Two No Spend Days and The Lunch Plan is Working

Because I actually PLANNED my lunches and dinners this week, I've had two no spend days and have packed my lunch three days in a row. Actually, the boss surprised us with pizza today, today's soup will be tomorrows lunch.

I'm very excited to go home and make a meatloaf and a stir fry for my dinner tonight! Doesn't my evening sound exciting? But in a way it is. I'm not spending money. I'm using food out of my cupboard and I'm not fighting the urge to go out at lunch and grab a soda or a snack. I'm looking forward to putting my feet up on the couch and watching one of my $5.50 DVD's tongiht on my TV. Another good start to the month!

Meal Planning Week one of March

To go along with my monster food shop, I've done a tentative meal plan for the week so I don't lose focus and let all that food go bad in my fridge. I'v done that before and it's not good as they say.

Breakfasts: Cereal or bread product with egg or cream cheese and veggies.
Dinners: Meatloaf, Soup, Stir Fry, Rice and Vegetable Pilaf, Pasta.
Lunch: Dinner leftovers, interspersed with Salads.
Snacks: Fruit.

I did re-organize my food cupboards on Saturday so I could get a sense of what I had in them and to give me some inspiration in my meals. I have a lot of staples that I need to start using up. Even dried beans have a shelf life!

Starting Off The Month With A More Optimistic Look and a Lot of Shopping

Not having reliable Internet access at home means I'm way behind in my posts. Even though Friday was still February, I did start on my March food shopping. On my way home I stopped at the Aldi and spent $23.33 on a lot of staples (sugar, flour, eggs, pasta, canned beans, dairy items, tortillas) that I needed for my food cupboards.

I also went to Target, I needed my Method cleaning products and some toiletries. I found two great airtight storage containers for my flour and sugar. The old fashioned metal sugar container is not airtight and my sugar has been getting damp. I got two nice sized containers for $4.99 each and each holds 5 lbs of flour and at least 5lbs of sugar. I like being able to see what's in the containers in my cupboards. I did give myself a little treat, I spent $5.50 on a DVD-actually two DVD's for $5.50. Not a bad purchase! Total spent at Target $40.46

Grocery Shop for fruits, salad items, meats, grains, at Ethnic Grocery Stores: $35.72 (includes some laundry detergent as well)

Costco Shop: $83.31-Includes new car charger and blue tooth headset for phone ($30.00), I'm just not getting the hang of the new phone with the speakerphone option, I keep disconnecting callers.

I've spent $122.36 of my food budget ($175) and the month is three days old. I did however, get a ton of things I can use for my lunches (Part of Costco shop, meats, fruit and veg) and I have meats in the freezer that I can use for my meal planning.

I made a huge pot of chicken soup yesterday, some to be eaten, most to be frozen for soup and stock. The actual chicken itself will be turned into chicken salad tonight and some chicken kept aside to make a chicken pot pie. I restocked my flour and grain supply and have plans to make more interesting breads in the bread maker, make some pizza dough for pizza or calzones, make some Indian and Chinese inspired meals. I'm thinking about a noodle stir fry tonight!

Part of my shopping was geared towards having alternative foods for my lunches. By alternative foods, I mean pre-made/ready made food that if I forget to pack my lunch, I will have at work or be able to grab and toss in my lunch sack on my way out the door. Some of these pre-made meals are high in sodium and I've been searching for ones that are not 30% of my daily requirement.

Updates,Things Off My List, Taxes Done, and Re-Evaluating Goals

I've still been busy with the boring aspects of life and work, but have been able to accomplish a few things this week. The biggie was getting my taxes done and even though I have to give my Trustee almost all the money (as per his order in my BK case) at least I don't owe any money to the state and IRS. I really would have liked to have kept the return and split it between my Efund and Car down payment fund, but 'tis not to be. it would have been a big help.

I've been fiddling with my March budget numbers. My first month at a zero based budget was not the rousing success I wanted it to be, but hey, I think I did OK, not great, but OK. Next few months will get better as I get more comfortable with all the numbers and how to apportion out my money.

I've noticed a common theme out in the PF blog world. Many of us are hitting this wall when it comes to our goals for 2008. I'm a little frustrated that I'm not making measurable progress to many of my goals, so I think it's time to sit down and re-evaluate my goals and what it will take to achieve them. I don't think we as people, can really say that after only 59 days of the new year, that we have failed in our yearly goals. I just think we need to re-examine our goals and our methods for reaching them. Sometimes all it takes is a change of plan to get to our goals.

I have realized one thing. I like a challenge in my life. I joined Krystal's at Give Me Back My five Bucks Lunch Challenge. Things like this bring out my competitve nature and it will keep me in line with my plan to not spend money on food while at work. I will admit, I walked out of the house this morning without packing my lunch. I will treat myself one last time to a purchased lunch (and I'm hoping the office will buy us pizza today) and then it's back to the packed lunch program.

Making Bringing Your Lunch To Work Easier

I bring my lunch to work most days and have been pretty good about bringing my lunch to work for years. Not everyone does this or is good at it. What do I mean by being good at it? It means making sure your lunch makes it to work with you without exploding all over your carry bag or getting squished in your briefcase.

To make bringing your lunch a more pleasant experience I recommend the following ideas:

1) Get yourself a lunch bag. Some of you might be too young to remember metal lunch boxes, but I carried one as a kid for a really long time,-until junior high when it was "uncool" to have a lunch box. I never had a sqashed sandwich with my Spiderman lunch box and I also had a really cool Spidey thermos as well. Take yourself to the CVS, Walgreens, Target, Wally Mart, K-Mart, or where ever and hop over to the cooler isle. For around $6 (if not less) you can probably find a nice insulated lunch bag. I recommend one with some structure-like a plastic bottom or sides. Many of the lunch bags also come with a little blue gel cooler pack, you can probably pick up one for $1 or less. My current lunch box is square, insulated and has a plastic bottom. This will also help to keep your lunch from spoiling until you get to work and pop it in the fridge or until lunchtime at your desk.

2) Get your self some decent containers for your leftovers that become lunchovers: Best purchase I made in December was to get a new set of Rubbermaid containers in three sizes, they are great for storing leftovers, are microwave safe and most importantly, they don't leak! Which is great if you are bringing soup to work and accidentally tip over your bag. I also have a square container that is the perfect size for a salad. I like salads with things in them and this container holds the perfect amount for a filling lunch. The containers also fit nicely into my lunch sack, which was one reason I bought the set. I think I paid $18 for a set of 18 containers and a storage stand. The old take out food plastic containers just did not stand up to the repetitive use (tops split, containers split, not all were microwave safe!). Also make sure you have things like foil, plastic wrap, wax paper, etc to wrap sandwiches in.

3) If you have a place at your office, pick up some salad dressings or fun condiments to enhance your leftovers: I'm lucky, I have an office kitchen where I can keep a couple bottles of salad dressing, hot sauce, a pepper grinder and other things that can spice up my leftovers. Cost to me was minimal (I spend about $5 a month on croutons, salad dressing, etc) and it makes a world of difference to spice up the food.

4) Remember to bring home your lunch sack so you can clean it and restock it!. Sounds easy cheesy, but I sometimes stick my lunch bag under my desk and forget to bring it home. It can get sort of gross if you forget this on a Friday and don't bring it home until Monday.

There is nothing worse than making a yummy sandwich only to get to work and find your juice bottle or apple flattened it out or the egg salad went "off" after sitting in your bag since 7:30 AM. Hopefully the above helpful Betty Crocker reminders will make it easier to bring your lunch to work!

The Lure of Trader Joe's

I love Trader Joes. If I lived closer to one I'd shop there on a daily basis. The closest one to me is about 30 miles away and I only go when I'm on my way home and traveling by the store. I stopped the other day and spend $40 on groceries and a few other assorted items. Out of that $40, $15 was spent on things like a bouquet of flowers, body scrub, and pate. The pate was on sale and I wanted a little food treat! I could have easily spent an additional $40 on food, but lack of freezer space kept me from blowing my entire food budget.

I was out of some of the sauces and condiments I use in cooking and part of this shopping trip was to restock my cupboards with these items and I got a few of TJ's ready meals. My lunchovers have been dismall these past few weeks and at least having a pad thai bowl to bring to work is at least better than spending $7-$9 on lunch out.

I'm planning a couple days of cooking so I can at least have some decent leftovers for lunch next week and resist the urge to stop by TJ's again this weekend as I drive on by.........

No Spend Day #3

Yesterday was a no spend day #3, which is good. I'd like to make today no spend day #4, but forgot to pack my lunch again this am. My kitchen repainting is just about complete (and I really like the way it all turned out). I will be putting my shelves back up this evening, getting everything back in it's proper place and reclaiming my counter space. The disarray in my kitchen is my, ah hem, excuse, (no just utter laziness) for slacking off on the home packed lunch. I normally keep a couple cans of soup or a frozen ready meal or two in the office kitchen, but I'm out of those as well both here and at home. The lunch selections around the office are limited and a bit pricey ($4 for a container of soup, $5.25 for a sandwich, $4.95 for a medium garden salad) and there is no one around the office today who wants to split a pizza.

Oh well, I'm planning a medium sized grocery shop this week and I will make sure these items are on my list and in the office because to keep spending money on lunches is silly when I have the food at home.

What The Hell Did I Spent $84.81 On?

Groceries/Food: $84.81
Gas: $37.82
Eating Out: $24 (not good)
Laundry: $16

Total $162.09

I added up my grocery receipts and it looks like I spent almost half my monthly food allotment in the first four days. $84.81. My first reaction was "On What?" That's almost half my freaking budget. I looked down the list, I got a supply of chicken breast for the freezer that I can cook on the grill or on the stove top, bough a medium sized fryer to make soup with and use the boiled chicken for sandwiches, a couple weeks supply of drinks, re-stocked my pantry with various and assorted staples (flour, yeast, pasta,beans, salt, etc) and items to make my lunch with. Plus I'm pretty well stocked in the Pantry, so hopefully the rest of the month won't be so bad.

I made the soup yesterday, it was yummy, had it for supper last night and lunch this am. Will make chicken salad with part of the leftover chicken and some sort of a casserole with the rest (one of my favorites is to make cream sauce and add in the chicken, a bunch of veg, some pasta and top it off with either breadcrumbs or biscuits). I'll probably freeze the leftover soup and use it as a base for other soups or meals.

I am going to drag out my bread machine tonight and make a fresh loaf of whole wheat bread, that should make my sandwich days more appealing, plus I did not make any bread last week (the whole wheat flour I had was buggy, tells you the last time I used that container-gross).

With the leftovers I won't be ordering in any meals. I can't, to spend $24 on 3 meals is a bit crazy. AND to top it off, the Chinese was not that spicey and I really wanted spicey food, it left me a bit unsatisfied.

Stealing someone Wooly Woman's Theme, The Meals for the Week are as Follows:

Breakfast

Bread Product with cream cheese or one egg (my usual!)

Lunch

Soup and Salad: 1 Meals
Chicken Salad Sandwich: 1 Meal
Salad with toppings: 1 Meal
Leftover Casserole: 1 Meal
Office Pizza Party: 1 Meal (we are celebrating someones Birthday, free meal!)

Supper

Casserole: 2 Meals
Pasta with Red Sauce: 1 meal
Soup and Salad: 1 Meal
Grilled Chicken: 1 Meal
Fake Quesadilla's: 1 Meal

That should take me through the weekend. I am supposed to go to a party on Saturday night and how I feel on Sunday will dictate what additional shopping I do for my meals for the next week. When I'm home in the winter on the weekends, I usually cook up a pot of something (soup, stew, a roast meal, gravy for pasta). House smells good and I can usually get some great leftovers out of the meal.

Like I said earlier, not a lot of freezer space means I'm eating a lot of chicken these next few weeks.

I'll let you know how I fare.

The SSA Office

I guess one advantage to living in a fairly rural area is the local Social Security Office is usually not busy. I stopped in at lunch and ten minutes later I was out the door, new SS card ordered. I lost my old card (I think I shredded it by accident when I was shredding old, dead credit cards). New one to be to me in the mail in 7-10 days. I need a card for my court hearing.

I think I'll put this one someplace really safe. I thought I had done that with my other one :)