Monday, November 16, 2009

I Joined a Gym Last Week

You may not think that it is a very cheapskate thing to do but for me it is. Let me explain!

I have unfortunately let myself get terrible out of shape. Sometimes motivation to get moving is hard to come by. Don't get me wrong I don't just sit on my butt all day long. I walk the kids to and from school every day unless there is lighting. I work part time 5 days a week. But its not enough to shave the pounds off. I need more. So I've joined Lucille Roberts which is an all woman's gym and at 20 dollars a month not a bad investment in myself.

What do I get for my 20 bucks? I get access to different types of aerobic activities including machines and classes and a large assortment of weight machines. The likes of which I can neither afford or find a place for in my over cluttered home.

I will also save a fortune in clothes since regular sizes cost an average of $10 bucks cheaper then Plus sizes.

Then their are the savings from being healthier. I will be less likely to have a whole assortment of diseases just by losing weight. So that equals fewer medical bills and cheaper insurance.

Plus a major motivational factor is my hubby sitting there going "Your spending 20 bucks a month you better get your moneys worth and go work out!" So wish me luck and I"ll keep you posted. I have also set some goals for myself and I'm going to share them with you so you can help keep me honest. I will post on Mondays and keep you up to date. My Long term goal: I weigh (don't look if you have a weak stomach LOL) 250 lbs Yeah ITs gotten that bad. I hope to lose 100lbs total. My short term goal is to lose 2 dress sizes by Christmas. For a little extra incentive I've joined their promotional program they are running right now. If I lose the most weight then I get the year for free. Talk about a cheapskate incentive LOL.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

How absent minded can you get

I get to work yesterday and then realize that I gave you two tips yesterday and carried on about why you should do it that I never suggested ways to fix the problems. Talk about your DUH moment.

Ok lets start with fertilizer. You can't go wrong with compost spread upon your lawn. You can easily make your own or buy it. If you know someone with cows that works too. (and it's not as smelly as you would think) Don't use horse manure without composting it first. Unlike cows with their four chamber stomachs, horse manure will have weed seeds in it that you don't want in your lawn or garden.

Next Pest control. Lets face it good old Mother Nature has already supplied us with the solution to our pest control problem. You just need to invite them to your yard. Think Bat houses or Purple Martin houses to help control those mosquitoes. Add natural hiding places for toads, frogs, and lizards. Then a tree or dense bush for birds. Song birds are great for getting rid of snails and slugs. For every problem insect there is something that eats them. Hit your local library to find the natural pest control for your problem bugs.

Monday, November 9, 2009

First A Little Confession Then a couple tips

Ok I admit it I've become a Facebook Addict! I love playing the free games! I'm up to 99 friends some are family members but the rest are new friends who love playing free games too. I've been having a great deal of fun. But silly me I have been ignoring my blogs so from now on I'm setting a timer and only playing for an hour. That way I can have time to blog and clean house too LOL.

Now for a couple of money saving environmental tips. Today we should discuss saving water. Everyone needs fresh clean water to stay alive. We literally can't live without it! Yet every day people use unnecessary chemicals which ends up polluting our water. Lets address two main pollutants that people voluntarily use.

The first is chemical fertilizers. The problem with this type of food for your plants and grass is two fold. First it is actually killing your soil! That's right! The more you use it the more you will have to use it because things like worms that live in your soil that naturally fertilize the lawn will die off or move to find food. The second problem is run off. When it rain or you use your sprinklers the chemicals run off into the storm drains and into the water ways. The excess of nutrients in the water can cause an Algae bloom which can kill off other organisms living in the water by denying them access to fresh air and sunlight.

The second is chemicals used in pest control. Now I address this once before when I was discussing the lack of fireflys in the spring and summer. I remember when I was a kid they were everywhere now it seems we are lucky to see one. The problem with using chemicals to control what we consider pests is that chemicals don't specialize. If you spray for mosquitoes you kill off other nighttime insects like fireflys. If you spray to kill insects that are eating your crops you also kill of the insects that are eating the insects you are trying to kill, not to mention the birds spiders, lizards and other insect eaters. Lastly these chemicals run off the fields and into the water, polluting rivers, streams, underground water sheds. There is no way to control where this poison will end up and even though they say its not harmful to humans, I don't see how it cant' be. Because even if it doesn't kill us out right its killing the environment we need to live slowly but surely.
Google