Shelli, Halloween 2007, dressed up like a biker chick..So, these days, it seems like the only time I have to post is on lunch at work. Oh well, at least there is time at lunch. So, Joey and I are undertaking a pretty hefty frugal goal for the month of February as we really need to rebuild our bank account from the holiday season (during which it’s very hard to be as frugal as one would like).
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First, I’ve put myself on a yarn diet. I’m not going to buy any new yarn until my birthday, hopefully. That would give me six months of knitting out of my stash (of which there is plenty). I’ve got enough baby colors to do baby items, and I’ve got enough miscellaneous colors to do some nice accessories. So, maybe my birthday present to myself will be some yarn.
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Then, for the entire month, Joey and I are going on a consumer diet. Twenty eight days of no spending (other than groceries, as one must have them to survive). We did it once before, sometime last year, but we weren’t able to go the whole month. It’s amazing how much the little expenses can totally rack up and snowball into much larger expenses. We’ve got a gift card for our Valentine’s Day dinner, so we’re covered there, and we really don’t generally do gifts for each other, honestly (not because we don’t want to, but because we’ve always been pretty frugal and as sappy as it sounds, we see the ability to pay our bills as a gift in and of itself).
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We’re also going to try to stick back to our $25 per week grocery budget, which means that, for the month of February, I have to limit myself to only tofu and edemame at Trader Joe’s. Today, I spent thirteen dollars and change because they had some fabulous items that I thought would be good to try. I’m going to have to do some more cooking from scratch, etc.
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The Bento Challenge is going well, although I have forgotten my camera for the past two days as I meant to take pictures of my bentos. Today’s snack bento is especially cute, so I’m really bummed that I forgot my camera. I can already see a difference in my appetite and my ability to correctly judge portion sizes. I also ordered a bento lunch set from the Ichiban Kan store in San Francisco. Their prices are amazing. Shipping was a little steep (six bucks), but when you’re getting an entire lunch box and drink bottle and bag set for eight bucks, the shipping is really worth it.
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I made tempeh fried rice last night for inclusion in my bento (really easy, just some brown rice, mixed frozen veggies, a scrambled egg, 2 oz crumbled tempeh, and soy sauce and Chinese five spice powder). I should have added some onions, but I forgot. I also made forgotten vegetable kinpira again (with the leftover cabbage and broccoli stems), but I overdid it a little on the rice vinegar, so it was a little more tart than I’d prefer.
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Joey injured himself yesterday; cut his finger while chopping cabbage. It probably needed stitches, but why pay $100 to sit in the ER for six or seven hours, only to be told that it’s too late to put any stitches in it anyway. His parents came over and his dad helped him stop the bleeding and get it taped up. Poor baby:(…
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So, that’s all I’ve got for now. Be on the lookout in February for the progress in our Frugal Challenges. I’ll be posting how much we spend on groceries each week as it comes!!
Inner Monologue of a Madwoman 