(Sort of) Tightwad Tuesday

So, I have a confession to make: I'm not really a tightwad.

I bet you were all thinking "Man she saves so much money, I bet she puts it all in savings and never wastes a dime." Ummm, NOT.

You see, I like to save money so that I can spend money. The more money I save via coupons, sales, turning the thermostat up (or down) and making Lee cut his own hair, the more money I can SPEND.

I used to spend money on Coach purses, Marc Jacobs sunglasses and mani/pedi's (ok, I still like those things). But ever since 108 came into my life, my spending has taken a different direction. I crave all things Pottery Barn, West Elm and Crate & Barrel.

Unfortunately, I don't make a Pottery Barn-esque salary, so I can't have Pottery Barn in my life without being cost conscious elsewhere.

I haven't paid for a pedicure in over a year, because I've found that I can do it myself (pretty decently) and save enough money for a throw pillow(!) or a vase(!) or a new doormat(!). (I know, I'm a geek.)

So, enough clarification on that. Now, onto the savings:

Last week, with ONE phone call, I saved us $420 over the next year! 

How is that possible you ask? Well, when we moved into our house a year ago and signed up with Time Warner Cable, we got a 12-month promotional deal on both our digital cable and high-speed Internet services. We've been dreading the end of that 12-month period for months now. Our bill came this month and it was almost $50 higher than what we'd been paying -- up from $93 to $142.

So I hopped on the horn and got a TWC rep on the phone. It went a little something like this*: 

Me: Anything you can do to lower my bill? 

TWC: Well, no. 

Me: Hmmm, that's too bad. Times are tight and I'm not paying $150 every month for TV and Internet. And DirecTV and Verizon sure have been sending me some enticing offers.

TWC: Umm, let me transfer you to our retention team.

Me: Hello retention lady. If you want to "retent" me you can lower my bill.

TWC Retention Lady: Ok, let's see what we can do.

She proceeded to get our bill down to $98 a month, just $5 more than what we were paying. I was most appreciative and felt a little surge of victory.

*Actual conversation may have varied slightly.

HOWEVER, the next part of the story is very un-tightwad-ish. I had to call Time Warner back a few days later to get our balance for July (instead of paying the $142, they prorated this month's balance). After the rep gave me the balance, she said "WAIT -- we're running a deal right now -- Showtime and Cinemax for only $5/month for 2 years." Now normally I wouldn't have even considered this but I happened to remember that Big Brother After Dark comes on Showtime and since BB is my summertime obsession, I caved. "Yes, sign me up." 

Damn it! They suckered me in for a little more each month. BUT, I figure if we watch just one Showtime or Cinemax movie a month instead of renting one, then it will pay for itself. And, I can always cancel if we end up not using it (after Big Brother is over of course).

Under Attack + Fruits of Our Labor

I told you we were worried about deer eating our garden. We had been lucky. No signs of deer. They ate our neighbor's blackberries, but didn't touch our garden. 

Then, one day while I was at work, our neighbor posted this picture to Facebook:

That picture was taken out of their window. Yep, that's our garden. Crap-ola.

We surveyed the damage. So far, she's only dined on cucumber leaves. She left the cukes intact, but ate off most of the leaves and blossoms that would've grown new veggies:

At least she didn't touch the tomatoes. She did however get the sunflowers that were growing back near the woods. I mean COME ON! My sunflowers?! NOT necessary.

We went to Lowe's. We bought this:

Yep, deer stopper. You just spray it on your plants and it stops the deer. It smells like old people perfume. I am skeptical. BUT, it's 100% satisfaction guaranteed!! So it HAS to work, right?? We shall see.

Anyway, after I got over that devastation, I realized we had a lot of picking to do. Our cukes  and tomatoes are growing almost faster than we can eat them. Here's what we harvested just on Saturday:

I've found that the most fun part of having a garden is coming up with new ways and recipes to use all of your freshly grown goods. So on Saturday, I decided to make a delicious fresh pasta salad with cukes and cherry tomatoes. I couldn't decide between a mayo-based pasta salad and an oil-and-vinegar based one, so I made one of both:

They were super-delish!

Ok, that's all for now. I'll be back tomorrow with a few yummy food pics & recipes, plus a (sort of) Tightwad Tuesday post.

One Word Wednesday

Ouch.

(Other applicable words: Stupid. Aloe. Peeling.)

Love Letter to Our Home

Dear House,

A year ago today we pulled up in our U-Haul, two first-time homebuyers excited to make you our own. You’ve been good to us over the past 365 days, so I wanted to take a moment to say thanks.

One of the biggest selling points for me a year ago was your kitchen. It had all the things I wanted: granite countertops, a big island, hardwood floors, stainless steel appliances. I still love all of those things about your kitchen, but it’s the little things I’ve come to cherish even more: the many wonderful meals we’ve cooked there, the way you function beautifully to entertain a party of 2 or 20, and the fact that your cutout window allows me to watch TV while standing at the sink doing dishes.

We also love you for your two-story living room, your upstairs loft, your yard and the plethora of wildlife living in it (well, sometimes).

Now, I should mention that it hasn’t always been a cakewalk. You were far from perfect, but we’ve been doing our best to make you all that you can be. Like when you had water in your crawlspace and Lee had to dig up the entire backyard to get you drained. Or the fact that some crazy electrician put the light switch to your master closet BEHIND the door in the most awkward position. After a day of cursing and thinking he had screwed up the wiring for the whole house, Lee finally got the switch moved to the more logical side of the door.

We still have a ways to go. I know you want a proper dining room table and china cabinet and your massive two-story living room wall with nothing on it makes you feel naked. Trust me, I want those things for you too. Hopefully Year Two will bring them and more.

You’ve seen us through a lot of milestones this past year. Our first time truly living together. The insanity that became my life while in the final stages of wedding planning. Three words: Joint.Checking.Account. Spending way too much money on Christmas decorations because we wanted you to look spectacular and wouldn’t settle for any less than two fully decorated trees. And our first addition to our family (by the way, I’d like to formally apologize for letting her live in the laundry room at first, we know you’re much happier now that she’s outside).

I should also take a moment to give a shout out to Holly Springs – thank you for welcoming us to town. You’re a long way from my work, but it’s worth it, to come home and feel “at home.” You’re a perfect medium: small enough to remind me of La Grange, but big enough to have a Sonic and a Lowe’s Foods.

So, House, thank you for a great first year. I can’t promise that we’ll never want to trade you out for a different model, but for now, to us, you are perfect (mostly).

Love,
Megan

4th of July in Pictures

Heading out on our crabbing excursion.

Patriotism.

This is my husband. I think he is handsome.

Until he does this.

Little creek where we went crabbing. Such a pretty day.

I decided to try my hand at floundering in the hip boots.

Three labs that love to retrieve.

Big snake that Katie almost stepped on. Lee chopped him up.

Fireworks lined up on our neighbor's pier. So pretty to see the fireworks shows going off all across the river.

Fun with sparklers.

Lake Gaston Girls' Weekend

Before I can post about our 4th of July weekend, I need to go back and catch up on a post I missed -- our fabulous girls' weekend at Lake Gaston.

Leigh invited us to spend the weekend at her parents' lake house. I think it was just what the doctor ordered for all of us: fun in the sun, relaxation, girl talk, and a night of shenanigans to cap it all off.

Here are the pics suitable for sharing with the world:

Mmmm. Corona.

A nice man offered to take us out on his boat. Leigh couldn't remember his name. It was not sketchy at all.

He took us to this place. It is a real life redneck yacht club. Can you believe it has its own website?!

Yep, that's a full-size gas grill on a pontoon boat and a pretty sweet mullet as well.

Well, that's it for the suitable pictures. 4 out of about 100. (Let's just say there were syringe jello shots involved.)

Thanks Leigh and Mrs. Paula for hosting us...we had a great time!

Hello July!

July is going to be both busy and fun. Busy, because work is rather crazy right now, and fun because I'm starting it off with a long four day weekend of 4th of July festivities at the river (thanks McKinney for giving us Thursday AND Friday off!).

In the midst of all the madness, here are my goals for July:

1. Create and order a photobook of our honeymoon pics (similar to this one I created for our parents of our wedding photos)
2. Finish unpacking desk/office boxes and get desk set up (yes, we’ve been in our house almost a year and we still have unpacked boxes) AND back up my computer
3. Move 3 of the books on my “To Read” shelf to the “Read” shelf in Good Reads
4. Finish organizing our closet
5. Replant my porch planters and patio planter to replace the dead pansies

I'm hoping that by sharing my To Do's for the month, I'll actually be motivated to DO them, instead of them just lingering on my list like the usually do. At the end of the month, I'll let you know how I did and share my goals for August.

Happy 4th everyone!