Whether you prefer a written or electronic budget, a budget is necessary.

It’s that time of the year.

Last week my husband got an alert that his card was used at a fast food restaurant, that we frequently go to, for $1.48. Granted, he did not inform me what was going on, but he locked his debit card just to see what would happen. I still ask myself why he didn’t just close it, but I know that’s just how he is.

A few days later he received an alert from our bank while he was at work. I was at home getting ready for work as well when someone tried my husbands card at another fast food restaurant twice, but this time they declined because my husbands card was locked. This time my husband was completely sure he did not overlook a purchase and immediately sent me a text informing me what happened and closed his card.

Fortunately, we budget every month and review weekly/daily or else he wouldn’t have noticed. Plus, we usually make purchases over $17 when we go to that place, so $1.48 was very fishy. We are not sure how this happened but we suspect that an employee there wrote down his card information. We are not sure who exactly since lately they’ve hired a bunch of new people and most of the faces there have been unfamiliar.

I want to express the importance of a budget because if we did not write down our expenses then $1.48 could have easily become a much larger purchase.

At first writing down your expenses and budgeting can feel like a chore but after a while it can become a good habit and you’ll notice you become more diligent in your finances.

Also, you can start anytime, you don’t have to wait until the new year to start.

Have you ever told the universe something was going to happen and then it actually happened?

It happens to me all the time. Whether it be negative or a positive experience, I strongly believe that if you put it out into the universe it is definitely going to happen.

I’ve had my car for about seven years now. I also tend to have terrible luck and get a flat tire every year or so. Every single time it’s because of a nail on the road that got stuck in my tire and caused the flat. 

At the beginning of 2020 I kept telling myself to make sure I put $500 aside so that I could cover the flat tire I was going to get in my car. You may think $500 is too much but I am a planner and I like to over budget than under budget. On February 3rd, I woke up to a flat tire in my husband’s car. I had to go to work so I took my car to work. I used to drive my husband’s car to my job because I worked an hour away and my car needed new brakes at the time and didn’t want any accidents if I can prevent it. My husband was off that day from work so he was able to change the tire to the spare. Luckily I remembered I had a warranty with Walmart for my tires. My husband and I ended up paying about $10 for them to fix my tire because it wasn’t irreparable. I was able to go to work on the fixed tire.

The next day..

The morning of February 4th, I was driving to work in my husband’s car and a car kept honking at me at a street light until I arrived at my destination. I kept wondering why the gentleman kept honking until I parked and got out of my car and saw the flat. I was extremely annoyed. I wasn’t angry, just annoyed. I asked my sister’s boyfriend, who works in my building, but in a different department, for assistance changing my tire. I work the night shift so I had to take off early that day because if I had worked my shift and got off at 11 p.m. everything would have been closed and I live an hour away from work. I got off when my sister’s friend was scheduled to get off since he works the morning shift. He helped me change my tire and off I went. 

I went back to the same Walmart since they would be aware of the flat they fixed the day before. It turned out that this time what caused the flat was that the tire valve was broken. The technician told me he wasn’t sure if it had broken when I had the flat and they just didn’t notice the day before or if I just had terrible luck. He was kind enough to fix the valve and tell me it was free of charge. 

I am forever grateful that nothing serious happened because the speed limit on 90% of my drive to work is 60 mph or above, if I had lost control of the car because of the flat I would not be here today. 

After reading everything above you’re probably thinking what does a flat tire have to do with the power of manifestation? Well, one thing I have learned, especially from my mentor, is that you can manifest anything into your life whether it be positive or negative. By telling myself that I was going to get a flat tire I brought upon a negative manifestation upon myself.

Recently my younger sister asked me if I believe in the power of manifestation and I immediately said yes! Of course, you know I told her the story about my flat tire. 

Two months ago, my husband and I started searching for a house and we did not get the offer, but I had forgotten about manifestation. We were also in the middle of selling our two bedroom, one bathroom house. We ended up closing on the sale of our house on August 10th. We had put in an offer on August 8th for another house we liked. My sisters helped me with manifesting it by writing it over and over in their cell phones. On the afternoon of August 10th we were informed that the seller accepted our offer on the house of my dreams.

We kept telling ourselves that this was it, our forever home. I believed it, my sisters believed it and my parents believed it. My husband was indifferent at first but when I shared my vision with him about this home, he saw it and believed it too.

We recently closed on the purchase of our new house on September 11th. Since we sold our old house we were able to put a 20% down payment and still have funds left for the closing costs and repairs of the new house and paid off two debts. My husband and I also couldn’t have done this without the support of my family. I am very grateful for their help and support through our journey. 

I strongly believe that the power of manifestation is real and can help you bring positive vibes into your life depending on how you use it. Of course, I still believe you also have to put some work into it, but it has worked for me and I hope my experience helps someone else.

I have been slacking on my fitness journey. 

I started out doing good. 

I stopped doing the Chloe Ting challenge on day 9. I then started going to our local school with my sisters and walked three miles every other day at 6 a.m. for about a week and a half and fell off the wagon. 

I just could not get up so early. I found it extremely difficult. It’s been about two weeks since we have stopped going to the school and I gained about 10 pounds since the last time I weighed myself. 

I would like to think it’s all muscle but I know it’s not. My clothes definitely feel smaller.

I also have a sedentary job and am currently working from home, so that may also play into the weight gain. I also have been eating out almost every day or every other day for dinner. I dont have the healthiest diet and by diet I mean that I don’t eat that healthy in general. 

It has been about two months since I started taking fiber supplements such as benefiber daily because my stomach was constantly upset with my milk intake. I drink the Benefiber every day with my coffee or orange juice. I am now doing much better in my digestion. 

I am concerned with my eating out intake but it is only temporary. I do enjoy baking but I have been feeling very lazy and have not felt like even doing that. 

On the bright side, my daughter started online school and that has been quite the adventure but here we are trying. I have also been working on decluttering my possessions some more and am working on self love and appreciating life more. 

Thank you for following along 🙂

I like to keep myself busy when I am not in a good headspace. For the most part I clean because cleaning makes me happy. However, recently I picked up something I like to call “color therapy.”

With “color therapy” I color and/or draw. I recently found that in a way it’s like meditation. When I color it’s like I put my feelings on paper. When you are sad, the drawing tends to look gloomy and when you are happy the drawing looks bright.

When I am sad, I challenge myself to make the colors look bright because I feel the satisfaction and it makes me feel calm when I have completed an entire page. I don’t spend a whole lot of money on my “color therapy.” I go to Dollar Tree to purchase a coloring book whose designs look appealing to me. 

I sit for a while. look at the type of drawing it is and go through my colored pencils. There are times that I pick out the colors I want to use beforehand and there are times that I like to wing it and go with the flow of whatever I feel like. 

“Color therapy” really helps me take mental breaks and clear my mind. Some may say I am escaping my problems, but I’d like to disagree. When I color I feel like I clear my mind so that when I am finished coloring I can think with more clarity to find a solution. 

This process may not work for everyone, but it works for me. I hope that sharing this helps someone going through a difficult time.

**Disclaimer: This Post is not sponsored by Dollar Tree.

First and foremost I would like to put a disclaimer that I eat what I want. I do not follow diets and do not care for them.

I would like to share with others what I am doing to be physically fit because I feel better about myself and I love the way it makes my body feel. I also want to document my fitness journey because of accountability so I don’t regress.

I started running when I was 8 years old. That year I ran my first 5 K in the 2nd grade. I felt so accomplished and I loved the feeling I would get when my blood was pumping and the oxygen going in my lungs even if I was utterly exhausted. I ran the 5 K every year from that year but I stopped in the 7th grade. In middle school a lot of my friends were not active and I could say it was laziness on my part but honestly it’s because I hated going to the doctor and didn’t want to get a physical done to be able to join athletics at my school. I dreaded the doctors office.

I didn’t take up running again until my senior year of high school and I joined our cross country team. I could run 3 miles in 30 minutes. I was always last place except for one of my races I was second to last. Why am I sharing this? Well, you see… I didn’t care that I was last place. I loved the feeling I would get when I ran and how energized my body felt afterwards.

I recently started running again about a month ago. I purchased a treadmill with my mother. At first I was running about once or twice a week. Now I am running at least 3 days a week. I also started doing ab exercises. When I first started doing crunches I couldn’t even lift my head off the floor, now I can. At first, I couldn’t even hold a plank for 5 seconds, now I can hold it for at least 30 seconds. At first, it took me 25 minutes to walk/run a mile, now I can do it in 15 minutes.

I know it sounds like I have absolutely no muscle or endurance. I haven’t worked out since before I married my husband almost 6 years ago. Even after I had our daughter I didn’t work out. I am 5 foot 3 inches tall and weighed 162.5 lbs as of May 21. I do not care for weighing myself but I will do so to document my journey.

I am doing this because I love myself and I want to stay healthy. I want to be able to run after my toddler. I also, want to be an example for her so she never doubts herself and her abilities so she knows she can do whatever she wants with her life.

My daughter looks up to me, I see it when I’m running on the treadmill and she tells me she wants to do it too. I see it when I am doing jumping jacks and she says she can do it too. I see it when my husband and I are doing sit ups and push ups and she says she can do it too. When she finishes she goes “I win!” It makes me so happy that she enjoys these activities with me. There’s no shame with wanting to be comfortable in your own skin and being happy with yourself.

I hope that you will follow along on this journey as well.

• Review health insurance plan yearly when it is enrollment time to make sure it fits my family’s needs
• Do my nails at home unless it is a special occasion
• I don’t use makeup (unless it’s a special occasion I purchase what I need)
• Communicate with daughter that we are not buying toys every time we go to the store
• Take care of my shoes by cleaning them often so they last longer
• Use reusable cups and straws when possible
• Go for a walk around neighborhood
• I don’t pay for Cable TV
• I gave up coffee
• Drink water instead of soft drinks
• Sell/Donate items that you no longer need if they are in good condition, otherwise discard
• I make a grocery list before going to the store and plan out weekly meals
• Have a weekly budget for fun money, once it is gone its gone
• Purchase good quality clothing that will last a long time
• Unsubscribe from emails from companies tempting me to buy things I don’t need
• Avoid fast fashion and purchase clothing one will actually wear in the long run
• Ask if there is a discount when paying in full and in cash (especially medical bills)
• Budget for birthdays and holidays in advance
• I budget monthly and review weekly (I use a written budget, some people use Excel, do what’s best for you)
• Be honest with Friends and Family when something is not in my budget
• When making purchases on non essential items always ask myself if I really need the item and if it will bring me joy bringing it into my home
• Budget for regular maintenance on vehicle
• Pay bills on time to avoid late fees (use auto pay if necessary – I pay mine about 2 to 3 days before the due date just in case it lands on a weekend to avoid my payment being processed late)
• Use coupons
• Check the add for grocery stores and make meals around the sales (I use the app called Flipp  so I can see all the adds in one place)
• Read Free books on the Amazon Kindle app (I have Amazon Student Prime Membership)
• I rent textbooks on Amazon instead of buying them 
• Watch free movies and shows on Prime Video
• Watch YouTube tutorials 
• Listen to Free Podcasts and Music on the Google Play Music app

**Disclaimer: This Post is not sponsored by Flipp, Google, Amazon or YouTube. These are solely my opinions.

This year I decided to give up coffee for lent. 

At first I felt miserable since my body depended on coffee for a year. I felt like I needed coffee to function. The first week I was so irritable and I had the worst headache. The world felt fuzzy and I felt like I was living in a dream… you know those dreams when you are awake but nothing feels real. 

After about two weeks I started to sleep better. I also tended to wake up earlier. Instead of needing 10 to 12 hours of sleep I started to only need about 7 to 8 hours. I felt like I got my appetite back and I started to eat healthier and crave more fruit instead of the usual coffee. I have learned that coffee had an opposite effect on me. Coffee actually makes me tired and sleepy. 

I no longer need coffee. Today Wednesday, April 15, I had my first coffee since lent started. It was a treat. I do not need coffee. It is a desert. There is nothing wrong about treating yourself. 

I am very grateful that I make mistakes and learn from them. 

This year, I learned that coffee has the opposite effect on me and makes me tired. I do not function well on lots of caffeine and I am no longer angry all the time. Before, I would be extremely cranky due to the exhaustion and would pick the smallest fights with my spouse. It is not fair to him or to myself. 

It is okay to consume with moderation. No, I am not just talking about coffee. I am also talking about television, food, etc… Take some time to reflect on what actually adds value to your life and make any changes that are necessary. Do it for yourself, doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks 

Thank you for reading 🙂

Even though I am not a super religious person I still participate in Lent every year. I always give up something that is hard for me to give up because it reminds me what I can live without.

In high school I used to eat a chocolate bar every day for lunch. For Lent in 2012 I gave up chocolate. For a whole 40 days I could not eat chocolate. At first It felt like torture, then I was filled with sadness, and soon after it just became something I got used to. Now, I eat chocolate every now and then, it is a treat or a desert. I no longer finish a whole chocolate bar by myself. Instead, I break off a piece and feel satisfied. I now only eat enough to satisfy my craving. 

In 2013 I gave up soda. It was the best decision I have ever made. I did not drink soda for a whole two years. When I drank my first soda two years later out of curiosity, the soda tasted disgusting. I could not believe that I used to put that in my body. I have learned that drinking soda is an acquired taste. I did eventually pick up the habit of drinking soda again but I only drink it on special occasions or the occasional craving. I no longer drink a soda every chance that I get. 

This year, I decided to give up coffee. I never used to drink coffee before 2016 because I did not like how it tastes. I like coffee that is sweet with like 10 spoonfuls of sugar (not really 10 spoonfuls but sure seems like it). I picked up the habit because at my old job my supervisor would ask me to pick up coffee for us on my way to work. So yes, I would get a coffee here and there, but it wasn’t enough for me to get addicted. I left that company in May 2019. Two days later I started my new job, where I work now. 

This is my first desk job and it can get very cold in the building. To be fair to the company I work for I’d like to point out that I am a very cold natured person and I get very cold easily. In this job I have picked up the habit of getting a coffee at each one of my 15 minute breaks. I started drinking about 3 coffees a day on my work days and one to two coffees at home on my days off. Around December 2019, I realized that I had developed this horrible habit so I started drinking some of my coffee with decaf. Even so, I still couldn’t shake the bad habit. 

Therefore, this year I decided to give up coffee for lent altogether. The first week I was miserable. Caffeine withdrawals are no joke. I had a headache for a week, I was exhausted and I was extremely cranky. I had to remind my husband that when I was mean to him it was because I was not feeling well and was taking it out on him. 

About a week and a half after Ash Wednesday I started feeling better. I was starting to feel like life was fuzzy and I was in a dream but the headaches were gone. I started falling asleep faster at the end of the day, almost as soon as my head hit the pillow. I would get about 7 to 8 hours of sleep and my body would start waking up automatically; there were days I would wake up before the alarm went off. I don’t feel the need to press snooze on my alarms like I used to. I wake up, drink water, get ready, get my daughter ready, I even eat breakfast with her most days, and I am in a better mood. 

I realized that drinking water in the mornings instead of coffee really gets my metabolism working. I also learned that I have clearer skin than I used to. I don’t get as much acne, I am happier and am no longer always tired and groggy. Giving up coffee this year has been the best decision I have made. I also learned that coffee doesn’t actually wake me up, it makes me tired and sleepy. I always felt too tired to play with my daughter on my days off unless I had coffee, but now I know that I was so tired BECAUSE I drank coffee. My daughter is the greatest gift I could have received from the universe. In these past few days I have learned that I feel like I now have more hours in the day to spend with her because I am no longer feeling like I have to rely on coffee to function. 

In my life Lent has been a period of my year when I get to give up something that I rely too much on and helps me see that nothing is terrible if consumed in moderation. It is okay to treat yourself once in a while and consume with moderation. 

It is not okay to feel like you cannot live without soda, chocolate or coffee or whatever it is that you feel like you are addicted to. It does not matter whether you are religious or not, I do believe we should all take some time to reflect on the things we put in our bodies and the things we bring into our lives and make sure that the people and things that we bring in our lives are there to help us be the best version of ourselves. 

Thank you for reading 🙂

I plan out my week, so I know when I will get things done and when I can relax. Every week I plan out when I will clean and what parts of my home I will clean. I also plan out my budget day, date night, meals, grocery day, even laundry day. If one day I don’t get everything done that I had planned, It’s okay, I can just always write it in another day of the week. 

Planning out my week gives me flexibility if unexpected things come up. This way I don’t feel anxious or overwhelmed when things don’t go as planned. 

My mentor also taught me the importance of combining my work life and personal life into one planner; I used to keep them separate. Ever since I started doing this, it has made my life easier. I am able to see when I have things planned at work, my home, time with daughter and husband, doctors and dentist appointments and when my bills are due all in one place. At first it can be overwhelming seeing everything written down in one place. After a while, you get in the habit of adjusting your schedule if needed and even end up finding time to have “me time.” 

Planning out my week has also created a routine that makes my life easier as well as my daughters, since kids love routines. 

My daughter used to feel a lot of separation anxiety but since we have this routine, she knows what I am doing and when. When I leave for work I let her know I am leaving, she walks me to the door, gives me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She knows what days I work, when I take her to school, and when I will go out with her. Of course she can’t read my planner, but it’s like she just knows since we repeat the cycle every week. The night before I even tell her what we are doing the next day if there’s any changes, especially before a doctors or dentist appointment. 

My husband knows he can just open up my planner if he wants to plan something or needs me to take care of our daughter when he goes out with friends. (We don’t like to get a babysitter for the sake of going out. I always feel so guilty going out and leaving my daughter in the care of someone else. We are lucky that mine and my moms schedule are flipped so someone in the family can watch my daughter while I go to work until my husband gets home a few hours later.) This also helps my husband because if he has any appointments I can write them down in my planner and I can remember to budget for the co-pay if it’s a doctor or dentist so it doesn’t come as a surprise later. 

Not every week looks the same, but most of them do. 

I hope this helps inspire you to plan out your week!

I LOVE TO CLEAN. CLEANING MAKES ME HAPPY.

I can’t remember when I first started wiping down my phone. I probably started about 5 or 6 years ago. I clean my phone at least once a week if I am not able to do it every day.

“Why?” You see because….

 When people go to their local pharmacy they’re usually going because they’re sick and need to purchase something over the counter or pick up a prescription for their cold or flu. There were times people would cough and sneeze as they were setting down their merchandise on the counter. Some people use their hands to cover it up but others don’t. Even if you do cover your mouth, chances are you still touch the product in your hand before you set it down on the checkout counter. Now, you coughed on the item, the cashier touched it, scanned it and bagged it for you. You then either pay with card or cash. When you pay with a card, you still touch the pinpad and so does the person that checks out after you. The next person that checks out at the counter probably touched the pinpad, their car handle, seat belt, steering wheel, doorknob to their home, cell phone, and whatever else they touch in their home before remembering to wash their hands if they are not used to washing their hands first thing when they get home from the store. 

No one I have met ever thinks about these things…

I don’t have control over who touches or cleans the pinpad at the store, but what I can control is how often I clean and disinfect the items that I touch everyday.

These are items I clean that I never read about or come up in conversations. I am not telling you this to freak you out. I am telling you this so we are all more mindful about taking care of our things and the people we love. 

1. Phone
   • At least once a week since you touch them and you put them up to your face when making phone calls (if you’re like me and don’t like to use speaker phone)

2. Headphones
   • This one depends on your usage, if you use them often you should probably clean them weekly, otherwise I think monthly would be fine. I say this because they go in your ear and when you put them away, you touch them with your hands

3. Remotes
   • Monthly or more often because everyone in your household touches them

4. Watches
   • I would clean this weekly as well since we use them daily, wear them, touch them and our arms sweat too.

5. Shoes 
   • Depends how dirty they get in between washes I like to wipe them down with a lysol wipe 
   • If you wear that pair of shoes to work everyday, I would clean them more often (maybe once a week) since they go everywhere with you
6. Pens
   • As often as you remember because people like to borrow pens and writing utensils and you don’t know when was the last time they washed their hands

7. Doorknobs
   • I clean these once a week because everyone touches them

8. Bathroom walls
   • If you clean your toilet, why shouldn’t you clean the walls too? 
   • I clean mine every week. I have a particular order for cleaning my restroom:

Mirror, Walls, Sink, Bathtub or Shower, Toilet, Floors

9. Doors
   • I clean mine once a week when I clean my doorknobs
   • Especially if you have a toddler because when they cant reach the doorknob they like to bang on the door and put their little fingers in their mouths sometimes

10. Toys
    • I like to disinfect them often, usually once a week

11. Toothbrushes 
    • Dip them in listerine weekly and let them soak in a cup

12. Toilet Brush
    • Soak in household cleaner in between uses 
    • I usually do this after I clean my toilet every week

13. Car Door Handle
    • Every time you clean your car
    • If you wash the outside, why can’t the inside be clean too?

14. Steering Wheel
    • Every time you clean your car or once a month

15. Gear Changer on Car (PRNDL) 
    • Every time you clean your car or once a month

16. Seat belts
    • Every time you clean your car or once a month

17. Toddler Toilet Seat
    •  I clean it after every use

18. Home Exercise Equipment
    • Every week, just because you’re the only one that uses it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t clean it