Tuesday, February 4, 2014

A Girls Gotta Eat

Life According to Steph

Before I jump right into the results of my January Spending Freeze, I think it’s important to give you a glimpse into how D and I handle our affairs.  After climbing our way out from under an obscene amount of debt, we devised a plan to keep us on track and spending within our means.  The system is quite simple and it’s incredibly effective as long as we stick to it.  We have “house” money, the money we save and/or use to pay our bills with.  And then we have “allowance”.  We each get the same amount of allowance every pay period and we’re free to spend it at our discretion (shoes for me, video games for D, whatever). 

Simple enough right.  Well I think I clearly exhibited in How To Spend  A Month’s Allowance On Your Lunch Break that Idon’t always do a very good job towing the line.  I’ve gotten in the bad habit of borrowing money from the “house” and things have gotten a bit sketch since August.  Before I knew it I found myself owing $600, yikes!  It’s a slippery slope because I make good money and I work hard so at the end of a pay period, I want to reward myself with some pretty new thing.  When I owe the house money though, I’m paying that back, which leaves me with less money for me so I borrow more.  See why I need help? 

When I saw the January Spending Freeze I thought I’d give it a go, and well let’s just say I wasn’t successful in that I spent money.  I also didn’t save a dime.  I did however pay off my debt to the house, prove I can go an entire month without buying something shiny and new and gain a lot of perspective into my spending habits.  You may not, but I’m calling this a success. 

So my journey.  I started out strong and managed to make it a whole three days before I broke down and bought my first coffee, $1.75.  I felt guilty, really guilty actually, but that didn’t stop me from doing it again four days later, another $1.75.  I broke the freeze very early on but like anything in life, this freeze had its ups and downs.  Not perfect, but in the first two weeks I only spent $3.50.  I killed it by eating breakfast at home and by bringing my lunch to work every day.  This without a doubt is what allowed me to pay back the debt I owed.    

Happy, happy, joy, joy.  Life is good……WRONG.  Once my debt was down to zero, things went completely aery.  I stopped keeping track of my infractions and I spent my entire second allowance on takeout!  Such a waste of money, but I mean a girls got to eat right.  I’ve discovered that if I’m going to get serious about saving, I’m gonna need to do the work and get my butt to the grocery store every weekend.  No joke you guys there are times where I won’t go to the store for three weeks and even then the only reason I’ll go is because we’re out of cat food.  I’m going to need to prepare meals regularly, and I’ll need to wake up early so that I don’t leave the house without eating breakfast.  I definitely need your help here.  I’m so tired of making crummy recipes that take lots of time and turn out like crap.  What can I make in bulk that will keep and TASTE GOOD.  I know this may sound easy to some of you, but I swear it was an anomaly for me in the first two weeks which is why I am so fricken proud of myself.    

This was a great exercise and I will definitely give it a go again.  I’m thrilled and relieved to be out of debt.  I’m glad to know I can go a month without buying a shiny new object and I’ve pin pointed a huge part of the reason I spend so much money.  March, I’m coming for you.           

25 comments:

  1. Food for the dog is the number 1 reason I actually grocery shop every week. And I've certainly been known to say screw it and order in hamburgers. No shame! But you paid off the debt, so that's awesome.

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    1. Hahahaha, order in hamburgers for the dog, now that's classic. I love it.

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  2. I like the idea of having to "borrow" money from your house fund! It holds you somewhat accountable. Although since I have only my own house money, I wouldn't have anyone to make me pay it back!

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    1. It definitely makes you more accountable. You could start a vacation fund and anytime you wanted to borrow money, you'd have to take it from that. Something tells me paying back a vacation fund would hold me accountable too :). Whatever it takes right.

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  3. I don't like to go to the grocery store--but I've definitely realized that keeping food that is healthy and that I like to eat in our house saves us so much money over time!

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    1. It's funny, I normally don't keep track of my spending, which is why this exercise was so great for me. If I have it I spend it. Anyways, meals out really do add up and it's definitely less expensive to eat at home or to bring a lunch.

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  4. I swear by this website for easy, delish food. you might like these: http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2013/08/50-easy-freezer-meals.html

    Also, it sound like you would really benefit from the envelope method.

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    1. Awesome Carolynn. Thank you for the recommendation and you must tell me abou thte envelope method. What is it?

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  5. I don't think I could ever do a spending freeze. That sounds bad but I don't really spend that much in the first place. I just don't think I could go without Starbucks and chipotle for a whole month oops

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    1. Yep, I cracked at Starbucks. What can I say, I love my tall black coffee (Pke brew). It's hard when there's a Starbucks on EVERY corner and what's $2 right, at least that's how I feel. Anyways, the freeze was definitely worth trying.and I think I'll give it a go again. I love to shop the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale in August so with a goal of saving for that in mind, I just might be successful.

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  6. You were totally successful since you were at least able to get out of the "house" debt :) Virtual high-five! Getting into the habit of cooking is challenging but you can totally do it!! I really was never a cook...it can be learned...and I am not patient. This is totally why I share what we eat (though maybe not anything marked weekend to start with- P cooks most of those), because I have never understood what people eat on a regular basis. I think rule #1 is plan out your meals and make a list before entering the store. I use to just wonder around and come home with a bunch of random shit. I think this is a great goal!! Stir-fry...easy, easy and you can used frozen veggies (put make sure to get ones you like and are good quality), and you can easily add frozen shrimp without having to wait forever for it to defrost.

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    1. Ok, so I have a gemius idea for you miss Food Booxe and Baggage :) You need to create an app that allows lazy people like myself to put recipes for the week together in a cart or wherever and then the app would generate a grocery list for me :). Cause that's half the battle. It's one thing to transfer ingredients from a single recipe to a shopping list, but it's another to have to do it 3 or 4 times. It's tedious and I lose interest so I give up. I swear half the time I leave the store with drinks, snacks and household items because I have no idea what to feed myself. That and like you said, no patience.

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  7. I haven't done a no-spend challenge (even though I should) but I can definitely attest to buying groceries rather than eating out being a HUUUUGE money saver!

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    1. What's one of your go to meals Amanda. The easier the better please! Help a sister out :)

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  8. Paying what you owed the 'house' back is a great start to saving and a big accomplishment! Next pay check maybe pretend you owe the same amount and just save it? Saving is hard though! I've spent soo much over this last few months it's crazy. I bring lunch almost every day to work for me and Glenn - usually it will be that I've cooked extra for dinner the night before purposely to have some for lunches. Soups are good! Super easy, good for you and keep for a few days. I love the BBC Good Food site for recipes! Maybe you'll use some of that fancy kitchen equipment before long ;) Can't wait to see some food instagrams! :)
    Xo

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    1. Thank you for the recommendation Sarah. I'll going to go check out the Good Food site. Anythng particular that you'd recommend, something super easy :) Hope you're having a great day friend. XO

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  9. Getting out of your "debt" sounds like a success to me!

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    1. Thank you Samantha! I agree and I have to say it feels pretty darn good. Thanks so much for stopping by :)

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  10. Congrats on paying back the house! That's great!

    My biggest money saver is bringing my lunch instead of spending $10 a day on it.

    What kinds of food do you like to eat?

    I typically make egg muffins with sausage/veggies/cheese on Sundays for the week. This weekend I made breakfast burritos and froze them.

    Lunches in winter are typically soup - I make a big pot on Sundays. Salads or sandwiches to sub in.

    Dinners I cook based on what's on sale at the store, and I don't repeat often, but I do make sure I always have 1-2 dishes frozen ready to just pop int he oven.

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    1. Thank you Steph and thank you for hosting the Spending Freeze. It was definitely worth trying. I saw your breakfast burritos and I think I will definitely give those a try. For the egg muffins, do you acutally put the egg in a muffin liner or just use the muffin pan and spray it down real well. Those sound right up my alley. I love soups but always seem to make veggie so something new would be nice. Veggie is just so easy but it gets old. Any recommendations here?

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  11. Ha! I loved this post... I too am spendy. Oh wellsies. I have a food blog... visit it and try some of the recipes out, the lentils and veggie pasta are a couple good dishes to draaag out over a few days. I also like to make a big batch of quinoa to refrigerate. then open a can of tuna (you're in the business so you get it free or whatever, right?) top the quinoa with the tuna, add a few olives, a few greens, maybe boil some potatoes... I'll tell you what, I'll write a post about this for tomorrow! I do not know why I just stream-of-consciousness-ed your comments section.

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  12. I'm spendy too so I can't give any advice on that... but! I do have a little food blog (I kind of hate myself right now too, trust me). Anyways, I have a lentils recipe and a fast veggie pasta recipe up that would be perfect to draaag over a few days. I also like to make a big batch of quinoa, open up a can of tuna (you're in the business so you get it for free or whatever, right?) throw in a few olives, boil a few potatoes in salted water (pretty much like a niscous salad)... Ugh, it's too much to type here. I'll write up a blog post for this one tomorrow and you can visit should you be so inclined!

    Love your posts by the way. Promise not to be a shameless self promote ever again! :)

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    1. Silvia! Thank you so much for stopping by and seriously promote away when relevent (which it totally is here). And I love stream-of-consxiousness-ed comments, they're the best. Hopping over to check out your blog now. Cheers!

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  13. I'm really bad about eating out too. I really hate and suck at cooking, and I hate going to the grocery store. It's a problem! I have found that it's just a lot of trial and error in finding recipes that work.

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    1. Tracy, sounds like were in the same boat. If you come across any great recipes that are simple (like 9 year old simple) send them my way :). Thanks so much for stopping by.

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