Oh man, I am out of control…
Journal December 17th, 2008Spinning, spinning out of control. I need to get a handle on it, but I’m not sure how to right now.
First off, the time with my dad was great. He did a ton of demo at our house and right now, we have NO landscaping in our yard (except for 1 large oak tree, 4 crepe myrtles, and 2 hedges that didn’t need CPR to stay alive) That seems like a lot, but it’s not. We also have about 30 contractor trash bags lined up on the side of our house full of trees and bushes and mulch waiting to be picked up. We didn’t have time to plant anything, but he is going to draw some stuff up and send it to us so we know what to do.
Secondly, like I said, my eating is out of control. Snacking, snacking, snacking… on junk, junk, junk. I guess the first step is acknowleging the problem, right? Now I have to actually stop.
Things are a little stressful. We found out yesterday that effective Jan 1, everyone in our company will be recieving a 20% pay cut. It’s better than not having any job, but still. That means we have to cut back… and the only place to cut back is our gym memberships. I hate to do it because paying is motivation for going to the gym, but I would rather be able to feed my kids, ya know. So now i have to make myself start running for real outside (SCARY!!) and doing my videos again I guess. It’s just having the motivation — and I sure won’t be doing it first thing in the morning anymore. It will be in the evenings, which will be tough.
And I also need to figure out a way to eat healthy on a budget. Let’s face it, usually the cheapest food is the stuff that isn’t all that great for you (hello, ramen noodles) Does anyone else have any ideas? Anyone else going through this?
So for now I’m just hanging out. I’ve missed you guys over the past week. It will take me awhile to get caught up since my time at work is limited now that I’m doing 4 people’s workloads.
December 17th, 2008 at 10:40 am
I’m sorry about the pay cut, but glad you still have a job. Healthy eating on a budget sucks and is difficult. I have no helpful hints, but I’ll be looking for them as well. And re: running outside, at least it’s not 17 degrees! Yay for that!
December 17th, 2008 at 11:55 am
That is a hard adjustment to make, but at least it is clear what can be cut. The running outside, aside from the dark factor, can be a really good thing I think. And fortunately, before we know it the daylight will be hanging around a bit longer. I think we have already passed the shortest day point and are working back towards more light now.
It is hard to cut back on groceries. I shop sales, but that takes a lot of time and frequent stops at the store. I buy frozen juice concentrate for the kids. Seems to be cheaper than buying containers of juice. And I buy their lunch stuff/snacks for school in big containers instead of little pre-packaged ones. They take water in their lunch instead of capri suns and stuff like that. Most of this is just from trying to cut back on throwing away so much packaging, but it costs less too. For a while, we tried keeping a list of dinners that were cheaper to make and tried to plan a few of those each week. It helped some.
I hope your cut is only temporary and that things start looking up for the country in general soon.
December 17th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
It is a tough time of year to eat healthy. I feel the spinning out happening to me too. I’m almost relishing the thought of spartan January, when the junk slowly disappears from work places, home and stores and it seems the whole world is trying to lose weight and be healthy.
I’ve noticed more articles on eating on a budget on all the home pages these days. Maybe you can scout a few helpful sites out.
Along those lines, I think I will plant a veg garden this year.