Rest of the Trip

     Hey! So, I had every good intention of writing every day while I was on vacation. I figured it would be a perfect time to get stuff done since I didn't have to worry about working or laundry, but there was just so much to do on vacation that it just didn't get done. So here is our trip. (:

Day Two was pretty boring. well boring meaning relaxing. We laid around the hotel room all morning. (Ate our free hot breakfast WAFFLES! at the hotel.) Then for lunch we headed over to Bob Evans Restaurant right by our hotel.  Zach and Nick were at the hotel at 5:30 with plans for supper and to show us the town.
    For supper we went to Hibachi Grill, which is really similar to Hu-Hot, but it has a buffet as well. I tried Sushi for the first time.. well.. a Nibbble.. Not really that great. Then we drove around and saw Cincinnati. We went to the mall and then came back to the hotel to sit around and talk. Nothing to exciting, but we did spend a good amount of time in the Jacuzzi in our room. (: I WANT ONE!d


DAY THREE!

    We ate our waffles and cereal and then laid around the hotel room. Then we went swimming in the hotel for a great workout and then I tried the fitness room. Hotel gyms are my least favorite place to work out. (EVER!)

    After a while we got out, and went to shower and get ready. We decided to go to the Newport Aquarium. It was totally worth the ticket price. It was filled with fish, jellyfish, sharks, otters, penguins, sting rays, crocodiles, alligators, frogs, birds, snakes, turtles, and crabs. It was very worth it.
There are plenty of pictures to share.

I shall call him squishy.

Sean and I with the Sharkies! (:

Sean TICKLING a shark!

I honestly don't know what it is, but it's cool.

Happy Feet! (:

The Sharks were my favorite.

Sean called this thing Fat. How Rude!

Holy Cow I'm Short.

Bottom of Frog

Sting Ray. 

It's SMILING (:

Sean had a staring contest with this one. 

Sea Turtle Sayin' Hi. 

Me with the Jelly Fish! (:

I remember when Beatrice had the
Candy Bin my mom and I would go
get these every once in a while.
So I had to get some (:

Soooo. After the aquarium we went around the corner to the candy store. 

LOOK AT THE CANDY!

This was the view from beside the aquarium. It was way more breathtaking in person than the picture.

But HOW COOL!
Why don't we have this in Beatrice!! *Pouting face here*

     Well, when we got back to the hotel we got ready and laid around for a little bit. Tonight is the whole reason I wanted to come out here. I was getting my tattoo. Sean was getting a tattoo. and my brothers were going with.
        If you are thinking about getting a foot tattoo.. think again. My entire leg was shaking uncontrollably the entire time he had the needle to my foot.

    Mine is to the left. Sean's is to the right. We both love our tattoos and they turned out really cool.


After getting our tattoos, we went to Quaker's Steak and Lube. I guess there are a few of them in the country, but we got all you can eat wings for $14.99. We got Ranch, Mild, BBQ, and Asian. They were soooo good!


After we ate we went back to the hotel and we slept. We were up and on the road by 8 am and finally got home at around 9:30 last night. We ate Walmart Subs and Wendy's on the way home.


On a twelve hour road trip, I experienced a lot of new things that I haven't had the opportunity to experience before. It was really cool to get to experience them.

Here they are:

Eating Sushi
Eating Jack In the Box
Eating Bob Evans
Seeing the Arch
12 Hour Road Trip
Being in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky
Touching a Crab
Getting a Tattoo
Sleeping in a King Sized Bed


We ended up spending 100 dollars less than what we budgeted.

Item                   Budgeted        Spent

Gas                         300             294
Hotel                      300             268
Food                       175             198
Misc.                      150               65

                               925               825  

We were over on food, but way under on misc. So I think we did really great on our spending. It was a really great trip and we had a ton of fun, but glad to be back in the house.

Ohio Trip, Day One.

     Now, Sean and I are on vacation.. But I thought I would tell you how everything is going. Day by Day I am going to try to fill in the details of my first vacation without my parents.. EEK!.
   
Day One.
   We were up at 2 am. We had a lot more to do than we thought we did before we left. This morning we had to finish packing up the car with our clothing and some of the other food. We finally were filling up on gas at 3 this morning and were on the road by 3:10.

   Once we hit the road, I was OUT! Sean was the best boyfriend ever because he drove almost the entire way today. I am so happy that I have him.
     We stopped at Iron Skillet in Oak Grove for breakfast at around 6:30 to stretch and drive. It wasn't great, but it wasn't awful. BACON! (can you believe I was a vegetarian for a year and a half! HOLY COW!)

      Then, after the GPS completely messed up the route we planned to take, we ended up in St. Louis. We decided that we would stop to see the Arch and even go to the top.

    To the left is a picture of the pods that you take up to the top. Can you believe that FIVE people
fit in that pod! UGH!
       It was so cool. There was someone who had written "Marry Me?" in the snow and took their other half up to the top to see it. That was pretty cool. It was GORGEOUS and so worth the detour.

      Here are some awesome pictures from the top! I love the picture of the lake. The shadow of the arch is visible in the picture. As a wanna be photographer, I thought it was awesome.


<<< Picture number one together! (: at 630 feet above ground!



      As we were walking away from the arch there was a statue standing there with a Christian flag. I kept looking at it, but I couldn't quite figure it out because he just looked odd. Finally. Sean said  "If he waves back, I would crap my pants." and waved at it and as Sean was turning around, I was like, "Baby.. It waved..." I was so freaked out. I didn't know what to do or say. I just started giggling like a little girl because I was so freaked out.

The roads leading up to the arch looked soo cool. They were brick, but Sean thought that they were granite carved out into bricks because they were too hard to be brick.

   We ended up going to Jack in the Box for lunch in a small town right by the arch because we were hungry and we had never eaten there. It wasn't great, but we were full and back on the road. After that the only stops were for gas, water, and potty breaks. We arrived at the hotel at 8 pm because of the detours.  We didn't end up going to Lincoln's tomb or the Indianapolis Speedway, because of the detour.
     When we got there we ordered pizza to our room and unloaded our stuff from the car. We spent some time relaxing in the Jacuzzi (in our room!) and then we crashed! We were both out so fast. It was a long day, but it was so worth it. I am excited for the days in the trip ahead..

Going on a Road Trip

    So we are packing up the car on Saturday and leaving sunday, at "Zero Dark Thirty" as most of my military cadre would say. We are leaving before the sun so we can get on the road and get to our lovely destination. Cincinnati, Ohio.

     It seems the worst part about leaving is getting everything organized. We already booked our hotel and that stuff. But packing clothes, food, electronics, and all of that stuff just seems to be the biggest pain of going on vacation. I will admit tho. We are doing it smart and we are packing food and drinks so we don't have to stop at a gas station for snackage. (Gas stations are often 2x the price that you will find at walmart)
      The week before I will spend time trying to find car games, entertainment for the  hour car 11 ride, food ideas, and packing lists so we can easily get out of here and not drive each other crazy. 11 hours is LONG time to spend in a car, but it is about 500 dollars cheaper than flying.


Snacks! I EAT in the car, mostly because I am bored, but road trips make me hungry.

This is my plan for food. I want to try to stay on the healthier side of things. I don't want a TON of calories added because I get bored in the car.






Snacks:

Cereal Trail Mix (Fruit Loops, Cheerios, M&Ms, Pretzel Sticks, , and butterscotch chips)
Nuts [Which were bought and cracked ourselves]
Dried Fruit (Bought Produce, Dried myself.)
Raisins
Shelled Peanuts (For when we have a salty craving)
String Cheese
Cracker and easy cheese
Beef Jerky (Splurge)
Chocolate Donuts (For in the morning, on the road)


I will probably end up throwing what is left of our apples, oranges, and bananas from last weeks grocery shopping in the cooler so they don't go bad while we are gone.

Meals:
I am going to pack a loaf of bread, some cheese, and a thing of lunch meat to go with us on our trip. Although we do plan to stop somewhere for breakfast so we can stretch since nothing will be open other than food that early in the morning.

Drinks:
    Sean WILL not and CAN not go without his diet coke, but gas station pop is SOO expensive. I plan to buy a 2 liter of pop and stick it in the cooler. We are gonna buy two little water bottles that will fit into the cup holders. That way he can refill without having to stop. Me, I'll probably just fill my water bottle up at a water fountain when we do stop. I'm not really a pop drinker.


Entertainment:
   Now, we have downloaded music for the car ride and I have made the playlist. Talking in the car is fine, but you can only say so much between Beatrice and Cincinnati. Now, a lot of these are little kid games, but adults can have fun with them too.

Licenses Plate Game- Try to find a plate from each state. Print out a US map and color each state as you find it. Then write where you are when you see it.

Who Can find It?- Someone says something totally random, nothing in site (ie a yellow jeep, a red ford truck) Then you look for it. The person to find that item it "it" and they name something else.


People with Kids:
If you are crossing multiple state lines (or multiple hours), have little bags ready, each containing a small snack, a book,  and a new toy. At the stateline, or hour mark, the kid gets a new bag. This keeps them from burning out on what they brought in the first hours of the trip.

Use Tackle boxes to pack serving size snacks, but tell them that this is all they get for the car ride, so they better make it last. This helps kids not over eat and parents see what they like. It can contain anything from chocolate chips, dried fruit, a cookie (oreos), animal crackers, fruit snacks or string cheese.)

Tourists:
  I personally love being a tourist because I LOVE my camera. I can honestly say that is where my creativity started. Either way, I hope to take many pictures. I would LOVE to take some pictures with Sean, because I'm pretty sure we have two pictures of us together. So that is my goal for the trip. I plan to bring my tripod and lots of batteries/ memory card! I am looking forward to this.

Planned stops:
I am a planning freak. So I want to know where we are stopping and what will be there. I have spent time planning to stop about every 2 hours. Kind of having an idea if there are any cool tourist stuff around there, and as much as I don't like it. A lot of it will probably be Oh! look at that sign. Let's go. I don't want to spend a ton of time out of the car, but 11 hours is a long way to just drive.
So we shall take turns picking a couple places, since we will be going near Indianapolis, Sean wants to stop by the race track for pictures. I can't wait to create my scrap book for this trip!

Touristing:
Lincoln's Tomb?  15 Minutes out of the way
Indianapolis Speedway
Local Resturants in these places.

All of these ideas were gathered from pinterest and other blogs or from what my parents used to do when we went on the road. These are our plans for our road trip, (even though by the time I post this I am already in our hotel room.)

Workout From Home

      There are definitely days that I just don't want to get all the way dressed just to go to the gym. Some days I would rather just stay in my shorts and workout from my bedroom/living room. Especially on the days like this week with snow on the ground and it being so cold outside.
     Because I am in the military, I attempt to do SOMETHING physical everyday. Plus I would really love to get to my goal weight! I'm pretty close, but not quite there.

     These are some of my favorite online workouts that I have found through pinterest mostly. A lot of them are quick and easy target workouts and most take no more than 10 minutes.

    This is my rating scale for workouts: 

• 1- It was easy, fast, and I kind of felt it, 
• 2- It was fast, but I was feeling it where I should, and felt it the next day.
• 3- It took a little more time, but it was worth it!
• 4- It was a full work out, but not the most challenging thing I've done
• 5- It was a full work out and it was worth every second.

Legs:

This is such a great leg/butt workout. I have done it a few times and you can really feel it half way thru it. I would recommend doing this as a warm up before a run or some cardio even. I would up the reps or do the entire workout 2x a day (morning and night) to see results. It is good because it works every muscle in your legs with 5 or 6 quick exercises.
I would rate this a 1. I felt it in my legs, but it didn't leave me sore or stiff.
http://backonpointe.tumblr.com/post/24907237515


Abs:
This workout is intense. Even one round of this would be a good start to getting your abs back to where you want them to be after a huge meal. I like this because it keeps it varied. There are no boring crunches and you aren't just laying on the floor. I hate floor workouts because it is so easy to just lay down and stop for a while instead of keeping the intensity up.
I would rate this a 1 if you are only doing one round, but a 3 if you are doing 3 or 4 rounds like the video suggests.
http://blondeponytail.com/2012/07/gnc-summer-series-ab-attack/

This is a standing ab workout. I haven't actually done this one yet, but it is 10 minutes and it looks really good. It is multiple exercises and the video talks you thru it.
I would rate this a 3 based on watching just the video. It is a little longer, but it is worth the time because it is multiple exercises and the best part. NO CRUNCHES! and NO FLOOR WORKOUTS!
/http://toriteachesfitness.com/2012/06/03/standing-abs/



Full Body Workout:
This 4 minute workout is suppose to burn as many calories as a 40-60 minute run. While I personally have doubts that it is THAT great. The workout is good for 4 minutes. It left me winded, but not sore and tired. I would probably do it a couple times a day to burn a sufficient amount of calories. It does get your heart rate up and it is good for the days when you don't have a ton of time to workout but you still want to get your heart rate up..
I would rate this a 2. It was super short, but I was actually feeling it the next day.
http://eatright-staybright.tumblr.com/post/7188718242/worlds-fastest-workout-burns-as-many



      I also enjoy my wii fit or rough housing with my dog for just something. There are also really great zumba videos on youtube that are good for a quick workout. While this is all said, I still LOVE going to the gym. I am a big fan of the Y to go swimming. Just the other day Sean and I swam back and forth in the pool for an hour and fifteen minutes! Crazy! But I also love racquetball and shooting hoops with the occasional weight session! But I am going stir crazy to just get outside and run. These are just a few things that are worth checking out. Good Luck and Have Fun!

QC&H #1: Hamburger Casserole

   Okay, so weekends are always a little crazy, but this one has definitely been up there with the craziest! Last night Sean and I got home and we were STARVING! We had been at work all day and went to his brother's gonna be house. (Long story) Anyway. I was helping Josh fix and clean up until around 8 and Sean was easily there until almost 9. Well when I got home I was definitely not in the mood to cook, and knowing that drill is two weeks away and I need to start watching weight to get to were I needed to be, I was not set out on eating out again.
       I went into our kitchen and tried to come up with something. I decided to make the low carb version of our Hamburger Casserole that Sean and I have made a couple times. We try to rotate our recipes pretty frequently and we are always looking for more, but this is a go to recipe when we are out of ideas.

     It's pretty good and it was about 220 calories per serving. I ate an apple and an orange with it. so my supper calories were right at about 300 last night (Which is typically what a meal should be and not a whole lot more.

      Sorry, I was so tired last night that I forgot to take pictures of each step. I thought I had taken a lot more pictures than I did until I went to upload them and realized I had taken the uploaded one and one of a tomato. I failed on that. Sorry!!
Here is the greatness:


Ingredients:
1 lb of hamburger
1 whole pickle (I think I only used 3/4)
1 whole tomato
Diced onion
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tbsp mustard
6 slices of cheese

First brown the hamburger. Drain. 

While you are doing this you should dice up the tomato, pickle, and onion into small bits. There is about the sizes I used, but that is up to the cook.

When the hamburger is browned add the pickle, tomato and onion to the hamburger and let it mix together in the pan. I usually stir it around for about 5 minutes..

Then I add the mixture into a casserole dish. I add the ketchup and mustard into the dish and stir it well, trying to evenly coat it the hamburger. (Last night was the first time I did it this way and it turned our really good)

Then smooth it out and add the cheese slices to the top of it. Bake it at 350 degrees for 5 minutes to melt the cheese. 

Simple meal in about 20 minutes. 

You can also add crescent rolls to the top of the casserole and make it even more like a cheeseburger, but that adds up the calories and the carbs. (But it is still very good)

I know one of my friends is always looking for recipes that are quick, easy, cheap, and good for a person who can burn macaroni. (: That's my goal is to find recipes that don't cost too much, are still healthy, and don't take a million hours and a lot of know how to make them.

Here is recipe number one of a series of Quick, Cheap and Healthy!    

Here is the cost of this meal:

1 lb Hamburger:
 (We buy in rolls of ten @ 2.49/lb.)      

 = 2.49

Jar of pickles:
     Kept in the fridge for a low cal snack(Probably cost around
        2 Bucks a jar for 6(about) pickles)

  =.33

Tomato:
   I believe they were priced matched this time around

=.99

Ketchup and mustard were kept in the fridge. 

       For what you use ( Just a guess on it.)

=.25

Kraft singles

   @1.99 for 16

     For 6 of them

=.75

4.81 For the entire dish and it serves 6. That makes it at just about .80 per serving. Now. I know that you may not have everything in the house (pickles, ketchup, mustard) so it will be a little more than that. 4.81 is a heck of a lot less than eating fast food. 

Lets use McDonald's (Just because I know the prices and I want to prove my point about fast food.) 

The price of our lowest meal, the number 6, is 3.84 after tax. That is 7.68 for both of you.

(assuming you are feeding you and one other person like I am.) But it is hardly ever ordered. 

Our highest priced meal, Angus meals, is 6.20 after tax. That would be 12.20 for two.

That averages at 9.94 (7.68+12.20 /2) 

So even if you did have to by pickles at 2 bucks and I know you can get a bottle of ketchup for 1 dollar.

That still only puts you at 7.81 for this entire meal. You will save $2.13 and you will have leftovers unless you are feeding more than 2. 

So there you go. This is why eating at home saves money. Thanks for reading through all of the math (which is probably over doing it and for the rest of the series I will just post the prices of each item and the total meal and per serving) I just wanted to show how it worked.

Best FREE Iphone apps!

Ok. So I know not everyone can afford/ have an iPhone, but that is truly my one big splurge that keeps me organized and happy. I LOVE my iPhone and everything I can do from it because I really don't need a laptop anymore, but I still love my laptop (convenience when writing my blog)
  One of my good friends said this would be something I could write about since my phone is nearly ALWAYS in my hand.




Here are the best:

• Pinterest- I am a VERY strong advocate.. (As you know if you have read any of the other blog posts), but I like my pinterest app because I spend a lot of time waiting (doctors, car rides and such) and it is great. It's also great for when I am in the kitchen to pull up that recipe I pinned.
• MyFitnessPal- being in the military, I need to stay fit and eat right. I use this to track my calories every day and figure out just how many I am eating/losing. It may not be 100% accurate. But kind of knowing is better that not knowing at all
• SnapChat- Just because my conversations with people thru pictures can be HILARIOUS! It also makes sending pictures easier because picture messages don't always go thru for me.

• Weekly Ads- I mentioned this one in the grocery shopping post. It is great for looking at all of the grocery store sales and it makes price matching and grocery planning super easy for me. 
• Quick Scan- This is a good app for when you are walking around Wal-mart and you realize that you forgot something on your list (shampoo, soap, toilet paper) but you don't have the ads with you. You scan the bar code of the product and it will search the internet for a lower price. Sometimes you have to be careful though. If it doesn't seem realistic, it probably isn't true. 
• Allwomenstalk- It is a great app for random things. It is a blog with some great post. It has different posts about hair, food, exercise. A lot of my pins have come from that website. So it is great to read them sometimes.
• CaloriesBurned- It has so many things that you do daily, kind of interesting to mess with sometimes. I learned that at 150 lbs. I burn 472 calories when I get 8 hours of sleep. That is just about 1 calorie per minute. No wonder health experts say you should get a good nights rest (:
• Flashlight- Duh. I use this more than I should, just because I don't have the screen on my phone very bright. I have had to use this at work when looking for something in our shed, or when I come home from work and everyone else is asleep. sometimes I use it just because I am too lazy to turn the lights on. 
• Blogger- Of course this made the list. This makes posting my blog super easy. All of the pictures I use are taken from my phone and uploaded straight from it using the app. (10x easier than trying to connect my phone and save the picture, then find it in my files on my computer.) Nobody's got time for that! (:

    Okay, well there are the greatest productivity apps that I use. Many of them are fun and information, but mostly it is just more time that I waste on my phone when I could be doing so many other things. But that's okay. I LOVE my iPhone. 

     Anyone else have other apps that they really love for their iPad/iPhone/iPod?? Please share!

Money Savings Tips #1

   This blog is an extra one for the day to make up for all the days that I have been slacking off. It was started a while ago and when I come across something, I open up my blog and type it in there. Finally, I think I have finished this one at least.  I am hoping to make this a series of posts, but one step at a time.

  Being young and working for every single penny that I earn. It is important to make sure that it all goes to something worth while. Right now, I am all about money saving.

  Someday, years and years from now, (meaning after I graduate college and have a full time job) I really really want to buy a house. I'd like to be able to pay for it all in full. (I'm talking years and years)
    My mom and dad have been really good about teaching me how to save money. When I was in 6th grade, I remember my mom taking me down to the daily sun for me to get a paper route. I also remember the day the day that I received my first good check from that paper route. My mom took me down to First National Bank to open up a savings account. To this day, I still have the savings account, and let me tell you, its more than it was when I started delivering papers. My parents always made me put about half of the check into savings. I am very thankful that they made me put that money away instead of wasting it away on little things. The other half of my check was up to me. I usually put more than half away, but I used the money to go skating (Way back when that was still THE thing to do.)

    I have started looking for little things that I could save money on. All those dollars really add up in the long run.

Here are my favorites:

• Finding Clothing at Goodwill: Clothes that people just got rid of, some can actually be cute. I know a lot of people feel like they are too good for them, but with a sewing machine and pinterest, who knows what your closet will turn out to look like.
• Drink water: It's free and it is better for your health! Drinking a cold glass of water, once an hour, increases your metabolism which helps you lose weight faster.
• Have a budget and stick to it! The most important thing is to know where your money is going every month. Knowing where it goes is the first step to make cutbacks in your budget and find out where you could be saving money.
• Cut the cable. Most people pay anywhere from 20-50+ dollars a month for cable and there is still NOTHING on TV  We switched to only having Netflix and Hulu. (Sports fans, I DO NOT recommended) I will admit, I do miss Big Bang Theory and NCIS, but that's why I go to my parent's house.
• Stop paying for prepackaged snacks: Buying the big containers of snacks and little Ziploc baggies is soo much cheaper in the long run. Also, many snacks, have a homemade recipe somewhere on the internet. If you have the time, making them can be WAY cheaper.
• Instead of stopping at the gas station for a pop every day, going to buy the 2 liters at Walmart (Priced at 1.25) and reuse a bottle or buy a water bottle (As cheap as $1.00) That would 1. Save you time in the morning. and 2. save money because I can guess that most mornings, you don't just get the pop. Probably a donut or a slice of breakfast pizza. Then some gum, and some candy for later. So that 1.10 pop probably ends up costing you around 4 or 5 dollars for a majority of the mornings.
• ALWAYS shop online before making big purchases or DVDs, Video Games, books because most the time you can find it cheaper online than you can at Walmart.
• Pinterest. If you don't have it already and are avoiding getting it because of the time you will spend not doing the other things you need to do. I would suggest getting it. I have severely cut back on how much time I spend on pinterest, but I have found recipes for making your own Windex  laundry soap, dish soap, homemade foods instead of buying a product, and so many other things. Pinterest is a great way to find everything you could ever use online and keeping it bookmarked. 
• Make your own house cleaners. My mom made us a HUGE bucket of laundry soap for Christmas  we have been using it since and still have over half a bucket. It is great because we haven't had to buy laundry soap (Which starts adding up quickly) since Christmas! 
• Make your razors last forever! (I found this on a website, I haven't tried it, but this is what I found) http://www.wisebread.com/want-to-keep-your-dispoable-razor-blades-sharp-use-your-arm
• Now, this is probably the biggest thing I have seen debated all over the internet. To use cash or to use your card. I prefer cash when I can. Personally, it is harder for me to hand over 45 dollars in cash than it is for me to swipe my card and spend it. Although I do agree that sometimes cash isn't practical and that each has their benefits. One thing I do like about my card is that I can see where I spend my money and exactly how much I spend without saving all of my receipts. This is something for each person to decide, but if you use cash, I highly recommend that you find a mason jar and place all your spare change there. That money can be used as a big purchase savings (ie. Sean and I put all our change together. We just cashed it in and are now planning our trip to Cincinnati, Ohio. No it isn't going to pay for all of it, but it ended up being close to 65 dollars that we wouldn't of had otherwise)
• If you are going to use a card (I don't follow this one) but if you can, I suggest looking for a great rewards card (ie. Cash back, sign up bonuses etc.)  I shall start looking soon. (This is the next goal on my list of things to do.)
•  Research says that using separate bank accounts (One for Emergency, Bills, Savings, and a Slush Fund) is the best way to save some money. A lot of things that I have read talk about automatic withdraws into the separate accounts. (At McD, they just give us our checks, but I have been considering opening a bank account for all of my military pay where I can't see or touch it. That way I have the funds, but I never add that in for what I have) I am not really sure that separate banks accounts is the best idea, but if it works for some than it may work for others. Maybe some day! 

    Here are the firsts. I'm hoping to slowly come up with more ideas to save money, other than on groceries. (I got the groceries down) Please! If you have a way you save money, comment and let me know! You may just see it in a follow up blog post like this one! I would love to see more comments on my blog posts for feedback and other ideas!

Date Night Jar

     Hey! Sorry to my readers, I was sick all weekend and have been busy on the go and working out the last few days. Yesterday, Sean and I spent two hours at the YMCA, just working out and messing around. We played basketball, racquetball, and we swam. Then we had supper at grandma's. (Always a treat)
    Today, I spent the day making his Valentine's Day gift. I put together a "Date Jar".
I put glitter on the ends of the sticks to make it easier to tell which date falls into which category.

Here are the dates:

At Home (Stuff You Have)

• Wii Competition: Pick a game and go for the gold
• Pinterest Food: Spend time browsing through the food section of Pinterest. Make one
• YouTube Date Night: All the funniest Videos
• Write a bucket list and make plans for at least one of them
• Plan your dream vacation together (Sight seeing, hotels, costs)

At Home (With a trip to the store)

• Chopped challenge: pick up a basket of food and make what you can with it
• Chefs for the Night: Choose a hard recipe and attempt to make it together
• Rootbeer Floats and a Movie: pick a movie from home to go with your floats.
• Sundae Bar: Buy a gallon of ice cream and your favorite toppings
• Redbox Date Night: Get a movie out of the ordinary
• Board Game Fun: Pick a game and play

Going Out (No $)

• Duck Date: Grab a loaf of bread and feed the ducks
• Childhood Books: Go to a bookstore and read favorite childhood books together
• Giving Back: Spend a night Volunteering or helping out
• Photo Vacation: Create photo proof that you went somewhere you didn’t
• House Hunters: Drive around in search of open houses, pretend to be a newly married couple in search for the perfect house

Going Out ($)

• Fly a Kite: buy a dollar kite and go to the park
• Dollar Store Gifts: Spread out and find each other 1 gifts
• Thrift Store Finds: Find the best deal under a set limit of choice
• Appetizers and Dessert Date: Go to your favorite restaurant for only Appetizers and Dessert
• Bowling. See who can get the best/worst score
• 3 Places and a meal: Try hitting a few different places. Have an appetizer in one restaurant, a main course at another, and dessert somewhere else
• Dinner and A Movie
• Animal House: Go to the zoo. Make sure to bring back a stuffed animal or something else to remember the fun trip with. Take Lots of rediculous photos together!
• Tourist in your town: Every town has some kind of tourist attraction, and most people in that town have never visited the ones right there. Make a day of learning about the little things in your town or a nearby town.
• Mini golf
• Find a museum

So first step is to make a list similar to the one above, you can add or change things that you and your significant other like to do together, or have done in the past.

Then gather your materials:

• Glitter, Paint, Makers, Ribbon or whatever you want to use to distinguish groups
• Popsicle sticks
• Glue (if you are using glitter)
• Sharpie (to write the dates)

     I had bought glitter for a Christmas present idea that never got finished. It had been sitting on top of the dresser since then, so I decided it needed to get used. Like I said, you can use anything to mark each group as long as you can distinguish the groups apart. 

    After I had gotten everything ready, came the messy part. Getting the glitter on the end of each Popsicle stick. I had glitter everywhere, but I got it cleaned up.

Then let the glue dry and there you go. When it is pretty dried you can start writing the dates on them, but be careful not to smudge it (I got glitter all over my hands.)

This is what the date sticks looked like after I was finished. 

     There. Another Pinterest Project complete and I would say that this one is success. I already gave it to Sean since he bought me two books for my Valentine's Day present (: {I only have 450 pages left in the second book he bought me on Monday.} Sean liked them. I still need to finish the jar for it, but all that consists of is placing ribbon around the top of it. 

Juicing

            Woo! Thank you dad for this awesome juicer!
      Today, I wanted to share about Sean's and my latest "healthy lifestyle change." I hate calling them diets because to me that means short lived.. except most of our tries have been short lived... so... Oh well.

      How many of you readers have Netflix? Probably most of you, Right? Okay. Well I recommend you watching the documentary "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead."  My dad recommended it to us, and now I am suggesting it to you.

    It is about a guy who has a very rare disease, but is also overweight. I believe he starts at 370ish lbs. (Don't quote me on that part... Its been a few days since I watched this..)
     This documentary is about his trip cross country during his 60 days of detoxing cleans by JUST drinking juice. He has a juicer in the back of his van and he goes around to farmer's markets and different places talking to  people about juicing. Along the way he meets a ton of people that say they could never be able to do it, as well as two or three people who actually commit to doing it for the 10 day challenge.
    Not to ruin the ending, but he loses a ton of weight and is taken off all of his medication for the rare disease. *GASP*


      So.. After watching this and talking to my dad, (and my dad giving us a juicer) Sean and I decided that we would start to replace just one meal with it. Breakfast is the easiest because the fruit juices are so much better than all of the vegetables.

Here is my breakfast:

(A big handful of Purple and green Grapes, 1 Orange, 1/4 of a tomato)

Now, I am sure you are thinking that looks really gross. It's actually not! The tomato left almost no flavor it the final product so it tastes like orange and grape juice. Yum.

Plus, it leaves you with a TON of energy and leaves me feeling full after I finish it.

I have drill this weekend for the National Guard, but as soon as I get back from drill Sean and I are hoping to start the 10 day challenge of only juicing for ten days, with no actual food. *Fingers Crossed!*

Okay, so my next post probably won't be until Sunday night, unless I decide to do it from my phone tomorrow night in the barracks, but I probably will just crash tomorrow night after a full day of who knows what I will be doing tomorrow! 

Grocery Shopping

  Everyone who is responsible for feeding other people (whether kids, spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, etc.) probably hates this task. I know it is the worst possible thing that I have to do.
       Every two weeks I pack up my wallet, calculator and coupons and head to the grocery store, aka. Wal-mart. I make sure that I know how much I am going to spend and I won't spend more.
    But I haven't always been like this... When I first started out I was spending 150+ dollars on each trip to Wal-mart for two weeks.. and for my boyfriend and I.. It was getting ridiculous. I spent hours and hours reading blogs and looking on pinterest (yeah, it really is good for something other than relaxation and procrastination) for ways to save money on groceries. I just couldn't fathom that every family in the United States was spending this kind of money for just a few things. I know that 300 dollars a month for a family isn't too bad, but for just my boyfriend and I.. It seemed like someone out there would have a guide to lower that awful grocery bill.

Here are my 8 favorite tips for saving hundreds a month on groceries.

1. Plan out your meals
    I have recently placed a marker board on the fridge with a list of the MEALS that are in the cabinets/fridges. My goal on shopping day is to have two weeks worth of meals planned out. I try to use the ones with perishable items first or if possible, I stick it in the freezer. I only buy things for set meals when I go to the grocery store, plus some snack food for the afternoons. For snacks, I buy lots of the Yoplait yogurt that is 58 cents at Walmart. I also buy fresh fruit, which many people argue that it is too expensive, but actually it cost roughly the same as a bag of potato chips as it does for a 3lb bag of apples. I would rather see a ton of fruit on my counter than chips and junk food.

2. Make a List
    I've been there. I remember wondering around Wal-mart with my mom when I was younger. We would be looking for something for supper. I remember buying a lot of food that we didn't really need but we thought we might eat it. My mom would have a list that mostly consisted of bread, milk, cheese, and "something for supper." It works for some people... but not for me.

3. Buy in Bulk
  Now, I am not talking about going to SAM's club and buying a months worth of fruit. It will probably spoil before you get to eat it. I am talking about simple things that you use often. This changes for every person. Sean and I look for really good sales at Sunmart or Supermarket for the 10lb rolls of hamburger. We bring it home, cut it into approx. 1lb bags, and freeze it. If you are going to do this, make sure you write the date on the bag to ensure that you use the oldest stuff first. We also go through quite a bit of cream cheese. There was a sale a while back for 4/$5 dollars on cream cheese. We bought 12 of them and 5 are in the freezer for cooking. Little things like that, when food is on sale is a great time to buy it, but only if you can freeze it or use it right away.

4. Look for store brands
This is kind of an obvious one, but the Great Value brand is probably my best friend when it comes to grocery shopping. It is normally 10 to 15 cents cheaper that a brand name depending on the product.

5. Don't be fooled by coupons
  I know couponing takes so much time and it is so much extra work. But I have to say, if it is already on your list, take the coupons with you. If it isn't on your list, don't think it is a good idea to buy it.. You aren't saving money, you are spending it on that product that you didn't need for your home. Also, if there is a brand cheaper than the price- coupon.. get the cheaper one. Just because you have a coupon, doesn't mean it has to be used. Many times they aren't worth it and there are some better deals, but sometimes, if you also have a sales price match - coupon. It can cost you under a dollar for something that is priced 2.00+ in the store.  Which brings me to my next tip... (These can all be found in the Saturday Beatrice Daily Sun.)

6. Price matching can be your friend
   After making your list for the grocery store. Skim the competitors ads to see if any of those things are on sale. Quite a few times you can find most of you're stuff cheaper. When I do this I look through the sales ads with my phone out. I take pictures of the ads (instead of lugging the ads with me to the store) and write it on my list. I make sure to add up everything I can to make sure I am not going over on my budgeted pricing. On the iPhone, there is an app called "Weekly Ads" It searches for your location and gives you the updated ads based on stores. It has Walgreens, Target, CVS, Wal-Mart, and Shop-ko, which makes it great for having all of the ads in one place. All I have to do is look through the app and screenshot the great sales.
Wednesday daily sun has all of the sales ads for the weeks.

7. Keep a list of Wal-mart (or your grocery stores) prices
   This I didn't find on pinterest, but Sean and I decided to do after a couple trips. It saves time at the store because you know if the sale on the brand name product is actually cheaper than the store brand. I keep my list in an excel document on my computer. When I come home from the grocery store I make sure to add some of the things I didn't have before. My list is mostly Great Value prices, but I have some other stuff like Kraft Cheese Singles, which are on sale frequently, Eggs, Bread, and that kind of stuff that we buy frequently. This helps me add up all of the items that I will be getting at the store.

8. Calculator
   Last little tip.. Sometimes price matches and coupons don't work out. Sometimes it's because the store doesn't carry that size or that brand of that product. Walmart can't have everything. I keep a running total of how much everything is going to cost me because most of the time I take cash to the grocery store to ensure I don't overspend. Keeping a running total is important because I don't want to get up to the register and not have enough. HOW EMBARRASSING!

      Now I am not an expert. Every person has their own way of saving money. But last month I lowered our grocery costs from almost $300 down to almost $150 for the entire month. I also make two separate transactions so the household items are not in there (just for accurate budgeting) Total, a month, I probably spend around $175-$185 at Wal-mart a month. While that's still a lot and I would love to bring it down more. I am really glad that it is no longer in the $300 range.

Like I said, everyone has their own way that works for them, but for all of the kids that are going to college and don't live in the dorms/don't have the meal plan. I would suggest starting out this way instead of finding that you need to save money after months of spending A LOT just to eat.

Below is my grocery receipt from the last time I went to the grocery store. I bought 60 items for $79.63. That was for a two week time span. I'm starting to rock this! (:

Also. A side note. Never think that eating out is cheaper. I also found that out after a ton of number crunching (thankfully, I am pretty good at Math- Thanks Ms. Mick). Once and a while it is ok, but it definitely adds up quickly so make sure you are watching the cost for each meal. (Not that I am complaining about people eating fast food. Those people pay my paychecks (: )
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