Where has time gone....

So it's been sooooo long since I posted I figured I best come back and update you guys a bit!

First off, the recipe for the Rotha's Buns that I talked about in my last post has been requested by many.  I will say, these buns are Heaven on Earth!  They are a family recipe, but Mom said I could share :o)

Rotha's Buns
Ingredients:

• 2 tsp. dry yeast (soften in 1/4 cup warm water)
• Add together: 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp. salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 4 tbsp. melted shortening (or butter)
• 2 cups warm water

 Mix yeast with above mixture and then add 7 cups flour, knead, let rise once.  Form into rolls and let rise again until double in size.  Bake at 375 degrees F for about 15 minutes (outside should be light golden brown).

And there you have it!  Easy enough, right??  We usually make at least 2 or 3 batches at a time, they don't ever seem to last long at our house.  They are easy to freeze, and taste best right out of the oven with a little butter!  Delicious!  We've also done some variations using part bread flour rather than full white flour, wheat flour, adding a little cinnamon or nutmeg.  You do what you want!

I've also been thinking of doing Recipe Wednesday's or something....We have a lot of great recipes that we've found around, and I know we all love to try new things!!  So if you have a great recipe that you really like and would like me to feature it here on Recipe Wednesdays, send it on over!

Other than that, I'm back at school now, so the whole "being thrifty" has really taken effect!  We save for what we need, don't buy what we don't need, and have an allotted amount each month for a couple date activities.  We also look for free/really cheap things to do on our date nights each week, often it is finding a new recipe in one of our recipe books, then a movie night on the couch.  We're still couponing, earning points online, and cashing in rewards with our debit cards (awesome!).

What have you been doing lately that had been uber thrifty??  We're always looking for more ways to save money!

Always,

Something big to think about...

Lately, Hubby and I have been looking at finances {as I know many people have in this tough economic time}, but for possibly a little bit of a different reason. We have been together for quite some time now, married for over a year, and we've been looking to the future. Where do we want to be? What do we want to be doing? When do we want to start a family?

And we've really began throwing around and thinking about what could be one of the biggest decisions for us, whether or not I stay at home when we start our little family (other than our adorable little kitty, of course!). It is something that has been in the back of our mind for about a year now, really something that kind of came up during the beginning of our marriage. It has just jumped a little more forward into the front of our minds. We both don't feel quite ready to have kids just yet, but it became apparent to us that we really need to start thinking and preparing if this is something we really want, and to see if it is even possible for us financially.

We already keep a budget and revamp it every month for whatever events we may have coming up in the near future, but we really needed to sit down and take a serious look at that budget. It became obvious that with the way the economy and our jobs are right now we aren't able to live on one income (Hubby's pay is all based on commission-a personal trainer-and is in a profession where people don't want to pay for those services like they used to, and my company has put forth mandatory time off-80-90% depending on how busy each group is-and since I don't have any PTO left, it is all time without pay).

So we've been doing some re-evaluating, looking to see what we can really live without for a while to save money, pay off debt, and prepare for what may come. Since we got married, we've done a few things to try and help things along, we've:

• Gotten rid of our landline and just use cell phones
• Blocked text messaging from our cell phones {we never used it enough to make it worth it anyways}
• Began collecting and bringing aluminum cans in for money
• Been sell books on Amazon
• I have become a mystery shopper
• We use cash-back services and point rewards systems to get gift cards and cash back
• I have become a coupon and sales-shopping machine
• We have just cancelled our cable

With all of this that has been put in place, we still feel like our goal is so far away. I’ve been reading blogs and articles I’ve found online that stay-at-home-moms have posted for other tips and ideas, but we feel like we’ve slightly come to a wall.

So I throw this out to you all:  

Are there any tips that you would have for a young couple preparing to live on one income one a family is started?   

Is there something in particular you wish you had known, or done, when you were getting ready for the big change?

Anything would be extremely helpful and I appreciate all of you out there in blogland that have already posted information for all of us “SAHM” hopefuls!

Thank you all in advance!!