One Mom and A Long Laundry List

It has been a long week of trying to get caught up from all the time missed here at work. Well, I have noticed that many moms seem to have their blogs dedicated to their weight loss and got me to thinking, I didn't put much thought into getting my pre-mommy body back. Now I do occasionally give a gander into the mirror and have that sneaking thought of, "Wow, where did I go?" but it has not been a top priority on my already long list of things to do. Now weight loss goals seem to be most people's new year's resolution but I don't keep my resolutions and do terrible with setting timed goals for myself, face it I don't have the time for that stuff! I do however want to make an effort to get back in shape, not just for my own self esteem but because you constantly hear about obese children and how lazy the new generations are. I think that by setting a better goal of fitness and healthy eating/living, Christian stands a better chance of being a lean, mean, outgoing monkey! Now, I don't mean that I am going to turn this blog into my own personal weight watchers, I do hope to occasionally update everyone on my progress but that is what it will be, progress, not "here is what I ate this week, here is what I did this week, this is what I lost this week." I intend to change my eating habits, gradually, so I stick to it and start to be more outgoing and do more activities outdoors. Then, I will try to incorporate some exercise into my already jam-packed schedule, as time permits. Right now,  I am at a starting weight of 186 *gasp, a female who told the truth about her weight* and hope to get down to my pre-baby weight of 154, eventually. Another self-esteem boost I hope to work on is the stretch marks. Now before people start coming after me with torches and pitchforks, I know they are my badge of mommyhood but who really made it fashionable to have the train tracks of hell running on you?! Badge or no badge, they need to go, Christian is my badge of mommyhood and the only thing I need to remind me that I am a mommy! While we are on a gradual goal list (laundry list if we may), I want to add saving to that list. I use to be wonderful at saving but now not so much. Shopping is much more tempting now, especially for a baby! I need to work on a nestegg or just emergency fund or anytime fund to use. I hope to work on this by using my couponing skills more efficiently, putting a little away every check, and maybe not buying too much un-needed things (not that I recently bought all that much - no money no fun!) So, though I expect this all to come in time, I hope to see some progress by the middle of this year and will occasionally keep you all informed, as I don't want this to be a constant weight loss journal - who needs that!

Extreme Couponing...Sort Of

Sorry to post so late but yesterday was a long day. I caught this show a few days ago on TLC about extreme couponers. These are people who plan way ahead for grocery shopping and go crazy with coupons saving hundreds to thousands of dollars and have stockpiles of food and more. I began to turn the idea around in my head of extreme couponing and set off on the web to research this grocery game. I began by signing up with coupon blogs/sites for ideas and the 101 on couponing. My favorite site is frugalcouponliving.com. Then after a little schooling, I hunted down coupons from manufacturers on sites like coupons.com. I also signed up with companies like Kellogs, Betty Crocker, and Seventh Generation for special member coupons. These worked out great and I was excited by my first hunt, I felt as if I could get the hang of this. My last step was to load eCoupons from two sites to my shopping card. I had just picked up a new card, as my old one had the barcode pretty much smudged off, and it was at home. Once home, I used my phone to try to register my card on the Fry's website but no success, my first dsappointment. I decided that we could forego those on this trip and began to get organized. My earlier research told me that organization is the make or break of this game. I started with writing my shopping list, then clipped my printed coupons and matched those up to my list. Finally, I went through the circulars and clipped competitor coupons and checked out my store's sale. I set a small goal of $20 savings and off John, Christian, and I went. Once we arrived I pulled out my list and my phone's calculator and we met our first aisle, produce, and the disasters began. John and I don't shop together as I am a slow shopper and I believe it drives him nuts, so it started off with me chasing after him and Christian who had the cart. Then I learned that the calculator on my touch phone is super sensitive so I kept having to re-add my prices 6 times until finally we just opened up one at the store (sorry Frys). After that I still had issues with calculators and rushing and would say our trip totalled 2 pushing 3 hours. I missed a lot of things on my list and knew before we hit the register that I exceeded my preset budget, we began emptying out the cart. I was getting out my clipped coupons and shopping card watching in horror as the items were scanned and tallied. I handed over my coupons and the heard the clerk say that they don't take competitor coupons anymore and tried to avoid showing my crushed panic face as I took them back. After all was scanned and bagged, I still exceeded my budget but for savings, I met and surpassed my $20 goal! I saved a total of $64.99 - $10 in coupons and $54.99 in shopping card savings. After this trip we went home and ate as we were all cranky and hungry. I feel this trip helped me better understand how to organize and what coupons to take. I am excited for my next grocery trip.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5