COUPON CRAZY!

Over the past 4-6 months I have been trying to be a more avid coupon user.  I still am far from a pro when it comes to couponing, but I am impressed with my savings so far.  I have watched Extreme Couponing in total amazement.  Although, I think that most of the people that they feature are totally overboard and greedy.  I just want to buy what we NEED... for damn near nothing.  I don't need to wipe out shelves because I have the coupons to do so.  I would not get items I have no use for just because I can get them free.  I also don't need a whole basement stockpiled with a hundred of every item that we use either. 

This past Monday I went into Stop & Shop after work, with my 2 year old in cart, list in hand, my coupon "organizer" and a separate envelope marked "This Trip".  I have to snicker when I type "coupon organizer" because my organizer is anything but organized.  I tried very hard to keep it straight, but the 13 tabbed sections just are not enough for me.  I had to put two categories on each tab to sort "my way".  I find myself fumbling for my coups in every aisle, clogging up the flow of traffic...basically being that customer I loathe.  I am on the hunt for a bigger better organizer.  In the meantime, I have sorted my coupons into 30 separate envelopes.  I labeled them the way I know it will be easiest and quickest to locate what I am looking for.  I stuffed all of the envelopes into the lame organizer I have now, just to hold them, but it is so jam packed I can't close it anymore, haha!  I must dedicate some time this weekend to finding the best organizer for my couponing needs.  Anyway, I got off track... I was going to brag about how much money I saved, haha!  My order total came up to $298.68, my total savings by using my Stop & Shop card was $92.53, I used 28 manufacturer's coupons totaling $41.46, 9 of which were doubled for another $4.50 off, then a $5.00 "Personal Thanks" credit for purchasing 10 boxes of cake mix that were on sale for $1.00 (that I also had coupons for).  After all deductions and tax added, my final order total came up to $158.63.  Maybe not "Extreme" but quite a bit less than I typically spend at the grocery store.  I also scored gas points!  Not sure if gas points are all over the US, but Stop & Shop gives you 1 gas point for every dollar that you spend.  For every 100 gas points you earn, you get .10 off each gallon of gas at their gas station.  Every week Stop & Shop will have a list of particular items selected for earning gas points, if you buy "x" amount of any of "these" items you get 200 gas points, sometimes 300 points.  I got 200 points for buying 7 cans of  tomatoes for $1.00/each!  I go through canned tomatoes like nobody's business, so this was an extra sweet deal for me.  This past week they also gave 200 points if you bought any turkey.   And as a super surprise, the turkey that I chose had a deal as well, it was $1.49/lb, but if you spent $25.00 you got it for .58/lb!  So my 12.72 lb turkey was originally $18.95 and I got it for $7.38!!   SA-WEET!  Then they gave 300 points if you spent $50.00.  So I racked up 700 points, plus the 159 for the dollars that I spent.  859 gas points earned so I saved .80/gallon on gas when I filled up my tank this week.  Regular price for gas was $3.26/gallon, I got it for $2.46/gallon!!  That is a significant savings!  And I did this just by purchasing items I would have purchased anyway.  Well, I typically would not have bought 10 boxes of cake mix, but with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up I'm sure I will have no problem using them up as gifts and as take alongs to people's houses for the holidays and our work Potluck.

Not bad, eh?!

I wanted to share some of my favorite coupon sites with everyone.

couponmom.com is great!  I love this site because not only can you print out coupons here but my favorite feature is the tab for "Grocery Deals by State".  You click on this, find your state and then click on one of the stores that are listed and it does a little coupon match up for you!  It lists everything that is on sale at the store that week, and it tells you what coupons to use to get even more money off (even what week the coupon came out!) and then gives you a total price after coupon!  I dare you to tell me that is not pure awesome-ness!

sundaycouponpreview.com is a money saver in itself for me.  I subscribed for free and they send me 2-3 emails during the week with a preview of what coupons will be in Sunday's paper.  I do not have the paper delivered simply because it is a waste of money for us.  We read the news online and sometimes catch up on the morning or nightly news.  I only buy the Sunday paper for the coupons (and my little guy like the "funnies" and sales papers).  But there have been many times I have spent $3.50 for the paper and there was not one single coupon that I would use.  That is $3.50 that could have been saved.  So knowing ahead of time what coups will be in there lets me know if it is worth buying that week.  If I will not be saving at least as much as I paid for the paper, no sense in me buying it.

coupondivas.com is another super site.  Coupon matchups by store.  Links to lots of printable coupon databases.

couponnetwork.com is where you can print Catalina coupons.

These three are printable coupon databases:

www.pgesaver.com

www.coupons.com

http://smartsource.com

And also, many stores have coupons on their websites.  Some stores will have a mixture of printable Manufacturer's coupons and store specific coupons that you can double up with Manufacturer's coupons.  Check out the following:

http://coupons.target.com/

http://coupons.walmart.com/

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/coupons/

walgreens coupons

BJ's Wholesale

Oh, and many products will give you a coupon just for liking them on Facebook.  :)

As you may remember, as part of my savings strategy I have been depositing any change I have in my wallet, pockets, couch cushions, (random change I find when cleaning) in to my change jar.  I also deposit whatever money I saved by using coupons into the jar. After 30 days I deposit all of it into my account at the bank.  Me and the little man took a ride to the bank yesterday to do just that.  I ran all my change through the CoinStar machine and took the receipt and the dollar bills that I had saved over to a teller.  Yesterday's total deposit was $126.33.  This is so exciting for me...the non saver!  And it did not hurt to save any of the money either.  I did not miss this money.  Today, I transferred this money to my ING account and I will not touch it.  This is going toward my Emergency Fund.  We came home and I put my jar on the counter and noticed two pennies sitting there so I put them in the jar.  I am on my way to saving more money for next month's deposit.

Hope to get EVERYONE on the couponing kick.  Save some money, people!!  It is a little time consuming, but well worth it.

Thanks for reading :)

Maleeka

JUST DO IT!

If it is important to you, you will find a way. If not you'll find an excuse.

This statement is true for all aspects of life.  I am really trying my hardest to not make excuses for anything anymore.

If it is important to me to lose weight and be healthier, there should be no excuse, I should just be making the changes needed to be healthier.  I have already made significant changes but I know in order to reach my goals I will need to kick it up a notch.

I seem to have already hit a plateau in my weight lose although I have only lost 10 pounds.  I was consuming 1700 calories a day, but I have decided to cut out 200-300 of those calories and bring my total daily intake down to 1400-1500 a day.

I also RAN on the treadmill at work last week.  This was SUPER exciting for me.  I have never ever been a runner, but with my injury it just seemed so out of the question.  Granted it was only a 2 minute sprint, but it felt great and not only did I challenge my body, I challenged my mind.  I KNOW that a big part of my limited exercise is mental fear of hurting myself.  But I showed myself that I can do alot more than I give myself credit for.  As a birthday present to myself, I ordered a pair of FiveFingers sneakers.  I've heard great things about these funky little sneaks.  Hopefully I will be able to wear them comfortably on my bum foot and really focus on incorporating at least 10-15 minutes a day running on the work treadmill.  If not, I will return them, get my money back and just wear my old sneakers and do the same.

If it is important to me to be financially stable and also prepare for my retirement and my son's continued education, then there should be no excuse.  I have went from zero savings, no retirement fund, and no college fund to a little over $200 saved over a couple accounts, enrolling in the 401k plan at work and also enrolling in a 529 college fund for my son.  I have cut back on spending, made a plan to tackle and pay off all of my debt, and made my first significant payment towards eliminating debt.  All of this in less than 4 weeks.

I plan to continue in this manner, cutting back even more.  I am anxiously awaiting January, when my contract with Verizon wireless will be up and I can drop them and go with Virgin Mobile as a provider.  I currently pay approximately $60/month with VW, I will only pay $27/month with Virgin Mobile.  HALF!  The money I save I will put toward paying down my debt.

I have been coupon crazy over the past month and have saved over $100, just by clipping coupons and being semi-organized.  I also saved .80/gallon on gas during my last fill up just by carefully planning my grocery shopping at Stop & Shop.  That was very exciting :)  $2.46/gallon!!  I have also been depositing the amount that I save with coupons in to my savings jar.  I will go to the bank this weekend and deposit all that I have saved into my savings account and I WILL NOT TOUCH IT!

If it is important to me to have a clean, presentable and inviting home than I will do what it takes to make it that way.  I will stick to my cleaning schedule and take care of my small daily tasks.  By spending a few minutes everyday I alleviate myself from being stressed out and confined to my house to clean for the entire weekend.  It is important to me to not be overwhelmed by what is on my plate.  If I am overwhelmed and stressed then something needs to change.  I know that if I do not prioritize my time efficiently I do not get anything done and I end up running around like a mad woman and usually have a crappy attitude that I unfortunately subject my family to.  When I take a few minutes to evaluate my surroundings and what needs to be done, everything just falls into place.  I know that I can not do everything in one day, so I prioritize what is most important and take care of that first.

Small changes bring major results!  No more excuses, just get 'er done!

What have you been making excuses for?  How will you overcome and make the changes necessary?  Please share :)

$50 giftcard for saving for college

This past Thursday I enrolled in a 529 college savings plan for my son.  I am super excited about it!  I don't know if it is because I am turning 35 next month or if there is some other reason that I am all gung ho about saving money all of the sudden.  It just really dawned on me that I am in no way prepared for my children's college, retirement or any type of emergency because I have no money saved.  I guess I should be kind of relieved that my daughter dropped out of school??  :/  I guess she is saving me money.  That is sarcasm, people.  If she was graduating from high school this year and planning on attending college next year I would be going crazy.  I know we could apply for financial aid, but whatever wasn't covered, I would have no way of paying and I would not want to deprive her of going to any school that she wanted to go to in order to further her education.  This is not our scenario though and although I am saddened by her decision to drop out, I am relieved that I do not have to either A.) tell her she cannot attend "that" school because I did not prepare for her future or B.) be stuck with a very large financial burden that I cannot afford right now.

At this time, my son is almost 3.  I have roughly 14 years to save for his college education.  A 529 plan is a great way to do so.  It is like a 401k for college :)  You open the account with a deposit, choose funds to invest in and hopefully watch your money multiply.  You can add money as often as you like.  I will be having a particular amount direct deposited from my paycheck twice a month.  If investing makes you nervous, you can choose to just put the money in a savings account and let it earn interest.  You have total control.  The funds can only be used for your child's continued education... tuition, room and board, books etc.  If your child decides not to go to college, you can transfer it to another child in your family, a sibling, cousin, niece, nephew, whatever.  Or YOU could go back to school and use the money to further your own education.  If neither of these are an option, you can withdraw the funds, but there are penalties for doing so.  

Right now, if you live in Massachusetts and open a U.Fund 529 college investing plan with Fidelity with a minimum deposit of $50.00, you will receive a $50.00 gift card to Target from MEFA (Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority).  You must enroll by December 31, 2011.  Here is a link to the site.

Do yourself and your kids a favor and start investing in their future and then buy yourself a little something nice from Target as a reward :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Saving is not so hard...

As you may remember, about a week ago I started my savings plan.  The plan was to save .50 every day in my can for 30 days.  After the 30 days is up, I will deposit the funds into my Savings account.  I have been sticking to the plan very well.  I have actually been putting in more than .50 every day.  I just empty out my change pocket in my wallet and dump whatever I have in there, which is always more than .50.  This is simple and is not affecting my budget nor my fun.  I am actually getting a little thrill out of watching my money pile up.  I did splurge on one of those self counting banks.  It was only $5.99 at Marshalls.  You put the change in the slot and it tells you the denomination of the coin and then adds that amount to your running tally.  Pretty awesome!

Tonight, I will deposit the amount that I saved by using coupons:

$10.00 BJ's membership coupon
$  1.50 K-cups
$  2.00 Scooby Fruit snacks
$  2.00 Hershey Syrup
$  1.50 Coffee Mate Creamer
$  1.00 Cinnamon Butter
      .55 Almond Breeze almond milk
$18.55

I "liked" 5dollardinners.com on Facebook a while ago and thought the recipes they posted on FB sounded pretty damn tasty but I had not made any of them before this week.  I also had not really surfed their site.  Over the weekend I got an email from them with this weeks menu plan.  I clicked on the link and was like, oh hell yeah, this will work for me and my family!  All of the recipes on this week's plan sounded scrumptious and pretty much worked with my diet.  (I made a few changes here and there to accommodate my needs).  I decided to go with 4 of the 6 recipes that were suggested.  I had many of the ingredients in my cabinets already, so I was off to a good start.  Buying the ingredients I was missing plus whatever other items we needed for breakfasts, lunches and snacks, I spent $140.00 - That is a significant savings for me.  I very rarely come away from the register dropping less that $250.00.  And we are pretty much set for about 2 weeks with what I bought,  I will have to buy milk and some produce over the next week, but I get produce pretty cheap from a small local store.  These recipes were absolutely delicious and filling.  My grocery bill may have been drastically cheaper but there was no skimping on flavor and no one was left feeling hungry.

I made the following:

Mediterranean Quinoa
Creamy Avocado Pasta
Slow Cooker Maple Chicken and Sweet Potatoes
Pumpkin Pie French Toast

Everyone in the family LOVED everything that I made.  My son was licking the bowl the night I served the Creamy Avocado Pasta.  He had the whole bowl over his face :p

We had left overs two nights and London Broil was one sale BOGO this week so we will have that the other day.

I also discovered mint.com.  This is a great site to help you get your finances together.  I entered all of my bank accounts, credit cards accounts, 401k, etc and it automatically pulled up all of my account balances.  All of my banking transactions come up as well.  It dumps all of your transactions into buckets ie.  Automobile expenses, Food, Home, Television, etc.  Some of them were a little off so I just went in and corrected them, for instance it told me that I spent $70.00 at coffee shops.  What now??  When I located those charges it was talking about I found the charges were actually for groceries.  For some reason it pulls this one grocery store up as a coffee shop, haha!  I actually only spent $2.53 at a coffee shop this month.  I knew that I spent a lot on groceries, but when I saw exactly how much, I felt a little sick to my stomach.  I spend approximately $500.00 +/- a month - just on groceries.  That is disgusting!  I'm not talking dining out, take out, delivery or anything.  This is just food that I buy to cook for my family.  Disturbing.

As I mentioned in a previous post, paying down my credit card debt is one of my current goals.  My original plan was to pay more than the minimum payment.  I decided how much extra I can apply toward my debt and was planning to sort of spread that money out over the credit cards each month, focusing on paying my highest debt first.  A woman that I work with was telling me about the debt snowball method.  This is when you pay down your credit card with the highest interest rate first by paying as much as you can on it while still paying your minimum payment on your other cards.  Once the card with the highest interest rate is paid in full, take the amount that you were paying on that card and pay your next highest interest card with that money and pay the minimum payment on your other cards, so on and so on until all your credit card debt is paid off.  When she was telling me, I thought it made sense and I was going to look into it more.  Before I had a chance to look into it more I stumbled upon mint.com.  There is a goal section, and one of them is "Pay off my credit card debt".  It automatically grabs all of your credit card info - account names, balances, minimum payment.  You just plug in your interest rate and how much total you can pay toward eliminating your debt each month.  That's it!  mint.com will then prioritize your accounts so that you are doing the "snowball method".  This was exactly what my co-worker was talking about and I understood her but actually SEEING how quickly I can pay off my cards was exciting!  My card with the highest interest rate has an approximate balance of about $430.  My minimum payment is only $11.00.  If I pay $142.00 a month to this credit card, it will be paid in full by February.  This is $131.00 more than I am used to paying on my credit cards...but this is money that I spend elsewhere and typically have nothing to show for it or on groceries (that I will no longer be doing).  If I follow through, I will be debt free by February 2013.  Not bad at all, definitely a hell of a lot better than the projected payoff date of 2037 if I paid just my minimum payments.  When I get my tax refund back, I will use a chunk of it to pay down my debt faster.

Doing all of this and "sacrificing" this extra cash every month will improve my credit score dramatically and we will be well on our way to buying our first home :)

A few more tips for saving...

I just wanted to drop a quick blog entry - again on savings. Someone shared some tips for saving with me that I thought were awesome and wanted to share with you.

• Save 50 cents a day for 30 days.  Pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters - whatever.  Keep an envelope, jar, water jug, piggy bank, anything.  Put it someplace that you will be reminded every day/night to deposit your change.  At the end of the 30 days you will have $15.00 saved.  Take the change directly to the bank and deposit it all into your savings account.  Next month, double your daily deposit amount to $1.00 - coins or bills.  Save for 30 days.  ($30.00) Deposit this money into your savings account.  Continue doing this every month increasing your daily amount up to $5.00/day if possible.  DO NOT DIP INTO THIS MONEY!  Take it directly to the bank at the end of the 30 days and deposit.
• When shopping, use coupons.  Whatever money you save by using coupons, deposit this amount into your savings account.  So whether  you save $4.20 or $42.00  - deposit that amount into your savings.
• PAY YOURSELF FIRST!  Include your savings in your budget - like a bill.  And put this "bill" at the top of your budget, right above your rent/mortgage and all other expenses.  

I am starting these TODAY!  I will be adding a new ticker under my profile, if you would like to follow along with me on my financial makeover.

Thanks for stopping by and please share any tips or ideas you may have :)

Maleeka

Pinch those Pennies!

I realized yesterday that there are only four paychecks left until Christmas.  Am I prepared?  HAHAHAHAHAAHA!  NOPE!  I suppose I am not overly behind considering I only really shop for two people, one of them is 2 and has no idea yet what Christmas really is and has no expectations.  The other is my 17 year old, who is doing much better but is not overly deserving of much this year.  Maybe someday I will clue my blog world in on the girl child a little more.  I will get the hubby a little something.  Our moms, my sister in law and aunt are pretty easy gifts, but do involve a fair amount of preparation, not so much money, thankfully.

I have been trying to save money.  It just does not come natural to me, ha!  If I have money, I can feel it burning a hole in my pocket.  It just needs to be spent.  I typically have nothing to show for it.  :(  This needs to stop.

As of last Friday, I am officially contributing to the 401k at my job.  Not joining sooner is one of the dumbest financial decisions of my life.  Just dumb.  My job actually matches 75%.  So for every $1.00 they are putting in .75.  Every $100.00 I contribute they are putting in $75.00.  FREE MONEY!  And here I was just letting it get away.  I have also been at this company for a decade... Yep, just letting this free money get away.  The only reason I hadn't enrolled before was because I was afraid of having less money in my paycheck.  I felt I could not afford it.  But seriously, how can I AFFORD not to??!!  I am only contributing 3% of my pay for the time being and it's pre-tax.  3% less to work with for budget is not going to kill me.  Just wish I smartened up much much sooner.

I also have no emergency fund.  NOTHING!  My car needed some repairs last week and I had to make arrangements to pay another bill late in order to swing the repair bill.  I am tired of living like that.  I have two savings accounts but I spend whatever I save usually before my next paycheck even rolls around.  My goal is to save 6 months worth of living expenses.  Thankfully we have not been in a position where that has been necessary, but I would hate to not be prepared in the event it ever did.  Someone suggested to me to open a savings account at a bank that would be inconvenient to withdraw money from.  So outside of my normal bank.  So I opened an account with ING.  I chose ING because they have a higher interest rate, there is no ATM or Debit card, there is no branch for me to go in to withdraw funds and it was quick and easy to set up my account right online.  ING's interest rate on savings is 6.5% for 3 months and then drops to 5%. Still significantly higher than my piddly Bank of America rate of 0.05%.  And just an FYI, in case you haven't heard yet, BOA will be charging customer's a $5.00 monthly fee if you use your debit card to make online purchases, starting next year.  Yeah, they will be charging you to spend your own damn money.  I will admit that I like the convenience of BOA, it is world wide...but who the hell am I kidding...I don't travel, hahaah!  I frequent the same one or two BOA ATM's, either close to home or close to work.  Over the next couple of months I will be working on closing my accounts with them.  I'll be damned if you will be charging me to spend MY money.  Less access to my money will be a good thing.   I have other money oriented goals that I will talk about below so I won't be able to save as much as I would like right off the bat.  But SOME savings is better than NO savings.

Seeing little numbers really does nothing for me.  Like telling me that I could be saving $3.00 a day if I didn't go to Dunk'ns and buy a coffee every morning (which I don't do...just an example).  But when I see how much that adds up to over time, that definitely jolts me.  $3.00 on coffee 7 days a week is $21.00, approximately $90.00 a month, $1,095.00 a year, $21,915.00 over 20 years.

Check these numbers out: (I apologize for the small print, I couldn't get the sizing of my screen print right.  It was either huge and across the whole computer screen or this, so put your spectacles on.)

Crazy, right!?!  Those big numbers definitely do something for me, haha!  A lot of the items on that list don't pertain to me.  I'd say my biggest problem and unneeded expense is impulse buys.  I absolutely know the difference between a want and a need.  My problem is simply lacking the self discipline to curb my spending on "wants".

I really evaluated my spending and determined that I never REALLY buy anything for myself.  I don't buy clothes unless I NEED them and that is simply because I refuse to buy any more fat clothes.  When I lose all my weight I will have to keep myself in check.  I have issues with shoes since my injury and have to be very particular about what I wear on my feet.  So I don't buy shoes hardly ever.  Purses and extravagant jewelry are not really my thing.   I love my handmade earrings and I bought 11 pairs for under $30.00 on eBay, they will last me years and I have a pair to match every outfit I conjure up.  I have two signature pieces of jewelry that I wear all the time - well one, since my son lost my necklace behind my bed and I have not located it yet.  I don't care for perfumes since I my nose is very sensitive and the alcohol smell in all spray perfumes is overpowering to me.  I honestly spend $4.00 for my roll on bottle of Egyptian Musk oil and it lasts me months.  I get more compliments on the way I smell than I know what to do with, ha!

I have determined that my "problem spending" goes toward household items. ie: prettying up the bathroom, a new area rug for the kitchen, shelving, painting and wallpapering (again), pretty much making our rented apartment that we are not really happy in, more likable.  It dawned on me last weekend (while dropping cash in Lowe's) that if I didn't spend this money right now and drove straight to the bank and deposited it, that could be money saved toward a deposit on our OWN home.  But I spent anyway.  I know it might sound stupid, but I often think that this measly $60.00 is so insignificant in the grand scheme of things.  How is that little bit of money going to make me reach my goal of THOUSANDS towards a deposit on a house??!!  Just reading what I wrote I want to slap myself in the face!  I told you I have issues spending.  I have an excuse for everything, haha!

I also spend money on crafting supplies for crafts (which are being given or sold to someone else), I need to come up with a good formula for pricing my crafts.  I always end up coming out of pocket and cutting myself short.

I do spend money on toys for the little guy.  Not so much quantity but the items I choose to buy him are typically electronic and more expensive.  Which I do not regret.  One of these items is the Fisher-Price IXL, which in my opinion is one of the greatest inventions in children's educational toys. It has been a life saver on many occasions in our home and on the road.  My son LOVES it and has learned many many things using it.. (I just now decided to do a product review on it at a later date.)

On top of rent and your everyday bills, I do have credit card debt and a car note that I want to pay off. My debt is not astronomical at all, but it is debt just the same.  I tell myself all the time how broke I am (which is generally true) because I have spent my "extra" money on wants.  I have decided that I need to pay more money towards all of my credit card and car note.  Just making the minimum payment is going to take me forever to pay them off.  This is not ground breaking news for me.  I am quite aware that you pay a ton of money in interest the longer it takes you to pay off your debt.  It is just now - all of the sudden - hitting me how stupid I am being and I need to make changes immediately.  It would be one thing if I seriously didn't have a few extra bucks to throw on these accounts each month, but that is not my case.  I don't have a lot of extra money, but what I have been spending on nonsense, I will now be putting toward decreasing my debt more expeditiously (I like that word) and some money towards savings. 

I still plan on living.  I will still enjoy a nice bottle of wine, I will still eat healthy foods that unfortunately tend to cost more money, I will still treat my rugrats to nice things when they are deserving of it.  But these treats will need to be budgeted.  I have been eating very healthy for the past couple months and have lost close to 10 pounds, I have been getting more exercise in over the past week and I feel good.  If I can stick to my diet and exercise plan, I can stick to a financial makeover.  I know I can do it, although it will be a shock to my system.  It will take time to adapt, I know it will be hard but this much needed overhaul is what I need in  my life in order to get to where I need to be.

If anyone has any other money saving tips please share with me.

Wish me luck, People!  

It's a new day

So today is the first day of September. At this very moment, I am sitting on my couch, watching a documentary on Jean-Michel Basquiat, listening to my hubby workout upstairs...thinking to myself, I need to bring my fat ass up there and do the same. I am making a promise to myself right now that I AM WILL GET UP EARLY TOMORROW MORNING AND WORKOUT!

Instead of getting my exercise on now, I am going to bang out a list of areas of my life that need improvement:

BODY

Exercise more

Eat healthier

Take better care of my hair and skin

Drink more water

Stop neglecting myself and make ME a priority

Go to bed (MUCH) earlier

Get up at least a 1/2 hour earlier than I do now

MENTAL

Learn to be more patient

Learn how to relax

Stifle my minor road rage

Enjoy the simple things in life

FINANCIAL

Manage money better

Save money

Market my crafts and natural body products

Develop a successful home based business to supplement my income

HOME

Become more organized

Kick the clutter

Maintain my cleaning schedule

Create a more harmonious environment

I am sure that there are more areas of my life that need work, but off the top of my head, this is what I've got. This is plenty to get started on. It has taken me over an hour to conjure this up and I can still hear my Hubstah working out up there. Why don't I have that type of drive?! I will get up a 1/2 hour earlier tomorrow and get on that Total Gym before work. I will start the 2nd say of the month off right!

Off to bed I go.

Ni-Night!