Craft Show

Well, we had our first craft show today!  It was a LONG one!  We got to the facility (a High School) at 8 this morning, and the craft show ended at 3.  We had lunch and came home. I am exhausted.  We sold SOME of our items, but not that many.  We didnt make it to the triple digits (but close.)  I have another one tomorrow that is only 4 hours long, but I will be doing that one myself. :-( 

I have learned what sells and what doesnt.  It turns out that the smaller items sell (and those are the ones that have the largest profit margin for me.)  So, I will continue to sell the small signs and will probably try to unload the other items and just do the signs at the shows.

What we sold wont even put a dent into what we owe on the credit card for everything I bought, but I learned alot, and I know what to do in the future.  But for now, we just have to sell some more product!  1 show down, 3 more to go this month.

Electronics

Lately, I’ve felt the need to get rid of the electronics in the house.  They are taking up too much time.  Between FaceBook, my 5 email accounts, the message board I am part of, my cell phone, the TV, the blog…it is just a lot of work!  How much time could I spend doing other things that need to get done around the house (like dusting!) if I were to get rid of these things within the day?  Probably a lot.  I am already doing a horrible job keeping up with emails and the business website as it is.  Luckily, I am able to schedule out the blog posts, and I have enough content to last the next two and a half weeks.  Some weeks, I am in a chatty mood and I want to vent (like this particular week,) other weeks, I’m fine with the way everything is and have nothing to say.

So, I am thinking about taking ONE DAY to see what it’s like WITHOUT electronics.  Oh shoot, that would mean I would have to give up my Podcasts on the way to work.  Sugar.  That’s OK. Maybe that will give me time to think about whatever I want to think about…uninterrupted.

Would anyone like to join me on an electronics-free day? 

It doesn’t necessarily have to be on the same day as one another.  But I thought it may be an interesting experiment.

Day 2: Caloric Deficit of 500 Calories!

On Day 2, my caloric deficit was over 500 calories!  How ?  I am not getting as hungry any more!  I am more conscious of what I am putting into my mouth.  I don’t eat if my belly isn’t grumbling for food.  AND…I walked with Lana even though it was SO COLD outside (maybe shivering burns more calories.)    When I got on the scale this morning, I was down another pound!  I will not weigh myself again until Friday morning.

This plan is so easy, and I am not feeling deprived at all!  I just stay within my calories and try to walk with the puppy every morning!  I can now see that I DON’T need as many calories as I thought I did in the past. 

Weekly Weigh-In: November 5

Since Monday, I've lost 2 lbs!  YAY!

So, my numbers are as follows.

Total weight loss:  8 lbs
12 lbs to go to hit my goal of losing 20 by Thanksgiving.

This weekend will be a tough one.  Hubby is home, and we are doing 2 craft shows.  We may be eating out, or have finger food.  And for breakfast this morning, I've asked for french toast.  I am really craving french toast!

So, we will see what next week brings!
Hopefully 2 more lbs lost!

What do you do to save money?

I am always looking for new ways to save money.  What do you do to save money?

We do the following:

• Use Restaurant.com coupons (but only when we get them for 75%+ off!)
• Go to the dollar theater ($1.50/person thanks to inflation)
• Shop at thrift stores
• Shop at Aldi’s mainly, and then get meat on sale at local stores
• Make our own wine
• Do car repairs / home repairs ourselves (meaning Todd does them all! J )
• Eat In – we only go out to eat about twice a month
• Pack our lunches (though I DO go out to eat every Wednesday with a co-worker.  That comes out of my allowance money.)
• Compare prices on utilities to get the best rate
• Todd and I cut our own hair

A Milestone!

This afternoon, while at work, I was logging into the only two accounts we have left with balances on them (to try to help keep Todd encouraged.)  When I added up our debts, I realized that for the FIRST TIME since we have been together (since December 2005,) our debt is only 4 digits (instead of 5!!)  We are under $10,000 in debt!

It was such a great feeling!!
We should be done with the car loan by the end of the year, adn then we will work on Todd's American Express.  After that, we are DEBT FREE (but the house)!!!  I dont EVER want to be in debt again.

Day 1 : Caloric Deficit of 325 Calories

Day 1 (Monday, Nov. 1st) : Calorie Deficit of 325 calories

Day 1 – I had a calorie deficit of 325 calories by the end of the day.  I ended up eating a little over 1200 calories!  I was proud of myself and a bit surprised too!  It is amazing to see how SMALL a portion you can get for A LOT of calories on junk food and how MUCH vegetable you get for a SMALL amount of calories!

Todd was home from work on Day 1 (Monday, November 1^st) and made dinner for when I got home.  Because I did such an awesome job on the unagi-don this past weekend, he was trying to mimic another one of our favorite meals at a Mexican restaurant.  It was a bean burrito with diced tomatoes and cheese on top with a dollop of sour cream. 

I was AMAZED at how many calories were in the bean burrito alone!  330!! In the past, I’d eaten 2 of them easily!  On Monday, I ate just one of them at a whopping 450 calories (with all the fixin’s on top.)

I entered all of my calories into the app, and saw I had a 360 calorie deficit and was excited, but knew I had to stop for the day.

Later that evening, Todd asked for a freeze pop while I was going by the kitchen.  I picked up one for him and one for me.  I sat there on the computer and ate my popsicle while he ate his.  After I was done, I was biting on the plastic wrapper, and then I realized what I had just done!  I ate a popsicle without really even thinking about it!!!  NO WONDER I have been gaining weight.  I am eating food without even thinking about what I’m eating or the calories that I am consuming!

I ran into the kitchen to see how many calories I had eaten.  Luckily, it was just 35.  So I was still under for the day.  But this proved to me that I don’t pay attention when I eat.  Moral of the story : Be more conscientious when putting ANYTHING into my mouth.

I weighed myself the next morning, and I had dropped a pound.  I know I shouldn’t weigh myself every day, but I was too excited not to. 

My fear is my lunch out with a coworker every Wednesday.  I get the lunch boat, and I finally found out how many calories are in the lunch boat that I get : 1250!!!  Yes… that’s correct.  My daily allowance of calories is in a single lunch that I’ve been eating every Wednesday for over a year.  The past several weeks, I have been saving the salmon and rice for lunch the next day.  Those two alone are 480 calories!  So, what am I going to do?  I will split it up into 3 meals.

That being said, one lunch will be 415 calories, and the other two would be 315 calories each.  That is a lot of calories to consume for a lunch.  To offset that, I will try to drink a green smoothie for breakfast each day and fill up on water until lunch-time.  If I need a snack, I will have carrots or some popcorn (a bag of the fit & active popcorn is only 50 calories!) 

I cant wait to step on the scale on Friday to see how much I’ve lost!

Smaller Portions

I am working on portion control as well as counting calories to help lose weight and meet my goal to lose 20 by Thanksgiving, 30 by Christmas, and 40 by my 30^th birthday in early February.  I tried with just exercise since October with only a 6 lb. weight loss and then maintained for 2-3 weeks.

I purchased the livestrong app from iTunes and so far, I LOVE IT!  It tells me how many calories I need to consume a day to lose 2 lbs in a week.  I am surprised at the vast majority of food items they have in their database, and the calories are pretty much right on.  It also tracks my weight progress, and it has a diary where I can log how I am feeling for the day to see if my moods effect how or what I eat.

Skinny little Rachel Boreing, a  fellow blogger, eats tiny portions! No wonder she is so thin! So, it is now a running joke that I say I eat “Boreing sized portions.”  By the way, if you haven’t read her blog, I highly recommend it!  There are a lot of great recipes as well as articles.

Love Notes

Wednesday evening after dinner, I was outside with the kittens playing (and hoping they’d go potty!) before I went over to play with Lana & Squiggy for the evening (I like to wear everyone out before bedtime and give them lots of love!)  Todd sent me a text message without me even knowing about it.  When I’m home, my phone is normally always in my purse and I don’t bother to answer it or check it until I am on my way to work the next morning.  Thursday morning, I checked my phone on my way to work, and I had a sweet love message waiting for me that Todd sent at 7:05 the night before.  The note was about how much he loved me and how much he enjoyed watching my play with the little balls of fur outside.  And some other things that I wont divulge in (you can thank me for that! J )

I thought it was so sweet of him to do that, knowing that I wouldn’t get the message until the next morning.  I was doing something that I thought was really insignificant, but he found it endearing.  It melted my heart.

It also made me think about the fact that we were willing to throw this all away.  All of this fun and laughter as well as new experiences. 

Then I started to think about when we have children.  Would times be like this when we have little ones running around?  I see how much fun the menagerie is with 1 pot bellied pig, 1 puppy, and 4 cats.  I am sure it would be even better with a little one around.  Then I started to really yearn to start a family with Todd. 

We may not be perfect, but I am completely convinced we are perfect for each other. He is a pain in the tuckus (a word we use to describe Squiggy’s cute bottom) at times, but I can deal with those times if we have these fun times with each other and the sweet love notes once in a while.  Todd makes me want to be a better wife, a better daughter, a better friend, and a better person in general.

Why We Werent Able to Live Off of Todd's Income

I feel horrible for not being able to live off of Todd’s income this month.  I feel as though I failed in planning.  I really wanted to live off of one income.  So, I have been taking a look to see what we did wrong.

This is what I’ve concluded:

1.)    We went out of town for my cousin’s wedding in upstate New York the first weekend of October. That was a good 600 mile round-trip in Todd’s not-as-fuel-efficient vehicle.  Why did we take his vehicle?  It is easier for him to drive than Bianca because of her being a standard. Todd has carpal tunnel, and the constant shifting really bothers his hands.  So, instead of getting 42MPG, we got approximately 30MPG.

2.)    While on our way to NY, we stopped off in PA to several wineries in which we spent nearly $100 to stock us up for the Winter until we can make our own in the Spring.

3.)    Projects: Todd completed a couple of projects this month and needed to make a trip to the hardware store.  Those $10-15 trips a couple times can add up!

4.)    I had a brainy idea that I would add more to my plate and start the knick-knack business.  I now have 5 shows booked, but it cost me anywhere from $10-$35/show to set up a table.  Again, this adds up.  Not to mention the business cards I purchased and the domain name.  I did a very bad thing and purchased inventory on the credit card.  I would have to sell $125/show in order to pay off the credit card.  Todd has no idea how much I spent.  I didn’t mean to spend that much, but when you are walking through a gallery choosing items, it’s difficult to see how much you are spending.  24 pieces at $0.60/each here, 48 pieces at $1.10 there.  YIKES!  Todd asked, “Are you going to tell me how much damage you did?”  I said, “Nope.”  We don’t generally use credit cards.  I am hoping this is my LAST TIME using it now that I have inventory to start the business off.  Next time, I am not buying inventory unless we have cash saved up!

5.)     Snow Tires: Todd bought snow tires from Craigslist last month for $200 – a steal!  But now, he has to have them mounted.  This is a $60 expense.  I originally asked him to hold-off until next month to get them mounted, but every time the cold front would come through, he would get a bit antsy.  So I told him to go ahead and have them mounted at the end of October.

6.)    Oil Change: Todd is stocked up on oil filters to perform oil changes on both of our vehicles.  However, he did not realize that we did not have enough oil to do the oil changes.  On the 28^th of October, we needed oil changes on both cars with only 2 qts of oil in stock at the house.  SO, he purchased 4 jugs of oil to last this oil change and the next one.  At over $6/jug, it adds up.

So, this means that it will be difficult to pay off Todd’s vehicle mid-November.  Christmas is just 3 pay-periods away (based on my income every 15^th & 30^th.)  That makes me nervous. I still need to purchase gifts for my mom and her husband as well as my father and his wife.  They are the big ones we buy for, so that will hurt the budget.

At this point, I would be ecstatic if we could pay off Todd’s vehicle by the end of November, but it doesn’t look like that will be possible.  It may not be until the end of the year that we will be able to pay off the Rondo.  In December, we have a lot of expenses (property tax on two houses, propane fill-up ($500+), and a puppy getting fixed ($300.)) Oh my goodness, why do I do this to myself?  I procrastinate and I don’t stick to my guns, then I get anxious about all that needs done to meet my goals.  Oy!