Emeals

Hubby and I started using emeals about a month ago and we absolutely love it! It gives us a meal plan, with instructions and a grocery list for the week.

We've tried a couple of different meal plans and we really like the clean eating one.  It had a few recipes that I didn't think I or my hubby would like but they turned out delicious.  One was a cooked kale salad with cheese, rice, raisins and walnuts.  I am not one for kale and had never had it cooked.  It turned out really good and really filling. Recently we have switched to the classic menu in hopes it will save us a little bit of money and will have soon quick and easier recipes..  This week shrimp tacos in on the menu.

We don't tend to follow the menu every night so sometimes when I buy ingredients for a week, it lasts me a week and a half.  It's really nice to never have to think about what is for supper!

They also have a breakfast and lunch menu.  We subscribe to the lunch menu which is less customizeable than the dinner and is set for a family of 4. We only used it for a week before hubby went in the hospital and since he's been home and I've been working from home a far amount since, we haven't been using it.

We will be renewing the dinner subscription for sure! It was only $7 a month for three months ($5 a month if you sign up for 12.)  I think $7 is a reasonable amount to pay to keep our family at home and eating healthy. I wasn't to sure if I would use it when I signed up for three months, but it is definitely something that is going to be continued!

Meal Plan Monday #1

In order to hold myself responsible to sticking to our meal plans, I've decided to post our weekly meal plans.  Hopefully it will inspire some new ideas for you and will keep us on track!

Our meal plans consist of five dinners, Monday - Friday.  I do not meal plan for the weekend as we often go to my parents house or have another event where we aren't home.  I try to make a mix of tried and true and new recipes.

We strive for the following:

• One seafood/fish meal
• One pasta meal
• One veggie meal
• One beef meal
• One chicken meal

This doesn't always happen, especially when we are using emeals for the base of our meal plans, but aiming for this allows us to have a variety.  I'm pretty sure if I let my husband decide he would be cooking beef, pasta and beef and pasta (think hamburger helper) all the time!

Our meal plan for the week of June 24th is:

• Shrimp Tacos (emeals)
• Grilled Chicken Pitas (emeals)
• Hot dogs
• Chicken Club Pitas (emeals)
• Hamburgers and Corn on the Cob

TTC Post #7 - Had My HSG Test

Well I'm here to share my results from the HSG test which aren't great news.

We had to head to the hospital this morning and be there at 7:30 with the test starting at 8am.  We got there at about 7:15 and there were a few people ahead of us in line already.  They schedule 10 women at a time and only run the tests in the early morning. They led us in small groups to change and then we were lined up in our hospital gowns sitting in the hallway as we were called into the test room.

I was the 4th women in line and I got to see several women come out and most said it was a breeze.  I was glad that it sounded quick and painless.

When I got in, I was very nervous.  I had to lay on a bed while they inject the dye.  I won't go into graphic detail but they had trouble getting the dye into me and it was very painful because of this.  The doctor said they couldn't get dye into my right tube at all, it could be because it's blocked or because of the pain from the test making the dye not go in.  The doctor also said that my left tube looked strange, deformed.

This was not news I was expecting.  I was really upset.

The doctor said my fertility doctor would probably recommend I go for a laparoscopy so they can see my tubes better.  Hubby and I talked about this but because of the other conditions we are facing (low sperm count, not ovulating, PCOS) plus problems with the tubes, it seems more reasonable to go right to invitro fertilization (IVF).

Tough decision and I feel like my reality has changed a lot going from wanting to get out of debt to be a stay at home Mom with several children to wanting to get out debt to pay for IVF in hopes we can have one.

Should we be taking a vacation?

The obvious answer to this question is no. Obviously.

But (didn't you just know that word was coming), our friends are getting married this summer close to where my husband grew up.  We booked our flight a couple of months ago with the intention of spending 10 days traveling in Canada and driving into the States.

We had a planned a route that would have us stay in hotels for about 7 nights and drive more than 1500 km. Which would be fun for us, we love taking road trips.  And it was already planned so we should just not go on the next vacation after that right?

We decided to pay the airline fee to change our tickets and only stay 5 days.  We would forgo the vacation to the States and just focus on the wedding and family.  We are both a little disappointed but it has the potential to save us $1500 that we just don't have to spend.  I mean we could spend that money and cut back our debt payments but that really be the most responsible thing to do.

We are serious about paying off this debt, and sacrificing vacation this year one way it's going to happen faster!

I think the important question is: what are you willing to sacrifice now so you can have a better future and don't have to sacrifice later?

Our Upside Down Car Loan

Earlier this year hubby and I bought a new(er) car replacing both of our vehicles with a vehicle that has never been in an accident but came with a bigger car loan.  At the time of signing the loan I felt my stomach turn a little, I knew it was too much but it seemed like the right this to do.  We now owe $29 000 on a car that isn’t worth as much.  Before we owed $12 000 on a car that wasn’t worth that much.

We talked about looking into selling the car and buying something smaller both in size and in the loan amount.  Today we went to a dealership who said our car was only worth about $19 000 to trade in.  Ouch.  That’s a hit of $10 000 since January?  Well not quite since we started this loan with negative equity.

I’ve been listening to Dave Ramsey’s pod cast a lot lately and one of his most common pieces of advice is to sell the car especially if you can’t pay it off in two years.  At first I didn’t take the advice so seriously, thinking we just got this car and we got it to keep it for a long time.  We also downsized to only one vehicle.  After a while of thinking and listening to Mr. Ramsey, I really started thinking selling might be the best option because at least it would leave us with a smaller loan to pay off even if we took a bit of a hit.

Here you can’t find a half decent car for less than about $10 000.  If we bought a $10 000 car and traded ours in for $19 000, we’d still end up with a $29 000 loan but with an older car.

Our other option is to work our butt’s off and pay off this car as soon as we can.  Sitting down and figuring out what our budget looks like, fingers crossed we can pay off the car by spring of 2015.  Much better than the spring of 2020 that our loan was for.

I think Dave Ramsey has good advice, but it doesn’t seem like it will work in our situation. The best thing I think for us to do is to call it a stupid mistake, keep the car, work our butts off and get it paid for and never finance a car again!

Where did the last year go?

Last time I looked up, it was summer time 2012, and now here it is, summertime 2013.

As I read back through my posts, it's obvious we haven't made the best financial decisions. Last summer, my hubby and I took on a huge renovation project that took all of our time, and all of our money.  We didn't plan well enough and we found ourselves back in the hole with a $12 000 line of credit.  Since our line of credit climbed that high, we've managed to pay it down to $6 600.

We also found ourselves in a position of owning a car that (due to an accident where we not at fault) was worth $6 000 and still owed $12 000.  We decided earlier this year to trade in both of our vehicles for what would could get and buy a new(er) vehicle.  At the time it seemed like a good idea, but now we have a $29 000 car loan to add onto our debt.  Hubby is still glad we bought a new(er) vehicle, and I am too, but I think it could have waited.  Our fuel consumption has gone down with this new vehicle, so we are at least saving money there.

We've gotten back on track and back on a budget and we will have the line of credit paid off by Halloween. We also plan to shorten our car loan to 2 years from 7 years and will hopefully have that paid off by spring 2015.

Every thing is a learning curve and while we were off track for awhile, I feel much better being on track again.

TTC Post #6 - Booked for an HSG

Just a short post to say I received a call today that I am booked for my HSG on June 17th.  It happens to be the same day and my hubby's semen analysis appointment.  This is stressing me out a bit because he can't drive and I am supposed to drive him to his appointment.

I am quite nervous for the appointment but I have blind faith that it is going to be ok!