This week I’ll review my challenges from last week, and put new ones in place for this coming week! It was a bit of a mixed bag this week on what challenges I met and what Challenges I didn’t…so here’s the wrapup:

Challenges for 6/15-6/21

1. I will have hubby get me up before he leaves 3 mornings this week (I have no alarm clock). I did not do this 3 mornings. But I did do it for 2 of them.

2. On those mornings I will exercise, NOT log onto the computer. Again, a half-miss. I DIDN’T log on…but I also didn’t excercise.

3. I will take 2 hours every day (nap time) and clean house. Another half-miss. I did do some cleaning, but it wasn’t for 2 hours every day.

4. I will begin removing excess by selling on Craigs List, or donating to Goodwill. I have made a pile of things to go. I’m not done with my pile.

5. I will not have any pop this week. (This one is big and difficult). To ease caffeine withdrawal I will start each day with a cup of coffee as my only caffeine. In its place I will drink water all day. BIG miss. I had at least one a day. BUT, I also learned something. Because I did have MUCH less pop, and drank much more water. On the days that I had only one pop I felt SO much better than the days I majory missed.

6. I will not spend any (more) money this week with the exception of milk. Yeah. Not so much. BUT in my defense our funds loosened back up to comfortable. However, I did spend much more than I was happy with.

7. I will log off the computer by 12. And be in bed no later than 1AM. SUCCESS!! I did log off the computer every night but midnight with the exception of ONE day…and that day I didn’t even long ON until midnight - and was only on for 30 minutes).

8. If I chose to stay up for that hour, I will work on sewing that needs done. Eh. A half-win. I sewed a few of the days, the others I watched Dr. Quinn.
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And my new challenges for this week.

1. I will get up no later than 8AM every day. I will try to remember to have hubby wake me before he leaves at least 2 days this week.

2. I’ll exercise 2 days this week. It doesn’t have to be in the morning, but it has to be done.

3. I will not drink more than 1 pop a day. If I really crave I’ll have green tea instead (supposed to help boost metabolism)

4. I will continue to make yummy sourdough bread…and possibly some biscuits for biscuits and gravy.

5. I will NOT grocery shop with the exception of milk and flour (and possibly more baking soda).

6. I will continue to use my new clothesline.

7. I will continue to log off the computer by midnight, and be in bed by 1AM.

8. I will clean at least one room of the house daily.

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June 22nd, 2008
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Categories: Sunday Challenge . Author: Sarah .

Groceries

I think I did pretty good tonight!  I spent $72 total…with a savings of about 43% (I saved $54). 

I had some great deals at Marsh.  I got 10lbs of Pork chops for about $9.50 ($.98/lb!!!).  I got cucumbers at $.79/1, 2 packs of sponges (2 scrubbies, 4 regular) for $1, peaches for $.98/lb, and 3 Kraft Dressings for $3.98…quite a few decent deals there.  I did the bulk of my shopping here, saving $37 while spending $53. 

 After that I went to Kroger where I got Squash for $.99/lb, Asparagus for $1.99/lb, 2 boxes of Barilla pasta for $1.  Again, quite a few good deals.  To top it off, I got a bunch of food (mostly veggies), and 4 gallons of milk for only $19, SAVING $17 in the process! Almost 50%!!

Greenery

Tomorrow I go to the Farmer’s Market.  MORE fresh food…while supporting the local farmers.  It’s my first time going, and I’m feeling excited :) 

After I’m done there I’ll be going to Lowe’s to pick up my clothesline finally!!  I’ve been wanting to do this for months.  The funds weren’t there, it was too wet and rainy…blah blah.  It’s now time to pick it up!  It’s paid for.  I got some clothespins tonight…and some fabric to make my own clothespin bag (and to make extras to sell).  I’m very excited about tomorrow!

Going

Today was a go, go, go day….which also equated into a spend spend spend day.  Lunch, shoes for the girls, odds and ends at Wal-Mart….and then groceries on top of it!!  Money goes sooo fast!  On a good note…I filled up the tank of our car for the first time in AGES.  It was an arm and a leg, but it’s so nice seeing the needle on the F instead of hovering toward the E.  Tomorrow I will gas up the truck…just not ALL the way.  That would be about $100.  And I don’t drive enough to justify that most weeks.  I’ll put in a little more because I know I have to go to the hospital this week for an appointment.  Otherwise, it’s getting basic treatment :D 

And that’s the update for today. More to come later

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June 21st, 2008
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Categories: Uncategorized . Author: Sarah .

Today I was able to sit down and go over the books for the month.  And am very pleased to say that I was able to bring down all numbers this month despite a tight month. 

Credit Cards: In June I didn’t make my goal of paying twice the finance charge on the big card because our funds were very unexpectedly tight. Now that our secondary funds have come in, I plan on paying double or more the finance charges this month on everything.

Truck: For the first three months I paid an extra $.42 on priniciple.  This month I’ve bumped it up to $5.42.  It’s not a TON extra, but every bit helps knock down our total interest over the term of the loan.  Trying to look at the big picture there

Grocery:  As you can see, I’m already nearing the end of my goal on that one.  Last week there were very few great deals, and it was my big week for shopping (doesn’t that always figure?)…I had to get meat, milk, AND cereal…and for once the cereal deal were minimal.  THIS week there are deals out the wazoo (Pork chops for $.98/lb…Peaches for $.98/lb…cukes for $.78/1!!)…so I’ll probably meet and exceed my budget for the month.  BUT, if I do it right I won’t have to buy anything but milk next week!

On the downside we are looking into getting a sump pump - that’s $150 out of our tight budget.  BUT a necessary evil. 

Perhaps soon I can start putting away bits at a time for emergencies. 

And on the question side…should I close my credit cards before they’re paid off?  I’ve read that it can hurt your credit to do that…even if you’re still making payments on them.  But I just don’t want that temptation (or annual fee) to be there.

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June 20th, 2008
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Categories: Finance . Author: Sarah .

Today I was thrilled to open my mailbox to find my Free Sourdough Bread Starter!!  About 2 weeks ago I sent in my SASE to the address listed on the site and then put it from my mind.  I mean, the site said it could take up to 6 weeks.  I’ve been craving getting started on keeping a starter around here and baking more bread than I buy.  Using it for french toast (yum), sandwiches, you name it.  But, I had to wait.

But today it arrived.  I immediately printed off the directions for activating the starter, and set it up.  The small container that I start with (that will eventually become  a cup of active starter) sits in my nice warm vehicle activating as we speak.  I’m watching it closely to see it bubble so that I can beging to build it.  In about 48 hours (max) I’ll have a full active starter.  Sometime after that I’ll have my first loaf in the oven.  How delightful.

Best of all, it was free!!  All the bread will cost me from now on is the cost of flour!  Yes, I had to use two stamps…but talk about paying for itself!! 

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June 18th, 2008
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Categories: Green, Grocery . Author: Sarah .

I didn’t start the day on completely the right foot, but I sure tried.

I got up earlier than usual, but instead of staying up when Archie woke me (at 7:20AM), I stayed in bed for about another hour.  I was up at 8:30AM.  I didn’t exercise, but I made my cup of coffee and relaxed for a bit before getting the kids up. 

Around 11AM we stopped and saw Archie at work, then drove back into town.  We stopped in the courthouse square and walked the 1/4 mile to the library.  After hanging out for a bit and having Brandon pick up a couple of books I broke another challenge (yup, already)…I stopped at Dairy Queen.  To be fair, it wasn’t just for me, it was for the kids…and this was part of my original library plan all along.  The plan was to go to the library once a week and stop at DQ or Wiggles (a fair-food restaurant).  Today it was DQ and a Cotton Candy Blizzard for me *lol*

Then we walked back to the car and went home.  I went all day without a pop and felt pretty good…until I didn’t go all day without a pop.  We got Chinese tonight and I got myself my vice…my Dr. Pepper.  I shouldn’t have and now the guilt over spending the money and getting the pop is eating at me.

It’s only day 1, and I WILL do better tomorrow.  Step by step, inch by inch…I did very well comparitively. A few weeks ago I would’ve stopped on the way to Archie’s work…and today I didn’t even think about it.

Tomorrow there will be no spending money.  No guarantees on exercising…but I will not go out and get a Dr. Pepper.  I won’t ask hubby to, either.  I felt too good today before I flubbed up to mess up again tomorrow.  It’s as much a habit as smoking…I’m used to pigging on caffeine and chocolate out of habit, and my waistline shows it.  Now it’s water and if I really crave chocolate, it’s a chocolate rice cake (seriously, they are GOOD). 

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June 17th, 2008
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Categories: Uncategorized . Author: Sarah .

Because I lack willpower, I decided that every Sunday I would post my challenges here so that I could keep track of them.  After this week, I’ll review the previous weeks and then post new challenges for the week.  If you’d like to join me in weekly challenges, feel free!

Challenges for 6/15-6/21

1. I will have hubby get me up before he leaves 3 mornings this week (I have no alarm clock).

2. On those mornings I will exercise, NOT log onto the computer.

3. I will take 2 hours every day (nap time) and clean house.

4. I will begin removing excess by selling on Craigs List, or donating to Goodwill.

5. I will not have any pop this week.  (This one is big and difficult).  To ease caffeine withdrawal I will start each day with a cup of coffee as my only caffeine.  In its place I will drink water all day.

6. I will not spend any (more) money this week with the exception of milk.

7. I will log off the computer by 12.  And be in bed no later than 1AM.

8. If I chose to stay up for that hour, I will work on sewing that needs done.

I think that’s good for now.  I plan on expanding/changing these challenges as weeks go on.  I’m not great at willpower, as I said…but I’m going to try.

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June 16th, 2008
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Categories: Personal . Author: Sarah .

I haven’t made any huge changes this month, but one. While some of you may cringe and gasp, in shock…it is part of this going green path that I’m on.

In case you missed my previous posts, I’m no longer using shampoo, conditioner, facial cleansers. Not the traditional, buy them off the shelf manner, and not any actual product like that.

Now before you go cringing and gasping in horror…I will assure you that my hair is not greasy, slimy, or filthy in any way. It is clean and incredibly soft. In fact, I would say that always in the past I have had the greasiest head of hair, if I didn’t wash it every.single.day…I would just die at the slimy nature of the beast that is my hair. No longer. It’s clean, it’s shiny. I have only had one day of slimy-ness that was my own fault. But that’s not the PSBN portion of this post. Because of that, I’ve adopted new methods for holding my cleansing products. Ones that are 100% resuable. I never have to buy a new bottle of shampoo that will get thrown away. Or cleanser. I will forevermore use these:

They can be rinsed and refilled every time I need them.

The other thing that isn’t new here, but we do regularly is this:

Again, I can hear your collective gasp of horror over bottled water and the waste. But first I have to say that my husband works at this company. He has for 10 years and lives on bottled water. And this is not awful. The company reuses the bottles after a thorough sanitizing. Those that they cannot reuse are recycled. There is no waste there. So it’s another product that we are ‘reusing’.

I have plans to add more reusable bottles to our home.  Archie likes to take his water everywhere, and needs something more convenient than the traditional bottled water his company also provides (I’d prefer he never have to use those).  So next in the plans, when we can work them into the budget, are good reusable water bottles.

Next week I plan on buying our clothes line, finally.  I have it all picked out, I just need some clothes pins and a hook to put into our tree and we’ll be all set!!

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This post has been made to contribute to Lotus’ Project Support Beauty in Nature. Are you making green-friendly changes in your life? Join the project and post today!

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June 10th, 2008
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Categories: Uncategorized . Author: Sarah .

Since I’m sure my vast readership is waiting on feedback on my poo-less challenge I wanted to do that.

	I started on Saturday evening with the baking soda wash.Sunday before my rinse I was very impressed. My hair felt clean, mostly soft (although I’m sure the coconut oil helped there).  I wasn’t feeling any pain. And as I said earlier in the week, I had done the washing on Saturday evening. I combed it through and went to bed, and woke up tangle free! Since that never happens to me, it made me quite happy!! I washed it again on Monday evening, this time forgoing the coconut oil. The next day it was a bit combination. Slightly greasy up top, dry on the ends.  On this day hubby learned of my attempt to do this and begged me to stop. I waited until this morning to do the next wash with this. And my hair is quite luxurious today. It’s starting to fully detox now and is soft. It needs a trim, but that’s for another day.  Hubby is still begging me to go ‘back to the chemicals’…but I’m not done with the challenge.
Sunday evening I did the herbal Rinse. I steeped Rosemary Leaves and Sage for about ten minutes. I drained off the leaves and let it cool, and then added a tablespoon of vinegar.I got into the tub and wet my hair. Rolled it into a quick french knot and poured on the rinse. This is where I messed up. While that was soaking in, I did my Oil Cleansing method. So all of that oil got in the water…and when I rinsed out the rinse, the oil got on my hair, so it was greasy Monday. When I rinsed again on Tuesday my hair faired much better.  It was Wednesday that hubs begged me to go back to regular shampoo because my hair was “clean and soft…but different…” I’m still giving it the month.  I know he wants me to change back no, but I’m not ready to yet :D
	And just for kicks, I thought I’d update on the Oil Cleansing Method.  LOVING it!!  This time I think I found the right combo.  It’s 1/5 Castor, 3/5 EVOO, and 1/5 Corn.  My skin is luxurious and hasn’t dried out at ALL this time! And I’ve been using it almost daily! (Habit. I know I don’t have to, but habit has me pouring it out before I realize it!) So this time around the OCM is a smashing success.  The hair is still in process, but I’m seeing no sign of stopping anytime soon, I’m that pleased with the progress.  Tonight I brushed my 100 strokes while watching SYTYCD, and it feels so soft I’m thrilled!!

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June 6th, 2008
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Categories: Green . Author: Sarah .

My challenge for May was to spend $250 or less.  Although I didn’t update my ticker last week, I can tell you that we beat it!  We only spent about $170 for groceries!!  I’m very pleased with this. 

This past week, in June’s Challenge (which I will update in my sidebar very soon), I spent $63…but it was a meat and milk week.  Plus, that included diapers.  Minus the diapers I spent about $48 on food products - well within my $50/wk budget. 

What pleases me about my shopping trip this week is that $35 of the $48 was taken up by items I wouldn’t normally have coupons for - the milk, meat and veggies. 

My best deals were…

I got one Kraft spicy brown mustard and one yellow mustard combined for $.19!!  I had a BOGO coupon from 3 weeks ago (buy one spicy brown, get one yellow free) and a $.50 for spicy brown from 2 weeks ago.  The spicy brown was on sale for $1.19 - so after coupon doubling both came in at $.19!!  I loved that deal!

I also got 6 boxes of cereal for only $5.50.  I learned an important trick this week that helped me achieve it.  If you have coupons for specific cereals (I had one for Cin. Life, one for Cheerios, and 2 for Total cereal) - they can be layered with the $1/2 coupons.  So I bought 6 GM cereals, had 1 $1/2 and 2 $.75/2 coupons, and then the individual coupons. AND the cereals were on sale $2/2!  So I got cereal this week for about $.92 a box!  I love that…especially with my cereal eaters.

June’s challenge gives a bit more wiggle room.  I may have kept for under $50 for food products this past week, but this coming week I’m giving myself room to get us backup meat and some other supplies we need.  So now I’m off to update my grocery challenge!!  Here’s hoping I stick with it!

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June 4th, 2008
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Categories: Uncategorized . Author: Sarah .

Go ahead and call me crazy, because I’m not so sure I’m not.  But I partially blame Meg at Sorta Crunchy for bringing these ideas to my attention.  But I’m trying them.  I’m trying them both.

First is the Oil Cleansing Method.  Meg recently had a full post on this, but I’ll tell you my limited experience with it. I started this a couple of months ago.  I really liked it, but my formula wasn’t right - my skin got super dry. The combination of that and the generic form of my estrogen threw me for a loop.  I started this again a few days ago and love it. My skin is soft, smooth…I haven’t seen any blackhead reuction yet…but I have a good feeling about it.  I’ll admit to a current moderate amount of cheating…until my skin catches up, I’m using a tinted lotion to get a fake tan to my skin.  But before I even put the lotion on my skin is gorgeously soft. I LOVE this method.

Second is a little harder to take…and took me longer to go ahead and attempt.  Also seen at Sorta Crunchy, I learned about the Shampoo-Free method of hair care.  I was nervous and very very hesitant…to the point of not really wishing to try it.  See I have very oily hair and I could not/would not believe that I could go without those massive cleansers.  But after scheduling a hair appointment this past weekend for a date six weeks from now (mid-July).  I decided to give the no’poo method six weeks.  If it works and I like it, I’ll cancel the appt and get a small trim somewhere less expensive. If it doesn’t work, I’ll treat myself to the cut and color and brush it off.

I started this no’poo last night.  I have to admit that I’m shocked.  Last night I used a baking soda paste that I made myself with a tablespoon of baking soda and just a bit of water.  My hair was shockingly clean afterward.  Then, having no herbal rinse at the ready, I got out of the shower, horrified at the lack of ‘conditioner’ in my hair.  Knowing I needed something I used just a little coconut oil (about 1/2 tsp) on the ends.  Combed my hair thoroughly and went to bed.

I woke up..with NO tangles.  Seriously, NONE!  I went to bed with wet hair and slept all night and there was no tangles!! That has never happened to me!! 

Tonight I do an herbal infused rinse only.  I’m going to try to alternate for the first week, then back off slightly.  I’ll probably have a few icky yucky days…but I’m hoping that it evens out and my hair ends up healthy!

I always meant to go green…I NEVER dreamed I’d do this…but it’s an interesting experiment, I’ll keep you posted on the results!

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June 2nd, 2008
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Categories: Green . Author: Sarah .