Black Friday shopping

Black Friday was not nice to my wallet. However. I spent only money I had, and I bought only things that I really "needed." I did not buy Christmas presents. I did buy Jonny a few new polo shirts, but other than that, it's was "birthday" gifts for myself.

I've been wanting a programmable crock pot for a long time now, and just could not justify buying one for $50. Yesterday, I got one for $20 with a $10 mail in rebate. Thank you, JCPenney! I also bought 2 sets of Store N Lock food storage containers for all the new healthy food that I'm keeping in my house. Whole Wheat Flour, Whole Wheat Pastry Flour, Flax Seeds, Quinoa, Brown Rice, Rice Pasta, etc. Half opened boxes and bags with chip clips stuffed half-hazzardly in my pantry just wasn't cutting it.

I'm also learning to can. I bought a pressure COOKER,  because I was told that a pressure cooker and a pressure canner are the same thing - and they are, but a pressure canner comes with a jar rack that sits in the bottom of the pot. Honestly, I don't understand why companies just don't make combined pressure cooker/canner for everything. For safety reasons, I took the pressure cooker back and bought a Presto pressure canner/cooker from Walmart. It was NOT on sale, and cost more than I really wanted to spend, However, I had a ton of turkey stock that I had to store SOMEHOW. I would have spent more money buying freezer containers, than I did buy sucking up the cost of the pressure canner and some jars so that I could put it up in my food pantry, rather than freezing it all. Plus, I can reuse the canner over and over again. I'm planning to can as much as possible. On the new diet, I am staying away from sugar, and salt when possible, which means its VERY difficult to find spaghetti or pizza sauce that I can buy at the grocery store. So I'm going to start making my own with fresh tomatoes, or start out with canned no salt added tomatoes and go from there. I made my own cream of mushroom soup a few weeks ago and had to freeze it all. I'm looking forward to being able to can the next batch I make. Whoop!

I also bought some black out energy efficient curtains for the living room, dining room and our bed room. Eventually we'll get some for the other rooms of the house. I got a great deal on these curtains at big lots. I found the sizes I needed in colors that matched the paint and decorations in the house, and had no trouble putting them up. I HATE having to use these curtains though, as I prefer natural sunlight. However, I'm hoping these live up to their name and will help keep the heat in during the winter and the heat out during the summer... We will see!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Clean Eating - This isn't going to be as bad as I thought.

Alot has happened since my last post. I copied my post, with a few changes on some of the message boards that I read, and I got some really positive and encouraging feedback from some other readers. Long story short, I'm now on a path to clean eating.

What is clean eating? In short, it's not eating processed garbage that manufacturers and chemicals have gotten us dependent on. I have been downright furious this week as I've read more and more about the pre-packaged products that we as consumers buy for convenience, without fully understanding the un-natural chemicals that come along with it. I knew that going through the drive through for lunch wasn't healthy. What I didn't know is that simple kitchen stables like butter, cream of mushroom soup, and all purpose flour are processed in such a way that it's quite literally a poison to your body. No WONDER I'm FAT. No, I'm not going on a rampage to sue McDonald's, or anything like that, but I'm pretty hacked off at the thought that "typical" products in my kitchen are the problem with my weight and my health.... all because of the way those foods are processed. They have garbage added to them to make them addictive, to where you come back to it over and over, without even realizing it.

Okay, I'm trying to not turn this post into a rant, so back to the topic at hand. Basically, if it's not as nature intended it, I'm not going to eat it. That means no more macaroni and cheese out of a box. That means no more pizza unless it's home-made with home-made pizza crust - no, not crust from a mix where you add water, or crush from a can. If i want pizza, I'll make the dough and add clean toppings (natural tomato sauce, seasonings, and healthy cheese, etc). No more packaged cereal bars. My list of processed no-no's could go on and on.

In addition, clean eating requires only lean meats. That means no more ground beef. My alternatives are ground turkey, tofu, bison, deer meet, etc. Tofu, surprisingly, isn't NEAR as bad as I thought it was going to be. It has no flavor whatsoever, so it's not gross. I add the flavorings I want, and it's GREAT. I made ranch salad dressing with it this week. mashed it up, added a little milk to make it liquid-y, added some ranch powder flavoring, and it was just like the real stuff, without all the calories and additional crap added in. I bought some ground turkey at Sam's club over the weekend. I found that The Fresh Market carries ground bison....at $9.99 per pound! Yeah, I don't guess I'll be having a bison substitute for beef anytime soon.

Anyway, there's way to much to talk about with this. I'm working on making the change as quickly as I can, but not so quickly that I get burned out on the "rules" that I give up. Most of you know that I've always struggled with my weight. Nothing ever seemed to work. it was too hard, too much work, too much effort. If only I had KNOWN about the GARBAGE in processed foods, I don't think I would have whined so much before. Knowledge truly is power. Now that I fully comprehend just how bad all that garbage was for me, I truly think that this is going to be a process that I can be successful at. Yes, it makes me mad to think I can't just drive through the drive through and get a burger and fries anymore. Actually I can, I can eat that kind of stuff, in extreme moderation, but right now I'm so mad at the turmoil it has caused on my body that I honestly don't know if I'm going to WANT to eat a burger and fries.

I've learned alot over the last several days about healthy grains, cereals, seeds,  fruits, veggies, etc, that I can have. There are grains I've never even tried that I'm excited to try now. I've also become an oatmeal protein smoothie junkie. Oatmeal, peanut butter, honey, soy protein powder, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, milk, ice.... YUM YUM.

Weight watchers worked, but it was too much effort. This process is just a matter of learning, and it's really not that hard, at least not what I can tell so far. I bought Tosca Reno's Just the Rules book, which explains in a nutshell, the easy why to learn whats appropriate for this eating lifestyle. If it's got more than 5 or 6 ingredients in it, it's not clean. If you can't pronounce the ingredient (or it looks like something out of a chemistry experiment), it's not clean. Sugar has to go. Honey, agave, maple syrup are substitutions for sugar. I made zucchini bread today with no sugar, and no white flour. I made it using whole wheat flour and honey, and it was absolutely delicious. Not as fluffy or sweet as the last time I made zucchini bread, but it was a whole lot healthier, and knowing what I know now, it's worth it.

Not to mention that the EIGHT pounds I lost this week is pretty motivating. I know that alot of it is water weight, and my body flushing out the fast food and soda garbage I've been eating, but it sure does feel good to know I'm doing something right. I go back to the doc the Monday after thanksgiving. I can't wait to see what my weight reads that day. I'll have been 3 weeks and I'm hoping that he'll be pleased with my progress.

Like I said, way to much to talk about in what I've learned this week. 2 sites I would recommend if you want to learn more is http://www.thegraciouspantry.com and http://www.eatcleandiet.com. I'll write some more later this week about the financial hit for making this change and how it is affecting our budget.

Watch out, world, Manda's gonna do this, and she's NOT going to be FAT anymore. She is going to get healthy, and hopefully soon, there will be a baby in the picture. Prayers for me on this journey, please.

Insulin Resistant with PCOS

I met with a new doc yesterday - my OB nurse practitioner referred me to an endocrinologist because my lab work showed I had high insulin. After meeting with him, he says it sounds like Insulin Resistance. He says once diabetes develops there's no turning back and he wants me to really work on getting healthy so I can fight it off, since it runs in my family. He is going to put me on metformin, but I go in on monday morning for another fasting lab. Insulin resistence and PCOS is likely the reason we're not pregnant yet - because the old uterus isn't doing what it's designed to do: ovulate.

In order to fix this, he wants me to do 30-40 minutes of exercise every day. I think I can do this, just go for a walk at the park during my lunch break, since it's too dark when I get home at night now. That's what I hate about winter. He also wants me to go on a 1500 calorie a day diet. This scares me and worries me. I feel like I'm being set up for failure. I've never been able to stick to a counting calories diet. But I don't really have a choice, and I don't know how in the world I'm going to succeed. I have to do this or I'm NOT going to get pregnant.

I'm concerned because eating healthy is expensive. The convenience of the packaging of "heathly items" or buying in bulk and it not going bad before it gets used...or something like that. I'm too much of a nerd and I don't want to make excuses, but I feel so overwhelmed right now. This has never ever worked for me before. I did weight watchers for 6 months and while it was great, and it worked, it wasnt something I could KEEP AT. It's expensive to be on a plan that keeps you accountable. Hell, if I could afford a nutritionist and a personal trainier to keep me in check, I'd already be skinny.

One of the girls at work told me to look at it like the getting out of debt thing, which, of course, I CAN relate to, so it makes me look at it in a different light. but getting out of debt has not been easy, and it's not something I feel like I'm a success at yet. I still have over $100 grand (more than my house costs!) in student loan debt between me and hubby, and it's going to take years of more work before its gone and I finally feel successful.... I guess I just gotta look at eating healthy the same way. But it's not the same. As soon as I start to lose weight and feel good, I will hopefully get pregnant, and I'm just going to be fat again. :(

Yes, I'm whining. But I'm trying to get over the initial shock...though I'm not sure why. I'm NOT surprised. I knew it was coming. I just didnt realze that a 1500 calorie diet was going to be the solution. Deep down, I'm excited, though I'm mad. I'm excited because I know that if I can just quit being a baby and just do it, I AM going to lose the weight and feel better. I just gotta quit with the excuses and do it. This is going to suck. It damn well better work, though. The sample 2 week menu he gave me had alot of crap on it (yogurt, peaches, raspberries, BLEGH) that I simply do not like, and I'm going to have to find ways to substitute for things I DO like. Ugh.

Once a Month Cooking

I couldn't let October go by without making a single post....things are still dragging a bit like I mentioned in the last post, but I have a good feeling that we'll see a turn around before too much longer.

My newest experiment to try is Once a Month Cooking. the idea is that you basically spend a whole day cooking a lot of foods and freezing them for the month so that all you have to do is warm the dishes up and eat throughout the month. No hassle with preparation, no overspending on frozen casseroles and such from the supermarket. You can make these things yourself and pull them out of the freezer.

I already had most of the meat for the dishes below, but I had to go buy produce and things like dinner crescents, cream cheese etc. I spent less than $10 grocery shopping yesterday. Since this is my first month doing this, it will be interesting to see how far these meals stretch - how many, and it will give me an idea on how many meals I need to plan on cooking next month to make it through the whole month. We're getting into the season of soups and such, and to be honest, I HATE canned soup - I'm so excited about the potato and butternut squash soup recipes I have listed below.

So.....when I get home from church today, I'll be busy in the kitchen prepping these recipes for the month.

http://onceamonthmom.com/easy-freezable-chicken-and-biscuits/

http://onceamonthmom.com/toddler-ific-pizza-snack-cups/

http://onceamonthmom.com/chili-cheese-twice-baked-potatoes-recipe/

http://onceamonthmom.com/kaylees-casserole/

http://onceamonthmom.com/butternut-poblano-soup/

http://onceamonthmom.com/chicken-broccoli-rollups/

http://onceamonthmom.com/slow-cooker-potato-soup-recipe/


Please share any recipes that you may know which are easy to prep in advance. Thanks!

What's new? Nothing.

I haven't written much lately because honestly, I haven't felt like I've had anything new and motivational to share.

When we paid off the car, I thought that things were going to be easier. After all, the only debt we have anymore is the student loans and the house. To be honest, I just feel completely down in the dumps right now. We don't have a complete $1000 beginner emergency fund right now, because LIFE and MURPHY have been ticking away at the money we would otherwise have for that. Our first priority is getting the emergency fund built back up. Heaven forbid something happen and we need that money and it not be available.

We've got a list a mile long of things we need/want to be able to do, and we just can't right now. The weather is getting colder, and the holidays are coming. I am already dreading the seasonal depression that takes over every year when the sun doesn't shine as long.

I'm impatient. We have goals, and I feel like I'm at a complete standstill. I don't want to get into our long list of wants...because truly, they are all wants, with the exception of 1. We have 3 trees in our back yard that MUST come down. They are leaning and they are dangerous, and I need them gone before the heavy fall rain and winter comes and have them come crashing down on my house. The quote we received for that is $1000 and we simply do not have it right now....

The Mary Kay business is going well...in fact, much better than I initially imagined, though I've still not been able to give myself a paycheck yet. The money I make I'm still reinvesting in more product. I just need to wait this out, and do the best I can so that eventually I'll be able to have extra money as a result of the business. The good news is I'm not sinking any extra money into it... so it's not costing me anything more than my initial start up cost. However, it sure will be nice when I can finally give myself a paycheck to throw at debt and/or save for big purchases that we need to take care of.

So... to my readers, I'm sorry I haven't written much lately. I realize that this is a part of the process...there will be lag times that aren't as productive as others, but I feel rather useless during these lag times. I hope something big will happen soon to help re-energize us to push towards our remaining goals.

I'm on a mission to never buy a razor blade ever again.

No, I'm not becoming a hippie and planning to never shave. I'm just tired of buying razors because they are so expensive!

Razor blades are one of the few things we have remained "brand loyal" to. I've been buying the Gillette Fusion blades in bulk at Sams Club for as long as I can remember simply because they come out to about $2.63 per blade, and unfortunately, even with coupons and sales I rarely have been able to find them for a cheaper price anywhere else. Additionally, my bald husband shaves his head every other day, and there is a specific kind of blade that he prefers - HeadBlade, which is difficult to find. Sometimes I can find them at Publix, but usually I buy them at drugstore.com. He goes through a Gillette blade every 6 days, and a HeadBlade blade every 10. I buy Gillette blades in packs of 16 and HeadBlade blades in packs of 4 (I buy 2), and they both last us about 2 1/2 months. That's almost $60 every 2 1/2 months for razors. I am just TIRED of spending that kind of money.

**Grumble Grumble** I didn't realize until doing the math to write this blog just how BAD it was. I thought I was buying them every 3-4 months. Crrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaap.

About 2-3 weeks ago, we stocked up on blades....and then I found this. I wont be buying the Razor Pro, but I'll probably go with the blow dryer approach since it's a product I already have. I do recommend that you click the link for the Razor Pro, to watch the video on how razor blades break down from being wet with water. Also, if you read the comments posted, one person mentioned leaving the blade in a cup of baby oil between uses. I may try that too, because it seems to me that baby oil would protect the blade more than simply drying the blade would.

I don't know if this works, but Clark Howard swears that he's been using the same $0.17 razor blade for 2 YEARS now. I'm gonna give it a try. I'm tired of spending an average of $20+ a month on razor blades between the hubby and I. I could do a whole heck of a lot with an extra $20 a month if we can make this work. It's just going to be a matter of making it habit to take care of the blades properly.

Yes, it's real.

It's come to my attention that there are some people who doubt the progress we've made in our journey to debt freedom. Let me address some of the comments I've heard.

I was NOT born into money. I did not grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth. I didn't get everything I always wanted, but my parents knew how to give me what I NEEDED - you know, basic necessities. And yes, this included after school activities to keep my butt busy enough to prevent me from having time to become a troublemaker. Band, softball, and Girl Scouts = a child who doesn't get wrapped up with the wrong crowd and potentially damage the rest of her life with drugs, a baby as a teenager or an addiction or some other kind of garbage.

We have NOT been mooching off my parents for the last 2 1/2 years. They are NOT the reason we've paid off $42K in debt. Well, I take that back. They've supported us. They've been cheerleaders. They tell us how proud they are of us because we are taking this action now, rather than getting so far in debt that we struggle the rest of our adult lives. We've paid off $42K in debt by the grace of God's mercies, and our willingness to be taught and disciplined. So YEAH, it is a BIG deal. The last time my dad gave me money was a $100 bill to buy gas for my car and to pay my electricity bill my junior year in college. It was the most humiliating, and yet humbling experience ever, and I vowed I'd never put myself in a position to ask them for money ever again.

I joined the military 3 weeks shy of my 19th birthday. My parents didn't pay for my first cell phone, I did. My parents didn't pay for my car insurance, I did. Except for a few extenuating circumstances, I became independent the day I left for boot camp. After boot camp, I was mortified by my high school friends whose mommy's and daddy's were paying for their cell phone, car, gas, insurance, etc. Sure, they were college students, but their parents were holding money over their head. I joined the military to build my own independence. I didn't want my parents having to "take care" of their legally-an-adult child who should have been responsible enough to pay for her own cell phone bill. Sure, as I mentioned, I had a few hiccups in my early twenties, but the majority of the help my parents gave me was the discipline to take care of myself.

If you're a college student reading this now...it's up to you whether you take offense to this. I have my opinions on this subject, which may differ to yours. I personally feel that if you need a phone, you should be able to pay for it yourself. If you need a car, you should be able to pay for it, the gas, and the insurance yourself. It's the lesson that comes behind paying for these "necessities" on your own. You will appreciate these items more when your own money pays for it, rather than it being handed to you. If you disagree, so be it.


At any rate, it completely makes sense now. NO WONDER our accomplishments havn't meant jack squat to some of you, and haven't made the slightest bit of impact in your lives. You don't take our accomplishments seriously, because you think we're lying about the progress we've made. Well, maybe lying isn't the correct word. Over-exaggerating, perhaps? Do you think we're making a big deal out of something that's not really a big deal because we haven't really done the work? After all, it's just not possible for a couple to pay off $42K in 2 1/2 years when only one of them is working full time. Actually, you would be wrong, because it's very possible. It called discipline. It's called giving up CRAP that's not important. It's called planning your grocery and shopping trips, and not shopping on a whim. It's called a BUDGET. It's called responsibility. We screwed around and got into debt, but now we're trying to make it right. Who are you to knock us down for trying to make something better of our lives?