young and in love

Just some more random thoughts...

I'm currently babysitting C which, not surprisingly, is not what I want to be doing with my day off! Oh well, more money I guess, which is good because I'm trying to start spending a lot less and saving more. I'm afraid my schedule in nursing school won't work out with my work schedule and I'll have to find another job, which will probably definitely pay less, since I make very good money right now as a nanny.  I'm blessed to have a whole summer to save at least!

Speaking of saving money, I tried out this place today

I had been there before about a year and a half ago when they first started popping up and I didn't like it all. This was back when I ate out for basically every meal and the only things I did eat at home were frozen pizza products (hot pockets, totinos party pizzas, and pizza rolls mostly). They don't sell brand name products for the most part, everything is Aldi brand, so of course I didn't like it back then when I only liked three brand name food options! These days we try to cook real food at home more, and I bring healthier food to work with me for lunch, so I decided to give it another try.
I am pretty impressed with my results! I bought almost everything we need for four dinners at home this week (spaghetti, tacos, hamburgers & chips, and breakfast for dinner), lunch options for myself, and lot of low calorie snacks for me to bring to work for $52! Usually we spend about $100 at Tom Thumb for all the same things. The only things I didn't get from there were bacon (which they had but M's picky), chips (picky M again), salsa (they may have had it but I forgot/didn't see any), and white bread (because I'm picky haha). That said, we won't need to spend more than $10 to pick up the rest of that stuff from Tom Thumb, so still a huge savings!
I also really love one (Aldi) brand that they have called Fit & Healthy. There were tons of different products under this brand (lunch meat, cereal bars, fruit strips, ground beef, snack crackers, deserts, etc), and they all have the calories per serving clearly visable (even the ground beef!), which is perfect since I count all my calories. I picked up so many different snack foods, I was shocked that I left spending only $52!
I imagine we will be doing most of our grocery shopping here from now on, and spending only half as much on groceries will be sure to help me with my plan to save money this summer!

On Monday I started reading this book

and I was so sad on Thursday to be finished because I LOVED it! I made M go see the movie with me Thursday night too :) I liked the movie also, but of course I liked the book infinitely more. I think that someone who hasn't read the book would still enjoy the movie, but the plot is understandably shallower. Unlike other movies made after books though, at least they didn't completely alter the plot causing me to wish I'd never bothered to see the movie (ahem, My Sister's Keeper). If you haven't read it you should!

Still working on planning our trip to Orlando! My aunt called me yesterday to remind me my cousin sells time shares for a Wyndham resort and if we wanted to stay there he could get us a huge discount. We are now staying at a $320/night resort for less than that total (for all three nights we are there)!

When I decided I definitely wanted to go to Florida, I knew it would be hard to afford everything but definitely would be worth it to get to see all my family. I am so happy and thankful God is answering my prayers and not only making it possible, but so much cheaper and easier for me to be there :)

I also bought a dress to wear to the wedding today, but they don't have a picture of it on the website, so I'll have to post about it later (I also got an amazing deal on it)!

The weekend is going by too quickly, I wish tomorrow wasn't already Sunday!