Weigh In Day

Yesterday I weighed in as is my Friday routine, and was down another two pounds! I feel much better about this weigh-in because I did all of the sweating and starving that I typically have to do to lose any weight. It feels good to slowly be marching away from 220 and approaching 210!

Bonus!!!

On Tuesday DH received a nice little bonus of $1,412.92! With any luck this will mean the return of the buffer and hopefully, provide a buffer through the end of this year!

Weigh In Day Worries

I weighed in today and I'm down another pound...net, I guess you could call it. Last week when I weighed in I was up two pounds (and no, I didn't rush to the blog to report :) ). So this week I had lost those two pounds plus an additional pound bringing my total lost to 42.

It's got me a little worried. I had a horrible, HORRIBLE week diet and exercise-wise. I was fully prepared to have gained over and above the two that I gained the previous week. I was reconciled and ready to move on...but I lost instead. It makes me worry that I have diabetes. I know from having a diabetic dog that unexplained weight loss is one of the symptoms and this would certainly qualify as unexplained weight loss. There have been weeks in the past where I have had the same concerns. As soon as the kids are back in school next month I'm going to make myself a couple of doctor's appointments and find out what is really going on. Until then I'll probably have some low-level worry.

August Budget

August's budget is up on the sidebar. If you take a close look you might notice that at the top of it, the amount that is budgeted has changed. Instead of showing our "magic number" for the year ($6,975.03), we have a slightly smaller number ($6,706.21). Our buffer is all used up and we are now living month to month.

How this works is that at the beginning of the year I take the totally of DH's take home for the previous year, plus or minus the amount of taxes that we got back or had to pay. Divide that total by twelve and I get our magic number, that is, the average monthly income that we had the previous year. Then if some months DH brings in more than the magic number, the extra goes into the buffer. If he brings in less, then we take from the buffer. Get it? It is the best way that I've come up with to deal with his income that is mostly commissions and bonuses and so fluctuates by quite an amount.

Well this year, other than in March when we got a $6,653 tax return, our income has been less than the magic number so we've been taking from the buffer all along, and it's been shrinking and now it is gone...

So, until we have a monthly income greater than $6,975.03 and can replenish the buffer, we'll be living on just what we get.

The good news is that this month, we were able to pay all of our bills and also to fund all of our savings accounts, including putting an extra $504.62 into the vacation fund to cover our trip to Chelan this month!

Weigh In Day and a Smaller Size

I weighed myself on Friday and I had lost another pound. I'm down to 219. Nice to be in the two-teens. I'm anxious to get down under 210 and then 200. I feel better but my body still feels so big and heavy to me. I'm hoping once I'm under 200 that I'll feel lighter.

On Thursday I went shopping. My sister-in-law's 40th birthday celebration was Saturday night plus we have a night in August where we are going out in Seattle with friends. I needed a "going out" summer outfit. I really like the outfit that I got...white capris, a floral, floaty tank and a turquoise cardigan. Very pretty if I do say so myself. While the tops were the same size that I have been (2X) the pants were size 16, two sizes smaller than the white carpris that I already owned. The old ones are now in the giveaway bag! I love the pants and I do feel like they make me look thinner. All of my pants are so baggy that I got used to it. I can finally see a difference in pants that actually fit.

Weigh In Day - Mini Goal Achieved!

So I weighed myself today and I am down to 220!!! That's 40 pounds gone! It is really hard for me to believe.

The feelings are mixed. First, elation that I have lost so much. Secondly, a bit of a let down as I realize that I have 80 pounds to go. I am still one large lady. It's really hard for me to see where I have lost anything at all. Still, onward and upward (or downward). I'm doing great!

Weigh In Day

I weighed in today and by some miracle, I lost another pound, plus the one I gained on vacation. I'm not sure how it happened. This week was VBS. The kids were there and I spent the week working in the kitchen making snacks and in the nursery. It was exhausting and 3 of the 5 days we ended up getting fast food for lunch. Plus we went out for dinner one night and there was a Ben and Jerry's incident.

I'm surprised but very grateful!

Savings Balances

So after our vacation spending here are the balances of our different spending accounts:

Car Insurance $246.00
Christmas $1,400.00
Vacation $801.78
Disneyland $667.32
House Project $300.00
Dealer Meetings $600.00
Big Boy Visits $300.00
Glasses/Contacts $134.87
Million Dollar Jobs $150.00
Fair $120.00
EF $239.63
Buffer $1,911.76

As I mentioned previously, we didn't have any extra money to put into the EF this month. The buffer is getting very thin. If a big commission month doesn't come soon then we are going to have to live month-to-month. Not a good thing. Next month any extra money I'm hoping to put into the vacation fund to cover our trip to Chelan. Things are feeling very tight right now but the good news is that we are on track for all of our savings goals...for now.

Weigh-in Day

I weighed myself today and I'm thrilled to report that after a week of no-excercise and eating out every meal, that I gained exactly one pound! I feel great!

Typically, during our trip to Montana I gain 5 to 7 pounds and it usually throws me off for the rest of the summer. Not so this year. Yesterday I treated as another day of vacation eating and exercise-wise. Today I'm going to take my three mile walk and I'm back on track eating wise. Hopefully, next weigh in I'll have lost the extra pound and can resume working towards my goal.

Some things that I did right are...I just never really went crazy. I didn't see vacation as a "chance" to abuse my body with over-eating and really bad food. Our hotel in Butte didn't have a free continental breakfast this year. Both DH and I decided that we prefer it that way. There was no pressure to be awake and downstairs at a certain time and we bought food at Safeway that we kept in the room and ate. I chose some Luna bars and ate one every morning. I only had one pork chop sandwich, despite those being the official food of Butte, MT and DH getting some almost every day. When we went out for pizza, I filled up at the salad bar and had one slice. When we went to Gamer's for lunch I skipped the milkshake and had half of a turkey sandwich and a salad.

The reward for all of this wonderful behavior is first, that I didn't feel overly full and sick to my stomach the whole trip. And, of course, having just one easily lost pound to regret instead of the usual number.

Home from Vacay

We made it home from another 4th of July trip to Montana. I always have mixed feelings about this trip. It's my step-dad's family and he's never been too fond of me. It seems like two camps form each year. One includes me, my two girl cousins and my aunt. My step-dad doesn't seem to like any of us and since he is the undisputed king-of-the-family, we are on the outs. My boy cousins and my grandma all worship step-daddy, and so they hang out with him the whole time and listen to his stories and roll their eyes whenever one of us "others" dare to speak.

To add to the general angst, my sister and her boyfriend came this year also. She is, of course, a step-daddy worshiper and her boyfriend is a giant butt-kisser. It gets pretty annoying. She tried to hang out with me and my girl cousins, but then when we said less-than-wonderful things about SD, she got very defensive.

Also, in the middle of the trip I found out that my mom gave my sister her wedding photos. That is, the pictures from my mom's first wedding with our biological father. This made me insane for a number of reasons. Mostly because my sister doesn't like our real dad at all. Why would she even want those pictures? She spends hardly any time with him when he comes out, meanwhile he spends about two weeks a year at my house, where I cater to him and spend 24 hours a day with him which isn't easy. Also, she has no children of her own and doesn't want any. They just seems like something that should be there for the grandkids to enjoy, rather to just sit in her apartment.

Once I got over being furious, I did have a pretty productive talk with my mom. I told her that I was pretty upset. She apologized and said that my sister had come over one day and was going through pictures and had asked if she could take them home and that my mom had said yes without really thinking about it. She said that she didn't really feel like they belong to my sister or anything and that she feels that they would really mean more to me than to my sister. I asked her to please talk to me first if my sister asked to take anything else from the house that really belongs to both of us and she said that she certainly would.

I know that I should talk to my sister too but frankly, I'm all sister-ed out after the trip. When I spend too much time with her, I see how nuts she is and I need a definite break.

OK, enough! On the positive side, DH decided that he would keep track of the money during this trip! I was feeling pretty discouraged after July's budget was so tight and also after we had to pay for a night at Flathead Lake even though we didn't stay there, because they have a seven day cancellation policy. I was so greatful to him for taking the burden on. He did a great job! Here is how he broke it down:

$2,400.00 This is the amount that we have saved for this trip and Chelan next month.
-151.30 Flathead Lake, the room we cancelled too late. Blech!
-603.75 Cash, this covered all our food and beverages, plus boarding the dog.
-668.66 Hotel rooms
-174.51 Gas
________
801.78 This is what we have left to spend at Chelan. It's not enough. Our hotel alone with be just under $1,000. We'll have to find the remaining in next month's budget. Discouraged all over again.

Tight Budget for July

So the July budget is tight with no extra money to put in the EF or to put into our accounts that are in the red. We couldn't even fully replenish some of our variable spending accounts. Some reasons for this are:

• We blew the budget on entertainment in June. Went over $289.20 and it had to made up in this budget.



• We spent $1,126.85 on groceries. I'm sure that most of this is because of the two birthdays and the graduation that we celebrated.



• July is our most expensive month as far as annual expenses go with a grand total of $586.00

On the bright side, we did fund all of our savings accounts with the regular amounts. Here's hoping that next month we've got a little more to play with.

Messed Up Vacation

We were supposed to leave this morning for our annual trek to Montana. The plan was to leave early this morning and drive straight through to Big Fork, Montana. It's a resort town near Flathead Lake. I guess it has kind of a western theme and the hotel that we were going to stay at (The Timbers) seemed nice and family friendly. We were looking forward to some down time before we then continued on to our usual destination which can be, frankly, exhausting.

A couple of days ago, I made an offhand comment to DH that he should look online at the weather. When he did...it was not good. 54 and raining was the forecast for the three days that we were going to spend there. We weren't sure what to do. The weather here has been so terrible for so long and we just didn't feel that we could drive all that way and spend all that money for more of the same, or worse.

It really got us down initially but after some tears, tantrums and discussion, we came up with a new plan. We are leaving on Friday, stopping a night in Spokane and then arriving in Butte on Saturday the 2nd. We'll do our usual 4th of July celebrating and then depart the 5th, spend another night in Spokane and then get home the 6th. Then....in August we are going to spend a few days at a really beautiful resort at Lake Chelan. Chelan has beautiful weather (knock on wood) and we haven't stayed in a nice resort for so long. I'm so excited! And relieved that I'm not sitting in the rain at Flathead Lake!

Happy Birthday Little Buddy!

Today is my youngest's 6th birthday! It's hard to believe that he is such a big boy already. He had a wonderful birthday. Swimming lessons in the morning, lunch at Mickey-D's, a Funfetti cake that he helped bake and best of all, dinner at Chuck E. Cheese!

Typically, we do birthday parties at our house and have all of the family over. Since we were supposed to leave on vacation tomorrow (more on that later) and the weather was really iffy, we decided on Chuck E. Cheese. About a month ago Baby Girl was invited to a birthday party there. While she partied with her friends, DH and I hung out with DS and he had such a ball that we thought of it immediately for his birthday.

I'm glad we did because he had such a great time. My mom, step-dad and sister were there as well as MIL and her husband. He got gifts that he really loves and he had a great time running around and playing with his sister. I had a good time too, playing some video games with DS #2. Very fun and so nice to come home to no clean-up!

Property Value Falls

I received the little green postcard from the county that I get every year, telling me what the value of our property currently is. Last year our land was worth $104,100, this year it is worth $86,800. Last year the building was worth $150,500, this year it is worth $146,000. The net loss in value is $21,800.

There is only a slight chance that we are going to want to sell our house in the next few years (if DH gets a position that we need to move to Pittsburgh for) but I don't like to see this. It's not like they are ever going to lower our taxes. (hahahahahaha!) Our net worth takes a hit at the same time and it's just no fun to go backwards.

The good news is that that the house is still worth more than we paid for it ($190,000) in 2000. Unfortunately, we have refied and what not and so we owe more that $244,000. I know that if we actually sold that we would get more than the appraised value. But in my head and my net worth calulations, I only like to include the appraised value since it's pretty much a sure thing.

Weigh In Day

Weighed in today. I'm down 2 pounds from last week. Hurrah! I was hoping to be down to 220 when we leave for vacay. I'm not sure that is going to happen, but I will be awfully close. :)

I spoke with friend Barb yesterday. She is also trying to lose weight. We have hatched a scheme to reward ourselves with a trip to Vegas when we hit our goal weights. I'm liking this idea.