A taco without cheese!!!!!

So yesterday, I was at Taco Bell, and they have all these signs up with this incredibly scrawny chick, describing her 50 pound weight loss with her "drive thru diet" I was thinking to myself, how incredibly fat I felt at the moment. Of course they made a life size version of her next to the line. Now as you may have remembered I had been on a challenge and had lost some weight, the bad news is, when the challenge stopped, I also stopped challenging myself. I let myself go back to the old excuses using my pain issues, time, family, etc. The good news is I still remembered the things I learned, and have not gained, my pants size is still the same too. I'll take that.

However, As I was standing there I realized I need to push myself. So I ordered the Chicken Ranchero soft taco, it has something like 140 calories and minimal fat I think about 9 grams. Now this taco has only chicken, lettuce, salsa... thats it nothing else, no cheese, sour cream, yummy red sauce, nothing!!! You see, when I order say a bean burrito, I get extra cheese, extra sauce, and easy on the beans, so everything fits.... that means I raised the calories from 370 to 410 and the fat from 9 to 12! Thats just the burrito, interestingly the fiesta bean burrito is 340/8 so not much off from the regular item.

So does this new fresco menu release us from checking labels and making thought out decisions... no, while researching this article, I learned that, Christine aka... scrawny chick (I can't wait till one day I am scrawny chick) has a favorite, or so says all the marketing for this newish menu, and that is what I ordered the Chicken Ranchero soft taco. According to the the Taco Bell Nutrition Calculator which is awesome, the Fiesta version is 170 calories to 4 grams of fat while the regular version is 270/14. I think that is pretty significant a difference.

Now this thing was pretty good, surprisingly! Once I mentally got over the cheese hang up, I enjoyed the flavor of it. So it is something I will order again, and again. And the nutrition calendar was pretty easy to use, and you can customize it to include all the special things you do to it. So check that out for sure, just not on your iphone while you are at the counter ordering, cause that would stink for everyone else... just sayin'

Insurance

This whole insurance thing scares so me... how do you know what to get. And life insurance is just really insane, because of my disabilities, and other factors, it is high. Right now it is too high while we are paying off bills so I am trying to find alternatives.

I was looking at Mortgage insurance but it is kindof a rip off, because the monthly fee never goes down but the value of the policy goes down. But maybe it would be okay for the short term. I hate to waste money, but I am afraid to go on any further and be not covered. So today I am going to call in to the Dave Ramsey radio show and get his opinion on this. I will update this this afternoon....

End of the year Donations

Science department faces budget cuts...
Due to budget restraints, Math classes are being slashed by over 50%...
Football, water polo, and tennis to be cut from 2010/2011 school budget...

Just imagine if these were the headlines you were reading instead! What would you do?

The fact remains that most of us think of art as recreation, or hobbies, but we don’t think of it as necessity. I always believed that the those in the educational departments felt that way as well. With art being the first to go when budget cuts come down. So I was surprised when I came across a letter from the U.S. Secretary of Education to the School and Education Community leaders at the beginning of the school year:

"At this time when you are making critical and far-reaching budget and program decisions for the upcoming school year, I write to bring to your attention the importance of the arts as a core academic subject and part of a complete education for all students. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) defines the arts as a core subject, and the arts play a significant role in children's development and learning process... “The arts can help students become tenacious, team-oriented problem solvers who are confident and able to think creatively," he stated. "These qualities can be especially important in improving learning among students from economically disadvantaged circumstances. "

I was shocked to learn that based on studies produced by the national Arts Education Partnership, the President's Committee on the Arts and theHumanities, the GE Fund, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation:

82.6% of 8th graders earned mostly As and Bs who were involved heavily in fine arts

30.07% of the respondents who participate in fine arts performs community service where only 6.28% of the respondents who do not participate in fine arts perform community service.

Students who are not heavily involved in fine arts have more than double the chance of dropping out of school by the 10th grade.

Sadly these cuts have come to pass, and are still to come, so how do get our children access to art? What can we do to give our children every opportunity to grow and experience a well rounded education that utilizes all subjects including art. Arts Council of Tulare County, they offer community events and art programs that raise awareness of the importance of arts, organize art based venues, offer support to local artists, and bring art into our classrooms.

The Art in Education program sends local artists into the schools; educating students in art through demonstrations, performances, and hands on art creation. A program that reaches an average 14 school districts, 26 schools, impacting 4670 students a year.

First Friday Art Tour and Art in the Alley are brand new venues to the valley reaching hundreds of people each night during their seasons. While still maintaining the Tulare County Fair, and the Art Hang in the Visalia Convention Center.

You can help in many ways, you may choose to sponsor an event, or simply pledge $20 and support art education. Either way the Arts Council is appreciative of your support of any size.

To give a year-end donation, contact the Executive Director David Castro, at 559-625-1520 or David@acoftc.org. If you are not in my area, then consider locating your local Arts Council and lending your support!

Thank you!

Christmas... Dave Ramsey style!

Its a Dave Ramsey Christmas... but this year we did decide to squeeze out a few gifts for the kids and for parents who lived in the area, no shipping this year. Our budget is a shocking $5 per person. I knew that this was crazy, cut somehow it was doable. Now I know what you are thinking... $5 why bother. The hardest part is getting past the idea that you are only spending $5 on a person, I mean mentally that is really, really hard, but doable. I think that even if they did find out that your budget is the size of a pea, that they don't really care, and if they found out you are trying to pay off your bills and be debt free they still wouldn't care. They would probably even be excited and or proud of your endeavors.

I decided that if I was going to work with this budget, I was going to have to really flex the creative muscle. First I put everyone's money in envelopes so I wouldn't go over at all. The hardest part was putting things back when I new even with taxes I wouldn't have it. Seperate envelopes would have been much easier because I was more tempted to over spend, using a seperate envelope would have helped me mentally, you know "self.... there is really on $5 in there so you have to choose between bath salts or candle to go with the bubbles and lotion"

Another key to this was to not just blanket shop. I knew that I didn't want to just pull out my printing block and make 30 prints of a christmas scene, or crochet a bunch of doilies. I wanted to let each person know that we were thinking of them individually, personalize it.

So my daughter and I headed out to shop. Now for the girls it was easy. For my mother-in-law who just moved into a new apartment I made a basket of bubbles, candles, pretty soap very easy, and at the good ole' dollar store, very cheap, but shockingly nice. I found a beautiful necklace at target on clearance, for my niece who is a teenager now and rolls her eyes alot... in fact I am sure that just now as I write this she just rolled her eyes and doesn't even know why. Michaels had 80 piece art kits on super sale $2 each and at this point the younger kids just know that their aunty loves art and that is just what they are going to get. I got a larger art kit for my nephew, it has some pastels in it. I decided that I was going to print some online lessons to include with it, and go to walmart and get a couple of packs of their cheapy copy paper, I use it for alot of practice drawing or trying out new techniques or supplies 500 sheets for $2 is great to add into their kits for practically nothing each.

I was lamenting over what to get for my father-in-law for christmas, the budget was only $8... normal budget was only $5 but I was under budget on some others (if you can believe that) and was able to increase here. Still it was hard. So it hit me on the way out the door when I was checking the time... he likes tools. A tool clock. So I went to micheals with my 50% coupon and paid only $3.50 for battery operated clock mechanics that comes with the arms and everything. Then I stopped at Harbor Freight and found the cheapest circular saw blade I could find right about $3. Then I picked up a little pack of washers, I was lucky to find a small container with mulitple sizes.. including very large, like a half dollar. I went home and started assembly. Fumbling through, ad-libing, and using washers to make hole smaller and a couple of smaller ones to fit inside the hole so it won't wiggle, (my husbands idea). And a sharpie to write in the numbers, they have number kits you can buy but I thought that a sharpie was just as good. And as it turns out there are a ton of instructions online for these... so google it!

Also another gift I made that is was perfect was for my other mother-in-law. Her kitchen decor is apples, so at Michael's my daughters mission was to find an apple stamp, and not only did she do that but she said look mom this one is only $1 so we can get this cute house too, its also $1! Love that kiddo... so we got that some ink, some felt, and went next door to Lowes and bought 4 tiles. We stamped them, glued little felt squares on the four corners, and I am going to use hairspray cause I forgot to buy spray fixative. Great gift, a project I found online also.

So this is how christmas went this year, I didn't list everything but I think you get the picture. Though I have not seen the results yet, I do believe it will go well.

Merry Christmas!

Impulse buying!

Impulse buying is obviously a big problem for me, its my nature I am like this with everything. We are getting better about it over the last year and though it sucks, we are beginning to see the fruits of that labor with 3 paid of credit cards so far. I just like saying that over and over.

Waiting overnight is difficult but it does give you a chance to stew it over. I think that looking at the budget while thinking about it also can be helpful. You know remind ourselves why we are doing this. The 90 days same as cash still gets me cause I still, even now, will try and tell myself that I can pay it off before the 90 day.

Our last biggest purchase, was that stupid car, and boy I am still dizzy when I think about how I managed to convince myself that we needed it. I like talking to my husband about things, especially when we are on the same track. When I am weak, he is strong and mindful of our mission to freedom!

Significant purchases

When I think about a significant purchase, I think $50. We would have to talk about it or least know that we have the money or in the past, know that we had a place on the credit card for it. So even though it is a low number, it was still kinda high for us.

My biggest problem is "treating myself" We like to go to the movies or out to eat oh and art stuff. I am really good at treating myself to those items and I can justify it real easy. It is still a real problem for me. I start calculating in my head, okay I have ___ in the account and its so many days till payday or my next big job. Which is hilarious, cause when I see a math book I get all paranoid and sieze up... "I can't do math" "I am just not a math person". But if I want to buy something, I sure can whip up some figures in a flash.

Since our new expedition in the financial responsibility world, about the only success I can really claim is that I have come across an excellent deal on a kiln, and though I REALLY WANT ONE! and I can make ware to sell and make up for the cost of it and make the money back fairly quickly, and the money is in the EMERGENCY fund... I have not given in. Instead I am selling the boat in hopes of raising the money to buy one for cash.

Grown up 1 screaming stomping kid in me 0

My first card

I still remember my first credit card... it was a citibank card and I was at COS and they had there little card table set up, and I was snared. It wasn't even hard for them. I was only 19-20 I had an apartment with a friend, that I couldn't afford so my husband-to-be (as it turned out) was paying for it.

So of course I could get a card, and did you know they gave me a $2000 dollar limit. I mean me, I was bringing home maybe $200 a month! I was excited and of course, I put it away for emergencies, like shoes, and pizza. But no worries cause every time I got to my max limit, you know those nice people raised my credit limit, so I wouldn't have to worry. But that doesn't really end there because after I got married, I still found myself enamored by credit cards. I felt grown up, like I was officially an adult. I would be at the mall and see those credit card tables with free items, and I would plow people over just to get in and fill it out.

Soon, the debt was very high. We were losing control, and several years later as we stood in bankruptcy court worried that someone was going to show up, that credit card card had grown to over $20,000... yes there are 5 digits there... I really did hate to see that go, but maybe it is more about failure than it is loyalty. Maybe if I can hold on a little more then I could fix this mess I made.

But that was a long time ago, and unfortunately not the last of my financial mistakes, and now we are on track for greener pastures.

1st day of Vacation

1st lunch at home since school is out goes something like this:

honey are you hungry...

yes momma...

soooo do you want a ham sandwich or a burrito....

I'll take a chicken sandwich...

honey I don't have that right now, do you want ham sandwich or a burrito..

okay I'll take peanut butter...

AGAIN (she says with strain in her voice) I haven't been to the grocery store yet!! do you want ham or a burrito...

ok I'll take toast...

YOU CAN'T HAVE JUST TOAST do you want me to do a grilled ham and cheese...

yeah but no cheese! grrrr...

this is going to be a loooooong 3 weeks

A new idea of Debt

Its funny that until I had taken this course, I had not realized that credit cards are fairly new concept, Visa is only about 30 years old before that it was another company that was around for only 20 or so years, but doesn't it seem like it has always been around. Archeaologists are digging around and finding Mastercards carved into bone as we speak. In fact, when I think back I don't remember my grandparents having debt. I mean I always thought we were "poor" and we were, you know we struggled, we became really good at creative cooking with welfare cheese. But the only bills were rent, utilities, etc.

I still remember when I first got a credit card my income was about 4000 per year, I was in college. I was so excited, I felt so grown up, like an adult you know. But this is how it is presented to us, watch your credit score, fica score, you have to get credit in order to have it. Like this is our knew ssn or something, "who are you?" well I'm 675.

Like a fish, I and many others have grabbed a bite of that bait and that was it. At this point I am toying with the idea of counting up how much we spent on finance charges, but I am afraid that would be so much that I might get too depressed. Its important to look to the future.

Do you know what you can do when you don't have any debt or payments.... anything you want

Abraham Lincoln's debt letter to his brother

This is an interesting link I have found, and wanted to share. I have wondered to myself as I read it, would I have the courage to do this... hmmm.

Dave Ramsey: Abraham Lincoln's debt letter to his brother