Birthday Banner

I am such a blog slacker lately. So here is some pictures of the birthday banner I made last month. It turned out sooo cute. I choose to use bright fun colors so I could use it for boys and girls. I know, I know there is a lot of pink in it but I still think it works for both. I planned on doing a tutorial with this but it has been so long since I actually made it I am not sure my directions would be perfectly accurate. Because in true Terrie fashion I was sure I would remember everything so I didn't write it down. Yeah, guess what, I don't remember. I remember the basic idea but not measurements. So maybe a tutorial isn't the best idea. Though if someone really wanted one I could be persuaded! I did after all take a million pictures during this process.

Just a quick update on the experiment. Overall we are doing well. The part I though would be most difficult most definitely is. The budget we set was pretty unrealistic, we have already spent it and it is the middle of the month (go figure since we cut our original budget in half). And we have eaten out more than once a week. Here is the successful part. I have cooked every week night this whole month. Now to some of you this is not a big deal. For me this is a very big deal. And as sad an accomplishment as it is I am proud of myself. Here is what I have learned so far:

1. You can not feed a family of 5 for $200 a month unless you are willing to eat top ramen and mac and cheese 3 to 4 times a week. I am not willing to do this. Nor am I willing to spend all day in the kitchen making everything from scratch, which I am not convinced would be much cheaper.

2. I am much more likely to cook if I have a menu already made up. I think my real problem with cooking is that I hate deciding 30 minutes before dinner what we are going to eat. But if the decision is already made then the actual cooking is not that bad.

3. We eat out on Friday and Saturday nights almost every weekend and I am fine with that. This is probably something that we will need to adjust once we are back in poor student mode but for now we are not. And so I am not going to feel guilty about this. You heard me no guilt.