At the request of DH I tried to put together an excel spread sheet of our expenses in 2008. It was a bit difficult doing it after the fact. Now I am doing a much more accurate one for 2009.
I am also doing one for the decorating budget.
In looking over the expenses for 2008, DH and I were in peals of laughter at our expense for clothing. I spent $430 for the following: two dresses for two weddings, two dresses for the reception. This year so far he has spent $24 for socks. Obviously, this is why the economy is in such dire straights. The way I am looking at it is that I should have plenty for my house decorating!
Speaking of which - The Interior Designer that I am working with was over today with some good ideas. Now I need to go to the stores and see the items myself instead of just on paper. It appears that turquoise is my color of choice. So there will probably be a little in each room. Every time I talk with a designer, they say, "Show me a piece of art or an object that you love." It gives them something to start the process with. It seems that just with my description she was able to understand my taste. The biggest hurtle is that DH likes really modern design, while I am more contemporary/traditional. It will be interesting to see how the compromise turns out.
5 comments:
Mom, you should check out Mint.com. It lets you bring all your accounts together, see how much you spend for each category (Ex: Gas in the month of June), as well as set budgets. Plus it is free! I can show you how it works when I am there on Saturday if you want.
How can something be both contemporary and traditional? How is modern different from contemporary? You can see I let Wife do all this stuff.
that is a good tip Shawn. I wouldn't know where to begin with design, let alone that there are different types.
Oooo. I am totally checking out Mint! Aunt B. It is totally possible to mix modern and traditional design. I would try to pare down to the essentials of what it is you both like about the particular asthetics. For example, modern design generally emphasizes spare, clean spaces and lines with a minimum of embellishment. Whereas traditional makes you think of cozy, warm, maybe clutter, knick-knack filled spaces. An example of how you could blend the two is with a modern shelving unit of cubes and having each cube display a "traditional" item such as a collection you might have (plates, pictures, etc.) This way you get the clean lines of shelving with the coziness of the collected objects. I bet your daughter will have tons more ideas for you and I would definitely check out magazines and online sites for ideas. i think it's a pretty common problem!
I'm glad I married someone who (mostly) doesn't care about how I decorate.
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