Obviously I am stuck on...

...money and getting out of debt lately. Maybe my last post shouldn't have promised not to plug things from my work, but instead I should have promised to stop talking about money. But it is too late now. First of all I am very grateful that Nick and I are on the same page when it comes to this. We are both money minded about being money smart. We have not always been this way, but you learn from your mistakes. It's a new thing that we do together and we find that it brings us not only happiness, but peace. Our happiness comes from watching our debts go down every month and our peace comes from knowing that within a very short time we will have all of our unsecured debt paid off and able to buy a home.

I think I am going to start giving Dave Ramsey's book as a present for birthdays, Christmas, and weddings. A bit boring, when you think of all the other cool things you could give someone instead, but I have found that his book and talk show to be invaluable. I wish I would have read this as a teenager, I would have made better money decisions while I was in college. In case you haven't heard about Dave Ramsey, just google him, you'll be a believer, I wanted to post this today because I know that money is one of the top 3 reasons for divorce, it can be a huge factor in stress - which is the leading cause of many health problems, and a reason why some people don't further their education among many other decisions made by all families. I also hear a lot about money and numbers in my job...welcome to the media... so I think about debt and income ratios constantly. (Maybe I should've earned a degree in accounting or economics).

It really has become an obsession. (Maybe I should find a new hobby, just a thought.) So in the time being, before I find something else that I obsess over, you get to read about...if you want.

Want to hear something disgusting? When Nick and I were married, back in February we were just over $79,000 in debt. (my gag reflux just kicked in) Here's the break down:

2 student loans - I think of this as good debt - if there is such a thing. Nick and I are both college graduates. College in most cases isn't free and having a degree definitely pays off even if you have to pay off student loans for a while.

3 Cars - we bought one the day before we got married thinking we could sell the two we already owned fairly quick....so far we've sold one.

2 Credit Cards - I had one semester on a credit card and I am not exactly sure what was on Nick's

1 Wedding Loan - As nice as it is to have someone else pay for your wedding, this little loan is what really brought our economical opinions together. We were able to do, for the most part, what we wanted on our wedding day and honeymoon. Yes we are paying it off now, but we had a fun wedding and a fabulous honeymoon and little stress.

All of this as of February 7, 2009 added up to $79,000ish.

As of now...we have paid off: $24,216.92 - that doesn't include the interest

I remember getting home from our honeymoon and adding up what we owed so we could set a monthly budget and I seriously wanted to puke. It was nauseating. I am posting about this because 10 months ago it seemed almost impossible that we would even be able to put a dent in that kind of debt. I know that if Nick and I can do it, anyone can. It is just a matter of making a budget and sticking to it. A little bit of will power goes a long ways. Every month when our bills come in and I see that our debt is getting smaller and smaller, I can't help but do a dance out of sheer excitement. It is so nice to know that one day we will be able to use our pay check to actually buy something that we want, like a new computer and pay cash for it. I truly understand now why the leaders of the LDS church have been warning people for years to get out of debt and stay out of debt. Nick and I have grown closer together while we have worked to pay this off. We would love to go out and buy new things or even have the Internet in our home, but in just a short 10 months, we've paid off 1/3 of what we owe and in a recession. It's empowering to know that we can do anything if we work together and have ambitious yet practical goals.

The Grocery Guru

I promise that I won't turn our blog into a business plug every time I post, but this one is too good not to blog about. I started working for MediaOne a little over a month ago. Since I have been here I have learned about the Grocery Guru.

Unfortunately 2009 (I have a feeling 2010 will be the same thing) has not been as profitable as other years in our country and we are having to learn to separate wants from needs (and learn the difference). Family budgets are tightening, people have lost jobs and financial stability has become, well, not so stable. What would you do with the money you saved if you could feed your family for about $35 a week? Only $140 a month?
Considering that over 22% of families in Utah spend over $200 per week on groceries alone, I think saving on groceries would help create some extra cash.

I only have to feed myself and Nick and we have a trouble keeping our grocery budget in check. Until now.
The Grocery Guru's job is to solely go through grocery ads and the coupons that are printed every week. He gleans the ads and finds the best deals for you. As for example: He did a Thanksgiving dinner, with the turkey, potatoes, stuffing, everything for $21. How much did you spend on that one meal? I bet not $21, not if you bought the whole feast yourself. You could have bought a 12-14 lb turkey for $1! This week you can buy a pack of Duracell batteries, the ones that sell for about $3.00 for $1 and if you buy 6 packs you get a $5 rebate. So you get 6 packs of batteries for $1!!!!! I get really excited about these things lately.

I have a friend at work who has been doing this for a while and she now competes to see what else she can save on that the guru misses. (Competition like this can lead to a fat wallet) It is kind of fun to see how much stuff you can get for free. It is just a matter of knowing what and where you should be looking for these deals.

If you go to www.gurudeals.com there are links to 'Guru Shop of the Week' and many other helpful hints for saving you money. Who could use a few extra dollars in their monthly budget? I know I can. If you want more information, let me know I'd be happy to help. There is nothing wrong with clipping coupons, but there is if you're going into debt feeding your family.

A few things we've found to stretch a dollar:

Spices can get VERY expensive. Buy some spice jars, you can find these really cheap at Ikea, Spoons 'n Spice and other stores, you just have to look for them. Then buy your spices from places like Sunflower market: Cinnamon, Cumin and other common spices can be found for less than a dollar for a whole bottle worth and even more in some cases. I have also found Spoons 'n Spice to have great, cheap exotic spices like whole cardamon (great for cooking Indian food) for about $1.50. WinCo is also a cheap find for spices.

Don't get the paper, so you don't get coupons? Check your mail. Companies are now sending coupons through the mail. You can also go to product websites and most will have coupons for their products - Kraft is a great company for getting coupons.

This is a fun trick I learned from a best friend of mine. Get 7 bins (you can use paper bags too) for your pantry and plan 7 meals. Put the recipe and the ingredients for that meal in the box. When you come home from shopping, sort your goods into the appropriate recipe bin. Now anyone can make dinner. You pull the bin out, with the recipe and most ingredients ready to go. I have found that if you plan your meals you are less likely to go out for dinner, saving you money and lbs. (I won't start with the extra lbs you gain from eating out and why, that could be a completely different post.)

Also plan your meals out for the week, by going through the ads. Make a list of what you need and then find your coupons. Yes this takes effort and time, but when I am not at work, I am not getting paid. Therefore spending 15 minutes that will save me $15 dollars or more on a shopping trip is well worth it to me.

Don't go to the store hungry. You'll buy way more than you need.
(Since I am new to this whole planning every meal and shopping for my family thing, I have learned these tricks from others. None of these are my own, but so far they have worked for us.)

Nick is a skeptic when it comes to most things, so for those of you like Nick, I have decided to track how much money we save in the month of December by doing "Guru Shops" and I'll let you know how we do. That way you can see if it is worth it to you to even go this route. It couldn't hurt, if anything you could see how much food we eat and why we're getting soft around the edges. :)

One Year Ago

One year ago - on November 15th around 11pm, Nick made up his mind.

We got engaged at the Pier in San Clemente, where I grew up. It was after the SDSU v U of U game and the last night of our trip. After the game we grabbed some fish tacos from Pedro's and headed to the pier one last time. We ate our food and then went for a walk towards North Beach.

It was past the swing sets and the life guard towers that he got down on one knee.

I asked him if he was joking, luckily he wasn't.

Of course I said yes!

It was about time.

He couldn't have come up with a more meaningful way to ask me. For me it was the perfect proposal, few places mean more to me than my home town.

Whew. What a feeling of relief! The best part EVER was that I really had no clue, I was always hopeful and had been for an entire year before that. Not many people need 20 months or 87 weeks or 609 days, 14616 hours or 876960 minutes to figure it out. Although our short 11 week engagement felt like double what we had already been together for.

Last night I asked Nick when it would seem like reality that we were married. He responded with most likely in 10 years, when we have our own home and all of our children. Now that seems even weirder than being married.

I love knowing that I get to keep him forever. So thanks for figuring it out, I will never forget calling our loved ones with the good news and planning our wedding in the car on the way home.

Elk Stew

Our original plan for last Sunday was to stay home after church and make elk stew. We stayed home the previous week and realized as nice as it is to see extended family on Sundays, it is sometimes really nice to stay at your own home. We went grocery shopping on Saturday and got all of the things we wanted to put in our stew. Nick might have been a little more pumped about this stew than I was. I am a little skeptical about game.
Then we got a call from my parents Sunday morning, they wanted to know if we wanted to come over for steaks. In all honestly we were hesitant - even though steak was on the line. Not that we don't love to see family but Nick really wanted elk stew for dinner.
We ended up going over to my parents and then returning later that night to our apartment. After reading the recipe for the stew we thought, lets make it now, it'll only take a couple hours. Ha ha obviously I have never made anything in a crock pot. I have realized that crock pot dinners and baked potatoes are in the same category of foods. You better start one now - whether you're hungry or not - because in a few hours you might want one - when its done.
It's a good thing our crock pot has a timer on it and shuts down when the time runs out. It finished at 3 am. Although Nick was more excited about this stew than a fat kid in a candy shop. He got up several times to check it, season it, put peas in it.... take little tastes. He couldn't sleep he was so excited - therefore I didn't sleep because he kept hopping out of bed.
This whole time I have to admit it, I was not excited - all this work - shopping, preparing the vegetables, cleaning the dished used to make it and we were just making stew.
Not that stew is bad but it's just stew - nothing exciting. Meat and vegetables. blah.

When I got home from work on Monday night I made biscuits for our stew. I took the extra time to make the layered ones, not easy in our kitchen. Then heated up bowls of stew, I was more excited for the biscuits.
I have to admit it. I am shocked - best stew I have ever had. It was a really good meal. I even took some for lunch the next day. Nick is a pretty good stew cook or elk is pretty good, it could even be a combination of both. So good job Nick, sorry I am such a skeptic, the lack of sleep Sunday night was worth it.

October so Far...

A few weeks ago Cory and his family came to town and we got to have a Duclos girls night. Although we were missing a few, we had a lot of fun spending time together. We grabbed dinner at the Blue Lemon a place in Highland and then we headed to Gardner Village. Gardner Village is really fun to go to during the Halloween season because the entire place is decorated with witches every where. There are also a bunch of really cute stores...if I had girls right now I might have spent a lot of money there.

We also went to the Zoo, this time almost everyone came. The baby elephant was cute, although a bit more boring than I had hoped for. It slept in the far corner most of the time.

We also saw some cute little monkeys. One wasn't very cute - apparently the babies ride on the back of the dad and they learn to groom. Unfortunately because of this the poor monkey was completely bald on the top and all the way down his back. He was pretty ugly.

Sign about the bald monkey

I don't know how well you can see it but the gray on the monkey should be yellow fur.

There were a lot of babies at the zoo and animal babies are pretty cute! It was so much fun to go with our nieces. I am so lucky to be their Aunt, I was around for both pregnancy announcements for Ellie and Brooklyn.

After the Zoo all of the Duclos' went to Cafe Shambala for dinner. It is an awesome Tibetan restaurant in the Avenues, just a few blocks from out apartment. From what I can tell everyone was happy with the food. I always get a little nervous when people go to a place that I suggest, it is almost as if I made the food myself.

Following a stomach full of Tibetan food we hit up The Bakery for dessert. If I could make desserts like that, Nick and I would be obese. It's that good.

It was really good to see Cory, Alisha and the girls. It was a lot better when they lived in Reno, for us, it was much easier to go see them. From what we hear it might be next summer before they come back for a visit. With any luck Nick and I might be able to get out there sometime this coming spring, but I don't want to make any promises.

Nick is finally done hunting. YEAHHHHHHH!!!!

I got a new job. I am the marketing coordinator for MediaOne, the newspaper company. The job was created for me and therefore my duties are not completely defined, but so far I like it. Even better: my work computer is a Mac. After using it for a week, I don't understand why more businesses don't use them. I wasted a lot of time fighting with my PC at the last job.

We've also been watching and going to a lot of Utah football games. I love the MUSS, but I am afraid I will have to join the FUSS next year. I am getting to old to stand all game and get tired of dealing with freshmen, especially the ones that sneak alcohol into the game and get really drunk.

Right now we're just adjusting to my new hours and getting ready for the Holidays. I love the Holidays...the snow not so much. I rather like thinking about Santa in a Hawaiian shirt instead of a red snow suite. I wonder what my chances are of talking Nick into moving to somewhere without snow. The other day he told me how much he likes it. We'll see who wins this one, it might take me a few years, but I might win. Keep your fingers crossed, if we move to Hawaii, you'll have a place to stay and a reason to come more often.

Unicorn Hunting

Since July there have been few topics in our home talked more about than hunting. I like to call it camping or unicorn hunting. That is because last year they came back unsuccessful and the year before they only got one and it was barely legal.

I think all of my teasing had an affect, not the one I was hoping for though. Because of my constant teasing about elks being mythical creatures like the unicorn, Nick also got a deer tag.

So this year he is going on the elk hunt and the deer hunt. Maybe if I would have kept my big mouth shut he would only be abandoning me for a few weekends, rather than most of the month of October. Shoot me.

Maybe after a few years of being married I might like the little breathers. He does dirty a lot of dishes and clothes... But as for now I still like him and prefer him around. (In case you haven't noticed I don't like being left.) I even tried bribing Nick - didn't work. Yes I will stoop to bribing. I am not too good for that, I might have even begged a little bit.

Good luck boys, I hope you get at least one more! Please make this 4 or 5 day trip worth abandoning me.

I guess I can try to think positive and hope they kill 4 elk in 2 days, but who am I kidding? On a high note one of them got one last Saturday (some how it was even smaller than the one from 2 years ago).

Here's a picture for inspiration and education (this is what you're supposed to find.)

My Grandpa

One year ago today my grandfather passed away. It was incredibly bitter sweet. He had multiple strokes in the last 20 years of his life & with each one his health & vitality went down hill. He lived until he was 84; the doctors said that he wouldn't live much past his first stroke 20 + years ago. Luckily for me, he did.
Because I grew up in California I was only able to see my grandparents just a few times a year. We would always stay Sundance for 2 weeks in July for vacation and my grandparents would come visit us, most years, in February. Some years we were able to spend thanksgiving with them in Mazatlan. Those were the only times that I saw my grandparents during my childhood.
We moved to Utah 6 years ago, which as much at the time I didn’t see it, but what an incredible blessing. I was able to, in a way, make up for all those miles that kept us apart for so many years. We would go to lunch every Saturday as a family at Sweet Tomatoes or Souper Salad, I don’t think I can ever eat at those places again because we ate there so much.
When I started school at the U of U, I took my grandpa with me to buy my books and to walk around campus. He would always have me drive his car, a SRX Cadillac. My grandfather always rode in style.
The semesters that I didn’t have class on Friday afternoons, which were most, I went to lunch with my grandpa. We would go to our favorite places, like the Jasmine and always order the teriyaki pork loin bento box or we would go to the Spaghetti Factory, Cowboy Grub, Sizzler, Hunan Gardens, and Olive Garden. We had specific places we liked to go and we would occasionally try new ones.
During the years that we went to lunch I was able to hear stories from his childhood, medical school, the mash unit he was in, in Korea, when he moved to Salt Lake City, how cute my grandmother was when they dated and were married, and his friend that he had since he was in the 4th grade. I heard a lot of stories, many times, but they never got old.

He was one of the first doctors to do open heart surgery on babies. He traveled around the world and kept a map with pins tracking all of the places he had been. He had 6 children and 18 grandchildren. He always called my grandmother his bride. He loved babies and would call them a little mouse. When I lived with my grandparents he would make me breakfast every morning and take me to school, always making sure to turn on my "fanny warmer" when it was cold out.

My grandpa was a great man, he wasn’t perfect, but he was a good grandfather. I learned a lot from him and I am very lucky to have spent so much time with him. I only wish that I had known him before his strokes. My dad often tells me of how sharp of a mind he had and how funny he was. I wish that I could have seen that side of him. He was brilliant. After one of his strokes he couldn’t even speak. Within a year he had relearned how to speak and had picked Spanish back up. I haven’t met many people like him. I don’t believe that there are many.
I miss him and whenever I hear bag pipes, my mind immediately goes back to his funeral. As his grave was being dedicated by my father, a lone bag piper was off in the distance playing. It was heart wrenching. That day we laid to rest a great man. I was just lucky to be a part of his posterity. I love you Grandpa! Thanks for always taking good care of me and for spending time with me.