So my hubby and I are in a bit of a pickle. He has just graduated from the University of Virginia (I'm so proud!) and we now are no longer getting the GI Bill benefits and the monthly housing stipend that we were relying on. Mark has a job lined up but they haven't given him a start date. Even with that, this is a temporary, low paying, part time job because he is taking a gap year to gain experience in his field before grad school. So that leaves us with 1 small income a month and an unsure idea of when he will start getting paid and what his income will look like.
My income doesn't quite cover our basic bills not including food, gas and all the extra variable expenses. Luckily we have built up a bit of a savings, but I would really like to keep that for future stuff (like babies :)) So we really want to work on living smartly. We have always wanted to be good stewards of what God has blessed us with but it hasn't always been our focus to spend minimally. I am really excited about this time because I think it will really help us in the long run too. Learning how to master a budget is going to be a challenge for sure but I know this is a time in our life that we wont forget. Since it is summer and the days are longer and Mark has so much free time, I want to enjoy it with him. I don't want to mope around because we don't have enough money to do anything fun, so I have come up with a list of low budget fun!
1. Wash the cars together- I sit in a windowless office 8.5 hours a day, I would love to come home and enjoy the sunshine and spraying down my husband the car could be a blast and productive!
2. Encouragement Mob someone- I'm sure none of your friends would mind if you dropped by and surprised them with homemade cookies! It would also be fun to make those homemade cookies together. One time Mark and I made a whole bunch of chocolate chip cookies and put them in 4 different containers with a scripture attached, then we played ding dong ditch and left the cookies at the doorsteps. Only one of our friends caught us the others still have no clue it was us.
3. Picnic- I love picnics :) It wouldn't be completely free because we would have to pay for the picnic food (unless we begged other picnickers) but that's okay, we have to pay for food anyway.
4. Swimming pool- We live in an apartment complex and have free access to the pool. Its really not been busy and we have been enjoying it.
5. Bike Rides- I'm not the most confident biker, but I know it would really encourage Mark and the more I do it the more comfortable I will feel. A couple of weeks ago we went on an 8 mile ride. That was my first time on a mountain bike in years. (I have a beach cruiser) It was hard, but parts of it was actually really fun! I am looking forward to doing it again.
6. Hikes-Another thing I am hoping to gain confidence in. We have hiked "humpback rock" a couple of times and have our eyes our for new hiking spots.
7. Fridays After 5-In Charlottsville there are free concerts on the downtown mall every Friday in the summer. Check your local area to see what is offered.
Those are some ways we plan on spending our summer days. What do you plan to do this summer?
No comments:
Post a Comment