Working on Goals

Husband's M&M bar cake. I never said I was a baker, (that hole was to test if it was done).

Last week I posted 3 goals to link up to The Diary of a Fat Mommy's Weekly Linkup. Here is how I did:


1.No more pop. I made 87% of this goal. Saturday I went out to eat on Saturday and ordered a meal. They gave me a cup and the only options I saw was water (I thought it would be a waste of money) or pop, so I got pop. After I filled my cup I saw the iced tea which would have been a better choice. I'm sure the best choice would be to not go out to eat, but my husband didn't go grocery shopping last week so we had barely any food at the house. I was out with my kids all morning and only had a yogurt for breakfast. After walking around for 3 hours I was starving.What do you get when you go out to eat?

2. I only ended up running once last week, making 33% of this goal. It was Wednesday. It has been a busy and rainy week. I have been tracking my steps on my phone and my total for the last 7 days, including today is 49625.

3. I didn't get to bed on time last Monday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday. It was my husband's birthday on Saturday, so we were out celebrating. For this goal I made 43% of this goal.

Diary of a Fat mommy Weekly Goal Link Up Party

Here are my goals for this week are going to be the same plus add in another, so here are my edits plus one new goal:

1. No pop. I'm going out of town this weekend for my 5k. I know we will stop at least once for fast food so I need to figure out how am I going to handle this: just buy off the dollar menu and have water, get sweat iced tea (does this have high fructose corn syrup or other bad things in it?), can I swap pop for milk or juice (is juice at fast food any better than pop?)

2. 7,000 steps a day. This could include running or it could not. I did run a little on my treadmill tonight. I either need new shoes (well yes I know I need new running shoes) and/or I need to take some vitamin for joints again, as my knees are bothering me. It actually seems better to run outside even though my treadmill has a thick belt. I have so much to do at night that it is hard to get out before dark to run.

3. Bed by 10pm. My current routine is go to be about 10-10:30, toss and turn for what seems like forever, semi wake up a couple times a night. Alarm goes off at 6am and if I have stuff to do I get out of bed by 6:30, if not I stay in until 7am then rush to get us all out the door by 7:30am. I would like this to be: Bed by 10:00 asleep by 10:30 (see the bedtime calculator), wake up at 6am to do an ab workout and and easily get out the door by 7:15a.

4. Dishes done before bed. I tried to do this last week and I kept up except for the weekend, they seem to be my downfall. I want to start working on getting more chores done during the week, to do fun and projects on the weekend. I also want to have everyone help clean the house, not just me.

Link up Weekly Goals at Fitnasty for Life or Diary of a Fat Mommy.

Changing to More Frugal Ways

I have been trying to find ways to cut back on cost around here.  Hy-Vee had a sale on boxes of Jello Pudding for $.69.  When I went to the store to buy a box I saw that they have the Hy-Vee brand was only $.49 for its everyday price.  I decided that pudding was pudding and brought home the Hy-Vee brand.  The box said it was worth 4 servings, but I was able to make 5 serving from one box for my daughter's school lunch.  Unfortunately she forgot her lunch today and was unable to give me her take on the taste.

I also found these deals at the stores this week:

Fareway:

 $3/2 Campbell's Chunky Soup

Fareway coupon $3/3 (limit 3, one coupon per customer)

Manufacturer coupon $1 off of 3 

Final Cost: $2/3

Hy-Vee Two Day Thur/Fri Sale

Rice-a Roni $.99 box

Manufacture coupon $1/4 (facebook like coupon)

Final Cost: $2.96/4

Christmas Shopping

This time of year when buying gifts, you should never pay full price.  There are coupons everywhere: mobile coupons, email coupons, coupons in the Sunday paper, bag stuffer coupons, and at the customer service centers in stores.  Just about everything that is season is going to be on sale, or on sale sometime before Christmas.  Last week I was looking at robes for myself at Target and this week they are on sale.  My sister told me about a shirt at Kohl's that her son wanted, and I signed myself up for mobile coupons.  

I would start at a stores website and sign up for their email and/or text coupons.  It really does pay to be loyal to one store so you can learn their best deals and how their system works.  I know the Younkers in our area has certain restrictions on their coupons, like it excludes cosmetics.  If you sign up for their promotions you can find out when they have their Goodwill or Community Day event and get a discount on cosmetics then.  

Some stores don't have coupons like Best Buy.  You could always use your smart phone if you have one and get the free phone app: Shopkicks ( right now use my referral code thru the link and we both earn 50 kicks).  You can earn kicks and then redeem them for a gift card.  I also earn swagbucks online to earn Amazon gift cards to purchase some of my gifts for Christmas ( use my code http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/IAmom, I would appreciate it).  I have also found that many things that were on a good sale on Black Friday will be on sale that price again if they have them left in stock.  It may be too late for your Christmas shopping this year, but thinking ahead for next year this could save you some cold hard cash or some credit debt.

Happy Holidays!