Saving my insanity one discount at a time

Hi.... we just got home from running some errands. I'm making potato salad & cupcakes for a 4th of July BBQ @ Dan's house tomorrow. While we were on our way to the store I got this urge to write.. its not as strong right now but I thought I should STILL give it a try. I wanted to write about the efforts we are doing to try & save money and improvements I'm trying to make in my life. I gave UP soda completely. I'm not drinking it anymore. I haven't had any since the middle of March. I drink ice tea & water mostly, and occasionally a 100% juice box or a flavored water. That's it!! I'm soo proud of myself. I've also been pretty consistently walking to work. I've lost about 10 pounds!! I'm not trying to brag-- I'm just feeling GOOD about it!! Yay! Me! HEHEHE! Anyway, what else.. Brian & I have been trying to trim expenses since he's making less on a yearly basis... and we won't be getting that BIG bonus at the end of year. So while it's a big bum, there has come some good out of it, like for instance making us live more efficiently. That part makes you feel good, you know, trying to conserve. Especially when you know that you haven't always been the BEST at doing that. Like we would buy groceries and waste sooo much by not eating them before they expired. Now we plan our meals out better and aren't wasting as much. Also just thinking about what your buying and the impact it will have on the BIG picture. We aren't perfect and we still spend more than we should but we are better and that's good. We try to only buy things when they are sale or we have a coupon! So it's just about buying what makes sense. It's kind of a high to know that you're saving money. Making a choice that makes sense. For instance Brian needed a new wallet, his wallet was literally falling apart and he wanted a Steeler's wallet to replace his old one... well we found a coupon in our Entertainment book and used it. So we were still able to get it but we got a deal on it... and it was for his father's day gift. Brian bought the entertainment book for this year (since it's 1/2 over) for only $5 as long as he RESERVED next years for $14.99 so we EVEN saved on that.. and we've already saved about $20 by using it. I keep track of the savings in the front page of the book to know if it was worth it for the next year. But also trying to NOT buy things we don't need just because we have a coupon!! Just about using your head and thinking about something before you buy it... Do I have a coupon? Can I make it cheaper!! We also have a Upromise acct that we need to utilize more often because there are ALOT of good savings that way. I'd LOVE it IF I never had to pay the full price again for something... we do every now and then but it feels good when you don't have to. Anyway, what else has been going on... well yesterday we went to the lake with my aunt, Danielle, and the 3 kids... it was a LOT of fun!! I enjoy the lake sooo much. Emily does too... I just find it peaceful and also Emily feels comfortable there so it's NOT stressful like sooo many places with Emily can be. She's just a worrier and it's hard for her to be completely comfortable with situations (even situations that you would not typically think of as scary) she is very intimidated by. So it's just good for a lot of reasons... it gets her some exercise, sun and it's just good for both of us. :) Anyway...I'm glad it's only early July... I hope this summer doesn't seem like a blink & it's gone! They always do but I'm grateful that it's only July 3rd today. Emily is doing good... we went to the library today. So she's in her glory right now... because she has new books to read, and we borrowed some DVDs for her as well. (See, this is another thing we are trying to do to save money.) Borrowing not renting. Brian is even BORROWING audio books... he's spent a lot of money on them in the past so it's really good that he's changing a little of his spending ways as well.. we've all been trying! So I just wanted to write this blog to remind myself to keep doing it and to maybe encourage others as well (I'm still pretending that other's read this blog of mine) BUT if you do read it... THANKS!