Happy St. Patty's Day!
I weighed in this morning at 222. It's slow but it's still going down. In some ways I think it's better this way. Still I can't help longing for some fast dramatic results.
I made a really good veggie soup with lentils the other day. I had never had lentils before and I like them.
On the financial front I'm really optimistic about a new job prospect. I went Friday and applied. I talked to the woman there for about half an hour. It's a heath care job so I have to get a TB test, a background check, and my CPR and first aid renewed. My CPR is not yet expired but it's close enough that I might as well renew it now.
I really want and need this job. It's close enough so I could walk, more hours and more money.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Haven't quit yet
The last month has been crazy. I wrote about wrecking my car. Well finally just the other day the insurance company called and yesterday the guy came to appraise the damage. The good news is I'm getting a check for $1600, the bad news is they are totalling my car. So I have to find a new car. They did authorize a rental car until Sunday so I can get to work. I should be able to find another car fairly quickly.
The roomie was planning on moving to Michigan. The one Walmart he called didn't have any open positions so he decided not to move. The friends he was going to move in with up there moved down here. They are staying with us until they find jobs and a house. Then at the end of the month all of them will be living together in a house somewhere else.
It feels like I have 10 million things I have to do before the end of the month and it's overwhelming.
The weight loss is at a stand still. Not losing anything but not gaining any either. So I guess that's good. The weather is supposed to be nice today. I think it's supposed to get up to 60. I will make time to walk today.
I will get back to weight loss after things calm down here. I just can't do it right now.
The roomie was planning on moving to Michigan. The one Walmart he called didn't have any open positions so he decided not to move. The friends he was going to move in with up there moved down here. They are staying with us until they find jobs and a house. Then at the end of the month all of them will be living together in a house somewhere else.
It feels like I have 10 million things I have to do before the end of the month and it's overwhelming.
The weight loss is at a stand still. Not losing anything but not gaining any either. So I guess that's good. The weather is supposed to be nice today. I think it's supposed to get up to 60. I will make time to walk today.
I will get back to weight loss after things calm down here. I just can't do it right now.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Gettin it done
Today was payday. I got up early to go get my check and cash it. Got a money order to send a big payment to one of the credit cards.
I paid my half of the rent. I bought dog food and groceries for me. Put gas in the car and now I'm practically broke again. I spent less on my groceries than anything else. It's kinda funny in a way.
I almost got a 12 pack of Ramen. It was in my cart for about 5 minutes before I put it back. I don't want to be the kind of broke/poor person who lives on Ramen. Plus it's not healthy, way way too much sodium, and how do you pack almost 400 calories into a package of noodles?!?
I got some spinach and frozen stir fry veggie mix, ground turkey(1/2 the price of ground beef!), another pack of yeast, and a couple of other things. I have chicken, cheese, and burrito wraps left from the last shopping trip. Plus beans, rice, and pasta from who knows how long ago.
No work for me tomorrow. I need to get housework caught up. I will bake bread and I'm going to attempt to make homemade refried beans so I can use up the rest of those wraps. I also need to plan a menu for the next 2 weeks.
I paid my half of the rent. I bought dog food and groceries for me. Put gas in the car and now I'm practically broke again. I spent less on my groceries than anything else. It's kinda funny in a way.
I almost got a 12 pack of Ramen. It was in my cart for about 5 minutes before I put it back. I don't want to be the kind of broke/poor person who lives on Ramen. Plus it's not healthy, way way too much sodium, and how do you pack almost 400 calories into a package of noodles?!?
I got some spinach and frozen stir fry veggie mix, ground turkey(1/2 the price of ground beef!), another pack of yeast, and a couple of other things. I have chicken, cheese, and burrito wraps left from the last shopping trip. Plus beans, rice, and pasta from who knows how long ago.
No work for me tomorrow. I need to get housework caught up. I will bake bread and I'm going to attempt to make homemade refried beans so I can use up the rest of those wraps. I also need to plan a menu for the next 2 weeks.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Monday Monday
I was off from work today which meant I had a million things to get done at home. I didn't get a lot accomplished. My neck hurts! It hurts to turn my head to the left and if I sit a certain way the pain goes down the left side of my back. Either I slept wrong someway or it's a delayed pain related to the fender bender I was in last Tuesday.
We had a lot of snow and I went out Tues morning to run errands. I wasn't even a block from home when some guy backed out onto the street. I hit the brakes but it did no good. The snow was packed down and it was SLICK. Ran right into him. Did more damage to my car. Broke the headlight, dented the hood and front quarter panel on the drivers side. On his truck it just jammed the bumper up under the truck bed. My car still runs ok. I gotta get someone to pound out the quarter panel because when I turn the wheel very far it rubs. Now...sooner rather than later I have to get another car. I hadn't planned on keeping it forever anyway...maybe a year. Or until I was in a position financially to buy a newer car. I have to start saving up to get another car and I still owe my sister money for this one. Sigh.
I went out and got a couple of application turned in. I really really have to have a second job. My roomie told me last week that he plans on being gone next month. He wants me to pay him back before he goes. It might get done. I need to get the utilities put in my name before he goes too.
It's times like these I wish I had a long lost forgotten uncle leave me a small inheritance.
I started a menu for the upcoming week. I have a grocery list started. I feel very fortunate to have so many stores to choose from, at the same time it makes it a little harder to get things done. Within 10 miles I have Kroger, Walmart, IGA, Fas Chek, and Aldi.
I love (LOVE) Aldi for the basic stuff...cereal, rice, pasta, flour, sugar, milk, eggs, etc. Aldi also had decent produce. I'm skeptical about their meat. I bought a roast there last year and it was very fatty.
I was reading up on container gardening today. I would love to grow some of my own veggies this summer. I attempted a garden years ago when I was first married. Our first place was a trailer in the country. I started a small garden. I planted cantaloupe, zucchini, tomato, bell peppers and carrots(I think). The zucchini did well. Just before we moved (late August), the cantaloupe had finally come around. They were about golf ball size. I caught quite a few rabbits in my little patch of dirt. I'm blaming the rabbits for the failure of the garden as a whole.
I need to figure out what I want to plant soon so I can get my seeds started.
If anyone has had success with a container garden and has any helpful hints I'd very much appreciate it.
I get paid later this week and I will be sending out a big payment to one of my credit cards. That will get them caught up. I have 3 cards and I'm over the limit on 2 of them. The other one I'm less than $100 from my limit. It will feel so good when I get my balance back down to ZERO!
I weighed in Saturday...224,only one pound lost. Hey it's better than gaining.
My debt and weight be warned...You're going down!
We had a lot of snow and I went out Tues morning to run errands. I wasn't even a block from home when some guy backed out onto the street. I hit the brakes but it did no good. The snow was packed down and it was SLICK. Ran right into him. Did more damage to my car. Broke the headlight, dented the hood and front quarter panel on the drivers side. On his truck it just jammed the bumper up under the truck bed. My car still runs ok. I gotta get someone to pound out the quarter panel because when I turn the wheel very far it rubs. Now...sooner rather than later I have to get another car. I hadn't planned on keeping it forever anyway...maybe a year. Or until I was in a position financially to buy a newer car. I have to start saving up to get another car and I still owe my sister money for this one. Sigh.
I went out and got a couple of application turned in. I really really have to have a second job. My roomie told me last week that he plans on being gone next month. He wants me to pay him back before he goes. It might get done. I need to get the utilities put in my name before he goes too.
It's times like these I wish I had a long lost forgotten uncle leave me a small inheritance.
I started a menu for the upcoming week. I have a grocery list started. I feel very fortunate to have so many stores to choose from, at the same time it makes it a little harder to get things done. Within 10 miles I have Kroger, Walmart, IGA, Fas Chek, and Aldi.
I love (LOVE) Aldi for the basic stuff...cereal, rice, pasta, flour, sugar, milk, eggs, etc. Aldi also had decent produce. I'm skeptical about their meat. I bought a roast there last year and it was very fatty.
I was reading up on container gardening today. I would love to grow some of my own veggies this summer. I attempted a garden years ago when I was first married. Our first place was a trailer in the country. I started a small garden. I planted cantaloupe, zucchini, tomato, bell peppers and carrots(I think). The zucchini did well. Just before we moved (late August), the cantaloupe had finally come around. They were about golf ball size. I caught quite a few rabbits in my little patch of dirt. I'm blaming the rabbits for the failure of the garden as a whole.
I need to figure out what I want to plant soon so I can get my seeds started.
If anyone has had success with a container garden and has any helpful hints I'd very much appreciate it.
I get paid later this week and I will be sending out a big payment to one of my credit cards. That will get them caught up. I have 3 cards and I'm over the limit on 2 of them. The other one I'm less than $100 from my limit. It will feel so good when I get my balance back down to ZERO!
I weighed in Saturday...224,only one pound lost. Hey it's better than gaining.
My debt and weight be warned...You're going down!
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Well how do you like that?
Frugality has been a way of life for me for a very long time. I don't remember a time growing up when we had any more than just barely enough. I do remember things like searching the house for loose change so we could pay the electric bill, church people bring food over, getting boxes of food from the food bank, and getting scolded for going to the ER in an ambulance because I fell on ice in the 6th grade and knocked myself out.
On second thought maybe those aren't examples of frugality. More correctly it's just being poor. My family didn't eat very healthy. So my opinion has been to eat healthy and lose weight I have to spend a lot of money. But I'm changing my mind! You can eat healthy food on a tight budget.
Oatmeal is so so cheap, so are beans, lentils and rice. I baked bread earlier this week and I have yet to figure out the difference in cost between store bought and my 2 loaves of yummy goodness. But I will.
Split chicken breast was on sale last week at 2 different stores...99c / lb. I got a little over 9 lbs of chicken. 1/3 of it went in the crock pot overnight and got shredded the next morning. I now have a large container of chicken that will be used for many chicken burritos with homemade spanish rice, had it last night for dinner. Very good, my compliments to the chef!
Something funny about the chicken. When boneless skinless chicken is on sale for 1.99/ lb, you are lucky to find a few packages left after a couple of days. I went Thursday night, very near the end of the sale, and the chicken had barely been touched. Skin and bone doesn't account for much of the weight and I only put in 5 more minutes of effort.
The frugal side of me is helping the lose weight and get healthy side of me. I went to the store last night to get a little can of tomato sauce for the spanish rice. I went by the Reece's eggs, 2/$1. My first thought was what could it hurt to get one. Then it was one is never enough. Next time I'm in there I'll want to get another one. And if I want something chocolate I have hot cocoa mix at the house. I also have everything I need to bake a cake or brownies.
I've spent $28 on food so far. I still need to get milk (1/2 gal-2/$3) and 3 dz eggs (18ct-3/$5). Even after that, I'll be under $35. With everything I already had and things I bought, I have enough to last me until next payday.
I'm going to really try to not eat at work. Being allowed to eat and put it on a tab is too convenient. The food was good but I would not normally choose a $5 sandwich or get a $4 sub and fries and cheese sticks. I paid my tab yesterday and it was almost $20. This is after my 50% employee discount too by the way. I got by just fine without eating at work Friday. Tried to do it again yesterday and got yelled at by both managers. "You have to eat." "You can't work 6 or 7 hours and not eat." My pleas of "I'm not hungry" and "I ate right before I came in" went by ignored.
And one final note. I got on the scale this morning, down to 225. Well how do you like that?
On second thought maybe those aren't examples of frugality. More correctly it's just being poor. My family didn't eat very healthy. So my opinion has been to eat healthy and lose weight I have to spend a lot of money. But I'm changing my mind! You can eat healthy food on a tight budget.
Oatmeal is so so cheap, so are beans, lentils and rice. I baked bread earlier this week and I have yet to figure out the difference in cost between store bought and my 2 loaves of yummy goodness. But I will.
Split chicken breast was on sale last week at 2 different stores...99c / lb. I got a little over 9 lbs of chicken. 1/3 of it went in the crock pot overnight and got shredded the next morning. I now have a large container of chicken that will be used for many chicken burritos with homemade spanish rice, had it last night for dinner. Very good, my compliments to the chef!
Something funny about the chicken. When boneless skinless chicken is on sale for 1.99/ lb, you are lucky to find a few packages left after a couple of days. I went Thursday night, very near the end of the sale, and the chicken had barely been touched. Skin and bone doesn't account for much of the weight and I only put in 5 more minutes of effort.
The frugal side of me is helping the lose weight and get healthy side of me. I went to the store last night to get a little can of tomato sauce for the spanish rice. I went by the Reece's eggs, 2/$1. My first thought was what could it hurt to get one. Then it was one is never enough. Next time I'm in there I'll want to get another one. And if I want something chocolate I have hot cocoa mix at the house. I also have everything I need to bake a cake or brownies.
I've spent $28 on food so far. I still need to get milk (1/2 gal-2/$3) and 3 dz eggs (18ct-3/$5). Even after that, I'll be under $35. With everything I already had and things I bought, I have enough to last me until next payday.
I'm going to really try to not eat at work. Being allowed to eat and put it on a tab is too convenient. The food was good but I would not normally choose a $5 sandwich or get a $4 sub and fries and cheese sticks. I paid my tab yesterday and it was almost $20. This is after my 50% employee discount too by the way. I got by just fine without eating at work Friday. Tried to do it again yesterday and got yelled at by both managers. "You have to eat." "You can't work 6 or 7 hours and not eat." My pleas of "I'm not hungry" and "I ate right before I came in" went by ignored.
And one final note. I got on the scale this morning, down to 225. Well how do you like that?
Friday, January 23, 2009
Pound For Pound Challenge
Found this challenge through eatbetteramerica.com. For every pound you pledge to lose between now and May 5th at the latest, they will donate 10 cents to feed the hungry. A little extra incentive never hurt.
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