A Small Step is Still Progress

Baby steps. That was what I kept telling myself when I started this whole "new outlook on life" thing in 2010.

We are now more than 1 month into the new year. Let's take a look at some of the financials:

As most of you know, I slipped a bit in the end of January with the eating out and the whole concept of not-spending-money. Baby steps. Overall, for the month of January, I spent more than $250 LESS than I spent in the month of December. This includes eating out, entertainment stuff, other stuff, AND bills, monthly obligations, transfers to savings, etc. Also, I made a number of charitable donations in January.

Conveniently, my online banking will show me my "spending report," which is where I'm getting all this information. It also breaks down how I spend that money, though it's not entirely accurate, as I tend to pay for my groceries with a personal check to my roommate (for example).

According to the spending report, my average monthly expenditure in restaurants (for 2009) was in the neighborhood of $500 (huh... if you do the math, that adds up to $6000!). January's restaurant expenditure? A mere $200. ($200 * 12 months = $2400 a year. That's considerable improvement. I wonder if I can get that monthly average down for the year... there's a fun goal!)

Retail/Department Stores (which I assume includes Target, where I shop the most on my own - but remember, this doesn't include groceries). Monthly average for 2009: $200 (spiked a bit in December due to Xmas). Total for January: less than $50. Bam. That's what I like to see!

In total overall spending, I really can see improvement. Online banking totals up all spending ("outflow") for the month, and my total for January was more than $500 less than the monthly average for 2009. And that includes money transferred to savings, so technically that money wasn't "spent."


I'm saving money, and I'm proud of myself for that. I really hope I can keep it up. I'm going to print out my 2009 end-of-year report and keep that so I can refer back to it a year from now. I'd love to see how much changes over the course of a year now that I've started to be more frugal in life.

I haven't been nearly as successful with the whole getting-healthy thing. But, I have a feeling that seeing my success with managing my finances will give me the confidence I need to change what's necessary to get myself healthified. I can do this.

Failure is an Option, Apparently...

Remember that whole "I'm going to bring my lunch every day" plan I had? And how for the first two or three weeks of the year I was pretty good about it?

Yeah. This week, not so much. Today is Thursday. Let's do a little run-down of what I've had for lunch this week:

Monday: brought a Healthy Choice lunch, decided I'd rather have a BLT. With fries. But, man, that thing was good. I can eat the Healthy Choice lunch tomorrow.

Tuesday: still not thrilled at the idea of eating that Healthy Choice lunch. I want a sandwich. So I went to Subway.

Wednesday: Healthy Choice? More like Healthy Chump! I'm going to get a salad. Huh. That salad line is really long, but the pasta line is empty... I do get a salad with my pasta... yeah. Pasta it is.

Thursday: Who am I kidding? I want another BLT! (nom nom nom)

Yeah. Let's just say that this doesn't bode well for tomorrow. Or for any potential weight loss that might have happened this week. But who knows. I could surprise myself and actually be in the mood for that Healthy Choice thingy.

Also: I almost ordered Chinese food last night. I got home from Happy Hour a little buzzed and really felt like eating something salty and greasy. I don't have anything particularly salty and greasy in my house. But the thought of waiting for the Chinese food wasn't appealing at all, so I settled for a peanut butter sandwich, a pickle spear, and a 100 calorie pack of cheddar Chex Mix. So I guess that's a small victory.

Two Weeks Later

It's been two weeks since I started my efforts to become healthier. I've brought my lunch to work most days, and haven't ordered pizza or eaten out very much at all in the last two weeks. I've saved more money than I thought I would (yay!), and I've found a lunch routine that works for me. I'm eating the most well-balanced diet in my life... at least, in my adult life. Back when I lived with my parents, we ate pretty well.

So far, two weeks into my little adventure, I've lost six pounds. That's pretty dang good, considering I only worked out one of those 14 days, and that was only for 15 minutes. I'm going to gradually integrate the exercise into my daily routine, because I know that getting myself into shape will help form a more all-around healthy me.

You may not be able to tell by looking at me (after all, six pounds is nothing on someone as heavy as I am), but I have started slimming down. Of course, it's all from my lower gut.

My what, you ask?

My "lower gut." As you all know, I'm a Big Girl. I have everything you'd expect me to have - big thighs, hips, butt, chubby ankles and feet, and humongous arms. But the part about me I hate the most is my gut, which is divided into two distinct parts: my upper gut and my lower gut. The equator, if you will, of my gut is my waist line where I've always worn my pants. I've just sort of... grown around it. I hate my upper gut. It's normal for women to have a lower gut - we're naturally built with more fat there to help protect the special woman parts inside there. But nothing in my upper gut needs added protection, and that's really what I want to get rid of. But as I looked at myself in the mirror today, I realize that my upper gut hasn't changed in the last two weeks, but my lower gut looks smaller. Of course, this just works to further emphasize my upper gut, which gives me a very pronounced "muffin top." It looks like I'm wearing pants that are too small for me, since part of me is ballooning out of the waist, but really, that's not what's going on here. I actually need a belt. Over the weekend my jeans were practically falling off. The khaki pants I'm wearing today are a bit on the loose side, as well, though thankfully I don't need additional help holding them up. My hips are good for something, thank goodness.

You get the idea, right? Of course, the apparent shrinking of my lower gut is probably all in my head. After all, it's only six pounds... but I like to think it's making a visible difference. In any case, I'm really starting to feel good about myself, and the changes I'm making.

Now, if only I could find an answer to why I haven't been sleeping well...

Tummy Growling

Today is Thursday. Really? Only Thursday? Man. I just can't get used to this first-full-week-of-work-after-the-holidays thing.

I'm hungry. It's almost time for lunch, which is good. I'm hungry. Wait, did I already say that? Well, then it must be true. I know that eventually I'll get used to eating smaller meals, but this week is especially difficult. I'm almost constantly hungry, and that makes it really hard not to think about food. Thinking about food is bad, because that makes me do things I'll later regret. If I think about food, I end up eating shredded cheese straight out of the bag (in my defense, there was only about a quarter cup left, so it wasn't very much). Of course, all this talking about thinking about food is making me, naturally, think about food. And since it's lunch time, I'm thinking about going out and getting a really big salad from the place downstairs, or a giant sandwich from Subway. Something huge to fuel my enormous appetite.

I told myself when I resolved to save money that I could go out for lunch once a week. I also found out today that my paychecks in 2010 are a little bigger than I was expecting (thankfully that didn't go the other way - I was doing one of those hope-for-the-worst things, and it worked). I can eat out today and tomorrow, I'll eat the lunch that I brought for today. It's not cheating. I don't have to feel guilty about this. Unless I get a bacon cheeseburger with fries. Then I feel guilty. But I don't want a bacon cheeseburger. I want a salad.

Oh! Speaking of salads, I've been eating this salad dressing on my salads at home, and it's really good: Kraft Light Sicilian Roasted Garlic Balsamic Vinaigrette

Day 1: Commence Healthification

Today's weight: **8 (those first two will always be secret - if things go as planned, you'll probably be able to figure it out eventually by doing some math, but I'm not going to make it easy).

Food so far: Pop Tart, 2 cups of coffee with sugar-free French Vanilla creamer, Marie Callender's Homestyle Creations Creamy Chicken Parmesan, Archer Farms Organic Raspberry Fruit Strip, 6 Golden Oreo Cookies (don't ask), 1 breath mint.

Planned for dinner: Salad (small) with Light Roasted Garlic Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing, leftover pork fried rice (I meant to eat it over the weekend, but I didn't have time). Maybe a cookie or two for dessert. Oh, and I'm going to have an after-work snack of cottage cheese and applesauce.

Yeah, I don't plan on posting all this every day. But every once in a while I will. I'm also going to be tracking this in a journal that I'm going to write by hand, and also keep track of exercise and my general feelings during this whole healthification thing. So far, it's tough. It's good that I started it while at work, since if I were at home, I would have eaten 95% of the food in the kitchen by now. Having nothing here to eat makes it easier to control what I put in my mouth. It'll be tough when I get home, but hopefully I'll be able to keep it to the snack and dinner I have planned. If I don't have a cookie or two for dessert, I'll have an orange sherbet push-pop. They're only 90 calories, and quite tasty. A very suitable option for when I want something sweet at the end of the day.

In other news, it was really cold out this morning. Waiting for the bus when it's dark and zero degrees out is not really very fun at all. I'm really getting sick of this whole cold thing. Why does my nose run when it's cold out? That's probably the most frustrating part of all. That and the fact that my boots don't actually keep my feet warm.

Pets and Planning

Looking over the lists I wrote the other day made me realize something: I'm going to need a lot of money. If I get lucky and win big in Vegas for my 30th birthday party, then I'll be fine. But I can't count on that (as much as I want to) - not to mention, I'm going to need to save up some money so I can actually GET to Vegas for my birthday.

I was emailing a friend today about pets. I want a pet. Anything furry will do, really. But There's practicality involved. And I realized, as I was planning my future hamster's "Tube City" mansion in my mind, that there's no way I can afford something as simple as a hamster, let alone a cat or a dog. Also, I can barely keep a plant alive - what makes me think I can actually care for an animal?

So, pets are out for the time being. I would still like to have a cat someday, but not for a while.

I've decided to tackle the money situation the best way I know how: making a list. The following is a list of things I will no longer be spending money on:

1. Non-essential clothes (meaning no more Woot shirts, no new packs of socks and underwear because I don't feel like doing a load of laundry, no skirts because I never actually wear them, no pants that I won't wear more than once: the only acceptable clothes are work-appropriate attire and other clothing to replace old/damaged/stained articles of clothing that I cannot function without).
2. Froofy coffee drinks from Caribou (or Starbucks or Dunn Bros or Cafe Patteen, etc). I can buy flavored creamer at the grocery store to use in office-provided coffee.
3. Food delivered to my house unless it's related to a party or gathering or roommate bonding session.
4. Other restaurant food must be limited, but not eliminated. Perhaps I will allow myself to eat lunch out once a week, and dinner out at JJ's and a certain number of times per month (maybe five? Still need to figure this out).
5. DVDs, Video Games, and Other entertainment expenses: if a really awesome movie is on the $5 DVD rack, I can pick it up. But it has to be awesome. As for TV on DVD: I can buy the most recent season of Bones and Lost only if they're on sale for at least 40% off. Netflix can stay. Gamefly is on the fence. No new video games unless I specifically set aside money for it and/or I trade in old games.

That's just a start. There are other things I will limit - and just use my best judgement. I don't need any more kitchen gadgets, no matter how cheap they are on Woot.com.

Perhaps I'll try this for a while: in addition to limiting my spending, I'll look at my checking account the day before I get paid. Then, after I get my paycheck, I'll transfer my account balance from the previous day to my savings account. This way, any money from my paycheck that remains unspent by the time the next paycheck comes will be moved to savings. However much that is will give me an indication on how well I'm doing with my spending every two weeks.

I can do this. If I want everything on that list, I have to do this. A raise would help too.

Tens

In a few days, the decade will come to an end. This also means a new one is about to start. I think this is a good time to evaluate my life, and to see what I can accomplish in the next 10 years. Because of the awesomeness of the year I was born (1980), this is also another "decade" in my life - it'll be my 30s. Again, a great time to think about life and goals.


To honor this, I am making 10 lists of 10 things I want to do/achieve in the upcoming decade.


List 1: Life Goals

1. Apply, attend, and graduate from business school
2. Buy a house
3. Create life (have a baby, whatever you want to call it - if it doesn't happen in the next 10 years, it's unlikely to happen at all, so it might as well be on the list - ideally a man to have the kid with will be in the picture as well, but I don't like making unreasonable goals).
4. Healthify myself. Get to the point where my blood pressure no longer needs to be medicated.
5. Get a cat
6. Write a novel that's worth trying to get published, then find an agent.
7. Be in shape to the point where I can comfortably run a 5k.
8. Find and join a community band and/or choir.
9. Teach someone to play the piano.
10. Learn Spanish.



List 2: Reading Goals.


1. Something by Dickens that isn't "A Tale of Two Cities"
2. "Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace
3. More Stephen King
4. Finish the Thursday Next books
5. "Jane Eyre" so that the first Thursday Next book makes more sense.
6. Take another stab at Hemingway - maybe "The Sun Also Rises"
7. George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series
8. Something by Kurt Vonnegut
9. Another book by Wilkie Collins - "The Woman in White" was amazing.
10. The Shopaholic books (what? The main character's name is Becky! Fine. I'll also read Vanity Fair - the book, not the magazine. That one also stars a Becky.)




List 3: Travel Goals.

1. Visit Lake Itasca and the start of the Mississippi River.
2. Take a baseball road trip to Kansas City to see the Twins play the Royals.
3. Visit the Pacific Northwest
4. Go hiking. Real hiking.
5. Travel to another continent. If it's Europe, visit a country I haven't been to before.
6. Go on a cruise (Alaskan or Caribbean)
7. Visit friends in Chicago again
8. Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Maybe. Mardi Gras somewhere.
9. Visit Toronto. Do I know anyone who lives there?
10. See more of Las Vegas




List 4: Movies to watch


1. Citizen Kane
2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
3. A Streetcar Named Desire
4. Escape to Witch Mountain (both the original and the recent remake starring The Rock)
5. Lethal Weapon (the first one for sure, more if I like it)
6. The rest of the Rocky movies
7. Marathon the 6 Star Wars movies in chronological (not release date) order
8. Get a copy of The American President on DVD
9. The Apartment
10. Marathon the Lord of the Rings movies, including The Hobbit (if it comes out in the next 10 years).


Ok, so that's only 4 lists so far. I've got time to think up more. My brain can't handle it right now.