Catching Up

What happens when your husband is home in the evenings rather than at school for a month? A major decline in blogging activity…that’s what! I was seriously spoiled having Joe home over the holidays, but alas, all good things must come to an end. His classes started back up and Tuesdays and Thursdays his classes run until 9:50pm. Mondays and Wednesdays aren’t looking much better as he will hit the gym after his class gets out. So it’s just me and the doggies and no satellite television. That’s right…nothing but antennae baby. More on this later in the blog.

I promised I’d blog about the experimental “Feast of the Seven Fishes” I hosted on Christmas Eve. Minus a couple of timing snafus and the late start due to the weather, it was a success. In the future I will make more prepare-ahead-dishes so that I am not in a frenzy putting dishes together knowing everyone is waiting on me. Talk about pressure! In fact, I’d planned to take pictures of our spread, but I was too harried to even dole out that responsibility to someone else.

We had corn and crab fritters with a garlic aioli, colossal shrimp salad, Sicilian baked cod, and fideos (toasted capellini pasta) & littleneck clams in a saffron sauce. And for dessert, a fig tart with pine nut crust. And the cheeses...pecorino, gorgonzola and, cranberry and cinnamon infused chevre served with a caramelized onion and fig dip from Flavors From Afar. I am salivating at the very thought of these yummy things.

It was a nice variation from the traditional Southern cooking fare we are so accustomed too. I am glad that the family was willing to try another tradition from the Italian culture.

Since the weather was bad, my parents stayed the night and we spent Christmas morning together too. Joe made his famous whole-wheat banana walnut pancakes for us, and he and I exchanged gifts.

Fast-forward to 2010.

Joe and I decided we need to make some financial adjustments so we don’t have to live paycheck to paycheck. Don’t get me wrong, we aren’t on the verge of bankruptcy or having any of our belongings repossessed or anything even close, but we are paying out a crap load of interest each month that we could, and should be saving.

As part of our “austerity program,” we gave up Dish Network (though we will watch our shows on the internet that Joe rigs up to the TV). That’s when I knew Joe was serious about committing to eliminating our debts. hehe

Joe and I keep separate bank accounts and pay separate bills, so there had been a lack of clarity and communication as to what exactly we needed to do in order to take care of our obligations in an efficient manner…and I am all for efficiency.

We sat down together and took inventory of all our expenses and were SHOCKED at how much we were dishing out in non-essential bills. It’s no wonder payday can’t come fast enough each month! We came up with an aggressive plan to pay off all debt aside from our home, which we plan to refinance into a 15-year mortgage in 18 mos after we are unyoked from the other debts. Woowhoo!

Having been raised in a home where frugal living was a virtue, I know that having debt is a "bad" thing. Believe me, it was instilled in every fiber of my being. My parents would scoff at remarks such as “debt is the American way of life.” Fiscally conservative Democrats. They do exist, people. Trust me. I guess you could say they are old-school in that they live by the rule “if you can’t pay cash, you don’t need it.”

So that's my new motto. I'm going old school.