Budget on the Border

   Over the long weekend that I worked recently, one lady on our shift brought in donuts- I ate three!! A couple weeks ago, after Michael and I took Emma to The Cheesecake Factory for our anniversary, the same lady from work got everyone ice cream sundaes with nuts (because she was so stressed after thinking her house had been broken in to during our shift! Luckily it turns out it was most likely that her daughter just forgot to close the door all the way when she left for school). I have learned recently that I like small peanuts in my ice cream. On Saturday a couple deputies came by and brought a few boxes of donuts and gallon bags full of plain bagels. I took two donuts and two bagels since I knew Michael had cream cheese at home. The next morning there were still two gallon bags of bagels on the table, with six bagels each inside. I know the supervisors have a bad habit of throwing out food before it's all gone, so I took a whole bag and two more glazed donuts! And sure enough, an hour later, the rest of the food had been thrown out. I should have taken both bags.

   We both had Monday off (Memorial Day), so I suggested using one of our restaurant gift cards to go on a family lunch date. We had never been to On The Border before, which was included in the Chili's gift card, so we agreed to try it. I went to their website a few days before and signed up for the emails so we could get either free queso or free sopapillas. I checked my email Monday morning and got another coupon from the restaurant for $10 off $35, which seemed like an amazing deal considering we would be taking the $20 gift card with us.
   The service was very slow, which was pretty disappointing considering there only about six other families there and the restaurant was small. Also our pet peeve occurred right at the beginning ~ when you walk in and have to wait by the front door for over 3 minutes before any employee even acknowledges your existence. How hard is it for anyone to say, "We'll be right with you" even if it isn't their specific job. Is customer service not part of the job?! Our waitress was nice, but rarely came by until the very end when she was attentive. Another couple that came in right after us had a different waitress and they finished their meal and left before we were even done with the appetizer.
   I was doing the math as we were deciding what we wanted to order to make sure we would reach the $35 for the coupon. We got a bowl of queso with the add ins. It was extra yummy with the ground beef, sour cream, and guacamole! We weren't allowed to use both coupons, but got sopapillas anyway because the waitress said our total was only $32, so she added the dessert on. I ate half of one there and Michael ate the rest of them that night (empty pastries with cinnamon sugar and chocolate dipping sauce). It was great getting all of that food for $9 plus tip, but we probably won't be going back.

Emma unsure about holding a chip before she dropped it on the ground.

   The other night Michael wasn't able to fall sleep and told me he has been getting headaches more often since I put us back on a budget this month and all his meals have gone back to being either boxed pasta or fast food. I actually think the same thing has been happening to me, but I call them "sugar headaches" and try to balance them out with Naked green Kale Blazer juices! They really do make me feel better and healthier. I asked Michael how much he thought he spends on food when he is eating healthy, like he was January through April. And did I mention that he even completed 14 days of the 30 Day Shred? I was so proud of him! He estimated his groceries to cost about $500 per month, just for himself!! Yikes!! I am a little interested to have him go back to eating healthy and keep track of receipts and what actually goes towards groceries and not other items, like toiletries and air filters, or stuff for Emma that I ask him to pick up while at Target. But, let's be realistic, I would do his receipt tracking for him. However, I think it will be easier to see how I do with "Healthy on a Budget", which officially starts tomorrow (June 1st). Today is my stomach shrinking day, eating less and drinking a lot more water. I am all out of ice cream and Reeses candy, but do have two frozen pizzas right now. That is fine, I will just make sure to ration each slice instead of eating one pizza per day. I am planning to not go over $200 dollars in June for myself, which equals $50 per week. I think going to the store less often may help me spend less money? I'll see if Michael can do the same for $300 per week, including any fast food.
   I went to Walmart on Sunday night after work and got seven items for $19.49, which now doesn't sound like that great of a deal. Is it just me or does everything seem more expensive when you're on a budget? Two Great Value frozen pizzas, $2.24 each // Two pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, $3.84 each // Great Value cream cheese for the five bagels I had left, $2.36 // Great Value parmesan cheese to shake on to the pizzas (which I almost didn't buy), $2.67 // and Great Value kiwi strawberry drink mix because I have one almost every day, $1.74 for a pack of ten. I have also been wanting to try Xyzal allergy meds since the Allegra doesn't seem to work that well, but it was $18 for 35 tablets. No thank you, I'll keep sneezing for free!

A super cute baby (who is turning 2 in less than 2 weeks!) & my beautiful Mother's Day tulips.

  I am trying to make this my new motto. It is such a good one and very true! Everything we complain about is something someone else wishes they had. If I complain about Michael- someone else wishes they were married, if we complain about work- someone else is struggling to find a job, etc. We have it so good, I think we just complain because we like to hear ourselves talk. If I complain about us not having enough in savings- there are many people out there who literally live paycheck to paycheck and have never been able to save any money and/or are in so much debt. It's worse when there are people who have so much less than we do, but they are so happy and thank God for every little thing! But that's the way it always should be! :)
   Sometimes it also takes me to be really dramatic to think of how good we have it. Either picturing bad scenarios or remembering how the doctor thought Emma would die at birth either because her body wouldn't be able to breathe on it's own or that she would have the very fatal type of dwarfism and die within a few days. Well now she is turning two years old in less than two weeks and she is doing so great considering everything she has been through! We watched Birdbox on Netflix Monday night. Oh my goodness, that was a dramatic movie and I'm so glad it wasn't real. But even stuff like that, "Wow, I am glad that is not something we never to deal with in our life. Never being able to go outside unless you're wearing a blindfold!?" (Not going to say why due to spoilers, even thought the movie came out in October I think.) I already trip enough on sidewalk cracks when I'm walking and texting at the same time.
   Michael has been going through the garage and getting rid of really old mold making supplies for his special fx make ups. He said it is stuff he bought, probably during Full Sail, so it would definitely be no good, plus he doesn't have plans to use it. In the pile was a box of diapers that he thought we wouldn't use. They are ones that are too big for her (she's been in size 1 since before she came home from the NICU over a year ago- she's got a little tushy!) or they are not the right type/ ones we tried on her in the past and they gave her a diaper rash, but it felt wasteful to throw the rest away so we've held on to them for a year. I figured that if we just use one "diaper rash" (Huggies Snug & Dry) diaper per day, it wouldn't be against her skin long enough to cause a problem, plus we coat on her Z-Guard cream, and she would wear her regular Huggies Lil' Snugglers diapers for the other 20 hours.

Holding the diapy! :)

    I actually just looked and both of these ^^ are Size 1 Huggies Little Snugglers so I don't why they look and fit different. We don't have the box anymore, just the bag that was inside. The inside part against her skin looks the same too, but the ones on the right fit looser around the thighs, so we just have to make sure to make the straps tighter so nothing leaks out the side (aka poop)! I'm not sure how long it will be until she switches to size 2 diapers. I thought she would be in them already since it says 1's only go up to 14 pounds and Emma is close to 17 pounds now! Not a big deal. I even think the smaller the diaper, the less each one costs, so we'll keep her in 1's as long as we can. :)
   I'm not sure if I accidentally bought the wrong ones or maybe I got the size 2's from a co-worker whose daughter grew out of them too quickly. Either way, I'm glad we have extras. Diapers are pretty expensive. We get ours from Amazon ~ a box of 198 for $50. That probably lasts us about a month, but we got a bunch for Christmas from our parents (plus Water Wipes) and will hopefully get more diapers for her birthday too! It's not as fun of a gift for others to give, but we love receiving them!
   As for other gifts, since my birthday is the day before Emma's (I'll be 32 this year, but still like to think that I look about 27 years old), Michael asked what kind of stuff for my birthday. Last year I only asked for one thing, so I only got one thing. (Complete series of the Parks & Recreative show on DVD. A very good purchase, although now a little unnecessary as we have Netflix again.) He doesn't like to be "fun" when I ask him to get me other stuff I think I would like because apparently we have played the "which one do you think I would like the best" (for necklaces or shirts or scrapbook stickers, etc) and he always picks the one I like the least. Haha! So he needs me to be specific. One thing I put on the list for this year was a notebook or photo album to put all my mini Polaroids in. He said it was hard to find online because he knew I would want something that I could write stuff underneath or add stickers. I pulled out other polaroid albums that I have made myself and discovered that one notebook was still half empty, so I filled it up to date the other night. It will look nicer after I add the cute holiday appropriate stickers.

   Since I'm trying to do the "smaller stomach" plan today, I will probably be blogging a lot because that passes the time quickly, plus I still haven't written about the walks I went on with Sasha when we were on the cabin trip in March. I only wrote about all the medical stuff on Emma's blog, and everything we did with her and Michael's mom that week.  I also have not written about when Michael's older brother and his wife met Emma for the very first time last month. I definitely want to add a post about that, as well as other baby progress updates before her birthday, since I'll have tons of pictures there and don't like getting too far behind or then blogging seems like a chore.

Pre-Pantry Diet List

   I also would call this the Hurricane Diet since the reason we have so much in the pantry is because of stocking up on foods that don't require electricity incase our power went out during/after a hurricane. But Orlando was soooo lucky to miss the last one, or at least our part of town. So I wanted to make a list of everything I have in the pantry and the freezer before starting the Healthy on a Budget post in a week or so (whenever all the pizza and ice cream is gone, although if you ask my brother, he considers pizza to be healthy, which is definitely fair for him to say since he also lost 15-20 pounds while he was in college the same time I was at Full Sail, and he owes it all to his "pizza diet" and walking around campus to all his classes).
   Starting with the Freezer- Southwest Quinoa, two different brands of salmon, green beans, those pasta with veggies skillet bag meals, a couple frozen meals with chicken and veggies (but I may end up eating those over my 3-day work weekend starting tomorrow), Organic Pesto Tortellini from Trader Joes, frozen bananas that I chopped up for smoothies, Lean Jimmy Dean sausage and egg biscuits, bag of couscous and spinach.
   Fridge- maple apple chicken sausage (good until Emma's birthday!) that I haven't opened yet because I was getting tired of eating eggs for breakfast, but that does sound good again now. Two lemons to cut up into a water bottle, most of those little gala apples I got from Save A Lot, cottage cheese (nope! nevermind that smells sour... trash!) and cilantro avocado dressing that is good until July, so I should probably make a couple more salads. We have a jar of pickles.. I wonder what else those would be good on besides hamburgers?
   Pantry- lots of granola bars from Dollar Tree, peanut butter crackers, Great Grains cereal, Blueberry (the Belvita knock offs, also from Dollar Tree!), guacamole chips, two big containers of V8, Carnation instant breakfast which would make a good ice cream replacement, four boxes of oatmeal! A bunch of mini bags of kettle corn, prunes and dates, Triscuts, regular butter crackers, two cans of lentil vegetable soup, at least six cans of beans (white and BBQ), tomato soup, peanut and pretzel trail mix, healthy almond bars, two jars of spaghetti sauce to go with the five boxes of various dry pastas, four boxes of rice, four other "fancy" boxes of dry pasta where it is suggested to add chicken, 12oz can of tuna, five cans of green beans... and I guess Michael has already eaten all of the hurricane rice, which is fine!
   So yeah, I definitely should not need to spend more than maybe $30 in June on groceries for myself, on things like eggs, milk, lettuce.. We will be buying food for Emma's birthday party in two weeks and we are expecting there to be maybe 15 people there! Hopefully we will have lots of left overs for the few days after that too.

  I have been using the shower in our bathroom since Christmas probably, because I didn't want to have to clean two showers. Also because the guest bathroom, where I keep most of my products, doesn't have a shower liner in it and lately the shower head can't be turned to face down- it keeps popping over so it is putting all the water against the tile wall. But tonight after my walk I thought I would try it out and maybe it wouldn't be so bad. It wasn't! I did have to put a towel down on the ground and my shower was faster than usual, which is another plus. When washing the right side of my body I had to keep my hand up and hold the shower head so it was sending the water where I needed it, but washing my left side against the wall was fine. I think I'll keep using that shower instead! It made me really thankful for all that we have, while Kate Davis (young woman from a rich family who now lives in Uganda and is raising her 14 adopted daughters and two biological sons) was once living in a house that was the size of a bathroom!

   Michael made dinner for our anniversary and it was really nice. He had flowers set out on the table and I wondered when and how he got those if he hadn't been able to leave the house all day with Emma since I had been at work. He picked them from the front yard!! I loved that and they were so pretty so he kept them on the table for a few more days. I used to say that flowers were a waste of money because they just wilt and die in a few days, but now I really like having flowers in the house for special occasions. We definitely don't bring flowers home every time we go to Publix, although I have been wanting to have some sunflowers in a vase lately. They are so bright and sunny looking!

I love this cute little set up with the skinny barn doors, wreath and window that Michael made/put together!!!

Another Free Thing!

   I think we officially started our budget on Friday. I was going to try for No Spending on Food in May, but that fell through as of yesterday when I wanted to check out the Save-A-Lot store closer to work. I did a bunch of math to figure out if the 24 pack of toilet paper, which was on the sale that ended last night, was cheaper than buying six of the 4 packs for 89 cents, also factoring in the total number of square feet. Turns out it was exactly the same price per option, down to the penny! I got the big pack so I would have less to carry. Save-A-Lot and Aldi are both able to give lower prices because they exclude the use of bags. Well, Save-A-Lot will let you buy bags, but usually I just bring a big cloth bag, however, I forgot to bring one for this trip. And right now I will put two in my car for next time because I know if I don't do it now, I will forget again later! (I only had one Ronald McDonald bag available- which we also got for free in Michigan! The other reusable bags from Walmart are full of Christmas decorations.)

   Since I didn't have any bags for the grocery store yesterday, I saw that a girl at work had an empty Publix bag from her lunch purchase, and she let me have that before our shift ended. I used that to hold the smaller items and just figured I'd put the bigger stuff straight into the car. But then a wonderfully kind woman who was bagging her groceries off to the side next to me, handed me an extra paper bag that she had and didn't need. I thanked her twice and she wished me a good day! I like how such a small gesture like that can make a big difference, especially when we're on a budget. Everything seems an extra generous blessing and my heart melts for the kindness of society.

   I've been keeping track of the free food I have been able to get at work recently, but I do not rely on it and still pack a full lunch box. I tend to pack more food than I end up eating at work since I stay busier and am not sitting around watching Netflix like I do on most of my days off. Anyway, two of the ladies at work are currently on a low-carb diet, which is putting me on a high-carb diet (ha!) since they have been fine donating their sides of yummy bread to me! Since last week I have been given parts of three big veggie and cheese omelets, Cuban bread, two slices of toast from Zaxby's, two pickle spears, and a Hawaiian roll. Yesterday Alex gave me more than half of her pineapple pastry and another lady from work ordered pizza for our shift, so I had two slices of that. There is a diabetic woman on our shift who has to eat a banana each day, but doesn't like bananas that much, so she always gives me the other half! I laughed yesterday saying, "This is the healthiest thing I have eaten all day!", but also had some of a green fruit juice that I got from Trader Joe's before the budget started.

   One thing I like better about Save-A-Lot is that you can use the carts like normal. At Aldi you have to "rent" the carts for a quarter, even though it gives you the quarter back at the end. I've been confused about how that works or sometimes I don't remember to bring a cloth bag and a quarter, so I only get enough groceries that I can carry. Aldi is closer to our house and more "on the way" while I'm driving home. Save-A-Lot was about 10 minutes out of the way, but I hadn't shopped there since I still lived at home. I do like that their set up is like a regular grocery store with signs saying what is in each aisle, although Aldi has non-grocery items for sale as well.
    I once saw a Publix receipt vs a Walmart receipt, where the person bought all the same stuff (25 name brand items), and it showed that the Walmart was $27 cheaper! Even my friend Lindsey bought groceries at Walmart for the first time two or three years ago and texted me about how surprised she was with the price difference. However, if Publix has something BOGO, then that is usually a better deal. Unfortunately, I feel like sometimes Michael and I end up buying BOGO stuff that we don't really need, just "because it's a great deal", like Ben & Jerry's ice cream. For two of those yesterday I still paid $5.19 (the expensive regular price of one), but if I was on an extreme budget, I would stick to the Dollar Tree pints, or not buy ice cream at all, especially if I was also trying to make better food choices. I feel like I need to go on some of these budget challenges, just to write about them. Plus it would not hurt my body to stop eating ice cream for a few weeks and drink more water instead! Even if I just do it for my best friend, Alana, who is always so sweet to read every blog post! ;)
  At Save-A-Lot I spent $21.02 on the 24 pack of toilet paper, a bag of 14 small red gala apples, three mix-in yogurts, two cheapy frozen pizzas, a bigger chicken/rice/beans frozen meal, a half gallon of ice cream, and two double packs of baby foods for Emma. Even that still seems expensive.. Maybe I left something out? I already threw away the receipt though. On my way home Michael asked me to stop and get him some fried chicken from Publix. As I walked in I flipped through the weekly ad and what was in the BOGO sale? What else than Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I only got two because Aldi has really good brownie and cookie dough pint and I'd rather get that flavor there for half the price! Plus again, I need to not get so much ice cream anymore (for a while- you know, once all the current stuff is gone)..
  Other free things- since CVS linked all of our medicine purchases to our rewards cards, we sometimes get those "cash coupons" for a few dollars. I was so excited to get one the other day for $10! I always walk around the store, like a little kid who saved up their allowance, but since I'm not in a healthy mode and I saw that Easter candy was on sale, I used half of the cash credit for that and also bought a toothbrush! I do often get tooth brushes from Dollar Tree (they even have double packs!), but there was nothing else I saw that I wanted to spend the cash credit on and didn't want to get ten dollars worth of Easter themed candy. I have a little more self control than that, ha! Although, I was wondering what I would have bought instead of candy if I was in health mode. Last time I bought pump soap because we needed more and another time I used the cash coupon to buy fancy sounding face wash because I didn't want to try it for the full price.

  I also have $23 in free frozen yogurt Groupons that my mom gave me about a year and a half ago. By now they are definitely expired, however, as it states on the paper, "the amount paid for this voucher never expires".
   Another free thing I was so happy to receive (via email) was that our Happily/ Date Box subscription extended as an anniversary gift from Michael's older brother and his wife! I don't know if she knew that I "invested" (Michael's favorite word) in a 3-month subscription so we could have dates at home, which area arranged by a company and then mailed to us once a month. So now we have a 6 month subscription. We loved the first one (making ice cream from scratch and a game called, "I Bet I Know You Better"), and we have had the second one delivered to us, but we haven't done it yet. That one is about plants that comes with the little buckets to hand and herb seeds to watch grow over the weeks. I had plants at one point in our first official apartment together, and I am loving my mom's strawberry and blackberry plants, which makes me want to grow some of our own in the back yard! She said she got the blackberry plant on clearance two years ago and recently it has started growing the fruit. Our yard has a lot more dirt than soil, but our flowers have been growing like crazy since they were planted last summer!

   Another cool thing, that is not so much about budgets, but is a cool story ~ About 14 years ago, I made a friend in a group on MySpace. As MySpace's popularity fizzled out, we became penpals instead, writing to each other probably 10x per year, then a little less as we started having kids and getting busier with our lives. We always stayed in touch through Facebook and Instagram, and texted often the past couple of years. As we live so far apart (she lives in Wisconsin), we were finally able to meet last weekend because she brought her older daughter, Nova, to Orlando so they could go to Disney! Originally I was thinking it was 12 years ago, but because of the detail of starting to use Facebook in 2006 instead of MySpace, Jenn and I had to become friends at least a year before that. She was so sweet and paid for our breakfast too, so I paid the tip with cash. It was so crazy to finally meet a really good friend I have had for so long. Nova carried around her bag of goodies ~ leaves, rocks, and acorns that she found while walking around outside. The little cow I'm holding is a Wisconsin souvenir that sweet Nova picked out for Emma.

   Just a few more notes before ending this post ~ I do really want to do the "Healthy on a Budget, 2019 Version" compared to the last one that was almost 3 years ago, back in Fall 2016 when I was trying to distract myself with fun stuff because I was getting so stressed out about not being pregnant again yet after my miscarriage, even though I was following my ovulation apps and we were doing it on the "right" (highest chance) days. Plus I need to get back to eating better. I made a really great "Soul Cycle vs Sugar Cycle" list that I taped to the pantry door, about all the pros of eating well and the cons of not eating well. But lately, after getting tired of the salads that were my favorite for a couple months, the only thing in my brain is, "Pizza and ice cream are so yummy!" But my birthday is in less than 3 weeks now (20 days til I'm 32!) and just over 3 weeks until Emma's 2nd birthday party, and I want to look "slim and trim" for all the pictures. My dad told me one day that I looked that way ~ around my 23rd birthday I think when Michael, Alana and I met some other friends (Mia, Sharanya, Tonia, Travis, and Sarah) at a lake in Gainesville. I believe I was 110 pounds then ~ June 2010 during Full Sail, but got back down to 105 by the of end July when we went tubing for Tonia's birthday. But I don't want to go into too much detail about that or I will feel the need to post pictures from those days... too late! ;)

   Last few pictures: I have had those carrots and the hummus so long I should probably throw them out, but they miiight still be good and I want to eat up everything we have. The little container is leftover toppings from Taco Bell nachos. I warmed it up and scooped it onto the greenest lettuce leaves. It was actually really good and I will probably make my own (refried beans, beef, and cheese- tomatoes and sour cream optional, but it had that in there too so it was extra creamy)! The pizza below is my current favorite one from Publix: Organic Roasted Vegetables by Monteli, and I added extra parmesan cheese that we had. I'll use left over parmesan packets from Olive Garden for the other two pizzas I got on sale recently. Also shown is one of the pickle spears that I got from a girl at work last week. I ate it on Monday. Pickles are good!

   I love how little Sasha asks for by using her eyes. She just wants to play outside in the backyard (and then be inside for 3 minutes, and then go outside again for 10 minutes) and she loves laying under blankets. She has been so good about not getting on the bed like she used to, now that we have the new mattress and clean bedsheets. I put a blanket on the floor by my side of the bed and she lays on that in the mornings that I'm home. & Emma shines so bright that even the sun has to wear sunglasses! :D

Tracking Every Penny

   Yay, another budget post! One of my favorite topics after talking about losing weight. I'm not worrying about that right now, although I have been eating too much ice cream lately. Since following Mary's Cup of Tea on Instagram, a self-love coach, I am trying to be more accepting of myself and letting go of the need to always get back down to my wedding weight (104 pounds). I do look pretty good at 118 pounds, especially when I've been exercising.
   Anyway, over the past few days I have been working on our budget since we have been needing to take money out of savings to cover our bills since February. Yes, some of the things were necessary like a new mattress. Michael and I have been together for 10 years and he's had that mattress since before I met him! We did go on a week-long cabin trip two months ago, but that was also pretty necessary (and fun! as well as a great, positive experience for Emma) as Michael had not left Orlando since Emma had come home from the NICU 11 months prior! We got a new vacuum cleaner recently, since ours was eight years old -it was the main gift we bought as our wedding present using gift cards we were given- and I read that eight years is usually the max life for a vacuum. It has stopped cleaning the carpets, so we got a new one. In February, Michael and his friend, Brian, were working hard on their Star Wars costumes for MegaCon, which is going on this weekend. He asked to get a 3D printer because a lot of the stuff they needed for the costumes were intricate pieces and it would be far more expensive to buy all of them from someone else with a 3D printed. And then of course, after getting that, Michael found out that the design program used to create everything in the 3D printer could not be used without Wifi, so after 16 months without it, we signed up for Internet (and Netflix) again. However, they didn't even end up going to MegaCon because of financial reasons (each day is $75 per person) plus they have barely worked on their costumes since February, so they were nowhere near being completed, and they are both very meticulous about their work.
   It's times like these, when I see how much money we have spent on non-essentials, even me with buying my walnut body scrub (hot body related), bamboo toothbrushes that I don't like (because I was convinced that I should help save the planet), the charity rice purse that I haven't used (because I do like donating to charity), and loading up on iTunes music (because Ashley Tisdale, the Jonas Brothers, and Taylor Swift all have new songs out), that I feel like I should never complain that "we don't have enough money". That's exactly how I feel when I hear other people complain about how we don't make enough money at work (although, I'm pretty sure 90% of the population feels like they don't make enough money for their job and some do not), but they constantly come in to work with Starbucks and Chick-Fil-A. We are all hypocrites! If we literally did not have enough money, we wouldn't even be able to think about getting fast food or not cutting coupons to save money on the necessary items. PS- Dollar Tree is a great place to get toothpaste and tooth brushes!

   Our AC went out the other day again (reminder: we live in Florida), so it got up to 83 inside by 4pm, even though it was a few degrees less than that outside. Luckily, we were able to get it fixed the next morning, on a Saturday. I always keep the blinds closed so it stays a little cooler in the house.
    & That coin jar had $32 in it! :)

 At work I have been talking complaining about our budget recently, and my co-workers have been nice to offer me some of their food, which I always gladly accept- part of their big veggie omelets when they order breakfast from a nearby restaurant, two pickle spears, Zaxby's bread that they didn't want so they could save carbs. Carbs are my favorite! I've been taking older food to work lately- not expired stuff, since I worry about getting sick- but frozen meals that have been in the freezer for a long time, or things like peanut butter crackers and granola bars, that have a long shelf life. I'll probably need to mix up some rice and beans (from last year's hurricane prep) for lunch tomorrow. One thing I think that helps us, is getting cash out for grocery money instead of using our debit cards. I don't like spending my crispy $20 bills, so it helps me prioritize what I have on my shopping list, or look in the pantry to see if I really need to go to the store at all. We are lucky to have received so many gift cards over the years- to fast food places as well as actual sit down restaurants. That always makes me feel rich, even if we're on a budget. :)

   I made a list of a bunch of ways we can save money/ not spend as much:
>> Make a Goal chart (done!)
>> Always request overtime hours in money instead of accruing vacation time
>> Lower Verizon to 6G per month instead of 8G since we have Wifi at home again (but I would need to do the math to see how many gigs I actually use per month when I'm not around Wifi)
>> Michael should try to sell Star Wars decals and costume fans again, although now that today is the last day of the Cosplay convention, I don't know if anyone will need one for a while. I really wish I had thought of this idea a couple months ago!
>> Shop at Aldi, Save A Lot, and Walmart way more and stay away from Target and Publix (unless there are BOGOs- then Publix is a good deal)
>> Don't let food get expired. I'm bad about that- buying food and then not being in the mood for that item and wanting something else instead so I don't eat what I want.. ugh. And that is even with trying to be conscious and only buying enough food for the next few days. This happens more when I bring my food to work, but then the supervisor gets pizza for everyone so I eat that instead.
>> Sign up for a Target debit card to always save the 5% for when we "have to" go there.

>> Sleep more, when possible with Emma

>> Don't eat when bored (that has been harder for me lately since I'm back in my pizza and ice cream mode and tend to eat a lot when I'm a little bit hungry, rather than waiting until I'm actually hungry then eating a regular portion size- of "real food")

>> Drink more water and brush my teeth after each meal. Less eating = less grocery money being spent, and will also possibly circle back around to losing weight! Win/Win/Win!!

>> Watch The Pursuit of Happyness (Will Smith movie from 2007). It always makes me calm down when I'm really stressed about money because we have it 500x better than he did, and it's a true story about that character!

    And here, in this sub-category, are ways to distract myself so I don't feel bored, like the only thing to do is to eat:
    >> Work with Emma more with therapy stuff and reading books to her

    >> Exercise videos! Michael and I were both doing the 30 Day Shred in April

    >> Make a rule of not eating when we're watching TV (so common for us!)

    >> Make scrapbook cards or at least use an old one to write someone a letter

    >> Photoshoots of/with Emma (while she still doesn't have a choice, haha)

    >> Go for a walk (when Michael is home to watch Emma) or walk in place while watching TV

    >> Dollar Tree spa time, they have great $1 products! (when Emma is napping)

    >> Write out all of our budget spending again/ any other new planning charts

    >> Vacuum, clean up the house/ do dishes, laundry is always needing to be done

    >> Look through the Publix app for BOGOs, make a list of what we can buy

   I would love to work on another "Healthy on a Budget" post. That will be my June goal once I finish all the pizza and ice cream. At least when I buy frozen pizza it has veggies on top! ;)
   Edit: It should be mentioned that when going over our budget the other day with Michael, and I mentioned financial advisors, he said, "Who is Dave Ramsey?" Oh goodness.. Ha!
   I also forgot to mention the cheap day food challenges I have been reading about recently. I am really into stuff like that. I found the websites, but my laptop is old and couldn't open the page in order to link it in here. But Google "Elon Musk Challenge" (it's living off of $2 per day/$60 month for food) or the also popular, yet more difficult, "Food Stamps Challenge", which is only $1.48 for food per day, but I wonder if people who actually are on Food Stamps thinks this one is offensive because they are always doing that as a way of life, unlike other people who try it as a challenge for a week or two. However, the point of it was simply to bring awareness to how much of the world has to live off of. It's very important for us to remember that and be grateful for everything we have!

  ^^ This is the "rice purse" I bought as I mentioned towards the top. It's not made out of rice, but each item purchased goes towards donating a big 55-pound bag of rice to a family. It said that each bag of rice is usually paid for between 25 purchases. And I love that it gives you a code to see the family that you helped! I always like stuff like that, but our main donations go towards helping our three sponsored friends through Unbound. That is usually the first thing Michael talks about cutting out when I mention budget stuff, but I always say no, because those families need the money way more than we do and, even when we're on a budget, I still believe God wants us to tithe and that it's the right thing to do, even if we can't do the whole 10%. (We're doing about 4% I think, but that's also because our mortgage payment each month is a lot more than 25% of my monthly income. When I look up budget charts it says 25% is the average amount that goes towards mortgage or rent. Right now ours is about 50%!)