Sunday Summary - 03.13.22
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Signs of Spring
This week has been cold but beautiful! Spring finally feels within reach, and Nash has been taking full advantage of the sunshine. He loves exploring his backyard and sunbathing, and it makes all of the annoying stuff about owning a home kind of fade away when you see how much he adores his backyard.
I also may or may not have bought a new pair of shorts in preparation for the warmer temps. I now own these in Smoked Gray (more of a blue in person) and purple, and they don’t bunch annoyingly between your legs as you walk or run. My friend Caroline earned herself some serious Amazon recommendation creditability with these! They’re $25 and are more comfortable than a similar pair I have from lululemon.
Save your money folks!
Reading
Bryan and I are planning a trip to Disney this summer and are entirely overwhelmed by how much has changed. I read a LOT this week about the paid Genie+ and Individual Lightening Lane systems in place, and WOOF - things are getting a liiiiiittle too spendy at that magical place.
I plan to write an entire blog post about the steps we’re taking to make it as affordable as possible, so stay tuned. In the mean time, I welcome all of your tips if you’ve already visited the parks in this new world!
Pictured are the young, spry 2016 versions of Bryan and Maggie when FastPasses existed and were free.
Watching
We watched a LOT this week (which is probably why I still haven’t finished The Soulmate Equation. I’m positive I’ll have a new book to share next week, though! I’m super close to finishing it.)
Let’s start with the most important new release - Drive to Survive Season 4. The whole season is streaming on Netflix, but we’re trying not to binge it so we have a new episode to look forward to for the next 10 weeks. I give us a solid 3 days before we give up and watch the rest of it in one sitting.
Free Guy
I heard this movie was good, but I don’t think I realized how good it would be! I’m not a gamer (unless you count my stint playing Crash Bandicoot in the early 2000s), but Bryan and my brothers are, so I knew enough video game “things” to catch some hilarious subtle references.
If you don’t have any video game knowledge - never fear! You will still find this both heart warming and hilarious. You can stream it on Disney+, and if you love it, rest assured that a sequel is already in the works!
For all you Rock the Block fans, can we take a minute to applaud the genius of Egypt and Mike? For those who have no idea what I’m talking about and don’t care to know, skip to the next section!
For those who are curious, this week’s challenge was the Living Room. The creative couple turned a detached garage into an attached garage and added a half bath to their home by pushing out just one wall. So smart.
My friend Kesler is convinced there’s no way the other teams can make up the difference in value that Egypt & Mike added with that one design decision, but the winners of the first two seasons were questionable to say the least. You never really know how things are going to shake out!
No one needs a mini bowling alley in their home, and I stand by that — IYKYK!
Cooking
This week we cooked (almost) exclusively from The Comfortable Kitchen again, but we did whip one one of our favorite Half Baked Harvest recipes. It is, admittedly, not in season quite yet, but when I tell you we’re willing the warmer temps to stay in Texas, I’m not lying. We’re trying everything!
Honey Sesame Sheet Pan Cauliflower - The Comfortable Kitchen
Lentil Chili - The Comfortable Kitchen
Eggplant Lasagna - The Comfortable Kitchen
Zucchini Pasta - Half Baked Harvest
Photo from Half Baked Harvest
The Latest
I posted about how we saved $2,800 on our honeymoon on Instagram this week, and it garnered a LOT of questions about credit cards in general. The timing of those question truly could not have been better, because I was putting the finishing touches on the following article at the time.
While this read is a bit longer than others on the site, I did my best to not only explain the credit cards, their benefits, and why I have them, but also to teach you how to efficiently and effectively compare cards and how to strategically open and close cards with little impact to your credit score. I hope it’s helpful to you in your card opening pursuits!
What’s in My Wallet? (And Tips for Finding the Right Card for Yours)
It can be incredibly intimidating to determine which credit card is right for you — take a peek inside my own wallet to give you the skinny on what I have, what I actually use, and why I opened them.
I also broke my two week dry spell on YouTube and uploaded an empties video this morning! While the website is largely personal finance focused, I fully intend to keep uploading lifestyle videos and product reviews to my YouTube channel that will work in tandem with the Spend Smarter section of the website. I love trying new products and sharing with you what works and what doesn’t, and my hope is that these reviews help you save money and become a much more informed consumer!
I hope you have a great week!