Thursday, April 29, 2010

Clearly, I suck at this

I really suck at not spending money. It's so hard, y'all!

Last night we dined at a new restaurant I have been dying to try and it happens to be a brewery so it wasn't like I couldn't drink a housemade beer. Adam *technically* paid but give me a break, it was on our joint credit card. Blast! But the beer was so worth it and felt amazing on my allergy-stricken sore throat.

Tomorrow, scheduling is going to necessitate that I have Subway for dinner. Dammit. I realize it's a $5 footlong we're talking about but I am seriously saddened that I'm going to screw up my plan again. And my dad is talking of coming to visit this weekend so we all know that the no spending rule will get completely thrown out due to the "company in town clause".

I am failing at this and I'm on Day 4!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Tiny Kink in the Plans

I forgot one detail and need to update that spending is allowed, of course, for Mother's Day. Luckily, I already purchased cards last month because I am trying to be ahead of the game as an adult but gifts for my mom and future mother-in-law still need to be procured.

Other than that, my allergies are so bad that I haven't even left the condo since we returned from St. Louis, which makes non-spending super easy! Tomorrow when I return to reality we'll see how well this experiment goes, haha!

Monday, April 26, 2010

Competition and Challenges

I've decided that there is no way I'd ever be able to go to the personal trainer alone. Not that I'm afraid of working out by myself, it's purely from a competitive perspective. I have an innate need for someone else to compare myself to and work towards being better than. Is that a bad thing? Depending on circumstance, I suppose, but it also is extremely motivating! I hope that we'll be able to start personal training in June after my Avon Walk is over. Because I want to go with Adam to have someone to "compete" against (and presumably discover that I am not as strong as a man and never will be), we'll be paying for two personal training sessions at once. Awesome for the body and not for the wallet.

I have so many stupid wants (a body bugg, thanks to Biggest Loser; new running shoes; new summer clothing and shoes) that I need to quit thinking about and researching to death so I'm going to challenge myself by doing a month of not buying anything (within reason).

For me this is going to mean:

-only groceries will be purchased
-no alcoholic beverages purchased (making an exception when we have company in town in May)
-no takeout/to go food, pizza-I will miss you
-no clothes, shoes, etc.
-minimal to no purchases earmarked for the wedding

It's only until May 26th but it's going to be insanely mega-hard to do! If I can manage, I think I will definitely have saved enough for quite a few of those personal training sessions!

(the reason why I say minimal purchases for the wedding is because we might have to start looking at plane tickets and jump on them if the fares are inexpensive!)

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

A RANT

I realize that Ben Franklin was absolutely correct when he said that there are only two certainties in life, death and taxes. I've been paying taxes for over 20 years if you consider using my parents money to buy candy and what-nots as a child and I know I have a lot more dollars to put toward taxes for the rest of my life. But right now, I get so beyond annoyed with my current state and city because I swear they may just tax us all to death and then still claim that the damn state is still broke as a joke!

I also understand that I am massively biased toward that because I was blessed to grow up in the best state ever and never had to pay state income tax until I was 24. (I know, I know, I am extremely ethnocentric but seriously, go to Texas, check out some real estate prices and cost-of-living stuff, coupled with awesome winters and then you'll understand. I feel like I have been enough places to know that it's something special down there.)

So yeah, I have a real problem with state income tax. I have an extreme problem with the fact that HR Block charges me about $10 to e-file my federal taxes and a WHOPPING $36 to file my stupid Illinois taxes. Last year the refund I got from the state was less than that! But what I have a bigger problem with is all the stupid state taxes (and don't even get me started about the city taxes) on EVERY DAMN THING. They are nickle and diming us to death around here and the state is still so "broke" that they are firing a bajillion teachers, already cut all the train and bus service in Chicago and every day the news is full of new things that have to be cut or start being charged for. If they are charging me out the wazoo for everything, where exactly is that money going? (Amen to the fact that neither of us smokes, I think the going rate per pack is around $10 these days after all the taxes.)

Case in point: our moron replacement-for-the-corrupt-idiot-Blago governor wants to start charging 6.5% tax on iTunes. As if the new $1.29 price tag wasn't enough. I like my music and I don't want to have to pay any more anything to Illinois than I already do! I am so irritated and obviously, this is such a small thing to rant about but COME ON! Enough is seriously enough! Get me out of here!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Reality Check

I have an app on my Facebook page that tells everyone how much money I've raised towards the Avon Walk. If you were curious, I've hit my goal of $2000!!

It also has a ticker that reminded me we have 48 days until the walk. EEEKS!

48 days until I walk a marathon.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Gym, Tan, Laundry

Shout out to Jersey Shore (which I do not watch and have never seen, actually)!

GYM: I've been really enjoying my renaissance at the gym. After a couple of lazy weeks at the beginning of March, I've been back and really hitting it. I worked out with Adam today and it was nice to see how far I've come in a relatively short time! We were talking on the way home and I think my ultimate goal is just to be always able to say, "I'm in the best shape of my life!". I thought I was after the marathon, but I know I am in WAY better condition now. If I did marathon training again this summer, I probably could shave about 45 minutes off last year's time. We ran into my favorite gym instructor (and hopefully soon to be personal trainer), Mondale, and I had a brief discussion with him about protein powders. I'm just concerned about my protein intake, or lack thereof, with my aggressive workout schedule. He recommended a powder that I can put in my green monster smoothies and we got some after our workout. I felt like such a mega-tool walking down the street with a huge jug of protein stuff. I promise, I'm not becoming a meathead though!

TAN: We actually had nice weather this week and I did a ton of Avon Walk training outside. Which is awesome, except for the awesome tan that I end up with. Last year I had a total farmers tan and watch tan lines because of all my running on the lakeshore path and it seems I'm doomed for that fate again. Plus, when I run, I find my legs never get tanned to match my arms. I'm not going to lie, I was about 10 seconds away from walking into a tanning salon but for some reason, I didn't want to. I ended up at Walgreen's instead and accidentally bought real self-tanner instead of that tanning lotion that I've used in the past. SELF TANNER IS SCARY. Then I started having all these crazy thoughts about how I was actually dying my skin with chemicals and how could that be any worse than fake'n'baking? I'm in a wedding next weekend in a strapless dress so I guess I'll keep on with the self-tanner and see what happens. It's pretty funny because it makes me insanely glittery when I put it on!

LAUNDRY: I have extra laundry to do this week because we are finally PACKING AWAY OUR WINTER CLOTHES! So happy and thankful for that! There were days that I thought we'd never get here but it is so glorious to sit in the living room with all the windows open. I love it! The really craptastic part is that we keep the off-season clothes in our storage locker in the basement. We went downstairs to retrieve our summer stuff and discovered our lock had been cut and Adam's golf clubs (hopefully that's all) were stolen. I WAS SO MAD because we are 99% sure it was a former tenant that came back to vandalize and burglarize after he was booted out of his property by the bank. What a jerk!