favorite things today

In January (wonderful Texas!)... decorating our driveway with customized art, gazing at the clouds from an ant's perspective, discovering the neighborhood's character, backyard snacks of chips and salsa... a few of my favorite things today!

What are your favorite things about today?

Menu Planning Monday, January 12, 2009

This week we are continuing to eat from the freezer. I had to purchase cheese so the coach would not revolt on me!

Dinners: Texas Taco Salad, Turkey burgers with mushroom gravy, Potato soup, Poppy seed chicken casserole, Tuna casserole, Nachos, Roasted chicken with scalloped potatoes

Lunch: Leftovers, Tuna sandwiches, chicken salad on crackers, pb&j sandwiches, english muffin sandwiches

Breakfast: Cereal, oatmeal, boiled eggs on toast, pancakes, freezer muffins

Snacks: yogurt, popcorn, chips and salsa, jello, pudding

For more menu ideas go here! Happy planning!

Hit the track running!

My first challenge of the year was admitting "we are fat". We must get back on TRACK*! You can read all about it here!
*Please excuse the sport puns! I just can't help myself sometimes!

1) Fill up our $1000 emergency fund and cut up credit cards.
2) Pay off our credit cards by April.
3) Add 5 months of living expenses to emergency fund by October.
4) Open a mutual fund for our cheerleader and invest $80 per month.
5) Put any extra money towards paying off student loan debt (our goal for 2010 is paying this off and being debt free!).

This is the year of action!
Lace up those frugal shoes, hit that pavement (coupons in hand), and take off! Let's run our best race! (Hey, I just can't help it, it's just so fun!)

For more inspiration, check here!

Being naked... hold me!

Facing all the cellulite, bulge, and flabbiness on my booty and pocketbook!

Pocketbook flab:
Over the holidays, we are going to re-listen to Total Money Makeover on audio book. (Coach is very hesitant to read anything not directly sports related! The audio book turned out to be just long enough for the drive to grandma's.)

Looking in the mirror stinks! Taking a snap shot here so I can face reality!
Where our fat is...
Student loan debt total: $22002.96 Ug! Will we ever get rid of them? Someone suggested that we not pay them off early because if you die, they are cancelled. Well, geeezzzz! I hope I out-live the payments for many years!


Our first paycheck in 2010 will:
finish off our emergency fund, just over four months of living expenses and then we will start beating the crap out of the student loans to finish off the debtsnowball!

Now the body fat!
I ordered a scale in November and demanded my husband take it to work so I did not have to use it. Well, he brought it home.

Gulp!

Okay, get my body type in your head... 5'2" on a good day. I will compare my body to a stuffed sausage or a really overgrown pear! So I finally stepped on the cold, unforgiving, heartbreaking, scale of reality... 140 lbs. Only 3 lbs less than I weighed at full term with cheerleader 3 years ago.

The plan:
Cry.
Drink water before everything. before breakfast, before drinking anything not water, before snacks, before bed, before blogging. Lots of water.

Okay that is it for now. Baby steps people!

How did we get this flab?
Stay tuned!

Menu Planning Monday

On the cheap until payday (3 more weeks)~ we are feeling the Christmas grocery overspending we did!

Breakfast: Oatmeal, biscuits and gravy, breakfast pizza, pumpkin muffins, peanut butter and banana bread, and pancakes.

Lunch: Salmon patties with corn on cob, tuna lettuce wraps with potato wedges, chili stuffed baked potato with mixed veggies, poppy seed turkey casserole, pulled pork bbq sandwich with salad, and leftover mexican stew.

Dinner: Mexican stew with cornbread, pinto beans with cornbread, spaghetti bake with homemade Italian bread, beef and noodles, hamburger patties with green bean casserole, and pork tenderloin with stir fry rice.

Snacks: Ants on a log, jello, pumpkin muffins, fresh bread with butter and honey, pudding, and oranges.

I will be pulling from the cabinets and freezer for two whole weeks. No shopping until my freezer is bare. Next week's meal plan might be oddly interesting!

365 Days is both...

365 days is both a long time and "a twinkling of an eye!"

I love starting a new year because it encourages new goal setting. My coach is usually a little resistant, although compliant, when it comes to "family changes."

Our first change is a bit hard to swallow, intimidating, and "what the heck am I thinking" kinda goal...
365 days of buying nothing new except food, toiletries, and medical stuff.

Goal two is living by our written budget. period. We picked this because our family has a written budget every month but we struggle to follow it.

The last thing we are doing is 15 minutes a day for self improvement. Walking, practicing something useful, praying, reading, pedicures, anything. Just something that makes "me" better. (Coach wants to use his 15 minutes to "decrease his stress level" with video games! I vote no for that one to count!)

Wish us luck!

Chuckie Cheese Memories and Meltdowns

Saturday night we made a family visit to Chuckie Cheese, with full intentions of spoiling our little cheerleader with unlimited fun.

After purchasing the 100 coin coupon deal, we discovered it cost only 1 coin per game. Oops! Why did the attendant not ask us if we were supplying a birthday party?

As we started to spend our large bucket of coins, we discovered our little cheerleader enjoyed only the sit and honk car ride.

While depositing, what seemed to be the 49th coin into the car ride, I witnessed lots yucky kid stuff. The place was full of snotty noses and in particular, gross me out fashion, I witnessed a child peeing in their pants. As it ran down their leg, they tried quickly to walk off, knees together, as not to let anyone notice. I then was fixated on the gazillion floor stains, potential uh-oh moments. I am sure (well hopefully) most of these stains resulted from spilled sodas and whatnot, but it defiantly had me wondering. I then questioned every knob, seat, button, and coin we touched. Where are my lysol wipes?!

Our cheerleader was eventually over the honking, so I ended up spending the remaining coins trying to beat the coach at all the games.

A wonderful thing happened in the midst of our competition. The cheerleader's job was to collect the tickets, after the coach and I were finished playing at each machine. Then, she would trade the tickets for a new coin to put in the next machine. A curious (unsupervised) little girl walked up to our little cheerleader and stood, starring. Without a word spoken, little cheerleader handed off her tickets to the curious child and watched her run away. As the coach and I stood both stunned and amused, the cheerleader whispered "your welcomed", smiled, waved her hand in the air saying "peesse," anxious to dig a new coin from the bucket. It was a great moment for us and her, even though she did not know it.

The coin bucket was finally empty, my defeat against the coach was evident, and the cheerleader was restless.

On our way out, we took a family picture in the cartoon booth. While we anxiously awaited printing,(okay, just me because I want the cheerleader to grow up thinking her mommy is cute. We took 2 pictures so I could re-pose.) the cheerleader found a sucker half eaten on the floor and started chomping away! Horrified, I screamed (yes, a little over dramatic but between the pee and snot in that place, wouldn't you?)!

Swiftly the coach escorted me and our little cheerleader out, as she started smacking down the 4 pieces of (new)candy she won from the 200 tickets turned in.

If you can see past the pee, snot, unsupervised children running a muck, and the horrible tasting pizza, you too may find a great moment to cherish at good ol' Chuckie Cheese (lysol wipes not included).


What great moment do you have hidden among chaos?