I just realized it is almost 7 PM CST, and I haven’t really accomplished anything I wanted to today.  Do you have those days?  I wish I could blame it on the pain that has plagued me for the last month, but some time in the day I just simply lost track of time.   Today has been my first Manic Monday in quite a long time.  I have a love/hate relationship with Manic Mondays, but any day I’m still here is a good day so I won’t complain!

I started out on a positive note about 6:30 AM after a truly decent night of sleep, and went through some massively ignored e-mail.  I had a mental to-do list that was quite extensive.  I was going to plow through the prodigious piles of magazines and coupons and other papers that clutter my kitchen and every table surface in my living spaces in my home.  I know my husband’s tired of it, I’m tired of it, and it is embarrassing for my parents to pop in (they live next door) because I KNOW they think I’m a terrible housekeeper.  I’m not the best, but I’m not trashy and I don’t want to end up on the next episode of Hoarders or Intervention!  I cringed when they first advertised Hoarders because I just knew my dad would be on the phone calling them about me when he saw my coupon stockpile!

We ran a couple of errands.  We made a trip to Dollar Tree and the grocery store to pick up a few things that were going off sale today, and also to get a FreeCycle computer monitor for my husband from a really generous man I’ll be telling you more about later this week.  That was the point where my day went off-kilter and I knew I was in for a long night.  We decided that, since I had a coupon and we don’t “do” Valentine’s day, we would have lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant which happens to be next door to Dollar Tree.  I refuse to eat dinner out most of the time because lunch prices are much more reasonable and the portions are too, epsecially at this particular establishment.  What cost us $10 today would have cost us $30 (without the coupon) tonight.  

The errands that should have taken an hour and a half, tops, took about 3 1/2 since we ate and went to Walgreens.  I also splurged on a bag of 50% off all-cherry jellybeans there, and they are so good! It’s all cherry but theres all different kinds of cherry flavors like cherry vanilla, cherry cola, cherry cheesecake, and a bunch more.  I wouldn’t pay full price for them before Valentine’s Day but I happily paid for them today with some Register Rewards.  See?  Im running off on another tangent again.  OK, I’m back. 

When I realized how late it was, I decided I’m going to have to make some changes with the way I think, the way I manage time, and the way I run this site.  I am not accomplishing the things I set out to do when I started blogging, and now that we’re growing a little bigger and I have a few professional obligations as well as my biggest obligation to you all I need to set myself up to succeed with more of a plan than I set out with in the beginning.  In the beginning, there was no plan and there was no idea where this would go.  I had no ideas of the possibilities that were out there for me, and Im still discovering those!  I’m excited to set new goals, get new things going, finish the old things, and meet new people…all of you!  So tonight I’m going to really sit down and set some goals.  I’ll get back to you when I figure out what they are and how I will reach those goals.

I started my blog as a hobby with the intent of helping hopefully a few people learn from my financial blunders of my early 20’s.  It was also a way to give myself some accountability so that I wouldn’t make those mistakes anymore.  Traps are easy to fall back into, whether youre celebrating a major milestone and need to buy that one special thing or you’re depressed and want to buy yourself a special “pick-me-up”.  I don’t want to go there again.  I’m GOOD at saving money when I shop.  When I have time to plan, and have time to get organized and calmly shop without distraction I can come out with $100 worth of stuff and have paid $4 for the entire transaction including tax.  I’ve done it, and I love it, but it takes work and dedication.  I want to show  others how they can do it too, and give everyone who will listen the knowledge and the power to do that so they aren’t spending a penny more than they have to.    My mission is simple:  I want to spend what time I have left on Earth helping others to discover easy ways to live happily spending less while gaining a richer quality of life.  I know from experience that once you learn how, it’s fun to see how inexpensively you can live.  

So today was my Manic Monday.  If you want to take a nostalgia break, listen to the song (above) and enjoy that trip back to the 80’s.  I was too young to appreciate the words back then, but I’ve lived them in my adulthood.  I wanted to let you know that I will hopefully have a more normal posting week, other than today, than I have had in the past month.  No more out of town trips are planned, I only have 1 doctor’s appointment on the books, and other than my pain there’s no other big battles going on. 

My posting will be done throughout the night, at least for now.  It will be scattered between then and late afternoon.  With my personal medical issues, that’s just the time I have to dedicate to this.  I sleep weird, and it’s hard to explain because when I get used to it something changes.   You will only get 1 e-mail daily from me if you subscribe, so you should check throughout the day to see what else I have posted in case you miss something   Around here, you never know.

Thank you for reading my mental breakdown, if you’re still around   I want to let you know what I’m sincerely trying to accomplish and also what’s going on in my life so that when you dont see the things you see other places you know my reasons.  I’d love to be as involved, and I will be, with things as a lot of other bloggers but at this moment in time I’m having to deal with medical issues that I haven’t had to deal with in awhile.  Hopefully my next doctor’s appointment will alleviate all of that.  That may be TMI for you all but I have gotten a few e-mails from a lot of you who are in the same boat as I’m in, and I welcome any and all of you who wish to e-mail me to go ahead.  I’m more than happy to share stories and get to know any of you who want to talk about what you go through!  I’ll gladly try to help you research those programs I speak about that help you find ways to pay for medical care as well. 

So have you had a Manic Monday or another day you dread or is hectic?  Share your story! Make me feel better!

If you have e-mailed me within the last week, I will have gotten back with you within 48 hours.  Our internet was horrible last week so I am really behind checking that account!  I’m so so sorry!

For those of you who are new around here, I rant occasionally!  Today was my day.  I like to occasionally share withyou my thoughts and stressers, and I end up with some awesome feeback from a lot of you oon ways to reduce it or fix it, or tips for some really good blog posts!  Keep ‘em coming! 

You can e-mail me at makingcentsoutoflife (at) gmail (dot) com.   That is the account I check most often, so if you send an e-mail to one of my othe accounts please don’t get discouraged if you don’t hear from me quickly.  I do check the others but only a few times a week.

For those of you who have e-mailed me with ideas for posts, I’m working on them.  I will be finishing up series and promised posts within the next month so all lose ends are tied.  Blog design will be redone soon, and I’ll have tutorials up as well for those of you who need help from the ground up! 

One BIG goal I have is for the look and feel of this place to be totally different in 60 days, from the look of the site to the ease of navigation and hopefully it’s just gonna flat out be a better site.  Fingers crossed, God willing!

OK.  Rant over, Manic Monday has 4 more hours and I am off to make the most of them.  I hope I can stay awake that long!