One Thrifty Space: Life Update

So much has changed for me since my last life update which was on November 25, 2015 so I'm definitely overdue. I'm not sure what I have touched on in previous posts and what I haven't so I will just include everything I can think of at the moment....

1. As of April of 2016 I have decided to become a pescatarian which means I do not eat meat but do eat fish. This was not an overnight decision but one I have been struggling with pretty much my entire life. It all started from having to eat our own chickens as a young child and progressed to people tricking me into eating food that made me uncomfortable. A popular method was putting deer meat into foods like spaghetti and telling me it was beef until after I had consumed it. Then it was like "gotcha" or "tricked ya" and was just so funny to them.
What they didn't understand was for me it wasn't "eww, gross....venison." but rather "I cannot possibly eat Bambi's mother or father (or even Bambi in some cases)." Even eating cows ultimately bothered me and when my boyfriend Ben and I first got together he said he would like to one day have a cow to take care of and butcher when it became time. I pretty much told him that will NEVER happen if he wants to be with me. There is no way I can feed and take care of an animal and then eat it.

Eating fish and other seafood does bother me a little bit morally and perhaps I will discontinue to do that in the future, but for now it is working out okay how it is. I'm getting plenty of protein still and DO NOT miss meat in the very least. The trickiest part though is eating out at restaurants. Sometimes what I get might have some unexpected bacon pieces on it and when that happens I will eat it and try not to think about it (after all, the damage to the animal has already been done). The main thing though is every day I am saving a life by not eating meat. I am also not promoting poor environments for animals to be raised for slaughter or inhumane slaughter practices. That makes me feel good as I love animals so much and I would much rather have a pet duck than to eat duck.

Ben has been the most supportive of my decision and I do not try to "convert" him or get him to stop eating meat, nor do I judge him or anyone else for it. I do still cook meat dishes for him but am very lucky that he enjoys fish so I prepare it as much as possible. When we get pizza we order cheese pizza and he is perfectly fine with that. For the most part friends and family have been pretty supportive of my decision as well but there have been comments made here and there. I just try to ignore them for the most part. Ultimately it's their problem, not mine.

2. I sold the flip house back in July. Mom put up a for sale by owner sign in the front yard as I was finishing up the house. There were several people who called about the house and a couple people who were interested enough to look around the inside. Unfortunately I could not help mom in trying to market and sell the house since I was still putting the finishing touches on it. She then decided to list it with a realtor. Long story short, as soon as we listed it with a realtor one of the people who viewed the house when it was for sale by owner decided to put in a bid and purchased it.

We had to pay out 7% commission from the sale because we listed it with a realtor. Bummer! But at least the house sold and it actually sold for the listing price so I guess you can't beat that! I would like to flip another house, but I have a few things up my sleeve that I would like to accomplish first.

3. I'm still enjoying my pets and have six in total. That will be enough for me unless someone else comes up to the door crying and begging for a warm place to stay (or I find a box full of puppies along the side of the road, whichever happens first).

4. After several years I finally was able to go on vacation in January (my first official vacation with Ben) to Playa del Carmen, Mexico. The suite we stayed in was absolutely amazing and had a balcony that overlooked the pool. Below are some photos from the trip: