Good morning and Happy Monday! It’s super sunny out today and I love it!

I’m munching on some cheerio’s and a green smoothie while I chill out in the office. That’s right, I conquered the yellow room just like I said I would! It only took 4 hours yesterday. Whoops!

It’s so nice to have a desk to blog at again!

Here are a few Monday Musings (that actually aren’t that contemplative):

• I’m obsessed with Cheerio’s for breakfast lately. I originally bought Cheerio’s when my dad and brother were visiting a couple of weeks ago so we would have something easy for them to whip together for breakfast. Then I became obsessed with them and the last time we went grocery shopping we bought a jumbo box!
• I ran 10 miles on Saturday. My first double-digit run in six months! I have a half-marathon on May 1 and I’m feeling way more confident about it now. I also wasn’t sore at all yesterday and I credit that to going to yoga Saturday afternoon.
• Eric’s parents are coming to visit us this week and my mom is coming to visit the week after Easter. I get so excited to have visitors now that we actually have room for them.
• Today marks two weeks since I’ve had a cup of caffeinated coffee (I’ve had decaf now and then) and you know what? It’s been fine! I feel good and though I still get sleepy in the afternoons it doesn’t hit me nearly as bad as it did when I was drinking 4 cups of coffee in the morning.

What are you musing about on this lovely Monday? And is it sunny where you are? Maybe spring is finally here *knock on wood*

I like to think that Eric and I are pretty good with money for our age. We JUST acquired our first large amount of debt in the form of a mortgage + car payments within the last month. We have no credit card debt and no student loan debt (which I’m incredibly thankful for – I know everyone doesn’t have that luxury!)

But we aren’t super anal about money. We don’t have a “budget” per say and we don’t track all the money we make/spend.

One area where neither of us (read: me) are very good is grocery shopping. I’ve wrote about this particular spending problem before – it’s not pretty (think upwards of $800 in one month on groceries!)

Since about August we’ve been sticking to a “strict” $400/month grocery budget. In the past I’ve tried writing down the grocery bill in my planner every time we went but we almost always went over budget. Last month I tried something from the show Till Debt Do Us Part that I’ve talked about before on the blog and put $400 cash into an envelope.

That’s it. That’s all. If the envelope ran out of cash well I guess we were going to be eating out of our cupboards/freezer for awhile.

And you know what? It worked! Maybe it was because February was a short month, or maybe it was the fact that I was spending with cash so was a bit more frugal but we stayed within our $400 budget. In fact, we were $50 under!

Every time we bought groceries (about ever 1 – 1.5 weeks) I would pay for it with money from the envelope and put the receipt and change back in the envelope.

When I realized Sunday night that we were $50 + change under for the month we did what any responsible 20-somethings would do….

….We ordered Chinese Food + sushi!

What?! We deserved a reward!

And I’ve already got March’s cash in the envelope. Can we do 2 for 2, even though March is three days longer than February…I guess we’ll find out!

Once we’ve got the grocery budgeting down to a science maybe we’ll start budgeting elsewhere like gas, or eating out. Maybe…

Do you have a grocery budget? Are you good at sticking to it?

Pssst, small plug here, did you know you can become a fan of Girl with the Red Hair on Facebook?

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One of the only ways I’ve been able to make the time for all this yoga on top of the other things I do is morning workouts. Luckily the studio added 6:00 AM classes three days a week so I’ve been trying to take advantage of at least 1 or 2 of those classes a week. I also run 1 or 2 mornings a week with my neighbour.

This means a lot of 5:15 AM wake-up times for me!

Today I needed to go straight from yoga to work so I could get into work a bit earlier than usual since I’m taking a long lunch for an appointment. I knew there was no way I would be able to do this unless I was properly prepared for it. So here’s how I fit in my early morning workouts.

1. Pack my lunch (and breakfast!) the night before

Last night I got my lunch ready AND made my oatmeal for breakfast. I put it all in one bag in the fridge so when I left for yoga all I had to do was grab my lunch bag out of the fridge. No prep needed!

2. Get all the stuff I need ready the night before and set my bag by the door

I needed my yoga clothes packed, yes. But I also needed an outfit for work, my hair straightener and towels/shampoo for showering. I know from experience that it’s way easier to just grab this stuff and go the morning of rather than spend 30 minutes putting a bag together so when I know I’m going straight from yoga (or the gym) to work, I get it all ready the night before.

3. Go to bed early!

When I know I’m getting up at 5:15 to work out I am in bed by 9:30 or 10:00 PM at the absolute latest! It’s a lot easier to roll out of bed at that early hour when you’ve had 7-8 hours of sleep than it is if you only get 5 hours of sleep.

4. Stick with it!

This is my second week of the yoga challenge, and therefore my second week of getting up at 5:15 three or four days of the week. It’s definitely getting easier – and it’s also getting easier to go to bed earlier since my body is tired! So if you want to make morning workouts part of your routine, stick with it.

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I’ve actually been a morning workout person for as long as I can remember. Even when I was still in high school I would get up and go to the gym in the morning. And I always preferred to join morning workout classes over afternoon ones in college. I really like getting my workout done and out of the way. I would rather get up early and then have an afternoon/evening to spend at home relaxing than get a few extra hours of sleep in the morning.

Plus, I’m 1000 x more likely to skip my workout if I put it off until the evening, so it’s always nice to get it done first thing. And, finally, morning workouts give me such a nice energy high that really carries throughout my whole day. I love that!

Are you a morning workout person? If so, what are your tips for fitting in morning workouts?