Have you been workin' your booty off? Eatin' right??? Then you need a reward!!! Or maybe your one of those who likes working toward a goal....

Recently, I have found a workout DVD I want....Jillian Michaels 30 day shred... but I'm a stay at home mom on a budget and can't afford even a DVD...or anything else....did I let that derail me....NO NO NO NO!!!

I found a plan! I looked online to find the closest recycling plant. There is one less than 5 miles from me!!!!!! I called and they buy aluminum cans for 75 cents a pound....so I weighed an empty can of diet coke I have layin' around and 2 cans are an ounce. So 32 cans would get me a pound and 75 cents....so here's my plan

I will ask my friends/family that are avid coke drinkers to save me their cans and pick them up once a week or so....I will also start talking my daily walks with a walmart sack and pick up any cans I see on my way (hey I'm also helping pick up litter!!), and of course I will start saving my own diet coke cans!!! I will turn all the cans I have in weekly and save my money up and when I meet a goal reward myself...

AND NOT WITH FOOD....maybe a new pedometer, or a new work out DVD, or some new workout clothes...or maybe a new outfit since I will be skinnier, or getting my nails done, or getting a massage....the ideas are endless...just wanted to share

Any other ideas out there for rewarding yourself or raising up money for rewarding yourself???

Thats so great! Good for the environment AND you Good luck with those cans!

I'm putting $10 a pound lost into a savings account and $20 a pound gained into the same account. Once I have lost about 50 pounds I'm planning on taking that money and putting it into a 9 month CD, and then hopefully it will mature and I will have saved some more money with more pounds lost (ultimate goal is 155 pounds lost) and eventually have enough to remove a hideous tattoo I got on my wrist when I was 18 and half of the ink has fallen out due to an infection I got when I got the damned tattoo.

I save catfood cans and donate them to someone who collects for charity....Friskies seems to weigh much more than soda cans....(thicker). step on them to squish them flat.

If you want go walking on recycling day for lots of cans.

What a neat idea! Great for the environment, great for you, and great rewards...sounds like you're set!

My DH collects cans and he has made a very nice chunk of change over time, so don't get discouraged, it really does work! My DH also saves all his quarters. Before I knew him, he bought a really fancy side by side refrigerator with his saved quarters.

My DH collects and cans also and has made a very nice chunk of change over time. gailr42, I almost fell out of my chair when I read your post because I could have written the first part. DH has saved up and bought all kinds of tools with the money. He also collects beer bottles (although he doesn't drink), scrap copper and scrap aluminum and turns them into cash. And he usually has a plastic grocery bag in his pocket just in case he runs into a cache of cans on his travels.

Melissa, you may have quite a bit of cash on your hands if you get enough to recycle. Good luck on your collections.

I used to be a bandparent. My DD's final year in band, we did bottledrives every other weekend to earn enough to send the kids to Magic Music Days at Disneyland. After that I cannot stand to see a can go into the trash or left lying in the street. I still collect cans on my walks and rescue cans my coworkers throw out.

Good luck with your plans Melissa, it's a good way to fundraise.

Great Plan!!! Good for you and the enviorment!
Did you know that you can get workout DVD's at the library? If they don't have the one you want, just ask them and they will try to get it at another library. Great way to try them out before you think about buying them, and vary your exercise routine.

WHat an amazing idea. You are super resourceful. Accomplishing excercise, recycling, litter removal, and financing of your new purchase all together is a true feat!!
Awesome Melissa!

That is a great idea thanks!! I take my daughter to the library every Friday. I had already thought about checking out some healthy recipe cookbooks....so I will definately see if they have workout DVD's....THANKS A MILLION to everyone!!

I have a few rewards in mind for my weight loss!
When I get to 10 pounds lost I'm taking a dress my mom has that she's never worn(though she plans to this weekends, before it's too big for her) that I absolutely adore.
When I get under 200, I want to go horseback riding on the beach with my mom. (she'll probably fund this...)
I also know I want my bellybutton pierced when I get to my goal weight.

I'm sure there will be other things I come up with along the way, but those three are things Ih ave preplanned for my enjoyment.

We save cans and plastic, and glass anything returnable ... but we save them and save them and also we have a change c an we always put our loose change in ...

one time we were Completely broke and dreading borrowing money from dh's father.... we had 0$ no diapers no milk nothing....

we took all our cans and counted our change can and wound up with 130$$ !! lol!


I love the fact that you can pick up litter and be extra rewarded for it at the same time

me and my cousins always walked along our road all summer collecting cans and saving our money and at the end of the summer my aunt would take us somewhere fun like the zoo and let us spend 1/2 the money ( the other half went into our savings accounts )

almost forgot ...

mckenziesmomma - you just inspired me ! I think I am going to do this and save money to buy myself some clothes

75 cents a pound??? WOW. My son just finished his confirmation project for church. He called it Andy's Cans and he collected aluminum cans for about a year. If he saved enough to take in 100 pounds in a load, he made 50 cents a pound...otherwise it was 45 cents a pound. (We always made sure he had at least 100 pounds at a time for the better deal.) Anyway, he collected tons of cans or a local charity. He turned over a check for $1,051.00 to a care home for mentally challenged people....All from collection and selling cans!

comeing here was mine