With as much as I’ve been complaining lately you’d think I was emaciated and frail, underfed and overworked. Not so true…
In fact my incredible pantry and freezer stock has really come through for me! This last week I had refried beans and white rice, enchiladas, several ham and cheese sandwiches, chili and soup.
Last week I made a bunch of sandwiches ahead of time for the days when I wake up late or cranky, rush home on my lunch half hour and don’t have anything quick to cook.
The supplies:
By the way, I found it’s a lot easier to spread the peanut butter if you’ve microwaved it first. So a put a few scoops in a small jar, 30 seconds on high and done.
Put a thin layer of peanut butter on both sides so the jam doesn’t make the bread all soggy, add jelly, package and done.
I’ve also made soup from mixes my mom gave to me, heated up enchiladas from the freezer, cooked a lasagna, had burritos and leftover omelets and fasted for a few meals.
It’s a bad habit of mine to wander around the grocery store throwing things in my cart that “look good.” I don’t exactly shop with a plan in mind, just think to myself I would eat that.
This is not a preferred method.
For January I’ve given myself a budget of $50 and I would like to take advantage of some sales to get protein back in my diet. Beyond eggs and spam, that is.
That means continuing to use up items I have in my fridge, freezers and pantry, supplementing with fresh ingredients where it’s NEEDED.
I was considering buying zucchini for burritos (I slice it long ways and sautee with onions). But zucchini is not in season which means it’ll be more expensive, will spoil quicker and most importantly, it’s not NEEDED.
So, no zucchini on my list. Instead I’ll pick up a case of refried beans and trade those out with black beans for burrito bowls and tacos. Those beans should last me 3 more months so the cost of a case of beans is just $2.25 a month. I might buy some sparkling ciders in lieu of juice but I definitely need to restock milk, eggs and cheese.
$50 isn’t a whole lot when you consider buying in bulk but it’s cheaper in the long run. Even though it would be easier to spread out the $50 all month I’ll try to get all my shopping done this coming weekend. It’s way too tempting to go to the store every week.
I’ll just get greedy and convince myself fruit rolls ups should be at the base of the food pyramid. Or spicy turkey sausage for breakfast would make me, I don’t know, eat breakfast.
Unlikely.
I do need to find out if I can buy Taco Bell sauce at the grocery store now or if I should buy myself a taco and smuggle out the packets. I wasn’t kidding when I said beans, rice and taco sauce are fan-cy!
here it is Day 28 and still nothing spent on groceries. I did eat out 3 meals out of town and once out of my allowance. Here are a few lessons I’ve learned.
1. Clean the pantry first otherwise you’ll miss a lot of random food.
2. Pumpkins can be baked two months after Halloween if they’ve not been cut into. However,
3. Once the smoke starts to pour out of the oven it’s a good idea to remove the food therein. Blackened pumpkin seeds are not that yummy.
4. Make sure there is enough of the important staples on hand before beginning
5. And by staples I mean soup, of course
6. In the event of a chip shortage stale hard shell tortillas are an acceptable substitute
7. Milk can be frozen.
8. Lettuce should not be frozen.
9. Breakfast is optional.
10. Christmas goodies infuse a lot of sugar into the pantry
11. Dog treat may look like cookies but should not be consumed by humans
12. Halloween candy is an acceptable substitute to dog cookies
13. Canned carrots are just as good as fresh ones.
14. Green eggs and ham is more than a book.
15. Taco Bell seasoning makes rice and beans fancy.
16. Do not consider stringing popcorn or cranberries on a Christmas tree if you’ll be tempted to nibble.
17. Find something else to do when co-workers go out for coffee.
18. Weird recipes can be fantastic. Example: jello, cream cheese and pretzel salad
19. A nice table setting makes the sixth night of pasta and chicken a little more palatable
20. Keep a running grocery list of things you want to eat after the month is up.
Filed under: Money Tip Monday
Not necessarily as work because as Penelope Trunk has argued, you’re going to do that anyway. Work should be what you’re good at, what someone will pay you to do. But if you find something you love to do, do it.
Hobbies are for love. When I was a kid I loved puzzles, not the crossword kind but honest to god 3,000 piece complicated pictures. And I’m pretty good at them. I can walk by, pick up a piece and snap it into place after a few seconds.
Drives my family nuts.
But I’ve never figured out how to get paid to assemble puzzles.
A recent hobby which I’ve really begun to enjoy and invest in is photography. In a way it’s like a puzzle, usually it’s me plus the camera minus the ugly people in my way plus good lighting equals something amazing. Okay, that sounded more like math but you get the idea. Every few Saturdays when I have the morning off I’ll walk downtown or drive out to the country and just take as many shots as I can.
It lets me be creative, gets me some much needed sunshine and it’s a fun hobby.
Occasionally I have a co-pilot, albeit one that abandoned me in the middle of Route 17
And when it’s too dark, cold, rainy or icky outside, I might just stay in and edit pictures. Or maybe finish a nice puzzle.
Filed under: Time Out
If this doesn’t convince you to move to California, well, you deserve the snow drifts!
Filed under: Time Out
Presents are slated to arrive tomorrow from ME to 5 women the world (okay USA) over. My Secret Santa is one of those women. Who do you think is getting this one?
hint: there is also a knife in the bag and permission to release ALL stress
Let’s just get this out of the way: I hate Christmas.
Not because of any underlying hatred of religion or an elaborate attempt to eliminate the “reason for the season.” I hate all holidays, Christmas just seems to be the pinnacle of them all. It’s one you can’t escape unless you own an island and ban visitors and Christmas carols and mistletoe.
I’m not totally Scroogy, I do buy presents and give them to people I like. Cards for people I know and care to keep in contact with on a fairly regular basis.
I’ll even decorate my house because, let’s face it, a tree is like a giant evergreen Glade plug-in, lasts longer and gets covered in pretty lights. My mantle may even be described as “decorated.”
But even more than the overdriven commercialism, core compromises of character and the general bullshit of it all is the reminder that a single person – most often a single woman – is the last true pariah.
I won’t be spending Christmas Eve or Christmas Day with my family. They have plans out of town, I don’t particular like my relatives here in town (ones that my Grandpa will be seeing) and well, I work nearly 365 days a year. So between working 8 hours on Christmas Eve, probably on Christmas Day and having no extra cash to drive anywhere if I wanted to, I’ll probably be alone that day.
No biggie. To me anyways.
But to the prying co-worker, the casual acquaintance, even the nosy store clerk this is terms for a pity fest.
“You won’t have a turkey or ham or even a chicken? Awwwww”
“But who will fill your stocking? Poor Kelly.”
Please. I eat 90% of my meals in a given year at home. Aside from any yet to be discovered ghosts those meals are eaten alone. Yet now, I am to be pitied, to be glanced at whilst sighing.
Well that’s not really societal rejection, you might say. Please, let me continue.
My worst moments, the ones where I resist the urge to roll my eyes and sucker punch someone, are the conversations around the holiday traditions.
“Oh well, I didn’t really decorate when I was single, there really wasn’t a point. And it wasn’t until I had children that Christmas became truly meaningful.”
Really? Thank you for sharing. Now shut up.
Or:
“Of course you can stay within a reasonable budget and finish shopping early; it’s so easy when you’re single. Just wait until you’re married, you’ll see how it really is!”
Again, kindly shut it.
The overwhelming opinion to those who persist in giving their view of how the month of December “should be” for anyone with a close nuclear family is that you will only see how worthless your time, efforts and life is once you’ve left behind singledom.
Well this year I don’t have to buy a tchotchke for a mother in law who hates my guts or travel when I don’t want to and see family out of a sense of obligation. There is currently one present under my tree and the tag reads “To Kelly From Costco” and I know I will love it. I’m not going to be eating sickenly sweet treats or trying anyone’s jello salad. I’m going to enjoy a day of peace, relax and crack open a bottle of wine.
If you want to do all those other things, cool. But don’t look down on my holiday because it does not resemble yours. And kindly do not shove whatever candy thing you made last weekend under my nose.
Mid month goal check:
15 NSD
I’m currently at 11 NSD and working on making the rest of the week/end count too. I’ll hopefully exceed this goal since I can’t currently think of anything I NEED to buy.
4 new job applications
I have two bookmarked, it’s on the list for this week right after I call on my insurances.
31 MOAN days (stopped tracking this when I got sick)
Well crap, I forgot to track this (again). I’ve been trying to work outside or inside every day. Hauling laundry, scooping leaves, cleaning or just walking the dogs.
5 EO days
So far I’ve had 2 days, both this last weekend
Other goals:
-finish bootcamp
Final night is tomorrow, I’m kinda sad to see it end. Okay, really sad. I’ve learned a lot and it’s been a great investment.
-clean out my gutters
Done and let me tell you: disgusting!
-hang Christmas lights
Not going to happen, I need a second person to help so I don’t fall into the rose bushes and the gutters are not the strongest. Next year!
-10 blog posts
This one makes 8
-make contact with nat. mag. editor
Still waiting to hear about the pictures for this magazine. Getting antsy!
-send all cards and presents by the 15th
Nearly succeeded on this one. I have one card and two large envelopes to mail. Hopefully all done by tomorrow.
-finish moving all the dirt
Done!
-1 NaNoWriMo party, 1 Meetup party
Had the NaNoWriMo party, unfortunately I’m going to skip tomorrow’s Meetup party. It’s the final webcast for bootcamp and that takes priority.
-attempt a $0 grocery budget
So far a success with not a single penny spent!
-make a decision about job #2
Eh fail. I was going to drop this job entirely and just resign myself to Netflix like everyone else on the planet but with job #1 slashing hours 20% I’m going to stick it out.
-pick up another assignment from job #3
I’m stuck on this one too. I need to think of some good ideas to pitch to my editor.
-finish prep work for job #4 training
Still a fail, damn math…
-get my inbox to 0
Working on it! I’m currently down to just six but they’re all things I need to take action on. Sigh.
Filed under: Budgeting, Empty Pantry Challenge, Groceries, Saving, Traveling
The month is half gone and I’m halfway through my challenge of spending $0 on food or drinks for the duration. And, oh lordy, have I been whining about it!
It’s not because I’m hungry (don’t say starving unless you want to debate hunger versus starvation with me) or deprived or even out of options. I have a variety of meals and still more in the pantry.
I’m just spoiled. I want more variety. I want what I want when I want it without any worry of the cost.
Basically, I’m a huge whiner.
Luckily most of this whining goes on in my head otherwise I’m sure someone would have strangled me by now.
While driving to and from the Bay Area this weekend I passed approximately 2,000 In & Out Burgers. Actually one just said “Out” because the sign was broken. Hmmmmm burgers. Hmmmm fries. Both things I suck at making on my own at home. Plus me and hot oil is not a good combo. Not a safe combo.
Instead I pulled out my little travel ice chest and had a pb&j. Have I mentioned the pb&j project? I don’t think so… Oh well, another post for another day. This challenge has meant a few subtle changes to my routine. First is that I immediately throw away all grocery store circular ads. Without reading them. I can’t delude myself into thinking I can go into one and buy shampoo on sale. Ohhh no. In fact the one time I did go in (to cash in coins) I was staring at the floor the entire time. Why, oh why, is the candy display next to the CoinStar?!?
So I don’t look at ads. I also don’t plan my menus. I know, this is counter intuitive to the project but I do feel I need a bit of freedom. Otherwise I rebel, if only against myself. It’s been pretty cold here in California so I’m drinking more hot tea at home and coffee at work. I swear everytime I pass Dutch Brothers coffee the employees there are giving me sad eyes. I miss their brand of caffeinated crack…
Instead of thinking what restaurant sounds good, where I should pick up a taco (yes the voices are still screaming for tacos), I think about the options I have at home. Should I have the leftover lasagna or make a burrito? Lemon chicken or a salad? Lemon chicken on a salad? Once I start focusing on what I have, not what I cannot have, my mood improves.
I’m also a crafty little scavenger. I remind myself of the squirrel from the Ice Age movies. Cute little guy, a little obsessive. I took home the Thanksgiving ham from work. My grandparents gave me persimmons which I have no idea what to do with and my parents gave me lemons and avacados.
Sidebar: if you have persimmon recipes, particularly those involving cookies, send ‘em my way!
I cleaned. I know, not a huge surprise but I did empty the fridge, wipe it down and restock. Threw out some stinky food. Used up some other food. Overall tried to be a better cook and consumer. Next week I hope to tackle the freezers and then the pantry. Oy. The pantry.
Finally, I am so thankful for two ungrumpy old men who enabled me to eat out this weekend without spending. Although I left a clause in the challenge that last weekend would not count since I was on the road both my Grandpa and Old Man Adam were kind enough to pay. I did have a great time visiting with everyone, drinking, playing games, drinking, losing games (badly too), drinking and sleeping in. If I ever get two more days off in a row I’ll have to consider coming down again.
But for now I’m working on bootcamp homework and eating dinner at home.
