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Money. There's never enough, right?

I'll admit that we have not been very focused on saving money or paying down our debts. In fact, we really haven't been paying much attention to money at all. So, to achieve some of the items on my list, our attitude toward money has to change. I need to be more mindful of where our money is being spent.

To get started, I've been pouring over our bank statements. Let me tell you, it is not a fun task for a few reasons. One reason is that such a task is just plain boring. The other reason is that it is quite an eye-opening exercise, and its not fun to look at evidence suggesting you're irresponsible with your money and spend entirely too much money eating out. Of course, I already knew we spent too much money on eating out and other frivolous items, but only in an abstract sort of way. To actually look at the numbers is another experience entirely, and not one that I'm finding enjoyable.

It is, however, the reality check that we need to give us the motivation required to be truly mindful of our pennies. I'm using the information contained in our old bank statements to make a realistic budget. Having a strict budget is of no use if it is too unrealistic to maintain.

A big reason we should start becoming more mindful of our money over the next few months is our upcoming trips. Our joint vacation to Orlando is in December and I'll be spending a 12 days in Italy with my classmates in March. Obviously, those trips costs money and we'll want to have some spending money as well! That is a large motivator to become more disciplined, along with our desire to get more debts paid off.

I'm not sure if I want to share our budget on the blog, but I'll definitely talk about the process of creating the budget and some of the ideas we come up with to help us to stick to it.

Now I suppose it's back to pouring over those bank statements! I hope that before the weekend is out, I'll have achieved my goal of creating a realistic budget.

A Weekend of Firsts

Last weekend was very productive in terms of crossing items of the list! It wasn't actually productive, in that I didn't get any work or homework done whatsoever, but I did have a lot of fun. It was a three day weekend, and Joe was off too, which is a rarity.

First - Oklahoma Joe's. It's a true Kansas City legend, and I'd never eaten there despite living less than 5 miles from the place for most of my life. So, we ate lunch there on Friday. It was the best barbecue I've ever eaten, hands down. It's hard to imagine that a restaurant located in a gas station could be so amazing, but the line snaking out of the door was my first indication that we were in for some great food.

I ordered the Z-man, which was a brisket sandwich with melted provolone cheese, two onion rings, and sauce. I chose baked beans for the side. Joe ordered fries as his side, so we were able to try both the beans and fries. Of course, it wouldn't have been complete with a Boulevard. YUM! I can't believe I waited this long to eat this delicious barbecue, not only because of its fame, but because it was simply delicious! I even found it to be photograph worthy.

Later that afternoon, I attempted to accomplish my goal of riding in a hot air balloon. The Great Midwest Balloon Fest was held over the weekend, and we decided to check it out! There was a lot of music, food, drinks, and hot air balloon and kite related stuff. Sadly, the weather decided I shouldn't get to ride in a balloon. The wind gusts were too strong, deeming the balloons unsafe to operate. We still had a great time at the Great Midwest Balloon Fest. Several pilots, despite their inability to fly, inflated their balloons to demonstrate the balloon glow we'd all been hoping to witness. It was a great time watching them all inflate and glow the balloons, but it was disappointing not to fly in one! Here's a great photo of the balloon glow at the end of the night.

Saturday morning, we headed out to City Market. I know its hard to believe, but I'd never been to City Market, or any other farmer's market for that matter. It was fantastic! There were so many vendors with fresh, organic produce. It was packed full of people making their purchases. If I could change one thing about our morning, it would have been the hot weather. But there's not much you can do about Kansas City summers.

I was very excited about several of our finds at the market. The bubble tea shop was a welcome distraction to to extreme heat. I love iced bubble tea, but have had a hard time finding anything expect frozen bubble tea here in Kansas City. I was able to order an iced mango bubble tea. It was great, and it almost made me feel as if I were back in Boston walking around Quincy Market. In additional to our great produce, we found some great homemade french bread and apple butter. So our pup didn't feel left out, we also bought him some doggie treats, which he inhaled as soon as we let him.

The most exciting find at the market was my most favorite chocolate, milka. It was introduced to me by a student, Patrizia. She is from Austria, and in Boston, she was so excited to find the sweet treat from home at the store next to our hostel. She purchased several different kinds, and I was hooked! Naturally, I was beyond excited to find it right here in Kansas City. The most interesting of all is that we found it in a store that sold middle eastern goods like homemade hummus and pita bread, spices, and things like that. For some reason, they also sell German chocolate. While its an odd place to find it, I'm certainly not complaining. The entire bar was gone the next afternoon.

Unfortunately, I don't have a photo, but we also unleashed our inner geeks and purchased a Harry Potter lego set. Our mini version of the Hogwarts Express is pretty fantastic, and surprisingly not too difficult to put together. Tonight, we will see the last of the films. It's hard to imagine the books and movies that I've followed for the last 12 years of my life is actually wrapping up. Not to worry, we have our trip to the Wizarding World in December!

So, that was my weekend of accomplishment. There are several things on my list that I've been able to complete. I've been focusing on the fun stuff for quite some time, so I should probably switch my focus to some of the more serious (financial, etc.) goals for a while.

Health and (lack of) Fitness

Health and Fitness. Ugh.

This is not an easy subject for me because for most of my life, it wasn't an issue. In high school, I was pretty hot stuff. Not to be conceited, but I think I was an attractive person. I was also very active and really tried to look my best every day.

Now, I'm no where close to having hottie status. I don't think I'm attractive looking at all. I've gained a considerable amount of weight over the last couple of years and I'm very depressed about the way I look and feel. Yet so far, I've been all talk and no action when it comes to fixing that problem.

I need to take charge of my own health and do something to lose this weight. For that reason, so many of my 101 goals are fitness related.To get started, I've recently started Weight Watchers. I've also got a temporary membership to the local YMCA to try out some of the fitness classes and kick it up a notch in terms of exercise.

Let's just say that I've got a really long way to go, and most of my fitness goals (marathon, what?!?) are not very realistic.

On the other hand, it doesn't mean the goals aren't attainable, and this list isn't about making goals you already know you can accomplish. It's about reaching farther than you thought possible, so it's time to really tackle the most frightening set of goals on this list!

I am activating my YMCA membership over the weekend so I'll let you know how it goes!