*It’s HOT. We had one day of relief from the searing heat last week, but now we’re back to temps in the high 90s. And it’s not dry heat – here in the Midwest, we have only suffocating, humid, steam bath-variety heat. Last night was the first night of swimming lessons, and my husband and I tried to sit and watch the girls, but we only lasted about 10 minutes before we decided to go to Hardees, have some iced tea, and enjoy the A/C for the rest of their 45-minute lesson. When we drove into the Hardees parking lot, the thermometer on the dash of our van read 102 – at 5:30 P.M. I think that when our electric bill comes, it will probably say, “Envelope 1 of 2,” because it’s going to be a big one.
I’m quite certain that I’ve mentioned this before, but I can’t tolerate heat. Not even a little bit. It makes me physically sick, and I always joke about how when my husband asked me to marry him, I said yes, as long as he would agree to always provide me with soft water and air conditioning. I didn’t actually say this (it was implied. No, no, I’m just kidding!) but let me tell you, if we ever have problems with our air conditioner, he gets someone here to fix it johnny-on-the-spot, because he knows how difficult I am to live with when it’s hot in the house.
*Egress windows. We finally found a company who will install 2 of them in our basement for a reasonable price! For those who may not be familiar with these, egress windows are also called “basement escape windows,” because they’re large enough to allow for exit in an emergency, unlike our current glass block windows. In our state, the building code requires that they be installed in all sleeping areas. When my husband appraises houses, people often try to argue with him that their house should be worth more because there’s a room in the basement that could be used as another bedroom, but if it doesn’t have an egress window, he has to shoot them down. No egress = not a bedroom.
Our windows will look like these, with a ladder inside the well.
Anyway, we’ve been discouraged because we need to have these windows installed in order to put bedrooms in the basement for the girls, but all of the estimates we got were too high (between $8000-$9000), and the work isn’t something we can do ourselves because it requires digging out with a backhoe, cutting the concrete foundation walls, and then filling with gravel for drainage – none of which we have the equipment or knowledge to do. One day, while appraising a house with egress windows in the basement, my husband struck up a conversation with the owner, and got the name and contact number of the concrete company who installed them. Their estimate was only $5500, so while I kid him a lot about how chatty he is, sometimes his penchant for small talk really pays off!
Once this is done, we can go ahead with our plans to renovate 2/3 of the big room in our basement (currently my scrapbook/craft/sewing area, and part of the playroom) into 2 bedrooms. This is the cheapest, easiest way to gain more living space, while also adding value to our house. The girls’ existing bedroom upstairs will become my private office – something I’ve been dreaming of for 10 years. Of course, now I must figure out where to go with my craft tables, and shelves and supplies, because we need to have that end of the basement cleared, and the carpet pulled back before they arrive on August 8th to begin work. This is one of those jobs that is so big, I can’t even decide how to start.
*My dinner diary – I’ve been keeping one. I don’t know why, but one night I just decided to write down what we had for dinner….and I’ve continued to do so every night. Perhaps it’s the writer in me, or maybe it’s because I have a compulsive need to record everything for my children (as if they’re going to care what we had for dinner), but I enjoy this little ritual. It also helps encourage variety and prevent repetition at mealtime, because I can see, at a glance, if I’ve made too many red meat meals, or if we’ve not been eating enough veggies, (and how long it’s been since we had real dessert, instead of fruit). I also like to write down when the kids really like or dislike something, and their funny comments. For example, Cakes asked me to make “those ricey meatballs,” (porcupine meatballs) and when I put her plate in front of her, she said, “Oooohh….I remember how good these are!” Bee really likes what we call “fancy chicken,” and I recorded that she asked to have it for her birthday dinner this year. Those little positives are good motivation for me on days when I don’t feel like cooking.
*DJ’s no-nap phase – it’s making me crazy. He hasn’t taken a decent nap for at least a week, and for the last two days, he’s spent his entire nap time playing, talking to himself, and banging his heels against the wall. I’m at my wit’s end because I need for him to take naps! It’s the only break I get all day, and when he doesn’t sleep, it feels like the day just goes on, and on, and on, and on….
*Scrimping and saving – Last year was a tough year for us (as it was for most people), and we had to borrow several thousand dollars from our savings. This year hasn’t been much better because we had to buy a car, something we weren’t expecting to need for at least another year, so our car fund CD wasn’t quite big enough, and we had to borrow from savings again. Then our garbage disposal broke, and a burner on the stove went bad. We also need a new sliding door – ours is original to the house (1971), and it’s in bad shape – and we’ll need to buy materials for the basement renovation project. I’ve worked out a plan to cover everything, and repay all of the money we’ve borrowed from our savings, but it means that money is tight right now. Very tight. I’ve put us on a really strict budget, which means no restaurant meals, no entertainment that isn’t free (except for back-to-school pottery painting day- I already promised the girls), and no purchases of anything except necessities.
But am I bummed out about it?
On the contrary, I actually enjoy it, because it’s kind of like a game for me to see how little we can spend. If you’re facing this kind of financial challenge right now too, you might enjoy these articles:
and
25 Tips for Surviving a Money Pinch
And now, I must get children to swimming lessons. Have a great week, everybody!
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for posting about scrimping and saving. It helps to hear others are going through it too. It will be so nice for all the kids to have their own rooms, and for you to have your office!! Looking forward to seeing the before and after pictures. Praying for cooler weather and rain for all of the midwest. Love your posts, thank you for taking the time to write!
Love reading what you’re up to. I’m soooo excited that you’ll finally have an office. I can’t wait to see how to go all frugal in trying to decorate it!!! Hugs!!!
I liked hearing about your “scrimping and saving,” too. Please keep sharing how that goes. I think we can all use the encouragement! And the house progress is so exciting! Praying for a break in weather and for DJ to get back to napping for you.
Looking forward to your before & after pics of the bedrooms, especially how you’ll decorate. Thanks to you I’ve made quite a few decor changes with yard sale finds & repurposing. I remember when my twins at 2 yrs old decided to quit napping, not fun. Hang in there, DJ will be in school in a few years- you can relax/catch up then! :)
The gal from the blog Dinner, A Love Story (too lazy to link) has kept a dinner diary for something like 10 years. I started doing it at the beginning of this year and did well for 4 months or so, but then summer hit and I’ve been slacking. It IS fun to go back through it, because I try a lot of new recipes, and quite often forget about them. With the diary, I can look back and be like, “Hey! That was good! I should make it again!”
This post and so many others is why the minute I see your name in my email inbox (signaling a new post), I immediately bypass all the other alert messages (like shopping sales, all other blogs, etc.) and check to see what you have written. I’m sorry you have had so many financial hits the past two years. If it helps at all, we’re in the same boat. It’s hard to believe just a few years ago, my income was around 4 times what it is now (doing the same amount of work).
Anyway, thank you for the porcupine ball recipe link (I must have missed that one!) and for the other links about embracing the challenge of frugal living. It’s much harder for me to do without necessities (well, what I call necessities) than my husband, but I’m pumped to take on the challenge after reading your post. Thank again for your weekly (and sometimes more often if we’re lucky), godly encouragement for those of us who love our families and want to do the right thing for them.
I so understand about the heat. The other day after karate at 5:30pm my car said 109! And the rain….ugh….rain daily the last 25 days. And its hot and muggy afterward. No its not a sweet cooling rain but a hot nasty kind. The other day we got 6 inches in less than 2 hours causing our street to flood. That was fun….not. So I feel your pain….we stay in as much as possible too.
Living in central Texas makes me a bit callous at times. But I can complain about cold when it hits 30′, so I should be careful, otherwise I will quite deserve the teasing.
We just has a week up in Wisconsin, and it got pretty hot a few days (for them). Upper 90s, one day hit 100′+. What struck me is the ‘dry heat’ up there. It was great compared to central Texas. At the same time, I grew up in West Texas where when it would hit 30% relative humidity, we would cry out in misery.
I must remember that its all relative. Hope it starts cooling off for you soon!
One day last week, the temp hit 106, with 91% humidity. Now THAT was misery. We couldn’t cool off, no matter what we did, and the air conditioner never stopped running. I think the humidity level greatly affects the way the heat feels, but that’s an age-old debate.