It cannot possibly be December. Ah, the new year is just around the corner! Let’s get on with it, shall we?
LIFE
We celebrated our four year anniversary this month with a nice dinner out and a bunch of cheap dates “the weekend” before. Our weekend is Monday and Tuesday, as I coordinate my work with Steve’s schedule so we can spend our free time being awesome together.
Steve went out to New York and Vermont at the end of the month to see his brother and I had my first (and ideally only) solo Thanksgiving. I went to Whole Foods to get my traditional Thanksgiving meal of turkey, copious amounts of mashed potatoes and stuffing, gravy, green beans, and pumpkin pie. And wine, of course. It was delicious!
While we don’t own a couch, we are the proud owners of a new hookah from Jordan! It’s roughly the height of an average four year old and I love it. Steve’s brother also brought us some Holy Land wine and a bunch of gross stuff Steve requested. One of those things appears to be meat in a can, but I’m not asking any questions. As long as I don’t have to eat it!
I booked my plane ticket home for the holidays which is actually going to be in January. Holiday travel is SO expensive! By delaying my trip two weeks, I cut my ticket price by more than half. Boom, frugal!
MONEY
Our Chase card is under $1,000! I’m determined to kill it for good this month. See goals below.
After getting my car towed and flying back unexpectedly for my Grandpa’s funeral, my emergency fund was completely depleted. Seriously, it was sitting at around 100 bucks at the end of October. This month, we replenished it to $1,000. You know, just in case Murphy decides to mess with us.
I made $1,673.03 in freelance income this month and received an Ebates payout of $24.59. We made debt payments of $1,671.03.
25 BEFORE 25
11 completed, 6 in progress, 1 early fail, and 7 not yet started. 6 months to go!
OBSESSIONS
This month I was obsessed with: Drunk by Ed Sheeran, green eyeliner, and smoothies!
PORTLAND
I told you guys that Portland is awesome, but I figured I’d let you know new places we’ve tried in case you ever find yourself over here! This month, we went to the Living Room Theaters, which are only $5 on Mondays and Tuesdays. It’s a movie theater with generally independent movies. Oh yeah, you can order food and alcohol and they’ll bring it to you while you are watching the movie. We saw Don Jon, which was weird but not bad.
Food-wise, we tried The Matador, Laurelhurst Market, Fat City Cafe, and Pok Pok.
The Matador is a dive bar with pretty good Mexican food.
Laurelhurst Market, our anniversary date spot, has AMAZING steak and a cool, casual vibe despite its high prices.
Fat City Cafe is a good breakfast place, but you’ll feel bad about yourself after you leave. Portion control is not a thing there.
Pok Pok will make you cry sweet tears of joy. Go order the spicy fish sauce wings immediately. They sound weird but they are so incredible!
Yes, we do eat out — usually Chipotle once a week and a sit down restaurant once a week. No, we won’t stop eating out because we have debt. More on this later.
WRITING
You can check out this month’s writing in my portfolio.
NOVEMBER GOALS RECAP
Inquire about at least 10 freelancing gigs. PASS! Easy peasy.
Create a schedule. Eh, PASS…ish? So I cannot stick to a rigid schedule, but I’ve managed to get everything done while Steve’s at work. That counts, I think. And I can officially fit in cleaning, cooking, etc. at the same time. We’re gonna call it a win.
Attempt 3 recipes from Pinterest. PASS! I made three new things this month, all from The Picky Eater. I found out about the site from my boy, Johnny Moneyseed, in his article 17 Things That Will Push You From Middle Class to First Class. Go read it.
Anyways, I made Twice Baked Potatoes with Broccoli and Cheese, Vegetarian Chili, and Homemade Whole Wheat Pita Pizzas. All of these were great, but you seriously can’t beat the chili! I made it twice and Steve and I are loving it so much. I even considered chili a mastered recipe on my 25 before 25 list. It’s super easy and really freaking delicious.
DECEMBER GOALS
Kick Chase to the curb! I don’t want to look at this stupid debt anymore! December is the month that it will go away forever. I hope.
Finish 2 books. I’m currently reading Oryx and Crake
and Lemonade Stand Economics
is on deck!
That’s all, happy Monday!
How was your November? Do you have any goals for the rest of the year?
[Image from BuzzFeed]
