And so I’m back! I am officially now a resident of Louisiana. Sorry for the month-long break from blogging, but moving takes a lot out of ya. I am settling back into a routine and trying to learn my new town. Baton Rouge is a cool place but is much smaller than DC so I get around faster with much less traffic, but I have to figure out what to do with myself in all the time I have saved from not sitting in traffic. 🙂

So here’s what I’ve been up to:
-getting used to having my husband around all the time (yay!)
-unpacking and trying to figure out where to put things in our new apartment (why are there no hall closets?!)
-getting to learn my new job (ugh, I wish I was an expert already)
-getting ready to furlough and trying to save some extra cash for lean summer paychecks
-trying to make some new friends and hanging out with my husband’s family
-exploring Louisiana (horseback riding! plantations! jambalaya!) That’s Oak Alley plantation pictured above and I just visited it this weekend! So historic and beautiful!
-figuring out which grocery store has the best coupon match ups and deals (all new stores to learn!)
-trying to change my address on everything

Phew! It’s been busy ’round here. But I hope to get back into the blogging swing of things.

How are things going financially for us? Well, moving cost an arm and a leg, what with security deposit, gas, and the moving truck, but (thank God!) we got out big tax refund right before we moved. It was big this year since we were both students in 2012 and only had one income so hooray for tax credits!

What did we do with the tax refund? Well, we paid our moving bills so we didn’t have to dip into the emergency fund. Then we paid off a loan I took out to travel to my sister’s wedding in California last year (yep, I was short a few thousand and borrowed it. I’m trying not to have to do that again). We also paid off a medical bill that we had been paying installments on from a few emergency room trips that my hubby had last year. Ouch! Glad he’s okay but even with insurance we got a big bill.

So now we have some extra cash in our budget which is freed up for other debt repayments. Really, some of it will disappear since my paychecks will be a bit smaller since I changed jobs. So we have to see how it all shakes out. It’s cheaper to live here but with the furlough coming and our debts hanging around (not to mention tuition costs), we certainly will keep living frugally.

Have you moved before? How do you adjust to a new place?