Feb
Starting from scratch
As I am in this pursuit to be more miserly and save some money, I’ve realized how clueless I am. One of the Eleven Miserly Guidelines outlined in the book I am reading is to make and freeze several meals at one time. This reduces costs because a) you can buy food in bulk without it eventually going to waste and b) you don’t have to spend as much money on convenience items, such as frozen dinners. As it turns out, frozen meals cost up to 6 times more than making it from scratch. Who knew? I certainly didn’t. Plus, I’ve found out that from scratch really means from scratch. As in, cracking open a box of Bisquick to make pancakes is not making them from scratch, even though I have to add the eggs and milk myself and then I have to mix it, which takes all sorts of effort! Turns out pancakes from scratch really means I have to put together the flour and baking soda and uh, whatever else goes into that powdery mix. But it’s cheaper! And really, not that hard…not that I’ve tried it yet.
So, I decided to follow this advice and make a casserole from scratch and freeze it for later. I doubled the recipe so I could have more on hand for a later date when we’re just too pooped to cook a real meal. I’m getting all set to work my magic and feel all thrifty and domesticated, when I realized I don’t have a clue on how to freeze a casserole for later use. Just typing it makes it sound even more ridiculous, because really, how hard could it be? Apparently too hard for me!
So here I am, Googling “how to freeze casseroles” and realizing that my poor grandmother would probably roll over in her grave if she knew I didn’t know how to freeze a simple chicken and spinach casserole. Truly, cooking from scratch has become a lost art. Back in the good old days people didn’t have lasagna in a box or a bag with a full meal inside that you could throw in a slow-cooker. People had to actually cook, you know? So they made their own convenience foods by cooking extra and saving it for later for when they were sick or a neighbor needed a helping hand.
I’m really pursuing this whole freezing-food-for-later thing. It will save me a lot of money on convenience foods, not to mention a lot of time in the future. Making a bunch at once means only having to clean pots and pans once, rather than again later. And if I’m making some today, why not double it? It doesn’t take any extra time! Plus, by making the food from scratch I know exactly what goes into it, which is loads healthier. I can avoid the extra fat and salt that is often added, and get rid of all those nasty preservatives that get dumped in too.
While I’m sure that some would read this and shake their finger at me for not knowing how to freeze my own food, I’m sure many others could totally relate. I know my generation has been raised on convenience foods, starting with the nasty Salisbury steak TV dinners available 15 years ago, and then evolving into the complex pastas and pizzas and stir-fry dishes that line the freezer aisles.
I’m hoping eventually to make my own homemade bread and jam…mmm….I have a lot to learn before then though if I don’t even know how to freeze a casserole properly!
Jan
One step forward, two steps back
Last week I briefly mentioned that in my quest to be more frugal, I was following the advice of the book and tackling my grocery bills. Oh, I so wanted to write a post on the beautiful, organized spreadsheet I had developed in order to compare prices. I wanted to talk about the shock I felt when I realized how much more money I was spending than I should have been. I had big dreams!
But then…we were struck with the thing that can bring a home with children to its knees: illness. With some pretty crappy timing too. Not that any time is particularly convenient to get sick, but still… The husband and I started school again and in an attempt to make our schedules work, coordinated a baby swap a few times a week with a neighbor also trying to finish school. In the midst of the craziness the husband and baby were hit with a doozy of a cold. That’s right, a DOOZY! Poor little Claire especially, and any parent knows that there is little worse than having a sick child.
My schedule for the last week basically looked like this:
4:02 AM- Baby crying, offer comfort.
4:37 AM- More crying, more bleary-eyed comfort offered.
5:15 AM- Baby too congested to sleep. Sit in rocking chair with baby to keep her upright and help her breathe.
6:20 AM- Crawl back into bed.
6:35 AM- Baby cries. Discover diaper leak, urine everywhere. Awesome. Baby in tub.
7:55 AM- Leave for school.
10:00 AM- Baby swap so husband can go to school. Tend to sick child.
10:12 AM- Wipe snot
10:23 AM- Wipe snot
10:37 AM- Restrain child in order to wipe snot
10:42 AM- Give up on keeping snot river under control and accept that everything will be covered in mucous for the next several days.
11:00 AM- Naptime!= homework time for mom
12:45 PM- Baby awake, wipe snot, lunch time, sick and tired husband comes home
1:15 PM- Work, work, work…
8:30 PM- get home, start getting baby ready for bed. Baby’s coughing fit induces BARFING. Baby in tub.
9:15 PM- baby finally asleep. Eat late dinner.
9:35 PM- Lapse into a coma from exhaustion
So! As you can see, there has been no time for organized spreadsheets or meal planning or even checking my email. Besides, had I even printed off one of those lovely spreadsheets I’m pretty sure it would be covered in snot.
Let’s hope this week runs a little more smoothly.
Tags: feeling crazy, schedules, sick baby
Jan
Mind games
The writer of the book I’m currently reading, Jonni McCoy, is not a financial planner or anything like that. According to the introduction she is a regular middle-class mom living in an expensive part of the country who simply wanted to be home with her kids. Since a higher income wasn’t possible, she had to find ways to make the money they had work harder. That’s why this book appeals to me right now. There is not much possibility of us coming into more money in the immediate future. Hopefully someday, but not today. Probably not tomorrow either. So, we need to stretch our dollars further.
To some, the words “saving” and “delayed gratification” and “used, er… pre-owned” are foreign. The notion of spending and needing less is kind of an old-fashioned idea in today’s society. Our country is all about bigger, better, newer, faster, flashier, and RIGHT NOW. As I’ve been mulling over the ideas presented in this book and how to make it work for me, I’m realizing that the first step is to change my mentality. Before any of this can work, I need to get in the right frame of mind.
Generally speaking, I think I could say that I do fairly well. I don’t buy a lot of “stuff”: magazines, clothing, drinks, home decor, movies, etc. However, I am all about anything that will make my life easier, such as pre-packaged and frozen convenience meals and snacks, or the occasional fast food run when we’re just too blasted tired to try to cook anything at home. While I may be making my life easier in the short term by throwing a frozen pre-packaged burrito in the microwave, I need to look at the big picture and realize that I’m not making my life easier in the long run. The more money I spend on convenience items, the more money I am going to have to make to pay for them, which means the more I am going to have to work. The more I work, the less time I have to cook a real dinner, which means I will default to a convenience item. It’s a vicious, vicious cycle, people.
So far the book has been focusing almost entirely on food expenses, since that is probably the biggest spending opportunity for most Americans. I remember putting together a spreadsheet several months ago of our monthly expenses and discovering that we were spending more than $400 a month on groceries. $400+ a month! For two and a half people! I about gagged on my frozen burrito when I saw that number. Since then I’ve been trying to make more of an effort in my meal planning so we can cut down on the cost, but truth be told I haven’t exactly followed up and stayed on top of keeping track to see if its made a difference.
I’m hoping that if I start applying the ideas in Miserly Moms that I will be able to actually make some headway. So, it begins! Ms. Jonni has outlined Eleven Miserly Guidelines to get me on the way to financial freedom. Guideline #1: Don’t confuse frugality with depriving yourself. And the bottom line to doing that? Make sure your goals are worth more than anything else. Is being debt-free your priority? Quitting your job? Maybe having a family? Maybe it’s having more money to go see the world? Whatever it is, it has to be better than anything else. Better than getting your nails done regularly. Better than take-out three times a week. Better than a giant Diet Coke from the gas station every day.
For me, I want to be able to spend more time with my family. That’s better than all the hair highlights in the world. Yep, mind over matter. I can do this.
What do you think? What makes being frugal worth it to you?
Tags: priorities, sacrfices
Jan
Excel spreadsheets, here I come…
I would venture to say that I’ve always been fairly good with my money. I like to pat myself on the back when I see someone who is definitely not good with their money and feel thankful for the money smarts I have. I generally am able to put off wants in order to meet our needs first, and I’ve always set money aside for savings.
However, I have never been a good with keeping a budget. While I am always careful, I am not exact in my spending. I could be more disciplined.
In fact, I need to be more disciplined.
The husband and I have goals. A house that isn’t attached to someone else’s house, for example. A garage (there aren’t many things I hate more than scraping ice off my windshield in the morning when it’s 2 degrees outside). Not having both of us work full-time. Taking our kids to the beach as they grow up. A trip to Europe someday, hopefully.
Right now we live comfortably, if not lavishly. But we have some debt weighing us down. We both work- a little too hard it feels like at times. I’d like to change that. I’d like to get us to the point where our debt is gone and eventually I can stay home with my kiddos.
So, in order to accomplish this (as well as one of my new year’s resolutions! I’m really sticking to them!), I’ve decided to start reading Miserly Moms: Living Well on Less in a Tough Economy for some tips on how to reach my goal. So far I’m intrigued…and a little scared. I see where the author is coming from, but can I really do it? It’s not exactly easy, but it may be worth it.
Do you have a budget? If so, how do you manage to stick to it?
Tags: book review, budget
Jan
The thing about resolutions
For me, and I’m sure many others, the hardest part of change is that first step. What is that principle I learned in physics so long ago? Something about an object being at rest requiring a lot of energy to get it moving or whatever? That could be totally wrong. Out of every subject I’ve ever taken in school, physics has been my most hated, so I did my best to think about it as little as possible. I think that’s pretty obvious now.
Anyway, one of my resolutions is to exercise more. This is important for a number of reason. Obviously, I want a long and healthy life and exercise plays a huge part in that. Secondly, exercise is wonderful stress relief, and I could use a whole lot more of that. Third, it increases my self-esteem and self-image and I could certainly use more of that too. Lastly, I need to lose some weight! Not a ton, maybe 10 pounds or so, but this extra jiggle has got to go!
The problem is I need to lose it soon. Why? Because I am going on a cruise in two months. That’s right, a glorious Caribbean cruise. 7 days of fun and relaxation with my man. And know what’s even better? It’s FREE!!! I won it from my work last summer. How freaking awesome is that? But if I’m really going to have a good time, I can’t be worrying about how my saddlebags look as I stroll along the beach.
The even bigger problem is that I seem to think that this 2 month time span is not actually two months but is an infinite time frame. So what if I never made it on the treadmill today, I have two months still! But pretty soon that two months will be two weeks and I will really start to panic. I tend to do this too often. I set a goal for myself and then give myself too much leeway if I don’t start to execute on it. This time though, the time frame is set. I guess it wouldn’t be the end of the world if I don’t reach my goal, but this is something I really want to do.
Last night, finally, I spent some time on the treadmill I got for Christmas. (See? I have my own treadmill, now I really don’t have any excuses!). And you know what? It felt great! I’m not in fantastic shape, but it felt so good to just be active. A lot of times I put off exercise because I’m too exhausted. Last night was another one of those nights. I was completely drained, achy, grumpy, and a little queasy. I thought there was no way I could find the strength to do anything but loaf on the couch. But you know, it’s true that exercise actually gives you more energy. Afterwards I felt great, no aches, no queasiness. I could feel the blood running through my veins and it felt good to be alive.
So why, after such an enlightening experience, is it so hard to get myself to do it again today???
Jan
New beginnings
I’m excited for the new year. I’m ready for 2009 to be over with and to start fresh. This last year ended well, but the beginning was rough for me since I was under the dark cloud of postpartum depression for a long time. I’m looking forward to all that 2010 can bring!
Speaking of 2010, doesn’t that sound like the future or something? It’s sounds all sci-fi movie-ish to me. I bet that back in 1950 or something they pictured 2010 with flying cars and silver jumpsuits and people living on the moon and all sorts of crazy stuff.
Anyway, I’ve made some new year’s resolutions which I fully intend to keep. I can proudly say that in past years I have actually completed some of the resolutions I set for myself, so I’m hoping I can again this year.
#1- Blog more!
#2- Exercise more. Specifically, cardio 3 days a week, yoga 2 days a week, and some strength training mixed in too.
#3- Stick to a budget. Unpleasant, yes, but also rewarding (hopefully).
#4- Organize and/or eliminate clutter. Ugh.
I hope by doing these I can become a) a better and more productive person, and b) less of feeling like I’m on the verge of going insane some days.
I think I can do it. Now that the Internet knows my goals I have to, right?
Tags: new year resolutions
Dec
Bravery
Last Thursday in our usual management meeting, one of my co-workers made an announcement. We’re not best friends or anything, but we went on a business trip together a few months ago and I got to know him much better. He is a good guy. He always looks for the best in people, gives everyone the benefit of the doubt, is not easily offended, and is always eager to help where he can. His wife used to work with us also, and she is about to give birth to their first baby next month after suffering several miscarriages.
He announced that he is being deployed to Afghanistan in March. He will be gone for approximately 400 days. The whole room went silent. No one knew what to say.
For some reason, it felt like my heart stopped and I could feel tears prick my eyes.
Our boss announced that they will be hiring for his position while he is away, and then when he returns home he will have his job waiting for him.
The room was awkwardly silent. We were all thinking the same thing:
IF.
IF he comes home, he will have his job waiting for him.
I went back to my desk and fought back tears. He is a good man. A brave man. A man who loves his country enough that he will leave his wife and newborn son to put himself in harm’s way. His wife is a good woman, for being brave enough to let him go, especially after having their first child. I would’ve died if my hubby left for war after my daughter was born. These two individuals are a thousand times stronger than I am. I cried in my cubicle thinking about all the brave men and women that have left their homes and their families, and wished they didn’t have to.
I hope and pray that he will come home. I hope all of them can come home.
Dec
Freak of nature
I just have to take a minute to post this, because this has got to be one of the most amazing things I have ever seen:
I know you’re probably thinking, a balloon? What’s so freaking incredible about that? This girl really needs to get out more.
But this isn’t just any balloon, this balloon has been floating for FOUR WEEKS now. FOUR WEEKS!! I thought for sure after we brought it home that it would be doing a sad little bob along the floor the next morning, but this thing has defied all expectations. It’s both amazing and freakish all at the same time.
Nov
When it rains, it pours…part 2
So as mentioned before, the week (which is now a little ways past…sorry for the delay), continued to be an adventure. Thursday brought more barfing, but Friday and Saturday seemed to promise some much needed normalcy. We were so optimistic that we actually rented a movie, I know, CRAZY right? Somebody stop us, we might go to bed at 10:30! We put the kid down to sleep and went downstairs to our little home theater to enjoy the show.
Not 45 seconds after starting the movie Claire started crying. The hubby ran upstairs to get her, and I decided to follow in order to assist where needed. Now, let me pause a moment to describe our basement. It’s not particularly large, most of it we recently finished. When you come down the stairs you are met by a door to our unfinished laundry/storage room and then there is a short hallway to our entertainment room. As I was running down the hall to the stairs I noticed a grayish rope sticking out under the laundry room door, which I found extremely odd since I didn’t remember us having a gray rope.
I stopped dead in my tracks. We don’t have a gray rope. We especially don’t have a gray rope with scales.
My heart started pounding and I raced up to the baby’s room where the hubby was trying to console her.
With a shaking voice I said, “You need to come downstairs right now…we have a SNAKE in our basement!”
The hubby’s face went white and all three of us raced back downstairs to see that the SNAKE (shudder!) had fully revealed itself and was just chillin’ in our hallway.
We were paralyzed. Never in my entire life have I had any type of reptile in my home. I never really thought I was afraid of snakes, until I saw one in my home. Hubby hates snakes with a passion. Not quite as much as he hates mice and rats, but snakes are right up there for him. We just stood on the steps, mouths agape, and wondered what on earth we were supposed to do next. We couldn’t kill it with a shovel, blood would get all over the carpet. That meant we had to catch it. Ugh!
We took turns watching the snake and running around the house to find something to put it in, however, while it was on my watch it got tired of hanging out in the hallway and quickly slithered back under the laundry room door and into the mess of the storage room, all while I stood there screeching and clutching at the baby.
We couldn’t find it in the storage room. It really seems to have disappeared into some small hiding space, and we’re too afraid to go poking around with much gusto. We created an entire fortress around the base of the door in an attempt to keep it from escaping and prayed that it would go out the way it came in (which is a mystery to us, since we have no idea how it got in). My brave sisters came over the next day and poked around, but we couldn’t find anything.
So now we still have a snake in our basement. It’s been almost 2 weeks. Doing laundry is a two man job as one person has to stand guard as the other throws clothes around as fast as humanly possible. The sucky thing about snakes is there is no real easy way to get rid of them. You have to either catch it or kill it. There’s no such thing as snake traps or snake poison. Yuck yuck yuck! Someone pointed out that at least we won’t have mice in our basement. Yeah, way to see the bright side…we don’t have mice, we just have a 20 inch long SNAKE! No biggie! The person who pointed that out is apparently some sort of snake enthusiast and said that it’s no big deal, we just have to hope that it isn’t a female that is going to give birth to a whole LITTER of snakes IN OUR HOUSE! Yeah, no big deal.
Hang on for a second while I hyperventilate.
So, there you have it. Snake in the house, mystery to where it has gone. Possible infestation of baby snakes on the horizon.
So how are your holidays shaping up?
Tags: gross stuff, phobias, snakes
Nov
When it rains, it pours
I totally fell off of the NaBloPoMo wagon. I was doing so well, too! Oh well, there’s always next year. This year a little thing called life got in the way, I’m afraid.
Last weekend I got a flat tire that couldn’t be fixed, and since my car needed new tires anyway we had to deal with the whole rigmarole of arranging driving and all that fun stuff until we could finally take my car in on Tuesday, which also happened to be the day that I was irrational and emotional, probably due to lack of sleep and hormones, and the hubby was the same way so that equaled out to some marital discord.
The previous night, Monday, all was going fairly well (except the car thing) and since the hubby had to pick me up from work he thought it would be nice for us to go out for a family dinner to my favorite restaurant. We didn’t have a baby-sitter or anything, but figured Claire would be just fine and would enjoy getting out for a bit. Everything started off great- Claire was happy watching all the people and playing with crayons and we were enjoying our salads and bread. I look up from my salad to glance at Claire in her high chair and HOLY CRAP! She’s spewing vomit everywhere! Not a sound did she make, nor was there any inclination whatsoever of her not feeling good. But out of the blue she starts barfing copious amounts,which is a mystery to me, since she was still avoiding eating that day.
I grabbed all the napkins I could find, including ones off of other peoples’ tables in an attempt to catch/clean up some of the mess. The poor girl is crying pretty hard now and we’re trying to figure out a way to get her to the bathroom without smearing puke all over ourselves, all the while pretending that all the other diners aren’t staring at us in horror. I finally managed to escape to the restroom, strip her down, clean her up, and put her in the spare onesie in the diaper bag. We hung out in there for a little while, just in case, and when I felt the coast was clear we headed back to the table. However, the second I rounded the corner and approached our table…
“BLEEEEEHHHHH!! WAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!”
She barfed again. Back to the restroom we went, leaving the hubby to get everything boxed up and in the car. So much for the nice evening. One of those things you put under the “WHY DO WE EVEN TRY?” category.
I do have to pause for a second though and mention that while I was in the restroom with my crying, half-naked, smelly child that I felt very grateful for the sense of camaraderie I felt with the other women in there. None of them stared, none of the pretended to ignore us in the hopes of avoiding something unpleasant and uncomfortable. Each woman that came through offered her sympathies and help and shared stories of when their child had done something similar. It made me feel as though I was part of this network of mothers that understood and cared. We didn’t really know each other, but we had an understanding of what the other had been through. For some odd reason feeling as though I wasn’t alone in my struggles made everything easier.
So with Monday and Tuesday both in the crapper, the week was off to a pretty un-promising start. More to come of the remainder of the week’s events…
Tags: car crap, motherhood, puke, sick baby
