The Garbage Picker

My hubby and I live with our two furry babies: dawg and cat.  We bring our furry babies up in conversation on a regular basis; upon immediately meeting me there is a good chance I will show you their pictures.  (Sorry, we are those types of people!)  No human babies yet, but one day hopefully!  We are homeowners on a tight budget and anything we do for fun either requires copious amounts of saving or has to be free!  A big thing I save up for is ice hockey; I play hockey in a beginner's league and I LOVE IT!!!  Budgeting is my thing, I am a bookkeeper so spreadsheets and budgets are what I do.  (I am a numbers person!)  Thrifty and me go hand in hand as I love to garbage pick and I love to garage sale.  My three favourite words are:  FREE, COUPONS and FOOD. 

I am a self proclaimed coupon-a-holic. I carry a binder of coupons.  I email my local paper when my coupons are missing.  I scour the internet for coupons, especially FPCs (Free Product Coupons).  Nothing gives me a high like bringing home something for free, especially free food.  I descend from a long line of garbage pickers.  “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure!”  There is even a Raven on my family’s coat of arms, fitting that a scavenger bird ended up on my family’s coat of arms as we love to garbage pick!

I love food.  I think about food all day long.  In the last year I have been trying to make a conscience effort to live a healthier lifestyle by making healthier food choices, watching my portion control and exercising 5 to 6 days week.  I try to find healthier recipes that are exciting enough to keep my taste buds interested.  I have a strong disdain for eating the same food everyday.  Variety is the spice of life!  I freeze EVERYTHING.  I love nothing better then coming home from a long day of work and “nuking” a home cooked meal; a yummy, stick to your ribs meal with all of the trimmings in the matter of minutes.  I tend to do a lot of my cooking on the weekends and cook in large quantities to freeze for future meals.  The deep freeze freezer was the best investment we have made to date.  While my husband doesn’t know how to cook much, he likes to help me when he isn’t working and is great at doing a lot of the prep work.  When I am able to show him how to make a dish, he can reproduce it typically better then my own!  (His chicken cutlets are the bomb diggity!)  I am not into making my food look like art, or having hoity toity ingredients; I like down home, stick to your ribs kind of cooking.  While I try to find healthier recipes, I do indulge in a tasty treat or a rich and savoury meal every once in a while!  (Life is short, my taste buds want to live too!)

I am not complete without a book in my hand and another one waiting on my night stand.  I am a book-a-holic.  This I inherited from my Mom, I also inherited her love of taking pictures.  I am not a professional by any means but I enjoy it!

I have created a formal bucket list, which is always being added to.  Spring 2012, I started to try and cross the items off and have had great fun in doing so! 

I have refused to grow up in certain aspects of my life.  If it’s for kids, chances are it’s my favourite thing to do.  Building snowmen, sledding, going to a petting zoo, picnicking, kite flying: these are some of my favourite past times!  Hubby gets dragged to a lot of things rolling his eyes, but he humours me, cause he loves me J. 

This is the story of our crazy antics.