A refocusing of efforts

Hey there! Long time no see.

Where have I been? Well, in the time since I last posted I finished grad school, took a contract job over an hour and a half away from where I lived, moved to an apartment closer to work, and then got a permanent position where I was contracting.

All and all, this didn't leave me a lot of time to work on home improvement projects. However, now that I've got less driving to do and a new apartment to pretty up, I'm back to blogging. However, I still don't have the project time I used to back when I was a lowly grad student. Hence a bit of rebranding for the blog. Rather than keeping it as the decorating-focused "My Cheap Ass Home",  I've moved to the broader "My Cheap Ass Life".

So what does this change mean? Well, I'll still be posting about bringing my bland apartment up to snuff for as low a cost as possible, but in between projects (AKA: when, in the past, I didn't have any content to post here) I'll also be writing about other ways I enjoy doing and acquiring the things I love without going broke in the process. Basically, I'll be talking about how to work with the seemingly impossible problem of having expensive taste but a limited budget.

Maybe you're like me and are paying off debt (thanks student loans! *smirk*), maybe you've got a limited income, maybe you're saving for big ticket items (like retirement, a home, children, or say a wedding), or maybe you just don't like paying more than you have to for the things you want and need. Whatever the reason, I promise you that there are loads of ways to have and do the things you want affordably, and this blog will help you discover some of the paths to getting there.

So, to sum it up, there'll more content coming out at a MUCH more regular pace. Or, to make it even simpler, yeah, this blog isn't dead. Hooray!

General news: My Google Reader addiction

I've recently gotten pretty frothy about using Google Reader... yes, I know, I'm super-late to the game, especially since I myself have been blogging (both here on Blogger as well as Livejournal) since what seems like the dawn of time (or, more accurately, at least the last ten years).

Okay... so I admit lameness on only jumping on the Google Reader bandwagon recently. I hope my complete enthusiasm makes up for my pathetic lateness.

I've been using Google Reader for a number of reasons, but one of the the main ones is for inspiration for projects for this site. I'm sampling home design blogs like a hungry kid nibbling on samples at Sam's Club/Costco and you, dear readers, can benefit from my bloated excess of reading. Yes, I'll slog through the garbage and pull out the stuff worth your time and limited attention span.

First, I'm planning to add any blogs I'm in love with to the already existing blogs listing on the right... same with any great sites (especially those you can buy fabulous home design products from) too.

Second, feel free to peruse my Google Reader Shared Items list. I'll be focusing on sharing the best inspiration and project articles I find, some of which will likely be used as the basis of projects I complete for this site.

Enjoy!