This January I decided to do a little experiment.

I had recently reorganized our three freezers (yes, three – one in our kitchen side-by-side fridge/freezer, one small top freezer in our garage fridge/freezer, and a chest freezer in the garage). I put all the frozen veggies, fruit, and sauces in our kitchen freezer, the meats in the small garage freezer, and all the other stuff (frozen potatoes, breads, and desserts) into the chest freezer. And guess what? Every. Freezer. Was. Full.

I decided to impose a challenge upon myself. For the entire month of January, I would cook meals using only what we had on hand. No grocery shopping. I would not only save us some money, but would clean out our overstuffed freezers in the process. But could it be done?

Turns out, it can be done. I got the freezers much emptier and saved a bunch of hard-earned cash. And I discovered one more perk of this experiment: it forced me to get creative in my meal planning. Nothing like using what ya got and boosting your creativity quotient in the process!

Yesterday, it being February 1st, I was delighted to go grocery shopping again! I spent a good hour in the grocery store, and found that during my leave of absence (haha) they’d moved a few things around. I used to know that store like the back of my hand! I guess a lot can change in a month!

Long story short (or short story long?) I ended up with a full cart of grocery goodness. Observe the deliciousness:

The January Challenge was a success! Now time to cook up something yummy.

A wise man once said,

“There’s a difference in living and living well. You can’t have it all, all by yourself.
Something’s always missing ’til you share it with someone else.
There’s a difference in living and living well.”

It’s a sappy sentiment I come back to time and time again. Now don’t worry, this won’t be a super-sappy blog full of lovey dovey, but it does give a nod to what inspired this blog: exploring ways to enrich my life and the life of my little family, learning through trial and error, starting (and eventually finishing!) DIY projects from simple (salvaging a collection of thrift-store picture frames) to ambitious (building a laundry hamper cabinet) to downright insane (we’ll see if that happens down the line). It’s a sentiment I call on when I’m elbow-deep in lacquer or sawdust or mud, and ask myself if I’ve finally gone too far with a project. And then I realize, no. I sure haven’t. Because this is all part of learning to live better.

My husband, dog, and I live in a 1960s ranch-style house that we purchased in December 2009 with our minds made up that some renovation was definitely in order. Little by little, we’re carving out the 1960s flair (green-gray vinyl living room tile, anyone?) and replacing it with our own style and design choices, all while keeping a pretty modest budget. We’re learning from others, both in blog-land and the real world, how to save money on projects by giving it the ol’ college try, with a splash of professional assistance for those bigger projects. And so far we’ve been, for the most part, pretty successful.

This blog is my way of sharing my projects and ideas for “learning to live better,” for lack of a better description, and hopefully helping/inspiring you (my eventual readers) to do the same. And to in turn share your discoveries with someone else.

The goal for my little piece of blog-land is not dissimilar to the goal for our home: evolution over time from modest beginnings into something amazing and truly our own! Fingers crossed for a well-rounded blog chock-full of DIY projects and home/garden/life improvement tips!

So without further ado, on with the show!