Weekend Wrap Up

This weekend has been such a wonderful weekend for me.

Last week we started our new budget for the year to pay off our credit card debt as well as save money for the wedding. The cost of having a wedding is crazy expensive. It's so hard to have the magical day be so beautiful when on a budget, but being my frugal self.. I will find a way.

 

If you read my last post, you will see that we now have a limited 'Dining Out' and 'Entertainment' budget. I didn't want us to be like we were before.. having no fun and being stuck eating in all the time. I gave us a $15.00 a week dining out budget. When Rob first viewed it, he was shocked that it was so small. I know this might seem like a tough budget to meet and that we might be eating fast food on these days, but that is just not the case. Groupon and Living Social have so many great offers for eating out and I found one of them.

 

On our way to our engagement shoot!

I found this great Living Social deal a couple days ago. I got $20.00 worth of food for only $10.00. I think I paid $1.16 for tax or overages. I stayed $3.84 under budget! Woohoo.

I think this is something that Rob and I will do every Sunday. No only will we be saving money since we usually spend $30 on Sunday, but we will also be trying a ton of new places!

This little pizza café is actually right around the corner from where we always shop. We've just never seen it before. And, I have to say, was pretty amazing.

Palio's Pizza Cafe

Cheesy Garlic Bread - Palio's Cafe

Might Meat Pizza - Palio's Cafe

 

We actually took our engagement photos in the morning to get that sun rise look. I had the time of my life. I actually have to say I am very happy with myself. I have been facing a lot of challenges with getting this session right, and I have been continuously looking at it with an optimistic view.

We originally had this session booked for 2 weeks ago. I was watching the weather and it was supposed to rain the entire day.. from 8am to 9pm. Then on Saturday, it didn't even rain until 2pm and it was the PERFECT setting that morning. I was a little bummed, but I had more time to prepped. Time seemed to slip past me when this date came up.

We rescheduled (to today) and my alarm never went off. I was supposed to wake up at 5am so I  had enough time to get ready.. I woke up on my own at 10 past 7 and freaked out. I should have already left the house at this time! Rob and I bth got ready in 40 minutes flat! Curled my hair, ironed clothes, took care of the dog and gathered my props.

I put my makeup on in the car and lucky me, spilled makeup all over my white dress! no bueno! Once that happened I realized I forgot my second dress!

Oh my goodness, what a morning.

I decided to forget the troubles and focus on the fun we were going to have. Our photographer is amazing. Rob knows him from college, and this guy is just so nice and encouraging. Even during our awkward moments he knew the right things to say. He's definitely doing our wedding!

 

Here's a sneak peek!

 



 



www.refugecollective.com Tyler Tyndell

Debt

This past weekend I decided to sit down and look at all the debt Rob and I have. I used to keep track of it and just haven't done so in several months. When I finally sat down to review things, I realized that instead of lower our debt, we were only adding to it. Not good. All these payments we make every month don't matter if you keep buying more things! I can say that I have just as red of hands as Rob does on this one. Trying to prep for our engagement photos I decided to forgot being frugal and to just live it up while I can.

So I sat down on Saturday, broke out the good ole' Excel Spreadsheet and calculated all of our payments and our new budgets for the rest of the year. Hopefully by the time we get married (exactly a year from now) we will have paid off half our credit card debt!! So exciting! We will have gone from $12k to $6k.

I decided to pay the cards that are incurring interest off first.

I will be able to pay off my Discover card by May and then Rob's Capital One card in July.
Once I pay off one card, I roll over any extra money that wasn't used into the next card as well as adding in the minimum payments I am no longer paying on the other cards. This way each month I am still putting $500 a month towards cards. Hopefully more!

 

Rob's Citi card will be paid off in November, which leaves us with only 2 cards to pay off!

 

 

I also have put our little family on a restricted budget:

 

$15 a week on eating out. Yes its manageable. Groupon always has deals for $15 meals. If we go out to a restaurant, Rob and I can split a meal since we always take home leftovers. Now that our microwave broke, we don't need leftovers.

 

$15 a week for entertainment. I have found plenty of FREE activities in Dallas. Klyde Warren Park always has free events.

 

$100 a month on groceries. Home cooked meal are obviously better.

 

$280 a month on gas. Our biggest expense of this group. 

Fresh Start

Seems like I am always having a "fresh start" with this healthy eating. Some days I really want to start eating well and working out, and then the other half I could care less and just want the chips. Even though I eat great one week and bad the next, I guess it's just good that I start right back up. It's better than eating horrible all of the time.

On Monday I started back to my healthy eating. I worked out a little, but I wasn't happy with the amount I did.

Monday -
Breakfast - 3 eggs and salsa
Lunch, - Salad with ham, cucumbers, crotons, and cheese.
Dinner - chili dogs :/

 

 

 

 

Tuesday -
Breakfast - 1 apple
Lunch - Same salad as listed above.
Dinner - Baked ziti. (watching my portions!)

Tuesday (tonight) I did my meal prep for the rest of the week's lunches. It's pretty similar to the last time. It didn't fill me up though and I was hungry by 4pm. So this time I made more broccoli and added in some starch. I made the starch really bland so maybe I won't eat a lot of it :)

I just picked up 3 chicken breasts from Kroger and some Mesquite Marinade. Let it sit for about an hour and then bake at 350 degrees until done. Pretty darn good I must say.

 

 Meal preps : Mesquite baked chicken, steamed broccoli with garlic salt, and 3 small, boiled red potatoes.

Weekend Glimpse | St. Patty's

This weekend was St. Patty's Day weekend. Each year in Dallas they have a huge St. Patty's parade that begins early in the morning and then continues at the local bars. Rob and I have never been, and really don't plan on it. We aren't huge drinkers and I'm always worried about the drunk drivers/traffic on this big event. So we celebrated in a different way. Of course I wore green (not shown in picture), and then we stopped to get Lucy, our English Bulldog, an Irish treat.

 

Always taking the car pictures haha

 

Lucy's Irish Treat

 Then on Sunday, we had to make a quick trip to Austin for a funeral (on Rob's side). Though it didn't go as planned, we still made a great use of our "quality" time together. Once thing I wish we could have done more of, is made stops along the way to sight see. But, we were on a time crunch with my pup at home. So I took a few quick photos of our day.

Rob can never take a serious photo! Drives me crazy.

 While on our way down to Austin from Dallas, there is literally nothing but SMALL towns. We couldn't find a single place to eat since everything is closed on Sundays. I guess that's how they do it in the small towns.
We did, however, run across this place below.. I though it was quite strange. It's a Mc D's, hotel, gas station, and Grandy's all in one. It was right off the highway, with nothing else in site. *scary* haha.

Another goofy picture of Rob.

 I eventually had to start taking Selfie's since Rob wanted to ruin every photo. I guarantee when we get older and I pull out the photo albumn... this will be every single picture... Me trying to be pretty... and Rob.... haha

#Selfie

 We made a pit stop on the way back in Hamilton, Tx (??) for something to eat. We had to drive for a couple hours to find something besides a fast food place. I decided to do some creeping while sitting there waiting on our food.

 

This was the lady behind Rob haha.

 This restaurant said they were known for the Chicken Fried Steak and their Rib Eye. Well, they were out of their Rib Eye so Rob and I opted for this. Little did we know how massive this was and probably could have split this meal. I definitely think they need to reevaluate what they are famous for. This CFS wasn't good AT ALL. It was extremely "fried", way too crunchy, without any flavor at all. I think they just put some batter in some fresh grease and served it. The onion rings were amazing, once I peeled all the crunch off of it. Maybe this food didn't sit well with us since we both dislike greasy/fried food. The starter salad was the best part. Maybe that's what they are famous for ;)

 

Proactiv

The last time I posted anything regarding the acne on my face was back in November (click to read). If you've read along, I've been trying a couple different things along the way. Just using straight Proactiv didn't work for me.. Then switching to using a face cleaner and the Step 3 of Proactiv worked a little more... but I still wasn't happy with the way my face was looking. I just want the super clear skin without any painful acne.

 I finally got a science down to this acne though! Though everyone's skin is different, I think this could benefit a lot of people dealing with the same issues.

I always take my showers at night so I can just hop out of bed for work.. It takes me about 30 minutes in the morning to get ready by cutting out my shower time and drying my hair.
In the shower I take a bath towel with a scruffy side to it, put a quarter amount of facial scrub and wash my face for about a minute. I initially started doing this since Proactiv dried my skin out so much and left my skin extremely flaky. It was completely embarrassing going to work looking like I had some cookie crumbs or dried up milk on my face. ;)

As soon as I get out of the shower and dry my face I dip a q-tip in alcohol and rub on my face. Doing this right after the shower allows you to directly dry the acne and bacteria while your pores are still open. Once I do that once or twice and let dry, I put Proactiv Step 3 on my acne. I use moisturizer when needed..

Then, in the morning, I take the alcohol again and rub on my face once.

This  has resulted in beautiful skin! This is purely my opinion but I couldn't be happier with the results!

meal recep (conti..)

I am officially going into my second week of trying to eat healthier and get fit. And it's not going so well...

My first week I think I did fantastic with a couple glitches. This past couple days though I have done horrible. But, it's just a minor fall and I am going to get right back up and do better starting today.

For the meal recap I can't say I remember 100% what I ate, but none of it was healthy.

Saturday
B- Nothing
L - 8 piece nuggets from Chic-fil-A
D - 2 sushi rolls and 2 beers
LD - out for a b-day party and have 3 beers and a shot.

Sunday (worst day ever)
B: Einstein's egg bagel with water
L: Half a box of mac and cheese (ugh)
S: Chips and queso
D: Taco Cabana Bowl

Monday
B: Apple
L: Taco Bueno's 2 burritos and a coke
D: Small Scholizkeys sandwich

Tuesday
B: Apple
L: Healthy choice frozen meal
D: Garlic chicken, noodles, broccoli, carrot mix

Wednesday
B: 3 chic fil-a biscuit nugget
L: Healthy choice frozen meal
D: Chicken cordon blue with a side salad.

I didn't work out any day this week... I am going to try tonight though.

meal recap

So it has been a couple days since I ladt posted my meal journal.
I have been prepping for the President of the company to be out all week; trying to make sure I have everything ready to take over for him while he's out.

I have to say I did decent. I didn't do the best,but I'm not going to beat myself up about it.

Tuesday -
B: apple
L: prepped meal
D: schilozkeys

Wednesday -
B: 3 eggs
S: apple
L: prepped lunch
S: slice of puzza
D: wine

Thursday-
B: slice of bread
S: slice of pizza
L: prepped meal
D: slice of pizza

Friday-
B: apple
L: burrito..
D: sushi, 2 beers


Maybe I didn't do perfect, but my lunches have been way better which is a huge start. I've noticed my belly shrink I teeny bit

As promised to myself, I am doing a daily tracking of what I eat and my exercise routine.

Yesterday I think I did pretty well until dinner..
Breakfast: 2 eggs with salsa
Snack:apple
Lunch: prepped lunch I made on Sunday
Dinner: I cooked filet minon and baked spicy corn... it went horribly. Apparently the corn was still somewhat frozen, went made me sad so Rob bought us Schlozkez...
Exercise: 15 minute intense squats

Today, however, I did quite terrible.
Breakfast: apple
Lunch: prepped lunch
An hour later: 2 slices of pizza
Dinner: pop tarts
Exercise: none

Even though I didn't do well today, there's always tomorrow!

Fresh Flowers and Meal Preps

Rob and I's day started off pretty great! We stopped by the grocery store to get some items so I can start meal prepping for my healthy lunches every Sunday. This is going to be something I stick with each week.

Every since Valentine's day I have been keeping fresh flowers in our apartment. It makes the place smell so amazing. I can smell them from the couch!

 

 

I made these eggs Saturday morning and plan on starting every morning with these, then have an apple at around 9am when at lunch. This way I stay full all day and then I can have my prepped lunches.

Just eggs, salsa, and green onions.

 

I also made some roasted green beans for a snack to take to work. I made these last night. Next time I am not using olive oil! It just made them floppy instead of crunchy like I was going for. They were still good, just covered in oil.
1lb green beans thrown on a pan. Topped it with olive oil and garlic salt. Cooked in the oven at 350 degrees until brown.

 

Now for the prepped lunches!!

I made boiled eggs, baked chicken and baked broccoli. 

This was 2 lbs of chicken and just a rub I picked up.

I really suck at cooking meat.. but this came out pretty good.

I took the chicken and rinsed it off.. then poked holes all in it and covered the chicken with the rub and some water.Stuck it in the fridge for 20 minutes and then baked at 350 degrees until cooked through. While this was going on, I boiled some eggs and then roasted some broccoli. I seasoned the broccoli with some garlic salt and drizzled a tiny bit of olive oil.. Turned out amazing!

So my idea is this:
7:00am Breakfast: 3 eggs with salsa and green onions
9:30am Snack - apple
12:00pm Lunch - meal prepped lunch above
5:30pm workout
6:00pm small recovery drink
7:00pm dinner.. probably not healthy but I will cut back on portions.

Let's see how it goes!

So I know I've been a hortible, hortible blogger recently. Ever since getting engaged towards the end of December I have just really focused on my life in the now and forgotten to blog. One thing I truely want to do is track my engagement and wedding process. I would really like to get a scrapbook and that requires lots of pictures and printing them. I guess it'll be worth it when I am forty though.

If you've read through my blog, you can see I amalways on and off with eating right and exercising. Its just a struggle I'm sure everyone deals with. I won't sit here and pretend to be perfect and like I never screw up.

I really want to get in shape for my wedding and the hineymoon so I can look sexy as hell lol. Who wouldnt ? From this day forward I am tracking EVERYTHING I eat and how I am working out. This way I can back track and see how often I've been messing up and to have the public pressure!

So, let's begin...

For breakfast Rob and I went to Einsteins Bagels and I got a thintastic egg bagel with spinach, mushroom, and swiss. Probably not the most healthy.. but breakfast you eat like a king, right?

2:00 pm I worked out to P90X cardio. I did 30mins.. unforutantely I couldn't make the 42 minutes :( next time !!

Afterwards I made a banana chocolate recovery shake.

 

 

 This recipe makes 2:
1 whole banana
2 cups of Reduced Sugar Vanilla Almond Milk
1/3 cups Chocolate Protein Powder

Blend it all together.

 

The best shake ever.