hey, it's ok (tuesday) .11

hey, it's ok

...to consider your bed and couch a kleenex wasteland when allergies hit hard

...to randomly sing/hum songs from musicals while driving/getting dressed and realize it 5 minutes into "surry with the fringe on top"

...to not get that at ALL.  i mean, when's the last time i watched a musical??

...to be a little proud that your dvr is currently under 20 percent

...to really really really dig your new tervis tumbler

(it has cherry blossoms on it and a lid...so pouring a diet coke into it before getting into the car makes spills much less likely.  and with me, that's important!)

...to be way.too.excited about an idea you've come up with to organize and keep track of what's in your pantry, freezer and fridge at all times.  because you like to coupon but you don't want to hoard.

(and yes, that idea involves a constantly updated spreadsheet.  and yes, that squeal you just heard was me geeking out at the thought)

...to geek out over spreadsheets

...to be really really excited about the 5 bags full of clothes that you FINALLY found in storage.  and to be REALLY excited that some of the clothing in them is (a) in season and (b) looks good

...to have hit the borders store closing sale HARD last weekend.  i ended up getting several berenstein bear books (LOVE them) and a couple of other kids books for under $20.

...to (often) just want a nap.  

(visit amber for the original of this!)

hey, it's ok (tuesday) .10

hey, it's ok

...to stay in your pj's past noon on your day off

...to play your babysitting client's xbox kinect for nearly 2 hours

...to have possibly injured your foot while playing xbox kinect and jumping

...to still kind of be in love with trader joe

...to look forward to couponing trips. unfortunately, not to trader joe's.

...to have enjoyed the marriage prep session on finances much more than you thought you would.

...to wonder how on earth you're going to pay for a wedding

...to remember that God has provided every need i've had for the past year...why would i expect anything less for a wedding?

...to ask you to weigh in on my decision. which toms should i get?

(this isn't happening tomorrow, but i've decided to take a few bucks from the next few babysitting jobs and set it aside for them)

red canvas

picnic

red twill

well, duh

one of my goals for the year was to become a true coupon lady

and i think i'm off to a good start

besides success at cvs last weekend

i also had mad success at harris teeter yesterday

113.82 worth of groceries for 53.98 

i saved 59.85!

highlights include:

2 packages of Martha White muffin mix: $.05 (reg price 2.36)

10 boxes of Barilla pasta: $6 (reg price $15)

7th Generation dish soap: free (reg price $2.99)

3 boxes of Hamburger Helper: $1.50 (reg price $5.55)

Bic Multi-Purpose Lighter: 1.29 (reg price $4.29)

that was with very little effort, so i'm excited to see what will happen as i begin getting into it a little more!  some coupon gurus save as much as 90% on an average trip.  over the last month or so i've been averaging 50% or so...i'm going to try to up it to at least 75% over the next month or two.

now onto my duh! moment, which does strangely correspond to the above :)

it occurred to me the other day

that my jobs (which i'm loving)

while by nature are "set my own hours" type gigs

are sometimes scheduled a little too tightly

for me to eat healthy meals

and definitely no time to cook them

and yes,

my clients are *wonderful* about saying

"please help yourself to anything in the fridge"

and i do

gratefully

but there are days that there's nothing in the fridge that i like

or there's not much of whatever meal is left

or i don't want to open a whole new package of whatever freezer meal looks good

or there's a ton of junk food in the house and i wind up eating IT because nothing else appeals

this sometimes causes me to hit the drive-thru harder than i want

either between jobs because i'm starving

or after a job because what i had wasn't filling

so here's my future solution

i'm spending one afternoon a week in the kitchen

(besides cooking on other occasions)

where i'll make one from-scratch awesome recipe

that i can divide into a meal for that day, a meal for later that week, and a portion to be frozen

and at the same time

i'll make one "convenience food"

also to freeze into individual portions

so that i can stick it in the car on my way to a job

and if i get there and they have awesome options: fantastic

i have a meal for another day that week

and if they don't?

well, thawed out hamburger helper made with organic beef

is still much better than a 10 pm trip through mcdonalds.
(and cheaper too!)

It's a great day to sleep in

and sleep in i shall

sure there's homecoming at my university right.down.the.road

and earlier in the week i thought i would go

but honestly?

i'm tired.

and i don't know anyone who's going anyway.

eh.

i'm loving this week's wordle

after sleeping in -- coupon shopping time!

yep, i have a plan for some cvs deals...and some kroger shopping as well.  saving lots of money while spending very little?  sounds like perfection to me :)

fitness friday: to process or not to process

yesterday i was in two different houses with two different philosophies on eating and nutrition

yet the meals i served the children in both families both ended up to have about the same nutritional value

hot dogs in one home
macaroni and cheese from a box in the other
fresh fruit abounding in both

processed next to unprocessed
so i started thinking
which is dangerous, admittedly

what are my foodie confessions?
yes, i prefer unprocessed, whole foods
but honestly, i don't always do the best job of providing them to myself

for example, i know that pop-tarts have no nutritional value, whatsoever
but because they satisfy a sweet craving and have less fat/calorie content than many things that i could substitute
i allow them once in awhile

and while annie's mac and cheese is organic and all
it's still processed
and the blue box is even worse

i justify it because i don't eat these things every day
just "in a pinch"
when i'm in a hurry
or when nothing else sounds good and i just need food in my body

so...what can i do
what can you do
to ensure that healthful, REAL food is what you put in your body?

i think, for me, i'm going to be more purposeful in keeping healthful, whole foods on hand
actually preparing them when i bring them home, so that the temptation of fast and easy is removed
and it's actually JUST as fast and easy to have something real :)
and not falling victim to couponing--while it's AMAZING, i also think i buy more processed crap because i can get it cheap
(so now i have to somehow unify the part of me that wants healthful food with the part of me that wants to save money. THAT could be a blog project all it's own!)

what do you do?

It's a Great Day to Shop Tax Free

the person who used to host weekend wordles is apparently not doing it anymore...but that won't stop me from posting mine anymore!

however, six word saturday is still alive and well :)

finally got to sleep in -- ahhhh!

i've just caught up on my sleep. i think...

or

tax free weekend here -- watch out!

yeah...it's a good, but crazy time. i do need a few things here, but most of them (unfortunately) don't fall into that tax free thing. ah well :) i DO have a few coupons and deals to go and grab, so i'm planning out my trip right now. here goes nothing!