Not A Blog Post.

This is not a good blog post. I repeat; it is not a good blog post.

I'm just writing a sentence so I don't miss a day.

I am online shopping at Old Navy and ranking the renovations I want to do on our next house. Big adulting serious business right now. While eating Jelly Beans my grandma sent. Because Easter. And because my grandma is the best. I just got buttered popcorn and black licorice so that kinda sucked.

I'm also trying to convince my husband to hard boil eggs to dye tomorrow. I am the WORST at hard boiling eggs.

What is your favorite place to shop online?

If you could renovate anything in your house right now (even if you are renting), what would it be?

I'm not doing a long post because I am working on a more extensive one about our move coming up and how to do it yourselves and make money. It will be a lot of information, but it might actually help other military peeps so I'm trying to make it good with accurate information and links and all that good stuff us military people like.

Here is some humor to end my non-blog post.

See how that was a non blog post. Told you. And you read...still. Suckers! 

Cloth Diaper Tax Credit Petition

I have never signed a petition before. Until now. I recently stumbled upon this petition that would allow for a tax credit for using cloth diapers. This petition really hit home because I feel like I've become an advocate for using cloth diapers. This does not mean I am a pro or know everything there is to know about cloth diapering. It just means I think they save you money, are environmentally better, and super adorable.

I am not one to discuss politics or "hot topics". To each their own. If you want to sign, sign it. If not, stop reading this post. Easy as that. Here is the link to the petition...

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/152/481/411/environmental-tax-credit-for-cloth-diaper-usage/

If there are any questions about using cloth diapers, feel free to ask. 

Meal Planning

I don't know if you have figured it out yet, but Jason and I are pretty frugal. And yes...there is a difference between being cheap and being frugal. Anyways, one of the ways we try to save money is by meal planning. It helps us shopping because we go there to get what we need and not buy on impulse. That does not mean we don't splurge every once and awhile. We are sometimes lazy with our meals and sometimes see something on the shelf that catches our eyes without it being on the list. But for the most part we stick to it. We even have a route we use...maybe that's a little weird.

Before we go shopping we go to our favorite sites to figure out what we want to make for the next week or two. I usually go to Pinterest and Jason usually goes to Gojee. We have also been going to Budgetbytes. All three are super awesome websites with amazing recipes. We also try to eat before we go shopping so we aren't hungry and every single thing including toilet paper sounds delicious. So we figure out what we want to make and start a list. We even put how much of something we need so we don't under or over buy, for example, putting 32oz of pasta sauce or 2 onions.

After we shop and are home, the unpacking begins. We take out the meat we need for the next day and put everything else in its place. I re-write our meals on our menu board. Here are a couple examples of previous weeks.

 

Some days do get hectic or we get lazy and we pop in a frozen pizza instead of what's on the menu. Most of the time we are good about following it.

Do you plans meals ahead of time? If so, how? 

Peace out 2012...2013 is Here!

2012 is over and most people are looking forward to starting the New Year. Although I am excited for starting a new year with my new addition, 2012 was a big hit! I got pregnant, graduated with my Master's, moved to a new state, and had a baby. Those are just a few highlights.

It is now officially the first day of 2013 and resolutions are to be made...and broken within a few weeks by most. Last year, Jason and I made 12 resolutions (one for each month) then we lost the paper and only ended up doing 3 of the 12. Fail. This year we made an Excel spreadsheet to stay organized. We also uped our resolutions to 24 (2 per month) and a personal yearly resolution. This will definitely be a challenge. Here are our resolutions by month:

January:
1. 100 Burpees or squats a day.
2. Inventory a room a week. This probably needs explanation. We are going to go room to room and make a list of everything we own. We are doing this because we want to know how much 'stuff" we really have so we can figure out what we don't need and/or want. Sort of a declutter if you will. It will also help with insurance.

February:
1. No sugar or candy.
2. Give away 30 items (1 a day).

March:
1. 30 minutes of T.V or Internet a day.
2. Schedule meals for the entire month and stick to the menu.

April:
1. No sitting on the couch (or Jason's desk/office chair). I will also explain this one. You can sit in other places...just not the couch or office chair. This will force us to be more active, stretch, and not just plop down in front of the T.V or computer.
2. Only use 1/2 our monthly budget. This will be tough! We already have a budget and to only spend half will be a huge challenge. We will need to be creative on how to save money and if we succeed we can put them into our regular budget.

May:
1. After dinner walk. We actually completed this one last year and we loved it! We did it in January which was cold (even in GA) so we decided to do this one again...and in a warmer month.
2. Two new projects in the month. Whether it be a sewing project for me or Jason building something. We need to start and finish 2 new hand-made projects.

June:
1. 30/60 minutes outside. 30/60 is separating the weekdays from weekends. We will spend at least 30 minutes outside on the weekdays and 60 minutes on the weekends. It can be walking, going to the park, playing a sport, having a picnic..the possibilities are endless!
2. Perform maintenance daily. This means doing some general cleaning, or maintaining, of stuff we have. It could be an oil change, cleaning the car, organizing the closet, cleaning the coffee machine, mowing the lawn...

July:
1. Backpack/Camp every weekend. This sounded crazy to me when Jason thought of it. Camping or backpacking EVERY weekend...and with a baby!? But if you think about it, it is only 4 weekends. And by backpacking I mean going on a hike for a couple hours. We could do 2 backpacking trips and 2 camping weekends. It's going to be very interesting if we can accomplish this one with Nate.
2. Eat FRESH veggies with each meal. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I am not really a fan of veggies. I pretty much force them into my dinner meals because I know they are good for me. And most of the time they are from a can, which is not the best for you either. We choose July because we know we will be able to hit up the farmer's market and get some great veggies!

August:
1. Volunteer twice in the month. We are thinking Habitat for Humanity, but haven't set that in stone.
2. Cook culture weeks. Each week we will pick a culture and find recipes for each day of the week. For example, if we choose Italian, we will find recipes for each meal. We might just find something new that we love. The next week could be German, Thai, Mexican...

September:
1. 15/30 minutes of exercise a day. Broken down by weekdays and weekends. This will force us to be active and do SOMETHING physical.
2. 15/30 minutes of cleaning a day. Some days we just don't want to do the dishes, or start the laundry. But this month, we will clean something. There is always something that seems to be dirty.

October:
1. Save 50% of income. More money saving!
2. Drink a glass of water before eating. I know I don't drink enough water...you probably don't either. This will also help with feeling full and not overeating.

November:
1. Write a blog post daily.
2. Paleo for entire month. We used to be more strict with eating Paleo, but we have definitely fallen off that food wagon. We dedicate this month to being completely paleo.

December:
1. One compliment a day. To a stranger would be preferred, but I think a compliment to each other every once in awhile would be okay, too. And they have to be genuine.
2. Read 30/60 minutes a day. 30 minutes on the weekday, 60 on the weekends.

Phew...that's a lot of resolutions, but since they are broken down monthly they are reasonable.

My yearly resolution is to save 1,000 dollars and to get back to my pre-baby body. Pretty standard.

I hope everyone is making resolutions and stick to them! We chose ones we thought we going to make us healthier, more active, have more money, more creative, and overall better people.

Here's to a new year!