Continue reading »]]>

It’s been a long time coming. The 10-Pound Challenge officially ended April 9th, and while the winners were contacted and received their prizes, I haven’t gotten around to an update because well…I was hoping I’d have more to report.

First, I want to congratulate the winners:

Grand Prize: $75 Paypal Cash
Biggest Loser Prize: $5 Amazon Gift Card
Ali from Rap to Records and the bonus winner of the Biggest Loser Prize!

First Prize: $50 PayPal cash
Stacey from Newlywed Survival

Second Prize: Ipod Shuffle
Micah from Unabashedly Me

(2) Third Prizes: $25 Amazon or Paypal
BabyBluewater from Head over Heels in Debt
Lindsay from Hot Mess Cold Day

Fourth Prize: $20 Amazon or Paypal
Anne Marie (no blog)

Fifth Prize: $15 Paypal
Jamie from Me Mastering Money

I also want to again generously thank our donors!

First Prize, generously sponsored by The Money Principle
Second Prize, generously donated by Prairie Eco-Thrifter
(2) Third Prizes, generously sponsored by Budgeting in the Fun Stuff and Pinch That Penny
Fourth Prize, generously contributed by Bucksome Boomer
Fifth Prize, generously donated by Debt Eye
Biggest Loser Prize generously donated by Tight Fisted Miser

(the grand prize was hosted by me)

Now as for an update:

I had more than 105 people sign up for the contest when it started on January 16th.

At the end of the contest, on April 9th, only 21 people input their final weight.

What this tells me? It’s ridiculously hard to lose weight.

My own journey has been up and down. I lost weight at the beginning and it slowly waned and came to a complete halt. In the past month, I have regained a few pounds back that I had originally lost. This sucks.

I even held off writing about the results for this long, because I was hoping I could starve myself enough to lose a few more pounds. No such luck. I love food too much.

I get really sad about it sometimes. Some days I eat really, really well (like today!) and other days I just go all out. Story of my life, I guess.

I thought that training for the half-marathon, and doing barre classes, were going to make the weight just melt off. But no matter how much you exercise, if you’re eating a crap ton of food, you’re not going to lose anything.

I don’t regret the working out. My butt is as hard as a rock thanks to Barre class. But I have a feeling I am going to be on this weight loss journey for a while longer.

I am starting to realize that it is much more of a lifestyle change that needs to be made, and I really think I am at least headed in the right direction. I know we are eating a ton of vegetables in our house. I am not going to stop trying to lose weight, but I don’t want to obsess about it as much anymore.

I never want to get complacent. And perhaps I just have to come to terms that I am always going to need to focus on healthy eating, until it becomes second nature.

How are you doing with your weight loss goals?

Continue reading »]]>

Well, the shit has finally hit the fan.

I was doing fine but I am now really feeling the effects of Eric being out of work and not receiving any paychecks for approximately five whole weeks.

Even though he’s been back at work for two weeks, he has yet o receive a paycheck and I’m feeling it. A LOT.

The Bills

I thought we got lucky and got away with a $150 emergency room bill. If only.

In the past few weeks, we have received bills from all over the place: the emergency room itself ($567), the emergency room doctor –because apparently they have their own rates separate from the hospital???–, the sports specialist Eric saw after he got injured, and some other bills I can’t even remember who they came from.

In all, I think we paid about $700 in bills in addition to the original $150 we paid. So $850. And that’s WITH insurance.

Um yeah, Eric is never playing soccer again.

In addition to this $850 in medical crap, there are also some other purchases that needed to be made,  such as a $250 registration fee for Cal State Fullerton for Eric to finish up some classes. All in all, we are about $2,000 in the hole right now.

And yes, it’s all on a credit card that is not due until June 8th. Before you begin stoning me, let me say that we have the money to pay it off…in our emergency fund.

Why I hate touching our Emergency Fund

I hate touching our emergency fund–and while perhaps not all of the purchases on our credit card qualify as an emergency, I definitely think the medical bills do.

Still–I hate touching the emergency fund. It’s just too easy to go in there, take the money, and then have to start saving up again. I feel that we should suffer first and try to pay off as much as possible without going into the emergency fund.

Perhaps my problem is that our emergency fund is really more of a down payment fund. And when I touch the emergency fund, I feel like I’m taking away from our savings for a down payment.

Fixing the problem

I think to remedy this, I am going to have to distinguish the savings accounts and label one “Emergency Fund” and the other one “Down Payment” so that I can see them as two separate entities. Just like I don’t consider my Side Hustle income any part of our savings, but rather Travel money.

Any way you slice it, financial setbacks suck. Just because we have the money, doesn’t make it any easier to pay. I still hate seeing our hard earned money disappear, knowing that it could go to better things, like a down payment fund, debt repayment, or you know, that honeymoon that will happen one day….

The next few months

I think we’re extremely lucky that May is a three-paycheck month for me, so my next paycheck–which I had planned to go straight to savings–will now go to paying off this debt. It sucks–no doubt about it, but I hope to get back on the financial track by next month.

What type of emergency justifies dipping into your emergency fund?

 image via

Continue reading »]]>

Before I do my recap of my very first half-marathon, I want to point out three things:

1. Before this race, my last race was a 5K in high school–approximately 10 years ago.
2. As of Jan. 1st of this year, I couldn’t run more than 5 minutes without stopping.
3. The fastest mile I have ever run EVER, was 8:50 in 6th grade (yes, sixth grade)

Half Marathon PR Time

2:24:40

(Yes, I totally get to say this is a PR)

For the past 4 months, I trained for my first half-marathon ever. I was not a runner. Running is still very hard for me–you can read about how much I struggled with running at the beginning.  But I signed up for a half-marathon because I love proving myself wrong.

I actually wrote “run a half marathon” as one of my 2011 goals but I quickly crossed it out because I was too scared that I was setting myself up for failure. Well, failure no more, because I am officially a half-marathon runner!

Yes, that’s right. My very first finish-line photo and I CLOSE MY EYES!!

Can’t win’em all I guess.

As I woke up at 4 a.m. Sunday morning, I thought to myself: What kind of an idiot pays to run and get up at 4 a.m.? *This girl!*

I had to sit through 30 minutes of traffic just to park my car. Then I had to get shuttled on a bus with other people to the start of the race. It sucked–I couldn’t carry anything with me so I had to freeze my little butt off. I even had to tie my car key around my shoe lace.

I was super nervous going into this race. There were several times I asked myself what the hell I had been thinking. But I paid my damn $80 and I was going to at least try to run this race.

Mile 1-3

The first three miles flew by. I knew I was running faster than my normal pace but I couldn’t slow down. Then when I caught glimpse of the 2:30 pacers, I made it my mission to stick with them. I was almost positive that they were in the corral ahead of me though (meaning they started before I did), but I wasn’t sure. I decided to stick with them just in case.

Mile 4-8

I was feeling pretty good all the way through mile 8. I think 8 miles is a perfect long distance run for me. I would have scoffed at 8 miles four months ago, but I really like running that distance now.

Mile 9-10

I started slowing down at miles 9-10, while still trying to keep the pacers within my site. I had grabbed water or gatorade at every station and felt fine but I was getting tired.

Mile 11-12

At mile 11, I felt like I hit a wall. The saying: “So close but yet so far away” seems like it was based off mile 11 in a half marathon race. I knew the end was so near. Up to this point , the only time I had stopped to walk was during two minor hills. At the middle of mile 11, I couldn’t take it anymore and I walked. All of a sudden, I could feel all the pain. The sides of my thighs were killing me. It hurt to walk and hurt even more when I lost sight of the 2:30 pacers.

When I reached mile 12, I walked and half-jogged. By the middle of mile 12, I forced myself to keep jogging. I told myself it was almost over, that I could do it, that I was almost done. It definitely became more of a mental thing, and fighting through the pain.

Mile 13.1

When I saw the mile 13 marker, I knew I only had a tenth of a mile to go. I had had these high hopes of sprinting through the end, like I had done in high school during 5K finishes. At this point, it was taking everything in me not to walk. But I pushed myself and I can honestly say I sprinted, even if it was only probably a 12 minute pace at this point.

And I did it. I finished. And I pulled over at the end, and almost started hyperventilating. I wanted to cry–I think I did a little bit.

I tried to walk but everything hurt. I mean, EVERYTHING.

It’s three days post-race now, and I am STILL sore. After the half-marathon I went to get a massage, and I think it helped, but I still walked around like a mannequin the next day, trying everything possible not to bend my legs.

Am I happy with how I did?

I had no expectations for my finish time. Three weeks ago, I was thinking I could maybe shoot for a 2:30 but after my hip flexor injury and not training properly the three weeks before the race, I would have been happy breaking a 2:45. Knowing I got a 2:24 (an 11:03 average pace per mile), I was thrilled.

I’m the kind of person that likes to set my goals low, so that when I actually surpass my goal, I can be thrilled with the results, rather than sad that I didn’t do better.

So what’s next?

I am going to keep running. My next half marathon isn’t until October 7th in Long Beach and I have a long time to train. I’m going to work on speed this time. As much as I hate–like seriously, loathe–pushing myself, I want to one day be able to break 2 hours, which is a little bit more than a 9 minute per mile pace. Considering my fastest time ever was 8:50, it’s going to take me a while to get to a nine minute pace…

I never thought that I could be a person that says they enjoy running, but honestly, I do. Some days it’s more of a struggle than others, and I am by NO means fast, but it calms me down. To this day, the first mile is always the hardest.

People sometimes ask “Why do you run?” …well, this is why I run:

Continue reading »]]>

From: Me
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 1:02 PM
To: Eric Husband
Subject: Favor

Hey can you take the fabric swatch over to my mom’s house? I think it is in the kitchen junk drawer.

From: Eric Husband
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 1:06 PM
To: Eric Husband
Subject: RE: Favor

According to the doctor, I’m not your bitch anymore.

From: Me
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 1:08 PM
To: Eric Husband
Subject: RE: RE: Favor

Lol you are til you go back to work on Monday!

From: Eric Husband
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 1:11 PM
To: Me
Subject: RE: RE: Favor

ya, I will do it.  :/  You left the kitchen a mess though.  I’m not happy about that.

From: Me
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 1:13 PM
To: Eric Husband
Subject: RE: RE: Favor

Oh, I’m sorry. Now u know how I felt every day u were in the academy and I had to pick up after you EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. for FOUR months

From: Eric Husband
Sent: Friday, April 20, 2012 1:16 PM
To: Me
Subject: RE: RE: Favor

Continue reading »]]>

You know that old saying: “It’s the thought that counts?” It’s complete crap. People only say that to make themselves feel better about somebody giving them a crappy gift in the first place.

It should really be revised to: “It’s the meaningful thought that counts.” Too many people take this saying to mean that just because you get a person something–anything–that that somehow excuses you from putting any significant amount of thought into a gift.

I had an ex-boyfriend once who was the worst with gifts. A few times, he didn’t have enough cash to even buy me a gift. Then one time, he gave me a box of Ghirardelli chocolates.

What’s wrong with that, you ask? Well, I hate Ghirardelli chocolates. Like, can’t stand the stuff. I don’t really like truffles, period. Give me a box of Sees’ Candy Nuts and Chews anyday, but don’t give me Ghirardelli.

You may try and reason that he didn’t know that I hated Ghirardelli with such intense passion, but let me assure you–we had dated approximately 3 years at this point. He knew.

In fact, he handed me the box by saying “I know you don’t like Ghirardelli chocolates, but I know you love Christmas, and it’s wrapped in a Christmas bow!”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Would the appropriate response be: “Um, thank you? Now I can just sit here and admire the Christmas bow on a box of chocolates I won’t eat?”

But you have to give the boy points for trying, right? Otherwise I just sound like a callous bitch. Except two months later, for Valentine’s Day, he bought me an underwear set from Victoria’s Secret, which included a thong–I hated thongs at the time and never wore them.

I kid you not, he handed me the gift by saying “I know you don’t like to wear thongs, but…” Apparently his girl friends at the time helped him pick it out.

I digress.

Eric and I are not big on gifts. In fact, we rarely do them. Not for birthdays, not for anniversaries, I don’t even think we did Christmas gifts this year.  It’s not that we’re un-sentimental like that (is that even a word?), it’s just that we much prefer to spend money on experiences rather than things.

However, every now and then, it’s great to go out of the norm.

Last month, Eric and I celebrated our two-year wedding anniversary. It was less than a week after Eric fractured his back playing soccer. We had made plans to have dinner at this fancy steakhouse, but ended up having to cancel since Eric could barely sit for an hour at a time without needing to lay down.

I was a bit bummed, but what are you going to do? I had resigned myself to accepting that we would be spending our anniversary at home on the couch.

So imagine my absolute surprise when I came home and found a card and a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates–my absolute favorite!– on our dining table.

Eric could barely walk at this point–like seriously 10 baby steps at a time–how the heck did he get me a card and chocolates?

Turns out, he texted all his friends to see if anyone was available to drive him to the store so he could at least get me something for our anniversary.

The card and chocolates didn’t cost much. Maybe $10 tops. But it was seriously one of the best gifts I’ve ever received, because I knew my husband had put such meaningful thought into the gift.

Has someone ever surprised you with a truly meaningful gift?

Continue reading »]]>

Every month, I keep track of how I make extra money. My goal for 2012 is to make $2,500 in side hustle income so we can finally go on a honeymoon and also attend our friend’s wedding in Cancun in October. All side hustle money is saved in a separate account, that will go toward travel expenses.

In January 2012, I made $515.41
In February 2012, I made $891.34
In March 2012, I made $636.26
In April 2012, I made $740.76

How I made extra money:

Blog advertising: $465.04
Staff writing for other blogs: $220
Mystery shopping: $307.79
Work Mileage: $62.02
Surveys: $3

TOTAL: $1057.85
Mystery Shop Fees: -242.09
Blog Fees: -$75
NET TOTAL: $740.76

My total for the year is $2783.77!! I met my goal for the year in four months!

This is absolutely nuts. I honestly am still shocked thinking about how I’ve been able to pull together this side hustle. I am obviously very happy with the outcome, and even if it were to completely stop tomorrow, I’d still be happy with how much I’ve accomplished.

Continue reading »]]>

Run 8 miles

I’ve definitely been losing my running mojo. Perhaps I overworked myself with trying to train for a half marathon and doing two back-to-back months of unlimited barre classes (I’ve done 46 classes in the past two months). I have small aches and pains that I’m hoping will go away.

image via

Become Martha Stewart

and recreate some version of this lemon and lime wreath.

image via

Have a Mommy Doggy Day

That will probably make my dog go from this:

To this:

Go Wine Tasting

What I think it will look like:

What it will actually look like:

My friends and I rented a party bus for a wine tasting trip to Temecula to celebrate three of our birthdays. While Napa is for the sophisticated wine drinker, Temecula is definitely more for the girls who just want to drink and get tipsy and can’t really tell that there is a woodsy cherry oak flavor on the back palate. It’s perfect for us!

*True story*: My friends and I once snuck in a box of wine to the movie theater and we had to leave halfway through the movie because one of us threw up.

image via and via

It’s a jam packed weekend. Good thing I have tomorrow off work!

Continue reading »]]>

Almost two months of living at the new place, and almost every day at some point, I still turn to Eric and say “I love our new home.”

Even though we’re spending more on living expenses, our happiness has skyrocketed since moving out of the love shack. And let’s face it–that living style was not sustainable.

I haven’t felt “poor” since we moved. I can invite my friends over for dinner without feeling embarrassed. We spend so much time at home, watching DVD’s, cooking and drinking wine.

The weird thing too is that even though we pay a heck of a lot more in rent and utilities, we’re still managing fine financially. I haven’t felt the crunch of our new increased rent at all– even with Eric out of commission for a whole month.

Perhaps it’s because if we really had to, we could get by on my salary alone–and we use Eric’s salary for savings and paying off debt and all the fun stuff.

But it made me wonder–at what point, income-wise, will we feel financially secure?

How much money is enough?

There are a few steps to get to where I will feel fine–comfortable, even–with our finances.

1. I would like to pay off my student loans. I am not going to say debt-free, because I do expect to accrue debt for a mortgage and perhaps a car within the next few years. I just don’t see any way in saving up for a car while paying off my student loans at the same time and building an emergency fund.
2. I would like to have an emergency fund of at least six months of bare minimum expenses saved up.
3. I would like to have enough money saved for a down payment on a home and not have to be renting the rest of our lives.
4. I would like to be contributing the full match to our 401K (it’s done on my part, Eric doesn’t have one offered through work yet) and maxing out our Roths (we opened Roths this year, but we’ve only managed to put away $100 in each of them right now *sad face*)
5. I would like to be able to go on a big vacation once a year.
6. I would also like to be able to eat out at restaurants more without it killing me wondering how much this is going to cost us.

That’s what it would take for me to get to the point where I would be comfortable with our finances. I don’t need to buy more clothes or more stuff, but I do enjoy the experiences of vacations and restaurants. That’s what I would spurge on if we had more money.

I know that once Eric gets his firefighter job, a lot of these things will happen really fast. But I am an impatient person and I want it to happen all now, now, NOW!

However, I think the move has helped us out so much with just being happier with where we are in our lives. We’ve come so far in paying off big chunks of our debt, and with just the student loans left, it feels good to know we’re in the home stretch.

What would it take for you to be comfortable with your finances?

 image via

Continue reading »]]>

On living on one income

Well, it looks like it’s going to be 5 weeks with Eric out of work. We hope his first day back will be May 2.

My initial reactions are to FREAK out. But there are a few things keeping me from freaking out: We were able to save $1200 from our last two paychecks combined to help cover our expenses in May.

• May will be a three paycheck month for me (well I get the third on June 1st, but that will go toward paying June’s rent–so it means  that I won’t have to use a May paycheck to pay June’s rent)
• Overtime. April and May is pretty much the only time I get overtime from my company, but this translates into about an extra few hundred for each of my next 3 or so paychecks.
• We got our tax refund ($2300– completely unexpected!) and put it all toward savings since we had to wipe out our savings account in February to pay for the deposit and first month’s rent for our new home.

Also–can I just say how WONDERFUL it is to have a house husband? That’s what Eric and I have been calling his new job title: House Husband. The bed is made every morning, the house is cleaned up, the dishes are put away.

Granted, the first two weeks, all he could do was call me from bed and tell me how much pain he was in, but now that he can at least walk and get around (he’s still not allowed to do any heavy lifting), I have been enacting my revenge asking him politely to do his fair share of what it takes to run a household. He’s been great! He’s also been studying for a fire test coming up so it’s been good time spent.

On half marathon training:

This is what I feel like every time I run…

Half Marathon training was going great. And then I got injured. Seriously?!

I was all cocky and proud of myself for my training and not getting injured and I was making fun of people who get injured and thinking in my head “haha, you just don’t know how to run right!” and now here I am with hip flexor pain that refuses to go away.

I took a week off, and went for a short 3 mile run yesterday (at what point did 3 miles become my short run?). Pain is still there but not as bad as last week. I’m gonna run again tomorrow, and try to crank out 8 or 9 miles Saturday. I’ll be listening to my body and hoping there is no pain!!

Nothing is keeping me from 13.1 baby…

Continue reading »]]>

After our little home post, I know what you were all wondering–how could this supposedly ‘poor’ couple move into a two-bedroom townhome and furnish it when all they owned beforehand was a couch and a bed?

The entire amount we’ve spent so far, out of our own pocket, is $700. We were also extremely fortunate to receive a $500 housewarming gift from my grandma, to be used specifically for our home. So this is what we purchased with a $1200 budget:

In the Dining Room

A new (to us) dining table: $250

I fell in love with this seven piece dining set that we found on Craigslist. I knew I wanted six chairs instead of four, because I love to have friends over for dinner, and there never seem to be enough chairs to go around!

This set was listed on Craigslist for $500. I sent an email and low-balled at $200 which really was our budget for a dining table. We ended up settling for $250 and I was thrilled! There are a few paint marks on the chairs, which will easily come off with paint thinner, we just haven’t gotten around to it. The table set also came with a custom glass top.

Metal Chandelier $100 (from the Grandma fund):

The chandelier in the dining room was a dinky old thing and I knew I wanted to replace it. This was one of those purchases that I wouldn’t have made if my Granda hadn’t gifted us with $500. This chandelier totally brightens the place up, don’t you think so?

BEFORE

White hutch $0:

The beautiful white hutch in the background is a hand-me-down from my mother-in-law. She actually gave it to us while we were living in the shack. I had originally told her we couldn’t take it because holy cow, where would we put it? But I absolutely LOVED the piece, so I made Eric rearrange the whole downstairs of our shack so we could make it fit. And I am SO glad I did, because now it is an absolute showstopper!

It simply housed storage at our old place, but now I can actually showcase the fine china my parents gifted me as a wedding present.

In the Living Room

A new (to us) couch: $150

Even though I was fine with our old couch, I knew it wasn’t going to be big enough for our new space. I started browsing couches on Craigslist, and fell in love with the idea of a large sectional–perfect for hosting friends and family! We found this one listed for $200, and offered $150.

It’s super comfortable and we love lounging on it!

Marble top coffee table: $0

This was my parents’ old coffee table that was sitting in the garage. Once we moved, we realized our little red coffee table purchased off Craigslist two years ago for $15 wasn’t going to do our new place justice.

We really wanted a circular coffee table to help reduce the whole “square-y” thing going on, but beggars can’t be choosers, and this is a really nice coffee table (even if it does have a few water stains on it).

Brown Zebra Rug (from the Grandma fund): $297

I am not a fan of the grayish carpet. I thought a rug would really help brighten up the place. My mom suggested this zebra rug and though I was apprehensive at first, I really love it now!

Brown Mirror: $100

We purchased the brown mirror above the couch for $100 from the same couple who sold us the dining set. It’s a solid piece, and I knew I just had to have it.

In the master bedroom

Everything in the master was pretty much ours mine from beforehand. The reason our master is so girly is because it’s all my furniture from when I was single. Unfortunately, Eric just has to put up with it because I have no desire to get rid of my $2,000 Pottery Barn bed. Yes, that is what I paid for this bed when I bought it back in 2008. Those were my pre- “pay down debt” days…

Sunburst Mirror (from the Grandma fund): $100

The only thing we purchased for this room is the mirror you see above the bed–and that was a Joss and Main purchase. This is an up close shot so you can see the detail:

 In the Man Room

Desk: $150

We bought this large solid oak desk off Craigslist, originally listed at $200, we offered $150. It’s a great piece, and Eric really wanted a desk to study for all his fire exams.

Desk Chair (from the Grandma fund): $80

We got the desk chair at Office Depot. It was the floor model, so we got 20% off.

TOTAL: $1230

Out of Pocket: $730
Grandma: $500

And yes it has all been paid in cash! We pretty much bought the big ticket items ourselves, but we were really able to splurge for a few pieces because of the gift from my Grandma. There are a few things I still plan to do–like curtains and some table lamps.

While yes, I would LOVE to have brand new furniture, it just isn’t feasible for us right now. Plus I’d rather save for the really nice stuff when we buy a new place, rather than rent. This suffices for now and I don’t think it’s that shabby!

Everything is slowly but surely coming together. And I love that we are sticking to our budget to do so!