Planning for a Rainy Day

Hey, it's raining out.... That is simply a coincidence. This post is about planning for a rainy day or a special occasion.

I just read a reader tip in one of my financial newsletters that resonated with me. This woman buys a small grocery store gift card every pay day (she did not say for how much, but I imagine it would vary depending on your own budget) and tucks it away for special occasions, holidays birthdays etc. when the grocery bill includes a bunch of extras.

I have mentioned the use of gift cards to assist in budgeting in the past. I have squirrelled away a couple from Christmas that I intend to use in the spring, but I really like this idea too.

If you have a really good week at the store, lots of coupons or a great sale on staples, spend the difference in your budgeted grocery money on a gift card. This will insure that you use that saved money on future groceries and not on candy and magazines.

Planning ahead for those festive occasions will take the sting out of the bill and keep the focus on the fun.

Also, holding on to a gift card for the movies or dinner can make a boring month a lot more interesting. Like finding $5 in your coat pocket, finding a gift card in your desk months after the holidays will brighten a dreary day, like say, this one.

Friday Recap: Month 2

February is a blessedly short month. During this short month I accomplished a whole lot of nothing on my plan. Here are the gory details:

Diet: Another month of yo-yoing on the scale had me just barely under where I started come weigh in day. I realize it could have been worse, but I am striving to be better, not "not worse". I did my measurements today as well and I did lose some of myself the past couple of months, a nice even decrease along my body and though the tape measure says my upper arms are the same, I can feel muscle where there never was muscle before. I need some drastic measures in March to move the scale, possibly a couple weeks of South Beach...

Budget: After avoiding the tax scare I overspent by $70 this month, again on food and entertainment. If I go South Beach the food budget will be brought under control and entertainment will not involve chocolate so much.

Mood: I am definitely looking towards spring with hope and enthusiasm, I trust that will carry over to upholding my goals once again.

Bring it on March, I am ready for you!

Snack Attack

I should know better by now. I cannot keep any kind of snack food in my house without overeating. This week I went to Trader Joe's (home of the seemingly healthy snack options) and I bought a box of chocolate chip cookies and a bag of wasabi peas and a bag of sesame snack sticks.

I ate the cookies over the course of 2 sittings, the entire box. The sesame sticks and wasabi peas I mixed together and brought the majority of them to a friend's house (where I ate quite a bit) the remainder I put in a jar to snack on throughout the week and finished them yesterday.

These things are now added to the long list of items I cannot keep here. I cannot keep chewy granola bars or any kind of cookie or candy. I cannot keep cheese and crackers or potato chips. I must buy all of these things as single serving items or I will eat the large container in an absurdly short amount of time.

Buying the smaller sizes is not cost effective, I know this, but sometimes the budget is less important than the diet.

Lay Off, Limbaugh

I try not to make this blog political, those of you that know me know my politics and for the most part my politics do not infiltrate the topics of this blog. Yesterday they did.

Rush Limbaugh, the Conservative windbag that he is, decided to pick on my girl Michelle Obama about her diet. The article made the rounds, here is Yahoo's version, and it is just beyond ridiculous.

Limbaugh is calling the First Lady out as a hypocrite for promoting her Let's Move anti-obesity platform while occasionally indulging in treats like ribs in Colorado and a bevy of sausage at a Superbowl party.

Limbaugh claims that despite all her talk the First Lady does not appear to be ready to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue. Seriously Limbaugh? Gah!

Michelle Obama is no waif, she is tall and toned and damn if I wouldn't kill for her body. She is not a swimsuit model, but what does that say about swimsuit models? Mrs. Obama is a healthy woman promoting a lifestyle that encourages healthful foods and exercise, not a militant no snack zone.

The difference between her platform and Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No to Drugs" (as discussed last night amongst friends) is that the issue of food and nutrition and healthy living is much broader, it is not nearly so cut and dry. If Limbaugh had caught Nancy Regan using cocaine that would have been a story, Michelle Obama having ribs is not a story.

I am convinced the right wing radio jockeys are grasping at straws with the Obamas. They are chomping at the bit for a shred of scandal in this family and it has not been the case. So they nitpick the President for smoking and the First Lady for not being emaciated and call it a productive news day.

(And I will not get into a lengthy explanation of why Rush Limbaugh calling someone else a hypocrite is in itself hypocritical, my head might just explode.)

Well, I got your back Michelle, and I would really like to have your arms....

Memories of a Lifetime

Some things do get cheaper with the advances in technology. One of those things is photo processing. In this digital photo age, you can upload your photos to a number of sites (Snapfish, Shutterfly, etc.) and pick and choose which pics you want to print.

In the old days you had to process the whole roll, even the ones your brother took of a dead squirrel on the side of the road. You endded up paying for a lot of crappy photos with people's heads missing and your thumb over the lens. Nowadays you can select the cream of the crop photos to print, print only those and pay just pennies a print. You can have them shipped to home or if you need them quickly they can be processed at a local store (Walgreen's, Wal-mart and others)

Keep an eye out for special offers to, the competition is fierce for your online printing needs so they are always offering deals. In fact today at Snapfish you can get 15% off your order and free shipping. I am ordering my Christmas photos now!

Pictures make great gifts, with an inexpensive frame or album a few nice snapshots are a thoughtful way to remember the ones you love!

Zooma Zoom Zoom

My gym has begun offering more classes recently, a promise they made a year ago when I joined. I was not that upset by the lack of classes when I joined as I was not ready to put myself out there with a room full of others, but I am starting to get a hankering for some variety in my gym time.

Starting next week they are going to offer Zumba twice a week at lunch time. I try to get my workout in at lunch so my evenings are free and also so I can cross it off my list earlier in the day, giving me a better shot of fitting it in and not having it bumped by unexpected occurrences. So far the smattering of classes offered at my gym were all in the evening, so this is a plus.

I have heard good things about Zumba from real people I know, some of them not athletes, and I think I will give it a try. What about you? Have you joined the Zumba craze? Any words of advice for me before next Tuesday?

Friday Recap: Week 7

This was a crazy week in Boston with temps fluctuating from the coldest of the winter to near springlike. The days are definitely getting longer and with that my energy level is boosting and I am feeling less like a giant lumbering bear in need of a dark cave and more like a hyper squirrel in search of the stored nuts (yeah that metaphor got away from me fast...)

Diet: Still not as disciplined as I would like with the food aspect. Gym is going great and I did see some movement in the proper direction on the scale.

Budget: After narrowly avoiding tax-related calamity I am in good shape with the budget for now. I have already allocated a fare settlement of my tax refund and a small check for a consulting gig I did, with half going to savings and the other half to go to specific purchasing goals, not just magazines and candy.

Mood: Much more relaxed post-tax appointment.

I am getting out of the city for the weekend, some down time with a good friend will recharge my spirits. In fact, I last visited this friend back in August when I was first beginning this endeavor, the timing for a return is perfect.

The Tax Man Cometh

Recently I alluded to my trepidation at visiting my tax man. I love my tax man, he is always my Valentine and often he ends up netting me a sizable refund. But I knew I was in trouble this year.

You see, before I came to terms with my debt in 2010 I made a big financial boo-boo: I cashed out a 401K. It was not a ton of money (sure it might have become a ton of money 40 years from now, but I was worried about the here and now) and I prepaid the taxes (or so I thought).

I did this in early January 2010, the money is long spent and when I got the tax paper work I realized they had failed to take out any state tax. I am a complete dolt when it comes to financial matters so I fretted terribly these past few weeks about what I was going to owe.

I also felt bad sitting down at Gary's desk yesterday and confessing my financial sins like the Catholic school girl I once was.

When all was said and done, I only owed the State of Massachusetts $50 and I had overpaid the penalty to the federal government on the 401 K so I am getting a small chunk back from them that will cover the $50, the fees for my Valentine Gary and leave me with about $200 to play with.

This would have been devastating a year ago. Before my budgeted life I needed a 4 digit refund check to survive, but this year I can put half of the $200 in savings and spend the remainder on yarn or wine or a pedicure or whatever I want and not feel guilty about it. Amazing how my life has changed.

Move It!

I am a firm believer that the first step to a healthier lifestyle is simply that, a step. Moving your body a little bit more today than you did yesterday is a good positive lifestyle change.

This article on Yahoo identified some common lifestyle activities that can or cannot be considered exercise.

And while it is an interesting read I stand by my statement that any step is better than no step. So, while folding laundry is not considered exercise if you opt to fold your laundry in front of the TV instead of just sitting there, that is a positive change.

I do not consider knitting to be exercise, but I do consider it a positive change to my TV viewing habits, knitting while watching TV is much better for me than eating while watching TV. It is all about perspective!

To Meat or Not to Meat

Recently, over a plate of sausage, I discussed the ideas of vegetarianism with a friend. When the sausage was finished and they brought out the chicken, we had come to the conclusion we would never be vegetarians. And after 3 tapas made of cheese we had already ruled out our chances at being vegans.

People choose eating lifestyles for different reasons, some for health (although totally eliminating any part of our food system seems not completely healthy to me), some for animal rights, some because it requires sacrifice and self-control and they can then laud that over the weaker meat-eaters of the world. My reason would be sustainability.

Producing enough meat to feed the planet is an incredible burden on our eco-system. As we have overbuilt our planet we have clear cut habitable areas for wild stock to be raised, leading to the animal-rights issues that drive some to vegetarianism. The process for butchering and packaging and shipping meat requires a ton of fossil fuels. So what is the solution?

For me it is 2 meat-free days a week. Now I am just one small consumer in a global market place, but if everyone agreed to go meat-free even once a week there would be a positive environmental impact. Like most steps in saving the planet, the little ones count too.

Eating meat-free on occasion is good for your health (unless you replace meat with Fritos) and good for your wallet. Find recipes using heart-healthy black beans, which cost pennies a serving and are filling and delicious or shop the local farmer's market in the summer for corn and tomatoes or try one of 10,000 pasta recipes out there.

But even though I love you Al Gore, please don't ask me to give up my cheese.

What We Get From Our Parents

I have mentioned on this blog that my parents are quite awesome, and they are, but genetics are genetics and as I age I fear the things I may end up dealing with from my particular DNA donors.

There is high blood pressure and diabetes on my dad's side and my mother is a breast cancer survivor (although the history started with her). Currently I am beginning to fear my gall bladder. Every woman on my mother's side of the family had hers removed by the age of 45.

I remember my grandmother having awful gall bladder attacks when I was a kid. And this weekend I suffered some pretty serious pain, that I think might have been an early warning sign that mine is on the fritz too.

Gall bladder attacks are brought on by fatty foods and I did indulge on Saturday, perhaps it was the shock to the system after months of fairly healthy eating or perhaps it was timing or perhaps it wasn't my gall bladder at all, but some other random organ malfunctioning, but I was in a lot of pain for about 5 hours.

With all my talk of motivation, pain is a good one for me, and I promised myself there would be a re-commitment to healthy meal planning this week. If for no other reason than the budget is not quite ready to cover the deductible on surgery...

Friday Recap: Week 6

One week closer to spring and a snow-free one at that!

Diet: Good gym week, better food week. Still not a ton of movement on the scale, need a plateau buster week.

Budget: Still overspending on the entertainment, need to start being creative with my small entertainment budget.

Mood: Terrible work week, might explain the bag of potato chips and bottle of wine I had for dinner Wednesday.

How Tightfisted Are You?

I receive an e-newsletter on frugality and financial matters as part of my debt counseling. Last night I took the "How Tightfisted Are You?" quiz submitted by a reader.

Like every quiz of its type, from "Who's Your Perfect Mate?" to "What Eye Shadow Color Looks Best on You?" I scored in the middle.

Questions ranged from "For dish detergent you..." and the options included making your own, which lets face it, I won't be doing to "For food storage you..." and one of the options was reuse Ziploc bags, which I do do on occasion depending on what was in them.

It got me to thinking about my frugality over the past 6 months. I am by no means a role model on spending yet, but I have developed some good habits and while I have been sticking to my budgeted savings plan and not dipping into that savings I am not sure I am maximizing my savings vis a vis my frugality. I think I am able to do more fun things with money I am saving on dish detergent. No one said I was going to become a financial genius over night, right?

What Motivates You?

Last week I blogged about whether or not fear was a successful motivating factor in getting healthy. All the talk of death and disease does not always work on me, I get overwhelmed, convinced everything could potentially kill me and I need a Snickers bar to cope with the stress.

So what does motivate me? What motivates you to get off the couch and work out during this stormy winter when an afghan, a good book and a pie would be much more comforting?

For me, it is the hope of success. To be able to say in August that I tried really hard for a whole year and I lost X pounds. To finish something I started, or at least to have seen something through as I have no real hope of ever being done with this particular battle.

In other motivational news, my parents rented a beach house for 2 weeks in June, so a mere 4 months from now I will be living in a bathing suit, I really want it to be smaller than last year's.

Wash That Water Bottle

Reusable water bottles are a no brainer in this day and age. There are so many options and really high quality ones for not a ton of money (and think of all the money you save on buying bottled water). From an eco-friendly/budget-friendly perspective get yourself a reusable water bottle.

I use a metal one, but there are great BPA-free hard plastic ones too. Do your research and go buy one for yourself for Valentine's Day.

Once you are in the habit of using one, remember to wash it. I am no germa-phobe, I live in a city and I often touch grimy gross things and I ride public transportation! I washed my water bottle maybe once a month. I figure I only put water in it and I'm the only one who uses it, how dirty can it be?

Well, the answer is...very. Germs and other little critters love dark, warm wet places and manage to latch on to anything. They prefer crevices, so try to get a water bottle that is smooth and doesn't have too may ridges. Wash the bottle with hot soapy water at least once a week, more if you put anything other than water in it or you leave it with water in it for any extended period of time.

My water bottle has never made me sick, but it would be a terrible irony if I got some bug from this source of wellness.

Fight Your Cravings, No Seriously Fight Them

A University of Chicago Marketing Department study shows that when self-control is tested, tightening your muscles will help you make the more disciplined choice.

They advise that when faced with a food temptation you should make a fist and the muscle tension will snap you into the healthier choice. They say you must do it right at the moment of decision and which muscles you tighten don't matter.

I like the fist idea though, like you are going to punch that temptation right in the kisser. I fear if I begin doing this in public though I will get into lots of scuffles with pastry chefs and McDonald's employees.

Friday Recap: Week 5

The days are getting longer! I went out at 5:00 pm last night and it was not yet dark, hurrah! Winter continues to pound us here in Boston though, hope that Groundhog was right...

Diet: Once again a good gym week and a bad food week, just about a wash on the scale. Cannot get myself motivated to eat well right now. Not sure if it is the weather or boredom or both, but every night I have been snacking. Also, I do not think I am eating enough during the day, so I am hungry and impatient come dinner time. I am going to try to up my calories during the day and see if it helps.

Budget: Not a bad week. Dreading tax time in a couple weeks, think I might have to pay this year for the first time in over a decade. A check tot he IRS is not in the budget.

Mood: Sick of winter about sums it up.

Does Fear Motivate You?

Every day there is some talk show or news program with the latest info on how our waistlines are slowly killing us. The obesity epidemic in this country is staggering, yet all the information and fear-mongering has not seemed to help.

Personally, I watched a segment yesterday on high blood pressure, something I have struggled with in connection to family history and my weight, and it was truly terrifying. Then I ate a terribly unhealthy dinner.

Why does the fear not work for me? I am afraid of everything, why does it not propel me to act? How has food's hold over me taken away my otherwise rational self...

Hello February

Apparently the Groundhog did not see his shadow this morning. I am not sure if that means the varmint is snowed in to his hole or a giant mound of snow has finally blotted out the sun entirely, but it is supposed to portend an early spring, so thank you Phil!

February is here and despite the current swath of weather blanketing 3/5 of the country spring is creeping closer. February also brings Valentines Day and President's Day and is only 28 days long, so March is practically here. February is Black History Month and is also Women's Heart Health Month.

So in honor of all our hearts, here is a list of the 25 top heart healthy foods. I am happy to say that I love all these foods, with the exception of tofu which I will eat if forced.

When to Splurge on Organic

With all this winter in these parts I find myself dreaming of warm sunny days and fresh produce plentiful around me. Flipping through an old Fitness magazine I found this article on Picking the Right Produce.

Buying organic can be costly and I have often heard that certain produce is worth the extra cash as the impact of pesticides is greater. The article gives you the best and worst produce on the pesticide scale and can help you decide if you are going to spend a little extra.

Organic is about more than ingesting pesticides though and one fruit that is not on either list, bananas, has been brought to my attention by a friend who lived in Costa Rica. I never worried about bananas from an organic stand point, their thick skins are discarded and any residue from pesticides with them. Bananas do require a lot of pesticides though and the impact on the workers and the environment where they are grown is devastating. So now I try to justify the extra .20 a pound for organic bananas.