I Think I'm a Camel...

I think I retain water as soon as warm weather hits Alabama. And then the scale goes up 5 pounds. And then I am sad. Until the weather cools off again and I magically lose the 5 pounds just as magically as I gained them. This is my theory. Because it happened last year too. Or maybe I'm just a heifer and it takes 6 months for my eating habits to catch up with me. Either way, it's lame. Funny, though, because my body doesn't sense a need to "store fat for winter" and heifer up then. Perhaps it's the Panamanian Princess part of me coming out... The part that says, "I don't know how to heifer up at winter, since it wasn't cold there. But I know how to store water!" Of course, after 10 years, you'd think my body would figure it out, right? Anyway, I guess, given my seeming propensity for mice, it's a good thing I'm a camel and not an elephant ;)!

Last night I went to Home, Family, and Personal Enrichment at church with the Relief Society. We had two very awesome and practical and useful lessons. Followed by wonderful root beer floats with Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream (man, I'd forgotten just how great that stuff is). But, I digress (and have probably also given you guys reason to believe that I am not, in fact, a camel, but am instead a pig). The lessons were great. The first one was a general budgeting class. Just tips one lady gave on ways her family (with 10 children) has saved money and met their goal of staying out of debt. One of her tips was, "never buy new. There are plenty of people out there who get rid of practically new stuff." Thrift stores, garage sales, and looking in the ads are great ways of finding spectacular deals. I have to say Julie is very good at finding amazing deals at garage sales. If we lived closer, I'd be going with her... She knows how to find the treasures! Another tip was to learn how to do things yourself by reading. Many home-improvement projects can be done yourself, rather than hiring it out. Of course, it requires self-discipline. But, it saves a lot of money in the long run. Another good tip was for young mothers (which I hope to one day be a semi-young mother ;)). She said, "Don't buy your kids a bunch of toys. They'd rather play with you when they are young. Instead, invest that money for your child's future." Anyway, these were great tips, in my opinion. There were many others, but those were some big ones that stood out. Following that lesson, we had one on budgeting for meals and planning out meals. I have tried this before, somewhat. I think I want to try it again. I think it's also particularly effective if you have a family and your meals have to be bigger than 1 serving. This sister grocery shops once a month. So, she plans out her menu for the month -- about 25 meals -- and then keeps a list of what she needs for each of those meals. That way she gets everything at the grocery store that she needs, and she won't have to make extra trips -- which cost gas and, let's face it ladies, we all know we buy "extra" stuff each time we go to Wal-Mart. Anyway, she doesn't assign a meal to a specific day, that way she has options when she wakes up that morning and she can look over her list and say, "What do I feel like eating tonight?" Anyway, I think it's a good plan. I want to give it a whirl. So, those are just a few tips I picked up last night.

I have big plans for the future ;). I want to have a garden (I wonder what grows well in Washington?). I want to be a smart budgeter. I think I haven't done too badly here. And I will say that I agree with one of the the statements in the lesson taught by the first sister. She said that she feels that, if we have righteous desires and righteous goals (like staying out of debt), Heavenly Father will put things in our path to help us accomplish that goal and still have what we need. I too feel that is true. I have seen it in my life. When we show we are willing to sacrifice and don't have a burning desire to "keep up with the Joneses," we will have all our needs met and we will not have to go into debt for it. And, in my experience, I've found that I even have a lot of what I want too. I hope I am able to continue along this path so that I can be completely debt-free one day, and hopefully sooner than later!

Okay, that's about all I can really think of to say. It's Friday. I'm glad. I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow!

*And, Anna and Kira and Stacy guessed the movie quote correctly! (Anna -- I actually bought the movie thinking I might like it. It was $5 and I figured it's a "classic," and given other factors, I really expected that my opinion of it (which wasn't favorable before, either) might have changed with perspective. I watched it. I didn't like it. But, when I was watching it, I got my movie quotes, so I used one ;))*