Extreme Couponing

Currently I don't have a TV where I live, and even if I did, I wouldn't have much time to watch anything. But when I did have access to satellite TV, I loved watching shows like American Idol, Glee, Amazing Race, the Ellen Show, and even Extreme Couponing on TLC. Yes, I know, that is very nerdy of me, but I am a personal finance nerd. That's what I am studying at the University of Utah.

Recently I have decided to save a little money by collecting coupons. So I made a coupon box organizer. My organizing technique is not as complicated or intense like the people on TLC's Extreme Couponing, but it works for me. Basically, I clip coupons and file them by the month they expire.

I have only saved a few dollars so far, but I will continue to clip coupons and keep track of how much I have saved. I am hoping my extreme couponing will allow me to retire at age 28 and own a home like this:

I have an Addiction!

First it started with a gateway drug: Facebook. Then my family convinced me to start a blog. After a couple years of blogging, that wasn't enough. I needed more. So a friend from BYU-Idaho got me hooked on twitter. I left BYU-Idaho and transferred to the University of Utah where I met my friend, and co-worker, Kelsy. She gave me a taste of Pinterest. Now I can't stop. Social media has taken over my life!!

I actually do love Pinterest. I wake up at 5 AM, shower, eat, and get on the Trax which takes me to campus. I open the library around 6:45 AM, well before most students are even awake. I work the morning shift at the library and it is usually pretty slow. So I have a lot of free time at the desk just waiting for students to arrive and ask for help. That idle time has only fueled my addiction to social media.

Recently I saw a picture like this on Pinterest and loved it. I decided I wanted to make this for the next time I was invited to a get together. My friend, Brig, invited Christopher and me to his apartment for a St. Patrick's themed party. We were all supposed to bring green treats. So here it is!

Christopher helped me make it. Honestly, the only thing that is semi-time consuming is carefully peeling the kiwi. This treat only took about 10 minutes to make.

Although I admit I have a social media addiction, I am glad it gives me some simple and creative ideas for parties. I am excited today is the first day of spring, which means summer is only a few months away! I can't wait for summer dinner parties, like picnics and BBQ's.

So, I will continue to use my drug, Pinterest, to fuel my addiction and give me some good ideas.

P.S. I am not the only one with a social media addiction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jT0JT3N47g

Dinner Parties

It seems like I have attended more dinner parties in the last six months since I moved to Salt Lake City, UT than I have in Rexburg, ID or La Grande, OR. Maybe it is a Utah thing, or maybe I now have friends who love dinner parties. I am not sure the reason, but I love it.

The dinner parties seemed to pick up right before Christmas and continued with frequency in this past month. Right before I came home for Christmas, my friend Kendra and I planned a little Christmas gathering at her place. Reed, her roommate and my friend, helped out too.

After my visit to Oregon for the holidays, I came back to Salt Lake City, UT. The week I got back, I had three dinner parties in a row. The first was at Christopher's condo with a couple friends that belong to the same social group as we do. It was the first time we met our friend, Rob.

The next day, my vegetarian friend from Portland, OR came to Salt Lake City, UT to visit family for the holidays. We had a potluck dinner with vegetarian options, played games, and socialized.

On New Year's Eve a small group of us got together for another potluck, games, and celebrating the New Year!

This past weekend, I went to a Housewarming party for my friend, Kellen, who just bought and remodeled his home. That was a blast! The next day I went to dinner with Christopher at Red Robin and later that evening we went to a birthday party for our friend, Steven. It was dinner at the Cheesecake Factory where I met Annie, and her son Isaac (although in the picture below is Ian, not Isaac).

I am pretty sure 'Phi was about to throw that sushi at me :)

Lastly, I celebrated the Lunar New Year at Reed's house on Sunday and Heather's house on Monday. I made Bul-go-gi, a Korean dish for Reed's dinner party. I got the recipe from Heather and it was delicious.

The best part of these dinner parties besides good food and a good time, was all the friends I made in the process. I met many funny, and absolutely wonderful people. Maybe one day I will own my own little home and can host regular dinner parties :)

A Year in Review

Time seems to fly by so quickly. It feels like just yesterday when I was loading all my belongings into my little Hyundai Elantra and making the trek from Rexburg, ID to La Grande, OR. I left Rexburg a year ago to do an internship for Lanny and Ava Hildebrandt as a tax intern.

I arrived home for Christmas exhausted. I was unofficially diagnosed with Adrenal Fatigue, so when I got home, I began to follow a fairly strict lifestyle change as described from a book called, "Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome." The book was written by James L. Wilson, ND, DC, PhD. I don't want this to sound like a late night ad on crap TV, but it really worked! After a month I began to feel like I had more energy. It was the first time in a year that I actually felt healthy.

As mentioned above, I worked as a tax intern for Hildebrandt & Company, PC. I enjoyed the break from taking a full load of classes and learned quite a bit while I was working. One thing I learned for sure was I didn't want to be a tax accountant. I enjoyed the consistency and routine, but it lacked human interaction. Even though I can be shy, I like to work with others.

Right before I was supposed to go back to Rexburg, I got this crazy idea from one of my friends to apply to the University of Utah. Never in my life have I made a decision on a whim. I usually over-analyze my decisions over a long period of time until I am sure what I should do. But this time I just followed my heart instead of my head and decided if I was accepted to the University of Utah, I would go.

Shortly after I applied I found out I was accepted, so I made the necessary preparations for the change. I visited the school and declared my major as Consumer and Community Studies, with an emphasis in Financial Planning.

I continued to work that summer in La Grande for the Union County Vector Control and the Peppermint job. Working in the peppermint fields gave me a lot of time to reflect on my life and the direction I wanted to go. I knew I wasn't completely satisfied or happy, so I thought a lot about what I could do to find that happiness. I realized the move to Salt Lake City would help me find that change I needed.

In August I loaded up my little Hyundai Elantra with all my belongings again and moved into a ghetto house a couple blocks from the university. I didn't actually take a tour of the home before I moved Salt Lake, since I was several hours away in Oregon. I just found it on Craigslist and saw that it was close to campus and cheap. When I walked in the place, I saw the grime on a kitchen counters and the mold on the bathroom ceiling. My room wasn't too bad. That night I discovered this place had no A/C. Some nights I would have the fan directly on me going full blast and still wouldn't be able to fall asleep until 3:30 AM because of the heat. Luckily it was only miserable for a month then the temperatures cooled down. Now it is cold because our landlord has locked the thermostat to 56 degrees. The only other things I have to deal with here is my landlord's father, who is here at random times during the day and night. He usually harasses us, but I am learning to have a back bone and dish it right back. I think he was a little surprise when I told him to shut up and get out. Since then he hasn't harassed me. And lastly, one of my roommates who spent more time in jail than in our house, was evicted. On his way out he threw rotting fruit into our bathroom window. Luckily, I will be moving out in a few months.

The first month I was in Salt Lake City, I didn't know very many people and had a lot of time to myself. But I decided to volunteer with various political organizations and made some friends. Now I feel I have a great group of friends. I feel blessed because these are the first friends I feel completely comfortable around. They like me for me, and not for who I pretended to be for years. My friends make me smile randomly during the day when I think about them. They are a riot!

School started in September. I honestly loved all my classes and did well in them. I had online and night classes and worked during the day at the library. In October I got an internship at the Personal Money Management Center at the University of Utah. I will explain more about the internship in a later blog.

October was a fun month. In the beginning of the month I took a trip to Moab, UT with some friends. There was a parade and festival there to celebrate diversity and human rights. It was fun to take part in that event and feel the energy there. A couple weeks later, Audra and I ran in the South Jordan Half Marathon. Both of us placed in our divisions, so we get to go back next October for free. At the end of October a group of friends went to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show at a theatre off 9th & 9th. It was an interactive show, so we participated in the story by dancing, singing, throwing rice, toast, cards, and getting soaking wet.

By the end of the semester, I was working 35 hours a week at the library and for my internship. I was finishing up my classes and continued to volunteer for a couple political organizations. I was exhausted and ready for the break to visit family and friends. I attended and even hosted some small parties to celebrate with friends during the holidays.

2010 was a difficult year for me, which prompted a lot of soul searching in 2011. I have made so many changes for the better and found a sense of peace I hadn't felt in previous years. I am grateful for life's experiences---good and bad---which have shaped my character and taught me much about myself and my relationships with others. 2011 was such a great year and I can only imagine 2012 will be even greater :)

Christmas Pig

Hello Family!

I haven't updated my blog lately, so a lot has changed. I promise I will update you about my classes, job, and internship eventually. But before I do that I would like to ask a favor of you. Could you comment on this post or on my Facebook wall and tell me what you do to save money during the holidays?

I am writing a newsletter for my internship (which I will blog about soon) and my topic for the December newsletter is about saving money/staying frugal during the holidays. It would be great if you decide to share your ideas, you use "I" statements, so I could quote you in the article. For example, "I hand make all my Christmas cards instead of buying them from the store, so I can save money."

If you would like, I would even forward the newsletter when I am done, which will probably be the first week of December. Thanks!

Do you need help, Uncle Jonah?

Yes, Afton, yes I do.

Since I am the youngest in my family, I never had to take care of younger siblings. I don't know how to take care of children under 19-years old. Children are a foreign concept to me, so the few times I have been asked to babysit, I have no clue what I am doing.

That was the case Tuesday night when both Tony and Heather had church responsibilities and asked me to watch Afton and Ainsley. When I arrived at their house, Heather gave me a brief run down of what to do.

First, we used cookies cutters to cut jello into cool shapes to eat. By the time I got the jello pieces to the plates, they looked nothing like the design of the cookie cutter.

Second, was bath time for the girls. Afterward we sat in the hallway, Ainsley on my lap looking at a book while I was blow drying Afton dry (she didn't want to use the towel I gave her).

Third, was pajama time. I got Ainsley's diaper on, but it kind of looked funny to me. I realized it was on backwards. Then I had trouble getting her PJs on. We somehow figured it out (good thing she is flexible).

Fourth, was bedtime. Ainsley did not want to sleep. After 10 minutes of crying and my guilt increasing exponentially by the minute, I went and checked on her. Once I opened the door, I was almost knocked off my feet! It was the worst smell an inexperienced uncle could smell.....a DIRTY diaper!

I recently made a bucket list of things I would like to accomplish and/or experience before I die. Changing dirty diapers, for some reason, did not make it on that list. I thought to myself, "I should have brought nose plugs and rubber gloves!"

Very clumsily I took off the old diaper trying not to gag, and with several wipes, began to clean. When Ainsley was clean, I then reached for another diaper when Afton said, "No Uncle Jonah, those are the daytime diapers!" She gave me a look like, "Duh, Uncle Jonah."

What!? Daytime diapers!? I had no clue there was such a thing as a daytime and nighttime diaper. I thought diapers where just diapers. I don't have daytime and nighttime underwear. It's all the same!

Puzzled, I began to look at the piles of diapers wondering how I was supposed to know which ones were daytime and which ones were nighttime diapers. That's when Afton said, "Do you need help, Uncle Jonah?"

Yes, Afton, yes I do. I need a lot of help, especially with foreign concepts like children.

I definitely didn't follow the schedule perfectly, but I still count it as a success, because no one died---not the girls or me.

The one peaceful part of the night was when Ainsley fell asleep in my arms, because she wouldn't fall asleep in her crib. For a small moment I thought I could have kids....just a SMALL moment!

My decision to move to Salt Lake City has been the best decision that I have made. Everything in my life---school, work, my internship, and social life---are going so well, and I am grateful for that. I have had a blast and I have learned so much---including how to change a dirty diaper.

You all probably thought that I died. Well, I am still alive for now. I guess I just wasn't motivated to blog since I didn't really have anything interesting going on in my life. I pretty much just went to my internship everyday, exercised at the club afterward, and then came home to watch TV and my parents play a couple rounds of yahtzee.

My internship went well. I enjoyed working with the Hildebrandts and learned quite a bit from the experience. I mostly learned that I could never do taxes for a living. I sometimes wanted to shoot myself after plugging numbers into the computer hour after hour. But I am grateful for the experience.

Right before I had to go back to BYU-Idaho I made a quick decision to instead apply to transfer to the University of Utah. The process only took a month and I got in! I am soo excited not to ever have to go back to Rexburg (the frozen hell). I know Salt Lake City will have its quirks, but I am pretty excited for the change and to live in a "big" city.

My dad has disowned me because I left the Lord's University and went to the heathen rival school. Oh well. I think I will get him one of these for Christmas:

That's my life in a nut shell....