tinge of pride

I grew up admiring my thrifty and frugal mother who made sacrifices so that she could stay at home and raise her four children. Part of these sacrifices included buying things second-hand. I can remember sitting down with my mother and scouting out all the yard sales in the local paper and circling the ones we wanted to go to. I loved going to yard sales with my mom. She'd buy us clothes and things we needed for the house and I would buy stuffed monkeys. I collected stuffed monkeys back then and let me tell you, I had a pretty impressive collection. I never saw any shame in buying someone else's old stuff.

This is still true for me. I sort of wavered in high school, working as a waitress, only to spend most of my paychecks on new clothes at the mall. But I came back to my roots. My mom and I still trade stories of fun things and great deals we've gotten from yard sales and thrift stores.  Sometimes I'll look down at myself and mentally note that everything I am wearing is from the thrift store - This whole outfit only cost me $8, I'll think to myself.

I feel a tinge of pride knowing there's just one more way I'm like my mother.

saving money on vacation

It's really easy to break the bank and lose sight of your budget while on vacation. Josh and I know this about ourselves, so when we were planning our trip to Florida, we decided to do some pre-planning and set a budget of $100 for food for the week. We also wanted to make our trip special and eat out a few times, which we rarely do at home. And our room only had a partial kitchen (half size frig, stovetop, and microwave - no oven), so we were limited in making meals.

Here's how we did it:

1) Restaurant.com

We had never taken advantage of this great website because our local options are not great. But when we searched the Daytona Beach area, there were tons of great restaurants to choose from! We chose 3 restaurants that looked good and were able to get $25 gift certificates at a greatly discounted price!

2) Gift cards

We were given a gift card to Olive Garden as a graduation present and since we already had our trip planned, we decided to save it and use it in Florida as one of our nights to eat out! This is where pre-planning come into play - if you know you're planning a trip, save your gift cards from Christmas, birthdays or other special occasions to use while you're away!

3) Eat-in when you can

We intentionally got a room with a partial kitchen so that we could save some money on food. We ate all of our breakfasts in the room and packed lunches on the beach. 

4) Meal plan & coupon

Since we knew our room would have a partial kitchen, I was able to plan out what we could easily have for breakfast and lunches and even one dinner. We did cereal, coffee, and bagels & cream cheese for breakfast | sandwiches, chips and cookies for lunches | fruit and granola bars for snacks | spinach, blue cheese and mushroom quesadillas for dinner. I was able to save coupons for these items and we used them and did a mini-shopping trip when we arrived.

5) Leftovers

Several of the restaurants that we went to served very large portions and we were able to bring part of our dinner home and eat it the next day for lunch or dinner.

6) Birthday Freebies

If you can, try to plan a trip around a family member's birthday. There are so many restaurants that give out freebies and coupons good for 2-weeks around your birthday. We celebrated my birthday while we were in Florida and were able to get coffee, ice cream and special treats for free during the week!

Here are some of my favorites:

* Auntie Anne’s: Sign up for Pretzel Perks and get a different coupon every month and a free pretzel for your birthday!

* Baskin Robbins Birthday Club: Sign up and get a coupon via email for a free 2.5 oz scoop of ice cream on your birthday.

* Ben and Jerry’s: Sign up for Chunk Mail and get a FREE Ice Cream Treat on your birthday!

* Bruegger’s: Sign up for Fresh News from Bruegger’s and you’ll snag a coupon for a free bagel with cream cheese upon sign-up and you’ll receive a little something on your birthday.

* Caribou Coffee: Sign up for their email newsletter and snag a coupon for a FREE drink on your birthday!

* Champp’s: Join the Champp’s Fan Club and get a free cheeseburger or appetizer of your choice upon sign-up and a special birthday gift.

* Coldstone Creamery: Join the Birthday Club and you’ll get a free ice cream creation on your birthday.

* Cost Plus World Market: Join the World Market Explorer Rewards Progra and get a surprise birthday gift. *This one is my favorite - they sent me a $10 coupon towards anything in the store - no minimum purchase!

* Dunkin’ Donuts: Sign up for Dunkin’ Perks and get a free medium beverage on your birthday.

* Firehouse Subs: FREE medium sub on your birthday when you show a valid I.D. that has your birthdate.

* IHOP: Sign up for the Pancake Revolution and receive a free meal on your birthday.

* Moe’s Southwest Grill: Join Moe’s e-World and get a coupon for a free entree on your birthday.

* Noodles & Company: Sign up for Noodlegrams and get a coupon for a free bowl on your birthday.

* Red Robin: Join the Red Robin e-Club and get a gift for signing up and a FREE burger on your birthday.

* Ruby Tuesday: Join the So Connected Email Club and you'll get a coupon for a free burger on your birthday.

* Starbucks: Get a FREE Handcrafted beverage of your choice on your birthday when you register a card

(Birthday freebies found via Hip2Save)

So here's the breakdown:

4 Dinners eating out + tips + restaurant.com gc = $60  

Groceries for breakfasts, lunches, snacks, 1 dinner = $30

Leftovers for other dinners = $0

Various treats = $10

Grand Total: $100 for a week of food on vacation!

I was so proud of us for being able to stick to our budget! And I hope some of these tips and tricks can help some of you the next time you go on vacation!

new territory

one thing I get really excited about when I go to new places is checking out the local thrift stores. josh knows this about me. and he's one of those people who likes to make other people really happy on/around their birthday. so one afternoon he toted me around daytona beach in search of treasures.

if I had more room in my suitcase/was able to get furniture, I probably would have picked up a lot more stuff. But here are a few of the treasures I did find in this new thrift territory.

Fun snack bowls in bright yellow: $1 for all 3 

(unfortunately the large pretzel bowl didn't survive the trip home in my suitcase - it cracked).

This funky bird wooden art for our bedroom collage: $1

(I still need to spruce up all the scratches)

Little vintage chalkboard: 30cents

A vintage perpetual calendar: $2

Beautifully patterned tin tray: $.99

Super fun, vintage wedding wrapping paper: $.20

I love it so much, I'm gonna have to force myself to use it or else I'll just hoard it.

I also picked up a few goodies for some friends, but I can't share them or else it'll ruin the surprise!

That's it for the FL finds, but I thought I'd share one of my recent yard sale finds.

I found this old beverage crate at a yard sale for $5.

Pretty good considering Pottery Barn charges $24 for their 'found' crates.

Even better - the guy threw in this old school ruler, a blue mason jar...

 ...and these pretty drinking glasses for free!

Any of you get giddy about thrifting in new places like me?

setting{s}

one of the most daunting things about having a digital SLR is learning the manual settings and then remembering how to use them to create the right picture. I've made it a point from day one of owning my camera not to use the auto setting but to actually learn to take pictures.

source

while on vacation, I used our lighthouse sun-setting experience to practice learning my aperture setting.

I've been loving my new lens because it goes down to a lower aperture (lets in more light) and it takes really beautiful pictures. But in this instance, it was too much light and I wasn't able to see the sunset very well.

f/1.8

I bumped it up just a bit to see if it would make a difference and I set the sun as my focal point.

f/3.5

I realized if I really wanted a clear sunset, I needed to bump it up a bunch which would make Josh more of a silhouette.

f/11

I think I like this happy medium the best.

f/6.5

Practice is the best instructor. 

highlights

we're back from our beach vacay. we had a beautiful time but could not be more happy to see our dog. there is just something glorious about coming home after being away. 

here are a few highlights from our trip:

We ate great food.

We climbed the Ponce de Leon lighthouse to watch the sunset.

We spent tons of time at the beach soaking in the sun and enjoying the waves.

Josh got to get his surf on.

We visited a great flea & farmer's market.

Where we ate the most wonderfully sweet grapefruit.

We spent a day at Universal Studios.

Josh dragged me out of bed at 6 a.m. to catch a sunrise.

I've always heard the light at this time of day is stunning. Now I know why.

Although, the best part of the vacation was enjoying this view. :)

wish list

tomorrow i'm celebrating birthday #26. here's some of the items i'm wishing for when
i blow out my candles:

japanese masking tape for crafting

{via happytape.com}

beverage dispenser for my summer lemonade

{via worldmarket.com}

neutral flats for outfitting

{via karmaloop.com}

a new watch band for my thrifted watch face

{via styleceo.com}

a bike basket for my new bike

{via amazon.com}

new dish towels for the kitchen

{via target.com}

a great dress for summer

{via jcrew.com}

oops...you're not supposed to tell your candle wishes, are you?

a little late

i bookmarked this adorable valentine printable back in february and actually printed it out in hopes to use it for valentine's day - sadly, it got shuffled in with some papers and I forgot about it. But it finally got its day in the sun for our anniversary. I woke up early to leave a little sentiment of my love and have a cup of coffee ready to go before Josh left for work.