Anti-Procrastination Challenge: Fulfill Your Promises

 I'm working right now on scanning a bunch of stuff that my sister-in-law needs.  It is a little time-consuming, and to be honest, I don't really feel like doing it.  I mean, it's boring sitting here waiting on stuff to scan and tedious to make sure I save all the files in the right place and get them all emailed to her. 

But, she is my sister-in-law, and I love her dearly.  This is stuff she really needs, and I promised her I would do it for her.  Procrastinating on it just because it's not exactly something  fun is not going to help her any, and it's going to leave it hanging over my head and making me feel badly that I haven't done it for her yet.

(If you're reading this, dear SIL, I'm not trying to make you feel guilty!  I'm happy to do it for you, it's just not exactly what I would call fun.  And my flesh would rather have fun than do work.) 

So, now that I've gotten this far on my post in between scannings, I am done with what I promised!  That wasn't so bad, was it? 

Your turn!

What have you told someone you would do for them, and why haven't you done it yet? Have you told your kids you would take them to the park, but haven't found the time because you're too busy working on your to-do list?  Have you made a promise to a friend out of politeness and conveniently forgotten about it?

Whatever it is, it's time to get rid of the excuses and do it!  I'd love for you to leave a comment letting me know what you've accomplished!

If you're just now joining our Anti-Procrastination challenge, you can read all the details here. be sure you're subscribed to email updates or follow me on Facebook to receive each day's new challenge!  

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How to Grind Wheat in a Blender

Step one: Get some wheat berries.

I used hard white wheat berries, but it shouldn't make much difference what kind you use.

Step Two:  Get your blender ready to go.  Do not let the brand name of my blender fool you.  KitchenAid mixers are definitely 10 steps ahead of any other mixer, but their blenders?  Eh…not my favorite by any means.  All that to say – even if you have a cheap blender, it will probably work just fine.

Step 3:   Add the wheat berries and start grinding.  I only ground about a cup at a time.  The wheat berries jumped so high when I turned it on that I was afraid if I added any more the flour would start flying out the top of the blender.

Step four: I found that I needed to let it run on high for about 2 minutes. If I ground for less time it still had chunks. And if I ground for more time, it didn't seem to get any more fine, but the motor started heating up the flour.

Step five: Bake some bread or rolls using your favorite whole wheat bread recipe.  I actually made some of both.  My bread didn't turn out too pretty, but you get the idea.

My conclusion:  The blender definitely does not get the flour very fine.  The dough feels very gritty when you're working with it.  But as you can see from the pictures, it is still very useable.  (How pretty your bread turns out just depends on how good of a cook you are – which I'm obviously not the greatest!)

Update: I tried making blender pancakes and was super happy with how they turned out! The wheat berries ground up even more nicely with the liquid added to the blender. Click here for the blender pancakes recipe.

Anti-Procrastination Challenge: Just Buy It!

This is a hard one for my tightwad stingy frugal self.  The back of our office chair fell off a good while ago.  Really, I can't even remember when it was.  Maybe a few months?  Six months?  More?  I don't know.  We just kept using it like it was “until we get a new one.”  Well, we haven't gotten a new one yet.

I have lots of excuses, the main one being, “I just haven't found a good deal on one.”  I don't buy anything unless it's a really, really, really, really good deal.  Or free.  That's the truth.  (That would be why I run another blog all about deals and free stuff!)   

But, even though there have been several times I've come up with pretty much the best deal I'm gonna find on an office chair, my tightwad stingy frugal self always backs down at the last minute.  I just hate spending the money, good deal or not.

Well, this whole Anti-Procrastination thing has had an over-riding theme of getting rid of excuses.  The broken chair is hideously ugly, and it's bugging both my husband and me.  It's time to just buy a new one!  Part with that money already!  I'm biting the bullet today and getting a new chair!

Your turn!

What is it that needs to be replaced in your home?  Hey, it could be something as simple as a lightbulb, but it's just made its way to the bottom of the list.  Just buy it!

Please be aware that I'm not advocating your going out and spending money you don't have.  Please, no!  But, if it's within reason and needs to be replaced, what is keeping you from buying it?  You may need to be purposeful about rearranging your budget a little bit so you can financially fit in that purchase this month.  But you'll be glad you did when you can stop looking at that ugly, broken whatever-it-is and wishing you had a new one!

If you're just now joining our Anti-Procrastination challenge, you can read all the details here. be sure you're subscribed to email updates or follow me on Facebook to receive each day's new challenge!

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Anti-Procrastination Challenge: De-Clutter your Inbox

Your turn!  Any type of newsletters, advertisements, etc. that are coming to your inbox that you don't ever read are simply wasting your time when you have to click the delete button every day.  Open them all up and unsubscribe.  I like to do it all in one day even if it takes me a while.  The reason for that is because your unsubscription request can take up to 2 weeks to process.  In the meantime you'll continue to get emails from that company.  I can never remember which ones I've already unsubscribed to, so I do it all in one shot, wait a couple weeks, then do it again.

If you're just now joining our Anti-Procrastination challenge, you can read all the details here. be sure you're subscribed to email updates or follow me on Facebook to receive each day's new challenge!

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Anti-Procrastination Challenge: Pinterest

It's been a while since we've done something fun for our challenge.  Let's go take a look at our Pinterest boards and choose one thing to do today, whether it's making a new recipe or craft, doing an activity with the kids, or whatever. Just do something!  If you can't complete a project start-to-finish today, I want you to at least write down whatever supplies or ingredients you might need on your shopping list so you can get started as soon as possible. 

I've been working on perfecting a recipe for homemade laundry detergent, but I can't give you the results yet because it's supposed to sit for 8 hours.  Guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow to try it out.

If you're just now joining our Anti-Procrastination challenge, you can read all the details here. be sure you're subscribed to email updates or follow me on Facebook to receive each day's new challenge! 

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Frugal Tip: Regrow Green Onions

Well, I saw somewhere on Pinterest that you can just put them in water and place them in a sunny window and they'll keep growing.  It works incredibly well!  They grow so quickly I think we could eat them for every meal and not run out!

At first I was afraid it was not going to work because the first day all the tops turned yellow and some of them wilted completely over.  Then I realized that the stalks were still nice and firm and that they were growing taller.  I just keep weeding out any that wilt and cut the yellowed tops off when I'm ready to use them.

Wow; this has saved me so much money!

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