Core Competency win? Or epic frugal fail?

I just finished reading through a new acquaintance's Huffington Post blog from a few years ago in which she details the rise and benefits of the "core competency" mom.

I'll be writing about her new book "168 Hours" for the Washington Times in a few weeks and I am very, very much looking forward to getting to read it in preparation for the job. One of the perks of journalism is getting paid to talk to really interesting people and read their incredible work. I'm excited.

Her blog posts detail the time saving benefits of being what she calls a "core competency mom," or a woman who "outsources or ignores things other people can do just as well in order to focus on what they do best: nurturing their families and their paid work."

Her point is that statistically women who work outside their home spend almost just as much time per week with their kids as stay at home moms (ones who dont homeschool). So what are these homemakers doing with their time? Housework. Cooking. Laundry. Stuff like that.

There's no question that those things kind of suck and having someone else do them would be grand. ... it would also be expensive. And, in my estimation, an epic frugal fail.

While her posts admit that cost is a factor, she argues that your time is also valuable and that perhaps spending time with your kids "costs" the same amount as getting someone else to do your laundry.

That may very well be the case. But what if one of your core competencies is frugality -- and not because you are good at it or even must be good at it but, for the sake of your family and a desire to give, WANT to be good at it?

The spirit of frugality dictates that you manage your schedule and life in such a way that you have extra of the valuable things -- time and money -- to give to others or (in the case of money) save for later.

As with everything, a cost benefit analysis should be applied to all frugal endeavorers. Cooking my own beans instead of buying canned is only a frugal win because it takes so little hands on time. I use a lot of beans and while a $2ish savings per every three recipes doesn't seem like a lot, it will add up.

I, however, do not make my own dishwasher detergent or washing machine soap because I find a way to buy that stuff very cheaply. The time it would take to make it just isn't worth it to me.

I spend a good amount of time couponing, reading through deals blogs and registering for free items (and thus really good coupons), going through grocery sales and planning menus because I know this time will equal enough savings to make it worth my while. I am in the process of reigning in my schedule and the time I spend doing these things (a blog post to come). But just looking at the difference in my grocery receipts now compared to a year ago I know that the savings is huge. ... the difference between over $100 a week at the commissary and $50.

Here is the big question when considering a core competency lifestyle -- what are your priorities? If money management and frugality is up there with other aspects of your family, then outsourcing your laundry, cooking and cleaning on a regular basis is simply not an option.

And welcome! -- plus a Frugal Fail

OK, I fixed it. I fixed the problems created by me being a moron. I fixed it all. And here we are.

Let's get things started off right with my latest Frugal Fail.

First of all, it's not like I'm TRYING to have frugal fails. Apparently it's just how I roll.

So today's is in the form of me trying to be sneaky to myself and get around the budget.

I think everyone does it in some way, really. This is how I do it.

1. I come close to exceeding my grocery budget. But I want to eat steak for memorial day. Good steak. Delicious steak. Expensive steak.
2. I buy the steak anyway (on the credit card ... frugal fail step number one).
3. I decide that really this steak isn't a GROCERY item, it's an ENTERTAINMENT item, so we're still good! (But that's a lie. You know it and I know. The only one that doesn't know it is the steak. Which was really really tasty. For the record).

So let's go over the first big mistake: taking out the credit card.

It's a slippery slope, really. It isn't that we don't have the money to cover $20 in steak as a treat. It's that if we take out the credit card for this, "just this once," what will take it out for later?

Second, I made excuses for my spending. It's that I shouldn't spend on it as a treat, I should cowboy up as to what I'm doing.

It's not what we did  - buy steak -- that was "eh" on the frugal scale. It was HOW we did it.

Maybe it's time to alter the budget? Or time to create a new budget line for "fancy food on holidays." .. I just know there is a better way than THIS way.
~~~~~~~

Quick training update: with three weeks to the triathlon I'm looking at crunch time. As in ... I need to get in the lake for a practice swim in the wetsuit, and pronto. That'll be tomorrow. Eeeeee. It'll be cold.

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.

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)

Frugal Fail: Expiration Dates

This may be brand new information to you. I hope it is not.

Nonperishable food is NOT nonperishable.

I'm not sure where the myth started. As I was blogging this in my head early this morning in between husband leaving and Amy going back to sleep time (think: about 5 a.m.) it occurred to me that I could probably blame this on public school.

Leave it a homeschooler, right? Hahahaha. Ahem.

What I mean is: because of the very real earthquake threat we were required to pack and bring an emergency kit to school each year. It was stored in this giant bin in the corner of the room. Each bag was to contain nonperishable snacks, a flash light, blah, blah, blah. Let's focus on the snacks. My mom always put in some sort of nut thing (like trail mix), a few handy snacks, more crackers, that sort of thing. Nonperishable.

I realize now that what they meant by "nonperishable" was really "won't perish between now and when we get rid of your kid next June." Not so much "survive until the end of time."

I am your messenger of sad news, my friends. (That, or I'm a moron for not knowing this and you are all very smart). ... food expires. Pretty much all food. Including rice a roni. And chocolate chips. And boxed pudding. Yes, I just double checked. Pretty much the only thing I located in my pantry without a best if used by date on it was a can of creamed corn (which makes not want to eat it) and some rice.

Brutal.

So brutal, in fact, that I just cleaned out my pantry so I can show you all the things I now get to throw away. And let's remember that I only started collecting this stuff like a year ago. So pretty much this stuff only lasted a year! Nonperishable? Bah.

First, my pantry. Just because I know you're wondering. It's not terribly clean. Don't judge.

Then I went through it and looked at expiration dates on everything. Here is the giant stack that I now have to throw out. Just picture it as a stack of money because that's how I feel.

Sigh.

Who knew POPCORN expired?! Seriously folks. This is shocking.

And final confession for this post that demonstrates just how ... silly ... and naive I am. Remember how I said I was going to clean out the freezer this week by serving some stir fry meals? Well they werent Birds Eye, they were Green Giant. Whatever. The point is that when I was practically STARVING TO DEATH after my workout at the Y and dumped the contents into my wok I realized that perhaps this bag had expired too. Long, long ago.

As in last May. Sure enough.

We'll be figuring out something else to eat on Thursday. Luke rescued last night by making me an omelet and salvaging the chicken I had planned to use in the stir fry. In other news, the second bag of stir fry made an excellent ice pack when Luke accidentally smashed my toes in the recliner on our couch.