Fitness Fridays: March Calendar

March has officially creeped itself into the picture :/. It's the month that I'll be implementing all my crazy life changes so we'll see how that goes!

For today's post I wanted to go ahead and post my booty workout/challenge I'll be doing. I'll probably be doing these right when I get home from work. I feel like when I just get home from work, I'm still running off that high of running around all day. On the days that I work the late shift, I'll probably do these right when I get up, that way I can hop into the shower right after and get the day started.

sorry this is so small. i was having technical difficulties lol

Feel free to join me this month and get your booty into shape!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Money Mondays: February Check-up

It's that time of the month again when we take a look at how we're doing in terms of spending. Looking at the total, it's a tad more than I'd like to have spent. I have to prepare for some high spending events at the end of February so I'd like to have a good chunk saved up. However, around this time last month I was already past $1,000 so this month is a bit of a improvement but we'll have to see how the entire month comes out. Until then, how is your February budget panning out?

Less than 15 days to go until the end of the month! Let's make it under $1200 this month!

2015 Goals: Fitness Fridays

One of my big goals this year is to start working out. I've been doing a lot of Pinterest-ing and I've found some really good stuff. First off, I'm going to say I'm definitely no expert in regards to fitness. If anything I'm currently being awarded the "Sloth of the Year" award. I haven't worked out since I've moved to San Diego O_O. So yeah... I thought I'd make a real effort to work out this year.

Fitness Membership

I bought a Groupon for a barre workout place that's walking distance from our apartment. It's 1 month of unlimited use. Plus, under the conditions it states that I can purchase and use the same Groupon every 6 months so if I really enjoy this place, I can purchase another Groupon in 6 months. This place sounds really promising so I'm excited. Right now I'm planning to start using the service in April (but we'll see). 

Calendar of Fitness

So I've been trying to plan a simple workout to start in March. I've basically looked online and I actually found a site with a really great Fitness Tracker you can just print out. They even have some 30 day challenges like squats, wall sit, plank, etc. If you're more on the lazy side and can only commit to one thing a month, this might be a good option for you. 

Start Small

I've been slowly trying to integrate exercises into my daily activities, especially when I'm sitting at the couch watching television. I usually try to do some arm exercises with dumbbells or leg raises with some ankle weights.

Research 

The hardest part of starting is that I basically have no idea what exercises to do. I've been pinning a crap load of stuff but videos are even more helpful if you're short on time. For instance, I'm trying to tone my arms (living in Southern California, you can pretty much wear a tank top every single day of the year) and I actually found this pretty good 10-minute Tone: Arm Workout. I'll be doing an arm workout as well as a butt challenge for March and I'll post more about it next week. 

Hope everyone's week has been going well and TGIF!

Whether you love or hate Valentine's Day, make an effort to love and appreciate yourself. 

No matter what has happened up until this point, you've survived! Just keep swimming.

Have a great weekend!

Money Mondays: January 2015 Budget Verdict

January is officially over! Can't believe how fast it has flown by. Now is the time to take a look at your January spending and do some analyzing.

First off, let's look at how much we had to work with. For the month of January, I took home approximately $3,000 biweekly after taxes. For me, I did the 50-25-25 rule so 50% towards debt, 25% towards savings, and 25% towards fun. However, I was also paying off a lot of holiday debt this month (spending due to the holidays, ie,, presents, etc). My 50% towards debt doesn't include my credit cards; the 50% of my income towards debt goes straight towards paying off my loans. The 25% towards "fun" represents all of my credit card debt whether it's bills that I have to pay or clothes or eating out. I figure it's easier this way since I'm trying to pay off my student loans ASAP and I don't usually spend that much money on myself anyways. Here's how everything was came out.

Based on the 50-25-25 rule, I would've had $3,000 to go towards debt which is just going towards my loans so I ended up exceeding that by about $500 dollars. I was just a tad short of saving the "budgeted" amount. With that being said, that left me with about $1,000 to spend on "fun" stuff rather than the budgeted $1,500.

For January, I also didn't have to pay rent since we switch off paying rent so we don't have to write a billion checks. But that also means I should have saved enough rent money for February. Luckily I had enough money to cover rent for February without having to dig into my savings.

I would say I was pretty successful this month with keeping to my budget. However I do get a little anxious knowing that every single dollar is accounted for and that there is no "cushion". I feel like maybe I should subtract out a couple hundred dollars to account for emergencies/unexpected purchases. I like having a little cushion in my checking account just in case. It's a work in progress this budgeting thing so hopefully it will get easier!

Hope everyone stuck to their January budgets! Whatever goals you want to accomplish this year, I hope you're all on your way!

Get Going With Me! A Typical Errand Day

8:00am
I thought I'd let you have a sneak peak into an average errand day/day off in my life. I'm hoping that because I'm working on this post, it'll actually make more productive. Already started off the morning in bed reading thru all my emails and writing down a list of to-do's for the day.

Since it's payday for me, I've already gone ahead and divvied up my paycheck into its respective categories. I had some money left over in my account last month ($2,955.16 minus rent $1,320 = $1,635.16). My automatic loan payment which is $1,506.60 is taken out mid month so that is completely covered by the remaining amount on my account (leaving me with $128.56). My first paycheck for February came out to $2,443.52. Half ($1,221.76) goes to debt, a quarter ($610.88) goes to savings, and a quarter goes towards fun. I went ahead and already set up a transfer to my savings. So Friday finances are in check!

Next up, tackling the to-do list. First up, taking down the Christmas decorations. You're probably thinking "It's the beginning of February and you still have your Christmas decorations up?!". Yes, I do lol. I was trying to make up for the lack of Christmas celebrating in December due to the move so I moved all the Christmas celebrating to January. That was kind of a fail because it definitely doesn't feel the same. So now it's time to clean up that mess.

Done.

Time for a potty break. I like to multitask so when it comes to a bathroom break, I'm usually browsing my Facebook feed. I came across a great article today and it behooves you to read it. Here is an excerpt:

Be old school. Don’t whine, complain or wish you were elsewhere. You are where you are for a good reason. What we have and where we are right now is where we deserve to be – good or bad. But this is not where we’re going to end up. Keep pushing. Whatever you want to accomplish in life, whether it be a career, family or general hustle. Focus. Let nothing stand in your way: not even jealousy, laziness or our burning desire to complain.

9:49am
Shiz nizzles! Is it almost 10am already? Time to make the bed and get dressed. Nothing slows down the "getting out of the house" process more than being in your robe. There are days where I can literally sit in my robe and watch Netflix until the day has just flown by. Not today. Let's get out and be productive!

....

Ok, maybe just breakfast with half an episode on Gilmore Girls... it IS my day off :P.


11:16am
Fixing myself some lunch before I head out. Trying not to eat out so often and plus it's never a good idea to run errands on an empty stomach. Don't want to be on the road hangry.

1:10pm
Just woke up from a nap. Food coma hit me hard. Time to get ready to go out!


4:07pm
Just got back from Fashion Valley. My phone battery was dying about 5 hours into the day even after a full charge so I took it back to the Apple Store and they were able to replace my battery free of charge (I'm not sure if this was part of their warranty since they had that recall recently or part of my Apple Care). After that I went over to Sephora. I recently used up my Stila Liquid eyeliner as well as the Kat Von D Tattoo Liner. I actually didn't like the Kat Von D liner at all. I liked the brush but for some reason the liquid didn't come out :(. The Stila liquid eyeliner was great until the felt tip brush got super nasty. If they could just combine the two that would be lovely! Now that those two liquid liners are done, I'm going back to using my Bobbi Brown gel liner. It's a little bit dried up :/. I was using the Bobbi Brown brush that came with it but I didn't like the brush so I ended up purchasing 2 Sephora eyeliner brushes as well as a daily brush cleaner.

4:30pm
Time to test out this brush cleaner. It's been a super long time since I've washed my brushes :/.

5:06pm
Heading out to Happy Hour at Craft and Commerce.

7:18pm
Back at the apartment cooking dinner and eating.


9:16pm
TKO.

Tasty Tuesdays: Noodle Dishes

If I had to eat one staple for the rest of my life, it'd probably have to be noodles. I remember back in my college days I would eat 2 bags of Happy Mie (this brand of dry instant noodles) every day. This probably wasn't the healthiest of diets but it's now time to change that. I've been Pinterest-ing quite a few noodle dishes. Hopefully I'll get a chance to make these soon because they look friggin delish!

1. Dan Dan Noodles (link)

2. Easy Lo Mein (link)

3. Beef Chow Fun (link)

4. CPK's Kung Pao Chicken Copycat (link)

5. Drunken Noodles (link)

6. Chicken Pad Thai (link)

7. Pad See Ew (link)

8. Singapore Noodles (link)

9. Black Pepper Stir-Fried Noodles (link)

10. Yaki Udon (link)

Hope you enjoyed these recipes! I know I will when I do start cooking these! 

I'm salivating just posting these pictures! Have a great week!

note: all photos belong to their rightful owners. please click on link to see original recipe.