Good Morning Green Panda Friends.  Today is December 27^th and it is the last post in our “Home for the Holidays” series.  I hope that you have all enjoyed this series; we will be starting a new series in the New Year.  Speaking of New Years, this week is that dreaded time of the year when we are recovering from our Christmas Food Comas and getting ready to make our New Year’s resolutions.  For many of us our New Year’s Resolutions will revolve around our health and/or our money.  I have made two personal New Year’s resolutions and they both revolve around my health and my money.

My New Year’s Resolution to Lose Weight

A couple of weeks ago I made a Twitter promise with some other Personal Finance Bloggers to get fit and get healthy.  In an effort to motivate each other lose weight and achieve our personal health goals in 2012 we created the #TwitterWorkoutPromise.  The great thing about our Twitter Promise is that we each have our own personal weight loss goals and our own personal reasons for wanting to get healthy.  We can workout at our own pace and we have the support of our Twitter Friends to make sure that we get off our butts and get fit in 2012.  The other great thing about the #TwitterWorkoutPromise is that it doesn’t cost anything.

The #TwitterWorkoutPromise is designed as an online support group to make sure that we all stick to our weight loss plan with the help, support, and motivation of our Twitter Friends.  Everyone is welcome to join the #TwitterWorkoutPromise to help achieve your own goals.  My personal goal is to lose 20 pounds between January 1 and July 1 without paying for a gym membership.  I would like to work out every other day by swimming (my building has a pool), dancing with my Wii Just Dance 3, and burning calories with my new Wii Zumba 2 (that my boyfriend gave to me as a Christmas gift).  None of these workout activities cost anything and therefore I am going to lose weight while having fun and saving money.

My New Year’s Resolution to Save Money

My second New Year’s Resolution is to save money.  This was also one of my New Year’s Resolutions last year and I am proud to say that I have learned to want less and to live on less.  This year I would love to try 6 months of no personal spending.  This resolution will coincide with my #TwitterWorkoutPromise of counting calories and working out every other day over the next 6 months.

New Year’s Resolutions are about setting realistic goals for something that we want to improve in our lives. Honestly I am not sure if I cannot spend any money on personal items for the next 6 months, but I am going to try.  Over the next 6 months I am only going to spend money on food, household items, and personal hygiene necessities.  I will not spend any money on clothes or other unnecessary personal items including beauty products, perfume, books, movies, DVDs, Wii Games, bath products, or jewellery.

What are your New Year’s Resolutions?

Be sure to check out all of the posts in our “Home for the Holidays” series:

Don’t Let the Holidays be Costly

Don’t Be Tempted to Swipe Your Card

Travelling Home For The Holidays

Holiday Dinners on a Budget

Starting New Holiday Traditions

Last Minute Shoppers

Boxing Day Shopping

Photo by Alan Cleaver

Two personal goals that many people hope to achieve are to lose weight and save money. Today we are going to kill two birds with one stone and discuss ways to achieve both personal goals.

Here are five tips to keep your body slim and your wallet fat:

Cut out Fat

A lot of our calories come from and a lot of our money goes towards eating on the go.  If you work, or go to school, or both, you know that it is extremely difficult and inconvenient to pack a lunch for the entire day.  It is definitely much easier to grab food on the go throughout the day. Unfortunately we do not very often find foods that are both fast and nutritious.

It is said that we should not eat foods with more than 15 grams of fat per 100 gram serving.  This eliminates the cost and the fat of most fast food restaurants. Yesterday I bought a breakfast sandwich for $1.80, a $5.18 veggie burger for lunch, and a small iced cappuccino for $2.05 as my afternoon snack.  This is a total of $9.03 for just one day of eating fast food on the go, this can add up to over $45 per week.

Eliminate Snacks

Our morning and afternoon snacks could cost us $2-$3 each or more if we add a beverage.  This can add up to be very costly, it can also add up to a lot of calories.  Think about what you bought as your morning snack yesterday, maybe it was a bagel which is both expensive and full of carbs.  An individual bagel can cost up to $2 or more if we add crème cheese; we can buy a bag of 6 bagels at the grocery store for $3.99.  If possible we should try to bring fruits and veggies for snacks throughout the day, it’s a lot more economical to buy in bulk at the grocery store and bring a little healthy snack each day.

Drink Lots of Water

Drinking water throughout the day is better for your health and better for your budget.  A soft drink can cost $1.00-$2.00 per can or bottle.  If you find the taste of water to be boring or bland I suggest that you buy packets of Crystal Light.  A package of 10 flavour sachets is approximately $3.59.  Crystal Light offers several different flavours such as raspberry, lemonade, and iced tea.  All flavours have 0 calories and 0 grams of sugar.

Reduce Portion Size

Eating less food or eating fewer times a day will definitely help save on both our budget and our waistline. Did you know that a regular portion size of food is a handful or the size of a cup? Eating only a cup of pasta or rice will really suck at the beginning because we will be hungry if we are used to usually eating larger portions.  However, our stomach will adjust to the change and our wallet will appreciate the savings.  If you cook in bulk for several days try splitting your meal into three portions instead of two.  This saves on your calories as well as your wallet.

Eat Less Sugar

Think about your last snack, was it candy or chocolate? Ideally the average person should only take in 15 grams of sugar per day, but actually the average person takes in over 100 grams of sugar per day.  Did you know that a small Tim Horton’s Iced Cappuccino has 33 grams of sugar? That is $2.05 and 33 grams of sugar that we will never get back.

The next time you are waiting in line at Tim Horton’s, Starbucks, or Dunkin Donuts stop and think…can I really afford to eat this?

Photo by lachshand

Yesterday I was walking in the snow to get my Quiznos sub and I thought to myself that I should have had my Quiznos delivered.  However, I save money by walking to get my food because I could have paid $10 plus the delivery charge and tip to have it delivered, or I could just walk to pick up my Quiznos and pay $6 for my sub in total.  Not only is takeout cheaper than the cost of delivery, but I always feel better about eating out if I actually walk to pick up my food instead of having it delivered.  I started thinking that food and finances are related in more than one way. 

Here are some tips to help us treat our money like our diets:

If you binge, make sure it’s worth it.  It is ok to eat a lot for one meal or to eat when we aren’t hungry but it should be the best meal that we ever ate.  The same rule applies for our money.  If we are going to splurge it should be on a high quality item such as a great pair of boots that will last us for the next 5 winters.  We can also splurge on large items such as our cars and our homes.

We must compensate for over consumption.  If we spend a little too much one day, we should spend a little less the next day. The same rule applies to our diet.  We have to make sure that we stay within our budget, whether it is regarding our money or our daily calorie intake.

It is not ok to skip a meal…or a bill payment.  If we skip a bill payment, it could end up costing us more later on.  If we skip a meal we will be extra hungry later, and therefore we will eat more.  Late bill payments could cost us more money in late fees and accumulated interest. It is definitely better for our bank accounts to pay our bills on time.

Our Intake vs. Outtake is very important.  In this category our diets versus our money is actually the total opposite, although they are both very important. We want the amount of money coming into our bank accounts to be higher than the amount of money going out to ensure that we are saving money.  For our diet, we want our burned calories to be higher than our calorie intake to ensure that we are losing weight.

It takes a total commitment.  We don’t get a day off from earning money or managing our money.  When we decide to become financially healthy our whole lifestyle will change.  We must actively manage our budgets, and watch our spending.  The exact same rule applies to our healthy eating.  If we eat healthy 70% of the time and eat junk food the other 30% of the time, our healthy eating will not be worth it.

Photo By Mike Baird

Walking to Save Money and Improve Health

Just over a month ago we go the sad news that our 2nd car, or “clunker that didn’t qualify”, needed at LEAST $2,500 in repairs. The car was worth about that, and we had already sunk $2,500 into it in the last year so we decided to cut our losses. We considered buying another car temporarily, but our goal is to pay off debt, not add to it, so we quickly adopted a one-car lifestyle.

We live and work in the suburbs, so most people find our choice crazy. Fortunately, when we chose our home we chose well. We can walk to a multitude of places, including all the local public schools (K-12th), parks, multiple stores, including Target, many restaurants, and the local Y. I work at home part-time, and my husband works only 7 miles away, so if I do need the car we can drop him off at work.

We have been in our house for 2 years, but in the last month I have walked more than I ever have in the last 2 years. When you take away the other options, it becomes a simple choice!

Walking has become a new way of life for me, and I hope we will continue to increasingly rely on walking to get to where we need to go.

We’re saving money in several ways. The first and the most obvious is the car. We aren’t paying for gas, maintenance, and insurance on our second car. In the first month alone we saved over $200 (not to mention the maintenance that would have cost $3K). We are also saving by not going out as much. The days I’m carless I’m limited to where I can go, so we’re saving an average of $100/month on stuff we don’t even miss. Of course the biggest savings comes from the health benefits. Walking is such a wonderful and cheap exercise!

Other benefits of walking:

• improved mood
• weight loss
• being in more in the moment
• being a part of the community

If you live in an area where it is difficult to walk from your home, consider parking in a central location when you do errands in town, or in the city and walking to your destination.

If you live in a place that has no option of walking to where you need to go, consider these options:

• carpooling
• running errands all at once (start with the furthest away location)
• staying home
• parking as far away as possible when you drive somewhere
• making time for a hike or walk at least once a week

How about you? Do you live in a walkable area? Could you make some adjustments to make walking easier to fit into your life?

Once my brother in law and friend’s wedding happens, we’re going to relax and spend some time exploring some of the parks around the state. 

I was searching around About.com and  the National Park Service’s site and I found a lists of national parks in my state. Here are some that look pretty interesting and I may want to visit in the next year or so. 

Appalachian National Scenic Trail
This 2,158-mile footpath runs from Mount Katahdin in Maine to Springer Mountain in Georgia, traversing 14 states. The 88-mile portion of the AT in North Carolina includes the Stecoah-Cheoah Mountain area and the Nantahala section, with 4,000-foot gaps and 5,000-foot peaks.

Blue Ridge Parkway
Most visited site in the NPS system extends 469 miles through the southern Appalachians of VA and NC, following the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore
Beaches, migratory waterfowl, and the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse are special features of the first national seashore.

Cape Lookout National Seashore
Three undeveloped barrier islands extend 55 miles along the lower Outer Banks and feature beaches, dunes, historic Portsmouth Village, and Cape Lookout Lighthouse.

Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site
Connemara was the farm home of the noted poet-author for the last 22 years of his life.

Fort Raleigh National Historic Site
The first English settlement in North America was attempted here (1585-87). The fate of Sir Walter Raleigh’s “Lost Colony” remains a mystery to this day.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Encompassing portions of NC and TN, park features a diversified plant and animal life, and preserves structures representing southern Appalachian mountain culture. Here you’ll find all the information you need to plan your trip to the park or surrounding area.

Guilford Courthouse National Military Park
The battle fought here on March 15, 1781, was the largest action of the Revolutionary War’s climatic Southern Campaign.

Moores Creek National Battlefield
Commemorates the February 27, 1776, Battle of Moores Creek Bridge, the first decisive Patriot victory of the Revolutionary War.

Wright Brothers National Memorial
The first successful sustained powered flights in a heavier-than- air machine were made here at Kill Devil Hills by Wilbur and Orville Wright on December 17, 1903.

Have you been to these places? Which ones do you recommend?

Related Blogs

• Related Blogs on North Carolina’s National Parks