Eric and I ventured to Vancouver (more specifically Surrey/White Rock) yesterday afternoon to go car shopping!

We have been a one-car “family” for the last four months because Eric parked his truck for the winter. But the time has come and Eric needs a good, reliable vehicle to get him through the next 3 years of university.

Exhibit A, his gas-guzzling, completely non-practical truck was not that vehicle:

Eric has had his eyes on a mini cooper for awhile now so when one for a relatively good price with low kilometres came up in the lower mainland we decided to drive down and check it out.

We got there one hour before the dealership closed last night so we had to spend the night. It was fun! We went for sushi – sushi is SO yummy and cheap in Vancouver ($3 for a roll vs. $6 in Kamloops).

Eric got a “crazy boy california roll” – it was a DEEP FRIED california roll. So good!

Sushi is the #1 reason I will probably never be a full-on vegetarian. Every once in awhile I get a hankering for a good salmon roll!

I just happened to be in Leah’s neck of the woods last night so she came and picked me up at my hotel and toured me around – both the good parts AND bad parts of Surrey

We walked along the ocean (SO PRETTY!) but I couldn’t get a good pic:

‘Twas a super fun night! And I got to meet Lexie (Leah’s dog who gets more face-time on her blog than Leah )!!

Here we are taking our self-portrait – me with my camera, hers with hers. We laughed. A lot.

This morning I got in a speedy 3.0 mile run on the hotel treadmill and then we headed to the car dealership where a whole bunch of paper-signing ensued!

After a few hours “we” (Eric) were the proud owners of a (new to us) 2006 Mini Cooper S!

We made one more stop before we got on the highway home…

No purchases…THIS TIME…but we’ll likely be back in a month or so (along with my Dad and his truck when he comes to visit!) This time we just wandered around and got some home decorating ideas for the new house!

We are now officially DONE with grown-up purchases for awhile. We’ve gone from ZERO debt to quite a bit of debt real fast over the last couple months (all good debt: mortgage payments and car payments – no credit card debt over here!) but I am still done with big purchases for a bit.

I’m super excited and happy about the way our life is growing and taking form but I have to admit that sometimes I think it would be nice to go back to where we were a year ago – barely any responsibility and able to take off to Europe for 3 weeks!

The grass is always greener on the other side, isn’t it?!

How’s your weekend so far? Are you in the “grown-up with financial responsibilities” camp or the “carefree with little-to-no responsibilities” camp or somewhere in between? Which one do you WANT to be in?

So something exciting has been happening that I haven’t shared yet because I wanted to make sure it worked out first. For the last two weeks I’ve been working at the local hot yoga studio in exchange for unlimited yoga!

I work four hours per week and I get to do as much yoga as I want. So far I’ve been going to yoga about 3-4 times per week.

I love it!

I spend a few hours one night per week working on social media/newsletter/computer stuff for them while also manning the front desk. And then to get the rest of my hours in I come in 30 minutes early here and there to fold towels and I will stay after to help clean bathrooms and mop the floor if I attend the last class of the day. It’s incredibly flexible and laidback, which is perfect for me.

And, since I can devote even more time to my yoga practice each week, I am falling even more in love with it. The owner of the studio recently returned from Moksha training and there are now a lot more Moksha classes on the schedule, which I much prefer to Traditional Hot Yoga (a.k.a. Bikram). The studio offers Moksha, Traditional Hot Yoga and, occasionally, Power Flow/Ashtanga classes. I love the variety!

You know what else I love?

Savasana!

Savasana or “corpse pose” is the pose that you end your yoga practice with. It is basically just lying on your back in a comfortable position with your arms and legs spread wide. Images here.

I used to HATE savasana. I could not focus and I wanted out of the room asap. Lately, with my increased yoga practice, I’ve found myself lying in savasana for 10-15 minutes at a time. Just relaxing and focusing on my breathing. It is the most amazing feeling.

I’m so excited that I was given this opportunity to do more yoga without spending more money. Yoga, especially hot yoga, is expensive and I never would have been able to afford to do it as often as I am now if it wasn’t for this amazing opportunity at a fabulous studio!

Do you practice yoga? If so, what kind? Do you enjoy lying in Savasana at the end of the class or hate it?

Some of you may have seen me post this to Twitter last night.

Eric and I had a big fat BUDGET FAIL last week.

You see, Eric and I are good about not shopping too much – not spending too much money on THINGS. But food, oh lovely food, when it comes to food we tend to spend a lot of money. Way too much, in fact.

So this summer, knowing we were going to be getting by one one (small!) income we knew that we had to curb back on our eating out and grocery shopping. So we did, big time. For the last three-ish months we’ve probably averaged eating out twice a month maximum. We’ve been good about using all our groceries before buying more and getting the most bang for our buck.

Then last week happened.

It started innocently enough with Eric’s birthday on the 14th (last Sunday). We went out for a nice crab dinner + drinks.

Then, Monday night I came home from work too emotionally drained to even think about cooking so we ordered Chinese.

Friday rolled around and we got popcorn + pop when we went to go see the new Harry Potter movie (friggin’ excellent movie, by the way!)

Saturday morning we decided to treat ourselves to a nice brunch.

Then last night I’m digging out all the stuff to make us pizza when I remember the greek wine that we have in the fridge. And the next thing we know, we’re ordering greek food to be delivered. Twice in one day, yesterday!

And before we know it, in one week, we’ve spent $275 on takeout.

$275 is a lot of money to us. A lot.

This might not seem like a big deal to a lot of you, but I have a history of having a spending problem with food. I know that I need to stay strict with myself to reign in the spending and if it starts to get out of control, well, it spirals out of control. Eric and I have had serious money issues in the past because we go out to eat too often. Seriously!

I know from experience that the more we do it, the more we want to do it. Just look at last week! It started innocently enough and before you know it within a 24 hour span we had ordered takeout three times.

I’m putting us on a strict no-takeout lockdown for the next two weeks so I can bite this habit in the butt before it makes a serious dent in our finances again.

Some people buy drugs, some women buy shoes, I order food.

Oy.

How often do you order takeout or go out to eat? Do you have a problem like me when it comes to spending money on food or can you keep it under control?