Currently this month we will be get $43 bucks in amazon gift cards from me doing this site and another which is sunnysidecash which I don't recommend. I will have $15 bucks already saved for next month on swag bucks. Since amazon gift cards stack you could save them for pretty much anything you want. I have a friend saving all her to buy Christmas gifts with.

Runkeeper is GPS based, so in addition to timing your run, it can also tell you how far you've traveled. It will plot your path onto google maps, tell you how many minutes per mile you're averaging, as well as the total calories you've burned during your run.  Slicker than that, it uploads each recorded run to their website, where you can see charts and graphs of your aggregate data.

We haven't yet subscribed to the full reporting utility ($20 year).  We probably will, ultimately.  We're saving it as a motivational gift for ourselves whenever we need a little more encouragement to keep running.

Speaking of motivational gifts, we have promised ourselves we'd use some of our tax return money so that each of us can get a pair of Vibram Bikilas when they come out in April or May.  However, we've challenged ourselves to have to do a 5 mile run in order to earn them.  We've also challenged ourselves to run a few of the 5k events in East Texas this year, and we're going to try to do a half marathon at some point in 2010.  We'll have to do a little searching to find one that we can participate in.  So far, I've ran 1/3 of a 1/2 marathon, so I'm feeling like it's a fairly realistic goal.  I probably won't be breaking any records, but as this will be my first event larger than a 5k, I'll be happy to complete it in any reasonable time.

For around the last four months we have switch from using traditional bottled shampoo to a shampoo bar. This saves on the amount of plastic we use and money of course.  The switch was very easy for us we didn't have much chemical build up or maybe our hair just handled the change good, I am not really sure.  I liked the idea I knowing exactly what I am putting in my hair and how it made my hair feel.  However like all things organic or "natural" it cost around $6 to $8 dollars a bar. A bar will last anywhere from three months on depending on how hard the bar is and if you take good care of it.  The only real care involved is just making sure you let it dry out real nice between uses.  So after talking to some neighbors we tried our hand at making our own. I am to the curing process right now and have at least six more weeks to go before I get to try it out. I might even let it go a little longer so it will get extra hard. I have never had a really hard bar but from what I have read the harder the better.  So to say the least I am really excited to see how this soap turns out. I have really high hopes there are so many options to soap making that if things go well I plan to make much more.

So for now the list just grows with things are a making either to save a little money or for fun.

 Yesterday I placed my order for some Vibram Five Fingers.  I saw these shoes about a month ago and as soon as I started reading about them I was in love.  I  have even been having running dreams. Which isn't like me at all.  In the past running for me has just been pain my ankels and knees always hurt. So excited to see what these will do for me. I am also planning on making these my main shoes unless it just pouring outside in which cause i'll just switch to crocs or something that is as close to barefood as I can get.