Yes...we are still here!

But the original Blue Patched Couch is long gone!

That's one of the many many changes we have encountered since I last wrote. I am sad that its been nearly four months! Where does the time go? Oh I know, life gets in the way and before you know it seasons change, babies grow and life evolves.

These observations aside, I do hope that I can get back in the swing of writing and saving, both of which have taken a big hit of late (more on that below). The updates:

1. The original BPC was laid to rest in late November, 2010. It was a wonderful couch and served a fantastic purpose. We will always be grateful to our friends A&E for giving us a perfectly good and extremely comfortable couch! However, after seven years and a very active toddler, it was time to move on. Specifics aside, I think all parents know what I am talking about, some stains and smells just can't be removed and I simply didn't have the energy to keep patching.

Our new couch is a blue sofa-bed. I will admit its not as comfortable to sit on as the old one, but the sofabed makes a world of difference! It has been affectionately dubbed "Auntie Kerry and Auntie Cory's" bed by The Monkey because they were the first to stay here. And this winter we have needed it!

2. The Monkey will be a big brother come fall! How we are going to manage 4 people in our 800 sf escapes me, but somehow we will. I had dreams of moving to a larger place and renting our condo out, and I still have these dreams, but right now its not in the cards. These last few months I have been so sick and tired. And The Monkey as well as my husband have also had their own sicknesses, that this place has been nuts. On top of that I am going back to school to get my teacher certification, so my free time has been negligable. Literally.

3. Our savings have taken a hit. We still have money for an emergency, but if you remember last summer we had to have emergency bathroom work done that was big money. Well we put that on credit because I didn't want to deplete our savings to pay for and we still have this (plus a little more) debt. We are making progress though and I think we should be well on way by the end of the year. I am being honest about this because while we are no longer debt free there are some expenses you just can't not pay, and this was one of them. We could have paid it off in full but we have a zero % credit card and we weren't comfortable not having anything cash-wise in the bank. I hate carrying the balance, but my sanity is better off because we did it this way.

I have been doing some freelance work to help make ends meet and we are managing to save a decent amount of this money, right now its about 20 percent after childcare is paid for, so thats good.

I sincerely hope I can back in the swing of finding deals, sending them along and letting you know how we are making ends meet. I have missed this.

Happy Savings!