Shakology Review

Hey Guys!

So, I had this super sweet lady, named Jacki, contact me about Shakology and I automatically wanted to know more. I had tried this before and I didn't think much of it. I didn't like the texture because it was to chalky but when Jacki told me they reformulated it and made new flavors I was super excited. So, she sent me a pack of Shakology drink, a super sweet note and a meal plan!

BUT she was super sweet and sent me TWO! Yay!!!!!!! So, this afternoon my roommate, DJ and I tried the drinks. DJ tried the strawberry one and I tried the Chocolate.

With the strawberry, all we did was follow the exact directions and did it with water.

 DJ really liked it and gave it about a 8/10 and said she would buy it. The only reason why it didn't get a 10 was because of our blender and it didn't get the consistency she wanted. I tried this one also and it wasn't the flavor of drinks I like to drink but other then that it was still good.

I had the chocolate one and although I totally forgot to take a picture before it was SO GOOD!!  This one we mixed with coconut milk to make it a little thicker and I think it was a great choice.

Overall, these really do fill you up and taste good. If you do decide to try this go ahead and check out Jacki's shop.

Thanks again Jacki!

Megan Benson

Clean out my Car with me!

It's Car Cleaning day!! WOO!! My Car was so gross. I had moved myself and a couple more people, I ate several dinners in my car AND got dressed in there many times SO it was gross! Yes, my car has been worst before but my car needed a good cleaning!

So I always bring two things with me when I go to seriously clean out my car:
            1. A Laundry Basket for stuff that needs to go back into my room
            2. A container for stuff to leave in my car

And I always park next to a dumpster because I would rather do that then fill up 12 trash bags so off to a dumpster we go!

I start throwing stuff into my laundry basket and mostly its all reusable water bottles and clothes and stuff that fell out of my purse 

Then, I pick up any trash and throw it into the dumpster. I make sure to take off the seat covers, and everything gets shaken out. Once I put them back in I'm off to a vaccuum for a quick vaccuum. Then, I am DONE. I normally buy a few things for my car at this time but I already have everything I need so I put my car trash can back up:

Put in a new scent portable from bath and body works then she is ready to go! 

If you liked this and want some more clean with me posts let me know:) It was so fun writing this. Make sure to check out my money series in my last couple of posts http://adventurewithmegan.blogspot.com/2015/06/i-hate-credit-cards-money-series-day-4.html

Bye!!!!!!!!

I hate Credit Cards!!!!! Money Series: Day 4! Last day!!

Disclaimer: This is not saying that you are doing anything wrong with your finances. This is my opinion and my story. 

As you can see in the title, I hate credit cards! I don't know if I started hating them before listening to Dave Ramsey and hearing people's testimonies but I am deathly afraid of them. Now, most college students think it's so cool to have credit cards. That means you can spend all the money you want to right?! HA! No!!! Your literally just asking a company if you can barrow money and the way I see it, if I dont have the money to pay for it then it's not happening. (Other then school, thats a different story) Now, if I had an emergency come up and ALL of my resources were gone and I did not have money for it THEN I would get a credit card and cut all things that are not necessities until it is paid off. I would do everything I possibly could to get that away from me!

I babysat the other day and for some reason the little girl and I were talking about credit cards and before we talked I asked her what it meant and she said that you had all the money in the world and can buy whatever you want with it. WHAT?!! So I clearly explained what it meant and now she told me she only wants a debit card! I was so glad!

Well thats it for this blog post. I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know down below what you think. Thanks! Make sure to check out yesterday's blog post about Dave Ramsey's program!

How I use Dave Ramsey's Program in my Daily Life: Day 3 of Money Series

Dave Ramsey is an extraordinary person to me! His story is a lifetime of growing and learning and still to this day he has never stopped learning. I love listening to his stories and his amazing testimonies. So here is how I use his tools in my life.

He has a tested system on what you should do with your money called the baby steps:

Now let me break baby steps down for you:

Baby step 1: The first baby step  (bs) is just getting an $1000 emergency fund (ef) into a savings account. This is strictly for emergencies but if you can't put food on your table or can't pay rent do that first before putting this money into savings. That is called your four walls. As soon as you get caught up on that then start putting any extra money into the emergency fund.

This step really got me going because I quit doing anything extra because all I wanted was 4 digits in my account by a certain date. I even sold a couple of things just so I can meet my goal and I am pretty sure I met it with one day to go.

Baby step 2: Just as simple as it sounds this step is to pay debt off. What is the "Debt Snowball"? All it means is pay your debts from smallest to largest so that you have quick wins and you stick to the plan.

I didn't have experience with this step because I have never had debt so onto baby step 3!

Baby step 3: THE HARDEST! Oh this one is not so easy! This is what I am currently on. There are no quick wins. There is no certain number that you have to get to. You have to judge this one on your own!  I am currently one month ahead of myself and I work daily on this. Any penny that I get goes to this and every dollar has a place!

Baby Step 4,5 and 6: Your supposed to do these 3 all at the same time. All of the money that was going to ef and debt gets kicked into these 3 categories. I am so excited to do this and be done with the baby steps!

Baby step 7: This is the one that excites me the most because it means you're done everything that you could possibly do to save money now go out and have fun.



Another term I learned from him is Every Dollar has it's place which means: When I get my paycheck I know where each dollar is going to go. I have a written plan for each thing. If I found a dollar on the floor right now I know exactly which category of money it would go into. This helps with spending when you really don't need to and it helps with saving ways

The last thing that I know I got from his program is his Cash Envelopes: If you have been reading my blogs you know that I keep my money in categories. For example, I have a rent category, a food category and a clothing category. The rent one needs $300 each month, food needs $200, and clothing needs $100. So each month I try to fill up my envelopes as I go and if by the end of the month I have extra money then I can either go shopping or rollover if I am behind. It shows exactly what I can buy and works perfectly.

Thank you so much for reading and staying up with me. Writing this blog has been a major accomplishment and everyday gets better and better.

Why I love Babysitting?: Day 2 of Money Series

So, I babysit for a living at this point in my life and I wouldn't change it for the world. Not only do I babysit for families that want a night out or are going somewhere that they cant take there kids but I also work in a day care that I absolutely love! Yeah, sometimes babysitting can be hard but the wonderful moments are what I live for and make me realize why I love what I do.

My first babysitting job was watching 3 kids and I was 13. I absolutely loved this. I loved when the parents got home that we were playing or reading or doing something interactive. I loved the learning moments I got. I love everything about them but for some reason my schedule got to hectic and the babysitting stopped but I was still around kids all the time.

I would help in the nursery at church, I would do anything to hang out with the children and get close with the parents at the same time. THEN my whole life changed. I got a nanny job! Now, I dont mean to brag but this job was like the DREAM nanny job that I always thought of when I thought of nannies.

When I first started I had met the parents twice and same with the kids and they stole my heart. I remember the first day like it was yesterday. I was scared. I was scared that the parents were gonna come home and the kids would have a broken bone or something so I did everything to make everybody happy. I texted the mom at least every hour because I wanted to make sure she trusted me, I let the little girl eat candy just to keep her happy and BOY did I regret that. They saw me as a push over the next day so I put my guard up as much as I can with there cute faces. We made a routine and stuck through it until my very last day and there brains clicked that I was not scared of them. Everyday I would see something that just made my day. I remember one day the little girl was sick and she had the morning off while the little boy had school so we would always hang out just us girls and either lay around or sometimes go shopping. It was always a special time. She decided that day that she wanted to lay down but not just on the couch. She wanted to lay down on me. So she climbed up and layed her head on my chest and held onto my pony tail and fell asleep but would not let go of my hair. It just melted my heart and I will always remember that. People ask me how I do it and all I want to say is Why would I not do it? 

Money Saving Day 1: Budget Binder

I am going to do 2 posts today because I couldn't get one up yesterday and I am also bringing you a WHOLE NEW SERIES! I decided to do my first, out of many, series. I am going to do 3 days strictly to saving money. Now, saving money is a huge part of my life right now. Obviously, I am in college and I am trying to "live it up" but I know that someday I am going to regret the "living it up" and not saving up. So I decided to do a little bit of both so for the next 4 days I will be doing posts about $$MONEY$$!

First of all the most important tool: My Budget Binder

This is nothing fancy, all of the worksheets were either made personally by me or found on my Budget Planning Pinterest Board.  My binder lives on my desk so I can reference it daily and make sure I am on top of things. The binder is of course from Target and the page protectors and dividers are from Office Max.

The first thing you see when you open up the binder on the left is 2 pockets and I keep my paychecks from any job that I have at the moment (which I took out for the pictures) and my planner and some post its.

The first worksheet is my "Days to Remember" Page. I put any dates in here that I can't forget. They also go in my planner but the more places I put the dates the better I remember!

The next page I want to show you is my Money Plan Worksheet. This is the most used worksheet from the whole binder. You will see this week that I use Dave Ramsey's envelope system and this is how I use it. I have different categories for what I spend for the month. So this is how I keep track of what I have and how many months I am ahead.

The last thing that I have in the back pocket is my Packing list  and my outfit planner. As you know, I am planning for a vacation coming soon so I can have all of my outfits planned out that way as soon as I am ready to start packing I already have exactly what needs to be planned out.

My gift giving sheet is one that I can't show because I have plans for a surprise coming very soon for somebody who I KNOW is reading this so I can't show it but it just explains the gifts I am going to give and how much it will cost. This serves 2 purposes:
1. Its a place I can store ideas for gifts. As soon as somebody says I want this for my birthday, it goes on my sheet that way I have plenty of options come holiday/birthday time.
2. It keeps track of how much money I need to save for the holidays so I am not surprised by the big bill at holiday time.

So that is my budget binder. I am truly OBSESSED with it! It's my way of staying organized with finances and I absolutely love it. Do you have a budget binder? What do you use yours for?

How to save money at Target.

So everybody knows Target is the place to go when your craving a shopping trip. Or when you have nothing else to do. Or when its to hot outside to go anywhere else. Or when you just want to be alone. Okay, Target is the place to go anytime of day. Just go. Right now. WAIT! If your going to shop make sure you're at least smart about it. I had my experience with working at Target and I am crazy about saving money! (Look out for my budget plan in tommorow's post) I knew when the people who really wanted to save money walked through my lane. They had these 4 things in hand with them:


Cartwheel: Cartwheel is a free app on your smart phone that is the easiest tool to save money right away when shopping at Target. All you do is you scan the product that your interested in buying. The phone automatically looks for any "Cartwheel coupons" for that product. If there are any then it pulls it up. If you decide to get the item then you press "Add to barcode". Once you do that to all your items you pull up your personal Cartwheel barcode and all the Cashier has to do is scan that one barcode. How easy is that?!

Coupons- Now you guys all know what coupons are but I have not gotten the hang of it and as soon as I am back from vacation I will get it. I even bought a printer so I can print coupons at home. I will figure out how to be smart with coupons. stay tuned.

Reusable bags- Now reusable bags don't save you much (5 cents per bag) but it takes a lot of stress out of your shopping trip. You don't have to figure out what to do with those pesky plastic bags or have to carry them all in. AND you take off 5 cents. A little adds up and you can save quite a bit of money each year by using reusable bags.

Redcard- This next one is a little controversial so I won't rant to long.

Megan, I thought you were against credit cards: I totally am. 100% against credit. BUT these wonderful, amazing things are NOT a credit card. They can be if thats your deal but you choose one or the other when you apply. They are 2 completely different things. The debit card will come straight out of whatever debit card you want it to. So its the same account just a different card. Your still spending the money from your checking account.

But what about the "Target Scam": When I first got my redcard this is what scared me. I did not want to lose money. BUT coming in July they are putting the chips into the card for extra security. Because of the incident that time now there preventing it even more. They are also starting up Apple Pay in august.

Five percent is not enough for me to get a card: Okay, so your like me and you average $50-60 a week for groceries. That's about $200 a month give or take just on groceries and toiletries. Now you take that 5% off and you get $10 off each month which is $120 off each year. Now, that might not sound like a lot to you (it does to me because I am a college student and thats like half of an entire paycheck) so lets do a little more math. We all know that we go to target at least once a year to do a major shopping spree. Whether its moving into a dorm or organizing your room you have to stock up so you spend $400 that day. So THAT DAY if you sign up for the red card you get $20 off. That could be a couple storage totes for FREE.

In the end, even if you just use one of these tools you will be saving more money then you would if you didn't use it. Let me know if you have any more cool tools to use while shopping at Target because this girl LOVES Target.

GoPicnic Turkey Pepperoni and Cheese

Happy Fathers Day!! Yesterday I went grocery shopping and picked up these Ready to Eat meals! These are so yummy and filling!!! Yesterday, I was babysitting and we decided we would have a "movie night" so we sat and opened this up and the little boy whos picky about everything LOVED everything except the lollipop which I left for his mom to try because I was so full. So lets go piece by piece and let me tell you how amazing these are. 

This is everything that came in the box. There's crackers, a nut and fruit mix, Cheese dip, pepperoni slices, a lollipop and a stick to spread the cheese.

To start off I opened these and tried one of the nut pieces and WOW! These are sweet but a little spicy because it has a habanero taste in it. I have to admit, I was glad that they were spicy because the little boy probably wouldn't eat it. He wanted to try it so I gave him the bag and turned my back to try something else and maybe 2 minutes later here is what I got back: 

Very few nuts because he loved it and I don't think he realized he left these in there. 

The next two things that I opened were delicious together! I spread the asiago cheese on to the cracker and the cracker had a little spice to it so it was perfect. It had the perfect crunch as well as the perfect flavor. 

The cheese and cracker was also supposed to have the pepperoni with it but the little boy I was watching loved pepperoni so I let him have them and he let me try one. These were so good. Tasted just like regular pepperoni with a lot of spice on it! 

That was everything in the box! Thanks for reading!

Target Haul on a Busy Week

So this week is really busy! I am babysitting, working my regular part time job, working my summer job for 3 more days and packing to go on vacation! (WOO HOO!)Also, I am trying to empty out my food so nothing goes to waste while I am gone. I don't have much time to cook so unlike other weeks, this week is going to be mostly frozen food. As much as I want to cook I just don't have time this week. I am trying to stay away from fast food but with how this week is looking I think there will be a couple of nights that the drive thru will be hosting my dinner! So I headed to Target.

(This is everything I got, scroll down for more details)

I got 2 Market Pantry Pepperoni Pizzas. These are so easy and cheap that whenever I have a busy day or I don't feel like cooking I almost always head to these. I know there not the best for you but at least it's not fast food!

Next, I got 4 boxes of spaghetti. Yes, I really love spaghetti. I don't usually go a week without eating spaghetti! It's my favorite and when I saw the deal going on at Target today I had to get them: Buy 3 get 1 free!!!!!!!! Thats like 2 or 3 dinners for FREEEE!!!!

The next thing is probably the thing that I am most excited to try:

The Go Picnic Turkey stick and crunch and turkey pepporoni ready to eat meals These just sound so good and since I will be traveling next week I think these would be perfect on the plane or wherever! These were 2 for $7 instead of $3.99 each and I will do a review on these so look out for it!

For some filler meals just to heat up really quick I got 2 Lasaugna and 2 of these pizza bagels which I have never tried but I am excited to try and probably do a review on it!


And then for my airplane trip I got some Sour Patch gum.. The best!!

Last minute Father's Day Ideas

(My Dad and dog Rufus that I miss very much)

ALERT! ALERT! It's almost Father's Day! Now is the time to run to Target and buy a quick gift so your dad can think that you didn't forget and you are a good person! 

Now, if your dad is anything like mine then anytime you ask him what he wants for Fathers Day/Birthday/Christmas he tells you "I don't know." or "Anything you give me is fine." or the best one I've heard/remember is "Save your money and spend it on your mom." But we all know we can't just NOT buy gifts. Thats the best part of these holidays is the giving/receiving gifts. So thats what this post will be about. Even if your dad tells you he doesn't want anything here are a couple gifts that all dads would love. 

DJI Phantom 3 Professional Quadcopter Drone $1259

We all know Dads like there "toys". Well this toy is like the Lamborghini of all toys. It can fly amazingly high. Its the perfect camera for those hiking trips or family reunions. He can show this off to all of his friends and family. Sorry Dad but I don't even have that much money in my bank account. 

Rhino Shield iPhone Case $25

Now for the less expensive gifts here is a iphone case that he can drop from that super high mountain that he hiked the other day or even run over with his motorcycle and his phone would still be okay. 

Bose Soundlink Color Bluetooth Speaker $129

Alright, this is one of those speakers that your dad can put in his Man-Cave and it would fill up the whole room. You connect this by bluetooth to your phone and play whatever music you want on it. You can get these from Target or Amazon or wherever sells speakers most likely will have them.

A Hat with your dad's favorite football team on it

This one would be an ideal gift for any dad who loves football. My dad probably has 10+ hats with Huskers or just Nebraska on it. You can get one from Amazon for less then $20. 

Whatever you get your dad I am sure he will be happy and love you just like he did yesterday and will tommorow. Dads are the most selfless people in the world. They are the ones we go to when we need that bed being built or are new laptop set up. Anything I can't do I always go to my dad so he deserves one day to relax and get a little gift just to say that "I am thinking about you and love you. Thank you!" 

What did you get your dad? Comment down below to add some more ideas to this list.

Meal Plan for the Week

As my first official blog post I decided to do my meal plan so you can see my biggest struggle which is definitely cooking. I try so hard to be a good cooker but I burn so many things on a weekly basis that I just have to laugh at myself now. I try to do two complicated meals a week or if not complicated then at least new. Something I have never done before. Before I lived on my own I got so excited about cooking for myself so I created a Pinterest board, like I do with everything else, called Cooking for One. I posted lunch boxes, chimichangas and even some desserts. I have been working on cooking as many things as I can from that board but you should definitely check it out because there are quite a bit of YUMMY things on it (Like these Loaded Chicken Salad Sandwiches) Lets get started on my week:

Saturday: 

Breakfast: Honey Nut Cheerios (You'll see this week that I love cheerios and its seriously the easiest and quickest breakfast ever.)

Lunch: Bean and Cheese burrito- On Saturday, I made 10 of these and stuck them in the freezer for leftovers later on in the week and seriously these are so good. Go check out this recipe!

Dinner: For this night I had work so I brought 2 of the bean and cheese burritos from lunch time and thawed them out at work and cooked it for a minute and it was the perfect quick dinner.

Sunday:

Breakfast: Honey Nut Cheerios:)

Lunch: Because those Bean and Cheese burritos were so darn good I ate a few again today! 

Dinner: Oven Fajitas- This is one you have to try! I have made these for 2 weeks in a row now because I cant get over how easy and amazing these are. These will definitely be on the meal plan again once I get back from vacation. My roommates even think these smelt pretty amazing! 

Monday:

Breakfast: Honey Nut Cheerios

Lunch: Oven Fajitas Leftovers- These heated up are just as amazing as the first day. Add some avocado and make it even better. 

Dinner: I made burgers. I didn't have a recipe but I just bought the patties from Target and cooked them on the stove and put them on these Hawaiian buns with Onion, tomato and a little avocado. These were so good and definitely got rid of my craving for a juicy burger. 

Tuesday:

Breakfast: Honey Nut Cheerios

Lunch: Burgers- I bought a pack of 4 patties so I just cooked 4 on Monday night so that I had a couple leftovers for whenever I want an easy lunch/dinner. 

Dinner: Homemade Pizza- I didn't have a recipe for this I just had crust and put pizza sauce, cheese and pepperoni. I was to scared to do something any more complicated but this one came out pretty good so maybe next week will call for a more complicated pizza. 

Wednesday:

Breakfast: Honey Nut Cheerios

Lunch: Grilled Cheese with avocado

Dinner: Bean and Cheese burrito from earlier this week

Thursday:

Breakfast: Honey Nut Cheerios

Lunch: Grilled Cheese and a quick smoothie. I buy strawberries every week and I have a jar of Mangoes in the pantry so I just make a strawberry, mango smoothie with some mango juice to help it blend.

Dinner: Spaghetti

Friday:

Breakfast: Honey Nut Cheerios

Lunch: Grilled Cheese and a smoothie. This is a couple of days before groceries so I just try to get rid of some things that I know are going to start going bad.

Dinner: Whatever leftovers are in the fridge. 

And Saturday is Grocery shopping day!!!! My favorite day of the Week!

My First Blog Post

Hey there!

Welcome to my blog! I'm super excited for you to be here. I am originally from Southern California. I moved to Kearney, Nebraska to explore many different adventures and also to go to a great school with an amazing education department. My main goals in life is to be happy and healthy and to be a successful teacher. This blog is here for me to realize how far I have gotten and for you to go on this adventure with me.

Please comment what you would like to see and I will try my hardest to stay updated.

Thanks again for going on this adventure with me

Megan Benson