We Found It!

We were planning on finding a 3 bedroom apartment to share with my sister and her friend, we found one that I really loved, it was exactly what I was looking for! Unfortunately, not everyone agreed on it so my husband and I decided we would try our luck finding an apartment ourselves or just stay where we are. Luckily, in the same house as the 3 bedroom apartment, they had a one bedroom available for 900$! It is beautiful too, newly renovated, all new appliances, nobody has lived in it since it was renovated. We would have our own little patio too! We applied for it this weekend and just found out we were approved! We move in April 1! We will save almost 400$ a month, plus we will be closer to work so we will save on gas too. It is smaller than our place now which is kind of what I wanted because it will force us to get rid of our stuff faster.

The only problem is that we were supposed to give 60 days notice at our apartment now and we only gave 30 days notice so we will probably not get our "last month's rent" back. If they end up finding someone to move in for April they will give it back to us but that might be unlikely. I will call them tomorrow and ask if they will try to find someone and if I can help by posting an ad online and answering questions for people and stuff. I was thinking we could even just tell this building we are not leaving until April 30 and find someone ourselves to take the apartment for a month. We could even give it to them for 400$ cheaper. If we do have to forfeit our last month's rent, we will still end up saving money in the long run since this new place is so much cheaper.

I hate moving, but I am really excited to save more money! I am also excited that this will force me to go through my stuff and decide what I really need and what I can get rid of. I gave a few bags full of books, movies, and CDs to Goodwill this weekend, so I have started at least.

I paid off one of my credit cards yesterday! As soon as the payment goes through I am going to cancel the card completely. I only have a little more than 1000$ left to pay off on my other credit card. Unfortunately, I don't think I will be able to pay it off by the end of the month like I was planning. With this move we have to give first month's rent and last month's rent. The last month's rent was not in my budget at all so it kind of sucks. On top of that, my husband's birthday is at the beginning of April and I want to get him a good present this year since he paid for me to go to Jamaica for my birthday (and Christmas) present. I always seem to be not working when his birthday comes around so I feel like I never end up getting him anything, or at least not anything good. It's his first birthday since we have been married too so I want it to be awesome.

I'm getting better and better at drinking beer. It still takes me like 2 hours to finish one though, haha. I am currently drinking this one:

It's not bad. I got a 6 pack of this one instead of just one at a time like I have been doing with other beers. It's a wheat beer and it's a little bit citrus-y. I am actually drinking this one faster than usual, maybe I will have two of them tonight, haha. 

It almost tasted like a frappuccino, I LOVE frappuccinos!

I tried this dark beer the other night. Mill Street Vanilla Porter. 

At first it tasted really good! It was all chocolatey and sweet and a tiny bit coffee-ish. It reminded me of a frappuccino so I was really excited. It ended up being kind of heavy though. It was hard to drink very much of it so I didn't finish it. It's good to know that there are beers that I actually like the taste of though! 

In other, more exciting news, I booked a trip to Mexico! My favorite band in the universe (Hanson) is doing a Concert Event at a resort there. I went the past two years they have held this event, which they call "Back to the Island". I realize that Mexico is not an island but the event has been in Jamaica the past couple years and that is where they started it...and it is too late to change the name now, haha. They were unsure if they were going to have another event right away or take a year off. I was rooting for "take a year off" because I knew if they announced another one I would have to go and it is quite expensive. The fact that it is in a new place this year just makes it that much harder to say "no" to! I have never been to Mexico and I have always wanted to see Mayan ruins so it is happening. Now I wish that I would have put "see the Mayan ruins" on my 30 before 30 list, haha. Drats. 

I know it's expensive and that I should not spend my money on this if I want to go to Australia in a year but I can't say no! It is in January 2015. I almost didn't go to the January 2014 one, even though I wanted to more than anything. A couple months before it happened I decided there was no way I was missing it and ended up convincing my sister to come (which might be part of the reason she is obsessed with travelling now and will be coming to Mexico with me as well!). 

Hopefully, this year, I am not so wussy and I can actually go up to the band and talk to them. That way I can ask each of them to take a picture with me and I can cross that off my 30 Before 30 List! I already have a couple pictures of me with the entire band from a Meet and Greet (with a bunch of other people) and the past Back to the Island events. I am always so jealous of the people who have pictures with each of them alone, though! I have to do it!

Hanson and I at their first Back to the Island event - Jan. 2013

I decided that I would find another way to pay for this trip so that it doesn't come out of money that I would have used for paying off debts or going to Australia. That way I won't feel so bad about it. If my husband were coming I would feel less guilty, but he did not want to, and it doesn't seem fair that he will be putting all of his money toward debt and Australia and I will be spending so much on a 6 day trip to Mexico. I think I will try to find a second job to do one day a week on the weekend. It will be hard to work so much but this event is totally worth it. I have the time of my life when I go to these things! I think, for my flight there, I might look for a credit card with flight points, and apply for one that offers a big lump of points as a welcome bonus...

I am going to use this opportunity to cross something else of my list as well. I am going to try to learn Spanish! Now that I have a bit of a reason to do it, I think it might be a bit easier to do! Spanish is a good language to have anyway, plus I am sharing a room in Mexico with a girl I have never met before who, I think, speaks mostly Spanish. It would be cool if I could say some things to her in Spanish! I am so excited to go somewhere new!!  

Feeling pretty accomplished...even though I haven't accomplished anything yet...

I am sitting here eating my favorite food in the world (super spicy chicken biryani), drinking my favorite drink at the moment (Pepsi...out of a can...it doesn't taste as good in bottles...haha), and feeling pretty darn good about myself! I just filed my tax return and am going to be getting a lot more money back than I thought! I did the math and fixed my budget and I will have all of my credit cards paid off by the end of next month!!! Plus I will be able to save a bit of money after that, before my job ends, in case I am out of a job for a month or two after this one. My husband will have his credit card paid off by the end of the month as well and then we just have to start working on the line of credit! I am so pumped for life right now!! 

On top of that, last night I drank a whole beer and it wasn't bad at all! My friend suggested I start with Bud Light Lime because it's not as "beer-y" as other beers, and I actually drank it! I am excited to actually get used to drinking beer! I have a different one to try tonight. It's a darker beer, it has vanilla flavouring and apparently tastes chocolatey... I will report back here after it is done! 

Hence Number 16.

A couple nights ago, I decided to make some dinner. Mostly because I am trying to save money by not eating out everyday. Although, I also feel like I should learn how to cook because it's a pretty necessary skill to have. So I decided to make tacos. That's right, this is a story about how I failed at making tacos. The kind that comes in a kit and lists the step by step instructions.... I thought I was doing okay at first, except the ground beef felt really rubbery because I overcooked it I guess. I had placed the hard and soft taco shells on a cookie sheet in the oven to warm them up. I took them out of the oven after 5 minutes and peeled the tin foil off of the soft taco shells. Then I grabbed the cookie sheet with my bare hands to move it out of the way. For some reason I forgot that hot things burn you. My one finger got it pretty badly and even developed a bit of a blister.  

After I iced my finger for a while, I set up everything proudly, ready to display my masterpiece. My husband asked me where the cheese was. I completely forgot about it. Not a huge deal, but pretty ridiculous because, well, duh. I take the block of cheese out of the fridge in a hurry, grab a plate out of the cupboard, and accidentally whip it onto the floor, where it proceeds to smash into pieces. It might be helpful to note here that I smashed a wine glass the day before when I was trying to put it away. It occurred to me that I should start breaking them when they're dirty instead of clean. At least that way I would get out of doing a couple of dishes! 

My husband cleaned up the glass while I grated cheese onto a new, non-broken plate. The tacos were okay. Definitely not worth the trouble I went through to make them. Hence number 16. I really need to learn to cook. This is pretty pathetic. I am taking baby steps...maybe making tacos was too big of a step up. I should stick to chicken fingers, french fries, and plain pasta, haha. Tonight I will be boiling up some frozen perogies and smokies. That seems more my level right now...hahaha. Once I can make macaroni and cheese without screwing up I will try my hand at some recipes. For now I am just focusing on making stuff so I don't have to order food and can save money. 

Last night I made my first attempt at starting to like beer. The reason this is even on my list at all is because I've wanted to be able to drink beer since I first started drinking. It's generally the most convenient and cheapest thing to drink. If I am going to eventually be travelling to a few different places, I think it would be cool to be able to try different types of beer from all kinds of different places. I hate the taste of beer, so I think this will be kind of hard. There was a time when I felt the same way about wine though, and now I love wine! I think if I just keep trying and maybe work my way up from less bitter beers I should be able to do this. My husband brought me home one beer that I liked because it was actually 60% juice and only 40% beer hahaha. It was pretty good. He also bought me a wheat beer which are supposed to be more sweet. I didn't get through very much of that one. It was icky. I will have to try a few different ones, maybe I will find one I actually like. I'm sure I can acquire the taste eventually!