Eating like an Adult

I feel that one of the most important things that make a place a "home" is having a home cooked meal every night. This is something I always had growing up and now that I'm on my own, miss immensely. I've tried to instill this in my daily routine but some way or another, we usually end up going out to eat 2 or 3 times a week. Why botch up pad kee mao when my favorite Thai restaurant is just a 10 minutes drive? Did I mention it's BYOB?

With the help of my trusty planner (yes, I know I don't necessarily need one) I've started planning meals by the week. Even with this, I usually end up making something I'd make in college, grilled cheese, soup (at least it's homemade!), pasta. If I'm feeling fancy, maybe some grilled salmon and veggies. I've realized the root cause of my elementary meals is the fact I don't have a fully stocked kitchen. No fresh vegetables, onions, potatoes, etc. All the things I need to make a delicious grown up meal, I don't have. I pondered why...and came to the conclusion that things go bad so why buy them? I hate throwing away food because it's gone bad. Why does it go bad? Because I'm too busy eating out to actually make something with it.

Another thing that I do on the regular is pack my lunch from home. Same things almost every day, a cold cut sandwich. And every day, I feel like I'm in middle school with my packed lunch. I've realized I like hot food, a sandwich isn't going to cut it. Most people bring leftovers from last night's dinner. Unfortunately, I don't have leftovers b/c I don't cook! I don't want to buy lunch every day because most of the time, they don't have something I want. Although the quesadillas today looked AMAZING.  Maybe this is a new resolution, cook more legitimate meals so I will have leftovers for lunch the following day. We'll see what happens.

Obtaining a Mortgage

Sidenote: I'm not being an overachiever by posting twice in one day. I had my blog set up through my old email and decided to transfer it to my new email address.

Back to the topic, Kunal and I are in the process of buying a place of our own. Paying rent in NJ is insanely expensive. Paying a mortgage in NJ is that plus half a leg. Nonetheless, we are both super excited to own our first home. We're getting a townhouse because it's a good baby step in homeownership. Ideally, we want to buy a home and settle in NC but figured since we're here for a good bit, might as well have something for keeps versus throwing money away for a tiny apartment. Here's a picture, just ignore the car

 
As with any home purchase, we're obtaining a loan for an insane amount of money that we cannot fathom how we're going to pay back. The process of closing on a house is quite long and extremely expensive. We haven't even finalized a closing date and already we've spent over half of our savings. Never before did I think I would be so interested in mortgages, escrow, and lenders but I feel as if I am fairly knowledgeable about it now. We're playing the waiting game now  to finalize our closing date.

One of the things we are trying to avoid is the negative outcome of our lease. We can't just pay a set amount and break out lease. We'd have to pay until June when our lease actually ends. Hopefully we will be able to find a sublease so we don't lose $7k for a place we aren't even living in. *Fingers crossed!*

New Year's Resolutions

I've always loved blogs (probably because I used to have a xanga) and as one of my New Year's resolutions, I've decided to try to keep up with a blog. I've always been a bit aprehensive for a number of reasons. Am I funny enough? Will it be interesting? Is anyone actually going to read it? But oh well, here goes nothing! 

Anyways, back to resolutions. I always find them funny because typically people keep up with it for the first month and slowly it fades from memory. The most popular one must be "I will go to the gym at least X amount of days a week." I admit, I've tried that myself a few times, but now I know better. 

My second resolution is to cut back on the drinks. I feel as if I'm finally past the days of "Oh let's get drunk and go dancing" and I need to accept and incorporate it into my life. I've decided that only once a week I will drink. Whats the point in drinking so much you get sick or don't remember the night. I've had plenty of those and definitely not my cup of tea. Especially with my "old age" where I just can't party like I used to. 

Let's see how well I hold up on these resolutions.The month is half over and so far, I've done pretty good on my minimize drinking resolution. Now let's work on the blogging one.