Just another manic Monday..er Thursday

Because you all definitely need to know my life updates, here goes:

1. NO, I have not been going to the gym in the mornings - why you may ask??? Because HUBBS GOT CALLED BACK TO WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woot Woot - shout it out - woot woot

So because hubbs is now full time actively working again I cannot ditch the sleeping booger in the AM to go to the gym because DYFS does, in fact, frown upon leaving your children unattended - so after next week (when god for saken class is over) I'll be hittin up the gym, evening style. 

2.  I am totally, ridiculously stressed about my real estate exam.  The pre-tests are ridiculous they ask the most off the wall nonsensical questions that you'll NEVER ever use in real life - why on Earth do you bog down my mind with uselessness. 
I  w i l l  p a s s  t h i s  t e s t  w i t h  f l y i n g  c o l o r s

3. Kohl's purchase - bust.  Nothing fit the way I hoped it would.  Everything was cute but ehh didn't look so hot.  I plan to try on some different sizes with different shoes, accessories etc. IN the store to achieve better success.  Lauren Conrad I have not given up on you my dear

4. I'm going strong without meat - feeling better than ever!! Not gonna lie, I was craving chicken yesterday but didn't do it.  I am enjoying this. 

5. Spring is almost (officially) here.  2 more days. Oh and guess what? I wore flip flops yesterday!!!! yay

Now I am very excited for this weather, but am prepared for much rain because according to the good ol' Farmer's Almanac its gonna be a wet one this year.  So in anticipation of same, I plan to purchase one of these lovlies:

First Pair - Aldo Ramirec currently on sale here for $59.98

Second pair - Aldo Sliney currently on sale here for $39.98

Use promo code VIPOFFER for free shipping :)

As enticing as the first pair is, I may just end up playing it safe with the cheaper shoe - who knows, maybe hubbs will let me splurge ;)

Of course, coupled with:

Old Navy Belted Trench can be found here for $49.50 and use your ON card and receive $10 off using the promo code THANK YOU

And topped off with this:

Aldo Zenon can be found here for $42 which is a STEAL for this uber cute bag in my opinion

On top of the free shipping promo code above for Aldo - sign up for their e-mail list and you'll receive a coupon for 10% off

Now tell me that wouldn't make rain look fabulous!

If I had it my way; however, I'd be rockin out in the rain like this:

More Be & D...

This stylebook makes my heart skip a beat, those Loubs are seriously orgasmic.  I need those in my life.

And I want to give a big shout out to my girl Dona (that's Doh-nya, hehehe) for passing her insurance exam, she is now officially licensed to do biz in the State of North Carolina - you go girl!!

If you need Aflac insurance, let me know - I'll hook ya up.

Questions, Comments?

Finances

Thirsty Thurs! For some reason I just love Thursday's...I think it's the anticipation of the weekend that gets me, I dunno really I just like today for some reason ;) I also love Miss Coleys' Cubicle to Cocktails spreads

Oh wait! Maybe it's because yayyyy baby Carys is here!!!! Congratulations to my beautiful friend Dana and her awesome husband Terrell as they welcomed their second cutie patutie into the world this morning.  I have already received pictures of this little doll and must say, she's freakin adorable - lookin just like her big brother B.  Cannot WAIT to see her chubbs in person!

I want to discuss finances. Mine, yours, systems, procedures - all that.  I know that hubbs and I are ALWAYS trying to discover new ways to save, spend and allocate and we just can't seem to get it right.  I think its discipline that we are lacking.  We say we'll do 'this' and we totally end up doing 'that' instead.  We are both the spending type and so I'm pretty sure that's why our plans never work.  Unfortunately our monthly bills have just gotten outrageous! I mean, I simply cannot believe how much money we spend just on 'life' every month - between car payments, daycare, mortgage, utilities, cell phones, cable, etc. etc. etc. I feel like we're left with blah and it just stinks. 

I'm desperately trying to find a way to cut back on things and so

• I cut out premium channels (HBO, Showtime, Starz) then I realized that once Entourage comes back on we'll have no way to watch it - so that didn't work.
• I cut out internet because we both have blackberry's that cost an extra $30/each per month and plus I have internet at work, so what's the use, right? Yeah well BB's suck 80% of the time so we're always in some sort of an annoying jam - that didn't work
• I cut out gym membership and bought workout DVD's - yeah that lasted about 2 weeks, so that didn't work
• I cut back our minutes on the cell phone...and for the first 3 months we went over minutes racking up more charges then we would have with the bigger plan - that didn't work

So I'm feeling a bit defeated...what do we do? hmmmm...its not like I can stop sending my booger to school or return one of our cars? And not to mention I feel like we spend a small fortune on groceries? I mean, why the EFF is it so god damn expensive to eat healthy? Ice Cream and snacks are A L W A Y S on sale - is lettuce? how about apples? Tofu? Organic? N E V E R R R R

So my post today is really a question for my followers - how do YOU budget your money? I don't want your personal info more or less if you use a system or have basic principals and how do you stay focused and on plan?  How do you (or plan to) cut back and how do you keep your grocery bills at bay?

Let me know!