Budgeting for the Future

It's Monday which means back to work for me. I love that my university offers us to take Fridays off in the summer, but I did miss working my normal work hours. I know normally I have a weekend recap for you, but the truth is that I didn't taken many pictures this weekend, so I don't have much to tell you about. Here is the short of it-

• Friday- Caught up on True Blood (I love that show). When to Bloomington IN to bring my friend Alison some furniture.
• Saturday- Came home from Bloomington. When to a graduate party. Hung out with friends.

• Sunday- Went to church- twice.

Those are the highlights.

Over the weekend, I kept coming back to this idea that Sam and I really need to sit down and work on a family budget. Between talking with my friends about home improvement projects we want to do, to going to church and hearing a whole sermon on budgeting; I think it's time to do this.

I have always prided myself on being good with money, but since graduating from college I feel like I've lost control of my money sense. My living expenses have been all over the place since graduating. First was living at home, working only part-time, but saving for a wedding. Then getting a full time job, but saving for a house. Then it was buying a house, and paying for home "stuff". Now that we have been living at the house for almost a year, I really want to start to budget better. We aren't going into debt, but I feel like I want to have a better understanding of where our money is going .

So tonight we'll sit down and really start taking a hard look at our finances. My goal is to know-

•  What we could be doing better with 
•  What we can cut out
• What projects/ vacations/ events/ big ticket items do we want to save for

Wish us luck!

MyFitnessPal Check III

Happy August Everyone! Being that it's been 6 weeks since my last "MyFitnessPal" check in so I thought it was time to update you on my progress. At my last check-in here is where my weight was at...

Since then, here is what the scale has been reading...

(A random low weight in "fluke"- low for that week at least)

 

Again I'm excited to report things have been going pretty well on the weight lose front. I have to say the camping trip two weeks ago didn't help my weight lost goals. That week were no weight was lost (but there wasn't gain either- so that's good).

Here is a look at MyFitnessPal weight lose chart...

Again like last time, I still haven't logged in the lower weight because I don't trust that the scale won't be higher the next time I go to the gym. So far this week I haven't made it to the gym expect for Monday (under no fault of my own- by that is a whole long story), so I feel like it's smart to "save" a few pounds off my documented progress just in case I have a bad week.

If anyone else is using the MyFitnessPal app, feel free to "friend" me (username- ssdarke). It is nice to a support unit to encourage you along the way especial on a weight lose journey that can easily get derailed for many different reasons- good times, bad times, lazy times, sad times, etc. Also, I like to think the app helps me be more accountable for my actions (or non-actions as the case maybe). If you are thinking about losing a few pounds, I encourage you to try MyFitnessPal (or whatever counter you want to use) because it has brought me more success than anything else I've done in the past.  

Good-Bye July

I can't believe it's the end of July which means in my mind it's the end of summer. Being that I work at a university, one of the busiest months is August because all the students come back to campus and there are lot things that need to get done before school starts. So please keep in your thoughts this month because life is about to get CRAZY!!!

However, I'm going to enjoy this last day of July and give you a recap of the wedding shower fun I had this weekend! This weekend both the hubby and I attended our friends Joel and Casey's wedding shower.

I'm not sure was is up with my hand in this picture. Casey said it looks like I'm holding an invisible beer, and Joel said it's the "pregnancy" hand- neither are true but I can see both of those options.

Their shower was at Arlington Race Track. It was a pretty cool place for a shower because it was a great way to encourage guys to actually come to a co-ed wedding shower. Plus the cost seemed really reasonable because you can actually bring in your own food so you don't have to pay a high catering bill that most reception halls would change you. I think I may keep this place in mind if I have to throw a shower for any of my friends.

Typically Sam isn't one to do too much gambling, but he figured he would try his luck and surprisingly it didn't go too bad. From the race that is pictured above, Sam won $33. However, he kept betting and started losing. In the end he walked home winning a grad total of $1.10. Well at least he won right?

So even though I know August is going to a crazy month, September is going to start off awesome because it starts off with these to two kids getting married! So let hurry up August, I got some important things to do in September!

Camping with Friends

Being that I can't seems to motivate myself to write regular posts, here's a recap of the fun that was had last weekend.

I have to say three day weekends throughout the summer is pretty awesome. I love having Friday to myself filled with my own plans, but last Friday Sam was able leave work early so we could start our weekend plans. So off to Wisconsin we went...

 

The weather was prefect! Also, we were staying at our friend Lindsay's dad's house, so that was nice because it meant the trip was happening on the cheap, which is always nice. However, the best thing was that he has property right on a river so we could really enjoy to beautiful weather in the water.

 

Once we got there we got right into our swimsuits, we grabbed our chairs, a drink, and headed out to the sandbar in the river to start our vacation out right.

The next morning we had plans to tube down the river back the campsite. In true "float trip" tradition, we start off with some shots. Here before going on the river...

 

Here is the an after...

 

Oh how I love my friends. They are always so entertaining and make for a great time!

This weekend we are out to a co-ed wedding shower for these two lovely people at a local horse track. 

Here's to another great weekend with great friends!

Weekend Recap- Michigan & Family Reunion

This weekend was a good one to start of the string of weekends that are coming up. This weekend include sometime lazy time at the pool, a trip to Michigan, and visiting with family. Here are the highlights-

After getting a bit fried from the pool on Friday, I was tried but excited to hit the road on Saturday and head to Michigan. Sam had made a request that we stop at Bell's Brewery in Kalamazoo.

We had gone there before our Michigan reception back in 2011 and Sam really enjoyed it. I have a feeling that this may become a traditional stop anytime Sam is with me on a Michigan trip. Sam got a "flight" so he could try a lot of different beers in one shot. I'm not much of a beer drinker, however I did really enjoy the Mead. This was really light and kind of tasted like a cross between hard cider and wine.

After the brewery, we were off to check in to our hotel. Once we checked in, we meet up with my grandma and my uncle Dave for some dinner. It was nice to see them, and over dinner I came to realize that the last time I saw them was at Christmas. Oh how time just seems to slip by you. However, I won't have to wait nearly as long for our next visit because I have more Michigan trips planned in the next two months.

Sunday was our annual family reunion (the same one you may remember from last year that was going to get cancelled- read about that here.) This year the reunion was held on my grandpa's farm, so it was nice because Sam and I could just head straight there after we checked out of the hotel. Also, it worked out well because we were able to help my grandpa set up the rest of the tables and chairs for the party.

Another great thing about having the reunion on my grandpa's farm- free black raspberries! My grandpa has a lot of black raspberries bushes on his property, so we spent some time just wandering around picking berries. The only sucky thing is that I was eaten alive by mosquitoes. Oh well, I guess I'm just that sweet.

On the way home, Sam asked if we could stop at the local Meijer to pick up these mini kegs that we saw the night before. They're from Bell's Brewery and they'll be a good addition to our plans for this upcoming weekend!Only two more days, and I get to start my weekend. I'm excited!

Friday Fun Day! Summer Edition

Happy Friday! I hope that you are having as nice of weather as we are having. It's going to be sunny and the mid-80's all weekend. We have many fun plans for the weekend, so I'll be sure to be back with a recap. However, today these are my plans...

Jen's pool... here I come! Happy Friday! Have an awesome weekend everyone!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July Everyone! I hope you had a great day because I know I did. I've seen other people do these hour by hour photo posts and I thought today would be a great to do one myself to recap my day...

8:00am

 

I enjoyed sleeping in, and started my day off with the morning news and...

9:00am

... my bowl of cereal.

10:00am

 

I spent sometime being a good pet mom and I had to cut up my fur baby's meds. Who knew that a cat nail trimmer would make such a great pill cutter.

11:00am

 

 

The hubby and I made sure we made it to the gym considering we knew we would be eating a lot of good food later.

12:00pm

 

I got in a few games of Candy Crush (I got high score out of my friends!) before...

1:00pm

... hitting the road to visit with the in-laws.

2:00pm

The weather really couldn't have been nicer so I sat by the pool to soak up some sun.

3:00pm

Like I said it was really nice out so I didn't move, but I got some extra entertainment.

4:00pm

 

Desert time! How cute is this cake?

5:00pm

I forgot to take a picture. Whoops.

6:00pm

We did a little grocery shopping because we were almost out of food.

7:00pm

Sam did some "fancy" cooking and made homemade burgers. 

8:00pm

 

More food! I love me some grilled corn on the cob!

9:00pm

 

We skipped out on fireworks and enjoyed one of my favorite shows- How I Met Your Mother.

10:00pm

Finishing this blog post and going to head to bed. I'm one of those "lucky" people who has to go to work in the morning. Good night!

Happy 4th of July!!!