This month, January, feels like it is dragging by for me. I was thinking about it today and came up with several logical reason that it feels so long. It is a full 5 week month, I receive 3 paychecks this month, it is freezing cold outside (36F) today and my crazy work schedule does not seem to be helping.BLAH!  I should be excited about 3 paychecks this month and I am. I actually used part of one to place a deposit on our beach trip this summer. But I also am trying to reduce our overall spending. One of the biggest reductions is in the area of grocery. My plan was to go from $800 a month last year of which we ended up spending an average of $773 to $600 a month this year. Currently I have overspent the budget by $83 but I am hoping to make this up and even save some more in February. The reason this is so difficult for me is that we are also at the point where alot of my freezer pre-cooked meals are gone. Last weekend I cooked up  beans to freeze and am currently working on pintos as we speak. Matt informed me today that I need to fix another big batch of chicken to shredded for soups and pies. It is just easier to run to the store and grab “x” to make this meal or go out to eat than try to re-stock the freezer but Matt is great and with a flexible menu plan we are sticking pretty darn close to the budget. I will be cooking and shredding chicken this weekend. BLAH!  Next is my crazy work schedule, for example today I worked until 11:30 and last Friday I did not go in until 11:00. I really don’t mind because Lily and Haley have been out of school for the past 5 days but I hate using PTO time because I want to make sure I have enough for the summer. BLAH! Another reason this month seems so long is the fact that I wanted to really really lose weight, I have been working out 2x and sometimes 3x a week but still have not broke through the weight that I have been stuck above for the past 8 months. To try and help in this area, I am also going to set a goal to drink at least 6 glasses of water a day. Today was a success but of course the scales did not change  BLAH!  Last but not least did I mention that I really really dislike COLD weather!  BLAH!