So Long August: A Life List

WEATHER NUMBERS this are 78, 84, 88, 80, 79 and 82. Quite a cool down from the triple digits we've seen over the last 14 days. People are complaining of being cold. It's all relative.

MY FAVORITE MOMENT LAST WEEK had to be when the clock struck 5:00pm on Friday. My second favorite moments were at the dog park with Remi. Pure joy watching her run in the long field there. I vow to go more often than once a year.

WHAT'S RIGHT IN THE WORLD This is a hard one. John McCain died yesterday, the President has been asked to not attend the funeral, and it feels like all the good men are gone. I can't lie ... it has been a depressing week in the news and it's hard, even for a Pollyanna like me, to find a silver lining. I think I'm just tired. This too shall pass.

WHAT I'M RESISTING I got off track with my eating program while in Alaska and I've struggled to get back to it in its purest form. I haven't completely fell of the wagon, but feel like I fell off and I'm dragging along behind it with my foot stuck in the stirrup. This struggle has added 11 lbs. to my frame and I'm determined to stop the damage. It was far too easy to fall off, not so easy to get back on.

WHAT I'M THINKING  I think I need to get my light box out earlier than my usual October start date. I've been struggling (using that word a lot lately) with bouts of depression that kind of hit me unexpectedly. We've had some gray skies due to smoke and it has not been good for my mental health. I've also not been journaling on a regular basis so putting that light box on my desk and firing it up will be a 2 for 1 remedy.

WHAT'S THE FUTURE HOLD I don't have anything on my calendar yet this week. One thing for sure is that I'll be getting out at lunch time to enjoy slightly cooler weather. I love summer but I love fall almost as much, and it is in the air! It's much cooler in the mornings this last week.

A FINAL THOUGHT I've been listening to a lot of podcasts and audio books lately. I love the sound of other people's voices. So many things to listen to, so little time. That's all.

love, susan

Budget Challenge: CHOPPED - The Devil is in the Details

It's still August but I am gearing up for my September food budget challenge with my daughter-in-law.

 

Yesterday, I knew my grocery bill was going to go over $50 (actual bill: $66.03)because I added some items to my cart that I don't buy on a regular basis. A bag of frozen shrimp and some fresh ground nut butters.

 

Feta cheese. This always feels like a splurge to me. I only buy it when I think of it. If you're into adding a little sumthin' sumthin' to your salads, you should give flavored feta cheese a try. This is the only one I've tried because I'm so in love with it that I think why would I try anything else? If I were to cut something from my grocery bill, this would be the first to go. Luxury item.

 

The other item that would be on the chop list is Triscuits. Crackers are a NMF (not my food) for me but I am allowed to eat Triscuits on my food plan. I tend to eat too many of them when I have them in the house and, frankly, I shouldn't have bought them today. This box will be gone before the weekend is over.  I also bought a container of cottage cheese but discovered when I got home that I still have a container and a half in the fridge already. It will all be consumed but I could have chopped this from my cart.

 

Last week, I bought this cilantro and never used it. I pulled it out of the fridge when I got home from the store and it is now mixed in with the spinach that I still had remaining. As you can see on the spinach expiration date, it is past its time. It still looked great enough to mix into a salad so I chopped it up and added the leftover coleslaw mix and sugar snap peas with the remaining cherry tomatoes and this all made 4 servings of salad that we'll eat in the next two days. Being on a budget means I don't let anything go to waste. When I'm in budget mode, I get busy thinking about how I'm going to use things up.

 

Speaking of which, there were still eggs in my fridge that I bought before I went to Alaska on July 5. Yeah. They also had an expired date on the carton. I've been feeding a raw egg to my dog every morning but still had 6 left. I decided to throw caution to the wind and scrambled up two of them for my breakfast this morning. They were perfectly fine, I am happy to report. Look at this wonderful bowl of expired eggs, a brand of guacamole that I am not really fond of but refuse to throw it out, on a bed of brown rice, topped with a little shredded cheese and salsa. It was gourmet.

 

IN MY CUPBOARDS I've been chipping away at the dry roasted edamame I bought a year ago in bulk. These little beauties are a super nice source of protein that I learned about from my Alaska friend who also turned me on to this eating program I am committed to following. These are wonderful sprinkled on a salad for crunch and added protein, I simply forget I have them. It may take me another year to finish them off. Another really great way to eat them is put them in a little container and sprinkle Mexican hot sauce on them (not Tabasco!).

 

Lastly, let me tell you that I opted to buy the more expensive peppers at $1.28 each vs. the red peppers which were .98 each. The red peppers were soft and I knew they wouldn't make it to the end of the week without deteriorating to a point where I won't eat them. I became willing to pay an extra .30 each for them.

 

Summing it up, I could have chopped these items and come in under budget:

• Cottage Cheese  $1.68 (excess)
• Nut butters $2.70  (didn't need it)
• Shrimp  $7.48 (didn't need it)
• Feta Cheese $1.98 (luxury item)
• Peaches  $1.92 (excess)
• Bulk Black Beans $2.37 (already have several lbs. in cupboard)
• TOTAL POTENTIAL CHOP:  $18.13

WHY BUDGET?  I get a kick out of challenging myself in certain areas of my life. It makes me think about things and get creative. I have a point to prove that's been on my mind for a very long time. Humor me here. When I hear people talk about cutting food stamps for families, or how families could do a better job with spending their food stamps, I think about my own food spending habits. I want to put my money where my mouth is. Can a person live on a food stamp budget? I don't even know how much people receive for food stamps. It's never really been any of my business. I don't know how it would be to feed children on a budget. If I had to live on food stamps, how well would I do? I ask myself this question constantly ... and then I try to be a better shopper.

 

Are you a bargain hunter? What food items do you buy no matter what it costs?

Have you ever had to live on a budget? Shouldn't we be teaching our kids how to cook from scratch and learn how to budget their money?

 

Wanna join me in tracking your food budget for a month? I'd love to hear from you!

 

love, susan

Budget Challenge: Bean Me Up!

This post is part of a series of posts as I move toward a Food Budget Challenge 2018 in September.

 

Let's talk about my first love. Her name is Coffee.  I am an admitted coffee snob. The hubs is not. I don't like coffee that has been sitting more than 30 minutes in the pot. I refuse to drink it reheated in the microwave. And, don't even ask me to drink yesterday's coffee, I will hurt you.

 

Having said that, coffee is an expense I probably could curb if I had to. Most coffee drinkers like to change up their blend. This may surprise you but I buy Yuban sometimes. Folger's even tastes good when a change is needed. We keep a can of cheaper coffee on hand for those times when a) we run out of fresh beans, and b) when we need a change in flavor.

 

The blend I've been buying lately are the house beans at WinCo. I don't know where they come from but I've discovered two blends that are perfect for my palate. The one I love the most is an organic from Peru. If the blend is smooth enough, I can drink it straight up with no creamer. If it's a little bolder, I need half & half to cut the acidity. In the morning, I just need the caffeine, so if I'm out of creamer (like I am today), I enjoy the total flavor of this nectar of the gods.

 

When road traveling, I try to carry a big thermos of coffee. We'd go broke and never make it to our destination (for the many coffee stops) if we didn't carry bean juice with us. In the instance where we've hit the road on a whim, we usually stop at McDonald's for senior coffee (that's whole 'nother blog post) which is $1 a cup and admittedly a really great cup of joe.

 

Right now, I'm spending about $9 for a bag of beans that lasts us about 10 days. When we were in Fairbanks last month, my sister-in-law served us coffee she makes in a cold brew process. You add about 1/3 of cold brew to a cup of boiling water and it's as fresh as any cup I've ever made. She makes it this way for two reasons: expense and ease. Two very good reasons!

 

In a perfect world, I'd quit drinking coffee. Not because of the dollars spent on it, but I am a total slave to caffeine. I quit once for about 6 weeks. It hurt my head a lot. I'm not sure I'll ever try that again.

 

When my imagination is running wild, I dream of retirement days where I visit various coffee houses in search of the perfect cup of coffee. I know it's out there. I need help, I know.

 

Are you a coffee connoisseur?

love, susan

Food Budget Challenge: The Taco Craze

This post is part of a series of posts as I move toward a Food Budget Challenge 2018 in September.

This is the expense I wish to curb the most. I don't have a budget for eating out and I should. I know I put a lot of money down on the table for eating out and I commit to keeping track of it from now on. Some months I eat out with reckless abandon, other months it's just too (fill in the blank ... cold, dark, rainy) to go out. I can't talk about a food budget without including this line item but in my mind this is an entertainment item. I think I need to adjust my thinking on this a bit.

 

It used to be that eating out was a special occasion. Nowadays, I just don't have the energy to cook after work. I also like to go out to lunch once or twice a month. I've got two friends at work who love to indulge me in this. One loves Thai food as much as I do and the other one likes to go different places. I once worked with a woman who said having lunch out is a working woman's gift to herself, or something like that. I hung onto that because I love lunch with friends. I do pack my lunch most days and I try to make it appetizing and pleasing to the eye. I'm a visual person, no doubt about it.
 

In the last year, tacos have become a huge fad and I'm on that train of people who love them. Luckily, tacos are cheap and when we go for them, it is usually to a taco truck or some local place over in Pasco. The hubs and I can usually eat for under $15.

 

During the September challenge, I shall be transparent about my expenses for eating out. It may take another month or two of challenges for me to get this bad habit of eating out under control and find a happy dollar amount to budget for the future. Don't worry though. I enjoy meeting my friends for a mid-week hit up at Tony's Tacos and I'm not planning on stopping that. And, let's get real. I love a super hot latte from Dutch Bros. For me, it will be interesting to see what this is truly costing me. I suspect I spend a lot more than I think I do.

 

The bottom line for me is that eating out is not just about the food. I enjoy the company. I enjoy the drive getting there. We've been known to drive 120 miles (one-way) to The Dalles for lunch at our favorite Thai place. That should go under entertainment, wouldn't you agree?  

All this talk about food, I'm gonna go make myself a fabulous breakfast now.
 

Do you eat out often? Do you have a budget for it? Do you spend more than you would like on this? Is it entertainment?

 

love, susan

 

Budget Challenge: Ice Ice Baby

This post is the part of a series I'm writing as I head toward my food budget challenge with my daughter-in-law in September.

 

I hate buying ice.  Might as well take your money, wad it up and throw it in the trash can and set it on fire.  Buying frozen water just makes makes no sense to me. Neither does bottled water but that's another story. Not only are you paying for (frozen) water, you have the plastic to deal with, not to mention what we're doing to earth with all those plastic bags and bottles. I'll admit that my thoughts on buying ice come from my mother. We used to make ice in those little aluminum ice trays. The ice always tasted funny until we graduated to plastic trays. I still don't like ice from trays unless it is freshly made, like the night before. After that, it takes on a flavor that makes me want to drink warm water. Full disclosure: I will buy ice for the cooler if we are traveling. I also buy bottled water when I'm dying of thirst and can't get to the water fountain. And, on the rare occasion I have overnight guests, I will buy a bag of ice for their comfort.

 

We use a Brita filter at my house. I bought it gently used at a thrift store and replace the filters when I can remember to. Sometimes I make a note on my fridge calendar and sometimes I think we simply have cold water in the fridge that has come from the faucet. I'm not too picky when it comes to water. Fact is, I don't drink much straight-up water. It needs to have caffeine in it. I do like water to be cold when I drink it. If I want it to be colder than fridge temperature, I pour a glass and stick in the freezer for 45 minutes (set the timer). On the rare occasion we have guests, I pour several glasses of water ahead of time and place them in the freezer and pull them out before I serve dinner. Personally, I think that's the caring thing to do.

 

I've noticed a couple of lunch places I've visited don't serve ice. Locally, Graze (a sandwich shop) does not have ice, or least they didn't when they first opened. I  have only been once. It seemed weird at first but I quickly recognized with their menu that these folks are trend setters. When we were in Fairbanks, Alaska recently, we had breakfast at a great little hipster joint called Lunch. Their menu was entirely dairy and gluten-free. They did not have ice, and we were there on a very hot day. I'm not sure of the philosophy behind it but because of my own feelings on ice, I'm all about promoting the idea that you don't need ice in your water. You can do your own research on the benefits of drinking room temp water.

 

The last thing I'll say about ice is that I don't hate it. If I'm out to lunch or dinner, I appreciate ice in my water, I do. But if I'm somewhere that doesn't have it, I'm okay with that too. I suspect I'll not change anyone's mind about ice and really I'm not trying to. This ice thing is one of many quirks that maybe you didn't know about me. Now you do. Bonus Quirk: I drink hot coffee on 100° days.

 

Yeah, ice is nice but not necessary. Capisce?

 

Do you have to have ice in your cold drinks? Do you buy it, or do you make it?

 

love, susan

Food Budget Challenge 2018

 

 

I recently read my darling daughter-in-law's blog  about becoming FI (millennial lingo for financially independent). She talks about budgets and has a sophisticated method for transparently writing about their monthly spending habits. It includes a pie chart with percentages. I don't have a formal budget written out but I do have a mental one. Of the things I spend money on, food is the one line item that I'm pretty steady-eddy on and know what my grocery bill is going to be every week. Where my dollars leak out are the impromptu dinners out. If anyone even mentions tacos or double date, we don't resist. This can put a big dent in the food budget. It is an area that I would like to tighten up. So I've challenged her to see how our budgets are looking comparatively in the month of September.  I commit to coming back here at the end of September with some hard numbers, ideas, what worked, and what didn't. In the meantime, I'll be writing some posts about grocery shopping and things I buy and my deep thoughts on it. There are some old ideas from growing up that I have been unable to shake. I'll try to explore those in the next couple of weeks.

 

Here are some things you should know about me going into this venture.

• I don't buy meat. I am vegetarian. My husband is a mostly vegetarian and if he wants meat, he has to go buy it for himself. I'll ask him for receipts so I can accurately account for that.
• I think I can feed the hubs and I for $200 a month (not including eating out) but this challenge will shine a light on my thinking. The spotlight for breaking my budget is inevitably going to be on dining out.
• I love to photograph my food.
• I love to figure out ways to use up leftovers as I hate throwing food away. Think Chopped.
• I will include dog food in this budget.
• I tend to be on the obsessed side of things so you can expect details.
• I shop at 6:00am every Sunday morning, so updates will be on Sundays.
• I play the guessing game at the register, trying to come within a few dollars of what I think I should spend. (My mental budget is $50/week)

Today, my food bill was $53.21.  The large jar of peanut butter I buy strictly for my dogs was my largest expense at $6.93, followed closely by the large bag of sugar snap peas which was $4.98.  I think $5 for a bag of peas is outrageous but I really love them and it's an expense I'm willing to overlook. I want good value for my hard-earned bucks when it comes to food. The one and only item in my basket  this week that was a total frill was the 1/2 dozen donuts I bought for $3.48. We have a guy coming over to look at the hubby's record collection and I felt like I needed to have something to offer with coffee. Splurge.

 

I'd love to hear from you. Do you have a food budget? As always, thanks for stopping by and reading. My comments don't always work properly. If you have ideas that you would share with me and you can't get them in the comments, send me at email at freezerburned@hotmail.com  

 

love, susan

 

 
 

 

Mid August Life Update

My son recently pointed out in a text that we are a month post-Alaska trip. How'd that happen? While I'm busy with my head down working and playing, the days tick away so fast.

 

Last weekend I house/dog sat for a good friend who lives next to the river. I used the mornings to walk the dogs and try to clear my mind each morning. It was like a mini-staycation.

 

The weather here in eastern Washington has been brutally hot. This morning when I let the dogs out, it felt crisp, which means fall is right around the corner. It's dark a lot later in the mornings and the herb garden is looking weary. I love September but don't want to be a future tripper. I'll try to enjoy what is left of August.

I took pictures at the disc golf tournament over the weekend. It was a blast! I walked the course with several groups and just hung out. What a fun bunch of people who just love throwing Frisbees (discs). They have their own lingo and the conversations were interesting and thought provoking. I'm leaving you with some of my favorite photos from this experience.

 

Hope you have a great week wherever you are! love, susan