Budgeting Spending Money

This past weekend was a busy and exciting one. Since everyone seemed to be enjoying our love story, I just decided to continue it yesterday to give myself a chance to catch up on everyone else’s blogs and get my CVS, Walgreens and Kroger deals for the week.

Friday I took off work to take my dad for his post-op doctor visit. He can now drive (it was the other knee), and is to start working himself off the crutches. If that goes well, he should be back to work with light duty next week.

While in K-town, I also did a little shopping. Stopped at the used book store and picked up some new reading material (One of which was Love and Respect – thanks for the recommendation Sarah!), then hit Ross, Marshalls, and Target, before heading to the mall for a quick trip in to JC Penny to see their winter clearance sales.

I never pay a dime at the used bookstore. I always limit my purchases to however much trade credit I receive with my returns. I had $40 this time! So I was able to get a whole cartful of books!

Ross, I got a little black dress – only $12 and it looks great on me, along with a white blazer. The blazer makes my waist look tiny and will allow me to wear those sleeveless sundresses to work. Marshall’s I spent $5 on a black DKNY top. I shopped Target for my niece’s birthday present (a bit early). I always get her a bikini, and they already had their selection out.

I found a new workout top at JC Penny for $5 (I get paid $50 every 3 months for working out) along with an adorable short sleeved sweater and a new pair of dress pants. Pants are a hard fit for me (small waist, big rear and thighs) so I was excited to find a pair that fit well for only $10.

It felt great to get out and buy new stuff just because – and I can do that because I budget splurge money every month. I know that we could save more each month if we didn’t have that, but budgets without some room just aren’t realistic.

My husband will dip whether it is in the budget or not. If he blows $60-80 a month on his dip (smokeless tobacco) I will resent him if I don’t get some money to “waste” myself. I typically save mine up and use it in one spurt like I did on Friday. And a new handbag will never give me oral cancer or make our insurance premiums go up!

It also helps him see just how much money he’s spitting away, when I come in with an armful of stuff that cost the same as his dirty habit.

Not sure if my system would work for you, but saving up my “dip money” for a shopping spree works for me!

For more great tips and tricks, check out Rocks in my Dryer’s Works for Me Wednesday!

Works for Me Wednesday

Just like most everyone, I made a New Year’s resolution to lose weight. I’ve found a great tool to help me track my daily food intake - www.sparkpeople.com . It will provide meal plans and exercise routines if you want, otherwise you can just use their site to track your progress.

I’m mostly using it for the calorie counter program in the “my nutrition” tab. After each meal, you enter what you’ve eaten into a chart. The chart provides you with the calorie, carb, fat, and protein amounts of your day, broken down by meals.
The site will also set goals for you, calculating how much you want to lose, and in what amount of time.

I want to lose about 10 lbs, so I can have about 1250-1650 calories a day. Yesterday, I was doing so well with the calories (because I was able to track it as the day went on) I had a powdered donut for my afternoon snack – and no it wasn’t cheating! I still came in around 1250 for my daily calories.

I can already tell that its working – I’ve lost a pound already! Of course that could just be normal weight fluctuation, but I choose to be optimistic. Check it out, it could work for you too!

For other great tips, check out Rocks in my Dryer’s Works for me Wednesday.

Edited because I want to lose 10 lbs total! didn't mean to say in a month!

Works for Me Wednesday Rerun

Pulling from the archives (can a blog this young have archives?)...

I'm not a fan of excercise or sweating like crazy. And to be honest, it takes a while for me to see the results. I need some sort of encouragement to keep myself going.

While I love sports drinks, most of them have enough calories to completely negate the work out. If I'm going to waste my time/energy to burn calories, I don't want to turn around and immediately drink them. My alternative to that is G2 Gatorade. It has only 25 calories per 8 oz serving.

But I don't stop there. In an effort to consume even fewer calories, and to save money, I mix the G2 with water. Let's face it G2 just tastes like watered down Gatorade any way, so why not water it down even more. I typically mix about 2 oz of G2 with about 10-14 oz water (depending on the size of my container). It gives my water a kick, but I don't waste the money or the calories on a full size bottle.

I stocked up last time Kroger had the big "buy 10 get 5 off" sale, so I got 10-32 oz bottles for $0.50 each. This was several months ago and I still have 6 full bottles left.

To be honest its quite like the "water with lemon" trick at restaurants. You are consuming something that's good for you, only you give it a hint of another flavor to fool yourself into liking it.

To check out more helpful tips and tricks, check out Works for Me Wednesday over at Rocks in the Dryer.

Works for Me Wednesday: Dining Room Chairs

When my great-grandmother passes away five years ago, I asked to be able to keep her kitchen table and china cabinet. She loved the formal feel that they had, and even though her house was way to small for them, she found room. If anyone wanted to get up from the table, the had to suck in, but she loved it.

I love my Mamaw, so I wanted to keep something that meant so much to her. I didn't have a home yet, so my mother let me store it in her basement. While the seats looked old fashioned, the rest of the table was in good shape.






I had decided that it was time to let the table go. I didn't foresee myself having a formal dining room and I had other things that belonged to her to keep for cherished memories.

Only I was wrong - Mr. Right and I found "the one" when we were house shopping and it had a formal dining room table! The only problem was making those 1970s chair more modern.

Thankfully, my father is crafty when it comes to things like that. He told me to purchase fabric that I liked and that he would recover them. In my kitchen, I have one red accent wall. Its the main wall in the kitchen and the vaulted ceiling makes it even more gorgeous.

One thing my Mamaw and I shared was the love of the color red. Her entire bedroom was decorated in red: bed spread, satin sheets, chair, vases, lamps. The last formal pictures she had made (when she was in her 70s) was in her favorite red dress. When I found my red fabric that matched the wall in the kitchen, I knew it was perfect. It would make the chairs look nice, and she would have loved them!






I can't tell you all the steps to covering them. But from what I understand its as simple as unscrewing the seat from the chair, folding the fabric around the base and securing it with a staple gun, and then screwing the seat back onto the chair. In this case, he left the old covering on and just covered over it, to give the chair a little more cushion.






Hand-me-downs, family memories, and arts & crafts projects for my dad all work for me!

Head over to Rocks in My Dryer for more great tips and tricks.

Works for Me Wednesday: Coupons

My Kroger doubles coupons up to $0.50. This isn't a service they advertise, but a friend of mine noticed she was getting "bonus coupons" at the bottom of her receipt and asked about it. I've tried to pay better attention to item prices and coupons (since $0.50 are now worth $1).

Mr. Right and I need toilet paper for the new house. While its not officially my house yet, I still "go" while I'm there and so I put it on my grocery list. I had an ecoupon for charmin as well as a $0.25 coupon, so I wanted to see how that would stack up. Turns out I was better off using a traditional coupon for a cottonelle 4 pack. Charmin would have saved me $0.75 off a couple of dollars. The cottonelle was $0.99. My $0.50 doubled (well almost) to $0.49 and I got the rolls for free (after tax).

I also worked a good ecoupon deal that a friend tipped me off about. I got an esaver coupon for $5 off a fabreeze noticeable started kit, as well as a paper coupon for $5. Kroger allows you to use both coupons, so I got the $6.99 kit free and then the additional $3.01 taken off the remainder of my grocery bill.

Paying attention to coupons and working good deals works for me. Check out Works for Me Wednesday over at Rocks in my Dryer.

Works for Me Wednesday: High Heels

I love flip flops and tennis shoes just as much as the next girl, but I have learned that heels give women a certain kind of power that we must not take lightly.

If tennis shoes = comfort






then heels = sexy






I have to say that I was quite thrilled early in our relationship when Mr. Right encouraged me to wear tennis shoes on one of our dates (that was the night we officially became a couple). I'm a girly tomboy, so it was nice to know that both sides would be appreciated by my new boyfriend.

While he's use to seeing me in tennis shoes and work out clothes (I frequently work out after work before I head over to his place) I love it when I get all dressed up on the weekend and put on a pair of heels - they make me feel far more attractive in a pair of jeans than I would otherwise.

I understand that looking good for your man and feeling good for yourself are important, heels serve another purpose in my life - getting me the help I need in the hardware store or the automotive store. This tactic only works if the prices are fixed (otherwise it has the opposite effect), but whenever I head to one of those stores in my work clothing, I get almost immediate assistance. Apparently a well dressed woman in a store that sells hardware looks like a damsel in distress, and men have it programed in their brains to rush to her rescue.






I first noticed this phenomenon when purchasing oil and a filter for my car at Wal-Mart. Armed with my feminist "I can do it myself" attitude, I went into the automotive section armed with the knowledge that "the book" would have my filter number and all I would have to do was find the number from the book on a box (thanks Daddy!). He warned that an automotive store would be more helpful, although their products my be $1 or $2 higher.

He's apparently never shopped at Wal-Mart in a skirt and heels. No sooner did I get to the book and start to open it, but I had a sales associate by my side looking through the book for me.

Last week, Mr. Right went out to the new house to do some work. He couldn't stop by the home improvement store first because he didn't know what items he would need before looking at the broken pipe. Instead of wasting gas coming back into town, he called me and had me write down what he needed.

Once again I was determined to do it on my own, but armed...I mean shod with a pair of heels I once again found myself rescued by a knight in a blue vest. And he did actually help me. (Did you know there is a difference between a compression coupling and a regular coupling? I didn't and he saved me $3 and a trip back to the store.)

The way I see it, dragons (in the form of car salesman, mechanics, and the like) have been going after princess for years, its about time we turned the tables and appreciated the knights willing to help us.

For more tips and tricks, check out Rocks in My Dryer's Works for Me Wednesday.