Living Room Updates

We have made a couple changes in the living room recently (and some not so recently). Ever since we bought the ikea rug for the living room, I've wanted to replace it. It was cheap, and grey so we bought it. I am trying to be more mindful of my purchases so I can enjoy things for years to come, instead of replacing them. I figured it would be years until we could afford a new rug (they are so expensive!!). Even more affordable rugs were really out of our price range. We have been searching for almost a year now, but the rug had to be stylish, for me, and soft, for him. Thanks to a really good deal, we finally found the perfect rug!

Tada! Isn't it so much better? We got it 85% off  on rugsusa.com  (source) (I had an extra discount for being a new customer), making it very affordable for us. I wanted a bigger size, but I plan on layering it over a cheaper flat woven rug if we move somewhere with a larger living room. The rug really brightens things up and adds more texture. It is also the softest rug I have ever stepped on. Husband approved! There was a slight chemical smell because it is made of synthetic material, but it only took a day to dissipate. The picture on the website makes the diamonds look more grey, when ultimately it is more of a brownish colour. While I would prefer grey, I did read a review beforehand and decided to take the chance and I actually really like it. Overall, I love this rug. I will definitely be looking for good deals on there in the future.

As you can see, we also updated the pillow covers and throw blanket. I potato stamped triangles onto cheap white pillow covers from ikea. I also spray painted the lamp shape and the lamp to make it more appealing until we can replace it.

We are making progress (slowly)!

Meal planning (and free printable!)

I've always been a meal planner. I love making lists, organizing recipes (pinterest has been a HUGE help with this), and saving money. We have a simple dry erase calendar on our fridge where I write our meals for the month. Until recently, we have stayed on top of our grocery budget just by simply planning the meals ahead of time. However, we have had some changes that have increased our budget. I have been more adventurous in my cooking and we have incorporated meat back into our menu (I was a vegetarian, due to environmental reasons, for quite a few years). This led me to reconsider how we meal plan.


There was probably an easier way to do this, but because I am ridiculous, I spent some time in my local grocery store with a pad of paper and I literally wrote down the exact prices of everything I normally buy. I got a lot of very strange stares, but it was completely worth it! Yes, the prices of grocery items do change quite frequently, but I now have a general guideline for my grocery list each week. I then made up a pricing sheet, matching my printables below, which I refer to when I make my lists. Not only does this give me a guideline for each grocery shop, I usually come under budget due to sales or coupons.

I then decided to take this one step further. I went through all of my recipes and organized them by price, not type. I took my pricing sheet and used it to determine the cost of each of my recipes (by serving sizes). Now I have a binder with my most commonly used recipes that are organized by the least expensive, to the most expensive. I couldn't find a printable that fit my needs, so I made my own.

I made two versions. One for really easy recipes that I really don't need recipes for, such as taco salad, and the other for more complicated recipes with directions I need to follow. If you would like to download these for yourselves, click on the images.

Now when I create my menus, I plan out the month with mostly cheaper recipes and a couple more expensive recipes. With the help of my recipe pages and my pricing list, I hope to save quite a bit of money each time I go grocery shopping!

Current Living Room

In an effort to remember how far I have come (hopefully), I will be documenting some of our apartment and design decisions I have made. Though our apartment has made a LOT of progress since I moved in, there are still quite a few things I'd like to work on and improve upon.

Here is our living room!

So far, this is my favourite area. I am in love with the natural light, my fiddle leaf fig, and my gallery wall. At first I tried to avoid this set up. I really didn't want anything in front of the window. But the room felt SO closed off previously. The back of the couch was the first thing you saw as you entered our apartment, and you had to walk around it to "enter" the room. After moving everything around, the flow has greatly improved and we still get lots of light.

I painted most of the art on the walls in order to save money. Someday I want to replace them with true prints.

This was one of the first projects we did in our apartment as a married couple!

Looking at this photo, I am a little disappointed. There is definitely work to be done here. Mostly, hacking the ikea pieces. (Also, ignore the cords. We have some computers hooked up to the tv right now). I am not hopelessly in love with this couch, but we managed to snag it (pretty much brand new) for 60 dollars. Retail price was 600! We are very pleased to have a couch that allows us to lay down.

You can see the edge of this window in the photo before this. We love our little plants!

After all of the hype with bar carts, I really wanted an area in our house with one. We don't drink often (as you can probably tell by our choices of alcohol), but I felt it was a fun thing to have so I turned an old shelf into a tray. 

Things I would like to improve:

• Cover the Ikea media center with dark stained wood.
• PAINT! As newlyweds, painting in an apartment we know we won't be in very long seemed a waste of money and time, but there are rooms that bother me. 
• Spray paint the curtain rod?
• Replace some of the plastic frames with glass ones.
• Get a new rug (this probably won't be possible, but a girl can dream.)
• DIY a more mid-century looking coffee table. 
• Figure out how to make the lamp work with the rest of the room.
• Strip and stain the vintage side table. 
• Re-cover the brown pillows with black and white fabric.
• Get a nice throw blanket.
• Put a plant on top of the bookcase in the corner.
• Fill that empty container with something. Straws? lemons? 
• Get a real tray for the bar items.