I haven’t been posting much on here lately. Part of that is due to the fact that in most of my spare time I have been trying to write my 50,000 word novel for NaNoWriMo, part of it is because we don’t have internet at home, and the rest is because I am ultimately lazy. However, I have chosen to take a break from working, writing and being lazy to make a post on my blog.
Lately I have been making strides to better myself in many ways. Some of these include starting a workout to help lose weight and get in shape, getting serious about budgeting and getting out of debt, and trying to save as much money as possible on everything we buy. I want to spend a little time talking (or writing) about each of these three things now.
First of all there is the workout. It has been tough so far, very tough. I’m supposed to be going twice a week, but so far because of certain things that seem to come up, I’ve only done it once a week. So, I have not yet begun to see the results that I would like, but that also probably has a lot to do with my diet. This week will be the first one where I actually get to go twice, and today is my second time, so I’ll get to see how bad it feels to work out when I’m already completely sore. Once I really get the hang of this though, maybe I should look into getting a nutritionist.
Second is budgeting and getting out of debt. I’ve had days when I feel that there is no hope, and other days when I’m ready to put on my armor, pick up my sword and fight this monster to the death… it’s death of course. Even though my workout has been very tough, I think this debt thing has been even tougher for me. I actually enjoy making out a budget, but I don’t enjoy what it tells me every single time. I thought last night if I was really serious about getting out of debt and the first thing that popped into my head was beans and rice. I hate beans and rice. The real question, however, is do I hate debt more?
Lastly, there is saving. I am totally sold out on saving money, not only because it will help us have more moeny to pay off debts and such, but also because it’s actually fun! I’ve been following http://www.southernsavers.com for some time now, and just recently got turned on to http://www.groceryfreak.com and http://www.savingfreak.com. These are all extremely great websites, and I even got to attend a workshop done by SavingFreak this week with my lovely wife. Some of the things he talked about I had already been trying to put into practice, but other things I had not even thought of. Of course we know that many times you can find things cheaper on Amazon.com than you can even at Walmart, but did you know that you can also save 50% – 60% (or more) on your groceries by taking advantage of coupons and sales, and you could also be staying in 4 or 5 star hotels for well under $100 a night? It’s crazy I know, but it’s true, and I think it’s fun to try and be one of the many guys who can do that. Maybe I’ll even start posting some of the money saving tips I’ve learned on here, who knows!
I will say this one last thing though. I was looking at a receipt from kroger that I had lying on my desk yesterday, and at the bottom it says how much I saved using my Kroger card. I thought it wasn’t too bad. I had saved $11.11 after all. I got to looking though, and there was a little box above there that included not just what I saved with my card, but also what I saved with coupons. That brought the total savings up to $20.81. That means I got $59.12 worth of groceries for $38.31. That’s a little over 38% savings, which isn’t bad, but isn’t near where I want to be.
I know that these things can be done. There is a fire deep within me that makes me want to keep pushing forward. I want to keep feeding that fire, and hopefully, with time and help, it will get me to where I need to be.