Tag Archives: money matters

The Change You Won’t See

by

Good morning!  The movie wasn’t as good as anticipated (it was much sweeter than we were expecting but not as funny) but I loved my Halloween Dots.  I also snagged half of Adam’s small popcorn and drank a huge diet coke.  I think my favorite part of the entire experience was the soda! 

Unless I don’t post at all for the day, I show you pretty much every single bite I put in my mouth.  I know some bloggers have a bar here or there that they don’t post but that’s not my style.  The only things I don’t show are –

  1. if I take a bite or two of the husband’s food
  2. vitamins – I take Flinestones Gummy Vites (shut up) 4-7 days a week
  3. non-caloric drinks; water and diet sodas

Previously I was having at least 1 (sometimes many many many more) diet sodas a day.  I realize that many people think diet soda is unhealthy, but I do most things healthy and it makes me deliriously happy which I think is a good trade-off.  I’ve thought about “quitting” diet soda over the years, and I’ve always decided that my happiness is a big part of my health too and therefore, for me, the diet soda is healthy.

However, as you know, I don’t have a job.  And in this economy (especially in Buffalo) I could not have a job for a while.  I’ve always been a big saver, so we actually are fine living off our savings and Adam’s loans for the next year, but we do have to be more careful with our money.  We made a budget last weekend and I decided that ultimately, it’s not worth the money to pay to have diet coke in the house.  So now I have to really really enjoy it when I buy one when I’m out 🙂

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Today is another busy day.  I have some fun things I want to do this afternoon, but I’ve got to get all of my not so fun stuff out of the way first.  I have Chemistry work,  a quick trip to the gym, and today we finally need to switch out our closets for our winter duds.  For breakfast I had 1/2C whipped cottage cheese with 4oz fresh cut pineapple.

DSC00323

I’ll see you for lunch.

What is your take on diet sodas?  Do you have a favorite?  Mine is Diet Cherry Coke.

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot

by

Hi again, Merry Monday everyone!  Post-post (that prefix use made me smile) I spent the morning helping Adam fill out some scholarship applications.  I also took care of some general business around the house room.  The thing I am most looking forward to in the move is having more than one room; sleeping, eating, and working in the same place end up making the work space feel hard to work in and the sleep space hard to sleep in.

I also did 10minutes of strength training.  I’ve decided to do Caitlin and Kath‘s 10minute challenge, so I’ll be doing (at minimum) 10minutes of strength training every day.  The fact that this 10minute set (click the link to their sites to see it) made me sweat is all the more incentive to turn it into a routine.

After my shower we rounded up some coupons and headed to the grocery store.

HPIM3660

Between keeping the coupons Key Foods prints at the register, getting offers through the blog, and tearing coupons from magazines, we have saved some good $ this year.  One of the hardest things about next year will be working part time (and right now I don’t even know where I will be able to find a job) and living on Adam’s med school loans, there will be a big lack of cash flow.  We have already begun to budget though, we made a list of all of our monthly expenses, though right now we can only estimate some of them.  For now, the plan is to have $200 a week (that’s $100 a piece) for food and fun.  Monthly expenses like rent, internet, etc will be paid by credit card (we always pay on time and I like the miles) and things like textbooks and prescription drugs will not be taken out of our weekly cash.  But everything else – groceries, movies, magazines – will have to come out of that $200.  Parts of it sound rough but I am looking forward to the challenge.  I will acknowledge that both of our families have very generously offered to help us with some expenses, I’m not going to begin to pretend that I know what it’s like to be a family that actually struggles.  What does your family do to budget?

After the grocery I went all fancy and utilized my Easy Mac for lunch.

HPIM3661

I went *extra fancy* and added 2 chopped hotdogs to it.

HPIM3662

Check out the impressive nutritional stats on these TJ’s Spicy Jalopeno Chicken Sausages:

HPIM3663

Together they made a tasty treat.

HPIM3664

I was feeling snazzy with my classy lunch so I used a pretty bowl.

HPIM3665

And I way spiced it up; it addition to jalopeno sausages I added red pepper flakes and Chipotle Tabasco, look  at that spice!

HPIM3666

I kept the hot party in my mouth to a dull roar by drinking milk on the side.

HPIM3667

It’s pink because I used my last CIB (sugar free strawberry) packet it it, who-woo I can finally open my fun package 🙂

After that husband and I went up to the city for my doctor’s appointment.  After a long waiting room visit and a quick office visit we took a long walk around Times Square.  The thing I’m most sad about with the move will be walking away from how much we get to walk here in nyc.

I have a very low-key evening planned but it does include making dinner, I’ll be back with that lata!