I've had a lot on my mind recently in every aspect of my life and decided maybe blogging would be the best outlet for it. I encourage any and all feedback as long as it's respectful. I'm genuinely full of questions and am searching for answers and encouragement to try and answer them all. I'll start with the less serious stuff first and then move on to the deeper areas I've got questions about.
1. Finances
I am the worst money manager ever. I vow every year as part of my new year's resolutions that this is the year I will make a budget and stick to it and somehow I find myself living paycheck to paycheck or counting on my financial aid money. After this coming school year, I'm not going to have that to rely on any longer so I need to stop depending on it now. Yes, it's good to have it and stick it in savings incase something happens, but I can't keep counting that as part of my regular income.
With my plan to move to Denver next summer, I need to start to establish some sort of savings account and I need to pay off my credit cards. For those of you who take care of the family finances, what are your tips for staying on a budget, grocery shopping, paying bills, etc.? Do you use any kind of program to help you keep track or do you just use your checkbook? I'm all ears in this department because I've got nothing.
2. Cooking
I told my mom I want to teach myself to cook before I move to Denver next summer. As you all know, I'm the world's pickiest eater so quite honestly, my dinners a lot of times consist of switching off between peanut butter sandwiches, spaghetti with jar sauce, soup, tacos, and anything I can put in the oven/microwave. I love things like mashed potatoes and beef stew and even homemade spaghetti sauce but I have no idea where to even begin to make them myself. I also like burgers and steaks and what not but don't know the first thing about either grilling them or cooking them on the stove. Help! Recipes and tips are encouraged, especially for desserts! haha
3. Weight loss
Thanks to my psoriasis, I haven't been able to work out since the end of May. I have a gym bag packed and ready to go for tomorrow when I get off of work since I've been getting off early so I'm headed to do some cardio and strength training. What are some of your favorite workouts? What are tips for getting the weight off and keeping it off? If I could figure out how to cut the pop out of my diet I would be golden but the caffeine withdrawals are awful! I usually end up caving after about a day of no caffeiene. :-/ I drink a ton of water at work but I usually have some kind of caffeine either first thing in the morning or during my lunch break. If I could train my body to not need it, I know it would be so good for me. I just can't get my mind past the thought that I need caffeiene to survive when I know I really don't.
Realisitically, I'd love to lose three pounds a month, which seems to be pretty average but I'm just stuck at a plateau and can't get over it. I've actually put back on about 10 pounds since I wasn't able to work out and then eating all the time in Denver. I feel so uncomfortable in my body again and all of the smaller size jeans I bought now are too small again. I refuse to buy bigger pants so the weight is just going to have to come off. I just don't know where to start.
4. Spirituality
This is the big one for me. I actually think I'm going to save this entry for tomorrow or later in the week because I want to do some reading before I post the thoughts I'm having. As a teaser and a reminder, I want to remind myself to touch on the idea of three heavens, sexuality, sleeping vs. going to heaven, salvation/judgment day, etc. Yes, I have a reasoning for why I'm going to write about all of this but like I said, I want to do some reading before I post my thinking on these subjects and where they all came from.
I think that's it for right now. I promise a bigger entry on the spiritual issues later this week but any advice on the first three topics is very much welcomed because I need it, especially in the finance area. It's time for some big changes and a new adventure. I'm so ready!
2 comments:
I can only wonder what you're going to say!
1. We just started using mint.com for finances, we had been using Quicken. We have a 'paper' budget in Google Docs that has all the expense categories listed with an 'estimated amount' and then an 'actual amount' so we can see where we are being too spendy. The tip for staying on budget is there is only so much money and putting it on a credit card is not an option to us. After a few months you just get use to living a certain way and telling people you can't do something that isn't in the budget.
Our grocery budget is $300 for 3 people and I do get a lot of fresh items, I just shop sales and coupon a bit. We eat out 1x/week and it's always under $25 for us (though I've started buying more from Groupon and such to bring it down/vary our choices).
All our bills are on auto-pay so they get paid on time, paychecks are direct-deposited so we know the money is in the account.
2. I'm a horrible cook, we eat a lot of the same things repeatedly- lucky Steve and Wes don't mind! A crockpot will be your friend when you are single and working, you can come home to a hot yummy meal and it's cheaper than eating out!
3. I'm stuck as well. :-/ I've been using Myfitnesspal.com to help me out a bit since WW is so pricey. I really like it.
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