Hi everyone! I don't necessarily expect that you all we're anxiously awaiting my next post, but I do apologize for not posting for an entire week. I found out early last week that a good friend of mine from high school passed away in a very tragic car accident. So needless to say I wasn't completely motivated to blog about our lives because I was spending the week reflecting on someone else's. Eric had a beautiful service on Saturday morning, and I feel like I've had some adequate time to grieve. So now I am back on the blog, and ready to finish this month strong!

You should be proud to know, however, that last week we stuck to our word, did not spend a thing! If you noticed to your right, our savings meter has risen to the halfway mark towards our goal! ;)

Despite a week of mourning there were a few highlights throughout...

I tried a couple of crockpot meals for dinner, and both were actually pretty good!




First up was Pizza Casserole. And mine did not look like this, even though it was very good! We didn't have any pepperoni, and Scott is very particular about not consuming cooked vegetables, so it more or less came out like baked ziti. It tasted fine, but I don't think that the 1 cup of water the recipe called for was enough. The pasta was not completely covered, and by the time we got to the crockpot to eat after a few hours, we had an extra crunchy layer of pasta to eat through on top. It was still bearable though, and the cooked pasta underneath was delicious.






My more victorious crockpot recipe however was my crockpot barbeque pulled pork. It was soooo good. And so simple. I took two frozen porkchops, stuck them in the crockpot covered it in about 2 cups of Dr. Pepper, and a little bit of Liquid Smoke. I didn't measure anything but I would guess it was about 3-4 tablespoons? I cooked it on high for about 8 hours. When we walked through the door that evening our house smelt like our own barbeque smokehouse. SO. FREAKIN'. GOOD.

Other highlights include the best cookies I've ever made:



Martha Stewart's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Recipe:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1 1/4 cups rolled oats (not quick-cooking)
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup light-brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup chopped toasted pecans
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

When I made these, I omitted the pecans, used whole wheat flour, and chopped a bar of dark chocolate to make chocolate chunks. I also doubled the recipe and scooped out the dough in 1/4 cupfuls to create giant cookies. Bake at 350º for 11 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through.

And finished off the week, and really the summer, relaxing with some friends by the pool.

In loving memory of Eric Harrison 1991-2013

I have come to a decision. I think instead of my "blogging calendar" (at least for this week) the best way that I will be able to give you guys an accurate picture of what this month looks like for us, is to just give you guys honest updates on what's happening day by day. I really do intend to update each day, but seriously, our lives are very... what's the word.... spontaneous. And I don't mean that in the cool way where we just decide to go do something grand off of a whim just for a change in routine. I mean our weeks basically fall into our laps come Monday, and it looks nothing like the week before. Coincidentally that makes us very busy people, and I think I was just so excited to get this no-spend month started I made my blogging schedule without having that fact in mind. I'm super thankful that Ruth at Living Well Spending Less mapped out a plan everyday for a month, but like I said at the very beginning, with us being a young newlywed couple without children our day-to-day this month will probably look very different, and occasionally you'll have to read boring posts like this one.

Technically for day five, the plan was to create a meal plan for the rest of the month, or at least make an inventory of our pantry using the worksheet from Ruth's blog. However, you might be able to see how that could be difficult with us not being home for the week. Either way we had a good evening. Our good friends Natalie and Travis came over for dinner, and we had crockpot chopped beef brisket sandwiches.

(photo credit: Mix and Match Mama)

I wanted to get fancy and make us some homemade hamburger buns, but by the time we had gotten to the house, I was starving, and sliced bread looked just as good to me. Either way they were still delicious, and we literally have leftovers to last us the rest of the week. I enjoyed a night in watching chick-flicks and reality TV with Natalie while our husbands were out at Starbucks discussing theology. Exciting night, right? Still enjoyable nonetheless.

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So to sort of offset a relatively uneventful update, I thought I would throw in some excitement. I know that I've given you all an idea of why we're doing the 31 Days of Spending Zero, but we also have a bigger picture in mind than just using this one month to go towards our credit card. This past month Scott and I have made a decision for our next transition in our lives. We decided that once our apartment lease is up in June 2014, we are going to move downtown! We've come to the conclusion that downtown is the ideal place to be for us with where we are in life right now. We both work downtown (we even carpool together each morning) and are beginning to make great connections with people who either live downtown as well, or at the least closer than where we live right now. The con here is, downtown in exponentially more expensive than the area we are living in now. Your first thought is probably "How do expect to do that with all of this 'debt' you keep talking about, it's kind of counterproductive, isn't it?" Well, yes, it would be. So this is our big plan. Depending on how the next three weeks play out, our hope is to do these no spend months every other month, until we have our card down to 20% of it's usage. (Approx. next Feb/Mar) Our other big decision in being able to do this is selling Scott's car. Which, through some incredible blessings, we should be set to do in September, or better yet, possibly even this month. So if you're in the market for a 2012 Ford Focus, hit me up! ;)

As you can see, we have some big dreams in mind for the next couple of months. It does help make this month seem much more bearable in perspective, but I hope you can see how much encouragement it would require to actually achieve. I hope that you all will stand by us in this adventure, and cheer us on when the going gets tough. My prayer is that when the next ten months are said and done we will have a great story to tell about God's goodness, provision, and gifts of strength and self-control.

So please, stay with us! Tonight I will be getting my bridesmaid dress (technically "for free" through our money earned by house-sitting) and Thursday is the big going away party which I have put together for FREEEEEEEEEE! I'm so excited, and really, just a *tad* proud of myself.

More to come!