April goals wrap up

April has been quite a wild ride. For the most part, given the month, I'm pleased with my progress overall. Can't win 'em all. :-)

For the financial challenge:

1. Cut $100 off of our fixed expenses. We've done a great job reviewing all of our utility bills (we bucket this for cable, internet, cell phones, etc), but there's always more to do. - We shaved $40 off of our cable package, but that's it.
2. Make $500 towards my girls trip. - Done!
3. Cut eating out back to $150 for the month. - Yeah, no. The month threw us some unexpected curve balls. We spent $250 on dining out.
4. Cut the groceries back to $550, and really focus on meal planning and reducing food waste. We've gotten sloppy.- Yes! We spent $429.83, thanks in part to our Costco rebate & also our increased dining out. ;-)
5. Keep the house spending to $100. We've been buying a lot of miscellaneous things for the house, & I put postage charges (eBay) in this category, so I'd like to include those charges & still keep this to $100. - We spent $231 on the "house" category. Much of it was eBay/postage related, but there was also the charge for refilling our propane (barbecue), buying fish food & supplies, as well as shampoo, mouthwash, etc.

Other April goals:

1. Lose 2 lbs, bringing my weight to 142. - I lost one pound. This month, I'll take it! :-)
2. Complete the following workouts: - I clearly couldn't work out as much as I wanted in April.
1. 1200 minutes of cardio - Closing out the month at 902 minutes. . . my first time under 1,000 in a LONG time.
2. 12 strength workouts - I completed 6 strength workouts.
3. 10 stretching workouts - I completed 5 stretching workouts - still better than January & February!
4. Try one new to me workout - Nope.
3. Run 100 miles in April. - I ran 50 miles in April, & I'm happy that I managed that.
4. Run a 10K - Yes! Had a great time & ran harder than I thought I could !
5. Finalize summer break plans & book all camps/childcare - Yes!
6. Buy one tuition credit for each kid. - Yes!
7. Pay an extra $1000 on the mortgage. - This is the first month we've ever really tracked it, but we paid just a smidge over $1000 extra.
8. File & pay for our taxes. Gulp. - Done! Goodbye, $13K. I barely knew ya.
9. One date night with M. - Yes!
10. Two get togethers with friends. - I managed one, just a few days ago.
11. Clean out my closet & dressers. - Nope.
12. Book last plane ticket for girls trip. - Yes!
13. Tackle one additional drawer or closet in the garage - sort, inventory & donate. - Nada.
14. Read 2 books. - I read one!
15. Plan fun weekend with my nephew (for his spring break) - Yes! He came, we baked, he had a great time. :-)

Phew! Hoping May is a much more fabulous month. How about you? How did you do with your April goals?

Menu plan Monday & health update

My weekend was cruising along until Saturday evening, when I got a call from my doctor. Basically, I tested positive for an autoimmune issue, & need to go see a rheumatologist. I am concerned, but trying my best not to self-diagnose (such a waste of time & cause of unnecessary stress that I really don't need right now) & stay off of the various sites that talk about this positive test result & what it could mean. It's not great news no matter what, but hopefully it's a small(er) problem, rather than something more systemic.

Enough about that. The rest of the weekend was spent with me going to worst case scenario & thinking about how we would need to change our lives if I was sick. (See above - self diagnosis helps no one).

I'm calling for an appointment this morning. Hopefully they can get me in this week so I can stop freaking out & find out what's really happening with my body. M cancelled his business trip this week, which was sweet, but unnecessary, so I'm planning meals for the entire week. I think it's been four months since he's been home for this long. Yeah! :-)

• Monday - tacos (beef for the kiddos, chicken for the adults)
• Tuesday - pasta with tomatoes, parmesan & Italian sausage (freezer)
• Wednesday - hamburgers (the weather is supposed to be great!)
• Thursday -
• Friday - M is out of town at his cousin's 50th birthday party. I'll come up with something for the kiddos.
• Saturday - M out of town. I'm taking the kids to a party at our gym, & then to dinner there.
• Sunday - Homemade pizza. Thinking of trying barbecued chicken this week.

In other news, I found a fabulous knock off recipe for Zbars (the kids version of Clif bars). I made these over the weekend, & they are amazing! The kids love them, & I do too. ;-) They have no sugar (dates instead), no butter, & are relatively sweet, but also filling. Perfect snack!

I need to find a more savory lunch/snack for the kids, & I was thinking of making popcorn for their lunches - and adding seasonings. If you have savory snack ideas, please share! No nuts are allowed, which makes it hard.

And, here's what I managed to get done this weekend (off of my earlier post)

1. Plan a menu for the next week or so. We've been eating out too much & flying by the seat of our pants.- Done! A little late, but complete.
2. Get back to working out, which the doctor swears will help not hurt my energy levels. I'm fine with slow running mixed with jogging. I'm committing to myself not to get bummed by having to go slower than normal. - Well, the new test result throws a wrinkle in this, but I worked out Saturday & Sunday.
3. Run (or, walk) my 10K this weekend. - Done. Surprised myself with a great run!
4. Two stretching workouts (either yoga or pilates) - No, although I am doing pilates this evening.
5. Two blog posts. I've been out of the loop! - One! :-)
6. Determine my next set of items to list on eBay. I've made over $1800 so far!!! - I listed three additional items, but need to continue to see what we have - I like to have about ten things going at any given time.
7. Plan another half marathon for the summer. I'm clearly not going to be well trained for my upcoming run on Mother's Day, and while I'll likely still do it, I have low expectations for my time. - On hold until I see the specialist.
8. Help my sister plan my grandmother's 80th birthday. - In progress.
9. Decide on a gift for my mom for mother's day. - I've decided, but have not picked it up yet.
10. Find a way to squeeze in a date night with M! Or, maybe a lunch if dinner is not possible. - we had lunch together on Friday, & I've found a new potential sitter! So excited! We haven't had a sitter in years, & really need one.

Not too bad. I'll take it! How was your weekend?

Ten things Thursday

Normally I have a to do list the length of my arm, but I'm slowly getting my energy back from being sick (and dealing with a big anemia flare up, which was likely the cause of my fatigue, combined with the flu). Time to focus on just a few things I want to get done the rest of the week.

Here goes:

1. Plan a menu for the next week or so. We've been eating out too much & flying by the seat of our pants.
2. Get back to working out, which the doctor swears will help not hurt my energy levels. I'm fine with slow running mixed with jogging. I'm committing to myself not to get bummed by having to go slower than normal.
3. Run (or, walk) my 10K this weekend.
4. Two stretching workouts (either yoga or pilates)
5. Two blog posts. I've been out of the loop!
6. Determine my next set of items to list on eBay. I've made over $1800 so far!!!
7. Plan another half marathon for the summer. I'm clearly not going to be well trained for my upcoming run on Mother's Day, and while I'll likely still do it, I have low expectations for my time.
8. Help my sister plan my grandmother's 80th birthday.
9. Decide on a gift for my mom for mother's day.
10. Find a way to squeeze in a date night with M! Or, maybe a lunch if dinner is not possible.

On the budgeting front, things are going surprisingly well, given that I've been on autopilot & not focusing at all on the numbers. We definitely ate out more than normal, but our grocery bill was down drastically due to: M traveling more for work, the eating out, and our Costco rebate. We also had to pre-register for a few summer camps, which drove up our childcare spending.

All in all, I'm so happy to know how to fix my fatigue & lack of energy, and I'm very excited to get back to "feeling like myself"! Looking forward to May & additional sunshine. :-)

How is your April looking? Did you accomplish any big goals or stay within your budget? What are you hoping to get done this week?

You don't appreciate it until it's gone

your health, that is. Lately I've been plagued with fatigue. What I thought was a flu has turned into fatigue and exhaustion so encompassing that I can barely work. I've also lost about 1/4 of my hair. My hair no longer fits into any of my clips, because there's not enough there to hold it in place.

I had a doctor's appointment today, & they have a few ideas of what it might be (leaning towards a thyroid issue), and I'm hoping to have the test results back in the next few days. Fingers crossed that it's a relatively easy & treatable issue.

Everything other than just staying upright & remaining employed/taking care of the kids has taken a complete back seat. We've eaten out, I've slept more than I can ever remember, and I've stopped working out altogether. Basically, I've become a slug in an attempt to save my energy for crucial tasks. I'm pretty sure the mental aspect of that is harder for me than the physical aspect. All of my hard won toning & running miles. . . I have a 10K this weekend, and unless the doctor has a miraculous solution, I can't imagine running it. In fact, the thought of putting my running shoes on & getting in the car to go to a race feels like a lot right now. And, I have my half marathon coming up in a few weeks.

In fun news, I ordered a new bikini for the summer! Part of my $300 clothing budget, and used a gift card to offset most of the cost. I needed the pick me up - fantasizing about a vacation in the sunshine. :-) For whatever reason, I can't figure out how to post the actual item, but here's the link: http://www.victoriassecret.com/swimwear/bikinis/twist-bandeau-top-forever-sexy?ProductID=76782&CatalogueType=OLS . The deep purple color looks good on me, since I'm so pale. :-) Shows off my glowing white skin!

Apologies for being absent over the past few weeks!

How do you cheer yourself up when you're in a funk?

Mid-April goal check

Still in shock over the Boston Marathon bombings. How could someone take such a wonderful and positive event and turn it into something so horrific?

I've been home with the stomach flu that last couple of days, so I've done nothing. I think I slept 16 hours yesterday. Today I actually managed to get out of bed, so that's improvement at least. :-) I'm hoping by tomorrow, I'll be able to eat something other than crackers. Small steps.

Here's what I set out to accomplish for April, and my progress so far.

For the financial challenge:

1. Cut $100 off of our fixed expenses. We've done a great job reviewing all of our utility bills (we bucket this for cable, internet, cell phones, etc), but there's always more to do. - We managed to cut our cable bill by $40/month. Still looking for the rest of the $100. 
2. Make $500 towards my girls trip. - I've made $3.81, so . . . not so much. ;-) I hit my eBay limits on most categories, so I have to wait a bit to be able to list more.
3. Cut eating out back to $150 for the month. - Fail. We're at $190 for the month. We had a few fun dates when my parents had the kids, so it was worth it. ;-)
4. Cut the groceries back to $550, and really focus on meal planning and reducing food waste. We've gotten sloppy.- Yes! We're at $172, thanks in large part to our Costco rebate.
5. Keep the house spending to $100. We've been buying a lot of miscellaneous things for the house, & I put postage charges (eBay) in this category, so I'd like to include those charges & still keep this to $100. - My eBay costs are just over $100 so far. I do deduct it from my "travel fund" and only count my net profits towards my earnings, but I still have to categorize my monthly expenses.

Other April goals:

1. Lose 2 lbs, bringing my weight to 142. - I've lost another pound, so I'm at 143!
2. Complete the following workouts:
1. 1200 minutes of cardio - I'm at 625, so on track, although the stomach flu has slowed me down a bit.
2. 12 strength workouts - I'm at 4 strength workouts, so need to ramp this up.
3. 10 stretching workouts - I'm at 3 for the month, so need to focus on my core exercises.
4. Try one new to me workout - I was hoping to meet a friend on Friday for a new to us workout, but she's out of town. We'll see if I can squeeze this in.
3. Run 100 miles in April. - I'm at 33 for the month. Not sure if I can hit 100.
4. Run a 10K - Run is scheduled for a few weeks out!
5. Finalize summer break plans & book all camps/childcare - I'm all ready to fax my last registration forms!
6. Buy one tuition credit for each kid.- Haven't done this yet. And, we have some unexpected car repairs, so this may not happen in April.
7. Pay an extra $1000 on the mortgage. - On track!
8. File & pay for our taxes. Gulp. - Done!
9. One date night with M. - Yes!
10. Two get togethers with friends. - Nothing so far. I had something planned when the boys were with my parents, but my friend had to cancel.
11. Clean out my closet & dressers. - Slowly working on this!
12. Book last plane ticket for girls trip. - Done!
13. Tackle one additional drawer or closet in the garage - sort, inventory & donate. - We made quite a bit of progress in the garage when the boys were out of town. Check!
14. Read 2 books. - I read one while I was sick, small victory! ;-)
15. Plan fun weekend with my nephew (for his spring break) - We had a great time on "cooking" weekend, and he described it as the highlight of his spring break!

How about you? How are you doing on your April goals?

Weekend plans

Love the weekend! This is one of our last "free" weekends in months, so I'm taking advantage of the relaxing schedule. :-)

Here's what I need to accomplish this weekend:

1. Run 5 miles (today)
2. Run 10 miles (tomorrow)
3. Two stretching workouts
4. 1 strength workout
5. Figure out a meal plan
6. Decide what to do on a house remodel project
7. FILE OUR TAXES. Gulp.
8. Decide what's next to sell for eBay
9. Finish summer school/camp registrations for the boys.
10. Get them registered for their next activities.
11. Finalize our family summer calendar.
12. Make granola bars
13. Make muffins
14. Take the kids to Sunday Funday (an activity/party at our gym)
15. Buy a birthday gift for a party
16. Find a new bikini. Yikes.
17. Plan next week's workouts.
18. Clean the floors.
19. Decide what to do about my hair/get a consultation. I'm going gray, & I'm not liking it at all!
20. Take the boys for hair cuts.

If you're wondering why I'm baking again, after last weekend's bake-athon, I sent everything home with my nephew. He was SO excited, & wanted to show off his results. :-)

If I finish all of that, I'll be thrilled! :-) I'm trying to get back into running 20 miles/week, & it's no small feat with our schedule.

I'm supposed to be running right now, while M has the kids at karate lessons, but that plan was foiled when he accidentally took the car that had my running shoes & music in it. Oh well, hopefully it will be warmer than 40 when I finally get out there. But, MUST RUN today!

What's on your schedule? Do you make weekend to do lists? If I don't, I'll wander around the house all weekend, knowing that I should be "doing something", but not knowing what. :-)

April, oh my!

What a crazy month it's been so far. Work, work, work, & more work. I recently took over my peer's role, in addition to my own. Now, when I started back in November, my job was definitely scoped at a full position. So, adding in my peer's work (and, he left things in quite a state) has been. . . interesting! My role is now global (over 200 countries), so I'm learning way more than I ever wanted to know about the rest of the world. :-)

Life updates
Over the weekend, my wonderful nephew came to stay with us for a few nights. He's been asking to have a cooking day with me for about a year, and we finally made it happen. We had an awesome cooking day, and made:

• Three dozen muffins
• Three loaves of bread
• Four pizza crusts
• Six dozen taquitos (half chicken, half beef)
• 6 batches of applesauce
• A batch of granola bars
• A batch of protein bars

He was a rock star helper, and my kitchen has never been so busy. (Or, so messy :-)). My mom chauffeured my nephew, so when she went home, she took my boys with her for a few days for their  spring break.

And, for the first time ever (literally), M & I were at our own home without the kids. It was such a strange feeling! We went out for dinner on Sunday, I did my long run without guilt or time pressure. I got up in the mornings & worked out before work, we met for happy hour on Monday. We got rid of furniture we didn't need, M organized part of the garage (it's a huge project). . . It was nuts! I forgot what that kind of flexibility feels like. M left for a work trip on Tuesday, so I was definitely missing everyone by the time I picked up my cutie pies yesterday. They had a fabulous time with my parents - swimming, bike riding, having "urban adventures" in downtown Portland.

Fitness updates:
My running has seriously fallen to the wayside over the past few weeks with work, and just thinking of my half marathon & how ill prepared I am stresses me out! I need to kick the running into high gear & commit to complete the rest of my training plan. My next half marathon is in four short weeks!

My eating was also all over the map this week, with lots of meals out, & wine. It was fabulous, but time to get the calories back under control, and get some extra strength and stretching workouts in. Both make me feel great, but it's hard to make time for it all. ;-)

Financial updates:
I definitely feel like we've been spending too much - multiple meals out, and because I wasn't cooking, I didn't have leftovers for lunch. Which means I ate at the work cafeteria. We wisely cancelled our cleaning lady this week, since we had no kids to mess up the house :-), so we considered that our "date night" money.

We also didn't go grocery shopping last week. I don't think that's EVER happened before! And, I received our Costco rebate today - it's for $275, and our membership fee is $110. So, that's $165 to apply straight toward the grocery budget this month. Yeah! After the crazy baking fest, I need to stock up on quite a bit.

I also need to register for summer camps, and already spent $750 enrolling the boys in a couple of camps. Getting all of the summer logistics ironed out is always a treat.

Oh, & I had my first eBay drama-fest. I sold a pair of like new shoes. They only went for $.99, but not a big deal. Win some/lose some. I put them in the mail & kept my receipt. The buyer never got them, and when we looked up the shipping info, it looked like it was sent to the wrong address. I apologize, send her a photo of my receipt (which showed the correct mailing info) & she refused to believe I shipped the shoes. Kept emailing me, accusing me of all kinds of interesting scams. I offered the refund, she keeps insisting that I still have the shoes. On & on it goes. Yesterday, I get a claim letter from the post office, with half of the box (empty) clearly showing that I mailed the item & the price I paid for postage. The shoes were lost/stolen in transit, & I can get my money back. I emailed my buyer with photos of all of this, & offered a refund . . . crickets. No reply, no apology. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, vindication you are so sweet! It made me feel so terrible that she thought I was ripping her off. :-(

And, questions for you! How is your April going? My parents are taking the kids to Disneyland in June for five days. If you were us, what would you do with the time?

1) Spend it at the house putting things in order & doing those deep cleaning & organizing & painting projects you never have time for?
2) Going to the beach house for a few days (we could work from home part of the time to minimize the amount of vacation days we'd need)
3) Go somewhere fun. This totally violates our "no travel" policy for the year, but it sure is tempting. ;-)

Menu Plan - Wednesday

I'm late to the party, but really need to get back into regular meal planning to cut food costs and reduce waste.

Here's what we are having for the first couple of weeks in April!

(And, now this is out-of-date, as I never finished on Sunday, so it also includes what we ate earlier in the week :-)

In special events this week, my nephew is a budding chef & asked to come to visit one weekend to help me with my freezer stocking & cooking/baking. He's on spring break this week, so he'll be coming up on Friday/Saturday

• Monday - Leftover barbecued hamburgers & tortellini.
• Tuesday - M's traveling, so leftover burgers & tortellini
• Wednesday - hot pasta salad
• Thursday - Tacos. Yes, we still have taco meat leftover from Nick's birthday party! Ole!
• Friday - Homemade pizzas - Hawaiian for the kids, probably chicken pesto for the adults.
• Saturday - Spaghetti with meatballs
• Sunday - Date night! My parents have the kids for spring break
• Monday - Likely something non-kid friendly, as my kids will be with my parents. Possibly salmon & rice.
• Tuesday - I'm on my own, so I'll probably make a "fancy" salad with whatever veggies & cheese we have laying around.
• Wednesday - On my own, & picking up the kids from my parents, so I'm guessing we'll be stopping at Quiznos to break the drive up a bit.
• Thursday - M's out of town, I'm going to make beef burritos.
• Friday - M's still out of town. Leftovers.
• Saturday - Spaghetti & meatballs
• Sunday - Chicken taquitos

Here's what I'm thinking of making with my nephew. I'm still in need of a great applesauce recipe, and am totally open to other ideas, if you have suggestions! He's a very mature 10 year old. :-) We're going to do as much of this as he's up for. :-)

• Chocolate chip muffins
• Blueberry muffins
• Banana bread
• Pizza dough
• French bread
• Wheat sandwich bread
• Spaghetti sauce with meatballs
• Applesauce
• Granola bars
• Beef burritos
• A chicken pasta casserole dish of some sort
• Chicken taquitos

April Goals!

I'm so excited to see one of my favorite months - April! I love spring - all of the possibilities of the season really come alive.

I'm joining Carla on a savings challenge for the month, so I'll add a few additional financial goals to the mix for the month.

Here's what I'd like to accomplish:

For the financial challenge:

1. Cut $100 off of our fixed expenses. We've done a great job reviewing all of our utility bills (we bucket this for cable, internet, cell phones, etc), but there's always more to do.
2. Make $500 towards my girls trip.
3. Cut eating out back to $150 for the month.
4. Cut the groceries back to $550, and really focus on meal planning and reducing food waste. We've gotten sloppy.
5. Keep the house spending to $100. We've been buying a lot of miscellaneous things for the house, & I put postage charges (eBay) in this category, so I'd like to include those charges & still keep this to $100.

Other April goals:

1. Lose 2 lbs, bringing my weight to 142.
2. Complete the following workouts:
1. 1200 minutes of cardio
2. 12 strength workouts
3. 10 stretching workouts
4. Try one new to me workout
3. Run 100 miles in April.
4. Run a 10K
5. Finalize summer break plans & book all camps/childcare
6. Buy one tuition credit for each kid.
7. Pay an extra $1000 on the mortgage.
8. File & pay for our taxes. Gulp.
9. One date night with M.
10. Two get togethers with friends.
11. Clean out my closet & dressers.
12. Book last plane ticket for girls trip.
13. Tackle one additional drawer or closet in the garage - sort, inventory & donate.
14. Read 2 books.
15. Plan fun weekend with my nephew (for his spring break)

I think that should just about do it! What are you hoping to accomplish in April?

Happy April!

We spent the weekend at the beach & then hit the Easter celebration at my parents house on our way home yesterday. It was a gorgeous, gorgeous weekend, and probably the most fun weekend we've ever had at the vacation house. It was mid-seventies all weekend, and that's *really* not expected March weather in the northwest. We took full advantage of the gorgeous days!

Here are a few fun pictures from our trip:

March was a great month, but it got very spendy. We did stay within our overall budget, thanks to the dependent care reimbursement for childcare, but there were lots of categories that need improvement. Just to name a few:

• Groceries - we were up over $800 this month. Sigh.
• Eating out - up to almost $350.
• The house - over $1500, although most of that was the final payment on our door/roof repairs.

In awesome news, we finally received our 2011 tax refund (we owed a lot in 2011, but then had to repay part of a bonus, so we received some of that repayment back as a tax refund) - close to $5400. *celebration*

Anyway, the list goes on. We owe a lot in taxes in April ($13,600), so I would like to really cut back our monthly budget for the next few months to absorb some of that.

I'll be back soon with a recap of my March goals & plans for April! How about you? How was your March? What are you focusing on for April?