Jello - everybody needs a little wiggle room???

Ohhh mylanta!!! LOL ya'all!!! I just worked out for the first time in ..... years. Yes, I am ashamed lol to openly admit that. I got a lot of weight off in 2000, down to a size 14 from a 22. After that I bounced back and forth between a size 14 and 20 for a few years. Then our revamp on the house started and I lost a ton, a TON of wieght!!! Got down to a size 10 wooo hoooo!!! Wasn't even trying to lose wieght, it was just a natural effect of working on the house. I suppose 14+ hours a day of physical labor will do that to a girl!!! That was in ... August 2007. I cant remember the month as most things are not important for me to commit to memory and those things that are I end up forgetting anyways LOL. Now, I don't mention weight (pounds) because I never weigh myself. I could care less what number pops up on a scale, not even so much about size although I have to admit I do like it when I get to say "size 12". For me, it's about how I feel physical.

Well, right now sitting her in my computer chair I can feel my big ol' pot belly (had 2 c-sections so I will always have a small pot belly no matter what)and fat rolls on my sides and might I add, the feeling SUCKS!!!! My 14s are feeling tight even though they don't like tight. So what am I going to do about it? Glad you asked LOL

I started by doing my first workout tonight. I taped Denise Austin on my DVR, she's on at 4:30 am and as much as I am a night owl, even for me that is pushing it. I am usually in lala land by then. So, I am hot, sweaty and outta breath LOL :) But I feel good --- NOW that it's over LMBO!!!!

Let me tell you - during the workout I had things giggling and a shaking that I didn't even know I had. I felt muscles that I never knew existed. And Praise God her 30 min show is really only about 15 plus or minus minutes of actual workout. I don't think I could have went much longer :) When I finished my body felt like Jello and I am positive I don't want my body to have wiggle room any longer hehehehe

Tonights Rockin Smoking Hot Shopping!!!!

I have to admit, there is nothing that relaxs me quite like shopping - especially the easy way!!! No Marah with me LOL!!! I am so excited about tonights shopping!!! Here's what I did:

Wal-Greens::::
Wal-Greens Chocolate Nutrition drink $4.00(donate to food bank)& a $4.00 rebate
two rolls of 20sqft Reynolds aluminum foil $0.89 each & (2)$1 off q's = FREE + $0.11
Nivea Body Oil for Marah's sensitive skin, clearance $4.19 each & (2)$1 off q's
no slip ponytail holders 20 count, clearance $1.19
two Hershey's candy bars & (2) BuyOneGetOneFree q's - somehow I ended paying $0.20 for both but didn't want to make a fuss over $0.20.....
Shelf price = $32.49
Total spent = $12.53
Rebate coming = $4.00
Total OOP (out of pocket) = $8.53

RiteAid::::
Garnier Frutis Conditioner $2.99 & a $2.99 rebate
two packs of tooth/gum pain reliever swabs $4.99 each & two $4.99 rebates
ten soy joy bars $5.00 & a $5.00 rebate (doante to food bank)
Total spent = $18.10
Rebate coming = $17.97
Total OOP = $0.13

Albertsons Transaction 1::::
three pillsbury biscuits
five Nature Valley granola bars
Shelf price = $34.88
Total OOP = $17.75
Catalinas = $13.50 off you next order

Albertsons Transaction 2::::
two warm delights
eight fruit roll ups
Shelf price = $28.50
Total OOP = $16.79
Catalinas = $13.50 off your next order

Albertsons Transaction 3::::
five chicken broths
two bags chips
one 6oz fresh blueberries
Shelf price = $14.93
Total OOP = $2.83
No catalinas on this one :(

I figure I spent $68.00 out of pocket, have $25.96 coming in rebates and $23.50 left of my "off your next order". As far as my savings (not counting RiteAid) I saved $60.90 from the shelf price by using the sales, rebates and coupons!! As Mel says, woooo hooooo!

Wowwww Ohhh mylanta!

I received an email from a dear online friend of mine that just sent me into ...... I can't even describe it. Anger? Frustration? Humilitation? These are just a few of the things I felt. Ok, ok - I have to admit it made me laugh as well, I mean really? Really? People really did this? Is there no common sense left in America? I mean not only was it the stupidity and lack of foresite by the ... plantiff, but the what about the juries??? I mean COME ON PEOPLE!!!! What happened to be responsible for yourself?? It amazes and appalls me that out of your own stupid choices you can profit. Here is what I am talking about.

7TH PLACE : Kathleen Robertson of Austin , Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.

6TH PLACE : Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles, California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.

5TH PLACE : Terrence Dickson, of Bristol , Pennsylvania , who was leaving a house he had just burglarized by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to
the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count 'em, EIGHT, days on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner's insurance company claiming undue mental anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish.

4TH PLACE : Jerry Williams, of Little Rock , Arkansas , garnered 4th Place in the Stella's when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbor's beagle - even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog
with a pellet gun. ***My own note on this: he's lucky I wasnt' on the jury because I've had charged him with trepassing and animal cruelty. Think he would have been surprised????****

3RD PLACE : Amber Carson of Lancaster , Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument. Whatever happened to people being responsible for their own actions?

2ND PLACE : Kara Walton, of Claymont , Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000.....oh, yeah, plus dental expenses. Go figure. ***My note, yes I can't refrain myself. If I was on the jury I would have recommended breaking and entering charges against her and the labor it cost to clean the bathroom where I am sure her two front teeth made quite a little mess.****

1ST PLACE : (May I have a fanfare played on 50 kazoos please)This year's runaway First Place Stella Award winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City , Oklahoma , who purchased a new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver's seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the
freeway, crashed and overturned.

Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting
in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually leave the driver's seat
while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you
sitting down, $1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually
changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs.
Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home. *****All I can say is, "HELLO PEOPLE - IT"S CRUISE CONTROL NOT AUTOPILOT*****

LOL, I actually feel kinda sorry for the poor sap who gets me as a jurer because I firmly and fully believe in every action has an equal and opposite reaction and you will have consiquences for every choice you make, whether good or bad.

Where's the beef?

I'll tell you where it is! In my freezer!!! I am so excited - hubby just scored some awesome deals on meat today!!! Shelf price is $202.58 but with the sales he only paid $86.79 :) Yeahhhhh Hubby! Here's what he got:
4 whole chickens
6 rump roasts, beautifully trimmed I might add
1 sirlion steak
1 bottom round roast
1 pork loin roast (it's huge!! he is going to cut this and it should make two meals of pork chops and one meal of a pork roast)

This will make 14 meals for us at a cost of $6.20 for the meat per meal not to mention the roasts are so big I am positive that there will be leftovers for lunch the next day. That is awesome in my book!!!

Every little bit helps

So I've been constantly turning off lights..... & TVs for that matter…when my family leaves a room. This is a never ending battle, I promise you I get a full walk in every day just going around room to room turning off lights and whatever else has been mindlessly left on. In addition, I unplug things that aren't in use like the toaster, can opener (heck, to be honest I use my hand operated one 99% of the time now because it's just as easy to get it out than to plug in the electric one), nightlights and such when they are not being used.
I also only do the laundry and run the dishwasher after 8 p.m. I bet you thought I was going to say I washed the dishes by hand didn’t you?? LOL – no way, never, not on your life! I detest doing dishes! LOL

I scored big too at Spokane Discount on florescent light bulbs - they came out to like $1 a bulb!!!! So, yes, lol - those are in play too. Darling Husband turned the water heater down a couple degrees. Now, I am not in favor of him doing because I soooo miss my piping hot showers but.....I suppose it's part of the sacrifice towards the end goal. He also put our computers to sleep mode or something like that (I just use the computer, I don't care how it works lol)so when we don't use them after so many minutes (again see my comment about how I don't care how they function)they basically shut down to conserve energy. The biggest thing we've been able to do is utilize our wood stove. We spend about $200 a month on wood for it but our heater hardly runs - which is set at 68 degrees of course.

For the month of December we fully expected our electric bill to around $700. Due to the changes we made in our lifestyle our bill was only $300. Now, I know, I know - we spent $200 on wood but that still brings it to $500 which is $200 less than we were anticipating. So yes, I have a big ol' smile on my face because I now know that every little bit does in fact help!

I'm stocked

**These pictures are about 3 months into my adventure**

Ohhhh mylanta, I have to tell you this! From playing the grocery game I've managed to save $4,717 on groceries, health & beauty products, cleaning supplies, pet food and so on and so forth for the last six months of 2008. Now, I know you are probably thinking well how much did you spend? Well, that my dear friend is $4,487. So roughly I saved 50% and I am excited about that!

Still think that is alot? Let me tell you, I was spending about $2,000 a month - yes, you read that right, a month - on these types of items to run the house. I would make my list and go to the store for my big shop once a week. But then you have those moments of "oh, I need _____" which when you go back to the store for the one item you end up with sixteen other items in your cart that you didn't know you needed until you got to the store LOL. I guess I should mention we are family of seven and have 3 dogs & 1 cat.

Obviously before I joined I had no grocerybudget LOL. I just bought what I needed *clears throat* thought I needed. I had no idea how much I spent each month until I was preparing my case for my better half of why we needed to join this game. When I joined I set my budget to $600 a month. I had no idea how this was going to work out as I had already been buying store brands and sales......but I was determined.

I was sooo overly afraid of missing a deal that I went over budget by a few hunderd dollars each month for the first few months but realized "hey, the deals do come around again" and backed off and now stay in my $600 month budget. Heck in November and December I had money left over in my grocery envelope so I moved it to our emergancy fund!

Right now I only HAVE to go shopping each week for milk, eggs, fresh fruits & veggies. You notice I didn't say bread. That's because my darling husband figured out the cost of the ingrediants and I make a loaf myself for about 60cents. And to my surprise I found out I like making bread. As a matter of a fact I LOVE making bread since I got the breadmaker for Christmas :).

The goal is to stockpile items you use on a regular basis while they are at their rockbottom price. Needless to say I am fully stocked on everything from shampoo to cereal. At this point I have to be careful on shopping because my basement pantry is pretty stuffed and I don't have hardly any room left to store things.

Plus, I started saving all the coin change I got from my grocery budget and after 3 months it totaled $100. Now I am saving all my $1 bills in addition to my change and in the last three weeks I've already accumulated $44 in dollar bills. I am so excited to see where this game takes me because I got to tell ya, it's been a great ride so far!

**If you check out the grocery game and want to sign up please put me as a refernce - email me @ohhh.mylanta@gmail.com & i'll give my email addy that I use for that**

Is it worth burning the bacon?

So I am a busy Mom. I assume most of us are busy whether you are a Mom, or a parent for that matter, or not. The afternoon started with cleaning up the kitchen, showering and heading out on a few shopping errands. Marah and I fight the snow and ice on the roads and safely make it to our stores with no hassles. We scored some great deals while out to. Heck, I think she did better than me! For her $5 she got a Rudolph lunch bag, a reindeer headband that lights up and a Backyardigans music set. I am shining proud of her and how she has learned to scope the clearance isles when it comes to spending her money. So we get home after hitting three stores and I start dinner. I am making a sandwich I've been thinking about all day - chicken breast, bacon & swiss cheese. I am happy to say it turned out as great as I thought it would! However, because I wanted bacon I had to fry it and the only thawed pack was 5 lbs. So, I start my venture of frying the bacon. Mind you I have to fry the whole pack as it has been previously frozen already.

An hour and a half later I am still frying bacon......Marah is in the tub calling for me. Whining for me. I am frustrated, doesn't she know I'm frying this massive pack of bacon??? Geez! I finally give in and go up to the bathroom. She proceeds to entertain me with song and dance and of course - a water show. I have to admit this, and I am so ashamed to, but I was getting mad! I mean -couldn't she smell the bacon? She knew I was cooking, trust me, I made that obundantly clear. But as my darling 4 yr old continued the show *after all, the show must go on* I couldn't help it, a smile breaks and my heart melts. So here is the point in my life where I learned that sometimes yes, it is in fact worth burning the bacon.