There is a such thing as a free lunch, and breakfast

We have not eaten out much this month because we are participating in Carla's no spend month. There have been a few times we have gone out to eat, but was paid for with my fun money, or P's fun money. We have been really careful with our spending this month, and our bank account is thanking us by growing slowly, but still growing!

I did get two awesome treats this weekend! On Friday there was a new pizza place opening up called Pie 5 and they were offering free personal pizza's and a drink! Score. I stopped by for lunch on Friday, and got the Tree Hugger. It was great! P stopped by for dinner and got his own, and really liked it too!

We also got a free breakfast from Cornerbakery on Sunday morning. All I had to do was sign us up to get a free Panini, and badda bing, badda boom, free breakfast for two.
Have you gotten any freebies latley?

The Vortex

I have finally joined the millions of others and given into the great time wasting vortex known as Pintrest. I waste so many hours of my day looking at that blasted sight, it is not even funny.

The problem with Pintrest is that so much that is posted on there is crafty or creative stuff. Remember, I am the person that calls arts and crafts, arts and craps. I have absolutely no artistic or creative talent in my body.

Unfortunately, because of Pintrest, I got inspired to tap into my creativeish side.

The last time I did something creative I attempted to redo a piece of furniture and ended up burning some skin off, painting the piece a hideous color, spent way too much money fixing my many mistakes, and I had paint in my hair for nearly 2 weeks. I ended up giving the piece to a friend who redid it and it is now beautiful.

Yesterday I saw this on Pintrest in the morning.

This cake is beautiful and I wanted to recreate it. I went to the store, bought what I needed to make the cake, from scratch and started it about 6:00. I finished around 10:00.

My version, which was doomed from the start ended up being a square brick that did not taste good.

The measurements were listed in the metric system, and with my 5th grade math skills, those conversions were somewhat difficult, and probably incorrect.

The cake ended up being square because I had to cut it from the circular pan because it was thin and burned. The icing was overly sweet, and I got frustrated with the sprinkles so I dumped the canister on the top. The icing looks like it was applied by a blind five year old. The cake was dry and not moist. It was not good. I was so frustrated by the end of the night that I text my friend who is a chef and asked for some help. Well, my actual words were "This cake is being a little whore, any tips?" I then had to stare at my unappetising cake, and my disastrous kitchen. A had sugar EVERYWHERE, including my already dirty hair and I filled up the dishwasher with dishes I used just from making the blasted cake.

I kept telling P that I should never have hopes and dreams because they always turn out to be massive failures. I stated that I was going to stop trying to be better and just settle for who and what I am now. (I am pretty dramatic and sarcastic in the face of failure.) He gave me a deadpan stare and I am pretty sure he wanted to tell me to shut up. When he asked me what I could learn from the experience I told him that I learned to never try for things.

The cake now resides in the trashcans along with all my other creative hopes and dreams. (Again, sarcasm)

Do you Pintrest?

Friday Confessions

Here are my weekly confessions:
1. I have worn the same clothes to the gym everyday this week.
2. Yesterday, every time P asked for something I would not do it unless he would drop it like its hot. (Him: Will you read this? Her: Only if you drop it like its hot first.)
3. When snacking on Frosted Shredded Wheat, I picked through and picked the ones with the most frosting, and threw the rest back in the box for P to eat.
4. I have not washed my hair since Sunday. Again. Damn it.

I spy with my little eye

A few moths ago, I confessed that I did this. (see number 4).
Apparently, everyone thought that was really funny. Come on, admit it, you do it too! I thought I might expand on this one a bit.
The picture above is the binoculars that I use when I spy on my neighbors. They live on my mantel.
Across the street is a huge high rise condo building. I have always been fascinated by the way people live, and I want to know what people's homes look like. I promise I am not a creeper, or a voyager. I am just interested in others. It is one reason I like to run in neighborhoods at night. People still have their blinds up and it is interesting to see how they live.

Anyways, yes, I do my spying with those above. They are not quite as powerful as I would like, but they were given to me, so they were free, and I do like my free stuff.

Back to my spying....there have been many a nights where I have sat on my porch and looked at the condo's. Those puppies are expensive, I know because I looked at the different units online to figure out the floor plans.

While doing my observing I have seen a couple fighting on the balcony. At least, I think they were fighting. I made that assumption based on the excessive hand gestures and body language. I have also seen people eating dinner and watching t.v.

The most embarrassing time, was during an air show. P and I were outside in the late afternoon, early evening watching small planes fly by. This gave me the PERFECT excuse to use my binoc's out in the open. As we were standing out watching the planes, I would pretend to search the sky, while really looking into condo's. As I was "looking for planes" I made eye contact with a tenant in the penthouse. He had his binoc's and was looking RIGHT AT ME! Awkward!!
So, yes, I do a little bit of observing. Come on, admit it, you do it too!!!

Annoyed

I am an idiot. Seriously.
Because of my idiocy, I am now suffering from some IT band issues in my right knee. It is all my fault because I don't stretch. Ever.
I hate stretching, and I always have. Tonight, I tried to go running and my knee hurt so bad. So, now I am sidelined for a few days. AHHHHHHHH.
I am so annoyed with myself. I have stretched, iced, and foam rolled tonight.
I expect a full recovery soon.
Lets hope.

Friday Confessions

Here are my weekly confessions:

1.I have been working out in the morning and some days I don't have time to wash my hair. So I just blow dry the sweat and then do my hair.
2. I finally confessed to P that one of my biggest fears is getting stuck on an elevator and having to pee on myself.
3. I cleaned the bathtub for the 1st time since we moved in here back in June.
4. I sleep in the middle of the bed while P sleeps half way off the bed clinging on for life.
5. I wore my underwear inside out Wednesday and didn't even notice.

Fess up, what do you have to confess this week?

Breakdown Here

By nature, I am not a very communicative person. I don't know if I was that way growing up, or if I somehow just evolved into this. Please understand, this does not mean that I am quiet. In fact, if you asked anyone who knows me, they would tell you that I am actually pretty chatty. I talk a lot, but when it comes to things that are personal, I tend to be pretty closed off.
I can chat about things that excite me or that make me happy with ease. What I have a hard time talking about are things that hurt me, scare me, or make me mad. I keep all of those bottled up and they stay there, hidden deep inside. To say that I am emotionally stunted would be an understatement.
When I get emotional, I tend to lock up, and I become awkward. I am not a crier. When I feel tears coming on, I try so hard to fight them off. Imagine my surprise when Monday night rolls around and P and I start talking and all the sudden tears start coming and they just won't stop. Keep in mind, I am not an attractive crier. Once I start crying, all I want to do is curl up in a ball and shove my face into a pillow until it is over. I just want to hide.
P came over to the couch where I was hidden and had to physically uncurl me, and sat on the floor and watched me cry and talked things out with me. There have been some disappointments, realizations, and some trying times lately, and I have never taken the time to deal with them. I just push past it, put it out of my mind, and never taken the time to deal with them. I just put on a happy face and keep it bottled up. P sat there on the floor, stroked my hair while I cried, and held me tight. Once it was finally over, he got me a glass of wine and put on a funny movie I like for me to zone out for a bit before bed.
It is so funny that God gave me the husband he did. As much as we are alike and have the same interests, we are also so incredibly different. Where I am closed off and unexpressive, P hates keeping things bottled up. He wants to talk out problems, get to the root of the issue, and deal with it. If he is mad at me, he will tell me and talk through it. If I am mad at him, I wont admit it, I hold onto it, and end up blowing up, or having a melt down a few months later. I am a black belt at silent warfare and suffering in silence. Yes, emotional maturing is my strong suit--clearly.
P was great in the process. He called me several times throughout the next day to check on me, and even stopped by my office on his lunch break to see that I was ok.
I am ok. Things are hard, life can be sad, but that is what we have a Savior for, and thats why we have people in our lives to help us deal with the hard things and help us carry the load when we get weak.

Tired

Sometimes I get so tired of waiting for things.
Right now, I am so tired for saving for some things. We have goals, things we want, but we are no where near reaching those goals. Sometimes, I want to say I want what I want when I want it.
Mostly, I am tired for waiting to buy a home. We are not apartment people at all. We are home people, nature people, wide open spaces people, fix it up people.
We are no where near having enough money for a house. We are no where near having enough money for a down payment for a house. But I miss having a house. We have been living in apartments for the last 2 years due to life changes. A job loss for him, then a new job for him. A move and resignation for her, then a new job for her. In the past 2 years transitions have occurred, and they have been big.
Looking around, I see people buying homes, and putting little to no money down. They throw caution to the wind and go to Hawaii on a fabulous vacation, while putting it all on their credit cards. Sometimes, I want to be like that. I want to be that person who lives the fabulous life like they do. But, that is just not our style.
I know that delayed gratification is a sign of fiscal maturity. I know that mentally, but sometimes, I get so tired of waiting and being responsible.
What about you? What are you hoping for, saving for, wishing you could have right now?

Heartbroken

In a 1 week span all of my teams have lost. Why does it hurt so bad? Why do I care so much?

Friday Confessions

Here are my weekly confessions:

1.In my attempt to take more showers and fewer baths, I now sit in the tub, plug the drain, and turn the shower head on rather than the faucet for the bath. That counts as showering right?
2.I cleared a family sized bag of Hershey Kisses in 2 days.
3. Our financial advisor gave us a book to read. He has asked me four times if I have read it. I haven't, yet told him I did.
4. My neighbor gave us a big pot of soup. It is really salty and almost inedible, but I told her it was really good.
5. I finally broke down and let P brush my hair for me the other day because we both knew I was not going to do it.

Contentment

Sometimes, I just lust for things. Stuff. Stuffitis. It is true, I like clothes, art, electronics, books. It is so easy for me to go into Target for nothing in particular, and walk out with a cart full of stuff that I didn't need, or even necessarily want to begin with.

I don't know if it is because we are coming off the Christmas season and everywhere I looked I saw people in a blind rage frantically trying to buy buy buy as much stuff and junk as they could, as quickly as they could. I hated the greediness that I saw come out of everyone this holiday season. Or maybe, being disgusted by what I saw in everyone else, was actually just a mirror image of what I dislike about myself.

Going on this spending freeze for the month of January has been a really good, but telling experience. Being perfectly honest with myself, I have always thought of P as the spender in our relationship and I was the saver. But, it turns out, I have the same desire to buy things and spend our hard earned money on things just like everyone else. It is funny that when we take ourselves out of our normal routines, and we really begin to live intentionally, we notice things about ourselves that we really didn't notice ever before. I was projecting things onto him that were not necessarily true to who he is.

Stepping back and evaluating our situation, I see that the holes and leaks in our financial house have been brought on by myself as well. This evaluation has already made an impact on me. I have found the past few days, my desire to collect as much as possible is already beginning to subside. I feel like a dieter who is fasting for sweets. It is hard for the first few days, but slowly, the cravings subside, and in the place where that lust used to live, is now a place of contentment and peace. Sure, there are a ton of things that I want right now, but I am no longer in a blind rage of trying to find them and seek out the best deal because I needed it and I need it now.

How are you doing after coming off the holiday season's excesses?

No Spend Month Update, and and some spending

P and I decided to participate in Carlas no spend challenge for the month of January. We have cut our entertainment budget for the month and are not eating out, no extras or treats, or even one off's at the store that we would put on our debit card. We decided that we would only buy the things that we need with our cash budget.
We have been doing pretty well. The only thing that we spent money on that was not budgeted, was on some food and treats for his sister and brother in law's birthday dinner.

Yahoo for savings!!!

However, yesterday during lunch I ran to Target to pick up a few things that I had coupons for.

The total came out to 27.06 before coupons. After my coupons, I ended up paying just .44 cents!!I purchased

3 first aid kits

2 dental flosses

2 Chobani Yougarts

2 Cascade packs

1 Glucose Monitor ( This is going to the food bank. I bought this because after my coupons it was free, and I never pass up on free items. I hope this will go to someone who really needs it!)

Wars, Part 3, Toilet Paper Edition

P and I love each other, we really do. Buttt...sometimes we have our "wars." You can find out what I mean here and here.

We are currently in the midst of yet another "war."

This is an empty roll of toilet paper on the roll holder.

This is a full roll of toilet paper on the basket in front of the toilet.

Apparently, P and I don't change the toilet paper roll very often. I never realized it until a few weeks ago when a friend who has been crashing on our couch every few weeks pointed out that he has been the one to change the toilet paper roll every time he comes here. P and I looked at each other and laughed.

Sadly, it is true. I don't know why we wont change the dang toilet paper roll. It is neither hard nor time consuming, but for some reason we wont change the flippin roll on a consistent basis. We are totally content to just leave the roll on the basket.

Because this is my blog, I would like to formerly decree that P will be the official toilet paper roll changer in our house.

Are we the only ones fighting this battle?

3 out of 4

Over the Christmas holiday I read 4 books and 3 of them were AWESOME.

I read Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me by Mindy Kaling and The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay all 3 by Susan Collins.

I am pretty behind the times with the Hunger Games series, but I finally picked them up and read them all. O my word, they were so good. The first book was probably one of the best books I have read in the last 2 years. Intense, mind blowing, suspenseful, and AMAZING!
I could not put the first 2 Hunger Games books down. All I wanted to do is read. I became irritated and annoyed when I had to do things like, talk to people, go to the bathroom, or sleep because I wanted to do was read these books. I read the first one in about a day, and I read the second one in an afternoon. The third book in the series was just ok, and I didn't think it was nearly as good as the first two. They basically rocked my world, but in a really good way.

Once I finished the Hunger Games, I moved on to Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me, and this is hands down one of the funnest books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. This was side splitting, laughsohardIalmostcriedandpeedmypantsatthesametime, clutch my chest, and bowl over funny. Mindy Kaling is hilarious, and her stories are genius. Simply genius. This book is so funny that sometimes as I am walking down the street or hall, I think back to something I read and I am that weird person who just busts out laughing when no one is around.

Has anyone read any of these books?

What are you reading now?

Friday Confessions

Here are my weekly confessions:

1. This week P was going to do something that I didn't want him to do, so I jumped off the couch, grabbed his leg, and he drug me around the house while I was attached to his leg.
2. After swimming at the gym, I walked out with mascara smeared down my face.
3. I use men's body wash in the shower.
4. Everytime P yawns I fish hook him.
5. I have worn the same pair of pants to work everyday this week, and they have not been washed once.

Alright, fess up, what have you done wrong this week?

Bragging

I know the picture is hard to see, but I did two quick shopping trips today during lunch. I hit up CVS and Target and my total before coupons would have been about 48.00. I ended up paying just about 12.00 for all of it. Wahoo!

Here is what I got!

2 big packs of toilet paper

3 bottles of dish soap

2 tubes of toothpaste

2 electric toothbrushes

4 packages of mac and cheese. (P and I wont eat it, but was free, so that is 4 boxes going to the food bank)

Plus, I earned another $6.00 to use at CVS on my next trip.

Yea for couponing!

Resolutions

I didn't want to post this, because so many people do, but, I am a organizational freak, and I live and die by my lists, so I figured I would jump on the band wagon and post my goal this year. I do goals weekly and make lists daily, so here they are. Call them what you will, goals resolutions, crap that everyone eventually forgets about, but here are mine. Like any good list junkie, I did categorize them for my sanity.

Running
1. PR in a 1/2 marathon. My goal time is 1:55, but I would be really pleased to get under that time.
2. PR in a 5K, I want to hit the 23:00 minute mark.
3. Run in the morning at least once a week. I really like having my afternoons free, so this will hopefully motivate me to become a morning runner.

Money
1. Max out our Roth IRA's (His and Hers)
2. Save at least 20K towards a home
3. Save at least 1,000 through coupons
4. Earn 5,000 in extra side income.

Personal
1. Read 40 books this year.
2. Do an in depth bible study of 2 Old Testament Books
3. Cook 1 new meal per month
4. Blog more often (at least twice per week)
5. Get Term Life insurance for both of us
6. Do 5 big random acts of kindness
7. Continue to send 1 handwritten letter per week.
8. Bathe less. I may not brush my hair very often, but I am almost always clean. I hate taking a shower, I would rather take a bath. Baths are such water wasters and not green at all, so I am going to try to take fewer baths and more showers.

There you have it. Those are my goals for this year. I am a big believer that if you write it down, and continually look at those goals, you will more likely to achieve it. I am going to start checking in each month to track our progress.

Have you made goals?