Complaining will not change things in your life; only action will. Make a list of all you need to do to change what doesn't work in your life and, little by little, begin making those changes.
-Susan Jeffers

Whew what a relief the scale was this morning in a good/bad way. I thankfully lost 5 lbs by 8:30 this morning. It's still a 2 lb gain from my last weigh in on the 24th of June. I'm really glad I got on the scale yesterday. It really was the fright I needed to push me up off the couch.

I'm so tired of being this unhealthy. For almost 2 weeks I've had burning in my stomach and I'm sure it's from all the chili I eat. Plus I just got back from a week in Utah visiting family and eating more than a fair share of fatty foods. I was just waking up feeling so nauseous that I wouldn't even drink my morning coffee until later on after I had breakfast and my stomach settled a little. I was even started to wonder if it was morning sickness and went out and bought a pregnancy test (which came out negative).

I'm also tired of cropping all my photos to get the most flattering photo. I totally cropped myself in this photo to avoid showing the full width of my upper arms or my tummy rolls. I really hate getting my picture taken by a camera that isn't my own. This way I can crop it before it's downloaded.

So this morning I got up and was motivated. I started off with weighing in and my honey jumped on the scale as well. (Yay for the spousal support!) We made oatmeal with bananas for breakfast. I let that settle and built up the motivation and got on the wii and did a 6 minute workout on Gold's Gym Cardio Boxing. It kicked my butt for just that little of time. It said that I burned 72 calories and did 311 punch count.

My thighs are extremely sore now from the squating so I'll definately have to mix it up and try something different tomorrow. I can hardly wait!

34 Days Until My 31st

... and I've gained weight! It's been 46 days since my last weigh in and even longer since I've blogged about it. Today I got the motivation to get up off the couch and at least weigh in. I weighed in at 246.5 lbs on June 24th around 9:30 am. Today I'm weighing in at almost 4 pm and the scale says 253.5 lbs. :'(

Please oh please let that just be from my breakfast and lunch today. I had french toast with butter, syrup and bananas; bacon and sausage links; 2 over-easy eggs; and 2 cups of coffee with sugar and hazelnut creamer. Lunch was a plate the neighbor brought over consisting of some chunks of beef in a chili sauce with beans and rice.

The scale has offically scared me straight. I've been on vacation this past week in Utah visiting familly and I've had this consistant feeling of my stomach burning and I've been telling myself that now is the time to eat better. I've just found the place in my mind where I'm ready to give it another shot...

So I'll see you tomorrow after I weigh in first thing tomorrow. As for tonight I'm going to order my E-Mealz and maybe do some grocery shopping to prepare.

Walgreens and KMart

We went to Walgreens looking to pick up some sunscreen before the sale ended. I was expecting to find them for B1G1 free but they had tags hanging for B1G1 50% off. So I went back home and double checked the blog list and look up the ad online. Why didn't I just pick up an ad while I was in the store you ask? Well my husband hates waiting for me to figure out the kinks in things and I figured I would just come back alone if I figured it out. As it turns out I was right about it being B1G1 free and the 50% off was for the ad tomorrow. I picked up Twizzlers for $0.25 each after coupons and RR. And I have no idea what the other stuff is... hairspray maybe... it was on $0.99 each after $4 off.

Kmart had Beggin Strips on sale B1G1 Free and pair that up with 8 coupons for B1G1 free and I got 16 Free packages. ($0.24 tax on every 2 packages)

Chicken and Fruit

 

Working on stocking up my freezer we took advantage of a sale at El Super for chicken quarters for $0.57/lb. They were sold in 10 lb bags and we bought 40 lbs and seperated them into freezer bags. Mangos were on sale for 5/$1 and the nectarines were 3lbs/$1.

Last Day of the Month- $

I have about 50 coupons for Dial Body Wash or Lotion without a size limit for $2 off. Lots of other areas have been able to find travel size body washes for $0.97 making this coupon a $1.03 money maker. Unfortunately I've ran around town since the coupon came out and every store is out of stock. I never have luck finding things in the travel department.

So being as this was the last day to use these coupons I was able to use them on the Dial Lotion priced at $1.97. I also had coupons remaining for Nozxema bikini razors $2 off the $1.97 price. While at Walmart I took advantage of price matching El Marketon's ad for oranges 8lbs/$0.99. And El Super's ad for Bar S hot dogs $0.76 matched with a coupon for $1/2. $0.16 is such a good price for hot dogs but my husband only likes Oscar Mayer so I only bought a few. I'm sure that by the end of the week I'll buy some more. I just can seem to pass that price up. And the corn nuts... well they were only $1 each and my honey had to have them. :D

Organizing the Spices

I don't spend much time in the kitchen as it is more my honey's domain. I'm a mess in the kitchen... I tend to overcook, under cook, over salt, or my long hair turns up in the food (YUCK!!). So I stick to baking cookies or banana breads maybe the occasional Jello mold :D I hate going into our kitchen because I can never find what I need or I can't reach it.

So when I came across this blog by Frugal Decor Mom I was so excited to make a change to my chaos. She uses baby food jars which is a really interesting idea but there is no plastic shaker on the top of them. I have this other spice rack that's just been chilling on the microwave.

I rarely use any of the spices there but I hadn't been able to get myself to throw it out and reduce the clutter. I'm thankful I have it because I put the spices I don't use in a little snack size baggie and stacked them in the back a drawer and I refilled them with the spices I do use. I'm happy now to have two places free of clutter but now what to do with the extra space? I need to figure out how to organize all my storage containers that are spread all over the kitchen next.

Facebook Giveaways

1st 75,000 to "like" Aussie Products on Facebook and fill in the form under "Aussie Giveaway" will receive a coupon through the mail for a Free Aussie product (up to $3.99).

Herbal Essences has the same giveaway here for a Free product up to $3.99 for the 1st 125,000 to enter.

Milani is giving away 25,000 HD Advanced lip color when you "like" them on Facebook and fill out the form. This is not to the 1st 25,000 submissions but is open all day and randomly winners will be picked. Here's hoping I win!

Pantene has a giveaway as well for the 1st 100,000 to "like" them on Facebook and fill the form under the giveaway. This is for a shampoo/conditioner up to $4.99.

Shopping Trip 6/28- $14.77

Today was the last day for the sales and I didn't want to run around to the different stores so I price matched at Walmart. I was in the worst line ever. I really dread going in to Walmart and only seeing 2 or 3 lanes open other than the under 20 items lanes. It took 18 minutes to ring up 4 people ahead of me with no more than 6 items each. I usually go for the lane closest to customer service in case the cashier has questions. Which in my case today, the cashier was positive you couldn't use coupons when price matching. I had my coupon policy with me thinking I'd have problems with overage but I should have had my price matching policy with me as well.

The Noxzema razors were $1.97 and I have coupons for $2.00 off so that was a $0.03 money maker (kind of since I pay $0.13 tax on each one). I price matched the salt for $0.50 and the sugar for $1.99 each. The cookies were price matched with Smiths to $1.00 each with a coupon for $1.00/2 making them $0.50 each. And the Bulls Eye BBQ price matched at $0.79 from Albertsons. Matched with a coupon for $0.50 off they were $0.29. And out of 10 bottles 7 of them were expired. I wish I would have looked at the store before bringing them home. Do you check the expiration dates on products when you shop?

6/26 Shopping Trip- $29.78/ $108.11

Walgreen's started out as a major pain in the butt. My Twizzler coupons wouldn't go through as well as my Scotch tape coupons. I also had a hard time using the Carefree Walgreens coupon from the July book stacked with a manufactures coupon and had to add a piece of taffy.

Before the sale and coupons all this came up to $69.49 I paid $14.24 with taxes and recieved a $1 RR from the Twizzlers.

Smith's went a lot smoother other than I left my debit card in the car. I got the Nabisco cookies and the hot dogs for $0.50 a package.

I absolutely love BIGS Sunflower Seeds! Bacon Salt flavor is the best. They're normally $1.79 and today were $1.59. Not a huge savings but I'll take it. My total came to $15.54 with $9.54 of that being spent on just the seeds. Oops :D Before sales, store card and coupons my total was $38.62 in savings.