I need a realistic furniture budget

My bedroom set is done, toast, finito -or however you spell it, and you get my drift. I need a new bedroom set. I got it when I moved into my current place. I thought I was moving out of town so I didn't want to spend a lot of money because I didn't plan on taking the furniture with me.

Then a lot of things happened and I decided to stay put. But I still have this cheap awful furniture. The mattress is worn and it needs to be replaced. I am not buying another piece of furniture as long as I'm in my current place. However I need a realistic budget as to how much new furniture will set me back.

I'm thinking of going piece mill and buying one thing at a time and doing a build-a-bedroom if you will. That way I can totally control the costs and I don't have to buy anything unless I have the cash. Before I make any final decisions however, I need to know what it's really going to cost me. I saw a bed for less than $600 but I still need mattress. No box spring because of the design of the frame. I also saw an entire set that would set me back over $2k which I absolutely do not have.

Maybe I'll go out in the next couple of weeks to see what I'm up against.

This summer is really flying by

I'm happy and sad at the same time. Sad because this is my favorite time of the year and I don't have a lot of money to spend. So I'm pretty much stuck in the house for a while. I'm happy because it's so hot in my apartment. I did buy a air conditioner but it doesn't fit in my window. I don't have the receipt or remember where I got it from so I'm pretty much stuck with it.

I hope I get my hands on some money and soon. That way I can at least take a short getaway and buy a decent air conditioner. Then I would be very happy.

Strange neighbors

I have new neighbors and they are really weird. They don't live in my apartment building though. In fact they don't even live on my street. They live on the street behind me. But their backyard faces my livingroom so I always hear all of their parties and everything. I don't mind when they play music until it's 1am then you get tired of hearing it.

At least they stay to themselves though.

Living in an apartment can be scary

I'm not ready to buy a house yet so I live in a apartment. For me apartment living is just so much easier. I really don't want to be bothered with all of the maintenance and sprucing up of a property that I would have to do with a home of my own. I may eventually buy a condo or a town home where I pay a maintenance fee but a traditional home is so not for me.

There are other considerations to owning a home as well. Besides maintenance you have to worry about whether your home is fireproof or not. Not having your home fireproofed can be a disaster. It's not just enough to have fire extinguishers and smoke detectors even though they are both important.

So why is it scary living in a apartment? Because you don't always know whether or not the builder has used fireproofing products when they constructed the building. Using the correct types of products can limit the amount of damage that may occur during a fire. Because let's face it, you can control what you do. But your neighbors are a whole different ball of wax.

One of my neighbors likes to walk down the hallway smoking cigarettes. One of my greatest fears is that an ember for the cigarette falls on the floor and starts a fire. Or even worse, that she drops it on the floor and it sparks. Either way, I hope she's careful with her cigarettes and I hope our building is properly constructed.

That's truly one of the downsides for me.

Decorating my boyfriends apartment

Decorating an apartment is hard work. John just moved into a new apartment and we have been running all over town looking for things for his apartment. We've gotten 2 different sets of blinds because the first set didn't fit right so we had to get new ones. Then we went looking for bathroom stuff. We ended up getting fabric shower curtains with plastic liners for the bathrooms. He has 2 bathrooms in his apartment. I like this curtain with the moon, stars and a dark blue background. I like it so much because blue is my favorite color.

I'm kinda jealous, he only pays $50 more than me but has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Plus he has huge walk in closets in the bedrooms. So we have a lot of rooms to shop for. I know I'm up for it.

I needed that rest

I was home visiting family for the past 5 days. It was soooo relaxing. I didn't do anything special, just chill and hang with my mom. We did go to Atlantic City (we lost) for a day but that's about it. The weather was fairly nice during the weekend. The temperatures hovered in the low 60's except 1 day when it was in the mid 50's.

I was surprised that a bunch of people didn't come over and visit. We had some visitors but not as many as I expected. I thought some of my cousins would come over at least. But I did get to see the people that I really wanted to see so everything was cool.

Getting my travel plans ready

For the holiday season that is. I don't want to wait until the last minute to make plans because I don't want all of the seats to get taken. I would usually try to wait until the last minute to get a cheaper airfare but because it's the holidays, I think it would be in my best interest to get the ticket early.

I don't want to get stuck with a crappy flight time either.

It's the holiday season and I need a drink already

Does your family drive you crazy? Mine does. It helps that I live 300 miles away from my nearest relatives but they can easily find ways to get under my skin. I told my mom that I was coming home for either Thanksgiving or Christmas but not both. The reason is that I can't get the days off. I don't have seniority at this job so I can only get 1 day off instead of 2.

She's mad because she wants to go shopping so she can cook her big meals. She cooks like she has a army platoon coming instead of 4-5 people. She already has her Eclectrics® Mixer out so she can make her meals. As long as she makes her sweet potato pie I don't care what else she makes. Her pies are soo good. She uses her Hamilton Beach® Mixer to mash up the sweet potatoes. She probably makes 3 or 4 pies. I get one, my step-dad gets one and everybody else shares whatever is left. Yeah me and my step-dad get our own pie. lolol. We're greedy like that. No seriously, I get a pie so I can bring it home.

I think my mom wants a new Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer as her Christmas gift. She uses her mixer so much that it's starting to clunk out. And I know she hates trying to mix all of that stuff by hand. Just in case you're wondering about her pie recipe, I've included it below. Be sure to have vanilla ice-cream to top it off. Talk about heavenly!

1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust
2 cups mashed sweet potatoes
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup light whipping cream

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
In a medium bowl, combine potatoes and margarine. Stir eggs, sugar, milk, nutmeg, vanilla, lemon juice and cream into potato mixture. Beat until smooth; pour into pie shell.
Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve warm or cold.

The whole apartment building is getting updated

And boy do we need it. I wrote the other day about my apartment getting new carpeting, and blinds. Well, my apartment is not the only one. Several of my neighbors are getting that stuff too.

What I'm most excited about is the fact that we're getting new LG Washing Machines. That's awesome. We only have 2 washers and two dryers for 20 apartments. So the new washers will come in handy.

I think I'm rubbing off on my management company. They said they went online to find information about the products. I love it. I talk about researching stuff online so much that they did the same thing. And they were able to get the company they bought the stuff from to match the online price which was much cheaper. It doesn't get much better than that.

I had to open my windows

My apartment is so stuffy. It's so hot and muggy in here. Plus the air is stagnant as there is no circulation. I have two regular fans and 1 ceiling fan. But it's cold outside so I don't want air flowing around like that. Opening the windows seems to help.

I had fried rice for dinner tonight and the last thing I want is for that smell to stay in here.

My apartment is getting updated

It's about time, some of the stuff in my apartment is so old. I've lived here for almost 6 years and I think some of the stuff was here for 5 before that. I'm getting new carpet in my living room and new tile in the kitchen. They asked me if I wanted metal cabinets in the kitchen but I said no. I like the wood grain ones that I have now. Plus I already bumped my head on the old cabinets. I don't wanna take the chance of that happening on metal.

I'm just happy I'm finally getting new furniture.

Broken glass everywhere

Ugh what a nightmare. I broke the light fixture in my bathroom. It's a type of glass sconce that the light bulb sits down in. I twisted out the bulb and went to pick it up out of the sconce and it fell on the floor and broke into a million pieces. I was just glad that I didn't cut my hand on the glass.

I hate the bathroom fixtures in my apartment. I have to supplement all of the lighting because it's not bright enough. The bathroom lighting is not quite as bad as the living room or dining room area. I had to buy extra lamps for each room because it's dark in my apartment.

I just hope I got all of the glass up. The last thing I want to do is walk into the bathroom in the middle of the night and get a piece of glass stuck in my foot.