Checking in... September 21, 2013

Today I have got a few minutes to write a post here. We have been living in the United States for more than 2 years now, but we haven't been able to build up on our family business, or improve our savings habits by using more coupons. I think that the main reason to that is that I am not planning anything that well. We go out to places we don't have coupons for, or leave our coupons at home. Every grocery shopping is done in such a rush, and I don't have a good plan that I don't get to use any coupons at all. Those rare occasions when I do use coupons I only save about 10 dollars. There is something totally wrong about what I do and how I try to go about it.

Let it be a new week. Let us plan our meals and outings trying to use as many savings deals as we can.
I want to start making meal plans that I will be able to complete and not go off course because of no time, other commitments or plain laziness. I have to try harder for sure.

I have bought the following food today at QFC. My plan is to plan my meals for the week using these items:
- chips and salsa
- Ritz crackers
- white wine and red wine
- mustard
- mushrooms
- baby kale
- superpretzels (2 packs)
- chicken carcass for soup
- sausage 2 packs
- ice-cream
- Clif bars (2)
- shredded cheddar cheese
- rooibos tea
- 2 Lunchables
- spinach
- tomatoes
- minced meat
- chicken wings
- onions
- frozen peas
- butter
- coffee
- 2 steaks
- cauliflower
- bananas
- celery
- strawberries
- broccoli
- apples (3 left)
- grapes

Based on these purchases, this is what I can make this week: chips and salsa snacks, Ritz crackers snacks, baby kale salad, make chicken soup, serve it with superpretzels, I have got sausage, Clif bars as snacks, 2 Lunchables lunches for the kids, chicken wings dish from low-carb book, smth with cauliflower, Waldorf salad?

Here is my plan for the week:
Sunday -
1) Lunch - leftovers, sandwiches with chicken, lunchables
minced meat - ground beef dish CH, can be served with mac and cheese
2) Dinner
1. Sausage Lentil soup - use sausage
2. Vegetable frittata - use broccoli, cheese
3. simmered Russian kale
4. creamed peas and carrots - use carrots, peas
5. Israeli couscous

Monday
1) Lunch - leftovers
2) Dinner -
1. Fried chicken breasts
2. baby kale salad
3. vegetable coconut stew - use cauliflower, tomatoes (will need green beans) p. 113 paleo cooking
4. rice

Tuesday
1) Lunch - leftovers
2) Dinner -
1. Devil chicken wings from low carb cookbook
2. fried rice - use rice from yesterday, peas, corn, egg
3. chicken and egg salad - use chicken and boiled eggs
4. (need vegetable)

Wednesday
Dinner - watchdog pizza at the school - I eat leftovers
(make chicken broth today)

Thursday
Dinner - curriculum night
Dinner will be late due to classes at dancing till 7, have to cook something a day in advance and reheat
ideas here???

Friday -
Dinner
steaks, vegetables and carbs to be determined....

Saturday
lunch - out
Dinner -
pizza and chicken soup - use mozzarella cheese, pepperoni (will need to find a recipe for the dough, and plan ahead about 2 hours ahead to start cooking - 4pm)


Sunday
Lunch- out
Dinner - ? should go to the market either on Friday or on Sunday to pick up more food for Sunday and the next week.

Top Food and Drug shopping

Today we shopped at Top Food and Drug store. We bought 2 cards for teacher appreciation week for our kids' teachers at school. We also got some food. What I want to do is to attempt to plan my week and use this blog to post what my plan is and then have some responsibility to actually do what I have planned. I tend to be lazy and slack a lot, and that's never helpful. Here is the list of what we bought
Torani Vanilla syrup for my coffee $7.99
Kashi Peanut Butter bars for my kid's lunch boxes, will last about 4 days $4.99
Cardini Asian dressing for salads - very delicious $2.99
New cookies - lemony and cinnamony, have never tried before $5.59+$5.59
Puff cereal $3.29
We used a coupon for this transaction for $5 off, otherwise it would just be a total robbery - very expensive.

We did the second transaction -
Bought 2 Triscuits 2*$3.99
Haggen Cheddar cheese $4.99
Oscar Mayer turkey $3.99
Parmesan cheese $5.00
Ground beef patties $4.67
Havarti sliced cheese $5.99
Plastic straws $2.29
Unsalted Matzo $4.69
2 mangos $2.00
postcards and gift cards
--------------------------------------
Organic food left
2 apples
2 oranges
1 head of leaf lettuce
1/2 bad of mushrooms
1 bunch kale
1 bag spinach
2 red beets
2 lemons
------------
List of dinners for the next week
Thursday - Chicken mango curry and rice, spinach, lettuce based salad
Friday - burgers with potato salad, fried mushrooms, kale dish, beet salad
Saturday - 
Lunch - mac and cheese, leftovers
Dinner - will make an Asian dish with Tofu, rice, leftover vegetables
Sunday -
Lunch - grilled cheese sandwiches, fruits
Dinner - Guinea hen, soup with egg noodles, boiled peas and mashed potatoes

Will need to do more shopping after Sunday.

My goals till September 1

Here is what I'll do - I'll set up two goals here, and see how I can manage -
Learn how to drive -
1) Have to pass the theory exam
2) Have to study for the driving exam
3) Have to pass the driving test

Learn to be a broker
1) Study the theory - 90 hours of classes
2) Pass the exam

Other goals I have right now is lose 30 pounds of weight (at least), learn to speak French, and make a million dollars of capital for retirement.
So, I started my day today with setting up these goals.
Next, I decided to find a way to track my goals. I have looked at a number of applications, but seems like it's really hard to find any goal tracker for my purposes.
I guess I'll keep looking

How to build your business up?

Success doesn't come to people in one day.
First, you have to have a good idea of what you want to do. Now, this can be your professional occupation, or your dream activity. My mother was an engineer but was really able to realize her potential as a baker. This was what she wanted to do with her life, and she had fun with it.

The road to finding this money-making idea can be the most difficult one to take. Sometimes it can translate into years and years of learning a trade in various schools and courses, investing a ton of money, and not necessarily succeeding in the end. Sometimes it can be not investing a lot of money, but investing your time, trying to catch that dream you have, and we only have so much time on earth to live.
My recommendation is to try and maximize your return - it's all about money, always.
What is it that you can do that can bring you a ton of money? Is catching your dream idea going to make you rich? Because if it's not, all you'll be doing is trying to catch that dream, and you'll never be able to keep up with it, you will spend most of your time on your way there, and then you'll be dissatisfied because you have to keep up with two more jobs you don't like, while trying to catch your dream.

I think that finding your dream has to do with answering one question - what is it that I can do so that I would be able to make the most money doing and spend the shortest amount of time preparing for? Of course, if your calling is being a surgeon, a rocket scientist, or a certified professional, you can spend years studying and spending a lot of time learning the profession, but is it really what you want to do?

Then, once you have chosen what you want to do, create, sell, discover, or what service you want to provide, you can start with getting this goal realized by teaching yourself the tricks of the trade, and learning how to achieve success in building your wealth.

My mother always likes to say that success in business is often dependent on how much investment you want to put into it. Numerous are her stories about how much this or that individual invested into their business to start it up, and that without good start-up capital there is nowhere you can go. I beg to disagree. I think that unless you are born into money, you will not have a lot of money at the beginning. All you will have is your idea. Now, you can write up a good business plan and approach a bank to raise money for the project, but then you are stuck paying the interest without even having started actually working. Unless your business is guaranteed to produce large profits, this is a dangerous road to take, a lot of businesses don't survive so well, when they borrow money like that.
A good way to do it is to start small without owing a ton of people a ton of money, so try to not get into debt, if possible.

Which is my recipe for success, personally? I choose what I like doing, and try to achieve it one step a day.
Today I have two goals - learn how to drive, and teach myself how to be a house broker.
I think both of those tasks will take me up till the end of the summer to achieve.
Here is what I'll do - I'll set up two goals here, and see how I can manage -
Learn how to drive -
1) Have to pass the theory exam
2) Have to study for the driving exam
3) Have to pass the driving test

Learn to be a broker
1) Study the theory - 90 hours of classes
2) Pass the exam

Off I go!

Nescafe Memento Latte moment

New product for me that I want to review here is Nescafe Memento product that I got. I received this product through BzzAgent that I have signed up with. 

I go a cup of Caramel Latte made today, and it tastes so good.

What is great about it, is that the taste is not compromised, though it's an instant drink. I love the foam on top of the cup - and it looks stunning, too. 

I do have a coffee machine at home, that I use every day, but if I make a coffee out of this mix, it's one step fewer that I need to do in the morning, just boil the water and it's over and done with it. I do love my saved minute of time and I am lazy, so it's a winner for me for now. 

I have several flavors at home, like Mocha, Caramel Latte, cappuccino. They all taste great and my favorite so far is latte.

Well, this was my cup of coffee for today, let me know what's brewing in your kitchen!

Buying property, not so fast

This week tried to buy 2 properties in South Tacoma. Placed two purchase orders and ended up retrieving them, because we didn't like the area.
Both houses are located near Tacoma Mall, and businesses around them seem fine, but the houses themselves are in weird neighbourhoods. Every other house there is boarded up, prostitutes walking around, as well as drug lords and it just overall gives an impression of urban decay.
Sometimes it seems that we are making a heck of a return on investment, but it's always too good to be true. Whenever the property is interesting, it always seems to have some ugly detail about it, that completely ruins it.
What can you do.

Update

Just an update how the business is going...
Haven't been writing a lot in the blog lately due to various events happening in the family, which is the usual reason why people don't post much, I guess....
So, where do I start?
I will start right there, where I am now.
Had a stillbirth in October 2012, and have been recovering from that, I guess.
Everyone has been very supportive, but it is not an easy thing to overcome.
Anyway, we have a lot of our plate, had two surgeries in the last little while, but we are surviving as a family unit.
We have hired a Belorussian programmer to help us with our company projects and are also trying to slowly advance there.
Two months ago we have purchased an investment property around where we live and will be making a few dollars here and there on it, most importantly creating some retirement capital for ourselves and our whole family.
Other than the health issues everything has been going rather smoothly lately and everyone is dealing with their load well.
As always - let me know what you think, cheers!

Neutrogena kit

Hello, readers!
Today I am going to review some cosmetics that I have received this past week.
I got a Neutrogena cosmetics kit from Bzzagent. I have received these items for free for them for the sole purpose of talking about the products and telling them my opinion of them. So far I have tried their color stick. Now the company figured everyone in the world knows what "a color stick" is used for, but frankly it took me a bit of time to figure that out. Some women use rouge for cheeks that tends to be reddish sort of color as well, so a word combination "a color stick" doesn't necessarily gets automatically associated with lips in my mind. I figured that the consistency of the stick seems more similar to a lipstick, so I applied it to my lips. Looked good. The taste was so-so, but I think this brand is a grocery store and a pharmacy brand, and is generally in a low cost variety, so I think it's fine. The lips don't get too sticky, like with a regular lip gloss, but at the same time the color doesn't seem to be as penetrating as a regular lip stick.
I don's think that I would be interested in purchasing this product myself, because I prefer department store brands or just simple flavored lip gloss, but it is a product that is pretty in color that I got anyway, and it could work with most every style and purpose - work wear, going out, celebration or usual everyday lip care, so I would recommend it to someone who wants a quick color without having to pay half of a month's salary for it.
I have also received Neutrogena eye shadows and mascara, but that I will either try later or gift to someone - not sure who yet.
Let me know what you think in your comments.
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