The new computer came on Monday. I wasn't able to spend time online until tonight though. I'm so happy to be back online!

Things I've done this week:

-Earned a $25.00 amazon gift certificate with card rewards
-Earned another $25.00 gift card from MyPoints
-Did some really good Christmas shopping using previously earned gift cards from MyPoints
-Applied for a part-time job.

Tomorrow I'm hosting Thanksgiving. I was volunteered by my family but am happy to host since it means less stress for my parents.

I pre-made the stuffing tonight. Bought about 1/2 the groceries, parents supplied the other half. My sister works for a company that has restaurants and brought home some goodies like a pumpkin roll and a cookie cake. Yummy!

Tomorrow morning, my sister is coming over with my nephew. She'll help me prep the turkey/stuffing. We'll hang out for a while & then early afternoon she'll take my nephew to a friends for a bit.

My parents will come over and we'll hang out, maybe watch a holiday movie, maybe play a board game and just catch up. Then my sister & nephew will come back & we'll eat around 5.

I'm REALLY looking forward to tomorrow. We have a really small family now that my grandfather & great aunt have passed.

Hope everyone has a REALLY good holiday!

Hey everybody!
My laptop broke and I've ordered a new one. Paid cash for it, but it won't arrive until after Thanksgiving. I'll be checking out the site when I can, but probably won't be posting for awhile. I have to say, I miss you guys! Have a good holiday next week.

HH

Lately I've been a lot more social. Which means going out with friends to parties, bars, restaurants, ect. Which means spending money. And I've been spending way too much. I just need to focus again.

SO I declined going out last night & tonight. Made my meals at home. Did some laundry & dishes. And watched free movies from Redbox.

I've premade meals for work tomorrow and I plan on going to my Weight Watcher's meeting and heading straight home tomorrow night. No going out for me

Now I'm enjoying an episode of The Big Bang Theory. I keep getting the random joke references they make - which makes me feel both nerdy and proud! I just got a good reference to the 1930's movie Freaks. Go me

Today was really busy. I went to lunch with my parents and some family friends. I ran errands, returned some clothes, took movies back to Redbox, got some groceries and bought a new cat carrier (last one was broken and not fixable).

I took the cat to the vet, where she had some shots and her nails clipped. Then she went to the bathroom in the brand new carrier, poor thing. I must have grabbed her to go right before she would have hit the litter box.

So I came home, I had to give her a bath...not a fun experience. Then I washed out the carrier with vinegar & water. Then I had to put all my smelly clothes (from holding her at the vet) into the washer.

I ended up doing 3 loads of wash and only 1 load went into the dryer.

Tonight I'm planning on playing around with budgets for November, for paying off the student loan & for building up my emergency fund.

I was planning on catching the end of the Phillie's game 5, but it was postponed until tomorrow night. So instead, I'll be watching tv & vegging.

Tomorrow is my do nothing day. I plan on staying in, making my own food, watching a bunch of horror movies, having a big bowl of popcorn, and maybe doing some stuff around the house if I feel like it. So basically, just being lazy!!

NorthEast is getting some harsh rain today. I've been up since 6:30 - cats woke me up and I couldn't get back to sleep. It was only raining lightly this morning, so I ran to the produce store and got some potatoes, a green pepper, peanuts in the shell and tomatoes. $7.97. Not too bad. Right after I walked back in the door, it started pouring and got really windy.

Now I'm back home to watch old NCIS episodes on dvd borrowed from the library. Now I'm watching Monk & Psych, which I taped last night. In between, I've been cooking and playing on the internet. And I'm pretty sure I'll be grabbing a nap soon.

As for teaching the kitten to fetch -- he was jumping all over the older cat. To distract him, I throw his toys, (or a pen, whatever's handy) across the room. Today, all I had on hand was a piece of scrap paper. I balled it up and threw. He batted it around and then brought it back to me. I threw again and he brought it back to me. This lasted like an hour because if I didn't throw again, he would pick it up and put it on my lap. Too cute!!

Today is a great day to do nothing. I was invited to a party, but I am definately not going if its raining. If I stayed home all night, I'd be fine with that. I could fill up my time with finding new recipes and playing video games. Much like my college days!

My credit card was stolen when I went to a bar on Friday. I know it happened at the bar, but I'm not sure how. I didn't even know that my card was missing until the fraud department called me Saturday morning.

They called asked me about the charges. Let me know I wouldn't be responsible for the two large gas charges and one T-Mobile bill that the theives used. They said I'd get a new card and they'll send me an affidavit to sign.

Even if they hadn't called, I pay off my credit cards as soon as a charge posts, so I would have noticed the fraud charges. But it was great that the company noticed them first!

In other news, I turned the A/C back on last night. Getting humid again. I don't think that it ran much during the day since I kept my blinds closed and set the temp to 80. But its run a few times since I've been home.

I was prepping for the party on Saturday, only to have pains in my side. I had a kidney stone a few years ago and knew what was going on. Called my mom and spent 12 hours at the hospital. UGH.

All they could do is confirm I've got a nice big one. And its 1/2 way through, but stopped for the moment. They sent me home with meds to wait it out.

I'll get a bill, $50.00 for a copay, everything else will be out of pocket.

I spent yesterday at my parents house. Nothing happened. Still waiting for the stone to pass. I went into work today, but was so tired and uncomfortable, I made plans to stay home tomorrow.

I talked to the urologist's office that I used for my previous stone, they told me if the stone doesn't pass on its own, then I'll need to go in Thursday for a procedure. Lucky me.

I'm drinking TONS of water. I'd rather pass it than have any procedures. I'm at my house again tonight. I've been cleaning and mopping in the hopes of moving around might get the thing going. I'm prepped with meds and if it starts moving again, I'll take them right away.

Luckily, I have sick days at work. And although its the worst time ever to be out of the office, I think they'll be ok without me.

Today my Dad stopped by and helped me detach the stopper in my bathtub so that I could clean the drain. I had been trying to get the thing out for 2 weeks. It was stripped.

He was able to get it done in about 5 minutes with the right tool. He gifted me his time and the tool for future use. I went to Lowes later and boought a new stopper. Man its nice to have a clean tub again

Later in the day, I went over to my parents house with a movie. We had lunch, talked and watched the movie.

During lunch, my Mom let me know that she's gifting my sister and I each $5,000.00 from her inheritance from my Aunt's estate. I tried not to accept. But my sister could REALLY use the money due to getting into some credit card debt and because of some medical issues my nephew is having. And I don't think they (my parents) feel its fair to gift her and not me.

At least my sister has already said all the funds will be going to pay off her biggest card. Which will ease up payments and help her snowball towards the rest of the debt.

My Mom asked that I use some of the funds for a mini vacation and some clothes. I think she feels like I don't do things for myself so much anymore. I will do as she asks with some of the funds for those reasons and then I plan on putting the rest of the money to good use.

I will say that I was already setting up a new clothes budget. With my weight loss, I need a new clothes. I've dropped 4 or 5 sizes in the last year. I've bought enough clothes to get through the summer, but now I'm at the point I need to pretty much completely redo my wardrobe. Underclothes all the way to sweaters. So I'll set the funds aside until I hit my goal weight. And then I'll work slowly, but build up a really good wardrobe.

I have less than $1800.00 on student loan #1, which I will pay off. I plan on using $400.00 towards a vacation fund. $400.00 towards new clothes. $400.00 to home repairs that I've been putting off. And the remaining amount will be going towards Student Loan #2.

Once Loan #1 is paid off, I'll have $200.00 going to Loan #2. Plus the normal payment for Loan #2. Plus the income from my likely 2nd job, which I have the interview for this Thursday. I could have the second loan paid off by August 2009. AND thats without getting a roommate.

I had off on Friday, did some stuff around the house, ran errands, then met my friends from work for happy hour. I had a good time.

Yesterday, I went to a family wedding. So it was a no spender. I wore a dress that I've had for a while, with shoes and purse from my closet. No spending necessary for the wedding. Other than a donation to a charity in leau of a gift, which I had previously donated.

I wanted to go walking today and I wanted to go to Walmart for a few items, as well as the local produce place (I cant call it a stand since its in an actual building and runs year round). Well, today, I combined the two. Instead of driving to a park then stopping at the stores, I walked it. In 90 degree heat. Not really the best idea I ever had. But it went well

According to Mapmyrun.com, my walk was 2.34 miles, not including actually getting into the stores. I bought a jar of popcorn kernals, some razors, cucumbers, lettuce, celery and eggs. All of which made it home safely. Also picked up a Redbox movie with a coupon code, so it was free!

I try not to use credit cards, but I got an offer on my Old Navy Visa for two transactions outside Old Navy and I'll get a $20.00 voucher to Old Navy So I used the card for the Walmart and produce place.

So now I'm doing some laundry and watching some laundry movies. And later, I'll watch the Redbox movie, Fool's Gold.

I'm off tomorrow and Tuesday, and I had these grand plans to head to the beach. But its a lot of gas and I'm thinking I might just head to the park for some hiking and hang out at home the rest of the time. No matter what I choose to do, I wont be at work for two more days, which is great

In other news, I have accumulated 5,077 points with MyPoints. And I'm close to getting a $25.00 Amazon gift card from my Amazon card. The MyPoints gift cards and Amazon gift card will be going towards Christmas.

I heard back from that shipping company about the part-time job and I have a walk-through scheduled next Thursday. Its basically a package handling job, so they want people to see first hand what the job entails. I've seen a video of the job and its definately doable. Hopefully, I'll be hired.

Also, I heard back from that potential roommate that I interviewed a few weeks ago. He's interested in the room. I feel comfortable with him, but I'm still fighting the selfish feeling of loving having the house all to myself.

So to play around with things, I made a really rough pay-off budget. Basically, it looks like it would be a difference of a little over 6 months (to pay off the student loans) if I had the roomie and part time job vs just the part time job.

So it kinda boils down to - is having a roommate worth being out of debt but the house 6 months earlier? I'm not sure that it is. Unless I knew the roomate prior to living with them or maybe they were a friend of a friend. I'm not sure its worth it for a stranger.

So now I need to make some decisions. Its a definate that I need and want a part time job. Now, I have to make a decision by tomorrow about the roomie.

It looks like the Fox Business Network is celebrating Financial Freedom today. They're playing back to back Debt-Free Friday episodes of The Dave Ramsey Show. Thats a pretty good way to celebrate, I think!

So yesterday the air was off, but when I came home tonight, after trying to do Tae Bo in the 85 degree living room, I turned the air back on. I sleep better this way and my sinuses were driving me crazy.

Oh well, it was nice to have fresh air in the house yesterday & part of today. Plus yesterday was like 10 degrees less than today

In other news, I picked up some groceries and some gas today.

Tomorrow, I'm going to happy hour with some friends. $2.50 Captain & diets and a 1/2 pound of shrimp appetizer. YUMMY!

I'll pack breakfast & lunch for work and I'll probably spend about $15.00 including tip for dinner.

I'm hoping to make Thursday & Friday both no spend days. We'll see

Today, I shredded 5 large bags of paperwork. It's been piling up for a VERY long time and I shredded a ton of stuff, freeing a lot of space in the wardrobe that was housing the paperwork. I worked my shredder so hard that it overheated 4 times! I think I might need to upgrade the shredder soon. Junk mail is coming in more & more these days.

Also, I got together more clothes for Goodwill. 3 full bags, plus a bunch of dvds, in adittion to the 3 bags of clothes I've previously donated. Losing almost 40 pounds freed up a LOT of clothes to donate





To prepare the documentation for tax purposes, I made up an itemized spreadsheet of both batches of clothes with descriptions of the items and their values for a total donation of $476.00.

I researched valuation charts from Goodwill and the Salvation Army to make a good determination of the value of the donation. I stayed towards the lower range of values in an effort to stay fair with the amount I'll be deducting in my taxes. All of the clothing was in Very Good to Excellent condition. Several of the dvds were never opened (they were gifts).

The local Goodwill by my work has a large dvd and video selection, so I know they'll go to good use.

I am probably going to have more clothes to get rid of in the next few months, but I'd rather do things in smaller batches than load up a dozen bags at once at the end of the year. Plus, all the extra room in my closet is nice!

I found 3 cents today. Two pennies were heads up, one was heads down. So I guess my luck is still good at 2 to 1

I filled up my gas two days ago and I was so excited to find gas at $3.99 at a local gas station. Down from $4.04. I'll take it while I can get it I still have a 1/2 tank left after running to Philly & back plus all my errands today. I'll probably fill back up tomorrow since I'll be driving 2 hours to the beach and back and I certainly don't want to fill up down here. Prices are MUCH higher at the beach.

So the guy came to see the room today. I promised my dad I'd call him it as soon as it was over, which I did. But the interview went very well.

He's pretty nice. A few years younger than me, in the year between undergrad and graduate school. He's working at a restaurant in the local hospital and saving money towards grad school. (I liked that!)

We discussed the rent ($450.00) and the need for 1 month's deposit. I showed him the house, introduced him to the cats, which he responded well to. He said he was impressed with the amount of space and cleanliness of the house. And he even asked why I had priced the room so low.

Before putting the ad on Craigslist, I had reviewed 'the competition' and determined the rent of $450.00 was appropriate. I actually was hoping to attract roommates who were near my age, maybe just a few years out of college. And I knew there were a LOT of housing options out there right now. So I priced what I felt was the amount where I would come out ahead enough of the increased utilities to make renting the room out worth while.

I asked about references (yes), drugs (no), smoking (no), parties (no). We talked about overnight guests (no/rarely).

He's looking for a one year lease, which is where I was comfortable. We'll have 30day out clauses just in case.

He liked the room and was fine with sharing a bathroom. He'll have full access of the living areas, kitchen, basement & washer/dryer. He only has bedroom furniture, although I had plenty of storage room in the basement if he had needed it.

We talked for a little under an hour after the tour, getting to know each other. We talked about where we work, what he'll be doing in grad school, pets, and movies. We seemed to get along. Of course, you can never really know someone until you live with them.

All in all, I let him know to think about it, email or call with questions and let me know. I'm not in a huge rush and I want to think things over for a few days, talk it out with my family.

We'll see how it goes. I have a feeling he'll be calling back and saying he'll take it. He won't need the room until August 1st, which gives me plenty of time to put up rods and shelves in the spare room and install the new pantry door.

Last week, I put another Craigslist ad up for a room for rent. Got a couple of responses. Couple of scams responded. But one guy seems ok. So we did the email thing and he asked me to call to set up a time to meet & see the house.

Calling him felt like calling a boy for the first time. I was all nervous. Well, he's coming to see the place on Wednesday.

Its a little nerve-wracking to let a stranger into my house. But, I really could use the money. So hopefully, it works out.

I did some cleaning today and I'll sort out some stuff from the pantry and linen closet to make room for his stuff.

I'm requiring a deposit and am going to write up a contract. Which is something that he suggested (I was already going to do it). I am going to do research online about agreements for renting a room in your home. But if anyone has suggestions, please feel free to give me advice. I really need it!

Today I turned the AC back on. I'm trying to keep it up during the day and use the house fan, turning it down a bit more when I go upstairs to bed.

This weekend, I'm working to get some stuff down around the house. I have a ton of boxes of items that I had bought/or was gifted when I moved into the house. I don't know why I was keeping them, but I'm broke down the boxes and drop them off at a recycling box. Wow, that cleared up a LOT of space.

I have several other goals for stuff to get down around the house this weekend.

In between all this stuff, I'll be snuggling with the kitten, watching movies borrowed from the library and cooking up a storm.

- Clean kitchen, wash kitchen floor
- organize cabinets, purging some inherited, but ugly glassware to give to Good Will
- clean, dust & vac living room.
- organize basement, sweep basement stairs
- clean litter boxes
- clean spare room, remove all stuff from closets, and put desk up sale on craigslist
- clean my bedroom
- clear weeds from rock beds in front of house
-trim bush in front of house
-trim area around deck in back of house
-take back borrowed chairs to mom & dads
-put up items for sale on craigslist: chair pads never used, TI-83 calculator, scientific calculator, and movies
- talk to mom about putting up extra furniture that I inheritied from my aunt up for sale. Its not quite my style and its just sitting in the basement.

Things were crazy at work today. As an exempt employee, I worked a 43 hour work week, but got paid for 40... Boo! I needed to get some things done before going on vacation and I'm glad I did, because now I can just let it all go. Under that day I go back to work and have 300 emails to deal with.

After work, I picked up the kitten from the vet. The vet's office staff said that he was acting like he had no pain at all! They said he'd been showing off all day, running around and chasing his tail. They said they all took time to snuggle with him because he's such a lovey little kitty.

I packed lunch for work, but did spend $4.49 for special newspaper litter. And I stopped at a different veggie stand and spent $18.10 for a TON of fruits & veggies.

I thought it was interesting that the produce stand guy thanked me for using cash. He said they get charged 99 cents for every time a customer uses a card. I'll have to remember to take cash next time.

I also went online and bought a season pass, plus one guest to Philadelphia Zoo. Its about $4.00 more expensive than buying a ticket for me, one for nephew, plus parking. And it'll motivate me to take him at least one more time in the next year.

Tonight, I'm vegging. I still have my headache and I want to rest up. But tomorrow, I'm going to clean and organize and make lists, all of which I'm looking forward to. I'm also heading to Lowes to look for a new pantry door. I can't wait to get one

Today was a no spender. I packed lunch and ate dinner at home. I'm prepacking food for tomorrow. I'm fighting a migrane right now though. It started at work and just isn't going away with meds.

If it doesn't feel better, I may end up splurging on some food on the way home from work tomorrow. I am SO not up to cooking when I have a full-blown migrane.

Tomorrow starts my week long vacation. Given my vet bills, I plan on making this a VERY frugal vacation. I'm not going away for the week, but am planning on taking day trips.

I plan on vegging over the weekend, hanging out with family and friends.

I may head to the beach on Monday, which is about 2 hours away. I'm going to pack lunch & drinks, but splurge on some beach fries. My other expenses will be tolls, parking and gas.

Tuesday, I will be going to the Philadelphia Zoo with my nephew. I plan on bringing lunch & drinks, so my out of pocket will be gas, tickets & parking, which is close to $50.00.

Wednesday, I'm going to chill again. Maybe see a movie with my parents. I also might make it to happy hour with some people from work.

Thursday and Friday are up in the air, as is next weekend.

I want to hit two different state parks or walking/hiking. $3.00 entrance fee each. I'll pack water & a snack.

I also have a list of things I want to do around the house, as well as getting my hair cut, car oil changed and making dinner for my parents one night.

I've also stocked up on movies and books from the library. Several cookbooks caught my eye and I plan on trying out some recipes.

The new kitten has cost me about $600.00 between shots, neutering, declawing and one sick visit. UGH. The kitten was not planned, but I do love him. So I'm going to work hard to cashflow the bills.

In the meantime, I packed food for work, but we had an unplanned food day & I contributed $3.00 for pizza. It was SO worth it. The pizza was great

I dropped the kitten at the vet after work and headed to my parents house for a birthday dinner for my sister and dad. I had already given my Dad his gift (shared with Father's Day).

For my sister's birthday, I had previously bought a ticket to an event for her, but I didn't want to go over empty handed. So I gave her a small jewelry box that I had gotten from the dollar store and I regifted a vanilla candle. So no money out there.

Tomorrow, I'm planning on packing food for work and am hoping to get a no spender. We'll see

My dad's hard to shop for, but I got him a 50 cent Father's Day card and a Sidney Sheldon biography for $1.00 at the Dollar Store. I already had treated him to Indiana Jones last week as part of his present.

My nephew spent the night last night and I had him make a Father's day card for Pop-Pop. His dad's not really in the picture much, so my dad has stepped in. The little bugger made a card with a picture of a butt on it. Yes, a butt. Because he's a bit obsessed with the word lately. So I made him make another card. But I'll let him give Pop-Pop both since he'll get a kick out of the butt one

Well, due to a budget constriction at work, they will no longer be sending me to Arizona. Boo! So I won't be able to enjoy a few days of vacation there before heading back But maybe I'll have the chance in a few months.

I still have my vacation scheduled for the week of the 23rd & I'm looking into things to do besides enjoying not working for 9 days in a row I'm going to try to keep things frugal. So I'm making a list of my vacation goals & estimated expenses.

1. Spend at least 2 days of doing Nothing. Sit around in pjs, make food, play video games, watch daytime tv, watch Netflix movies. (No extra cost)

2. Try a few new Weight Watcher recipes - meals, cookies, sweets. (Estimated $25.00 cost)

3. Take my nephew on a day trip. No destination set yet. I need to see what he's like to do. (Est budget $50.00)

4. Go to the beach, which is 2 hours away. I'm considering getting a hotel room & crashing over night so I can get two days in. (Est cost: gas $50.00, food $40.00 and room $100.00)

5. Go to a state park about 30 minutes away. Pack a lunch & spend all day hiking around. I will be packing LOTS of water. ($3.00 admission plus maybe $5 for Subway)

6. Organize basement. List at least 20 things on Craigslist. I have tons of stuff to get rid of. Dvds, video games, seat cushions, glasses, and more. (Free)

7. FINALLY get around to getting a new pantry door. I have a $50.00 gift card from my birthday to go towards it. (Hopefully free after gift card)

8. And I'm thinking about painting the downstairs bathroom. Should be a one-woman job. Small amount of paint. (Est $20.00)

I'm still playing around with what I want to do with my vacation. I might keep or purge some of the above ideas. We'll see



And completely off topic, here's the Mini BBQ Meatloaf muffin recipe that Mom-Sense requested:

1 pound Ground Turkey (Or lean ground beef)
1 Box StoveTop Stuffing
1/2c Water
2 egg whites
1/2c BBQ sauce

Mix together & divide by 12. Bake at 350 in muffin tin. 34-40 minutes.

I turned the AC on today, its in the high 90s outside with high humidity. I'm keeping the AC at 80 now, supplementing with the ceiling fan. I was keeping the AC lower, but I keep upping it, seeing how much I can take

Today I did a ton of laundry, and line dried it. It'll dry quickly in this heat

I worked on a meal plan and my goal is to not spend on eating out this week. I pre-made some meals to take to work. So I'll be all set.

Tonight, I'm enjoying a Netflix movie & I'm heading to bed really early. We're swamped at work & I'm going to head in at 7. Ugh.

In an effort to get back on track, today will be a no spender. I packed breakfast, lunch & snacks for work. I am heading to the park after work (as long as its not raining). Otherwise, its Tae Bo in the living room.

As for tonight, I plan on playing with the kitten (he's got WAY too much energey), watching a Netflix film (reactivated by accident), and organize the kitchen. Fun times

I have a lot of planning to do about my upcoming trip, so I'll be making lots of lists for that!

Hi all! Its been awhile since I've been here and I miss you guys! My computer is down at home & I'm crazy busy at work, so I haven't been able to get on. I should be up and running in the next week or so.

Can't wait to get back!

Today was a no spender, tomorrow is definately not.

I rescued a kitten yesterday morning. It had been crying in my & my neighbors' back yards for two nights. We couldn't get it, so we were feeding it a little. Its only a few weeks old and was starving.

Well, yesterday, I was able to capture it and now its living in my spare bedroom. Separate from my cat Colbi until I can get her to the vet tomorrow to be sure she's not sick.

So far, I've spent $1.00 for a cat food/water dish. $1.00 for cat litter. $1.00 for cat pan liner bags. $3.49 for a litter box. $4.49 for kitten food. (its WAY too young to eat my cat's adult food.

The kitten's a sweetheart. Tiny, probably only 4-5 weeks old. Its skin & bones and although I didn't want/need a cat, I'm going to keep it. So I have lots of upcoming vet expenses for shots, neutering, and declawing.

I'm going to work something out. In the meantime, I get to enjoy the cuteness of the baby kitty I'll try to take some pictures and post them when I can. He is SO adorable.

My good friends and I hung out this weekend. We had a lot of fun. My one friend gave me some neat candles (which I love) and a $50.00 gift card to Lowes. She knew there were things I wanted to get done around the house. This was WAY too generous, but its very typical of her. I've put the card away until I prioritize the house stuff. I want to fix a few things and do some painting. I think I'll get the most out of just planning what I'll use the gift card for

Its been a while since I've posted. Its just that the last two weeks have been crazy at work and I have spent my evenings working out, celebrating my birthday & attending my nephew's baseball games.

In the midst of all this, I have been working towards making my life more simple. And usually simple means more frugal

-Last weekend, I organized my closet to make room for my new clothes. I managed to clear out two large trash bags worth of clothing. I'll be donating those to Good Will. I also am planning to part with a few business suits. I'll keep a few, but my workplace is casual and there's no longer a need for so many. (Cost of organization $0, plus tax benefit of donation)

-I organized my jewelry and found several forgotten pieces. So now I get the pleasure of wearing them again. (Free)

-I was in the habit of cleaning my kitchen and living room before going to bed. Mostly just picking up, but I'd gotten out of the habit due to all the running around I've been doing. For the last few days, I started doing it again. 10 minutes tops, but it is SO nice to wake up and come home to. (Free)

-Except for yesterday, I've had the heat off & windows open. The fresh air has done wonders for my mood and my electric/gas bill. (Electric/gas savings - my bill was only $70 this month and will be lower next)

-I've been spending a lot of time outside (walking). I had a little white butterfly follow along with me. It stayed with me along the bushes next to the walking path for nearly a mile.

I've found the walking to be very stress releaving. For the most part, I've been able to leave my work at work, but lately some of it has been coming home with me. I like what I do, but I have a lot of responsibility. The walking has really helped with the stress and with my sleep. (Cost -gas to get to the park; benefit-improved physical & mental health)

-I've been enjoying learning to cook new things. I take out cookbooks from the library and I've been tweaking the recipes to be more Weight Watcher friendly. I don't cook exactly from scratch, but I do much better, both money and health-wise, than eating out every day. (Free, plus less eating out spending)

As for this weekend, its all about friends and family. My good friends are taking me out to dinner tomorrow night for a belated birthday celebration and then we'll be watching a movie at my house. I had suggested Steven King's The Mist, figuring it was worth it to rent. But when I went to the library, there it was on a shelf. A free fairly new release. What a surprise!

In the morning, I am heading to the May Market which is run by a Garden Club in the small historical town near one of the parks I walk in. I plan on picking up some herbs and getting my walk in. Then I am planning to go to my nephew's ball game. Its actually a lot of fun to watch the kids and its a chance to hang out with my mom 1 on 1. She watches my nephew on Saturdays since my sister works.

I will be working on a meal plan and exercise plan for the week. But I thought I'd at least share the exercise I've done this week.

Last Saturday: 50 minute 2.75 mile walk
Last Sunday: 25 mins Aerobics
Monday: Off day (I have my Weight Watchers meeting that night)
Tuesday: 44 minute 2.6 mile walk
Wednesday: Off day (Family birthday party)
Thursday: 30 minutes Aerobics at home
Friday: 48 minute 2.75 mile walk plus 20 minutes push mowing
Tomorrow & Sunday (weather permitting) - both will be 50 minute walks at two different parks.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

I headed to Old Navy to look for some work pants to replace the waaaay too big ones I'm currently wearing. I have lost 33 pounds & they just don't fit anymore. I was looking like a slob at work.

I got one pair of pants. Plus two cropped pants for walking (desperately needed too due to weight loss), plus two pairs of running shorts, plus a cut spring top, plus a running sports tank top. See a pattern? I bought a bunch of workout clothes (much needed) but I ended up with only a single pair of work pants.

Here's the cut spring top:




So I still need to go shopping for pants. I'll be heading to Kohl's this weekend. I also need to look for non flip-flop sandles for work. UGH.

I've decided that I need to plan more funds to go to my clothes budget. I'm working to lose another 20 pounds and when I'm done, I'm going to need a LOT of new clothes. What a hardship

My air popcorn popper broke today. I was pretty upset because I was craving popcorn. But then I remembered that you can cook popcorn kernels in a paper bag in the microwave. I sprayed a bit of olive oil spray and put the kernels in a bag in the microwave. A minute & a half later, I got my popcorn! Nice!

So no need to invest in a new popper anytime soon. I just have to get some more paper bags