Whole 30, Baby!

Day One -

No, I'm not pregnant, just excited about trying out Whole 30. I'm so excited, I decided to unearth this blog so that I can chronicle it. Today is day one and I am setting out with DETERMINATION, let's see how long that lasts. 

What did I eat today?
Breakfast - Eggs and veggies
Lunch - Chocolate banana smoothie
Snack - Two clementines
Dinner - Greek Pork Salad (It was ok, but not a repeater in my opinion)

What am I hoping to get out of this?
I have got to lose some weight. That is really all that I want to accomplish, just being honest here. I am hopeful that in the next couple of weeks I can lose enough that it will help to make running the Kentucky Derby Mini-Marathon easier for me especially since my training has not exactly been disciplined. 

Food Waste Friday, 3/9 - Oh, Produce!

On Wednesday July 6, 2011 I decided to finally join The Frugal Girl and begin TRULY attempting to reduce our family's food waste and in the spirit of Mom's Plans I am guesstimating how much the food waste cost our family. 

I've got some nasty produce this week.  The cucumber (.50) on top is quite squishy.  I tried to think of something to do with it, but I was drawing a blank.  A goal for next week is to be more intentional about using them in my and my son's lunches. 

In the bag to the left are some pretty nasty mushrooms (.25) and then the right are too many jalapenos ($1.00)! How could I waste such yummy jalapenos you ask.  I have no valid answer for that.  I simply forgot about them.  I promise I will not let it happen again!

I have a few things in the fridge this week that I will have to really watch and be intentional about (note to self- use those cucumbers!), but seeing how so many of you others salvage your food has been quite benefical for me.  I had a big learning curve here! 

Wishing you a good week next week!

Goals for the Week 3/5

First a review of last week's goals.....

Health and Wellness

• Exercise 5 times and run at least once. I did it!  I did it!  I really did try to make exercising a priority and it worked!
• Lift weights twice.  Nope, I thought about it a lot though....does that count?
• Juice/Smoothies twice a day.  Check!

Kids

• Read with both kids at least once.  I'm really good at reading with A, but C typically reads before I get home and I just have not been able to do this. 
• Spend sometime on Sunday with each child doing something they would like to do.  We had a family game night and we all had a ton of fun!  I also got outside and threw some baseballs with them.  I am so happy I took the time to do this!

House

• Clean and organize one area of my own choosing.  Somehow, I never got around to this.  I have been organizing around the house a lot lately and I thought this would be an easy one to check off.  Darn it!
• Pay all bills and look at finances.  Set up a financial plan for March.  I'm  such a nerd.  I love doing anything related to our finances. 
• Clean the bathrooms.  I genuinely only did this because I didn't want to say failure here.  So thankful I have this list and some accountability to actually complete it!his stuff!
• Make one food item that can go in the freezer for a later time.  I made french fries and am hoping to make fish sticks today.
• Complete one survey and one mystery shop, with money to go into the gift fund.  Check!

School

• Grade two classes worth of papers.  I got a lot done, but not two classes worth.
• Write research plan.  Nope, not good!  I have to get this done.

On to this week.  Where to start.....it is going to be a really busy week.  I have something to do every single day this week after school and my in-laws are coming for a visit this weekend.

Health and Wellness

• Exercise five times.  Run at least once.
• Lift weights twice. (I'm not so sure I will have enough time for this, but at least this way I will try to make sure it happens.)
• Lose one pound :), wish me luck because I am going to need it!

Kids

• Spend quality time with each of them doing something that they choose.
• Play baseball with them once.
• Hold them accountable for picking up their room three times during the week.
• Make a chore chart.  Any advice on the best method to do this?

House

• Clean one area of the house a night so the house is presentable for the grandparents this weekend.
• Vacuum both sets of steps.

Work

• Get a T.O.N. done (How is that for a specific and measurable goal!)

Financial

• Keep the grocery bill under $100.  This will be interesting with my in-laws coming to town.  I never feel like what we have on hand is what they eat and then there are also two more mouths to feed at the end of the week when the groceries have started to run out.  Not that I am complaining though, I really believe I have the best in-laws out there.
• Complete four mystery shops and at least one survey.  I have a tendency to forget the mystery shops because they are phone calls and must be done in a specific time frame which is hard for me, but it can be done.  It would also mean almost another $30 for the gift fund. 

I hope you each have a great and productive week!

Food Waste Friday 3/2

On Wednesday July 6, 2011 I decided to finally join The Frugal Girl and begin TRULY attempting to reduce our family's food waste and in the spirit of Mom's Plans I am guesstimating how much the food waste cost our family. 

It was not a bad week around here in terms of food waste.  I ended up composting some parsnips (free.  I got them from volunteering for my CSA.), half of a lemon (.25) and one mushy cucumber (.50).  All of this will go in the compost bin.  I sure do wish it had been nothing, but overall I guess this isn't bad.  If you know any recipes that call for parsnips that cover their sweet taste I would love to hear it.  I just am not big on sweet vegetables.  I love me some chocolate, but please don't make my veggies sweet, I just can't take it.  How did you do this week?

Goals for the Week 2/26

Wow, it is Tuesday and I still have not made goals.  I think you are officially starting off on the wrong foot when you can't meet your goal to set your goals! 

Here is how I did last week.....

• Exercise five times, running at least twice.  E.P.I.C. fail!!!  I think I only exercised once.  Life has gotten quite busy!
• Complete two mystery shops....I'm taking my mommy out to dinner on one of these :)!  Check :) and I had a nice dinner with my mom! 
• Grade one class's papers.  Thanks to my volunteering position, where I wasn't busy, I was able to get this done plus almost an entire other set of papers!
• Vaccum the basement - it desperately needs it!  I only did this because it was on the list, but I did it!
• No spend week for me - this is more of a requirement than a goal.  I didn't do to bad, but it wasn't a no spend either.
• Juice or smoothies in the morning.  Check
• Post once during the week.  Thanks to having last Monday off, I was able to do this, otherwise I'm not sure I would have been able to do it.
• Complete one survey.  Check
• Read to the kids or have them read to me at least once.  I have been having A read to me a lot, but not C.
• Return clothes to Kohls and Loft.  I did it!!!!
• Finish my mother's valentines present....yes, you read that right!  This was another fail!  What kind of daughter am I!

Seeing as though I have a problem exercising during the week, I am really going to attempt to focus on that this week (So far I have already exercised twice).  Exercising will be my number one goal throughout the week.  Hopefully this will make a difference, because it is so warm & beautiful here right now it is a shame not to get out and enjoy it.  Lets see what else I have....

Health and Wellness

• Exercise 5 times and run at least once.
• Lift weights twice.
• Juice/Smoothies twice a day.

Kids

• Read with both kids at least once.
• Spend sometime on Sunday with each child doing something they would like to do.

House

• Clean and organize one area of my own choosing.
• Pay all bills and look at finances.  Set up a financial plan for March.
• Clean the bathrooms.
• Make one food item that can go in the freezer for a later time.
• Complete one survey and one mystery shop, with money to go into the gift fund.

School

• Grade two classes worth of papers.
• Write research plan.

That's all folks!  Have a great week!

Food Waste Friday

On Wednesday July 6, 2011 I decided to finally join The Frugal Girl and begin TRULY attempting to reduce our family's food waste and in the spirit of Mom's Plans I am guesstimating how much the food waste cost our family. 

This week went to the beans, garbanzo beans that is.  About a month ago I made a huge batch of garbanzo beans.  This allows me to have quite a few for some yummy homemade hummus and my hubby plenty to eat himself.  The bad news is we didn't eat enough of them and they went sour and I means S.O.U.R., totally nasty.  So quite a few are heading to the compost bin (2.00) along with one tomato that was free, one lime (.25), one orange or lemon (I can no longer be sure which it is.... .25) and a bit of leftover hummus (.50)

So, it looks like this week I wasted about $3.00 worth of food.  It pained me to throw out the tomato, that is just not allowed!  I hope you did well yourself this week!

A "New" Bedroom for about $100, Part I

We moved into our house close to three years ago and until recently hadn't done a thing with the master bedroom including our horrible yard sale furniture.  This is the first of two parts explaining how that all changed for right around $100 including getting "new" furniture.

We had been living with our atrocious bedroom furniture for way too long.  I wish I had a picture to show you of our furniture before the makeover, but since I don't here is the story behind it. 

My husband and I met in college and in his senior year of college (1996) his mother purchased for him a bedroom suite at a yard sale.  At that point, I am willing to venture and say, the furniture was close to thirty years old.  It is very much from the 70s.  To go along with the 70s theme it was also $70.  This included the two nightstands, the headboard, frame, mattress and box spring as well as the dresser.  He loved the retro vibe of it.  I felt a "bit" differently about the set that had an awful lacquer finish to it and screamed to be paired with orange shag carpet. 

Anyway, it was fine furniture for a male college student and it served him well.  However, it followed him into our marriage and has been with us through an apartment and three houses now and unfortunately it isn't in the guest bedroom - it is still in the master bedroom.  We did get a new mattress though :)! 

So, when my husband suggested we paint the furniture I saw it as my out.  This was my chance to get new furniture!  I had patiently been waiting (for 15 years) and once we painted the furniture (translate as - make it unusable) I could finally get the new furniture I wanted.  That isn't what happened though, I am now in love with our yard sale furniture and although I would still like to have new furniture I realize what I have right now is far better than dishing out the money for something new.  Here are pictures of how it turned out:

Before the makeover, it was a light oak with a lacquer finish, really shiny, with gold hardware and don't forget it looked like something out of "That 70s Show." 

We had to sand it, prime it and then we painted it the brown you see.  We also used the same hardware that was on there before.  We just spray painted it silver. 

It took about a day to do all of that, at the cost of about $50 and it really makes me wonder why we waited 15 years to do it.    It may not be new furniture, but I love the color and it was whole lot cheaper than purchasing new.

I will be back later in the week to tell you about how we finished the room off for under $100 total.