Thou Shalt Not Covet

... and, unfortunately, I think that includes stuff from REI and Road Runner Sports. Bummer.

It's back to the need v. want conundrum. ... and where "nice to haves" and "deprivation" live in that dichotomy.

Can I live without a reflective rain/wind breaker on my training bike rides? Sure. Will I continue to be cold and miserable? Yes. Does that make it a "need" or a "want?" Unclear.

I believe this is where two factors come to play: how hard core your frugality is and your budget. If you are super hard core and determined not to spend money on things that can be considered comfort items ... well, than I guess "nice to haves" are out.

But if you've budgeted for it, than slide that sucker right over to the "need" category.

At least that's how I figure it.

Now let's return to my REI/Road Runner problem. I've maxed out my triathlon budget for the season. Between the wetsuit, new running shoes, triathlon suit, race fees, goggles to replace the ones that finally broke after five years of use (miracle they lasted this long), more body glide (you always need more body glide), sunglasses, shot blocks for race day and so on ... there's nothing left for the jacket. Since that is the case I'm going to go ahead and live without the bike jacket. Maybe when we take a new look at the budget when the season is over (.... yeeeeeessss off season budget!!!).

Meanwhile I am in the market to replace the super cool "yoga jacket" (I'm not sure what makes this a yoga jacket, but OK) I'm wearing here:

Yeah, that's not a good picture. Regardless, I love that jacket. I bought it at Old Navy. And by the time it occurred to me that I Love That Jacket so much that I was going to wear it out pronto, they stopped selling it and they only had it on clearance in sizes much too big for the current rendition of Amy (or really any rendition in the past either).

So I'm looking for a new one. Yes, I sometimes wear it in training. I also wear it All The Other Times. So I'm sticking it under the "clothing" category. And guess what? I still have a budget for that for the month of June! Is it currently a "need?" No. But it will be. And since it's budgeted I'm going to go for it.

Meanwhile I just need to avoid browsing and browsing and browsing and browsing stuff on Road Runner ... because that super cool looking Puma pull over is NOT a need. Sad.

Frugal Time

I have been taking a break from the frugal blogging world as I try to prepare myself for an upcoming year of working from home, at least part time.

It's gotten me thinking about how frugality must be something applied to not just money, but also to time (and everyone said "time is money!"). I must be careful about how I allot and spend my time so that, at the end of the day, I have enough left to get/finish everything I need.

Compared to time frugality, money frugality is a piece of cake.

Just like with money, being frugal with your time comes down to priorities and wants/nice to haves/needs. There are things that I WANT to spend my time doing -- watching endless episodes of Friends and drinking lattes, for example. There are things that are NICE to spend my time on and if I tried really hard I could say "well that's a NEED!" -- like training for my triathlon and staying up with the bargain blogs so I can get the most out of my grocery trips. And there are things that are definite NEEDS, like spending time with God, Luke and David (in that order) and working.

But for some reason managing my time is so much more difficult than managing my money. How I use both reflects what I value most - my personal idols, you might say. I was reading I Kings this morning and came across this verse:

"No one else so completely sold himself to what was evil in the Lord's sight as Ahab did under the influence of his wife Jezebel. His worst outrage was worshiping idols just as the Amorites had done -- the people whom the Lord had driven out from the land ahead of the Israelites." (I Kings 21:25-26).

Ahab was one bad dude (I was going to say "bada$$ but that didn't seem appropriate, haha). He killed people. He stole stuff. He oppressed the poor. All sorts of things I would say were way, way, WAY worse than ignoring God. .. I mean killing people is bad!

But God considered the idol worship to be THE WORST THING EVER. ... and if I am spending my assets (time and money) to do things that do not put God first I am doing the Exact Same Thing.

Uncool, Amy. Very, very uncool.

And so I have to stop and ask myself, first and foremost, as I organize my life and budget my time -- is God the thing that gets top billing? Is He -- and is His will -- my top priority? Do I consider Him before making major decisions?

My little junket (OK, major junket) back into journalism is going to cost me a major time commitment and is causing me to make some major priority decisions. I have to decide how to care for Dave during this and what (if any) childcare to use. These are hard, hard decisions.

Sigh.

Frugal Fail: Busted Budget

We all know where good intentions lead.

... in this case, to a frugal failure.

It isn't so much that I totally blew our grocery budget, clothes budget, craft budget or any other money restrictions out of the water. It's more that I completely lost track. Hopelessly so.

It happened like this: one day, after the commissary, I did not write down in my Excel ledger how much I spent. The next day, after I shopped somewhere else, I did the same thing.

And so on and so forth, until I realized I was so hopelessly behind that spending time catching up would be worth more in time than any amount of money I've saved at the store.

There's always next month, right?

To make things easier I finally sat down and figured out how to use the Mac version of Excel, Numbers. I am ashamed to admit that it took me, oh, a year, to get around to that and yet it was not hard. Or really any different than Excel. I'm just that much of a procrastinator.

But what this means is that now I can use my mac for both my lists, shopping and account keeping. Previously I'd open the PC, open the Mac and put them beside each other. I'd then open Excel on the PC, the bank account on the Mac and worked it that way. ... but the PC is slow. S-l-o-w. On it's best day. And so this becomes a time consuming process. But who likes to go to the trouble of getting out a second computer?

So now I can do it all on Mr. Mac.*

The other thing that has thrown a catch in my whole budget-bank account-syncing is my trip to D.C. and our upcoming one in two weeks. While the foundation paid for it all, it was more like they are GOING to pay via reimbursement. Meanwhile my credit card bill is looming, waaaaay higher than normal, awaiting that lovely check.

And as for the budget, like I said above, there is always next month for keeping track accurately. I do know that we have been spending less. I do know that we have been saving more. I'm just not clear on how much more or less there is.

*In other news, related only because it is also by Mr. Mac, I discovered that Magic Eraser really IS magic! It gets rid of those ugly, black palm marks my hands leave next to the touch pad. So exciting.

Birthday Planning Aholics

Dave's birthday party is one week from today. Against the advice of the lovely Alisha (who thinks I should hold everyone is suspense regarding our plans and general craftiness surrounding the day), here is the run down of all the little things we are doing/making for the party. ... so you can see just how crazy this has gotten:

First, this is the happy birthday sign Alisha and I made.

We also made a sign for his high chair yesterday, but it's in the car and Luke took the car so I can't take a photo of it.

Here is the super cool party hat, modeled by a very wiggly David. I need to add some elastic to keep it on his head.

Next, I made this bib for when he eats cake.

We've also been working on the food list ... Alisha will be making him a gorgeous cake, so that's taken care of. The rest of the food ...

-- Chocolate covered bananas!

-- Veggie tray/ dip

-- Meat and cheese tray (made by me because buying one is waaaaaay pricey, unlike the veggie tray which Ill be buying from Costc0)

-- Punch

-- Monkey mochas (made by me ... basically a coconut/chocolate latte)

-- Some other sort of snacky/salty thing. Chex mix? Pretzels? Unclear.

-- Paper products from the dollar store

Now I know you are asking "Ms. Budget lady -- what about your budget???" ... well, we DO have a budget for the party. So far I am under it, and the above food should be around $30. Our budget for the shindig is $100 (you only turn 1 once!).

So, stay tuned (next Saturday!) for the party details and photos and ... fun. All sorts of fun.

Frugal Fail: the dinner version

In the land of envelope living where there's a set budget each week for eating out, we try to stretch our little dollars in every way possible. We LOVE eating out and so it's really important to make sure we get to do it as much as possible.

To do this we frequent Restaurant.com and their monthly 80 percent off sales. We are able to buy $25 off coupons for local restaurants for $2. Every now and then I buy 10 or 12 of these for different places (and always via ebates.com for money back) -- some we've tried and some we've not -- and put them in the car. When we're out and feel like going to dinner, we have them on hand.

Today was one of those days.

We decided to try a new restaurant in Tacoma for which we bought a certificate several months ago -- El Guadalajara. Sounded nice enough and with a minimum purchase requirement of $35 (which I doubted we would exceed) and a $25 certificate we would have ourselves a cheap and delicious meal.

We wandered around in the car for a while burning gas -- but no worries! We were in for a cheap meal. We finally found the place, parked, got a (very excited and hungry) Dave out of the car and walked up ....

And it was closed. Not just closed but empty and completely and totally gone.

Sigh.

So we put a (very unhappy and hungry) Dave back in the car and drove to another certificate location -- Joseppis. It was delicious, but it was more expensive (it has a $50 minimum instead of $35).

And so here is some frugal math for you to determine whether or not we broke even:

Buying certificate for cheap meal: +1

Driving around looking for the place: -1

Finding place closed and wasting money on certificate: -1

Eating delicious italian food instead: +1

Spending more money than planned: -1

Total: -1 = frugal fail.

Meh.

(meanwhile I'm trying to contact the web site and get my money back)

Sundry Stuff

A spattering of sundry information for your ... well, unclear what it's for. But here it is:

-- Got on the bike for the first time. Yes, I've owned it two weeks. But alas it was raining and then I had The Disease ... so I couldn't ride it. But today I did! It was beautiful outside, so I took the bike onto post and rode the triathlon course. 14 miles. And I didn't die. But it did take me just under an hour. So I need to cut down on that.

-- My back is now hurting from the bike riding. Yowee. I also learned that biking and the running is hard. So that's another thing to work on.

-- After many moons of resisting I've decided to give cloth diapers a try. I just can't get past the idea that at our current rate I will spend at LEAST $700 on diapers this year, and that's only if he remains the same size ... which he won't ... so it will be way more because the bigger they are, the more they cost. So despite our retarded washer/dryer and despite the fact that the concept kind of grosses me out, I'm going to try it. So at least I can say "I tried."

-- Closing ceremonies? Stupid. I want to watch more ski jumping!! A conversation that Luke and I just had about the closing ceremonies:

Us: watching opera singing guy

Luke: Is that the Prime Minister?

Me: Singing?

Luke: Yes.

Me: Why did you think that was him singing?

Luke: I didn't.

Me: I'm confused

Now there is a lady in a pant suit. Whoa crazy times here.

-- Tomorrow we are going to the commissary. We need like 10 things. It's going to be a good week for the Grocery Envelope. No wait, I lied. There are 15 things on my list. Whatever. I'm cleaning out the freezer and pantry this week (thus the stir fry and rice a roni), so here are the things I am making for dinner:

- Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti (and rice a roni)

- Birds Eye Stir Fry

- Butternut Squash Flatbread (new recipe from Real Simple)

- More Birds Eye Stir Fry

- Tilapia

- BBQ chicken (more rice a roni)

-- Speaking of envelopes, this is the first month on full time budgetness. I already mentioned above that I'd love love to eliminate that diaper line item. Stupid expensive diapers. Seriously! It's like highway robbery. Or ... armed robbery. Or something bad like that. You HAVE to have a diaper on your kid (because the alternative is not acceptable) and they are at LEAST .20 cents each ... and thats the really cheap ones! It's making me mad just typing about it. Meh.

-- A new delicious vegetarian recipe I used last week that was SO GOOD: find it here ... seriously, SO GOOD. (and cheap!)

Budget Eating

It's been about a year since I started couponing. And it's been a great year! I'm not sure I've actually saved any money, but I definitely have felt good about myself, so that's something.

The goal for this coming year, as I mentioned a few days ago, is to ACTUALLY save money. I know, crazy talk.

A major part of this, I feel, is saving on our groceries by eating low-cost meals. I am trying to serve at least one vegetarian meal a week. I used to think this required either using cheap, highly-processed canned food OR very expensive fresh vegetables and tofu.

Alas, it is not so.

It takes some hard core deliciousness to convince Luke that a meal without meat is good. I don't know how it happened, but he has been super excited about most of the vegetarian meals I've made in the last few weeks.

And if they are THAT awesome, I should share them. So here they are:

Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti

Cheesy Beans and Rice

Butternut Squash Ravioli (from costco... yummy!)

And, a recipe I couldn't find linked but we LOVE:

Black Bean Taco Pizza:


-- tbps cornmeal
-- 1 refrigerated pizza crust (or make your own)
-- 1 bottle taco sacue
--2 medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped
-- 3/4 c. canned black beans
-- 1/2 cup frozen corn
-- 1 can (4 oz) chopped green chilies
-- 2 green onions, chopped
-- 1-1/2 c. (6 oz) shredded reduced-fat Colby-Monterrey Jack Cheese
-- shredded lettuce
-- Reduced fat sour cream

1. Coat a 12-in pan with cooking spray; sprinkle with corn meal. Prepare pizza dough according to package directions. With floured hands, press dough onto pan. Bake at 450 for 7 minutes or until lightly browned.
2. Spread with taco sauce. Top with tomatoes, beans, corn, chilies, onions and cheese. Bake for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and crust is golden. Serve topped with shredded lettuce and/or sour cream if desired.


This coming week we're going to have more bean recipes because they are on sale at the commissary.

Living from Envelopes

As part of our "husband is home from war" to-do list, we are taking stock and reexamining our budget.

If you know me at all, you know I LOVE saving money, or feeling like I'm saving money (two entirely different things, lets be honest). This budgeting business is just another way to do it ... or to do it better ... or to keep track of how I'm doing on it. Whatever.

I've been inspired over the last year by a variety of sources, including ladies at my PWOC chapter, a few blogie friends and, most recently, the lovely Alisha, to look into the whole Dave Ramsey budgeting system, which includes a detailed plan and paying cash for certain things, such as groceries.

Over this holiday weekend the husband and I have made a budget and started using the envelopes. We are doing a few practice weeks over the end of February, just getting the hang of things, and will start diving fully into the system come March. The reason for this is our fluctuating income (thank you, post deployment) and an inability to figure out exactly HOW MUCH we are making due to the whole mid-month government LES business.

Alisha will be making me some truly lovely envelopes so that I dont have to use the boring white ones. So phew that's done. And I'm taking a new view towards our groceries to make sure I'm not only using coupons, but preparing meals that are economic to start with (think: chicken and vegetarian meals based off commissary sales).

For this coming week (starting tomorrow) our menu plan is:

Tuesday:
Hamburgers (a Luke request)
Pineapple

Wednesday:
Cheesy beans and rice

Thursday:
Honey-mustard chicken

Friday:
Ravioli with sweet potatoes

Saturday:
crock-pot sloppy joes (to use up those extra hamburger buns from Tuesday)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news, I'm actively preparing for my triathlon! I'm going to try to add a countdown clock to this blog. Luke bought me a bike we found on sale! ... more info later.

Eating From Pantry Challenge

I'm going to join in on this because it is kind of fun and because I had already decided to do it before everyone else did, therefore, I'm not on any sort of band wagon. I'm anti band wagon.

So this challenge started last week. The idea is that you attempt to diminish your stock pile of random canned goods and freezer food over the month while buying as little as possible at the grocery store. This is a good time for me to start this since I just now got a husband back to eat food and, when Karissa moved, it all of the sudden hit me that the Army probably WON'T move my giant pile of canned food on behalf.

So I trotted back to my food shelf and checked what I had. Here is a list of the stuff I wanted to make dent in of over the next few weeks:

5 cans of chicken broth

5 cans of beef broth

4 cans of pumpkin

3 cans of yams

2 cans of mushrooms stems and pieces

2 cans of diced tomatoes and green peppers

2 cans of diced green chilies

1 jar of banana peppers

2 cans of black beans

1 can blackeyed peas

1 can tomato paste

4 cans cream of mushroom

1 can cream of chicken

1 can evaporated milk

3 cake mixes

2 can crushed pineapple

2 cans cream of potato

1 cream of celery

1 can refried beans

2 boxes vanilla pudding

3 boxes jello

A variety of canned veggies

Jar of taco sauce

Wow that was a boring read.

Now, because Luke heads of to work in the deep darkness of the early morning and because Dave is still a baby cereal kind of guy, we don't really do breakfast and lunch around here. My menu plan is basically all dinners. The panty challenge therefore started with New Years dinner:

Ham

Sweet potato casserole

"Pink stuff" (pineapple/cottage cheese/cool whip creation)

Pumpkin pie

... bye bye 2 cans of yam, one can of pumpkin, one crushed pineapple and one box of jello.

Last week I made:

Pumpkin sausage noodles (NOT delicious so no link for you)

Texas ranch chicken casserole (totally delicious -- but no link available -- and made a TON, so we ate this pretty much off and on the rest of the week)

Pumpkin dessert bars

... bye bye 2 more cans of pumpkin, 2 cans of chicken broth, a can of diced tomatoes and green peppers, a can of diced green chilies, one cream of chicken and one cake mix.

Now, this week's plan:

Shrimp fettucini

Mexican chicken skillet (baked into tortillas), (can of corn, can of black beans)

Black bean taco pizza (taco sauce, can of black beans, diced green chilies)

Pumpkin lasagna (that final can of pumpkin)

Eclairs (both vanilla pudding boxes)

And next week, so far:

Chicken pot pie (one cream of potato and the cream of celery)

Chili (remaining diced tomatoes and tomato paste and chicken broth)

mushroom chicken noodles

So! My list should look more like:

3 cans of chicken broth

5 cans of beef broth

1 cans of yams

1 jar of banana peppers

1 can blackeyed peas

4 cans cream of mushroom

1 can evaporated milk

2 cake mixes

1 can crushed pineapple

1 can cream of potato

1 cream of celery

1 can refried beans

2 boxes jello

A variety of canned veggies

So that was a terribly boring post. Sorry about that.