Michael & Liz are Bloggable

I'm nesting. Actually, I've been nesting for quite a while now. The good news is, we are officially done with the baby room so my nesting has taken over other parts of the house, such as cleaning out the pantry and laundry room. And of course getting ready for our upcoming guests.

Here are two projects I took on over the last few weeks as part of my nesting bug that I am extra excited about. The first is making a mobile for the crib. We were given a fancy mobile that lights up and spins around, but unfortunately it didn't fit our crib quite right. So instead, I went to Pinterest in search of some ideas to make my own. Using this one as my inspiration, I came up with this:



Instead of using fabric and thread, it's just paper and tape. It might not be the fanciest, but I love it and it fits the room perfectly.

The next project was building some book shelves. We have a book shelf that Michael built a while ago and I had painted white, but once we brought it up to the room to hang it just didn't look right. It was too big for the space I wanted it in. So off to Pinterest I go again and fell in love with these fabric shelves. Here is my version:


I love the way it looks and is perfect for the little reading corner.


We have some crib bedding that should arrive later this week so once that is here I will do a full post of the whole room!

The past week of our lives could be summed up by two pictures. I'll start with the funny one first.

Last Spring I was talking about how great I think it would be if we shaved Daisy for the Summer. Liz responded with the opposite feelings, that she would look weird and ugly. I, as I do with things I think are good ideas, continued to mention it until this past weekend when we were trimming her unsightly hairs. Trimmer in hand I said "Oh I so badly want to shave her..." and Liz finally relented in and said "ugh, do what you want but I can't watch" So I took the shaver and went right down Daisy's back.

It was a battle, she hates the feeling of the buzzer on her skin, but we finally were able to get all the hair up to her neck. At that point she squirmed so much we just faded it in and left it. During the process I started feeling like we had made a HUGE mistake. At the time she looked butchered and hideous. After finishing and seeing how she looks, I completely changed my mind. I think she looks amazing and next Spring I may want to get her a professional cut. It won't be often at all, but at least I know she looks good if we do it.

Check out that power cable she's laying on. We're going to be awesome parents.

The next picture is my gorgeous baby momma. We are in the sit and wait mode. We feel like the baby could arrive any minute. Her due date is this Friday, the 23rd, but I just want our little boy to come out now so I can play with him. Hopefully he doesn't make us wait much longer!!

In the middle of February I got really motivated while looking at our family budget. I get a one-track mind and I go into super budget mode where I want to set goals and scrimp and save as much as I can in every possible way. I then run my aspirations by Liz and she either approves or vetoes the plan. To be honest, I'm blessed that she's supportive 99% of the time, because I can come up with some insane ideas.  Well one expense in our budget is going to get attacked.

One result of my craziness is that I set a date for when we will be paying off the mortgage. While I'm not actually going to reveal that date on the blog until it becomes a reality (feel free to ask me personally), I actually feel like it's an attainable goal and am very excited that it's not decades and decades into the future. The only way we're going to be able to accomplish that goal is by chunking money at the mortgage a little better than we have been. I'm not willing to scrimp on necessary saving for things like retirement, so it's the "unnecessary" expenditures that are getting my evil eye.

So what expense in our budget is going to get attacked? Recently, gas prices have started going up. I am personally not devastated by that situation. I love it when gas prices go up. February, when gas prices were supposedly "too high", we had one of our cheapest months in the last year. Gas prices is not the reason for my blog post here, but the headlines did get me thinking. I started realizing how ridiculous it was that we (as a family) have just disregarded that expense as necessary and unchangeable. For some families it is unchangeable, but for us, right now, it can be reduced.

I started looking back through our monthly budgets over the last year, and here is how much we spent on gas each month:

Month:	$ Spent
Feb 2012	$274.34
Jan 2012	$556.31
Dec 2011	$335.70
Nov 2011	$265.62
Oct 2011	$356.35
Sept 2011	$382.75
Aug 2011	$304.98
Jul 2011	$366.82
Jun 2011	$312.97
May 2011	$310.62
Total:	$3466.46
Average:	$346.65

*In January we drove to Florida and Cincinnati, so it was a month full of travel

I don't know what to make of those numbers, mainly because I don't know what other people spend per month. Liz and I both have relatively "efficient" cars. I say relatively because we don't have massive gas guzzlers. The only long distance driving we do on a weekly basis is about 20 miles (each way) to church several times a week. Other than that I feel like we are either at or below average when it comes to driving.

So in looking at the budget, it got me wondering, if I biked to work every day, what would our gas budget look like? I am all about sweat equity in our house and that's exactly what I'll be contributing. Instead of paying $350 a month in gas, what if I biked to work and put the remaining amount into the house?

Back in August 2010, I biked to work every day of the month except for 3 (rain storms). There are practically zero downsides to biking to work for me. The only one negative I can come up with is that it takes a little longer, 10 minutes vs. 25 minutes. A 25 minute commute on a bike though? That's nothing.

I REALLY wish I had kept the gas records from that August to see how much we spent. I just don't feel like scrounging up the bank statements to take a look. But that HAD to be awesome for the budget. In looking at the blog post results, I only drove 339 miles that month and that includes riding in Liz's car and riding in friend's cars. That's barely even a full gas tank.

Another big influence our lifestyle will have on our gas budget, is starting on March 15th, Liz will no longer commute to work. That's roughly 25 miles a day that she'll no longer have to do. I am not asking her to reduce her driving or not go anywhere, that's absurd, but I doubt she'll be out driving 25 miles a day.

So for the months of March and April at least, I am going to bike to work every day I possibly can. My hope is to reduce our gas budget to anywhere between $150 to $200 a month. I have to believe I'll only fill up my car once, and even assuming Liz just stays the same, our gas budget should come right to about $175. If the biking lifestyle is something I feel I can maintain and it's worth the money saved from our gas budget, I will absolutely make it a permanent change.

I'm sure an extra couple hundred dollars a month will be a nice little boost to our mortgage payoff goal. We have a plan, now it's all about execution.