To Find A Silver Lining

I have finally read Melissa's post  100 Days Until 2015 , and it pretty much sums up my entire mediocre life at the moment (except maybe the chocolate and wine - I am doing okay on the eating front) !  I have also been the Accountability Partner for a friend of mine, and she has blown my socks off! Just checked up on her again tonight, and she is seriously following through on the stuff we talked about - I am so proud of her (you know who you are) , so between her and Melissa, I have decided I just need to get off my butt and DO SOMETHING! I have no idea what yet - hahaha, I just know that mediocre is no longer acceptable; and something has to change! I read this quote tonight as well: The Three essential steps to success are 1) Do Something, 2) Do Something TODAY, and 3) Do Something EVERY DAY! If you want to know your future, look to your daily routine. You don't determine your future, you determine your habits and your habits determine your future. The secre

My pantry looks like a mini-supermarket... and that can only mean one thing: I have over-spent the budget... W.A.Y. overspent the budget. See I mentioned last week that I wanted to try bulk-buying once a month from the supermarket, and then minimise the following weeks budget in order to try saving more money. But I didn't take into account that this would mean buying double the expensive items like soy milk, dairy products, meat etc. So by the time I got to the counter; well lets just say it wasn't pretty ! Hubby has decided to take over the money - this is a good thing, as I am just not a saver... I have been trying really hard, and am doing better than in the past; but it's just not in my DNA (or so it seems). As this is more his strength than mine, it makes sense that he looks after it - we have had this 'discussion' over and over again for the past few years; but it always ends up falling back on my shoulders. I do okay for a while, but then I

I have decided to try something a little bit different this week! It is grocery shopping week here, and as we only go fortnightly; I have decided this week that I am going to seriously stock up (hopefully still within our budget though), and buy enough for the month... I will be trying to menu plan for the whole month also, and thus the next pay we can save some of the grocery budget instead.  I am NOT expecting to save the entire grocery budget next time, BUT I figure if I can save half the budget - this will go a long way towards our goal of moving, and buying our own place (as long as I can keep it up)! It is also the way I am thinking we can shop once we move - big shop once a month out of town, then smaller shops each week/fortnight for fresh produce etc locally. I have not written a menu up for this week, but I will come back and share once I have had the chance to put together at least a few days; if not the whole month. However, I have been a lot better at

Ultimate Bundles ? Probably not if you live in New Zealand, it is an American thing (of course) , however it is well worth a look if you're into healthy living and green cleaning! AND, you could have a chance to win a Vitamix and a $500 Amazon Card - simply go and visit Crystal Paine at Money Saving Mom  here , help spread the word about this amazing deal, and you're in the draw to WIN! Basically what these guys do is a few times a year they put a 'Bundle of Books' out on a specific topic, for a VERY low price! The current one, of which I have purchased, is called  'The Ultimate Healthy Living Bundle' , and for US$29.95 you get over 70 e-books on healthy living - from Essential Oils, to Whole Food Cooking, from Yoga to Green Cleaning , from Gardening to Keeping Chooks and everything in between! You also get heaps of e-courses for free or very minimally priced, as well as actual products that are offered free (but you would need to pay postage, so I prob

So much has been happening here, but there seems to be very little available time to update this space; it is already getting late, so not even sure if I will get this written up tonight! Yet another gorgeous sunset... So I thought I would give you a few updates on all our current situations! The first, of course, is the upcoming move and job vacancy... So, while there is still no job, the big news is that I have switched focus, and have decided to go back to my teaching roots! R oots being the operative word - you have to dig down really hard to find the last time I worked with children who are not mine! But there is a Bachelor Degree sitting on the wall in the hallway that says I have completed it with honours, and thus am (supposedly) a good teacher (at least in theory) ! Early morning picnic lunch at our house...  so early 'lil M still has his PJ's on! I have made all the queries, and have found out that I don't have to do any retraining (despite

It has been a bit rough and tumble here recently -  you know, the whole 'flying by the seat of your pants' when it comes to eating! I was sick for two weeks with a throat infection, and on one of those weeks we did a 'eat what is in the pantry / fridge / freezer' week, meaning we slashed our food budget big time! Needs to be done now and then... Healthy food choices - carrots for afternoon tea Unfortunately I am not organised enough (story of my life) to have written down what we ate over that time - I know we ate a lot of 'quick and easy' meals, and hubby helped out. But that is about as far as my memory allows me! Anyway - I set up a kind of menu plan for this past week, and the week to come; my parents have been here, and I had to send hubby out to do the shopping due to time restraints... yep, that was a bit scary; but he did well! Chocolate Chip 'Surprise' Cookies The 'surprise' being chickpeas! So - this time, ins