With the new year brings new years resolutions. A lot of new year resolutions include a fitness, health or weight loss goal of some sort. I know that personally I almost always start January first looking to finally lose those last 10-15 pounds and like many, I start with great intentions but fall off after a few weeks.

I have been able to isolate the main reason for my failures though.  I don’t have a solid plan when embarking on my adventure. My goal is to ‘lose weight’ but rarely do I know exactly how I’m going to accomplish this. The obvious ”eat less, move more” sound simple until you try to put it in place, at least for me. I’ve had great success with the Weight Watchers program in the past but unfortunately my budget isn’t going to allow me to do it this year. I need to finally lose this weight, and do it as cheaply as possible!

Use A Free Gym

Unless you live in a bubble, you have access to an amazing free gym, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. The great outdoors. Get outside and move. I’ve always enjoyed going for walks but recently started running though I’m sad to admit that the month of December my runs have been almost non-existent. While I do have some legit excuses I can’t excuse every miss. I have learned though that getting outside and moving your body is an amazing way to feel better. Getting out the door, especially in a winter climate is the hardest part!

If you’re not interested in walking or running try searching out playground workouts and use a local playground for a great workout that will make you feel the burn!

Use Your Computer to Work Out For Free

My sister-in-law lost over 20 pounds thanks to a set of free weights and You Tube. She did nothing other than workout videos she found on the internet. Proof that you don’t need a fancy gym to lose weight. If you don’t have internet access pop in a good ‘ol DVD, rented from your local library of course.

Anther great use for the internet is to use online classifieds to find free or cheap gym equipment. The free weights she used were from our local classifieds. Someone was moving and looking to take as little as possible with her, she put an ad up telling people to come by her apartment and take whatever they could carry (listing items she had). Though I haven’t looked yet, I’m willing to bet this is a great time of year to buy used gym equipment online too. If I was looking to sell, I’d post my treadmill for sale in January!

Partner Up for Accountability

If you’re like me, having someone to help keep you accountable helps, a lot. Invaluable actually. Even if you’re friend isn’t interested in partaking in your regime, ask them to keep you accountable with weekly phone calls. No texts or emails, an actual honest-to-God phone call. You can share successes and failures and work through it together.

My sister-in-law and I are great, and terrible for each other. When we’re good, we’re really good. When we suck, we both suck in terms of running and weight loss. It’s nice to share success and failures with someone.

I have already agreed to no more messing around and this will be OUR year. I want to finally lose the weight I’ve been trying to lose for almost four years and enjoy my body for a while before we decide to have more kids. I also want to be in the best shape of my life when baby #2 comes because pregnancy and breastfeeding do crazy things to your body, things I’d rather limit come next time!

How do you plan on getting fit/losing weight for cheap this year?

I was online window shopping when writing the last cheap Valentine’s day gift guide, and kept seeing unique things that I would LOVE to have, as a reader, if my fiance got me these things as gifts. I’ll have to email him this post as a hint-hint when it goes live.

I just had to make a whole new post for a gift guide for a reader, with all of these great products out there.

All of these great and different options are under $65, and I just love them. As somebody who reads upward of 50 books per year, I feel that I know readers quite well, as I am one.

If your wife, fiance, or girlfriend (or even if you want to get a Valentine’s day gift for your mom who loves to read) loves to read, these are all amazing gifts.

Shoes – Dictionary Quotes – Toms.ca. Toms donates a pair of shoes to children in need, every time a customer buys a pair of their shoes. They are not only socially responsible but these dictionary quote shoes are adorable!

Bike Bookends – Bicyclegifthub.com – There are plenty of bookends out there but these bicycle bookends are adorable. I’d love to have those on my bookshelf!

Wrist Worms – Sandrajuto.bigcartel.com. Readers will know what I mean when I say that these would be so useful. In bed, when you are all cuddled up but your wrists have to be out of the covers to hold up your book? Yeah, these are like socks for your wrists.

Blanket – Monnogrammable Throw – Potterybarn.com. I’m one of those people that would rather curl up on a comfy chair with a blanket on a Friday night after work reading, rather than go out. I would love this blanket for that exact purpose!

Kindle Case – Chevron Monogram Kindle Case – Zazzle.com. I personally don’t read books in their paper form, I’m more of a e-reader rat. I love this case, and I think monogrammable is perfect to show thoughtfulness. Zazzle has a lot of cases, for different devices as well.

Does your partner like to read? Do you covet any of these things for Valentine’s day?

I’ve seen a lot of Valentines Day gift guides that sort of suck (and if they don’t, they’re way to expensive for one commercial “holiday”!). I thought I’d do my own, inexpensive gift guide for Valentines day for the woman in your life (with gifts under $60).

My fiancé has never really been very good at Valentine’s day, birthdays, or Christmas. In his defence, I’ve never been very good either, leaving us both in a place of knowing what we, ourselves, want, but not what the other person wants.

While Valentine’s day has long been thought of as a commercial “holiday” that Hallmark made up to get more money out of you (though now Hallmark has Valentine’s Day ecards available that will save you money) it’s still nice to do something special for your spouse on February 14th.

One day, I was working at my retail job in the mall in my first year of college, and a young man came in to buy his girlfriend a pair of shoes for the big V-day. He didn’t know what to buy her, so he asked us for our opinions. We asked him what she needed the shoes for, and he launched into a story of the elaborate things he was doing for his girlfriend on Valentine’s day, including renting a skating rink (in it’s entirety), having a dinner catered, bringing her dancing in a limo, and buying her a new expensive pair of shoes, dress, and jewelry set to go with the festivities.

While it is so sweet that he was able to do that for his Valentine, most people don’t expect anything that elaborate.

Valentine’s day doesn’t have to be exceptionally expensive, but if you’re on a budget, here are some inexpensive gifts you can get for your wife, girlfriend or fiancé to spoil her a little.

• Mug – Monogrammed Mug from Anthropologie.com (pick her first initial or your last, and fill it up with chocolate or, even better, samplers from below).
• Tea – Winter’s Collection from Davidstea.com (or pick and choose some samplers based on her personality)
• Umbrella – Legit’s a Beautiful Day Umbrella from Modcloth.com (we’re almost into spring and no woman wants to be caught without an umbrella. This one is so cute!)
• Scarf – Luxembourg Scarf- Cerulean Tiger by Stella and Dot (warm and chic, perfect to carry her into spring)
• iPhone Lenses – Classic Kit for iPhone and Android (perfect for the woman in your life who wants to capture special moments without lugging around heavy cameras).

What’s your favorite inexpensive Valentine’s day gift you’ve ever gotten? What’s the best gift you’ve ever given your significant other?