July 10, 2010
Despite knowing about our trip down south last weekend for a couple months, I failed to prepare far enough in advance to prevent several wasteful results of being gone and off routine.
Spending, while not wildly out of control, couldn’t be said to be under control either because I’ve honestly not been keeping track of my cash flow spreadsheet. July doesn’t have a single entry listed.
A) While down south, I went to Target fully knowing I needed 4 or 5 items and that they weren’t really budgeted for. Went anyway. Luckily, I found nothing on the list except a handful of really cute and well-priced cards that I needed for weddings, birthdays, and other occasions: $6.
B) We ordered take-out lunch while rushing from lodgings to hospital to see the new baby and parents; we failed to take note of the total price until I asked for it after calling the order in: $70!
C) Vending machines in hospitals take credit cards now. When you’re there all day for multiple days and only brought one bottle of water: $10
D) Groceries that I didn’t have time to prepare beforehand went bad (some salsa, some pasta sauce, some veggies)
E) Grocery shopping only happens on weekends so getting back late on Monday night meant eating leftovers brought back from the weekend OR …. eating out. One night, a high-earning friend was in town and insisted on going to Ruth’s Chris so also insisted on treating so we now owe her the next dinner, instead of just paying our own way each time.
F) It could have been worse, without fresh veggies to fix lunch either, it was a peanut butter sandwich every day this week. I’m glad that I really like PB!
G) Almost forgot, I also spent $40 on groceries for the new parents. A gift, let’s call it.
Bills didn’t go unpaid, thankfully because I tend to pay them every two weeks and the day before any trips, but I did forget to calculate my net worth for the month of June, I forgot to set up some invoices, and barely managed to meet other online commitments.
It’s time to get it together.
1. Invoices – prepare and send
2. Net worth – pull it together! Since I’m still in between paychecks, it should be fairly accurate
3. Grocery shopping – at least decide what recipes are up for the week and make up the list. Perhaps even go today. (I’m still pretty achy, yesterday was a tough day.)
4. Cooking!
Prepare chicken stock for soupbases for the week.
Defrost another chicken and have PiC learn from the fabulous @HeatherSolos from Home Ec 101 how to wield a knife and break down a whole chicken (almost the only kind of chicken I think is cheap enough to buy). I prefer to hog kitchen duty but my bones and muscles can’t handle the heavy duty stuff.
Perhaps defrost all the jambalaya making stuff and make up a whole tureen for the week?
That’s more than enough for today since I also have to get some work-work in before Monday. And PiC promised to sit down with me and crunch numbers for some possible trips we’d like to take.
April 12, 2009
Status: Food coma
Having nothing better to do on a lazy Sunday, I trotted ’round to the local Fresh and Easy in pursuit of a 77 cent/lb ham. The only available specimen was a hefty ten pounder, which I hoisted into my cart, and added a jug of apple juice and honey for good measure. The latter two items were for my honey-apple glaze, the idea for which I must thank the iPhone + Google.
For the record, I’ve never ever cooked a ham before. Fair warning.
The already-cooked ham was dutifully wrapped in foil, and placed in a roasting pan which, miracle of miracles, only took me ten minutes to find.
[Might I point out that this is 90% of the reason I don’t cook? It’s simply not my kitchen, and for all that I’m heartily grateful that my dad cooks 99% of the time, his idea of housekeeping and organizing is levels away from mine. And I cannot stand to cook in a messy kitchen, so as soon as the ham was wrapped and popped into the oven for the first-stage, 3-hour roast, I commenced 3 hours of dishwashing, kitchen cleaning, drain deodorizing, and grocery shopping. And cleaning out the fridge, packing food into actual containers instead of left willy-nilly on plates. Ugh! Also, matched up tops and bottoms to plastic containers.]
After the third hour, basting of the uncovered ham began, as did vegetable prep. I found this awesome recipe for new potatoes and green beans from A Veggie Venture. I didn’t want two pounds of baby red or white potatoes, so I opted for the (cheaper) loose, bulk Yukon potatoes. Tasted delicious, but I realized the reason you want the babies during the last step of cooking: the cut-up cooked potatoes got a little smashed in transition. But that didn’t affect the taste one iota.
I added rice and scarfed immediately.
Man. I’m a good kid. I made a great dinner and left the kitchen cleaner than when I started. Oh, and did I forget to mention home-made yellow cupcakes?
[No frosting, too sweet for my aging teeth.] I had to substitute olive oil for veggie oil, but that didn’t affect the taste.
Ham, $8
Juice, $2
Honey, $3
Green beans, $1.50
Potatos, $1.50
Cake, $1.50
Cleaning supplies (dish soap, vinegar, baking soda): $7
Total Cost: $24.50
September 29, 2008
I wouldn’t be opposed, myself.
Saturday was packed, and yet felt like I didn’t get much done. Friend and I finally tackled the nagging car problems and mid-way through diagnosing the window issue, the car battery died. Excellent timing. $80 later for a new battery, and $8 for Mcdonald’s as payment for the labor, my car was ready to run again, and we’re ready to research and order new parts. Our best guess, since we’re clearly not mechanics, is that since it’s not an electrical problem, and the fuses are ok, it might be the window regulator.
We’ll use his mechanic as a resource to price the part and the estimated (recommended) labor. That’ll be compared to the warrantied used-car-parts place that Friend uses as well. We’ll decide what to do (go with a new part, and personal labor, a used part and personal labor, or either part and mechanic labor) when we’ve got all the angles covered. Bonus: It’s amazingly refreshing to know that the cost is covered by my auto maintenance fund.
Working on the car took four hours. I was pretty beat, so instead of getting right to work when I got home, I talked in the phone for an hour. Lunch with the friends at a new sushi restaurant ate up another 2 hours, and food coma quickly took care of the next hour and half. I’ve been making my way through Neil Gaiman’s Fragile Things (a birthday gift) and fell asleep somewhere between a short story or poem.
The pressing need to do laundry, work, cleaning, organizing, more online research and submissions of things, blog posts, etc. fueled a bit of guilt, but honestly, I needed the time to become human again after a long week of work.
Becoming more human included having a spot of dinner with friends, and watching Run, FatBoy Run that night. I like Simon Pegg, and the movie was amusing, but it didn’t have the unpredictable plot or twisted humor I’ve come to expect from him. It was a bit disappointingly predictable, really. And I know, it wasn’t his movie, so I can’t really blame him. Happily, I continued to honor my strike against Blockbuster and their ridiculous prices by renting from the local independent video store. They charge $1.79 per movie, per day. Since I rarely watch movies, and don’t have any need to keep the DVD for more than the day it takes to watch, I love this kind of rental. Actually, it’s an ingrained preference since I grew up renting from an independent store for a dollar a day, per video. None of this chain, $5/five days for a single movie nonsense for me! $4, two movies, one go. Good stuff!
Sunday was even more jam-packed: started working as soon as I got up, did laundry, met up with a friend to lend a sympathetic ear, took loads of recycling to the center, and tried to compose some general letters. Also, watched the second movie, dodged a possible birthday party out in the city because I couldn’t stomach the idea of another sushi meal so soon after the last, and and and …!
I think, perhaps, the better idea than to try to squeeze more hours or days out of the weekend, better time and task management is in order. It’s not that I find any of the above tasks distasteful, so it’s more a matter of proper distribution throughout the week so that I’m not cramming a thousand and one tasks into each day, and wonder why I’m so tired on Monday. Something like SavingDiva’s cleaning schedule. While saving up all the tasks makes it seem like everything gets done in a single go, the truth is, they’re all just waiting until the end of the week, and if we’re lucky, most of it’s completed.
Taking into consideration I don’t get home before 8 pm most nights, there are still ways to incorporate micro-versions of some of these chores into each night.
1. Laundry always takes about an hour and a half per load, so that’ll remain a weekend chore.
2. Letting mail pile up, though, has recently become a bad habit. I’ll open and read the mail, but won’t file it for a couple of days. That needs to stop. I’ll discard (appropriately) as I go, daily.
3. Cleaning: I will pick up after myself as I go, each day. Jackets get hung up, laundry goes into the basket or hung up again (jeans) each night. No more letting it pile up so I can “decide” later.
4. Letters/correspondence/career related writing: Pick one item, just one, and focus on it every other day.
December 27, 2007
Life has been hectic… so much not the relaxed, sleeping-in, reading on the floor all day sort of holiday break that I’d been looking forward to. Well, actually, I’ve been sleeping in far later than usual, but only because I’m staying up hours later than my bedtime. *tsk*
But I actually got a couple items checked off the list today:
1. Called the auto insurance company and had BroDucky taken off the policy. This item was originally “Get insurance quotes and get new policy” but that takes a whole lot more effort than I’ve had time for. This’ll do for now. The underwriters require up to 30 days to rewrite the policy so I’ve got my fingers crossed that the total will come down A LOT.
2. Called T-mobile to check on the minutes that Pa and MaDucky use of a month. If their usage is consistently low, I’m changing their family plan to the lowest priced one available. That plan runs $59.99 for 700 minutes, free nights and weekends, and Mobile to Mobile. Unfortunately, since the plan remains under Ma’s name, despite my paying the bill, she now needs to call them and add me as an “authorized user” so I can access the plan and actually change it. Still, it’s a step. That ten dollars saved will go towards the iPhone.
This just leaves:
1. Culling credit cards I signed up for last year and no longer need or want. This has to be done during business hours because I want to transfer the credit limits to the remaining cards.
2. Developing financial & personal goals for 2008.
3. Planning the last bridal shower for next week.
4. Creating R’s wedding gift of a photobook chronicling the “behind the scenes” leading up to her actual wedding. I can at least get the first 2/3s of the book started.
5. At least 4-6 hours of OT work to get caught up before the 2nd.
