Weigh In Friday

Weigh In Friday... I know I gave it away with the red font for those of you who have followed me a long time . Yes it is a loss of 1.6 pounds. Yayy! Go me!

My mom's big mouth paid off.. this time

Those of you who do not know me in person are thinking, wow , I can not believe she said her momma has a big mouth. Those of you who do know me are probably thinking, oh my what did she say now. Here goes.... We went to Verizon because she was going to replace my phone that she lost. I am under contract and have no insurance so I would have to pay full retail and my renewal is not available until next January. Oh my we are talking a minimum of $150 and I just sent all of our old phones to Phones for Soldiers. She overheard this couple upgrading their phones and the salesman stating, wow your phones are in great condition. I wish we could resell them. BLING!!!! went my mom's mind. She said, " Can I interrupt you?" She explained the situation and the man sold us his old phone for $50 , just like my old phone but it is pink. The salesman said he could activate it for free because I am a current customer. I am happy and the customer was happy. Even though I have all the accessories, he is bringing them to my work tomorrow. The only thing I wish is that he included her pink blue tooth with it but that was asking too much. So anyone that has my cell number needs to call it so I can save your number in my contact list. By the way, I also give God the credit because we were heading to Verizon about an hour and half earlier and stopped at Big Lots, see God knew what he was doing. Had we been there earlier we would not have been there with this couple. WOW!

Weigh-In Dat

I lost .6 of a pound. Trying to be encouraged but I feel I worked really hard all week except Sunday to lose less than a pound. Oh well, I guess every .10 counts. I will keep trying.

The sun was out...

The sun was bright and beautiful today. I took advantage of my day off and did not sleep in or do the lazy day thing. The sun was too pretty and calling my name. By noon , I had already gone to the Y for a little elliptical and strength training. Came home and was intending to have a nice lunch with my mom around 1:30 or 2, go for a 2 mile walk in the sun and shop at Super K for double coupon day. Well lunch came more at 3, I was trying to be economical and use my coupon book but the first restaurant did not open until 4 and it was 2:15. Well I found another coupon for another place not too far down the road. We got there and this restaurant had closed down. Bummer. We finally stopped at The Castle on Jefferson Ave. It was pretty good, no coupon though. I had eaten there years ago and was unimpressed but today I was impressed or just really hungry. I had a garden salad and half sub combo. I added olives to the salad and it was delicious. At first when the sub arrived I was disappointed in the size but the taste made up for it. The sub bread was freshly cooked and it was delicious too. Off to the walking trail at Fantasy Farm... but the phone rang. My sister asking if we can be at her house around 6 she had some where she wanted to go and she was supposed to babysit a little girl tonight and wanted to know if we could watch her and my nephew. Part of me wanted to say no because we had things to do but the niceness in me agreed. All of this to say that my 2 mile outdoor walk was one mile because we still had to go to K-Mart but it was a great one mile. I think the sun is what I needed for a little pick-me-up.

Oh and by the way, we saved $42 in double coupons. So all in all it was a good day. See what a little sun can do to perk you up a little.

Prayer!

I need prayer. I am down and in a rut right now. Things are crashing around me. I know God is in Control. It is hard to trust when everything you hear is negative. I have found myself of being in a situation of looking for a job. I have not had to do this in years and years. Honestly, all of my jobs but one I have been hired because I knew people on the inside. I am scared. I do not interview well. I went on many after graduating college and felt I was not hired because of my weight. I am scared.

All of this leaves me feeling down. When I am down I do not want to work-out and I want comfort food. I am trying to not turn to food. I did miss my workout tonight but am going to have to go tomorrow and watch Biggest Loser later.

Just keep me uplifted in prayer.

Calorie Pinching #1

Last night I was near a chain Chicago type style pizza restaurant that will go un-named. I know you are thinking, she is eating out and not penny -pinching. AH HAH! I used my free coupon they gave me for reporting bad service a long time ago. Well last night I had a slice or two or three or maybe four, SHHHH! Today I decided to be the penny pincher and take a slice of the sausage and a slice of the veggie one for lunch. I also decided to track my food on sparkpeople again today since I avoided that all day yesterday. I was flabbergasted to find out when I went to the company website that one slice of the sausage pizza had 750 calories and... 55 grams of fat. I then went and checked out the veggie one, you know it is veggie, it has to be ok. Nope, nope. That had 550 calories and a whopping 45 grams of fat. WOWSERS! OH MY! YIKES! I had to look it up after I had already eaten lunch , of course. The rest of today I have been in shock. When it comes to my health this is one time it did not pay to be a penny pincher. I had eaten 100 grams of fat in one sitting and the slices were not that big either. All I can say is it not only pays to eat at home financially but nutritionally too.

Penny Pinching #2

Yes, two posts in one day and they are somewhat related. I am penny pinching again.

Eating out. Yes in my last post, I covered this with lunch but now it is dinners and weekends. I used to eat out every Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday lunch. Now it is only Sunday lunch with the family. A few months ago I would have told you I never would have stopped this habit but today I get upset if I have not prepared ahead at home or there is nothing unfrozen. I just don't want to give up my money for food I can make at home. Some food I can not make, so if I am wanting it , I do eat out. One of those is Mexican. I can make some things Mexican but not everything. I have learned to make a mean chicken tortilla soup and I am glad because at El Pollo Loco it is over $5.

This evening we went triple coupon shopping at Harris Teeter. By the way I saved $30. Well I could smell BBQ chicken and was looking for it. I know it was a premade food and that meant more money. I never found the chicken but found the BBQ ribs they had just put out. They were on sale for $13.98 for 2 racks. Ummh, 2 big racks. I went back to the meat department and they were $14-17 for one rack. I walked right back up to the front and bought that premade double rack for $13.98. I am not a big rib eater. Once in a blue moon I want them and evidently the moon is blue tonight. I came home cooked some rice a roni and corn. Two of us ate a little over one rack. The total for dinner tonight was about $16 for a rib dinner for two. You know I could not get that at a restaurant. Plus I have leftovers. So basically we had one dinner a piece and one of us gets lunch. Let me tell you those ribs were awesome. I usually don't like any meat on the bone but I was licking my fingers dry they were so good. Even as reasonable as it was for ribs it was still an unusual splurge. Had we eaten out, you know it would have been $17.99 to $19.99 a piece. Savings of $19-23.

Have you really thought about how much money one can spend eating out and not cooking
at home? I know most restaurants I can not leave without spending a minimum of $10. That is $10 times three times of eating out on weekends. Last weekend my Sunday lunch was $9.31. So I saved $20 by eating in on Friday and Saturday.

Next time you are thinking of eating out, think hard about whether you can make that at home and be just as happy and have a few more dollars.

Penny Pinching #1

Penny Pinching... I have been doing alot of that lately. I stopped buying my lunch out everyday. Do I pack my lunch, no. Our church is now a pick-up site for Angel Food Ministries. What is this you ask? Well here is the website for you to look into it yourself. http://www.angelfoodministries.com/

It is not just for poor people. I am not poor but I do not have extra money either. I break even, barely but never ahead. They also offer senior/ convenience meals. These are premade frozen entrees which are a step ahead of most TV dinners and more filling and nutritious. They are not just for seniors either. You get a 10 pack of meals plus 10 desserts ( this month was 10 moon pies and next month is 10 sets of 2 cookies)for $28. Yes folks, that is $2.80 a piece. That has become my lunch on most days. I supplement it with a veggie or salad from home. How has this saved me? Prior to this I was spending $5.50 to $8 a day on lunch, yes on lunch. That is $27.50 to $40 a week on lunch. I bought last month's meals. I know 10 does not cover me for a month but it does supplement me. I eat at least 2 a week. I still allow myself Subway or Chinese once a week. Wednesdays I travel a lot for deliveries so grab lunch on the go. This past week I bought lunch out both Monday and Tuesday. In two days I had spent over $10. I was astounded and mad at myself. I did not need to do that. I had the meals in the work freezer and let temptation win by eating out.

As for the other boxes that you can buy. You have to buy either the senior box or the regular box. The regular box has everyday food like mac and cheese, chicken, ribs, shelf-milk, eggs, I could go on and on. That box is only $30. Every month it changes. Then you have special boxes you can add on. This month we bought the fruit and veggie box. We got a head of cabbage, bag of onions, bag of sweet potatoes, bag of baking potatoes, bag of oranges ( they were awesome), 4 tangerines, 4 pears, 2 grapefruit, a pound of carrots and a half pound of pecans. That box was $21.

I highly encourage anyone struggling or just trying to save a buck to check into the facility near them. Our church is not listed yet because we are just starting. If you are in the area, you can email me and I will send you the specifics.

By the way this is not an advertisement because the church earns money. The church gets $1 for every box to help fray the costs of hosting the program. That's it. Just trying to give some penny pinching tips. Some of the people in our church that I thought would never get a box are and they keep reordering. I was shocked.

I patiently waited again....

I waited again but it never happened. Well it happened but only about 20 flakes. It was predicted again. I woke up at 4 am and was excited to look out the window and see snow. I was disappointed again. Then I thought it is an eery color outside and kind of a weird dark but light. I was hoping that when I got up again that the ground would be covered. No such luck. It was sunshiny. Viper radar even called for it but once again, nothing. I don't think I slept much after 4 am in anticipation. I know I am such a kid.

What does a girl have to do to wake up and see a beautiful white covered snow fall. Oh well , maybe in a few weeks or Easter like last year. Yeah, Easter, I live in Hampton Roads and you never know what will happen.

Blahhh !

Blahhh is how I feel. We had a Super Bowl party at my sister's house tonight and I nibbled all night long and had three sodas. I am full and bloated. I do not miss these days. Back to normal tomorrow.