Homeowner Woes

My roommate moved in on Saturday. And of course, my AC broke that day as well. Ugh! I didn't know what was up because it was still running and air was coming out of the vents, the house just wasn't cooling off... I let it run all day Sat and all night and all day Sun.... my electric bill is going to be a MILLION DOLLARS because it ran that whole time! CRAP! Apparently the compressor broke. So $400 later, I've got air again. Just when I finally think I'm getting in a decent place financially something always happens. Car troubles. AC is busted. It never ends. Oh well, at least it's fixed right?

The good news about it is that I was home getting it fixed during the staff meeting. The AC company I called was great. I called them at 9:30am, they said they'd call 30 min before someone would be at the house so I could run home and didn't have to wait at home all morning. So they called at 11, the guy got there like 3 min after I got home. He had it all fixed and I was back to work within an HOUR! So no time off. Just need to skip lunch tomorrow and all will be good. AND... there was CAKE at the staff meeting today. So I didn't have to resist... I just wasn't there for it. Score!

So there is some little tiny silver lining, yes? Yes. As for my menu today it looks like this....

Bfast:
chai tea latte - 2
protein shake - 5
(lots of drinking for breakfast)

Lunch:
leftover meatballs from h-town that were in the freezer - 6

Snacks:
whole wheat pretzels from TJs - 2
1/2 mango (YUM) - 1
grapes - 1

Dinner:
salad: baby spinach, strawbs, craisins, almonds, feta cheese - 3
light EM with laughing cow light - 2
TJs low sodium soup - 1

23/22 points
1 flex used

I also have a bag packed for the gym. I'm thinking I'll do arms and 25 min of cardio. So I'll get some APs if I want to have a snacker.

Sugar Detox

Monday and Tuesday I ate a lot of sugar. TOO much sugar. People brought baked goods into work... and I just went to town. I literally felt ill both nights. It affected my workouts. It was just dreadful.

So yesterday I tried to detox a bit. It went ok. Not perfect, but not horrible either. I got home from work and had a headache (probably from the lack of sugar, hello!) and ate more than I should have (but good stuff) and vegged on the couch. No working out for me, but that's ok. I also watched an ABC Family original movie called Princess. It was really cheesy and bad but I couldn't turn it off! Ha.

Today, however, I woke up ready to go! I was all set to get to work early and walk around the lake and Bryan (my neighbor and coworker) called and said that his car wouldn't start to could I bring him. He wasn't totally ready so I waited around for him which means no early walk around the lake. It's ok though! I'll go later with the girls and I WILL work out tonight. I'm going to the gym straight from work. I'll do legs, abs and then some cardio! Also - despite shoving anything and everything with sugar into my mouth I saw an ok number on the scale this morning. Let's hope it holds steady!! Another day with TONS of water.

In crappy news I got paid yesterday and today am already back to LESS THAN 150 bucks in my account. I hate it. I hate living pay check to pay check and trying to pay off all of my debt. It's the worst. I'm going to have to be EXTRA good this month with the wedding and a mini vacation the last week of May. So NO spending for me. No eating out (other than half price lunch on Tuesday as its my big indulgence ha!) and no impulse buys at the food store. I need to learn to SACRIFICE because I DONT make a million dollars. I am babysitting on Friday so that will give me a few extra dollars at least!

Menu...

Bfast:
SMOOTHIE madness (I forgot a straw!!) - 4

Lunch:
leftover sausage, peps and onions - 3
toasted english muffin w/ light veggie cream cheese - 2

Snacks:
ww pb delight - 1
1/2 apple - 0.5
banana, strawbs and grapes - 1.5

Dinner:
NO idea. Anyone have any ideas??? I had a burger on Sunday but migth have that again....
Burger on light EM w/ 1/2 slice cheese - 6
leftover corn on the cob - 1
asparaugs - 0

That will still leave me with 5 points for the day. SWEET!

PS - I can't straighten my arms today.... THREE days after working out with TB I'm still hurting. Yikes. Looks like someone needs to lift more on her own, eh?

Links!

I was flipping through this months Women's Health magazine (that Ar bought last night -- what a treat!) and came across some fun links. Thought I'd share them....

The first is:
http://us.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx
This is for calculating debt. Quite useful in figuring out how long it will take to pay off something with interest rates. Also a bit depressing to see that it will take me 18 months to pay off my credit card... but hey -- at least I'm being realistic! haha.

The other link I found is random, but it calculates MP$ -- so basically how much it costs in gas to drive a certain distance...
http://unfocusedbrain.com/projects/miles_per_dollar/

I costs me $2.35/day round trip to drive to and from work. Not too bad since I looked up my old commute in NJ and it was like 8 bucks haha.

Just thought they were fun to play around with if youre bored at work (or just in general).

TCBY-licious!

Yesterday a few of us from work planned a TCBY date for today. YUM! I figured it was ok since I havent eaten out for lunch in almost 2 weeks, and I get the junior size which is good on both my hips and wallet! I do love TCBY -- 3 points for the junior cup and just the sweet treat I need to feel like I'm splurging!

I'm not sure what to make for dinner tonight, but I want to make something for around 8 points. Perhaps fish, rice and a veggie? I'm up for any sort of recommendation! For some reason I've really just been wanting to have poached eggs for dinner every night. But poor Ar I havent cooked in a while and I think a well balanced dinner would be a nice treat. haha. So if anyone wants to come up with something easy, yummy and only 8 points lay it on me!

I think thats about it for today. Here's my menu so far:

Bfast:
Vita Muffin and small banana - 2.5

Lunch:
2/3 Smart Ones Mac N Cheese - 3.5
Avocado salad (same as yesterday) - 1
Small apple - .5

Snacks:
Strawberries - .5
Pretzels - 2
TCBY - 3

Dinner:
Who knows?

Its beautiful out right now. Sunny and 77. Perhaps tonight I'll take Fiona for a long walk! We shall see what the evening has in store....

Trying to Focus

I was a MESS yesterday. I think getting my period just threw me all off track. I dont even know what I ate, but some highlights are: a frosty from Wendy's, oreos (though the reduced fat ones), ice cream and LOTS of other stuff that wasnt necessarily bad for me its just the AMOUNT of food I ate. I feel gross today. And the cramps arent helping haha. But I'm not letting my food fest from yesterday screw up my whole week. I dont weigh in until Saturday so I have time to turn it around! I'm owning up to my nastiness and moving on!

In other news I got all sorts of good produce and other yummies at the food store yesterday. When I dropped my parents off at the airport my dad gave me some 'gas money' which I thought was going to be 20 bucks... but it was 100!!!! And since we are tight on our budget this month (I'm still trying to catch up from the $752 Honda bill from last month that screwed me BIG TIME) I wasnt planning on going to the food store this week and was just going to make do with what we had. But I figured with the money my dad gave me I could go and get produce!!! So I did! And I splurged BIG TIME and got 2 boxes of Vita Muffins! (they are 5 bucks each for 4 muffins, so not really something I'll every buy normally). I got the chocolate ones and the banana nut ones. They are ONE POINT and so yummy.

I'm excited for my food todays... heres my menu:

Breakfast:
strawbs - 0.5
vitamuffin - 1
tea w/ honey - 0.5

Lunch:
double fiber bread, light mayo, mustard, lite turkey, avocado and tomato sammy (YUUUUUUUUUUM) - 3.5*
light chips - 1
apple - 1

Snack:
akmak and light cream cheese - 2
100 cal pack - 2

Dinner:
Ar has to work til 9 tonight because there some Bike! Week event going on -- so its just me! [EDIT] I think I'm going to make these yummy pancakes for dinner!!! I have tons of strawberries and bananas that I'll have with them. Perfect!

* Note that theres no cheese on this sammy! This is a FIRST for me so I'm anxious to see if the tomato and avocado make up for it. Heres hoping!!!

Ok -- thats about it for today. I'm just really trying to eat 24 points ONLY for the rest of the week... and to get some APs. Focus is the key....

Cars Suck

My car isn't that old... I got it brand new in October of 03. So its what... 3.5 years old. Well I've got over 95000 miles on it. The first 2.5 years that I had it I drove obscene amounts. As in 120 miles a day round trip to/from work, driving at least 2 hours to and from my parents house or to MD almost every weekend... stuff like that.

So poor little Suzie Q (what my trusty Civic has been nick named) has had a rough 3.5 years. Shes in the shop today. And I just got a call from the mechanic at the Honda dealership telling me that all the repairs that needed to be done (AC is broken, need new brake pads, and then the major 90,000 mile tune up) was going to come to $1900!!! WHAT???? I thought the AC just needed freon (however you spell it) because air comes out when I turn it on... its just not cold. But apparently the entire system is shot. And it was going to be 1295 to fix it. UGH! Must I remind you that its almost summer time in BALMY, HUMID Charlotte, NC?

I clearly am not paying 1300 bucks to get it fixed (I can barely afford the stuff that HAS to be done like uhhh brake pads haha) so looks like its time for this chickie to just SUCK IT UP and be hot this summer :) I'm thinking of investing in one of those super stylish windshield blocker things so that the car stays a bit warmer when its baking in the sun.

So lets just sum it up by the fact that I was almost in tears when I got off the phone with the mechanic as I was just starting to feel somewhat good about my financial situation (granted still in debt, but keeping my head above water and slowly paying things off). Damn it all!