The title of the article is "Act Now or Kiss Your Organics Good-Bye!" from Food Democracy Now! website.

http://www.fooddemocracynow.org/blog/2011/jan/20/act-now-or-kiss-your-organics-good-bye/

Ice Storm 2011

The Crowes have very interesting luck when it comes to winter weather. When we moved to UNI, we kept telling everyone that we were excited to see snow, complaining that we never got enough where we were living. Everyone gave us funny looks, but we shrugged them off. Then the first winter came and people politely said "oh, we haven't had winter THIS bad in years!" Then the second winter came and people said "wow, we're just having really rough winters!" And then the third winter came and as people tried to make excuses we just said "we know, we know. Unusually bad winters. Yea right."

So then we take jobs in Terre Haute and start in January (winter). We're telling everyone we know that we're excited to move south and that we are tired of terrible winters. And then people at work start talking about a storm that's coming. That was Monday afternoon. Tuesday and Wednesday I didn't see anyone at work, because I wasn't at work, because a massive ice storm came through on Monday evening and the university closed for the first time in something like 20 years. It was the worst winter weather I had ever seen. At one point 90% of Terre Haute was without power and by the end of the storm the local news stations were saying that Vigo County (where we live) was the worst county in the state affected by the storm! Luckily we only lost power for a little while in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. On Tuesday, in an effort to avoid having to chip two days worth of ice off our cars should we have to work on Wednesday, we started up the vehicles. They ran for over 30 minutes before we could begin scraping. The parking lots literally look like ice skating rinks.

Moral of the story: stop talking about how we're just going to LOVE this new area's winter weather to your family, friends, new colleagues, etc. Just keep quiet and hope for the best.

Budgeting templates

If you're looking for budget templates, I really like the FREE forms available from Dave Ramsey's website. We use the "Money Cash Flow Planning" form, but if you're new to budgeting, I suggest the "Quickie Budget" first, until you get your feet wet with the idea of budgeting. We like these forms because it forces us to put a dollar amount to everything and encourages a zero-based budget - every dollar is assigned to something.

All credit for the budgeting forms goes to Dave Ramsey, not me (hope it's okay to link and suggest other peoples stuff on my own blog...).

Also, just as another plug, I made laundry detergent on Oct. 3 and am still on the same batch. That's at least 75 loads of laundry and I bet there's another 25 loads in that bucket. DO IT! You can get more information on cost and get the recipe by reading our Oct. 3 post. I found the recipe on the Duggar's website. Someone did ask about using this recipe in high efficiency washers. Unfortunately, I don't know the answer to that question...but Google might! :-).

Also, another financial win - this week our local grocery store (which I'm totally in love with, but that's beside the point) is having a sale of frozen vegetables - 10 packages for $10. So, of course I ran over and grabbed ten bags. Each bag will probably feed us three times, so that's roughly $0.33 a serving (actually, $0.17, since "us" = 2). That also means that I just got 30 servings of dinner veggies for $10. Hello, entire month worth of dinner vegetables! I will admit that we don't eat a large serving of veggies with dinner, so my portions are pretty frugal. But, even if each bag fed us twice, that's still $0.25 a serving and 20 servings of vegetables. Not bad, huh? Especially since we prefer frozen over canned any day. Okay, enough talk about frozen vegetables for cryin' out loud...

Life in Terre Haute

21 days ago we packed a moving van (thanks to Scott C. Ronda L. and Claudia P.) and prepared to head to Indiana early the next day. We arrived in Terre Haute by the middle of the afternoon and were met by my sister and brother-in-law, who thankfully, helped us unload the moving van. The next day they left and my mom and stepdad joined us to help unpack the apartment. The following day (New Years Day) Andy, Spike and I headed home to Bedford to have Christmas with my dad and stepmom. Those were, to say the least, a busy few days.

Andy and I both started our new jobs on January 3 and are happy to report that, so far, we love them! I am really enjoying my time as an academic advisor and am enjoying the opportunity for hands-on learning (e.g. I learn as I work through stuff with students). I also really like the people that I work with and appreciate the relaxed atmosphere. Andy is enjoying his new job, too and is adjusting nicely. Spike has yet to start looking for a job, but we're hopeful he will find his motivation any day now.

Although we haven't had much time to explore Terre Haute, we like the city so far. Our apartment is in a nice location, giving us quick access to both ends of town. We're just down the road from an interstate and shopping area and I am about 15 minutes from campus (20 minutes, if I get stopped by one of the traffic lights that seem to occur every 10 ft. or so...)

By far, the best perk of moving has been our proximity to family. While it was fun and exciting to move to Iowa, we didn't understand then how important it was to be close to family. Now we have a new appreciation :-). It's so lovely to be able to take a day to see our parents, friends, siblings, etc. without having to worry about trying to plan a full-fledged vacation. What a blessing!

Once we get unpacked all the way and get some decorating done, we'll post a few shots of our new place.

With love,
Ashleigh and Andy

We're moving to Indiana!

Well, the Crowes are preparing to move yet again! But hopefully this time it will be more permanent! I've taken a job with Indiana State University as an academic advisor with the exploratory studies program. I'll be working in the Student Academic Services Center.

Andy is currently working on a transfer to the Terre Haute Sofa Mart and we're praying that works out! What a joy and testament it would be to both be able to move to Terre Haute with jobs lined up.

Our biggest burden at the moment is finding someone to lease our Cedar Rapids apartment. If you happen to know of anyone in the area, please pass their name along to me! Or have them email me at ashleighweddle@gmail.com. You can also guide them to our June 23rd post, which has pictures of the apartment!

In the meantime, we're busy! The semester ends in 12 days and we move in less than 20 days!

Buried

Haven't updated in a while. Very busy. Lots going on. Will update soon.

The Crowes have a financial revolution

So, we've been taking the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University class now for about 4 weeks and we just love it. Not only is DR hilarious, but the class is giving us hope in what was formerly a hopeLESS situation, regarding money. Last week, we did our first budget, and we didn't even yell at each other (DR says it takes around 90 days to get a budget going that works smoothly...he also warns that budgets stir up emotions, so you and your partner have to be on the same page). Since it's still the first of October, we haven't had too much time to damage the first budget, but it has given us something to consider every time we make plans. Last night, we even turned down plans because we didn't want to spend all or even half our entertainment money for the month on October 2. That, my friends, is a sure sign of our financial revolution! Now we just have to continue sticking to the plan, commit to some discipline, and, God willing, we'll be debt free sooner than we could have ever imagined! The toughest lesson by far is going to be learning to live within our means; we aren't extravagant spenders, but we haven't been disciplined spenders, either.

In the spirit of saving money, here are two things I just absolutely L-O-V-E (at the moment, anyway).

1. Aldi - if you have an Aldi in your town, shop there. This week, I saved 30% of my grocery budget. And having cash left over after leaving the store, now THAT's a good feeling! And, though I haven't actually done the math, the savings will be more than 30%...since I got outta there with MORE than a week's worth of food, yet we have a grocery budget for every week. Yippy!

2. Homemade laundry detergent. I found a recipe on The Duggar's Website and just made my second batch this morning. After realizing that the first batch I made should have yielded 10 gallons (I thought it was only supposed to yield 5 gallons...whoops), I'm excited to report that this time, I'll do approximately 100 loads of laundry for about $1.33. Yes, total. The five gallon bucket of detergent did just about 50 loads of laundry and the cost was around $2.66. And, it takes less than 15 minutes to make the detergent. Talk about another huge way to save money!