I waited over 6 months to post this....

CONGRATULATIONS! To Merrow and C, who got engaged in Switzerland when we were in Europe last fall.

When I met up with them in Annecy, she held up her left hand and blinded me with the rock, then said "You're not allowed to say anything yet."

The happy couple on our last night in Paris. Note that Merrow is totally hiding her left hand in this picture.

There is quite a story behind their engagement, but let's just say it involves: delayed and then cancelled flights, rebooking of both airline and train tickets, multiple international cell phone calls and texts, stress drinking by Merrow, C pulling out the "but I am going to propose, you HAVE to get me there" card, the Swiss Alps, and one "I just repacked my bag, no I do NOT have room to carry anything of yours" eyeroll.

They are getting married in August and I couldn't be happier for them!

(I'm trying to go back and add some more posts about my trip to France before I completely forget all the details.)

Monday Montage

Back in the middle of February, some of my Internet friends came to visit for a weekend. We ate and drank and went to the patisserie down the road and went to a winery and ate and drank some more.

Then on Sunday I went and bought bigger pants. True story!

Here are some pictures from the weekend wine tasting.

"These balls are on fire" - Quarkie, with one of the many inappropriate quotes uttered over the weekend.

Tasty wine! Shortie, me, Craftosaurus, KL4W, and Quarkie

 

Craftosaurus thinks she looks like Justin Beiber in this picture. The rest of us think the Beeb wishes he looks this awesome.

Wine smiles - Craftosaurus, KL4W, and Quarkie

Week 1 Estimate

Estimated spending for Monday April 1 to Friday April 5

Monday - should be able to get away with nothing
Tuesday - gas fill-up ($50) and midweek groceries (milk, veggies, bread $15)
Wednesday - Wine Weds, gift card
Thursday - Bruins game: pregame drink ($8), food and drinks at the Garden ($30), parking ($6). I have credit on my CharlieCard, so no T tickets needed.
Friday - lunch out ($11)

Total for the week = $120

Bills scheduled:
Mortgage on the 5th and my check for my homeowners' association should clear this week.

And my weekly menu plan, just for fun:
Mon Lunch - can of soup with crackers
Mon Dinner - angel hair pasta with veggies and cheese
Tue L - leftover pasta
Tue D - green eggs and ham
Wed L - MOAR green eggs and ham
Wed D - wine Weds!
Thu L - ham sandwich
Thu D - at the B's game
Fri L - out, probably Chipotle
Fri D - frozen pizza

Welcome to Austerity April

In the first quarter of 2013, I spent over 7% of my take-home pay on dining out. This is not counting vacation eating, already-fixed meals that I picked up at the grocery store, or 20-ounce Cokes at $1.79 a pop from the convenience store. This is not conducive to take-another-trip-to-Paris and buy-a-house-get-out-of-the-condo savings plans. I need a vacation from spending and to get myself back on track.

So: I am declaring this a (Mostly) No-Spend Month. No-spend months have become pretty common around the blogosphere, no need for explanation. My "mostly" qualifier probably needs some clarification, so here it is.
1. I have Bruins and Sox tickets. I am allowed to buy reasonable amounts of food and drink at such, plus pay for parking and transportation and fun things like that.
2. I am not changing any of my autopay bills, gym membership, Netflix, etc for the month. I am going to try to actually make use of them though.
3. I am allowed to take Merrow out for her birthday, and have drinks and queso with Sprockets.
4. Wine Wednesday at Riddle's is ok as long as I use the gift card I have. Ditto coffee from Dunks.
5. Lunch out on Friday if I've behaved for the week.

Basically I'm just trying to rein myself in on eating out multiple times a week, impulse purchases from Target and Amazon, and buying any more clothes/shoes/house stuff right now.

I'm going to post spending estimates for the week and weekend on Mondays and Fridays, with updates on how I did.

Less spending, more cooking at home, maybe even working out a little. Here we go.