Going out to Eat

Going out to eat is one of the major things that Phil and I often disagree on. You see, I like to go out to eat and he prefers to stay at home and eat. It's a difficult thing, really.

I like going out to eat because it means that I don't have to rack my brain to figure out what's for dinner and there are no dishes to clean up. My husband, on the other hand, was brought up that going out to eat is a rare and special treat (so was I, but that clearly didn't stick).

When I was young, working three jobs, and living on my own, I often didn't have time to cook and clean up the dishes. My life was very much "on the go" and I found myself picking up something to eat for pretty much every meal. Of course, this would explain the weight gain, but I learned the dollar menus well and used that to my advantage.

Being married is a whole different ball game. Once we got married, I knew that I needed to have dinner ready for him when he came home. I could no longer just go through the drive-thru whenever I wanted. Feeding my husband became a priority.

Over the past four months we have tried different things, but there are too many times where we find ourselves going out to eat and that needs to stop.

A week ago I found myself nannying in Mexico. I ate off of the room service menu and from the groceries that the parents purchased and really missed eating at home. Last week, we were in Virginia and that always presents us with many opportunities to pick up food as well.

We have been back home for a few days now and (except for our date the night we came back) I am proud to say that we have been eating at home for every meal!

There is something nice about going grocery shopping and making the food that you know you like at home. Plus, it saves a lot of money.

I just printed out my weekly meal plan and grocery list and am excited to have some new recipes and ideas to try at home. I have a binder set up where I can store it all and have it set up for one of my husband's favorite grocery stores....

This store makes him so happy because of their low prices. We try to shop there as often as we can to get the best deals.

I am hoping that with this new plan and desire to eat at home more often that we will be able to save more money and make better choices overall. Plus, there's always the making my husband happy thing that's a benefit as well!



Learning to Become More Domestic

I am a big advocate for having "roles" in the house. My husband has certain duties and I have certain duties. Of course, they are interchangeable at any time, but it just keeps things flowing nicely. In order to get into a routine and for us to really feel settled I am working on a couple of things to make things run smoothly.

Laundry.

We used to do all of our laundry at his parent's house. Now that we are married (and he no longer lives there) we get to do our laundry on our own. I attempted to use the facilities that our apartment complex provides here, but that was a big, fat hassle! Not only do I have to find one of the two laundry rooms that have the special machine to load up our laundry card, but I then have to hope that one of the three machines are available. 

My solution: to find a laundromat in the area that is decently priced.

Grocery Shopping

I have to admit that I am terrible at making a running list. I will literally make a list the day we go to the store and will likely forget things and have to run out again a couple of days later. I am also notorious for buying too much of a couple of things thinking we ran out when we already have so much of it. Shredded cheese is my biggest culprit. 

My solution: Making a list of EVERY food item in the house. This includes how many of each specific item we have. The goal is to make a spreadsheet and update it weekly before we go to the grocery store. It will tell me what we already have, what we need, and how much of it we need. I will probably progress into how much we spend on the items over time, but for now...we'll stick to the basics.

These are my "big projects" for this week. Does anyone have any more suggestions?

Getting Settled

Our photographer did an amazing job with the pictures. I definitely understand why everyone says to never skimp out on photography for your big day. She was even able to have the link set up when we got back from the honeymoon and I may or may not be obsessed with checking them out.

So far, both of my parents have seen the pictures as well as my sisters, but one person has yet to see them...my husband! He has been super busy working and when he comes home we are busy trying to settle into a routine. We were hoping to get him to see them this week, but I'm not so sure we'll have time! We are visiting with friends tonight, another friend is coming over tomorrow, friday night we have dinner with his family, and Saturday my sister is coming into town for a week. We are definitely  going to be super busy. I can't wait until we can settle into a routine. It seems that we have had something new or unexpected ever since we got back!

I can't wait to have our own system/routine set up. I think it will help determine what chores get done one what days and who has time to do them. I am so fortunate to have a husband who takes out the trash and will do the dishes when they need to be done. He is amazing and I am so happy to be able to spend the rest of my life with him.

Back from the honeymoon!

We are officially back from our honeymoon in Jamaica! We had so much fun and it was great to be able to start off our marriage with some time away from everyday life.

Being married has been so amazing so far. I feel so incredibly secure, confident, happy, and loved. The realization that he is my husband and that we get to spend every night together makes me so happy. Of course, there's some stress with knowing that I'm going to have to cook dinner every night and be more proactive on keeping up our apartment, but the benefits far out-weigh the stress of it all.

Yesterday was my first day back at work. It was nice to be able to ease into it since one of my classes is gone for the week. Phil had taken off yesterday so we were able to run a bunch of errands together. I started the name-change process (which I hope to finish today) and I can't wait for it to be official! We also went to the grocery store and stocked up so that I can start menu-planning for the week ahead and always know what's for dinner.

I have a lot on my plate this week, but it's great to be back and to be able to start our lives together. We're working on getting into a routine at night and I need to get back into the gym, but that will all happen in due time. For now, I'm just going to take it one moment at a time.