the 15 best things to happen in 2015 (and what happened to those 2015 goals).

good morning 2016! and happy new year everyone! hope you didnt party too hard last night (not to brag, but we just had our SIXTH consecutive new years eve of going to bed early because at least half of the family was sick). 
after yesterdays totally downer post, and before i jump into the legitimately awesome stuff i want to do i wanted to take a minute to reflect on all the great things that happened over the last year, as well as catch up the goals i made at the beginning of 2015, so that we can start moving forward from a nice clean slate. and, what better day to do it than new years day? none, obviously. 
moving on to our first order of business, lets get to the 15 best things to happen in 2015: 
1. we had a baby! not only does this mean im not pregnant anymore, but we also got a really cool baby! and i got to give him a totally ridiculous name without anyone noticing how ridiculous it is (except, like, my mom. she knew EXACTLY how ridiculous it is).
2. i got to collaborate on a rap song! no, im not kidding. my favorite rapper mc lars asked twitter about hipster mom stuff and when i (obviously) had the best answers we emailed a bit and he actually used a lot of my suggestions in his song hipster mom. 
3. i got a trophy in pattern making class! pattern making class was NOT easy (for a variety of reasons) but my teacher pushed us all REALLY hard to do the best we could and when i made the largest collection of the class (11 pieces!) she totally recognized my effort. (sidenote, i never did sports so this is probably the literal first time ive ever gotten a trophy). 
4. we bought all new bedroom furniture! for the first time, our bedroom is cute and functional and filled with stuff we like! and it only took a million trips to ikea and a medium amount of fighting!
5. we went on our first ever family trip! when my childhood best friend got married at a gorgeous but pretty out of the way park, we made it a weekend trip and it was pretty awesome. 
6. alice got tall enough to go on big rides at disneyland! also, her hitting 40 inches coincided perfectly with her turning four so she had a VERY special birthday this year. 
7. james worked at target during christmas time so all our christmas shopping was at least 15% off! honestly, im pretty bummed target doesnt pay enough for us to live off of, because i already miss that discount. 
8. my guts totally calmed down! remember how i used to have like a million food allergies? well now its down to literally only gluten! for a long time i couldnt tolerate too much corn or soy but guess who can have (moderate amounts of) regular soda and tofu? thats right, me. 
9. everybody totally killed it on christmas gifts this year! james got me a boxed set of harry potter books, i got him a bunch of clothes from american apparel, and we managed to get alice ALL of the things she asked for this year. 
10. james and i both embraced minimal living and we got rid of tons of stuff! ive lost count of how many loads weve taken to the thrift store, and theres no signs of them slowing down any time soon. 
11. i got As in all three classes i took this year! which means my GPA since coming back is a solid 4.0! (well see if i can pull my cumulative GPA high enough to graduate with honors though...). 
12. we had some pretty big milestones in the family. my youngest sister turned 13, my brother turned 18 AND graduated high school, and my other sister turned 21. there were a LOT of great parties in 2015. 
13. we saw my favorite band play my favorite record! and i only cried a little. and maybe that was mainly because i was pregnant...
14. james and i celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary! we didnt have the money to do anything crazy so we just went out to dinner, but still, thats a lot of anniversaries. 
15. james leveled up to a level six apprentice! which means he only has two more levels before he journeys out and we never have to deal with this apprenticeship process ever again!
so while 2015 DEFINITELY had WAY more than its fair share of bad times, it had its good times too. and we cant forget about those good times. 
now, what about those goals i set at the beginning of the year? well, in retrospect "focus" was a GREAT choice in a word for the year, but pairing it with 43098574983 little goals was NOT a great decision. i figured out midway through the year that i had spread myself too thin and it just wasnt realistic to do ALL of those things anyway. but, in the spirit of finishing what i started (something ive never been good at but would like to master), heres the final tally: 
i did: solidify my blogs brand and content, blog consistently (for the 2/3 of the year i was blogging), schedule my posts in advance, collaborate with other bloggers, vend at 3 craft fairs, experiment with new designs, have more family time, purge and simplify our home, buy a new bed/mattress, replace the hi-fi in the living room, improve my credit score, get straight As in school, and experiment more in the kitchen. 
i did not: apply for any of the patchwork shows, turn my fabric stash into inventory, go one one "real date" per month, start consistently homeschooling, stick to a reasonable budget, get 1/2 way to our goal emergency fund, or maintain a part time income with jamberry. 
so, looking at the big picture (not one of my strengths but im working on it) i did a LOT more than i didnt do, and we did have an unreasonable hard year. and i learned a lot about goal setting, so thats what really matters i guess. 
now, on to 2016! stay tuned for monday when i talk about my word for 2016 and what i have planned for us as we start the new year! 

9 reasons why i am the worst pregnant lady ever.

ive been called a lot of bad things in my lifetime (as im sure most people have), but none of them has ever been truer than when my sister declared me the "worst. pregnant lady. ever." and well, this is a title that i just cant argue with. not even one little bit. because you know what? i do totally suck at this whole pregnancy thing. why exactly? well...

1. i dont do belly pictures. some women feel really confident and attractive during pregnancy. i am not one of those women. i feel like a fat, bloated, greasy whale with about three outfits that fit and i do not want to remember (or be remembered for) looking the way i look now. honestly, im pretty dang shocked at how many pictures of me exist from this pregnancy considering there are exactly three remaining from when i was pregnant with alice. 

2. i dont do "bumpdates". yeah, i know im technically a mom blogger. and im pregnant. but i havent been posting my cravings and symptoms or the status of my belly button or a running tab of my weight gain because frankly, thats nobodys business. also, spoiler alert from a somewhat experienced pregnancy haver: very little changes from week to week and basically all pregnancies are the same. 

3. no gender. were not finding out the gender of this baby. we didnt do it with alice and we wont do it with any future kids we may or may not have. why? because i think its super fun and i like having a big surprise to look forward to at the end of all this. also, there was a somewhat traumatic incident when i was seven where my mom was told for certain that she was having a girl and we were very excited and prepared for a new baby sister named sarah but she turned out to be my brother andrew. i would rather not repeat this scenario. 

4. no names. obviously since we dont know the gender, we havent named this baby in advance. we do have a boy name and girl name picked that we think are pretty solid, but were not telling what they are. partially because of the possibility of situations like the above example of my brother (or the lady i knew once who had baby shower invites printed with the babys name, and then changed her mind before the shower even happened), and partially because once you start letting name ideas out, everyone has something negative to say about the name you picked and tries to get you to use THEIR name idea that you hate. im just not even going to play that game this time. 

5. im really not that into baby stuff. i think ive mentioned my baby registry before, right? in case i havent, its basically just diapers and grey pajamas and a few higher-end appliances that would be nice to have but i really dont care that much about getting. why? because we already have WAY more baby stuff than we need. honestly, i just cleaned out the newborn stuff we were storing at my moms and am considering taking the pajamas off the registry because actually were totally set on clothes. and as for buying things/making the nursery/getting ready for baby? im 36 weeks now and we JUST started...

6. actually i dont even like babies that much. look, i LOVE being a mom, its what ive always wanted to do and generally speaking its pretty awesome. that being said, i honestly dont get whats so great about new babies. i mean, theyre small, which is cute, but they dont do much for a really, really long time. toddlers, on the other hand? toddlers are super fun. im REALLY excited about having another toddler in the house in about a year. (not sarcasm)

7. all this attention makes me really uncomfortable. if it were up to me, we wouldnt have even announced this pregnancy until i started showing up places with an already born baby. why? because the second people know youre pregnant they start getting way up in your business and i am not ok with this at all. im getting a TON of REALLY rude, invasive, and totally inappropriate questions and comments from everyone everywhere i go (dont even get me STARTED on the things people have been asking me at church every week). thankfully i look like a mean, scary person so i havent had to deal with much unwanted belly touching (still not an ok thing to do EVER, just FYI). 

8. i really, really do not enjoy being pregnant. pregnancy tends to get represented as this joyous, exciting, rainbows and unicorns good time where women glow and feel fantastic, and while sure, that stuff is in there sometimes, the majority of it is really weird, gross, and uncomfortable. some of us do not glow. some of us spend approximately 40 weeks sick, tired, and in a lot of pain. i am totally 100% one of those people and im not going to pretend i feel great or am enjoying this process. unfortunately, this is very much the wrong answer to everyone who asks how im feeling and then tries to convince me that i should LOVE being pregnant...

9. honestly, id rather talk about anything else. a new baby is always a big exciting thing and obviously theres lots to talk about: how the pregnancy is going, the fun projects im working on, what were going to do when the babys here, which honestly i dont mind at all. but since im pregnant, all anyone wants to talk about ever is pregnancy and babies (mine or their own or someone they know or stuff they read or whatever). i have literally no idea whats going on in the lives of most people i know (also, i now know WAY too much that i dont want to know about people i barely know), because 99% of conversations i get involved in are about babies and the remaining conversations that i initiate about other topics turn into conversations about babies... i would just really like to talk about something else, ok? 

am i excited about growing our little family? absolutely. do i realize that this whole post made me sound like a huge jerk? of course. its just, im not all that into pregnancy, and im a much, much bigger fan of the baby-living-outside-of-my-body part of this whole having kids thing. 

6 surprisingly bad side effects of clutter.

i mentioned in my first post about minimalism that i really never thought this would be a change that id make. ive just ALWAYS been a cluttered, messy person. i loved collecting things, and i loved shopping. i also tended to be overly sentimental and felt the need to keep anything associated with a special memory or that was given to me as a gift. and really, i never say that as a problem, its just the way i was. but recently ive really had a change of heart and the purging process began. it wasnt until then that i started to see just how big of a problem all this clutter actually was. i couldnt see it because i was so used to it. but it turns out, there were some bad, bad side effects (beyond the obvious messy house): 

1. stress/anxiety.  i tend to be a very visually stimulated person, which can be a great thing when it comes to finding inspiration from everyday objects, but it can also be a major source of anxiety since the more things i can see the more things i just have to think about. the physical clutter of our home was also creating mental clutter in my brain that i didnt realize was causing HUGE amounts of stress and anxiety. just going about my normal daily activities was hugely stressful since at every step i was confronted with unrelated objects that needed moved/dealt with/put away.

2. paralysis. as you can imagine, all the added stress of the clutter surrounding me made it very, very difficult for me to muster up the mental energy to tackle any larger projects. why? because something that may sound simple (like, say, hanging up some pictures or a quick sewing project), inevitably involved moving things, digging through supplies, doing the actual project, and then trying to clean everything up in an orderly manner. having every. single. project. blow up into an all-day whole-house mess just overwhelmed me to the point where i just didnt do much of anything at all. 

3. wasted space. all that stuff we had that we had that we werent using? it was still in our apartment, taking up space that could be used more productively, getting in the way of the things that we actually did need to use, and making it impossible to get everything actually cleaned up. 

4. wasted time. having a lot of things inevitably means having to spend a lot of time looking for things. finding the right pieces of clothing when youre digging through overstuffed drawers takes forever, and more often than not you end up tearing through it and making a huge mess that now needs put away. just to get dressed. every morning. the same goes for finding the right tools for a project, or the toy that alice wants to play with. and dont even get me started on how long it used to take to "pick up" before doing any actual cleaning. 

5. wasted money. having tons of clutter everywhere not only made it hard to find the things we knew we had, it also often made it impossible to even know what exactly we had in the first place. this resulted in a lot of unnecessary and duplicate purchases over the years, which is money we totally didnt have to spend because we totally already had that stuff. also, one day it hit me that because we didnt use the majority of what we owned, that meant that the majority of the rent we pay was doing nothing for us. 

6. guilt. because i was so stressed out about the state of my home, and even basic housekeeping was a ton of work because of how much crap i was moving around, so i rarely felt up to making any home improvements. so even though weve been married over four years, our home is still not cute. heck, the majority of it still looks like a couple of sloppy teenagers (and a toddler) live here, and knowing thats not at all what other adults' houses look like made me feel horribly guilty. i felt like i must be a terrible wife and a terrible mom because i couldnt get my house together in a coherent and attractive manner no matter how much i wanted to because of all the mountains of crap that were in the way. 

as bad as this whole thing sounds, there really is a bright side. throughout this whole de-cluttering process, is that as soon as we started to throw things away, the negative feelings lifted and i became more motivated to push the purge even further. the more we let go of, the happier, calmer, and less stressed out i become. the less we own, the more free space, time and money we have to make the home and life that weve always wanted. how awesome is that? 

8 tips to keep you from going broke on maternity clothes.

im going to be completely real here, i HATE maternity clothes. a strong, powerful, oddly disproportionate hate like the hate i have for morissey and wil wheaton and things that are orange-flavored. i hate having to buy special, single purpose garments for a very specific, very temporary transitional period in life that lasts approximately five months. when you add the fact that the majority of traditional maternity clothes are expensive, unflattering, uncomfortable, and inexplicably geared to the over-40 set style-wise, well, there are a whole lot of layers to that hate-cake. 

but being pregnant doesnt have to mean dropping hundreds of dollars on clothes that you hate. i mean, theres not a whole lot you can do to change whats already out there in the world of maternity clothes, it turns out there are actually quite a few things you can do to make things easier in the money department. 

and now that i have (almost) two whole pregnancies under my (currently very large) belt, i herby present to you my top eight tips for saving money on maternity clothes: 

1. re-evaluate your "normal" clothes. so the idea that youre going to need an ENTIRE new wardrobe as soon as you find out youre pregnant is a total lie, because 1. its probably going to be a while before you actually need different clothes (especially if its your first pregnancy) and 2. you probably have a LOT of regular clothes that will serve you well through pregnancy. things like: long/loose tops, sweaters, jackets, empire waist/fit and flare dresses, stretchy skirts, leggings, etc.. so before you rush out and buy anything, move all of THAT stuff to the front of your closet and see how far you can go. 

2. splurge on a belly band. these range anywhere from $15 to upwards of $60, which is an absolutely stupid price for whats basically just a circle of stretchy fabric that really isnt all that comfortable (personally i find it very itchy and constricting). but, it does have two key benefits (especially for the first half of pregnancy/postpartum): 1. it lets you wear your normal pants unbuttoned without them falling down/everyone being able to see your open pants, and 2. it fills in the gap when your shirts start getting too short (but not necessarily too small). 

3. dont get ahead of yourself. i know the idea of a single, big maternity shopping spree to outfit yourself for your entire pregnancy might sound super fun and efficient. but honestly thats a surefire way to end up wasting a TON of money on clothes that wont get worn. why? because, like most things involving babies, you really CAN NOT anticipate what youre going to need until you actually need it (or dont need it). there is literally NO way to predict how big you are going to get at what stage, how youre going to carry, or what kind of clothes you are going to want to wear/feel comfortable in once you get bigger. so when you run out of pants or shirts or underwear or whatever that fit, go get that one thing you KNOW you need, and hold off on everything else. 

4. look for non-maternity alternatives. heres the thing with anything labeled "maternity": much like anything labeled "wedding", whatever it is is going to cost about three-four times as much as its normal counterpart. but the thing is (just like with weddings) sometimes there is literally no difference. take extra-long tank tops for layering: theyre a good $20 + in the maternity section (even at cheap places like h&m), but you can get them at forever 21 for like $4. another great trick (especially for skirts and dresses) is to find a flattering cut thats loose around the belly area, and buying it in a larger than normal size. in addition to saving you tons of money, it will not have the belly-accentuating gathers and panels that maternity clothes tend to have, so you can continue to wear them postpartum without still looking pregnant (trust me on this, you do NOT want to be wearing belly-emphasizing maternity clothes after the baby is born). 

5. invest in versatile basics. as with clothing in general, youll get a LOT more mileage out of your maternity budget if you stick to higher quality, mix and match pieces in neutral colors. one really great dress or pair or pants can be dressed up or down in a variety of combinations and no one will really notice, but loud, trendy tops will only last you a few wears. also, great basics are less likely to go out of style, and a LOT more likely to be useful to save for your next pregnancy/hand down to another expecting mom. 

6. always look check the clearance sales. there is one plus side to the fact that maternity clothes tend to be horribly dated: the stuff on clearance is exactly the same as the stuff thats regular price. wherever youre shopping, whether its an an actual maternity store like motherhood or somewhere less expected like h&m or amazon, check the clearance, because there is probably something fantastic/necessary for a fraction of the price. actual real-life clearance scores so far: $6 and $12 nursing bras, a $12 bathing suit, $5 tshirts, and a very, very versatile black and white striped dress (because we all know how i love those) for $25. all because i checked the clearance. 

7. thrift/consignment stores, thredup, and your other mom friends. so far ive only talked about buying new maternity clothes. but, of course, theres also the option of not buying new maternity clothes. since theyre typically worn for such a short time, most used pieces are still in fabulous condition, and if you have the patience/free time for it (but if you dont, thredup is a wonderful online substitute) you can find deals way better than the clearance racks. also, hand me downs. if you have other friends that are new moms, pregnancy is not a time to be too proud for hand me downs. 

8. consider your postpartum needs when youre shopping. i really, really hate to break it to you, but you are probably not going straight back to your pre-pregnancy shape immediately after giving birth. youll need transitional clothes. also, if youre planning on nursing, youll need tops and dresses that will work for that too. BUT, if you carefully select your maternity purchases so that theyre also useful postpartum, then you can really stretch your clothing budget. 

so yeah, long story short, maternity clothes kind of suck. but at least they dont have to eat all your money. 

if i could make an honest baby registry (a definitely not sponsored post).

yesterday james and i (along with alice) went to buy buy baby to make our registry for baby #2. not that i was all that keen on even making a registry for our second kid because i feel weird even having a baby shower this time let alone asking people for things, but, i didnt exactly have a baby shower with alice (we lived in arizona with zero local family/friends) so i guess theres no way around having a shower. and people have been asking what we want/need for a while. since this is our second baby and 1. we already have quite a bit of the basics, 2. have a much better perspective of what a new baby actually needs, and 3. live a much different lifestyle than we did when we were expecting alice, we have a very short list of very specific items. actually its mostly diapers. i just checked and its literally more than half diapers. im just really boring, ok? also, babies use a LOT of diapers. 

even though making the registry wasnt exactly my most favorite baby prep activity (mainly because we got stuck fiddling with different strollers for like an hour even though im not even 100% sold that we even need a new stroller), it was really amazing to see just how much things have changed in the past four years since the last time we made a baby registry. i mean, when i was pregnant with alice buy buy baby didnt even exist, diaper bags that dont look like diaper bags were like a brand new emerging trend, and there were like, no options for furniture that was affordable AND attractive. so that was neat. also the free goodie bag. buy buy baby doesnt mess around with the goodie bag. 

but in all honesty, with the exception of a safe place to sleep and the obvious mountain of diapers, babies really dont need most of whats out there. even my super boring overly practical gender neutral registry feels pretty excessive (to me). and it kind of got me thinking about what i would really ask for, if we could eschew social conventions for just a minute. i mean, ive been a new mom before, i think i have a pretty good idea of what i actually want. and its not 300 different contraptions and appliances or a dozen tiny little hats. 

(disclaimer, this post was NOT sponsored in any way by buy buy baby OR any of the companies/products i am about to mention, HOWEVER the links used throughout may or may not be affiliate or referral links depending on whether they offer that sort of thing)

so without any further ado, heres what id put on an honest baby registry: 

1. an amazon fresh membership. we happen to live in an area where, given that you pay the appropriate membership fee, amazon will totally deliver groceries to your house. and you know whats REALLY hard to do with a newborn?  going to the grocery store. 

2. a professional house cleaning. ill admit that i am MUCH better at keeping a clean house than i ever was before, despite having a three year old and being six months pregnant. but nothing quite feels as good as a perfectly spotless spic-and-span clean that only a professional cleaning service can deliver. especially when youve just had a baby. 

3. amazon giftcards. the thing with new babies is they frequently need weird random things that you really cant anticipate in advance. and then OF COURSE the first (or second, or third) store you go to looking for it doesnt have any and youve just run all over town looking for the pacifier that the hospital gave you and nobody has it. but chances are, amazon does, and you can avoid the whole ordeal and have those pacifiers in two business days. also, amazon was BY FAR my favorite place to get diapers cause the prices are fantastic AND you can buy in bulk without leaving the house. 

4. giftcards for pizza. true story: when alice was born jamess (super weird) boss at the time gave us a $50 gift card for pizza. at first we were like "seriously? pizza?" but after a few weeks, we realized that was actually one of the most useful things anyone gave us. having a newborn is an exhausting and emotional experience for everyone but pizza really makes it all better. 

5. wine. lots and lots of wine (or scotch. i also like scotch). i really shouldnt have to explain this one, but... 

6. some adult company. seriously, come over and hold my baby and talk to me about something other than babies while i do something with two hands. i had a couple friends do this when alice was born and that was by far the BEST gift i got from anyone. 

unfortunately, buy buy baby does not sell any of these things, so, we registered for diapers and a stroller...

sidenote: if you happen to be shopping for a friend thats expecting a baby, i promise you, one of these gifts will me much more appreciated in the long run than a giant stuffed animal or big, noisy contraption. 

10 stupid simple ways to save money on groceries.

ive been meaning to go deeper into the whole "saving money on groceries" business, but since its such a multifaceted, complex issue that i could probably talk about nonstop for a few days, i never got started. because, well, i didnt know where to start. but then i realized that it doesnt need to be that complicated. most budget-living type blogs make it way to complicated. 

and it doesnt have to be like that. 

in fact, it can be simple. stupid simple even. 

so today, im going to share a few stupid simple ways to shave a few bucks off your grocery budget. small things. easy things. things you might not even notice or miss. now, im going to have to disclaimer here that not all of these tips will necessarily work in every family/situation, and no one thing in particular will magically solve your grocery budget problems (not saying you have grocery budget problems, but i mean, you are reading this blog), BUT every small change adds up, and in my experience, several small changes can get you way farther than one big step. 

here we go: 

1. only buy what you need to get to your next shopping trip. whether you go to the store once a week, once a month, or every three days, do not buy more than you know you are going to use up between now and that next trip. i know what youre thinking "but what about sales? what about stocking up?". well, with very few exceptions, those are lies that stores tell you to get you to buy more things. you will save way more money by just buying what you need when you need it than trying to play the price-cycle game. (now, pardon me while the entire saving-money-on-groceries community on the internet starts throwing things at me)

2. eat your leftovers. wasted food = wasted money. if you find yourself with (a reasonable quantity of) leftovers, for crying out loud, eat them before the go bad. im not saying save the bag of chip crumbs or the three green beans nobody ate, but if youre regularly throwing away half a lasagna because you forgot to eat it in time, then maybe you need to get better at eating leftovers. 

3. if you dont actually eat it, stop buying it. whatever it is that you have crowding your pantry or freezer not getting eaten, or keeps going bad before you get to it, no matter how healthy it is or how much you should be eating it, just stop. there is absolutely no reason to buy food out of guilt or obligation. if youre not going to eat it this week, you dont need it. 

4. drink water. this was one that really hit home for us, see, i used to drink a ton of soda, and james would drink milk or juice all the livelong day if i let him. at some point i actually looked at how much money we spent each week on beverages, and it was a good 10-20% of our total grocery bill. ON BEVERAGES. you know how water is free? yeah...

5. cut back on snacks/processed/packaged foods. i dont know where this idea came from that poor people have to eat crap food out of boxes because thats whats most affordable. this is a lie. if you take a closer look, youll actually see that per ounce/per calorie, processed/packaged foods are actually some of the most expensive foods there are. now dont get me wrong, treats totally have their place, but as treats. 

6. plan your meals. im not saying you have to make a detailed, elaborate meal plan or spend your entire day making a month of freezer meals, but i am saying that if you go to the store knowing what youre going there to buy, youre going to have an easier time resisting the endcap sales and impulse purchases. 

7. pack your lunch. i shouldnt have to tell you that throwing together a quick lunch is way cheaper than buying a prepackaged (or takeout) meal. you might spend $4-5 on an individual salad, but for the same amount of money, you could buy enough lettuce, toppings, and dressing for a few salads. or even better, if your work/school situation allows for it bring leftovers for lunch. kill two birds with one stone. thats always cool. 

8. check prices on fresh vs. frozen produce. generally speaking, youre going to get significantly more produce for your money by choosing fresh over canned or frozen. but depending on the season, frozen might be way cheaper. this one is always worth a quick check (especially where berries are concerned). 

9. stick to your list. you know what the biggest grocery budget killer is? impulse purchases. you know, "lets get some chips!" "oooh! cake mix is on clearance!" or if youre shopping with my husband, "can we get bacon?". if you want your spending to get out of control fast, start adding some fun little extras as you shop. or just stick to your list and bask in the glory of not overspending. 

10. when in doubt, go without. almost every time im at the store, no matter how watertight i think my plan and list are, ill have these little doubts, like, "are we out of x? am i sure we have enough of y", with x or y being some kind of pantry staple, usually under $5, so it never seems like a big deal. but after about a million times of buying another dozen eggs "just in case" and coming home to find ten eggs in the fridge, ive learned to just go on with my list and keep shopping. if i indulge all of those little doubts, the grocery budget is blown on extra food we dont need, if i wait it out, nine times out of ten were just fine. (the rest of the time i can send james over to dollar tree...)

see, saving money on groceries is NOT complicated. its NOT hard. and you dont even have to change where or how you shop to see a difference. 

obviously, these little tricks just barely scratch the surface of how you can take control of your grocery spending and keep all that extra money in your pockets. hopefully this post has opened up a pandoras box for this topic.

now these are just my favorite grocery hacks, whats your go-to tip for saving money on groceries? 

8 reasons why i secretly love our tiny home.

we (and by "we" i mean myself, james, alice, and two cats) live in a one-bedroom apartment. a small one-bedroom apartment. in a mediocre building. in a lame part of town. to be completely honest, when we first moved here, i hoped and prayed that this apartment would only be temporary. heck, i was only willing to sign a six-month lease because i was sure that within a year, james would get a real job and wed be able to move somewhere decent. 

never mind that we had just come back to california with a new baby, no jobs, no savings, a car that was literally falling apart, no place to live and a moving truck filled to the brim with everything that once filled the large three bedroom house we rented in arizona until james got fired two days before christmas. oh, i never told you the story about how we moved back to california? its a real doozy. the bad kind of doozy. (is it just me or is doozy a really ambiguous word). but i digress. 

i was determined that we would have a "real" home as soon as possible. after we moved here, i was constantly scouring the area for two (or three) bedroom places that we could make our forever (well, long term) home. i analyzed rents and deposits and calculated exactly what dollar amount we would need to bring home each month in order to get that extra bedroom (or two) a reality. sure it was an unhealthy obsession, and maybe we had some huge expensive things we needed to take care of (like a not-falling apart car and a savings account), but i was so embarrassed to be a married adult with a kid living in a crappy one bedroom apartment on the wrong side of town that for a long time this was of the utmost importance. 

now, its been about two and a half years, and were still living in the same one-bedroom apartment. and even though james has made that dollar amount that i thought would equal a bigger apartment, and we have taken care of most of those big expenses, but we dont have plans to move. were not even looking. 

why? because through these past two and a half years, ive learned to be content with what we have. more than that, ive really fallen in love with small-space living. really. yes, sometimes, people ask and i do pretend that im unhappy with our current living situation that i hope it will change soon, but thats a lie. today i want to come clean with why i secretly love our tiny home:

1. theres less to clean. this should be obvious: less rooms, less rooms to clean. i can clean the whole apartment top-to-bottom (kitchen, bathroom, floors, etc.), by myself, in about an hour. sure dirt and messes show up faster because the space is smaller, but we also spend way less time cleaning then we did when we had a bigger house. also, i spend a LOT less time looking for lost things, because, well, theres less places for things to get lost. 

2. more family time. one of the great things about our home is that we (almost) never all sit in separate rooms watching netflix on separate things and ignoring each other. partially because there arent a lot of rooms to all be in separately, but also because there isnt a whole lot of extra room for doing things. so if were all home and need something to do, we usually end up leaving the house. which is awesome. 

3. weve learned to be content with what we have. to be completely honest, james and i used to spend a lot of time shopping. we both had long, long lists of things we thought we needed and were always bringing home something from a thrift store or yard sale or clearance rack. but after we got settled here, we realized, we didnt need any of that stuff. actually, we dont need/use/want most of what we already have, and instead of filling our spare time shopping, we spend it cleaning out drawers and closets getting rid of stuff. and i love it.

4. we put a greater value on experiences over things. because of the lack of space, we no longer put a heavy emphasis on the acquisition of more things to own. instead, weve changed our focus to the things we want to do, the things we want to see, the places we want to go. and since we arent spending all our time and money on filling and maintaining a large house, we can actually do those things. 

5. theres constant opportunity for creativity. for a long time after we moved here, i never moved anything because i was so frustrated by the small space that i thought it wasnt worth it. but after a while, i noticed that in a small space, small changes can make a huge difference. so now every day we constantly look for new ways to make our space more comfortable and more efficient. 

6. we save tons of money. and no, im not talking about the $300-400 a month in rent/utilities that it would cost to have a second bedroom (though thats nice too), i mean the money that we dont spend on clothes, toys, furniture, appliances, plants, decorations, and big projects that we dont have room for. and every dollar we dont spend on a thing we dont have room for? thats another dollar for us to spend on something that might actually make us happy. 

7. less stress. less space to clean, fewer things to own/organize/maintain, lower rent/less bills to pay = less things to worry about. and as a naturally anxious, easily stressed out person, i cant think of anything better than having less things to worry about. 

8. more freedom to pursue our long term goals and dreams. living in a small space for so long has really helped us to detach ourselves from being consumed and defined by our home, from pouring all of our resources into it and all of our time into perfecting and maintaining it. we have free time to dream up the kind of future we want to have, and we have leftover money to use to build it. sure our attitude toward our home is very utilitarian and distinctly un-american, it works for us. 

so yeah, this tiny apartment that i had hoped was temporary, its done a lot for us. its taught us some important lessons about contentment and priorities, its given us the opportunity to break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle, and the freedom to dream even bigger than just a two-bedroom apartment. 

and i love it.  

there. i said it. 

what are your thoughts on small space living? what do YOU love about your home?

am i really 25?! (birthday ramblings and the finally tally on that 24 in 24 list)

a funny thing happened with mine and alices birthdays this year: they happened to fall in the same week. now i know everyones like "well DUH victoria thats what happens when things are six days apart", but please hear me out. USUALLY (as in, the first three times alice had a birthday), things spaced out in a way so that our birthdays (though only six days apart) happened on VERY MUCH DIFFERENT WEEKS. she was born on a wednesday, my birthday was the next tuesday, her first birthday was on a friday, mine followed on the next thursday, last year hers fell on saturday, mine was the next friday. two birthdays, two separate weeks. intense, sure, but totally manageable. 

well, this year, her birthday was on sunday and mine was the following saturday. meaning, we had two birthdays in the space of ONE WEEK. 

i know mathematically this makes no significant difference, but psychologically this was a HUGE DEAL. totally freaked me out. so much so, in fact, that i scheduled MY birthday party (what? i turned 25, of course im throwing myself a birthday party) for a WHOLE WEEK after my actual birthday just to give me the mental space to acknowledge each birthday separately and not go insane. 

which on the one hand was super great because i got to have a whole weekend to be spoiled rotten by my husband and family: james happened to be home the day that my aunt took alice out for HER birthday so he treated me to dinner, a surprise shopping trip, AND gifts friday night, and my mom made an INSANE birthday dinner on saturday (my actual birthday) and it was amazing. but on the other hand it is a little weird that my birthday has come and gone and we still havent officially celebrated yet. but hey, you only turn 25 once so might as well spread it out for the whole month. 

oh, and its totally weird that im actually 25. i realize that this is maybe an unacceptably low age to have an existential crisis, but (due to having young parents and an exceptionally accurate memory of my early childhood) i totally remember my PARENTS at 25. i remember my mom being 20. I AM NOW HALF A DECADE OLDER THAN MY EARLIEST MEMORIES OF MY OWN MOTHER. i mean, i vividly remember making my stepdad a birthday card when HE turned 25 (my mom had me cut out shapes from construction paper to make a collage, but she had to cut out the numbers because i was 6 and that was too hard for me i guess). and i cant possibly be as old as my parents, can i? 

yes, yes i can. because thats how time works and my parents arent currently 25 and im being an emotional idiot about this whole thing. dont mind me, im just over here being dumb. 

and to be completely honest, 24 was a roller coaster that i am MORE than happy to get off of (im just not into roller coasters, ok?). 

so yeah, thats whats been going on in my head as i get ready to actually celebrate my birthday birthday with the first full-blown birthday party ive had in quite some time. im really excited about that. i seem to be growing into the kind of person thats really into parties, i guess. 

but theres another thing thats been on my mind a lot lately: 

that 24 in 24 list i made a year ago, back when our life was in a totally different place and i was going through a super goal-oriented checklist-y phase made some goals that quite frankly, i havent thought much about in recent months. so id like to shift gears and take some time to reflect on both this years accomplishments, as well as how our life has changed/priorities have shifted and, oh, i dont know, actually finish a thing that i started. maybe 25 is the age where i start finishing things i start. maybe. 

anyway, heres the list:

1. find a better place to live. ill be completely honest here: our tiny ugly crappy apartment in a less than great neighborhood had been a huge source of shame and embarrassment and feelings of inadequacy for a very long time. but in recent months, ive really grown to embrace our current home and the benefits of small-space minimalist living. so this one isnt even on the radar right now. and you bet ill be writing more about this soon. 

2. find a new hobby just for me.  in march i started taking fashion classes at the (conveniently three blocks away) local community college and its (mostly) awesome. after this semester i only have 8 more classes and then im a fashion designer!   

3. hit 25,000 blog page views.  i just checked and im actually just past 65,000, which is pretty ridiculous when you factor in this years extended hiatus. 

4. do a craft fair.  yep! i sold at create 2014 back in august, and while it wasnt a rousing financial success, i AM (both mentally and equipment-wise) ready to re-enter the craft fair scene (though more events will have to wait until the shop cash flow gets better)

5. quit my job at joanns. done and DONE. six months in, and i am STILL in love with working for jamberry. 

6. write a business plan. unfortunately, business (at least in the PL department) has been on the back burner because 1. school, 2. jamberry is where im actually bringing in the bacon, and 3. i really need some time to relax and not always be WORKING on stuff. so, no longer a priority. for now. 

7. take a family trip. this one got repurposed into "take a super amazing grown-ups only vacation to the best city ever", but ill still count this one as done. 

8. find a new family hobby. i surrender. disneyland is our hobby. so much so that were upgrading to the nicer passes and um maybe possibly founding a social club? maybe? 

9. try a new restaurant. with our recent development of a stable income and my guts deciding to calm the heck down, weve been able to try several new places and omg im REALLY into trying new restaurants now. 

10. clean out my closet.  ok, so i thoroughly purged my closet in march because there was a clothing drive at the blogger brunch i went to. we got rid of like three trash bags of stuff then. i started a (more vicious) purge over the summer, and while its taken me FOREVER to get through (every time i think im done, i find five more things for the pile) i have about TWICE that amount of clothes heading out the door. 

11. make something just for me. this one got shifted to "buy myself something absurdly expensive" instead, when i treated myself to a KELLY MOORE CAMERA BAG with my first big jamberry bonus!

12. make $100 from blogging.  i accomplished this sometime before my half birthday, but due to the aforementioned hiatus, i havent made much progress beyond that. 

13. color my hair an actual color. in case you havent noticed, ive added some pink. 

14. take alice to the zoo.  mission accomplished!

15. sponsor some new blogs.  ive lost count of how many new blogs ive sponsored over the past year, but breaking out of my original "blogging circle" has probably been the best blog-related decision ive ever made. 

16. get better at sewing. im in a sewing class right now, and while we havent gotten far into the territory of "things i dont know how to do", i HAVE learned how to use an industrial machine AND an overlock, and i have VASTLY improved on the things i do know. so well count this one as a win. 

17. publish my original knitting and crochet patterns. yep! well, a couple of them. the only ones that were really any good. 

18. host a dinner party.  not a "dinner party" per se, but we have had a couple of informal MST3K gatherings in recent months, which have been surprisingly successful. 

19. take real family pictures. havent gotten here yet. 

20. purge useless files and backup our computer. or here. but please bear in mind that james has been working hours the likes of which he has never worked before, and im taking three classes this semester, so neither of these last two have been things we even have time for. 

21. get a new tattoo. james and i both got new tattoos in july. he got an anchor, i got a peach (you can see mine in these photos). and because we are excellent parents we took alice with us and watched the whole thing and now she really likes "the tattoo store" as she calls it. 

22. get at least 12 etsy orders. um, nope. but please let me remind you of the whole back burner situation. 

23. start doing yoga again. yoga takes too long and im really impatient but i did find a 10 minute cardio/ab thing thats worked wonders for the sitting-to-much-related muscle spasm in my back/hip, as well as helped me gain a few pounds of much needed muscle so i dont feel like my bodys going to fall apart at the seams any more. its a good feeling. 

24. learn to relax. a year ago, this seemed like a tall order. six or seven months ago, this seemed IMPOSSIBLE. but the biggest, most important result of all the changes and craziness thats happened in the past year, is that i am totally capable of relaxing now. i have by no means become transformed into a naturally easygoing person, i mean, im still super uptight and controlling and anxious, but not all the time. actually (james probably doesnt want me saying this in public), at one point during our trip, i told james to chill out. so yeah, im pretty happy with my progress in this department. 

so whats the final tally? 19 out of 24 goals were completed (either exactly as planned or shifted to a similar accomplishment), and four of the five not-completed goals were things that are no longer priorities (family pictures though... that one still needs to happen). not bad for a flaky art school dropout that never finishes anything.... this was actually pretty fun. 

will i make a 25 in 25 list? i dont think so. not because i dont want to make goals, its just... we seem to be in a place where we need to start thinking in the longer term. like, maybe a 30 by 30 list will be coming your way soon...

maybe...

(winky face)