After my recent griping on grocery prices, my pal and fellow Team 4all teammate, Morgan from Life After Bagels, offered to write a guest post on the topic. She sent it at the perfect time, since it turns out I have suddenly been struck by the illness of demons. While I wallow in my misery, please check out her fantastic post! 🙂

Hello Faith Fitness Fun Readers! My name is Morgan and I blog at Life After Bagels. I'm one of Tina's 4all by Jofit team mates 🙂

Today I've got a post for you about: GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR GROCERY BUDGET. In January, I left my career and decided to go back to school full time. Luckily my boyfriend is amazingly supportive, but going from two incomes to one has forced us to be super smart with our pennies (Canadian pennies you may notice!)

Whether you've been forced into a tight budget situation, are wanting to find a way to save for something, or are just worried about the rising food costs, here's some sure ways to reduce your costs.

• Make your coffee at home. This won't slash your grocery bill actually, but you're going to save a lot if you make coffee at home. We are a two cup a day type of family so we have our morning coffee with our handy dandy coffee pot, and the second cup from Mr Tim Hortons or Mrs Starbucks.

• Trade something homemade for something packaged. We like our Cliff bars, Luna bars, Larabars, but those were the first thing to go because they were the most expensive for the least amount of food. Every Sunday I make muffins. Healthy muffins that is. It takes about 15 minutes to whip up a batch. I make sure to include oats or oat bran, nuts, and dried or fresh fruit or veggies. They get individually wrapped and put in the fridge or freezer and we take one per day for our lunches.

• Trade eggs for flax meal substitute. When I hosted the Vegan For A Week challenge in February I was forced to try using flax meal instead of eggs in my baking. NO LIE - they work perfectly. Since I do a lot of baking and cooking (mostly muffins and pancakes), I have entirely substituted eggs for these uses. Now we only use eggs for eating eggs! Whisk together 1 tablespoon of flax meal and 3 tablespoons of water and let sit for about 10 minutes. Warning: don't whisk too hard!

• Cook a whole chicken. I'm a vegetarian, but Brad eats some meat. Every once in a while we cook up a (very small) whole chicken and he uses it to add to stir fries, burritos, sandwiches for a few days. Much cheaper than just buying chicken breasts.

• Make your own broth. You probably don't want to do this at the same time you're making homemade soup. Plan to do it just once a month and you'll have your own broth for weeks. One box of organic veggie broth usually goes for at least $3.99 in my neck of the woods.

• Make your own soup. Now that you've got a freezer full of broth, you're ready to go. We used to buy one jar of butternut squash soup per week that costs $7.99, that's crazy!

• Make your own tomato sauce. This started way before our budget got tight. After our grocery store stopped carrying our favourite sauce we couldn't find one that was low in sugar and salt, while also tasting good. I make 3-4 batches at a time and throw it in the freezer too.

It might seem like this will create a ton more work for you, but it barely adds to my overall food prep. Just make sure you do big batches and you'll be using your supplies for weeks. The additional benefit to making a lot of these regular grocery items yourself, is that they're way more fresh and way healthier. We're not hermits though, don't worry! And we do treat ourselves sometimes so here's a couple more saving money food tips:

• Go out for lunch or dinner in a group. Depending on how many friends you can get together, call the restaurant and ask if they offer a group discount.

• Walk to get your take out. This isn't really an option for us because we have no car. It's either walking or delivery and delivery is expensive. The local pizza places in our neighbourhood offer walk in specials so find out if yours does too.

Now you've got some great ideas to slash your grocery and food budget. I hope you'll visit me at Life After Bagels and you can email me any questions at morgan.shuker AT gmail.com .

Thanks, Morgan! Now you tell me – what ways do you like to save?

Hello my friends! Please welcome my friend and fellow Team 4all member, Jane, as she shares a guest post on her experience with running. It’s a good one. 🙂 You can also check out my own guest post for her, by clicking HERE.

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Of all the times I’ve written about running and my background in the sport and how much I love it, I don’t think I’ve ever actually admitted this publicly: I started running because I wanted more muscular legs.

I was a competitive swimmer from the time I was 5 until I was 16 years old. I remember one day, as a junior in high school, looking at photos of myself in my swim team bathing suit and thinking that I could use a little more muscle tone in my legs. And so the next day I went for a run.

That’s it… my sort-of vain and pretty un-exciting initial reason for running.

My reasons have changed and multiplied and evolved greatly since then, of course. In the 14 years that I’ve been running, I have learned to see it as part of what keeps me sane. It has helped keep me fit. It has helped me prioritize things in my life. It helped me get through my divorce. Through running, I have made some great friends – and it is even how I met my wonderful boyfriend.

I love running, and I love sharing my love of it with others.

I’ve helped convert quite a few non-runners into running enthusiasts over the years. And whether they now run a few miles a week or they run marathons, a common theme is that they end up finding that running is a great way to spend some “me” time.

Yes, as I have learned, there are quite a few benefits beyond making your legs more muscular (though that is a nice perk!). Running is an excellent way to relieve stress, clear the mind and focus on you.

I have run more races than I can count – 5Ks, 5-milers, 10Ks, 10-milers, half marathons, marathons – and everything in between.

This May, I am participating in a 200-mile relay race from Yale in New Haven, CT to Harvard in Boston, MA. A guy I went to high school with put a team together and invited my boyfriend and I to join in.

I’m excited and nervous about it at the same time. I’ve never done a running relay race, and I don’t quite know what to expect – but I know it is going to be quite an experience!

And that’s one of the great things about running – despite my long history with it, there’s always something new to try. There’s always more that I can learn. There’s always a different way to challenge myself.

For some people, a 5K seems daunting, and running a race of that distance would be a tremendous feat. Others begin running and instantly set their sights on completing a marathon.

It doesn’t matter where you fall along the spectrum – running is a sport that unites people of levels and abilities. It’s a sport that you can pick up at nearly any age.

Whether you’re just starting out running or you’ve been running for awhile, I pose this challenge: get out of your comfort zone at some point. Try something different – a new race distance, a trail run as opposed to a road race, a triathlon…

Experiencing something new may give you another reason to enjoy running – or it just may remind you why you began loving it in the first place.

Jane Couto had a very athletic upbringing, participating on swim, softball, tennis, diving and cross country teams throughout her childhood and teenage years. With three marathons, three Half Ironman triathlons and numerous other races under her belt, Jane loves sharing fitness information and tips on her blog, MomGenerations.com, which she writes with her mom and sister.

Thanks, Jane! Now…you tell me – what activity exhilarates you and gives you that strong sense of self because it always provides a new challenge?