January Update!

I'd like to review my previous month's resolutions at the beginning of each month to kind of recap, see how I did and see if potentially helps me keep up with these resolutions that I don't ever remember once keeping for a whole year. That would be today - seemed like January was a very LO-O-O-O-NG month. Don't know why, it just did.

Okay - on to checkmarking:

R#1 - Wear make-up everyday. Check! The only days I didn't put myself together this month were Saturdays. We didn't ever do anything on Saturdays this month, but if we were going to - I would have! Yay - gold star for makeup.

R#2 - Contacts/Eyeglasses and an appointment with my allergist. Now - I have till the end of February to accomplish the contacts/eyeglasses. But I do get half my checkmark, as I went to see the asthma/allergist, got some VERY nice and extremely needed drugs (thanks, Mom!) and also got scheduled for allergy testing at the end of February. It's been about 20 years -'bout time for an update and as we're not getting rid of the d.dog anytime soon - I may have to look into allergy shots to see if they help keep things rolling along.

R#3 - 200-250$ grocery budget - including formula and diapers. Half a check. Diapers - easy peasy - the FORMULA is killing me - I'm so looking forward to March 25 - I'm now dubbing it Whole Milk Transfer Day (not really). Anyway, I went over budget on my groceries this month by about 100 bucks. Keeping in mind, though that there was 3 pay periods in January and some REALLY good sales that would have been stupid to pass up. Almost every shopping trip I took this month, I doubled my money - and received at least 500$ worth of groceries for half price. (I'll put in specifics when I get home.)

So, I've decided to revamp this resolution a bit, to inlude the two months of 3 paychecks. My new resolution is to budget 100-125$ per paycheck for groceries. I'm hoping with the great sales in January that there will be some light weeks in February to kind of average the two to actually make goal --of course, there's always saying "no" and only looking for FREEBIES or penny items...Will look for gold star at the end of February!

R#4 - Half a check mark. Making all my meals at home and having a date night for the dinner out. Hooray for me - I've done the best I ever have this month at this. Didn't quite make it perfectly, but here's what happened. Clint loves him some Whopper - twice he wanted a BK run on both the paydays. One I should've said "no" to, flat-out -but yay for me, I didn't order anything myself. The other was after Homecoming and all the poor man had to eat was popcorn and a pop... Side note: he said it tasted like crap - so that's a plus! Gotta get it out of our system! And for the dinner date night for Clint and I - we sort of mixed and matched - we took Grace to Chuck E. Cheese on MLK day and called that our date. But, we did get a baby-sitter so we could go to Homecoming by ourselves, although it wasn't exactly romantic for the two of us, as I yapped my freaking face off- it was pretty cheap and a night without kiddos. So - I'm giving us a half gold star on this one and resolving to do better in February.

R#5 - The No S plan. Stinkin' darn, poopy-headed time of the month - not that I really blame it all on that, but it was HARD. I really do feel like I crave chocolate and Diet Coke during this PMS week. Good grief. One day I had a whopper of a headache at work - had a Diet Coke and some chocolate Zingers from the vending machines (Soooo bad) and within a half hour was happy as a lark and totally energized. It was really weird. (BtW - didn't work a second time) So - I get no check mark as I did a little bit of sweets and soda and some mild snacking after 7. But - not a total loss, I'm still down 12 pounds from Christmas. Woohoo.

February Additions and Subtractions:

R5 Overhaul - Restart No S and stick to it FIRMLY. While adding 3 of my water bottles a day.

I'm also adding in parking in the far parking lot at work and using the stair cases, rather than the elevator at work. I've been so-o-o-o lazy for a while now! No more elevators for me, except the one I need to get up to my office. But, I do resolve to do THOSE staircases at least 2x this month. (They are killer! - everyone says so)

I'm also foregoing dinner plates - we are only going to be eating off of salad plates for our meals this month. Idea here is portion size - duh. I was finding out that even though we weren't taking seconds in January - we were taking some very nicely sized firsts.

And I'm also adding in some light weights for my arms after the girls go to bed at night. Just 5-10 minutes at least 4 times a week.

Hmmm...I really like revamping and starting new this month. Makes me feel like not such a total loser for abandoning all self-discipline and letting a couple of Zingers get the best of me!

YIKES! -Just double checked the grocery budget for January - 417.00 - saved 291.00! oy vey! Hmmm...no gold star for me...averages out to be 139.00 per pay check - so not terribly bad, as that does include diapers and wipes. February ought to be better!