Transportation woes

So I had a job interview today for a job across town. It went very well, I thought. On the way back, the car started smoking. I must admit, it was kind of weird seeing it with a Marlboro sticking out the grill, but the way I see it, Wilbur (the car) is twenty years old, and emphysema is not too big of a worry at this point.

In reality, he was smoking. REALLY smoking. I probably looked like the Return of Christ as I pulled into the apartment complex in a Great Cloud of Smoke. Wilbur is now broken, and we can't afford to fix him. So yeah. We have no car now. And I MUST find a job within walking distance. Oh my dear Lord.

Weekly Shopping Trip

My inspiration for our $25-a-week food budget is brought to you courtesy of The Grocery Cart Challenge. Seems that there are a lot of people out there committed to saving money on groceries! The car has been having trouble this week (the battery likes to die when it gets really cold, really fast), so my gallant husband decided to accompany to the store. My husband is a lot of fun to be with, but this was not conducive to frugal shopping. My conversation the entire time was a cycle of, "Sorry, honey, that's not in the budget. No, love, we don't need root beer. Or chips. Or pizza. No, we are not spending the extra food money on Taco Bell." (what can I say, my guy LOVES junk food :-P) After we came in under budget, we actually did buy a dollar can of Pringles. Oh, joy in a can! Pringles are a rare treat in this house.

What $25 bought us this week:



Salsa-$2.19
1 lb Raisins-$1.89
4 lb sugar-$1.85
Chili-$1.19
Bag of coconut-$1.15
BBQ Sauce-$1.09
Angel Hair-$.88
Macaroni noodles-$.88
Chili beans-$.59
Diced tomatoes-$.55
Tomato sauce-$.50
Hot dogs-$.98
Sour Ceam-$1.50
2 lb onion-$1.86
3 lb baking potatoes-$1.72
2 avocados-$1.18
3/4 lb tomatoes-$.99
1/2 lb broccoli-$.93
Cabbage-$.70

Total: $22.62

Total after tax: $24.55

Yippee! I was so happy at the register to see it all come under budget, even with tax!


The dinner plan this week:
Homemade macaroni and cheese
Chili spaghetti
Baked potatoes
Rice with Goodies
Cream tuna
Tacos
Chili


Good luck to all with your grocery budgets!

My New Year's Resolution

Ah, new Year's Resolutions. Something I love to hate to love, and something I also hate to love to hate. Or something like that. Once my eyes straighten out, I'll let you know. Anyways, I'm really optimistic about this year's resolutions! I'm trying a different approach that I thought of all by myself *pats back*. There are four things I really wanted to try this year for a better new me!-

1. Read the Bible/pray consistently

2. Exercise consistently

3. No computer/Wii

4. No sugar

Some are a little impractical to implement all year long. The one I'm thinking about in particular is No Sugar- I would ask someone to please just shoot me right right now- so I thought of a better plan. Every week, I will take a different goal and do it every day that week-- even Sunday! I think it'll work. maybe I'll even get into the routine of doing all of them at the same time all the time! And pigs will fly! Of course, this gives me liberty to slack off from certain things for three weeks (although I will certainly try not to do so), but at this point, anything will be an improvement.

I wrote it all down in the calendar for the year, in the order I listed them above. That way, it alternates something good for the body with something good for the soul. And wouldn't you know, by some miracle, all my sugar-free weeks do NOT fall on any major holiday or birthday! That makes my cake-loving self happy. 

I'm still trying to formulate a game plan for executing the Bible and exercise portion. I'm always so overwhelmed when I think about actually doing some sort of systematic Bible study because, honestly, there is SO MUCH to read!!! Where do you start?? Oftentimes, I am so intimidated by the sheer volume of choice that I just close my eyes and open the Bible to some random spot. Not the best way to study the Bible.

So... do you have any recommendations? Currently, I'm really interested in this puppy. Some day, when I have barrels of money to burn...

The Frugal Feeding

A few weeks ago, I decided to feed Adam and myself for $25 a week. This does not come without its unique challenges, since almost anything takes a good chunk out of the budget. Want that jar of peanut butter for $2.50? Congratulations, you have just spent 10% of your budget! So anyways, here is the week's menu plan:

Dinners
Lentil soup (no sense letting that Christmas ham bone go to waste!)
My special Southwestern Bean Dish
Beef Carrot Casserole
Baked Potatoes
Stir Fry
Spaghetti
(Friday nights, we eat out)

Lunch
I am experimenting with making bread because store-bought bread is so darn expensive. We have tons of leftover ham, and we also have cheese and any condiments you could wish for. We are set for sandwiches!

Breakfast
This family loves oatmeal. We have tons of it lying around. I also do pancakes, and this week, Apple Walnut Muffins will pop up somewhere.

A lot of this stuff is already in the house. I like to make gargantuan amounts of a single dish and freeze the leftovers. Here is what $25 bought me this week:



Cottage Cheese: $2.88
Sour Cream: $1.50
Chili powder: $2.99
Flour: $2.29 (I caved in and got the bleached because it came with coupons for other baking goodies. How do I live with myself?)
Lentils: 2 bags for $.99 each
Tomato Sauce: 2 cans for $1
Turkey bacon: $2.75
Bananas: $1.98
Carrots: $1.89
Potatoes: $1.54
Apples: $1.40
Onion: $1.04

I got to the end of the shopping excursion and realized I did not have enough money in the budget for coffee!!! I had an extra dollar left in the budget, so I bought one of those little Millstone 99-cent bags. It's good for a few cups. This is going to be a very. long. week.

Millstone coffee: $.99

Grocery Total before tax: $24.23

Hooray!

Cleaning the house made easy!- or at least more manageable

Howdy! In a nice irony, I am taking a break from cleaning the house to tell you exactly what I do to clean the house. Of course, if you had seen the mountain of dishes that I just tackled, you would understand why I deserve the break!

Speaking of mountains, that is pretty much how the whole apartment looks until I finally just up and clean the durn place. It is pretty intimidating to clean the WHOLE place in one day, but this is what I do to make molehills out of those mountains:

1. Turn on some good music.

2. Get a timer, set it for thirty minutes, and clean the worst room in the house.

3. When the half hour is up, go to the next worst room. It doesn't matter if room #1 didn't get spotless. Just go! Repeat steps 1-3.

I like this system because this way, Perfectionism will not keep me in one room for the entire day.  And the house ends up at least a little better than it was, if not completely clean. And I find that many parts don't even take half an hour! Sometimes I'll see how many rooms I can do in thirty minutes!

I just have a little apartment, so the half-hour time is perfect for me. I can get the whole house looking great in a couple of hours. For those fortunate to have a real house with more rooms, you could adjust the time to fifteen minutes. Or ten. Whatever it takes.

Well, I suppose it's time to tackle a new room. My husband's going out for a while, so I'm also going to surprise him some of his favorite tea. Shhhh.

Cheap Drink: Fake Arizona Tea

Of all the drinks in the world, one that is guaranteed to drive my husband wild is sweet iced tea (for further proof, click here). I made the following recipe for him, and he was absolutely delighted! The recipe says to use green tea bags, but I didn't have any, so I just used regular Lipton. I also halved the original amount of honey (that stuff is expensive!), but Adam never missed it. So here is how I made it:

ALMOST ARIZONA (GREEN) TEA

• 1 gallon water, boiled
  
• 2 tea bags
  
• 3/4 cup sugar
  
• 2 T honey
  
• 1/4 cup + 2 T lemon juice
  

Steep tea bags in hot water for 1 hour. Add remaining ingredients, and serve over ice.

Price breakdown:

• Water= free
• Tea bags= $.10
• Honey= $.28
• Sugar= $.13
• Lemon juice= $.37

Total cost= $.88

Cost per 8-oz cup= $.06

This is one of those rare occasions when I actually like doing math. Ohhhhhhh, yeah!

Why this Christmas will be very, very different

Whew! A lot happened this last week! Since last Tuesday, I have

• Cleaned the entire house
• Been the hostess with the mostess at Thanksgiving-- and I didn't even burn the turkey!
• Gone on a two-day, fifteen-mile hiking trip. Yep, I am now painfully aware of EVERY muscle in my legs.
• Celebrated six months with my favorite husband!
• Decorated the house for Christmas
  

Speaking of Christmas, this will be our first Christmas away from home. My mind still hasn't grasped the fact that Christmas is not going to occur at my family's home. No familiar Christmas caroling. No familiar Advent rituals. No familiar Christmas fudge. That may be the worst part. I can't even find my stocking, which was supposed to be here with us. I don't even get to wake up on Christmas morning to find my now-lost stocking magically filled by Santa! I'm going to really miss all that coal! This is all very important to me, but this year will be different.

Basically, what is going to happen this year, is that I may actually be forced to discard the meaning I have attached to Christmas- warm, fuzzy traditions and time with the family- and really find the meaning in the Manger. Who'da thunk?

I'm excited about that.

Not to mention, I FINALLY get to have Christmas with Adam! Now, where is that mistletoe...