The Zero Spend Challenge 2018

December, Christmas, New Years, parties, gatherings, gifts, food, restaurants.  December is one of those months in which the finances take a beating.  In December 2017 my husband and I spent a lot of money dining out with friends and family, not to mention Christmas.  When New Year's rolled around we took a hard look at our spending and decided we needed to reel it in.   In order to do that we took a zero spend challenge for January, which we later extended into February.  This is not our first go at a zero spend challenge.  We did one in October of 2015,  I blogged the entire process starting with "My October Challenge." http://cincynurse.blogspot.com/2015/09/  We are zero spend pros.  I did not invent the challenge, although I wish I had.  It is a really great way to assess what your spending habits are and what is really necessary to get by.

Someone asked me about the rules of a zero spend challenge.  I will list some below, although keep in mind that this can be as loose or as strict as one chooses it to be.  We were a lot more flexible this time around and our main focus was on dining out and entertainment.

The "rules"

1- Pay bills, mortgage, insurance, gas and electric, phone, TV, etc.
(Now would be a good time to evaluate these things.  Ask yourself, "Do I really need those premium channels?  I could go to the library for movie rentals. Am I paying to much for insurance, or perhaps not enough?  Can I get by with a cheaper phone plan, or ditch the land line?")

2- No dining out.  (We made an exception to this rule for our trip to West Virginia, where our daughter goes to college.  We also allowed our Sunday brunches. Mine is with my dad and I enjoy this time with him).

3-  We can buy limited groceries.  This is limited to fresh foods and dairy.  We allowed for healthy items, and decreased our bill quite a lot.

4-  Medical care and medicine is allowed no question!

5- Needed auto repairs and gas. (You need your car to be reliable.)

6- Entertainment.  We did go out some, but we strictly limited it to free, or already paid for.  This was tough because January and February are cold, long and boring.  ( I read a lot)

OUR SPENDING:
Our largest expenses; (green) for January was our daughter's tuition. (we list her expenses and accounts in quicken also, it is easier for her to track and balance in quicken)  In February, it was a major and necessary car repair.

Our utilities (orange) weren't too bad, $611 in January, and only $503 in February.  Pretty good considering this is electric too and it was cold.

Our dining (red) in January was only $303 and Feb. was only $232.  Much better considering our dining in December was almost $600.  (Our dining was $6975 in 2017!!!!!! This is one big reason we elected a zero spend.  This averages to almost $600 per month!!! This is why tracking your spending is so important.  It helps to see where your money is going so you can improve your habits.)

Our Entertainment was a mere $26 for all of January and February.  This doesn't mean we didn't do anything.  We had some wonderful experiences.  We saw Jeff Dunham, in Dayton, OH, with the tickets I bought my husband for Christmas.  We also did a mystery dinner with some great friends, which we bought at our get together in December through Groupon.  It was a corny great time!  In 2017 we spent nearly $160 per month,  $1928 for the year!!

Our groceries in 2017 totaled a whopping $9662 that's $878 per month.  In January our groceries were $533 and Feb. were $677.   Better, but up again in March as we made our trip to a wholesale club to buy paper products, which we find cheaper to buy in bulk.

We are really pleased about our low overall spending in the months of January and February and feel compelled to continue this trend.  I read about a couple who actually did a "no" spend year.  They didn't purchase anything unnecessary for a year.  They would stop before every purchase and ask themselves " is this a want or a need?"  They managed to pay off tens of thousands of debt.  I think this is key when trying to pay down debt or save.  Ask yourself that same thing whenever you're tempted to buy something.

I recently lost a lot of weight and I was going through the clothes I had, getting rid of all the things that no longer fit.  I was so ashamed of all the jeans I had, probably 12 pair in all that I hardly even wore.  Who needs that many pairs of jeans??  I had so many clothes, it was a sin.  I have decided that I won't do that again.  I will live with the bare minimum of what I need.  One of my co workers did a mission trip recently, to where I cannot recall, but she stated, " I loved it there.  I could live there.  They have very little, but they are so happy.  The people communicate with one another, they don't have cell phones.  They play together."

I think we get lost in the need for consumption and we forget what is really important. Also, I think we isolate ourselves from one another with the overuse of technology.  For me, it's my faith, family, friends, health, freedom, and experiences that I value most!  I don't regret only working part time most years when my kids were little, because that time was very short and I enjoyed so many experiences with them.  We could have had more money, a bigger house, a better car, nicer clothes, better vacations, but when all is said and done, how are those things more valuable than watching your child pet sharks at the aquarium, hitting a home run, going to school dances,  or being there when they come home from school with exciting news or bad news?

  Moving forward, I choose to "live simply, so that others may simply live".( Mother Teresa)  Who knows, maybe one day, I will take a mission trip like my co worker, it would certainly be a worthwhile experience.

How has your January, February and now March been?  What things can you cut back on and how can this improve your life and possibly the life of another?  What do you value?  Comment here!

Thanks for reading!

I Lost 70 pounds! How I did it, and how I feel now.

I was at work the other day and my good friend and colleague came
over to me and exclaimed, "I can't believe how thin you are getting,
you look so great!  I saw an old picture of you the other day, and you
have really come a long way."  I asked her to send me the picture because I deleted it, along with all my other pictures. (Which were rare because, I did not like to have my picture taken.)  (Yes, Morgan and Madisyn, you were right.) I am posting it here, because I think it is important to be honest with myself.  It's good to recognize that this wasn't a happy or healthy me. I am being real here.  I decided last year, to make real resolutions.  It was late January that I joined weight watchers.  I walked into that Saturday morning meeting at 730 am and I was angry!  I did not want to be there.  I was sad too, because I really did not want to feel deprived of food. I am a food addict.  Like any other addict, letting go is scary, and hard.  "Loosing weight is hard, being fat is hard, pick your hard!"  After the meeting a woman, (now a good friend to me), came over and said, "Hi, I'm Sherry, welcome." This really made a big impact on me.  I found a group of people that are super supportive, open and real.  I am just like all of them.  Our issues with food are so similar that we can relate to each others struggles.

 I went home and figured out the weight watchers (ww) app.  It is really easy and great!  I bought healthy food and I started to make small changes.  There were times when I thought I would quit, it was hard.  Connect was a huge impact for me.  Connect, if you're not familiar with ww, is an online sort of "facebook."  People share their stories of struggle and success.   It is incredibly relatable.  Times when I thought, "I want to eat," I could get on there and get some inspiration, or motivation.  I also found a recommendation for a book called, " It was Me All Along."  One of the best books I've read and really made a difference to me in this journey.  Something I read in the book was a story about a time when this woman was in Over Eaters Anonymous and she was feeling out of control and ready to binge and the sponsor she called said, "can you just wait until tomorrow and we can revisit this tomorrow?"  Okay, that hit me.  Like, whatever is getting to me, making me want to eat out of control, can I just put it aside until tomorrow.  Yeah, like we all know, sometimes what scares us in the dark of night, isn't so scary in the morning.

I was loosing weight steadily, until June and July of 2017 when I hit a roadblock.  I got the shingles at the end of May that affected my cranial and trigeminal nerves.  I suffered vertigo and severe migraines.  I couldn't move.  I couldn't drive myself.  I was at a stand still with my weight loss and it was scary and frustrating.  Anyone who has ever battled with weight loss knows that gaining weight back and the thought of it is extremely frightening.  My husband recognized this and he said, "you aren't doing anything.  You aren't working or moving, because you're sick and once you start moving again, it will come off." I also had two women consistently texting me from my ww group.  Them checking in routinely and my husbands support really helped me get through that tough time.

I came across a video by James Smith.   He has a blog and he is a big fitness guy from Australia.  He did a video about women and weight loss.  It's called "The Unspoken Elements of Female Fat Loss."  You can find it on Facebook.  I watched that video 3-4 times.  I also shared it on my Facebook page several times.  The key take away for me was, "women who increase protein in their diet and add resistance training, do much better with weight loss and they keep it off longer."   I had an aha moment.  I couldn't run or walk far really, but I could sit on my weight machine and lift weights.  I started small.  I do not intend to be a body builder.  I just want to loose weight and tone and have some strength as I edge into my 50's.  I also concentrated on eating fewer carbs and more protein.  After about two weeks of this, I started noticing the weight coming off faster.  I was onto something.

I continued to improve in my health and since I signed up for the "Flying Pig" half marathon, I started to walk on the treadmill.  In October, I added some light running to my routine.  My weight continued to fall.  Now, with weight watchers, I never did feel deprived of anything.  If I knew we were going somewhere, I would eat less throughout the week so I could enjoy a beer or two or eat a piece of cake.  This new ww program is livable.  It is something I could and really have to do forever.  I have to go and be accountable, just like someone in AA.  I'm in WW.  I am an addict.  Like Randall from "This is Us" says, "We all have our stuff."

So my weight loss breaks down like this:
Feb 2017- 13.6
Mar - 8.4
April- 11.4
May- 8.4
June- 4.6
July- 0.2
Aug -4.0
Sept- 5.0
Oct-  0.8
Nov-5.6
Dec- (+ .8) this is when the plan changed and Christmas!!
Jan 2018- -8.8 (I had the flu and lost 4.4 pounds the week after, since this beginning of this post, I have gained back some of that in January, but I know I will get it off.)

Now, if you add this up and it doesn't come to 70, I probably made a mistake somewhere.  There are definitely some ups and downs, but I am happy with the consistency of it.  The less I have to lose, the harder it is.  I am really looking at the food I eat.  I am buying more organic foods and cutting out processed foods.  I am eating meatless meals two days a week.  I am eating beans, that's right folks, beans!  If you know me, you know this is huge.  I don't eat kidney beans and I never will.  But, I tried and like garbanzo beans and broad beans and black beans.  I am trying new recipes,  like I made a fantastic Taco soup, that everyone in the house loves.  I am eating more fruits and veggies.  I read a book recently called "Medical Medium" and it's a real eye opener about food and things we should eat, like lemons and celery daily, and things we should never eat, including eggs!  GASP!! I know shocker, they are a source of tumors and cysts.  I highly recommend this book as well as a short movie called "Forks over Knives."

Now onto what my routine is:
I follow weight watchers and track my food daily.  (Even if I am over, I track)
I exercise 4 days or more a week. This consists of walking/ running on the treadmill, until the weather improves for at least 35-60 minutes.
I lift weights 3 times a week (A 90 year old women said this, "Strong arms and legs is what gets you on and off the toilet when you are 90 years old!")  If that doesn't motivate you, I don't know what will.
I do planks daily,  I hate them, but I swear those suckers work!!
I stretch three days a week, especially my back, I should probably do this more often.
I have signed up to walk the Flying Pig half and I will also do the Queen Bee half. ( I do this to keep me moving and motivated, also, the Queen Bee is a ton of fun, and so is the Pig!)

I do not deprive myself, I believe that leads to overindulgence.  If I want something, I plan for it, so that I eat healthy most of the week and splurge a little on the weekends.  I am also able to do so many more things that I couldn't do before.  I went kayaking for the first time ever and loved it!  I also did some serious hiking and zip-lining! 

I have a goal to meet my weight loss goal by my 50th birthday.  So about 15 more pounds to loose.

 So there it is, the raw truth!  I am not perfect in this and I will probably always struggle.  A woman at ww last weekend said this, "we have been gifted this one body,  it's a sacred thing really, and it's the only one we get.  Think about that every time you put something in your mouth."

I would love your feedback, comment below.  Follow me next month as the zero spend challenge extends into February and I share the rules that we follow and sometimes break.  I will share our spending and saving.

2018! How'd that happen??

Here it is, 2018!!  I cannot believe how time flies.  Do you remember when you graduated from high school?  I do, 1986.  And now here we are in a whole new decade, thirty years later and wow, I am about to be 50!  That's right, half of 100.  If it seems like I am rambling, I am. 
Last year,  I looked at my life in a whole new light.  My beautiful and strong, sister in law was coming off of a diagnosis of colon cancer and my father in law had just died rather suddenly.  It shook me really, the fact that at any moment the life you once knew could be ripped away from you.  Now, I am not saying this to scare you, or to make you think the "sky is falling."  I am just saying, these two things really woke me up and caused me to answer one question.  "Am I really living?" The answer was "no, I was not."  I simply existed.  I was unhealthy and I was not doing all the things I dreamed of doing in my life.  I decided at that moment, my life would change.  I made a list of goals for 2017,  only this time, I didn't just say things like "I'm going to loose weight."  This time, I made the goals I wanted to achieve specific, with details about how I would accomplish each step.  I had read that "a goal is only a wish," if you don't write it down and make it measurable.   My process worked for me.  I had several goals,  including: weight loss, money to save, walking a half marathon, attending church weekly, etc.  At the end of 2017, I am happy to report that I have accomplished nearly 90% of what I set out to do. 2017 I enjoyed life to the fullest.  I zip-lined, hiked, re-kindled old friendships, photographed, read, wrote, traveled and lived!

Now that 2018 is here, I have written my goals once again.  This year, I made a vision board.  I included all the things I hope to accomplish in the coming year and I put that board on the desk in the kitchen so I can see it every day.  Our first task this year was to have a zero spend challenge in the month of January.   It is going incredibly well.  My husband who is a good sport, even let me cut his hair.  I did spend some money the weekend I took my daughter back to college for food and gas, but that was deemed necessary.  We had a nice date last weekend because of a Christmas gift.  January is a long month not to spend any money, but we don't feel like we are missing out on anything and after Christmas, it's a great way to reel in the spending for the new year.  Since this month is going so well, we may even try to include February in our no spend challenge.

My goals for 2018:

Reach my weight loss goal by my 50th birthday
Save for a new/used car
Clean out all the rooms in the house, one per month de-clutter
Huge garage sale and donate what's left in the spring
Zero spend January and June  (recently added February)
Blog monthly
Flicker
flying pig and queen bee half marathons ( I am already signed up for the Pig)
walk/run 3 times a week
strength and stretch 3 times a week
Church on Sunday
Read a book a month
Join or start a book club

"You'll seldom experience regret for anything that you've done.  It is what you haven't done that will torment you." Wayne Dyer

How about you?  What are your New Year's resolutions?  Share them here.
Follow me next month to read about how I lost 70 pounds.
Happy New Year!!