worth of stuff. Now about $30 of that was food related (our favorite DiGiorno's & chicken was on sale) and $10 I actually spent on cards (note to self: discuss later how ridiculously inflated card prices are). Which still leaves me with $30 of over-spending on stuff I probably didn't need.

Three of the items I bought were new skin care products (cleanser, scrub, & moisturizer). About a year ago, I started having a tough time with my skin. In the time since, I've tried just about every product on the market - natural, chemical, homemade - you name it, it probably was on my face at some point. Target had the Aveeno line of products on sale and they had a new line I (somehow) hadn't tried - Smart Essentials - made to combat "environmental toxins and a hectic lifestyle...resulting in noticeably stressed skin". While I don't think I have a hectic lifestyle, per sey, I do have stressed skin, which in turn is stressing me out! All in all, I spent about $25 on the three products, though they did throw in a bonus trial size of their brightening moisturizer.

The night wasn't all about spending though. After I returned home, I realized I hadn't cleaned my makeup brushes in a loooong time which I'm sure wasn't helping my skin. I did some googling (actually some Pinterest-ing) and found a 'recipe' of sorts for a DIY Makeup Brush Cleaner. It worked really well, too well actually, I had to change the water my bowl once because it was so gross. What I used:

• 1 cup of water
• 2 tablespoons of white vinegar
• two squirts of 7th Generation dish soap (didn't have any others on hand- though most diy cleaners suggest using Dawn blue)
• a few shakes of tea tree oil (already had it on hand - bought it awhile ago for about $10)

I swooshed my brushes around in the water for about 30 seconds, then ran them under hot/warm water for a few more to get the cleaning solution out, and laid them flat on a towel to dry. I learned you shouldn't leave the brushes upright to dry because the water will erode the glue which holds your bristles on! Not that I have super fancy makeup brushes.. but it wouldn't do me (or my bank account) any favors to have to buy new ones. Now I need to get in the habit of cleaning them regularly.
Anyone else have a favorite homemade cleaning recipe?

Pruning

Yesterday, I was feeling ambitious. Well, not ambitious, maybe annoyed is a better word. But a motivated kind of annoyed. You all know by now we're a bit strapped for cash at the moment (if you don't know why, check here and here). On the right side of our property, we have a long line (about 25 feet) of forsythia bushes. Sounds beautiful, right? Yeah, not so much. Like many other things in our house, the previous owner(s) didn't keep up with any maintenance, and it's become a veritable jungle of branches. Some branches became too heavy and sunk to the ground where they re-rooted themselves and sprung more branches. It's crazy.

I busted out the clippers when I got home from work yesterday while it was still sunny and relatively warm outside. It was kind of intimidating at first, because I didn't know where to start, so I just started clipping all the little branches away. Then I was able to to move inward, upward, and around. It was kind of liberating to clip the bush and throw the branches in a big pile. Here's what I was left with at the end:

In the middle of it, I came up with a great analogy. Clipping the forsythia bushes is like chipping away at my debt. It seems massive and overwhelming when taken as a whole, but when broken into small portions, is much more managable. And the sense of accomplishment when completed is great!

Is that the cheesiest analogy you've ever heard or what? It makes me giggle.

Day Thirty-Five Spent: $1.45 Wawa coffee

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Day Thirty-Five Saved: $0.00