The Real KBD

Trimming Tuesday is back.  One of my goals this year was to figure out how to control our grocery spending.  I found that even though I planned some of the time, I did not plan all of the time.  The nights when it was last minute would mean eating out or pizza.  Costco trips sometimes ended up a bit out of control – even if I bought things I would use – eventually.

So for the New Year we decided that was a category that would benefit from the cash budget.  I pulled out cash at the beginning of the month.  It is in an envelope.  That is what is allocated for the month for all food – that means eating out as well, and liquor.  It even includes items like diapers.

It is January 16th and right now I have food through Friday night the 20th.  I then have about $50 of that money left in the envelope for the last 11 days of the month.  Needless to say, this challenge has been eye opening.  Now granted, a large part of why we are down more than I would like is that I had to buy not only diapers, but prilosec… and we decided since the prilosec was on sale, to go ahead and buy two boxes of it.  Those two boxes not being purchased would pretty much double what I have left for the rest of the month.

Now it really isn’t as dire as I am making it sound - I actually have enough meat for the rest of the month (probably) frozen in the freezer, and I have a couple cans of beans too, and a big bag of rice … so mostly that money needs to buy fresh items like fruit and veggies.   So while it will be tight and a close call – I think I can manage fine.  Definitely means no family meals out for this month.

One thing I use to help with the meal planning is E-mealz.  I’ve talked about them before – for $5 month they help you plan your meals based on your grocery and that groceries specials for the week.  What I am getting better at is filling in meals based on what we already have in the house so things do not go to waste.

Also, I am not someone who tends to do extreme couponing.  I tend to only use coupons that are easily found online.  I am however being more aware of the available coupons, as well as the BOGO weeks.  [I love Publix BOGO.]  This month though, even with a tight remaining budget – I did spend the money to buy a Sunday paper to dig through for coupons to help us get through those last 11 days.

Another benefit to this meal planning and budget – I have only eaten out once this month, for a business lunch.  I am eating much less processed foods and haven’t had fast food a single time.  I have lost 3 pounds  in two weeks and that is before I started my exercise training for the 5k (1st workout today felt great!)

So far this challenge is … well a challenge.  However, the results – the feeling good about losing weight, the feeling good about saving money… learning and opening my eyes… has been very rewarding.

How do you save money on your groceries?

A couple of weeks ago I felt…. just behind.  With the girls at home now, and trying to get Amerine Photography running smoothly with the help of naptime and grandparents… its pretty busy around here.  I don’t like taking time away from them when they are awake. 

What I feel behind on was keeping in touch with my online community.  Facebook, Twitter… blogs… groups I’ve formed over the years.  I have August Sunshines (all due the same month as Amelia – Amelia decided to be born in July however), and MyGals (we all had trouble getting pregnant and were starting Clomid around the same time, pre-Amelia).  These are true friends, some of which I’ve been lucky enough to meet in person.  There are blogs I read that truly feel like part of the family.    What happened was this was the part of my life that essentially went away.  Instead of feeling like I was behind, I decided to take a break.  No online interaction for a couple of weeks.  It helped that we were going on vacation and I wanted to be ‘in the moment’ for that.  But that wasn’t the only reason.  I just needed to trim my online time.

You know what – I didn’t comment/respond on anything for almost 2 weeks!  I did occasionally check in to read things and reply to one or two must replies (needed information).  It was nice.  I think everyone needs a break now and then.   The online world has made things so… instantaneous and 24 hours a day.  Remember it wasn’t that long ago you had to have a computer to go online. (Gasp!)  Even our condo came with wi-fi, included.  I don’t remember that from a few years ago – just last year we had to find a Starbucks to get online.

It was much needed to take that break.  It allowed me to focus on my family.  Now I’m back!   I’ve realized that in our new lifestyle, where the kids are home with me and not in school, I won’t be as connected as I was.  I have accepted that.  I’ve realized which things I missed most and so those are priorities (my online groups & a couple key blogs like Woulda Shoulda.)  I still want to be a part of the Twitter community I’ve built, and Facebook too.  I definitely want to keep blogging.  But now if I get behind, I won’t let it bother me as much. 

I think it was a good break and I’m glad I took the chance to trim my online time.  I know others who have done similar things – what did you find?

This trimming Tuesday is a bit late in the day – but at least its still Tuesday.  And while I am calling it budget, its really about choices and change.  I referred to this on my girls’ blog earlier today. 

One of the largest categories on our budget is daycare for the girls.   That made sense when I was in corporate America, but we are making changes around here.   I have decided to leave that career path.  Really I left it a year ago when I went into indepedent consulting – but that was still dependent on corporate America.  Now I’ve really left.  I’m working on launching Amerine Photography (www.amerinephoto.com) and in the meantime, I’m going to take this opportunity to spend more time with my girls.  In just over a week, the girls will have their last day of school at their Primrose, and we will start a new page in our day to day life. 

A year ago, I think I would’ve told you this would never happen.  It wasn’t what I wanted.  Somehow things have shifted though and I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to get more time with my girls.  I still want to launch my photography business, but it will be on a slower ramp-up until we move near the grandparents and figure out what school situation works best for us.  I’m still taking photo sessions – so please if you are interested, give me a call – but I’ll also have field trips to the zoo or aquarium each week and lots of visits to the pool as well.   I’m looking forward to cooking more with Amelia and working on teaching Katherine her letters.  I am excited to see what this summer brings and I’m excited to figure it out, while on a budget.  I am enjoying the challenge of figuring our where we can cut out spending, especially when we realize it didn’t hurt to cut it out one bit (our cable for example – haven’t missed it!) 

So what are your best budget ideas of what to do with the kids this summer?

So this is a slightly different take on Trimming Tuesday.  Recently I’ve had to trim down on my caffeine intake – well more specifically, my coffee intake.  Its very acidic and after a month of anti-inflammatories for my achilles, I have found I have to avoid acidic things while I recover from that. 

Sad sad day when I made that realization.  Very sad day.

But I was over-addicted to my coffee.  I was having two mugs worth – probably 4 cups – each morning and sometimes still having tea or another cup of coffee mid-day as well. 

So using this handy Internet-source…

A 8 oz cup of generic brewed coffee (we brew at home) is between 95 – 200.  So I’ll just say 150 for this purpose.  That’s 600mg for my 4 cups a day. [Something I just learned - Starbucks Espresso - 1 shot - is only 58 - 75... so a latte with only one shot isn't that bad... ]

An 8 oz cup of brewed black tea is 40 – 120mg.  So say 80mg for this purpose.  So now I’m down to roughly 3 cups of black tea, so 240mg. 

And there is now an occasional coke or tea in the early afternoon.  [Coke is 35, and iced tea is probably similar.]

So even with that I’m under 300mg a day now.  No wonder I’ve had some headaches! 

Realistically I am not going to give up coffee all together – but now that I’ve gone through trimming, my goal is to stay under 300mg of caffeine a day, via drinks.  [Not going to count that chocolate!]

So that means just one mug of coffee – max – when I resume.

How about all of you?  How much coffee/caffeine do you drink in a day?