I decided to stop really relying on Mint.com to see what my budgets are like at the end of the month. It wasn’t accurate at all since sometimes I’d buy groceries & household items in one trip.

So I decided to create an Excel sheet under Google Docs so I can access it anywhere I go. I have successfully saved all the receipts (so far) and have recorded them. Now this way I will know exactly where our money is going!

However….this recent weekend was Labor Day weekend. I took a mini-break from saving money to splurge a little bit. I mean…. c’mon there were great deals!

I went to Pier 1 Imports and found a really cute lantern on sale for $2 and a cute little white bowl for $2. Two things all under $5! I decided to use the white bowl for my rings. I’m not sure what I’m doing with the lantern yet as I have many different projects going on in my head right now and need to figure out what to do first, second, and so on.

We also went to IKEA over the weekend too. I think I might still be shopping at IKEA when I’m 40 years old. I seriously never get sick of that place & the fact that IKEA is amazingly cheap!

We decided to buy 2 Ribba picture ledges for the bathroom in our master bedroom. We have limited space in our bathroom and that’s not a good thing especially when I have a lot of products everywhere on the counter & trying to make them fit in the medicine cabinet.

You can obviously see that Tyler’s products are on the top shelf and mine are on the bottom shelf. We still clearly have a lot to do with our bathroom which is at the end of our list of projects.

As soon as the weekend was over, we went back to the plan of saving money. It’ll be good for us in the long run to save a lot of money and be able to put more into our savings especially now after I recently got a raise at work!

I also have been working on ways to become debt-free. I happened to find a credit card that has no interest for 18 months. We signed up and did a balance transfer so now we’ll actually get to pay off our credit cards soon! Last night Tyler was THIS close to winning $30,000 (Streak for Cash) but he didn’t. Bummer!

Here’s to being frugal and making it worth it in the long run!

Our neighborhood has two areas: Parkside and the County Club. We live in Parkside. Most of the homes in Parkside have smaller lot sizes as compared to the County Club so there is not very much open space between the houses, and consequently, not much privacy. The homes are separated by cement block walls to help increase the privacy but unfortunately they are not very attractive to look at.

The house next door went into foreclosure and is up for sale so I’m loving the privacy we have since the owners moved out, but the same ugly wall exists. Anyone want to move in next door? I promise we would be the best neighbors you could ask for!

One day while doing the dishes and staring at the cement block wall outside my kitchen window I thought about how nice it would be to have a hanging planter box full of beautiful flowers to look at.

Tyler told me how he thought he could build one to hang on the wall, but I was reluctant to to go with his plan since he can be like Tim Allen from Home Improvement sometimes! I asked my Dad what he thought and he said he would help us when we got around to it.

On Saturday while I was working on a website, I heard the doorbell and went to answer the door. There I saw my dad standing with a planting box from Home Depot. Aww, what a nice dad! He didn’t have to do that but of course that’s him. He’s always thinking of me and other people. Can we say Happy Daughter’s Day? Just kidding.

So as Dad & Tyler were busy working on securing it to the concrete wall, Mom and I made a quick trip to Home Depot to buy some flowers. There were not a lot of options because Home Depot sucks when it comes to flowers & it’s summer in Arizona.

Isn’t the view so much better now? It’s amazing how a good kitchen view really puts you in a good mood especially in the mornings!

I’m counting this as a new milestone in my life – planting flowers! Later on, I want to try & plant some herbs but that won’t happen until the weather cools down.

I recognize that planting flowers comes with the responsibility of watering them (especially if you don’t want them to die!) but the thought of having to go outside in the backyard and turn the hose on then walk all the way to the side of the house to water the flowers twice a day was not pleasant. I was determined to make it work without having to do that and I found the perfect solution…

…water the flowers from the window! Call me lazy but I love this. It’s actually fun!! I came home from work today and immediately watered the flowers then made some yummy banana bread.

I had an old canvas that I painted a few years ago when we lived in an apartment in college. This was the time when I was in love with everything that was red and black. I’m glad we didn’t throw it away and brought it back to Arizona with us after graduation. It is easy to just paint over it… even if it is for the 50th time!

Anyways, I wanted to repaint it since I’m not into red and black anymore. Luckily for us we had a lot of paint left from painting the house.

So we went from modern…

to simple & feeling right at the beach!

I’m no Da Vinci when it comes to painting. I painted it an off-white color then used the same color we have for the office which is kind of a yellow-ish color. After that.. I have to admit the canvas sat on the floor against the wall for about a month or so. I was waiting for inspiration or the urge to put it up.

One day while cleaning I realized I had some beach decor so why not use them! I got my hot glue gun out and glued the starfish on the canvas. Finally the canvas went up on the wall in our office. If you webcam with me you’ll see this pretty canvas that will make me look like I’m at the beach!