Money Smart Moms

Investments in Precious Metals

The feds are about to cut the interest rates again. They’re trying to boost the economy. Lots of stocks are taking a fall, and Yahoo just posted they had a loss and are laying off 1,000 employees. Each day I read about another company posting a loss. I think Kraft was the other one I read about today. When you’re investing, there’s no guarantee stocks will hold their value. One place you might want to consider investing is in precious metals. I’m talking about gold, silver and platinum. Precious metals are a value that everyone in the world values, so while some local stocks in the US may be falling, there’s world market out there. Precious metals are valuable to everyone, so everyone wants to own them. They are a great asset to your portfolio. If you’d like to learn more about investing in precious metals, along with getting great prices, than make your first stop Monex.com.

I’m Ready to Start

I’m starting a body challenge that kicks off on Thursday officially. We had the meeting last night, so I’m all ready in full mode in my head, but because some people are new to clean eating and exercise, it allows a few days of prep. I’m excited to measure and see what I can do in 12 weeks. I’ve been working out the past 16 weeks and the changes have been nice. I’m all ready following clean eating, but now I’ll be changing one or two things, and I’m hoping it will keep me going.

Wish me luck, because I’m ready to take this thing on head first and be victorious!

Time Keeps Moving

My mom has been feeling achy all over lately, and other things she mentioned had me thinking of fibromyalgia. I had a friend who had fibromyalgia and she spoke of her body always being uncomfortable and continual aches and pains. Since my mom is in her 60’s the other thing that came to my mind was an arthritis. It’s something she needs to go to her family doctor for if she doesn’t find relief. As my mom is inching to the middle of her 60’s, I always worry more and more about her health.

My dad died at 63, and though that was early, it’s in the back of my mind. My mom turns 65 this year, and she’s basically in good health, so she should be with me for another 10 years, I hope. It’s life, our parents worry about us while we’re young, and then we end up worrying about our parents as they get older.

Dannon All Natural

My yogurt is on sale this week, and it saves me 50 cents per container! I bought as much as I could. and it kills me knowing the price will double again come Sunday. It’s only dated for about 2 weeks out, so it’s not like I can buy tons and tons of it. I hate knowing I’ll pay double again! I loved seeing it at the low price of .39!

On the other hand, I wish my Larabars would go on sale. They run $1.79 each at the little store near me. Oh my gosh, I spent $40 stocking up on them! Ouch! I think I’m going to see if I can find them cheaper online. I got them on sale at another store for $1.39 last week, and just think, that .40 difference with 20 bars is an $8.00 difference! I hope Amazon, or maybe the food company themselves sell them cheaper. It’s time to go searching. I walked out of the health food store with two tiny bags, holding 20 bars, and the cost of that was astounding!

Trista Trims Down After her Baby

I was reading an article in US Magazine this week about Trista, and how she lost weight after having her baby. Remember Trista from “The Bachelorette”, and she ended up marrying Ryan? They still follow her time to time in the magazines, and lately, she’s looking fabulous. She’s changed her eating and is working out with a trainer. I’m doing that too right now, so it feels good to see people succeeding and before and after pictures. What did surprise me was that she was taking diet pills or some ab burner type of thing twice a day too. I don’t take any type of diet pill, but my trainer has added in vitamin supplements to my program. Regardless of what way you choose to lose weight, all I know is Trista was looking great! Good for her, she has a healthy baby, and now a healthy lifestyle too! Her husband Ryan is a triathlon athlete! If you’re interested in diet supplements, FemNutrition.com is one place you may want to check out.

We Need an Entertainment Area!

Now that we have a couple of new movies we’ll be watching, I’ll need to work on our entertainment area! We always thought it would be cool to make an entertainment room. The problem is, the living room is my office too! I can’t complain, I have a large leather sectional and television in my office! On the other hand, adding in some home theater sconces, and a new big screen hi-def TV would be a nice touch.

I don’t see my husband going for it anytime soon, since we do most of our television watching in the family room anyway! Oh well, a girl can dream. Of course, that new TV might make a great gift! Gee honey, look what I bought you for your birthday!

Gee, I guess I need to replace our drapes too. We only have sheers in our living room, and the glare on the TV isn’t great during the day time. It makes it hard to see the screen. I like the sheers though, because while they offer me some privacy, they let light in, and I look outside all day long.

Time to Grab Some DVDs

Speaking of arcades and malls, I’m hoping to grab a copy of “King of Kong” soon. It’s released sometimes next week I think. My son has a classic machine version of Donkey Kong, and he’s looking forward to checking out the movie. We were just over at the place where he got the machine last night.

The other movie I have to pick up is “Dragon Wars”, which isn’t my type of movie. I promised me son we could go see it, and then by the time I gave it, it had left the area. I felt badly, since it was me putting off seeing it. I just don’t like “scary” kind of movies. I finally relented and it was gone. I guess I’ll be hitting up Amazon and ordering a couple DVDs shortly!

The Mall

I was at the mall yesterday, and ended up in some killer line at Hallmark. They were having a huge after holiday kind of sale, where all their Christmas stuff was 90% off. So of course, I get in line (didn’t get anything on sale), but the lady in front of me bought about 18 things! Each thing had to be rung up in a special way, and then wrapped! Yikes, this was going to take awhile. The worst part was I was meeting someone in moments, and I was stuck! I finally got to where I had to be, but about 7 or 8 minutes late, and I felt badly. I’m an on-time, prompt kind of girl.

I never used to like the mall, but I’m starting to enjoy it again. You can do everything from get a massage, which I did yesterday, to picking up a new book, grabbing some body shop supplies, along with a new outfit for the weekend. I grew up about 5 minutes from a two story mall, and that’s where we always spent our weekends. I guess once I became a mom, going somewhere with shopping carts made it easier. It’s taken me another 10-15 years to get me enjoying malls again! I’m not sure what changed, but it’s a funny thing to me.

Classic Arcade Gaming

We went to an arcade last night and played some classic arcade games along with pinball. It was fun, and we spent about 2+ hours there. The owner was telling me about another place called FunSpot up in New Hampshire which has the largest collection of classic arcade games ever. He said it was about 3 1/2 hours, so I thought…awesome! I Mapquest it, and it’s more like 6 hours! Yikes, I guess I plan a weekend out of it if we do it.

We’ll see, I’m not in a hurry, but it’s a good place to know about when summer is here and we’re looking for something different.

Be a Conversation Starter!

If you like funny t-shirts, and who doesn’t, check out ROADKILLtshirts.com. They have a huge assortment of wild, wicked and funny sayings. I love some of the naughtier ones, but this is a family friendly blog! Go check them out for yourself, and you’ll start laughing at some of the great sayings. Right now, if you order 3 shirts, you can get one free! Read the details on the home page so you know the right code to order with.

I love funny t-shirts, and all your friends do too. Grab a couple for your buddies, and be the conversation starter when you’re out! People will be laughing when they see what your shirt is saying!