I’d like you to meet Eddie Giese, P.E. He’s a graduate of the University of Maryland’s school of engineering, a licensed professional engineer, and a project manager. He spent several weeks over the summer of 2013 designing and constructing a water tank for a remote village in Burkina Faso, which is located in west Africa. He knows a thing or two about water systems and how they work. 

surveying the land in Burkina Faso to construct a water tank

He’s also my husband, so today I’m interviewing him here on the blog. I’m seeking answers to one of life’s more pressing questions:

Should people pee in the shower? Read on to find out. [Read more…]

I love following along with Rebecca’s Finances on Friday series and she has gone and turned it into a link party, so now I have to go ahead and link up too.

Ways we saved money this week:

-We lost our electricity for the day on Wednesday. Not super fun, but it was a whole day when we weren’t using electricity.

-Eddie worked from home 2 days this week, mostly because the roads were in terrible shape.

-We received the checks from my old 403 (b) plan and Eddie’s old 401 (k) from when we were both working in Florida-jobs we left years ago. We are working with a financial advisor to roll them over to a plan that makes more sense than just ignoring our money.

-Eddie realized that there was a problem with our electric bill. They were applying our payments to the old account, the one we had before we moved. It has been resolved and now we have an $82 credit towards next month.

-I was waiting until the next paycheck, which was last Friday, then this week I ordered a few more seeds for the spring garden. I’m planning to start most of our new garden from seed (I can start them inside in a few weeks) and I am only buying heirloom seeds so that I can save the seeds that this year’s plants produce and plant those next year, without investing more money.

-We went to the Pottery Barn outlet to look for a big girl bed for Penny, but didn’t find one that we liked. We decided to convert her crib to a toddler bed and make it last a little bit longer.

-It’s been so stinking cold and snowy that I have hardly been out of the house at all. It’s amazing how much money we are saving by just hanging out at home because I’m not ducking into Target for little things or having to get gas in the van as often.

-Instead of ordering a new book for my Kindle and paying for it, we unpacked some boxes of books in our office and I started reading The Chronicles of Narnia. I tried reading out loud to the kids at first, but they completely lost interest in less than 5 minutes. Maybe when they are a little older we can try again.

-Eddie wanted to buy a snow-blower. He looked in 4 different stores, but they were all sold out. So a shovel it remains. 

-I ate left-overs for lunches, used all the meat we had in the refrigerator for dinners,  and made another loaf of honey wheat bread. 

-I had to call a tow truck because I got our van stuck in a snow drift. It was free because we have a AAA membership.

-Nicholas walked to and from school, even though the weather was terrible, and I usually drive him when the weather is bad. (This was mostly due to the fact that the van was stuck in a snow drift.)

-I had over $75 worth of fruit and nut trees and hydrangea bushes in my online shopping cart from The Arbor Day Foundation, but I deleted them. (for now)

-I have a tv appearance scheduled for next week to promote The Cookie Jar Parable, but I did not buy a new outfit. (Even though I really wanted to)

-I booked a few sponsored posts for the blog, which will be spread out over the next month or so.

-I continued to work out using free YouTube videos.

Ways we splurged

-We have gotten SO BAD about ordering food. You would think we lived in New York City instead of rural Pennsylvania. I am trying to stick to my diet and order things like salads or chicken with brown rice, but we seriously ate out like 5 times this week. And Eddie buys his lunch every single day that he goes into the office. I need to start meal planning again. This is getting ridiculous.

-I keep letting Abby go to the extended preschool days on Friday, which adds about $50/month to her tuition, but she really likes it and it helps me get a lot of work done to only have one kid at home (the one who naps!) for that one day every week.

-We spent $50 on pizza and wings for just our little family of five for the Super Bowl. That was dumb. And NOT part of my diet. But delicious.

-I ordered a Valentine’s day gift for Eddie from Amazon. He’s already guessed that it is a set of books because the box was so heavy when it got delivered, but he doesn’t know which books.

-Penny lost a shoe while we were walking Nicholas to school this morning, but I didn’t notice until we were already back at home. I went back out and looked for it, but to no avail. If it doesn’t turn up, I’m going to have to buy her a new pair of tennis shoes. It’s a good thing she is so stinking cute.