Thursday, September 30, 2010

The end is nearer now then it ever has been!


Today was the official end to our spending freeze. It feels pretty good to say with did it with a fair amount of success.


The things I've learned from my project:

1) We spend WAY too much on eating out

2) I am far more subject to impulse spending then I thought I was

3) I spend WAY too much money of coffee.

4) I shop when I'm bored as a form of entertainment- with out any purpose or need for anything. Both on line, and in person.

5) If I would stop and pause to think about if I need an item, 9x out of 10 it's an impulse and more of a want then a need.


So here are the things we are going to do going forward:

1) Not eat out as much. Not until after the 10th currently

2) Writing dinner menus so our meals are more planned

3) Children get allowances, so why shouldn't I? 20 dollars each month for Josh and I to spend on what we want. Quick deli meals, Starbucks, and things from the little store across from my office.

4) I should not shop with out needing something. If I need a sweater, I'll buy a sweater. If I need a pair of pants, I'll buy a pair of pants.

5) Let's face it, there are times when we come across an exceptional deal and we just have to have it. I will ask myself if I really need it. And if that means wondering around a store with a perfect T shirt in my hands when I know I have perfect t-shirts already in my closet until I have the good sense to put it down, so be it!



The things I've learned today:

1) Beer with a screw cap has no need to open with a bottle cap opener.

2) Blue Moon beer is made by coors, and their pumpkin beer sucks.


And finally a little talk about the end. The end is nearer now then it ever has been. This is universal because it's not specific about what the subject matter is. The end of the day, the end of this boring blog, the end of me thinking I'm cool? We don't know- but because we exist within the confines of time, it's always true. So the end is nearer now, then it was 2 seconds ago when you first started skimming through my blogging nonsense. Attached for your viewing pleasure of course is a picture of the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse. Even though the pale horse is yellow and should be green. Enjoy!

Monday, September 27, 2010

1.5 hours to kill without spending any money?

I had something @ 6:30 this evening in N.E. Portland. Most of the time getting out of the city and into this area is a real nightmare. If I'm lucky I have just about half an hour to kill and am happy to get where I am going and read my book and relax for a little while and transition from "Work Laura" into "My Time Laura" where I focus on things that are important to me past earning a pay check.

Today traffic was a dream. I'm talking across town in less then half an hour kind of dream. So there I am driving around PDX with 1.5 hours to kill in an area that I don't really want to sit in my car alone for that long, and an unwillingness to spend any money to entertain myself. Normally I would go into a Starbucks and read my book, or go into a local store and look around. I thought about going into the Asian market, but I did say I would not go to the market at all until the end of the month, and I know I would have ended up buying something wonderful to cook with. I settled for a Ross store. I figured I would just look at the fall items, and get an idea of how much serving trays cost as I would like to get one. I have to admit there were several things that I wanted to get. A set of 6 seahawks tumblers, and they had a beautiful section of white plates and serving dishes, pitchers and jugs that looked so pretty it made me want start collecting pretty white things. I picked them up, handled them, looked at their prices....and set them down. I looked at shoes and saw a pair that I really liked, but didn't need.

I walked out not spending a dime, even though I wanted to! Oh boy did I want to. But I got a sense of serious satisfaction out of not spending the money. Because we are getting so close to the end of this project, the temptation is high to end the process early- so I went ahead and paid the money I saved onto my credit card. After all, I can't spend money I don't have. All in all I think that was the wise choice for me, as I think my will power is waiving. I can't wait to decide what I am going to adapt in to our regular budget.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Old Mother Hubbard


First of all let me tell you about how smart I am. I wanted to go to coffee with a friend today, but because we are frozen I do not have the budget for coffee outside the home- but we did need to buy beans for the home. We met at Peets, I bought the seasonal coffee from Costa Rica and they gave me a free medium drink as is their promotion. Most of the time they offer a free cup of black coffee with beans purchase, and I thought that was an inventive way to avoid not spending extra money while going to coffee. So today I feel like a hit the jackpot with my pumpkin spice latte.

Despite the very warm temperature today, I decided to make fall comfort food, so I made another cottage cheese "meat loaf" and started to think about what to make with it. Unfortunately at this time my fridge is bare like Old Mother hubbard, so this was sure to be a challenge. Then I remembered that I have a head of cabbage that was getting on in it's life as well as an onion, some carrots, and some celery! SOUP! So the soup is cooking, the loaf is cooking and I'm looking forward to a healthy, protein rich, low calorie meal made for about 1.30 per person. Try buying that on the value meal!

Honestly I've really enjoyed saving this month. I don't have much time left to be on this budget, and refuse to go to the store again this month for ANYTHING else. (even though I've ran out of every condement in our house, and learned I use more soy sauce and mustard then I thought in cooking) So tonight I'm going to plan a menu for the rest of the week. I also plan for future months to keep at least 5 recipes on hand (and the stuff to make them) that are under $1.00 per person. Hopefully I will find more and more recipes that are inexpensive- and live up to my expectations on what a meal should taste like. Only time will tell.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

a slight thaw on my spending freeze

On Thursday night I went to coffee with a friend, and ordered water! Although it was on the calender and I could have bought a coffee and justified it, I felt my five dollars was better served if it stayed in my bank account, as I didn't actually NEED a coffee and I know I would have ordered a high calorie "treat" that I shouldn't have. Later that night I went to the supermarket to buy some food, and coffee, and managed to only buy the things on my very short list. $20 later I was out of the store, armed with the things I needed to make dinner for the game night we were having the next night, and enough pork that Josh would be able to eat off of it for at least three days afterward.

We did crack once, and ended up buying take out when it wasn't scheduled. I wasn't feeling well, and Josh decided that it was better then trying to find something to cook. I feel guilty about spending that $20 and honestly didn't learn anything out of it- we just cracked. Josh isn't much of a cook, and I don't think he even likes to eat his own food. It's easy though, once you crack on your goal to just keep cracking- saying "well we already failed, let's spend money on..." But If we just slip back into bad habits, what was the point of doing this at all?

Today we are back on track, cooking a big pot of chili, as chili and football seem to really enjoy each others company- and I enjoy being in the company of both of them. At about 70 cents a serving so does my wallet. We have 11 days left to go trying to keep our spending on track. I do expect to keep it on track.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

New creations with old food


The other day I realized that there was a costco size (3lbs) tub of cottage cheese in my fridge that needs to be used by next week, and eggs that are sell by tomorrow. So I decided to pull a recipe out of the depths of my mind that I read a few weeks back for 'Cottage cheese loaf''-I know it sounded gross to me at first too! But the reviews were really positive so I decide that it was worth trying.

Part of the problem with eating vegetarian is that there are not a lot of comfort foods out there that are vegetarian and easy to make. Because most of us think of the foods of our childhood on rainy days like today, we crave things like meat loaf, and chicken soup. If there is a vegetarian option, typically it's hard to make, and doesn't taste anything like the original dish. This on the other hand tastes just like meat loaf! I really honestly enjoyed it.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cottage-Cheese-Roast/Detail.aspx

I adapted this recipe to look like this-

1 1/2 cup cottage cheese
3 eggs, beaten
1 (1 ounce) envelope dry onion soup mix
1 1/2 cups instant oatmeal (this is what my mom would replace the crackers or cereal with when I was young)
Oil to grease the pan
ketchup or thinned tomato paste for the top.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a loaf pan.
In a large bowl, combine cottage cheese, eggs, soup mix, oatmeal. Spoon into prepared pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 60 minutes.

The greatest thing is that this recipe isn't that it tastes like meat loaf, but I didn't have to go out and buy anything special to make it. I managed to adapt the original recipe from things I have around the house. I can now add a wonderful meatloaf to my archive of recipes and this spending freeze is really making me try new things with the items I already have on hand. That makes me pretty happy!

Monday, September 13, 2010

Texts always lead to pondering-

Within less then two weeks I got two texts from two people who are in two different states telling me the same things. Lyrics of an old song about counting my blessings, and naming them one by one to see what the Lord has done. This wasn't one of those "lets both text Laura the same thing as a joke" type of text, this was two people who had not spoken to each other, having something stir within their own hearts, and sending me the same message- I am not going to ignore that.

So last night, Josh and I started naming our blessings, starting with things that are material, like having food in our cupboards and fridge, and not just any food like potatoes and grains, but food that for many around the world would be a luxury. Having 2 running vehicles, having jobs, having a comfortable shelter, having enough clothing that the laundry has managed to overwhelm me, and the list went on. Then moved onto the more substantial things. like having great families, friends, each other, having the freedom to seek the things that are important to us, and being able to understand the things we seek. It took us a while to list all the blessing that we have in our lives, even with bundling things together like "family" and "friends" and still felt like there were still things we must have left out.

I decided to bring this up tonight, because quickly my blog about spending less, has turned into a blog about wanting less, and in order to really want less, I need to be thankful enough for the things I have to recognize them as blessings. When actually naming them out loud one by one, it is became amazing how many things we actually have, how many blessings we have been given. Suddenly the shirt I wanted but didn't buy, or the candle that smelled like fall seemed so very trivial compared to everything we have, and can in no way stand up to the treasures we have that are immaterial. I snuggled up to my husband and dog in our very comfortable bed and felt blessed beyond what I could have imagined.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Learning while frozen.


You'll be happy to know that I went to walmart yesterday and didn't buy anything! I just walked around and talked with my mom as she loaded up her cart with the things she needed. I'm not a huge walmart fan, but they have their fall candles out and I LOVE the scent of fall candles. I still resisted the temptation though.

Today we had a pre-scheduled even that lead us to spending a little bit of money, but it's okay because we are spending money on things of value, like spending time with people we care about. It's teaching me more then anything that I have a habit of picking up things right when I want them, instead of thinking about really needing them. Yesterday the old Laura would have thrown the yummy warm fall scented candles into our cart with out even thinking about all of the yummy fall scented candles I already have in my home from last year, and the fact that we just put new plug ins that smell like the tropics last weekend. I would have just replaced them, put the old ones in the closet and told myself that I will use them next summer. Instead I will use these until the true end of summer, and ring in the fall next month with a yummy new fall scent- after taking stock of the things that I already have in my home.

All in all I would say I'm learning. :) And I am happy about that.
I also made some crunchy oven roasted garbanzo beans because I was trying to learn to use what I have around the kitchen when craving crunchy food.
1 can of garbanzo beans rinsed and drained
seasoning of your choice
salt- to help season and draw out moisture
and a 400 degree oven until crunchy! EASY!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Day 2-spending freeze!


Most Fridays at our house we get take out, but tonight as much as I want to go out and do a happy hour, we have a hot minestrone soup in the crock pot, chocked full of vegetables, beans, and pasta ready to be enjoyed.

Looking ahead, we have one thing on the books for this weekend that we are pre-committed to that will requires money, but because that was already on the radar we are going to allow it. (As we like to try to be people of our word.)

The tricky part of our spending freeze is when Josh dropped his blackberry today and the screen turned gray. Even though we have a warranty, they said we have to pay over $135 to get the stupid thing replaced. (robbery!) Josh needs it for work, so what choice do we have in the matter? He also managed to rip the pants to his favorite suit yesterday, in a place that I don't think is going to be repairable. The cost of this guy doing business just keeps going up and up! But it really does raise questions on Wants VS. Needs. He does need a new phone, but I think he can hold off on the suit pants until next month, when we can budget for it and pay cash.

All in all another successful day of budget and blogging although I have to say I'm pretty frustrated with the whole T-mobile/new blackberry thing. I think things are going to start getting hard though, as we ran out of the hummus I was eating for lunch today, and eventually we are going to have to buy new food. Lets see how long we can last. ;)


Thursday, September 9, 2010

And now for something new!

I opened my bank account the other day to find a balance lower then what was on my mental tally. A quick audit of my spending showed something very revealing. A $5 deli meal here, a $2 coffee there- all added up. Then there are the quick trips to the store. In and out, just to get the things I need for dinner; only I always manage to find something extra to put into my basket. When it comes down to it, I am simply in a habit of shopping more often then I really need to.

I came to a realization that financially we are never going to be in a better place then we are right now, if we don’t start to make some changes. It’s like being in a boat that is taking on water, as we row towards our goals, our boat drags and yet we don’t plug the holes in our boat. It’s time to look at what those holes are in our life, and start to plug them. So Josh and I decided that we would start an experiment. We are simply going to stop shopping. For remainder of September we are simply not going to buy anything that is non-essential, and will not do anything that wasn’t already on our schedule. We are calling it a spending freeze.

Yesterday we decided to have a last meal at a local Pho place, and then stopped off to get YoCream, and then we started on our spending freeze.

Day 1- The big freeze

Today I was so tired when I got up this morning. I would have really loved to go get a triple tall soy pumpkin spice latte- but I didn’t. I had oatmeal and a cup of black coffee, and was thankful to simply have something on my table.

As the day drug on, I was still rather tired, and have to admit that I thought about the coffee shop downstairs more then I would like to admit to. I also thought several times about my little starbucks card key chain with several dollars loaded onto it. How easy it would be to pop downstairs for a quick cup for coffee, but I corrected my thinking, in hopes of correcting my habits.

As dinner was looming we faced our first real problem. I asked Josh to take the minestrone soup out of the freezer so I could place it in the crock pot to warm. Instead he took a rice and mushroom mixture out of the freezer- and we ended up not having anything planned for dinner. In previous days I would have stopped off at the store and bought something to make, or even worse something pre-made. Instead we decided on grilled cheese sandwiches as we had everything to make them on hand.

Part of the challenge of our spending freeze is starting to look at what is essential to us, and what isn’t. Pita chips for example, although amazing with my hummus dip at lunch, can be substituted or eliminated. I am not sure if other things we purchase will so easily hit the chopping block.

I guess when it comes to our spending freezes, only time will tell.