Words on a Wednesday

Good morning,


Happy Wednesday!

Here we are half way through the week. It feels like the times are really dragging for me! When I go to get something done, I find myself running out of time. Yesterday I spent some time at Bookman's - similar to a Barnes and Noble. They have many books there, even games, and comics. I went there in search of a book for my 8 year old. Raynie - even though is outgoing, she struggles to maintain friendships. When asking, "is he or she your friend?" The reply I get is often, "I dunno." Then I ask the 50 questions that all parents ask, which includes, "are you nice to each other? Are you mean to each other? Do you speak to each other" --Raynie always says, "I dunno. I guess." Which never really fully answers my questions. So once I was off of work yesterday I went to Bookman's in search of a friendship book for kids. Something we can read at night. Darlene is the story teller, so I figured I could find a book on maintaining friendships. Great idea right?!?
Well- let me say that there are many "How To" books, and none that I could find about maintaining friendships. I spent 2 hours in that store reading title after title. The store is not nearly as organized as a Barnes and Noble so I was stuck searching on my own. I did however find books on " how to teach your kids to tie a bowtie" - surprisingly, this book was over 100 pages. Who knew? I also found books on "how to teach your daughter to stop drinking and driving." - "How to teach your daughter to cross her legs" "How to teach your daughter how to be glamorous" "How to teach your daughter that Mom is right" "Dealing with no Dad" "Dealing with 2 moms" --The list could go on. I found How to's on cooking, cleaning, chores, hair ties, dress, make up, even pooping. Nothing on friendship. I have had to resort to amazon where I found a book that looks promising. Hopefully I won't have to wait forever to receive it. --Do you remember when we met I talked about how impulsive I was? It's super real for me. If that books doesn't come pretty much immediately I will be searching book stores for alternative titles. Ah, the live of the impulsive thinker and doer.

Darlene and I spent time at the gym together last night. It was a cardio kind of night which meant that there wasn't really room for talking. She's not as motivated as I am about the life change, but she remains accountable in going through the motions. She's honest about it too which I appreciate. She admitted to me yesterday that she ate a blueberry muffin. Definitely not blasphemy, but I did ask how many calories it was- 270 for a palm sized muffin. When we were in the gym we were working on an elliptical machine. This machine is called a Cybex. While soft on the joints, it definitely works you over to get a good work out. When we reached 300 calories burned, she turned to me with a beat red face, and sweat dripping down her, and said "there's my muffin!" - I turned to her and said, "Now is it worth having?" Which of course is no. Her and I laughed about it while panting over our machines. We talk about worth a lot in our lives. Is it worth owning? Is it worth handling it this way? Is it worth the sweat to eat a 4 bite muffin? I think together we come to realizations daily. She keeps my head on the ground, and I hopefully do the same for her. Even though she admits to not being as motivated, she absolutely goes through the motions to ensure our success. Meal prepping and planning, keeping an organized kitchen. She does a great job. I just love her so much.


Today I will likely spend 30 or more minutes staring at the budget. Last month we went through all of our bills to determine what could be cut down. I called our utilities companies who offered to put us on an equalizer, but I would much rather pay the bill as is. I am often placing credits on the bill anyways, and would rather deal with that. Consistency is not always better. When it's December and I practically have no electric bill, I would rather take the utility money and plan part of a vacation, or take a day trip. So utilities were out. We do limit our usage between 12p-7p since that is the plan that we are on though. Even during months like this, we wait to do laundry to keep cost down. Next was my car payments. We skipped those too as that would mean refinancing. Although I am certain we could potentially get them reduced, I do not want to make any credit changes when we are months away from home shopping. Next came internet and cable. I was able to have our bill reduced to next to nothing. I qualified for a loyalty plan which took my costs from $160 monthly to $60 monthly. This includes, cable, internet, and DVRs. It's a killer deal. Most companies will eat cost to keep a paying customer I have learned. Same with my Verizon bills. We went from $180 a month to $110. For 2 IPhones, data plans, and unlimited talk and text, that's a pretty killer deal. We even combined our car, and renters insurance. That bill went from $220 to $165. We are trying to save where we can. A penny saved is a penny earned someone once said. I believe that to be true. If only coupons came in the mail for actual bills like rent and utilities. That would be awesome.

Today will be the day of checking stock piles. We recently made a run of deodorant and shampoo. I noticed yesterday that we only have 1 tube of toothpaste. I love the Colgate Optic white. While not totally expensive, I still try to get it cheaper than retail. We often shop on amazon, or go the Colgate website to see if they are offering rebates or coupons. When 1 item runs out, there are normally 2 to follow. I need to determine what we are low on, so that we can prepare a shopping list. We always attempt to get the big items out of the way in the beginning of the month. We use Costco for most household items. Toilet paper, paper towels, trash bags, shampoo, conditioner, dish soap, and of course groceries. It's nice to be able to go through the entire month and not worry about having even paper products or food. Same with toiletries. We try to get those purchases out of the way if we can. Most times, online is the way to go.

That's going to be one of my many plans tonight. The others will include spraying weed spray. We got a few showers of rain yesterday. This normally means that the weeds will be sprouting up in the front and back yard. Even though I have a landscaper who can come at anytime, it is much less expensive for me to purchase a $12 bottle of weed spray and try to hold off on calling him. Other plans will include cleaning off my back porch, moving some bikes into storage as they are not being used, and storing the other bikes inside the house. I definitely don't want anything to rust. I have also noticed that I have way too much patio furniture. haha. So this means a yard sale may be up and coming. Yard sales are a great way to clean house and make money. Not to mention, the weather is absolutely right for that. I will have to talk to Darlene about it. She is my yard sale champion. She's bilingual in Spanish, which makes yard sales easy. I have had them before
without her and I often get stuck in communication. She swoops in and takes over. It's nice.

Hope you're having an awesome Wednesday. I am off to a conference call. Enjoy the weather if you are still in Phoenix!



Lou