This is Alabama Football

I'm linking up with Lindsey today for her football link-up! You know I can't pass up a chance to talk about my beloved Crimson Tide :)

{2007 Spring Game...Nick Saban's debut}

I am counting down the days until football season! I'm just now starting to get into professional football, but I have always loved Alabama football. I was born a Bama fan. My older brother and sister both went to Alabama. My life plans were as follows: Graduate high school. Go to The University of Alabama.

{2007 season...Nick Saban's first game with Bama}

So that's what I did. In August of 2002 Sunny [my twin sister] and I packed up and made the move to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. First order of business at orientation: buying football tickets! [Seriously. That's the first thing I remember doing.]

{With Sunny and some of our friends before a 2005 game}

I called myself an Alabama fan up until that point, but my love for Alabama football was nothing then compared to what it is now. I have a confession: I grew up watching Alabama football every week [or listening on the radio if the game wasn't on TV] but I didn't understand the game until I was in 8th grade. I remember watching a game on TV and saying, "Ohhh...I get it!" and then I just understood. We never missed a game on TV, but we didn't get to go to that many games in Tuscaloosa. There's just something about being there that made me absolutely fall in love. Hearing Bear Bryant over the speaker, watching the hype video, hearing "THIS IS ALABAMA FOOTBALL!" Gives me chills!

{2005}

I was in school for the 2002-2006 football seasons. Not good years for the Tide. Three different coaches left or were fired during that time. One never even coached a real game! We didn't beat Auburn a single time during those years. [If you don't know, the Alabama/Auburn rivalry is HUGE around here. We talk about that game all year. You're one or the other. You're not a fan of both.] A few weeks after I graduated, we hired our current coach, Nick Saban. He came in and turned the program around.

{After the 2009 SEC Championship Game}

We went undefeated and won the National Championship in 2010. Lee and I weren't able to go to that game, but we did get to go to the SEC Championship that year. You can read about that here.

As bad as it hurt for Auburn to win the National Championship last year, it's pretty awesome that the state of Alabama had back to back National Champions. I'm just hoping we can bring that championship back to Tuscaloosa after this season!

I've been through some really good seasons and some really bad seasons, and one thing that has never changed is my love for the Alabama Crimson Tide :)

The Budget

Lee and I have been on a budget pretty much since we got married. We never did Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University or anything like that, but we did read one of his books. I like a lot of things he says, but there are some things that I don't necessarily agree with. Like credit cards. He doesn't think you should use them at all, but we put EVERYTHING on our credit card. We get points for the dollars spent and then we get gift cards with those points. I can see how some people might get in trouble with credit cards, but we make sure we have the money before we buy anything and we pay off our card every month.

Anyway, since I've been back in school we've been pretty strict on our budget since we're doing without the money I was making. We've been following the budget just to get by without going into even more debt than my student loans are going to bring. I knew the student loan debt would be a lot, but I was talking to my mom the other day and realized it was going to be a WHOLE lot. I really already knew that, but I had been trying to not think about it too much.

I was a little depressed for a little while, but now I've decided it's a good thing because it's got me really motivated to really stick to the budget and cut back where we can. I really want to figure out how we can cut back in ALL the areas of our budget.

I'm going to start setting a few goals at the beginning of every month and then report back on how we did. I'm also going to start writing about any really good deals I find or other ways I've found to save/earn money.

August goals:

• Keep our grocery budget below $250 (I mean really, there are only two of us, shouldn't be too hard
• Pay at least $50 extra on the car payment
• Get back into couponing (I had been doing pretty well...not extreme by any means, but I was definitely saving money...and then I just kinda quit)

That's it for the August goals...I figured I'd keep it pretty simple since this is the first month I'm doing this :)

Seven Years Ago Today...

...I was moving into my crappy apartment on the third floor of Preston Place

...I was excited to be living with my sister and best friend

...It was ridiculously hot [kinda like it is today]

...The air conditioner in the apartment wasn't working

...I met the boy that would become my husband ♥

This is one of the oldest pictures of us I could find this morning...I think this was our first Christmas together

I love you, Lee!