I’ve been struggling lately with fitting exercise and healthier eating into my life. Add kids and a full-time job to my fondness for for sleep, TV and a daily glass of wine, and going on a run often falls by the wayside.

Just yesterday I was thinking about how the only time in my life that I’ve successfully made working out a priority is in the months leading up to my wedding. My incentive: Looking fabulous in my pricey dress in front of 150 people.

Since then, few incentives look as good as a second piece of carrot cake (man, I’d better get to the point before I sound any more like Cathy).

Enter Stikk.com — a web site created by Yale economists after they successfully lost weight and kept it off by promising each other half a year’s worth of salary if they failed. When I came across this LA Times opinon piece written in January by one of the founders, I hung on every word. Here’s the site’s philosophy:

The concept is grounded on two well-known principles of behavioral economics: (1) people don’t always do what they claim they want to do, and (2) incentives get people to do things.

Here’s the deal. I sign up and make a commitment to exercise regularly, lose a certain amount of weight, even vote. I can make up a commitment of any kind and register it with Stikk.

If I keep my commitment, then good for me. I don’t spend a penny (the site is free). If I fail, then the money I’ve pledged, whether it’s $5 or $500, is transferred to the chum or charity of my choice.

I can pick a referee to monitor my every move and can e-mail friends so they can keep tabs of my progress.

I think it’s a cool concept. So here’s what I’m thinking. Send me an e-mail (kara@startribune.com, subject line: Stikk) and I’ll invite you to watch my progress. If I fail to exercise four times a week for 30 minutes at a time for the next 12 weeks, I’ll randomly pick one of those e-mail address owners to receive my pool of cash. I’m pledging $20 a week, for $240. Call it Kara’s exercise stimulus package.

If looking good in front of 150 people was incentive enough, looking bad in front of all of you should get my feet moving.

Maybe all that boot talk went to my head. Or the fact that I’ve done next to no shopping this year. But I just purchased a pair of shoes on clearance online, final sale, just because a promo code for an additional 15 percent off came to my inbox.

Yes, they are really cute (although they don’t look all that great floating on my blog). Yes, they will be great for work–if they fit. Yes, they were a reasonable $37. Plus there was free shipping. But did I need them? No. Did I need to gamble with final sale online shoes? No! Especially when you’re making a conscious effort not to shop.

Ever since I decided to buy fewer unneeded consumer goods, I’ve opted out of catalogs using Catalog Choice or tossed them aside when they come to the house. For a week I was also un-subscribing to many retailer’s emails. But then I got sick of making the extra clicks and never reached my goal of a cleaner e-life. And some companies don’t seem to follow through with my requests anyway.

For those of you who want less mail,visit: http://opt-out.cdt.org/.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work for opting out of e-mail, and the site explains why.

Back to silly purchases. Share your most recent or egregious impulse purchase. I have a prize for the best one.

I’m back after five restful days in Mexico with my husband. We’d never been and learned a few things on our trip.

#1: Eating fresh fish that is caught the day of is much more delicious that buying bulk flash frozen salmon fillets at Costco– more expensive, but you can’t put a price on the best prawns ever, can you?

#2: That reading about fictional families struggling to make ends meet or a memoir recounting old struggles (I read The Falls by Joyce Carol Oates and The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls) is far more enjoyable than writing stories about ill-advised stimulus packages and growing consumer defaults. But now that I’m back, I’m ready to dig into these important topics again.

#3: That if you plan to make phone calls overseas, buy a calling card or a cell phone SIM card that works in your destination. We spent $80 to use our cell phone, mostly because we were dumb enough to lose our rental car key (temporarily) and because I was dumb enough to leave my credit cards at our first cabana. Earth to McGuires?!

#4: Don’t hide your credit cards under the giant vase in your room because you are paranoid that they will be stolen while you swim in a cenote. And then leave them there. At least I left them in a place where credit cards pretty much aren’t used. But really, Kara! And this was a decision made without the influence of tequila.

#5: There is something refreshing about taking a break from using credit and spending cash. Since we budgeted beforehand, I was already comfortable with the amount we were going to spend and I liked getting back and seeing only a handful of transactions. That way I can remember the delicious food and fun evening shopping, not every penny we spent on Mexican wrestling masks (see below).

#6: Haggle. I was told a necklace was $250 and got him down to $125 with relative ease. Unfortunately, that was still too much for this cheapskate to pay…and his willingness to go down to that amount made me question whether it was still far overpriced. It’s like Kohls. Never buy full price because full price is 50 percent off (at least that’s my estimation).

Thanks a million to my pal Tom Lee for manning el bloggo for the week. My email is chock full of tidbits for me to share with you on everything from saving to micro-lending, so check back soon.

So….I am working on our taxes and requested the total amount we spent on childcare for our son in 2007. It’s worth every penny considering how great the place is and how much he loves it. But, the sum takes your breath away.

(drumroll)

The McGuires spent $11,775.00 in child care expenses for their child, Teddy from January of 2007 to December 2007.

Remember, we have two children. But Charlotte’s care amounted to ONLY $7,900.

Hey, it’s slightly less than the $20,000 I estimated!

Valentine’s Day is around the corner, which means that I’m getting loads of love and money-related pitches.

I’ve written about my marriage and money in the past. And while we’re pretty compatible, one of these exchanges will inevitably creep into our life from time to time:

Scene: The McGuire’s household on Saturday.

Starring: The McGuires

Him: “I got the car washed.”

Me: “Good. You used the coupon?”

Him: “Yeah, but it was still $28 bucks.”

Me: [I can’t print my reaction on this blog. That led into a rant about coupons and using them only if they save money and use your brain and other rudeness on my part.]

Him: “I know how you get when I don’t use the coupons.” (there is some truth to that)

Me: [digging furiously through the pile of receipts he left on the counter to see proof of the $28 car wash.]

Him: [Slamming the door as he went to return the cheap movies before noon so we don’t spend an extra $2.00.]

Me: [finding the coupon and noticing that he only spent $18 on the car wash, which is still a lot, but oddly I am not nearly as upset by that sum– it was a thorough car wash, after all]. “It was only $18 dollars. Hurry back. Pizza’s in the oven,” I yelled.

Yes, living with a cheapskate is that annoying. But I try my hardest to repress this urge to nickel and dime our finances. I think because we speak openly about money and because our money values are aligned, we don’t fight much about money.

How about you? What annoying financial behaviors do you possess (come on, be honest!)? What drives you nutty about your partner?

Then tomorrow, I’ll share the results of several love and loot surveys that have been peppering my in-box.