RZR XP accessories. Anthem X2 RP2 shocks. DSI XL case and travel gear. Come on already. Between my husband, my son, and my daughter, I am at my limit of retaining the meaning of abbreviations. It wasn’t that long ago that I was confused by DVR and MP3. Now I’ve got a whole new set of letters to learn for holiday lists. Whatever happened to things like dirt bike gloves, bike tires, and batteries? Those are real words that mean something and I know what I’m looking for when I go shopping. I hate to think I am getting old and set in my ways. Like an old dog not wanting to learn new tricks. Thank goodness for Google so I can give myself a crash course on whatever I’m confused about at any given time.

Hubs and I are contstantly at odds when it comes to “things.” I think his priorities are out of whack, and he thinks I don’t want anything out of life. And I think he’s wrong, of course.

He believes 100% in the old “You get what you pay for.” I agree with that to a degree too, but I also know that a part of that price tag I’m paying is for the brand name. And sometimes there really is no difference between 2 products EXCEPT FOR the name. So in that case, I see no point in paying for the name brand product. Hubs feels he is always safe buying the more expensive/name brand product, especially when it comes to his biking and hunting equipment. But I feel that whether we’re shopping for spotting scopes, cycling shoes, or bread, it is valuable and responsible to investigate the products.

One of the biggest battles I had to fight was when I started experimenting with grocery store brands vs. name brands. I had to actually disguise the packaging to get my husband to eat things without complaining. One day I handed him a shopping list and refused to shop anymore until he experienced paying for a grocery order first hand. Funny, he now thinks Kroger potato chips are far better than Lays, and circles the good sales in the weekly ads.

I have to admit I didn’t feel this way when I was younger and had lots of disposable income and little time to shop around. But as a wiser person, with children, more expenses, and less income, smarter spending is not an option. I wish I’d started sooner.

Who’s the spender and who’s the frugal one in your household? Do your finances run smoothly or are you often at odds?

I am so excited – Blogher ’11 is coming up fast – and I’m starting to get a little frazzled. I had almost completely forgotten about it – I signed up for it so long ago and have been so busy since. But this weekend I revisited my goals, plans, budget, and routines to freshen them up and when I looked at the calendar – there it was. I was happy all over again, but then distressed. So much to do and I feel like I don’t have enough time. I have been to the Blogher conference once before – in Chicago 2 years ago, so I am not nervous from the stand point of being a newbie. I kind of know what to expect. It is farther away this time, though, in San Diego. And even though my time away from home will be the same 4 days it was before, it just SEEMS like a much bigger trip because of the distance, I guess. Oh but I need some R&R and recharge time… did I mention I’m getting excited?

The conference is for bloggers and social media enthusiasts, mainly women, who want to learn more about the new and evolving subject, as well as mingle and network. It was very motivational and informative before and I have even higher expectations for this year’s conference.

In addition to the conference getting bigger and better every year, I got a little better this year too! I’m a full time freelance writer this year, where I was just pretty new to the scene and just beginning to dabble last time. Also last time I drove to Chicago and slept in a bed with a stranger that I did not meet until I pulled up in her driveway to pick her up for the trip. She wasn’t scary or anything but I did feel lonely once I got there. Not this year though! I am bunking and traveling with 4 other girls whom I actually know, enjoy, and have things in common with – 2 of them are my besties in fact!

I have so much to accomplish before we go in August. I’m still getting caught up from going those months without a paycheck when my real estate deals all fell apart, and I want to get that monster under control before I go. It’s going to require A LOT of writing assignments between now and then to meet that goal as well as have a little spending money while I’m there. AND after all that hard work I am going to need a little pampering in the form of maybe a dead sea salt scrub spa treatment. Lawd help me I got a lot of work to do. What am I doing still hanging out here?!

I have been complaining about my computer being slow and everyone downloading and saving stuff on it. So much stuff that I don’t save anything myself which turns into messes for me on a daily basis when I need to retrieve something I either didn’t save or don’t know where I put it. “Send it to the cloud!” My daughter told me.

What?

She is such a sponge. An amazing sponge. She absorbs every commercial she sees and stores it in case it is ever needed. We both love the Google Chrome ads so it should have come as no surprise that she would apply it to my needs of the moment, even though it never occurred to me to do it. I am always THINKING about data backup solutions, but haven’t taken much time doing anything about it.

So today I’ve saved everything I’ve worked on to the cloud, and am feeling a sense of confidence and security that I didn’t have just yesterday. Have you used the cloud?

What a gorgeous day we had today in Flint, Michigan. Got some sun this morning, made some mental notes about what I might like to do in the yard this summer. Stain the swing set, fix the trampoline, paint the playhouse… for starters, anyway.  :)  The only thing I don’t like about summer time is the constant AC battle. Hubs loves it and wants it on non stop. Sari likes it too because she is a hot sleeper and the central air allows her to sleep comfortably. I like it too when I’m trying to dry my hair and put my make up on. Other than that, it’s a pain.

Especially now with a dog, the doors are being opened and closed regularly. And in the summer time the back deck is an extension of the house to me. I grill almost every day. I like to walk out every 30 minutes or so to take a stretch break from the computer and catch a few minutes of sunshine. I love Spring because I can leave the slider doors open and both Hobo and I can bounce back and forth, inside and out, from living room to deck with ease. But when Summer comes, there is no leaving the door open. No fresh air, no warm breeze.

This is a battle I almost volunteer to lose because of the many positive factors. But then I see Hubs shopping for Ashton cigars on sale and I’m like, “Where you gonna smoke those? Not in this sealed up tomb/igloo.” I kinda snapped. I guess because I was a little chilly and thought it was too soon to get the air going and I hate the smell of cigars anyway. I had a flashback to a time years ago when he had a buddy over and they were sneaking and lit up cigars in the basement. As if my nose wasn’t going to detect what was happening. I really snapped that day. I don’t think that guy’s been back since, come to think of it.  Anyway, as far as picking battles goes, smoking in my house period, much less without any windows open is not a battle I will ever lose.

Have you turned your air on yet? If not, when will you?

FINALLY made it back into the woods for the first hike of the season. It was FANTASTIC. I was kind of nervous because I really haven’t exercised all winter and I just knew I was going to have a hard time making it through the 4 mile course. I also worried about holding Amber, my hike mate, back because she’s been active all winter. As things turned out, we both did great. Even my feet were happy.

For most of last season, regardless of how familiar I became with the track or how much stronger I was getting, my feet started killing me about 2/3 of the way through. By the end it honestly felt like my toes were all broken off and I was walking on exposed raw nubs.

That sounded grosser than I thought it was going to.

Near the end of last season I found some hiking shoes on clearance. Whereas my running shoes were airy and comfy, they didn’t give me a lot of support for for my ankles in the jagged terrain, or my toes going over rocks, sticks, and such. The hiking shoes helped quite a bit and I no longer felt like crying by the end of the hike. There was still pain, but it was tolerable. I chalked it up to “no pain no gain.”

Hiking is not only an enjoyable activity to me but the results I got last summer made me happy. All the yoga and kick boxing in the world could not get my ankles back in the direction of their pre-break shape. But just a few months of hiking made me not stress out over how hideous I looked in capri pants. They’re still kind of muffin toppy – Amber affectionately calls it my “mankle” as in muffin top ankle – but it is definitely stronger and has taken on more shape since hiking. By the way, besties can say those kind of things and the humor is mutually appreciated. I don’t recommend using that term casually.

So anyway, there I was worried that I’d be the mess I was at the beginning of LAST season, but thanks to starting off with stronger ankles and getter shoes from the get-go, my feet felt hardly any discomfort at all. There is still that point where the rocks grind into my feet when I’m running up hill and I would like to try out the Treksta evolution running shoe with all the different nobbies on the bottom for different terrain, but that’s quite a bit down the list for me. Maybe I’ll find one on clearance at the end of this season.

A curious part of me would like to fast forward to the end of season and see what I have learned and where I’ve gotten stronger. But then it would be all over, and that’s something I want to slow down as long as I can.

While cutting back and trying to find more money in your month during tough financial patches it’s important to make every effort to make at least your minimum payment on your bills.

When things get tough it’s easy to throw your hands in the air and say “I can only pay what I can pay,” and let some things go.  Let’s be honest, the unfair practices of the credit card companies make it REALLY easy to get a bad attitude and skip payments when things get tight. We need lodging, we have to put food on the table, the kids need clothes, and we need gas to get to work to EARN the money to pay everyone. Those are the immediate priorities, in the short term, and sometimes the only ones you think of because you sometimes feel like you’re just trying to survive. But those credit cards matter, too. In the long run.

Missing monthly payments on your credit cards will have a negative impact on your credit score.  Again, at first thought, this might not be a concern. But what if there is an emergency and you need a few extra bucks to fix the car or replace the furnace? You’re already cash poor so you’re likely going to want to do some kind of financing. If you’ve neglected your credit score, you may not be able to get the line of credit you need to help you through any surprises.  Also, if your credit score is good enough, you could pay off higher interest rate headache bills and consolidate your debt into one manageable payment.

Mind your money and pay on time. There are plenty of ways to get your free credit score if you want to see where you are credit wise.

I didn’t think I would continue being so strapped for cash for so long. I keep hearing reports that the economy is on the up, and sometimes it does feel that way to me, but overall – still feeling lots of pressure to meet each month’s obligations. We do, so I’m thankful. But why’s it gotta be so hard?!

Rising food and gas prices are making it necessary to continue making sacrifices and find new ways of modifying how we live and what we do that result in extra cash.

For me it just began as cutting the fat and selling off extra items that were cluttering the household up in many ways. Less dinners out, more attention to comparing prices at the grocery store.  We changed brands and shopped less. Dinners became less elaborate and more “from scratch.” Now we’re moving into other things – reviewing our monthly obligations. Insurance is a big sore spot to me. I know that it pays off when you need it, but most the time it just feels like you’re paying a lot for little to nothing in return. But places like wholesaleinsurance.net make it easy to shop and make sure you’re not paying more than you need to. We also switched cable service, and canceled the phone service.

Grocery bills and gas charges hurt, no doubt. But if you can free up some cash elsewhere, maybe it won’t hurt as much.  Good luck!

I recently learned there are pills that help clear up acne. I had no idea. I guess because at 40, it’s been awhile since my mature skin has had reason to pay attention to acne remedies. But now with two teens I’m trying to figure out how to get rid of whiteheads all over again. I’m just not sure how I feel about pills.

I do know how I feel about what we put in our bodies, though. And what my kids put in theres. There are so many conflicting reports about the affects of certain foods on a kid’s body, brain, and skin – and I have many times been talked out of my own health minded opinions by old schoolers who can’t see any connection between who you are and what you eat. But it only makes sense that even if we can’t for sure prove which foods cause undesirable affects on the body and why, particularly pertaining to skin care, we DO know that whole foods and fruits, veggies, and fiber make everything in the body work better. So why not feed our kids more good stuff and less greasy, salty, sweet chips and treats?

I may be able to find as many arguments against my case as those supporting it, but I know from experimenting that reducing soda and just drinking lots of water improves my kid’s skin. Whether it’s the lack of soda (sugar) or the increase of water, I don’t know. But I’m not trying to write a nutrition book here, just keep my kid’s healthy, so what do I care. I just know it works.

Medication is medication, I suppose, and if I have no trouble using a topical prescription then maybe I shouldn’t be so concerned about a pill. But I just think it should be considered a last resort after natural, healthy adjustments have been made.