Money Saving Mom®

No, I Don’t Think Credit Cards Are Evil

Why We’re Sticking With Our Starter Home

5 Ways to Ruin Your Day — Guaranteed

How I Won the Cool Mom Award With a Simple Trip to Kroger

5 Lessons I Learned After Quitting Facebook

So I outlined this post yesterday and then ran out of time to finish it. So enjoy a Seven Quick Takes-inspired post on Saturday instead of Friday.

Today, I bring you 7 Things You Might Not Know About Me:

1. I can’t help but be frugal — even in NYC.

Okay, so this one you might be able to guess. Because, well, you know, my blog name might give it away just a little bit. 🙂

Case in point: when I was in NYC last week, I couldn’t bring myself to pay the hotel breakfast prices (a bottle of water was $9, so I was kind of scared to even look at what scrambled eggs and bacon might cost!). Instead I walked to a Starbucks in Times Square and bought an oatmeal and a coffee with a gift card I earned from Swagbucks.

I could have saved even more by making my own oatmeal and coffee in the room (you can make oatmeal packets using the hot water from the coffee maker), but the beautiful hotel that Fox put me up in was apparently so froo-froo that they didn’t have in-room coffee-makers. I was clearly out of my league, folks.

2. I don’t iron.

See that picture above? It’s very important to note that I am leaning on an actual ironing board that I set up and actually USED in my hotel room to iron my dress before heading to my interview on Fox Business.

If you are a real-life friend, you know that I don’t own an iron. Why? Because I don’t iron… ever. So this was a momentous occasion, people. It probably won’t happen again for another 13 years.

3. I am directionally challenged.

You do not want me to drive you anywhere — especially if it’s not some place that I’ve been at least 100 times before. Trust me on this.

I guess my brain is too full of other more important things (or so I tell myself!), and it has trouble computing left and right and the difference between the two.

(Going to the eye doctor is a very anxiety-ridden experience because they are constantly asking you to cover your left eye or close your right eye. I sit there like a crazy woman having to think long and hard before remembering which one is which. I know, I may have some slight issues.)

If you give me directions in north and south, I am toast. TOAST, people. You might as well blind fold me and spin me around and tell me to find my way to Mars.

So you can imagine my sheer panic when I discovered that I was supposed to find my way to the Fox Studios from my hotel. “It’s only a few blocks,” they told me.

Well, trust me, with my navigational skills, it was a whole lot more than a few blocks. I got in a full body workout, broke out into a dripping sweat, and managed to get multiple blisters on my toes.

However, by some miracle, I found the Fox Business studios and I found my way back to the hotel. I also found out a whole lot of ways not to get to either place in the process. 😉

4. I have gotten completely addicted to podcasts.

I’m incredibly late to the podcast game, but I’ve fallen hard and fast in love. I listen while I’m scheduling social media posts, while I’m cleaning, while I’m driving by myself, and while I’m folding laundry.

Some of the ones I’ve been listening to a lot recently are: Sorta Awesome, Chalene Johnson’s Build Your Tribe, Beyond Pro Podcast, The Fizzle Show, The Laura Ingraham Show, The Accidental Creative, and The Art and Business of Public Speaking.

I don’t listen to every episode and find that if an episode doesn’t grab me within the first few minutes, I just skip it and move to the next one. No need to waste time listening to something I’m not intensely interested in when there are so many great shows and episodes out there!

5. I am almost always cold — except when walking blocks and blocks in NYC!

I posted the above picture as we were getting ready to head out the door to Atlanta on Wednesday and said, “Apparently, Kathrynne missed the memo that it was 90 degrees today! She’s a girl after my own heart — I’m often sporting a hoodie in the summer when indoors anywhere because it seems like I’m almost always cold!”

Yup, it’s true.

6. I still get crazy nervous about stepping outside my comfort zone.

You would think that all of my stepping out of my comfort zone things and facing my fear opportunities over the last few years would mean I never get dreadfully nervous about anything.

But nope.

I discovered last week that TV is still way outside of my comfort zone. In fact, I basically was sick to my stomach scared about it for half of the day before my interview.

I texted a few friends and asked them to please pray and I felt a lot more calm the day of my interview. And I’m grateful, because it would have been quite the eventful interview had I thrown up on set. 🙂

The crazy thing is, when it finally was my segment, I wasn’t really nervous at all and ended up enjoying it. So maybe I could learn to like doing TV interviews??

7. I’m working on living more with abandon and embracing the moments.

We had planned to check out Centennial Park when we were in Atlanta with my sister and her family this week. We ended up showing up right before the Olympic Rings Fountain show.

We didn’t even know that there was a show, so we kind of felt like we’d hit the jackpot. It was a lot of fun — and FREE!

After the show, the kids had a blast playing in the fountains. I may have gotten in the fountains a little, too. I couldn’t help myself.

It was roasting hot and the water looked too inviting. And I’m working on living with abandon and embracing the moments… So it was perfect.

What about you? What are 7ish things most people might not know about you?

Looking for a quick and easy no-bake recipe? We LOVE Energy Bites at our house and Tonia from The Sunny Patch has a free printable with dozens of different combinations for Energy Bite recipes.

A while back, I wrote a post on 5 Things You Should Do Every Day. That post ended up going viral on Facebook and has been one of the most-viewed posts I’ve written in a very, very long time!

Just for fun, I thought I’d write a post that was the opposite of that post. Because it’s important for us to remember that just like small good decisions can positively impact our day in a big way, so seemingly minor poor decisions can also negatively impact our day in a big way.

So here are 5 Ways to Ruin Your Day (it probably goes without saying that these are meant to be tongue-in-cheek!):

1. Stay In Your Pajamas All Day Long

This is highly effective for encouraging you to be unproductive. Rock those sweats, wear your frumpiest t-shirt, don’t fix your hair, and whatever you do, don’t shower or wash your face.

The sloppier the look, the better it helps you feel like spending your day doing absolutely nothing. As an added result, you’ll probably also feel grumpy and just might start snapping at your kids, your husband, your neighbor, or even the dog.

TIP: If you want to take things a step further, also consume a significant amount of junk food and do lots of sitting and lying around. These things will kick the un-motivation up a notch and guarantee that you accomplish almost nothing.

 2. Mindlessly Browse the Internet and Flip Through TV Channels

Whatever you do, while you’re wearing your PJs and snacking on foods with no nutritional value, do not read or watch anything that has any redeeming value. Some of the best suggestions for mindless browsing would be things like: cat videos, celebrity gossip sites, or blog posts about subjects you have zero interest in.

The more you can distract yourself with things that do nothing to help you, the greater your percentages of day-ruining will be.

Tip: Do try to have multiple forms of media playing at the same time — if you can be watching a cat video on your computer, have your browser open to a celebrity gossip site, and be flipping through channels on the TV all at once, this increases the mindless browsing factor and will help you use up even more time ineffectively.

 3. Stew About Everything That is Wrong in Your Life

You have so much wrong in your life. I mean, just think about it. No, don’t just think about it. Start listing it off.

Maybe even write a blog post or Instagram or Facebook post about your lack of blessings? This will help you solidify your stewing and further encourage you to feel frustrated, grouchy, and annoyed by everything in life.

Once you’ve created your Un-Blessing List, take a lot of time to hash and re-hash over and over again just how much your life stinks, how difficult everything is, and how stressed you are about it all.

TIP: If you can, definitely call or text or tell someone in person all about how bad everything is in your life. The more you can camp on the negative, the more negative you’ll feel.

 4. Start Project After Project, But Don’t Finish Anything You’ve Started

Think of all of the projects you’ve been putting off. Today is the day to start in on them. Only be sure to just get out all the supplies, begin working on them, and then move onto the next project.

I really think if you can try to tackle 10-15 different project starts today, that would be the best recipe for ruining your day.

TIP: The more materials you can get out and the bigger mess you can make, the better. If you need to go shop for a bunch of supplies, do it. However, just get all the supplies, lay everything out, begin working, and then move onto the next thing. Don’t finish things or put anything away.

 5. See if You Can Stay Up At Least 4 Hours Past Your Bedtime

This final point is one of the most important. The later you can stay up past your bedtime, the more you’ll set up tomorrow for being ruined, too.

Whatever you do, don’t accomplish anything in those last few hours. This is key. Just spend your time on frivolous, meaningless things. And do make sure that you hit at least your second or third wind.

TIP: Do not set your alarm for the next morning. Or if you do, hit the snooze button at least 15 times. Set up tomorrow to be unsuccessful, too, by getting up late and tired.

What about you? What would be on your list of ways to ruin your day?