I'm a Convert!

As a cashier I always got so annoyed with THOSE women! You know the ones with two carts full of merchandise and a coupon for everything. These were the women that haggled with me over prices and left stuff with me if I would not take the coupon. It drove me crazy!




Well, things have changed since then. I am now one of THOSE women! I have been looking at ways to organize and streamline life these days and one thing that I have always been horrible at is grocery shopping. I go in with a list (if I remembered to bring it) and when I get to the checkouts I realize that not only did I not get all of the things on my list but I am now spending at least 50 dollars more than I planned to on things that I picked up along the way. I always ended up starring dumbfounded at the monitor as the cashier was scanning my order and wondering exactly where I had lost control of this trip.




My Mom in Law, Mary is an amazing shopper! She is one of THOSE women. She gets everything on sale and not only does she clip coupons, she actually uses them. I can't tell you how many times she has said "Oh hold on, I have a coupon for that!" or " I got this for you because it was on sale and I had a coupon so it only cost me (insert some ridiculously low price here)!"


I am in awe of her ability to stretch a dollar!



Which brings me to this week. We only had a little money to spend on groceries and a long list of items we needed to get, so I was busily trying to decide what items on our list could be skipped so that we could spend as little as possible. As I am sitting there glaring at the grocery list, I happened to glance at the newest Kraft Food & Family Magazine that was sitting in front of me. It was open to a page with a recipe for Taco Soup! It looked so good and I really wanted to make it for Whit but I knew that there was no way I was going to be able to get the ingredients on our tight budget. So I flipped the pages for a minute while I tried to collect my thoughts. I finished the magazine and moved on to the ads portion of the mail. I usually throw this stuff out without even looking at it but for some reason I didn't today.




And boy am I thankful that I kept them because the first thing I saw was the Kroger circular. Now normally I don't shop at Kroger because their prices are astronomical, however they have some pretty amazing sales to make up for it. Looking through that ad I noticed a lot of the things on my list were on sale this week. Making a Kroger shopping list reminded me of Mary, who shops Kroger sales religiously! Thinking of Mary brought me to coupons. I knew I was too late for the Sunday circular but I also knew that you could often get coupons online that you can print for free! So I started searching for Free Printable Coupons. I had to weed through some unuseful web sites but eventually I came across the Coupon Mom! I can't even describe how amazing this website is! It teaches you how to combine coupons with sales to get the most products at the least cost. She even shows how to get some things for free!

Last night was our first attempt at using the Coupon Mom system and at first I wasn't so sure it would work, Whit was on the skeptical side too, but we printed and clipped coupons, made a shopping list for both Kroger and Meijer (based on sales ads) then headed to the stores to test out the system ourselves.

Here are the results:
Kroger
Total bill= $144.80
Total coupon and sales savings= $80.14
Total money spent= $64.66
(We actually saved more than we spent)

Meijer
Total bill= $50.33
Total coupon and sales savings= $21.85
Total money spent= $28.48
(That's almost a 50% reduction in our bill)

I was so proud of myself for doing the work and saving so much money! I actually called Mary to tell her how great I did! I am looking forward to using the Coupon Mom site more extensively and saving even more money! By the end of the night it was actually feeling a bit like a game. I am calling the game "Groceries For Free" and the object is to spend as little money as possible on everything I purchase. Anyone else want to play?

Happy Training,
Love Jenn

P.S. Thanks for being my inspiration Mary! We love you!

21 day challenge... Week Two Update!

Well due to issues beyond my control, my walking has been halted nearly all week. I am going to do my best to put in a good showing for this last week of the challenge however. How are the rest of you doing?

Also, thank you all so much for the kind words. Whit's grandpa was laid to rest on Saturday afternoon and then Saturday night grandpa's only son had a son! (Well to be fair, Molly had the little wolff pup) So I guess that the most appropriate thing I can say is "Life Goes On"!

Hope you all are doing well!



Happy Training,
Love Jenn

A Little Time For Bereavement

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up. We have had a death in the family and I am going to be out of town a lot over the next week or two. I will try to check in when I can and will keep everyone posted as much as possible.

As for the 21 days habit challenge, I have not gotten in a walk everyday like I hoped to. I am still plugging away at it though and will most likely have walking as a goal for the next challenge also! I am not going to give up on this and I am not moving on to another goal until I get this one down so please bear with me. Whit and I did take Butter for a walk today. She loved it and it was a good way for us to get out of the house and to focus on something else for a little bit to relieve some stress! We definitely felt more calm afterward.

Well I am going to get off of here and continue with the other things on my To- Do List for today. I hope you all are doing well!

Happy Training,
Love Jenn

P.S. Took a pic or 3 of my man tonight as he was on his way out the door! Isn't he Sexy! I know your jealous, it's ok!





And just to add a little extra cuteness to my blog, I give you the ButterBall!


And just for fun I edited this picture of me. Keeping in mind that I weighed a lot less when this picture was taken than I do now, I think it turned out really awesome!

Clearing the Clutter in Our Lives.

Editors Note: I wrote this post for Road To Domesticity but it never got finished or published. Actually I forgot about it until today. I was reading through the posts on RTD and came across this one, then I remembered something that MizFit said in one of my comments. She said "wonder if you now wholeheartedly believe all the declutter before you can ever shed weight hypothesises?" in reference to this post. Well the answer is yes I do believe that you have to declutter your life in order to declutter your body. I wonder more and more if in fact that is part of my troubles with loosing weight. So I am going to post this one and I am going to work on following my own advice. Now that my apartment is decluttered and organized I am going to work on some of the other clutter in my life. I hope you all enjoy this post as it was a labor of love and necessity for me.



Well since this months goal is Clutter Cleanup and Fall Decorating I decided to make my Wednesday Challenge all about Clutter Cleanup. However, it's not just the clutter in my apartment that I want to discuss (although if you really want to help with that, I won't complain!), but also the physical, mental, and emotional clutter that can accumulate during the week.

Sometimes the clutter is so intense that it makes it hard to function. So lets see what we can come up with to help us relieve the clutter.



Domestic Clutter:
We all have it. Junk drawers, deadly closets, overflowing shelves. It's hard not to have some clutter here and there. The question is when does it stop being ok to have clutter? Some is fine, but too much clutter in the home can hinder progress in a lot of areas of one's life. There are a lot of study's about clutter being a problem for childrens study habits. It's hard to think with lots of stuff everywhere, isn't it? so what can we do about it? Well I did a search and came up with this great website with links to articles all about organization and clutter control! ( I know, I was excited too.) No matter what kind of clutter you are dealing with, they seem to have an answer.



Physical Clutter:
This one is all about your health. Are you taking care of yourself? Are you smoking or drinking excessively? Are you eating a balanced diet? Getting plenty of exercise?

Taking care of your body is so vital to living an over all healthy life. The steps to healthy are not easy ones to take, but they can make such a big difference in your life. I have recently decided to get healthy. Not Skinny! Healthy! I knew that the path that I was heading down would not lead me to a long and healthy life. I knew that if I didn't change I might never get to have children or be alive to see my grandchildren. In June I quite smoking! In July I started my fitness blog and started working towards a healthy body. This body is a temple and should be treated as such. I am working on changing my life one vice at a time. You can too! So go for a walk with your family, add some fresh veggies to your meals, and take control of your vices. Trust me! You will thank me.



Mental Clutter:
It can be so hard to think straight when you have millions of thoughts zooming around behind your eyeballs. Clearing out the mental clutter can really help you to focus on the task at hand. Plus it only takes a few minutes to make a big impact. No physical labor required (although it sometimes helps). Taking a few moments in your day to stop and breath and deal with the stuff in your head can make the rest of the day more productive and can also help you sleep when done right before bed. Here is an article with some tips on dealing with the mental clutter.



Emotional Clutter:
The best thing that one can do for emotional clutter is write it down! Had a bad day? Write it down. Boss driving you crazy? Write it down. Lose someone you loved? Write it down.

Writing things on paper helps you to not only get it out of your system but also to focus on a solution. Once it is out of your head and on paper you can look at it more objectively so that you can deal with it accordingly.

I would also suggest that once you have it down on paper, pray about it. Talk to God about your worries, troubles, hardships, and fears. Knowing that he is there listening to you and that he can help makes a world of difference.

So, after reading such a long post you are probably wondering what is the challenge exactly?

Clear out some clutter in your life! Not everything of course, because all of this will take time. So just choose one thing from this post and make an effort to clear that clutter.

Happy Organized, Decluttered and Stress free Life,
Love Jenn

A Thank You and A Welcome

A Road To Domesticity Post Dated September 22, 2008.

As you can see I have already accomplished a lot of these things but I really like this post and think I was pretty witty (If I do say so myself) so I wanted to keep it and publish it here. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do! LOL



I am loving all of my readers and enjoying their feed back immensely!

I specifically want to say hello to my friend Nancy from class. She is not a blogger but she is a sweetheart so we can forgive her this one flaw! I wanted to mention her because she and another classmate Tara got me a gift today. It's a little scarecrow and I absolutely love it. It is perfect timing too since I am working on decorating for fall.

So thank you so much Nancy and Tara. I really appreciate the sentiment. That little scarecrow will have a place of honor in my home for a long time to come because I am the sentimental type and love to display gifts from sweet people.

As for decluttering I have started working on that today. We are putting away a lot of "things" from around the house that are contributing to the clutter. Some of it will be saved for future use and some of it will end up in a garage sale next spring. I want to hold on to this stuff until then so that I will have a chance to relook at the things I want to sell and decide if I really want to let go of them or not. I want to declutter but I don't want to have regrets afterwards. Some things will be immediately put away for our future children, such as some of the fairies, angels and balarina's that are left over from my own childhood (I really hope we have at least one girl or we are going to have a very confused son), and some of Whit's toy cars and other random boy stuff (I don't even know what the point of some of it is).

This weekend I don't have to work so I will be really getting into my task full spead ahead and the main thing that I want to tackle is the book case.

I love books and have always had a very hard time parting with them. However, I also own a lot of books that I will probably never read again. I don't see the need to keep all of these books that I won't be reading but another part of me says "You never know, some day you might start to like poems about toenails and won't be able to read them if you toss the book!" Yeah, my thinking is really that warped!

Unfortunately that is how I think about most "things", which explains the clutter. I always think that one day I may need that tea cozy or M&M shaped cookie jar! Never mind that cookies in our house don't usually last long enough to make it into a jar (Whit eats them all pretty quickly) and the only time of year that they might is around the holidays. For them I have two (yes 2) santa shaped cookie jars for that purpose (one of which I don't use because it's hideous! but it was a gift from a friend).

Once I declutter the living room the next room I will tackle is the kitchen (I am so packing away those cookie jars! Bye Santa). Then I will decorate the bathroom and finally our bedroom. I am not going to be decorating one room in the house though. The spare room is basically Whit's room. It's where he has his computer and his guitars and his keyboard. It's where he goes when he wants to relax and get away for a while. I don't want to intrude on his space. If he wants it decorated he will have to either ask me to do it or do it himself. I know and understand that everyman needs his own room and we don't have a garage!

I don't have much for decorations so a trip to the dollar store will be justified toward the end of the month and I will also possibly take on some fall crafts to help with the lack of decor! I promise that I will get some pictures up as soon as I can.

Happy First Day Of Fall,
Love Jenn

21 Day Challenge... The First Checkin!

Well I hope everyone is doing well on their challenge. I have been checking in on you all when I can, sorry I don't have a lot of time these days to comment as much as I used to.

As for my challenge I am happy to say that I did in fact walk everyday. I am sad that due to illness I only did the bare minimum though so tomorrow I am upping the ante and changing my challenge goal to walking 3 miles every day. That is exactly one time through the Walk video and takes 45 min. to complete so I know that I can do this in the morning by just getting up an hour earlier. Should be no problem.

Now an update on my organizing and decorating. I have done some decorating but not a lot. I am happy with the simple nature of my decore for now and will work on adding more little touches until Dec. then it will be time for Christmas. Here are pictures of my little touches around the house. I am so glad to be able to finally post my own pictures!


I just added the swag above this picture. I have had this for years now and it's been up year round just because it depicts my favorite season and my favorite lifestyle so beautifully.


This was made by a friends father back in the 70's and I happened to come across it at a flea market. Again it is usually displayed all year.


This was a garage sale find my first year back in michigan. I love it!


I got these pillows at a craft sale. They used to sit on my vintage sofa but unfortunately we could not get it into our apartment so the sofa is in Mary's basement and the pillows are on the egg chair.


A friend gave me this little witch years ago and I just love her! Isn't she darling?


This little Indian Princess was given to me by my mom because she said that when I was little I was always making that face. In my own defense, that pouting face always got me goodies from grandma Sherry!


This is the scarecrow that my classmates gave me. I think he is so cute. He looks great over there with my sad little excuse for a house plant. I told you all that I do not have a green thumb and this is the proof.


That spider can play chess better than I can! However since I am only playing against Whit my lack of skillz can be overlooked and if I play anyone else I will just have to bring along my pet chess spider!


These two are one of my favorite Halloween decorations! I love that you can put red candles in their heads and when the candles drip it looks like they are dripping blood!


Here's a rather blurry close up. See what I mean about the red wax?


This little piece of cheap artwork cost me about 6 dollars to make! I got all of the pieces at the dollar store and just threw it together in about ten minutes! I think it looks great with my plaid placemats.


My best friend Missi gave me these canisters several years ago! She said they matched my color scheme better than hers anyway! I think they are great. ( I am working on removing the annoying reminders of diets past from my kitchen but I have to finish going through them and getting the recipes out of them first.)


Finally I leave you with my guardian. This guy is in the hall by the stairs. Everyone who enters must pass him. The best part is that the sword in the dragons hand is actually a letter opener!

Well I think that is quite enough for me today. For those of you who have entered the 21 day contest, don't forget to leave a comment and update us on your progress. Have a great day everyone.

Happy Training,
Love Jenn

A quick note, then it's off to work I go.

1. I have been doing a little walking every day. It's not much and I am not going fast but I am walking and for that I am proud.



2. I am finally starting to feel better! Good thing too because I am volunteering at a girl scout thing tomorrow morning. Sickness was not an option.




3. I got to talk to my good friend Missi the other day. I don't get to talk to her much anymore because we are both busy as heck these days. Her first wedding anniversary was last month.



4. My externship is over next tuesday! I am sad to be leaving because I have really enjoyed it but I am looking forward to the future.

Nuff said!

Happy Training,
Love Jenn