the relationship between food and money

why is it that being hungry and wanting to spend go hand in hand? When i was hungry earlier i made a sandwich but it was all i could do not to rush to the store to buy some stuff. I haven't done the monthly grocery shopping for february yet and january's stock is getting low, there's not a whole lot to throw together besides what is already scheduled as dinners and lunches for the next few days. I calendar out our meals for the month but this month we had more trouble sticking to the calendar than usual, i'll try a new method for february and we'll see how it works. I'm hungry right now, it's not quite dinner time, it's the time of the day the kids start asking for a snack, and i have a few snacks that satiate them just fine, but somehow fruit snacks or a cheese stick just don't cut that afternoon hunger for me...i looked at some recipes in a few cookbooks but didn't feel like any of them sounded good, the ones that did sound good of course i was short some ingedients for so hence the wanting to go to the store for just one or two ingredients would inevitably turn into a lot more. Maybe i'll just make another sandwich.

mastering myself

The day started out with a bang. Two large amounts of money deposited last night in our account. Adam's monthly paycheck, and our federal return. It's depressing to look at $10,000 and know you can't spend it :( This is one of those times when i normally would have looked at that and went shopping like a mad woman. However we already talked about what the money was going toward. The refund was to pay off credit card debt and the regular paycheck was to of course pay regular bills and then with any left over to pay off the last of the credit cards. We are not officially debt free (besides the car and house of course) but it feels great to know how close we are. But today was a day when i would normally have loved to do a little shopping therapy. I don't know why but i was having a tough day, partly because much to my dismay i realized i was already becoming addicted to my daily caffeinated soda, i said i wouldn't, but i was, so it makes getting up in the morning very hard when I was up late the night before because i was so caffeinated. I gave it up when i was nursing Katie, I always said i needed to give it up anyway, and i thought i was giving it up for the right reasons, but now i realize when it's only been a week and a half since i stopped nursing, that i really only gave it up for Katie, not for me. Because almost every day i've had one if not two caffeinated sodas. This is a problem for me. Caffeine seriously effects me, it gives me a charge and i must say i like it. But it also has a bit of control over me, making me think about it and think about wanting it, it gets in the way of other things. I thought i was just having one once in a while since i wasn't nursing anymore, but it's become more than that already. So i find myself trying to stop that right now, as well as trying to stop my spending habit, it's hard to stop more than one at once, but if i stop the caffeinated soda thing it will help me spend less anyway, soda costs mulah! Well to be honest i'll probably still drink soda, just caffeine-free, but i'll buy it for home instead of buying expensive fountain drinks when i want a soda. So that made today a little difficult, realizing that about myself. I had a short temper today for no reason really, it's hard to be moody and upset when there are little kids around, they don't understand my mood swings, and neither do i sometimes. So I was trying to gain some composure and failing miserably. It didn't help that i was going to have to take all the kids to Lainey's ballet class today, normally my mom helps out by watching Maggie and Kate, but she is sick today and couldn't, it stresses me out to think of the other two running around in the waiting area while i'm trying to watch Lainey dance. I have to say though that somehow ballet class turned around my whole day. Lainey was wonderful in class, and surprisingly both the other two were just fine, not getting into much of any trouble at all. And i was able to arrange with the dance studio to have a professional ballerina come and perform a short show and Lainey and Katie's birthday party, it's a surprise so don't tell! But she is going to love it!! After getting that worked out it seemed to brighten the rest of the day. On top of it all today i'm trying to let Katie learn to cry to sleep on her own instead of cuddling her and fighting her for half an hour or more sometimes just to get her to sleep. Nursing was always the best and practically only way to get her to sleep but i've discovered that while she enjoys regular milk just fine, a bottle of it just isn't the same comfort that nursing was. She still fights me after a bottle about going to sleep. She's a year old, or will be in a matter of days, i decided to give up the bottle (she's only had it for a week and a half anyway) and just let her cry to sleep, she can have a cup of milk after a nap. She drinks out of a cup like a pro already so i figured it won't be a problem. Surprisingly both naps today went wonderfully, cried for about five minutes then fast asleep, we'll see how bedtime goes, but naps went great. Life is a constant battle to improve on myself and my abilities day to day. Today we've mastered naps, tomorrow...well we'll wait and see how tomorrow goes :)

emailing in a blog

i am testing out whether i can email in a blog, if this is posted to my blog than it worked!

A new day

This is my first post here on our blog, i could say something like, wow i've never done something like this before, but i'd rather just move on with the blogging. So here is a picture of my adorable baby Katie in the stroller on a walk with me, taken with my new wonderful camera.

Today has been a relatively easy day so far, Katie only took one nap and is now pushing around chairs by the table. Maggie didn't throw any tantrums so that alone makes it a better day than most. And Elaine was helpful and inquisitive as usual.

Katie is sick, has a cold i think, i'm trying not to get too worried over it as we often do with her. She may appear big and healthy but we still can't help but remember not so long ago when a simple cold turned out to be so much more.

I suppose i'll just be posting day to day goings on of our family on here, but if there is a day when i haven't much to say, or maybe if i have a few minutes to spare i'll share some back story on us. Considering Adam and I have been married for nearly 8 years now, there certainly is no absence of interesting things to say.

Next month (February) marks a new way of money management i'll be trying. I know that the first step in fixing a problem is admitting there's a problem, and to be honest i have a spending problem. I often make excuses that most of the things i buy are for other people, which for the most part is a true statement, but that does not excuse my actions when i spend money i know that i shouldn't. Now i don't want to concern people and make them think i've dug us into some kind of a pit because that is not the case at all. But i fear if i don't learn to reign in my spending, it may come to that. As yet our bills still all get paid and on time to boot. And with our tax refund we'll be mostly debt free (aside from the house and minivan payment) so now is a great time to be better about spending so that our excess money may be put toward better use than my shopping enjoyment. I debated whether to talk about this on the blog, but i'll be honest, i dont' think many people will be reading this, and if they are they know be and probably already know i have this problem :) So on to the solution. I do all the grocery shopping for the family, because i love to shop, for anything, including groceries. I am actually pretty good about really planning out what i buy and only spending what needs to be spent on groceries, for our family of 5 i spend on average $300 a month (that is a whole month of food!) So Adam and i decided on an amount of $500 a month that is for grocery and spending needs. This is a tight budget compared to my normal spending. However the main difference will be that i will only be spending cash. Cards have only added to my spending problem. It is so easy to swipe the card and not be concerned with the total amount spent and how that adds to what is already on that card. So my wallet will no longer contain cards for spending, driver's license, library card and the like will still be there, but not even my debit card will be there. The only exception to the $500 is gas money for the van, because that is not a personal expense, it is a family expense, i don't know if any of this makes sense to anyone else but this is something i told Adam i wanted. I want to be clear, this was not his idea, it was mine, in fact he gave a much higher budget than i was willing to give myself so please don't think this is my husband trying to tell me to do this because it is quite the opposite. He so rarely spends money that he doesn't usually mind if i spend extra, but i feel that if i don't fix this problem now, it could get out of control. The other reason i'm telling all of this is because one of the ways i plan to help myself curb spending urges is to write about it. When i feel like i want to spend it is often such a spur of the moment desire, where as if i sit down and write about what i want to spend on and try to analyze why, i'm hoping to get to the root of this addiction. I think that will probably mean i'll be writing a lot :) But if i can make it through the month of Febraury with money left over than i will feel so good! If not, i'll be able to look back and see what my downfall was, by reading my own blogs. February is the best month of the year to be setting a monthly goal, as it's the shortest month, i'm setting myself up for success! Wish me luck....it's not February yet so i got in a few shopping things today so i won't have to spend out of my budget on them next month....it's like binging before a diet (i wouldn't call $30 at wal mart a binge, but close enough)