I Love Thriftiness

Look at my lovely thrifting finds:

A beautiful 3 piece tiered glass set

My new winter cookie plate

A special plate for special little ones

tea cup #1

tea cup #2

tea cup #3

And I have to say, the tea cups were the best deal! Bone china with no nicks for .80 per cup & saucer set!!

Now, if I were to be interested in lowering my carbon footprint, thrifting is an excellent choice! :)

Exercise Update

I am officially in phase 2 of my "lose the jello" exercise regimen. For all of February I will be doing strength training along with my yoga stretching. I have really enjoyed this so far. It has not been hard core crazy workouts that burn millions of calories, but I have been able to be consistent and not give up. That is important, making something work well enough to stick with it. I've learned this the hard way with so many failed crazy plans under my belt. An interesting side not is I have found my mental attitude is better since I have been exercising. Now if I can just get my snarkiness under control I will be much pleased with myself.

I am also working diligently at making healthier food choices. This is probably the most frustrating part for me. I used to be great at eating healthy and I never, ever had to watch calories. That's what I get for bragging about my metabolism. So now I am addicted to cupcakes and cookies and pie and I really don't want to give them up. I am trying to eat healthy during the week, and then reward myself with the good stuff on the weekend. Friday night dinner should always include carbs and sugar! Now since it is still the weekend, I am off to make a double batch of: 

           Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

2/3 cup butter

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups oats

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup craisins

2/3 cup white chocolate chips
2/3 cup Macadamia nuts

bake @ 375* for 10-12 minutes

FPU

I am excited once again about some new directions my life is taking this year. Because a nice friend (thank you very much Carrie) sent an email coupon for Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, I decided to give it a go. It was on my to-do list, but I really wasn't going to tackle it until the Fall. But, after I bought it online, it showed I had only 16 weeks to finish the course. Crap! So now I'm in whether I like it or not. It will end up being a good thing since I always work better under stress though! Don't we all?  I've already done lesson #1. I'm suppose to be journaling so I am starting a special category for my thoughts on money. I am also suppose to find a "buddy" or "buddies" for accountability and encouragement so if there is anyone who wants to be my buddy, let me know!

Right off the bat, in lesson 1, I got depressed. I had heard most of it before, years ago from Larry Burkett, and it seemed sad that I had to be relearning this information. What really got me was the compound interest segment. That is amazing! One person saving 2,000 per year between age 19-26 (a total of 8 years @ 12%)equals 2,288,996 at age 65. Second person saves 2,000 per year between the age 27-65 (a total of 38 years @ 12%) equals 1,532,166 at age 65. What a difference!  When I was younger, it seemed so hard to save a little and I thought for sure that there would be years to save etc... Now, years later, I'm not that much better off. Frustrating! Dave is right when he says things WILL happen and they can be devestating when you're not prepared. He also said it's never too late so I'm going to go with that. I know I will regret it 10 years from now if I don't work on it now and I'm trying really hard to stay away from pity parties. They get so boring after awhile!

So here I go on yet another adventure towards my future. I have decided to quit waiting for my ship to come in and start canoeing my way out to the sea of financial peace. If anyone cares to join me, it would be a good, good thing. Remember, a small bit out of a tax refund invested in this course would pay for itself with the moneywiseness (my own imaginative word) you would come away with!