Taking it down...

We've had a set budget for a while. $50 cash for the grocery store, $80 to divide between Target (diapers, cleaning supplies...) and Costco. This is every two weeks on payday, and gets us through the couple of weeks just fine. When we added the CSA, we kind of just made the money come out of thin air, out of my income or something. POOF! We have veggies. Those veggies cost $20 a week that is not really accounted for anywhere.

In the interest of healthy, green, frugality, I have talked to Sam about slowing that spending down with a crunch to our food budget. We will curb the normal kinds of Costco spending, and add things like milk and cheese to the Costco budget instead; this will come out of the same $80. Then we crunch, smoosh, and squeeze the grocery budget. Yup, I want to reduce grocery store spending to $10 or less every two weeks. We will buy things like pasta occasionally, or ingredients for my veggie recipes, or even some orange juice for Sam. That's all...

So while I make a career move that may leave us income-less for up to 5 months, we're going to keep this ship tight! Wish me luck!

Day 2!

I'm quitting soda again. It's sort of like quitting smoking for people who smoke, I think. I've never smoked, but I've heard from friends why it is so hard. I have friends who offer me a Pepsi. I have parents who keep the fridge stocked with Dr. Pepper, my favorite. I am surrounded by sodas when we go out to eat. IT IS EVERYWHERE! I am strong willed, but there is only so much you can take when you are fighting addiction and peer influence.

So last week and the week before I took a long, rolling tumble off the bandwagon, and now I am trying to climb back on. The nasty chemical taste, shakes, and lack of energy weren't quite enough to propel me up into the wagon bed, but then there is my son... 7 months old, he wants everything we have, and he was reaching, reaching for every sip of soda I took. I can't get him attached to this crap, too. Not to say I will ban soda; I think that I should teach him to make a good choice on his own. But my son does not need to see me downing a liter or two a day. *gag, shudder*

I seriously don't even LIKE it, but I want it. Yesterday I had immense cravings and a headache. Today I am exhausted. I could hardly get out of bed, and even though I've been up for hours, I still want to go back.

I really don't even like it, I swear! It takes away my appetite until I don't eat anything, it makes good food taste like crap, and it wreaks havoc with my body. I used to drink it all the time as a kid... I would have 5-6 cans EVERY DAY, and hardly eat anything. A doughnut for breakfast, no lunch, and some chili that was probably MORE THAN 50% cheese for dinner, or ramen if we ran out of cheese. I ate like that for months. No wonder quitting is so hard.

Going the Distance

Apparently my new driving skills are really paying off! I ran out of gas a few months ago, and my car was at about 420 miles. Luckily I ran out of gas as I was about to pull into a gas station, so it was a quick push and then we were refueled and on our way again.

On Easter, we were heading back from my Grandmother's house when I looked down and realized that the mileage was at 418 (my gauge is screwy, so I always go by my mileage). In a slight panic, I started looking for gas station signs. 420. 425. I promised myself that Sam would push when we broke down. 430. 435. At last! A gas station! We were at the gas station, and my trip odometer read 438 miles. To my shock and delight, the car only needed 11 gallons (and change, you know how it is). In fact, just this week I ran out of gas (second time in my life) at just under 500 miles. Apparently my slow and patient new driving style is really paying off!

~Dionne

I'm BACK!

It has been WEEKS, and I have so many post ideas, with so much going on in my life! Blogger locked my blog an it took a mammoth effort to unlock it again (and then they didn't even email me to tell me that I was ready to roll), but here I am, back in action!

To start out with: I bought two nylon grocery bags that fold up into a teeny little package. I can just pull them out and go! I have used them twice now, once to save the CSA a bag, and once to get groceries at Safeway. Guess what? You get three cents back for every bag you bring and use. How cool is that? I really want nice, cloth bags eventually, and I can use these as emergency supplements (since they fold up so nice and tiny, they live clipped onto my purse right now.)

I'll be back tomorrow for a nice entry about veggie boot camp, so stay tuned!

~Dionne

Slow Going

In helping the environment, I am also fighting terrorism and saving some money. That’s right - I’m driving slower. Slow driving can have a huge impact on how much gas you use to drive the same distance, but people are in such a hurry, even when it doesn’t matter. Just yesterday I was driving along a back road to get home, and this person, all alone in their huge SUV, was tailgating me the ENTIRE WAY. As soon as we hit the broken yellow he swerved out to pass me, roaring down the road at about 15 miles over the speed limit.

As he raced down the road, the first light turned yellow, then red. I pulled up to the light just as it went green again, and the two of us started out side by side, although he quickly pulled ahead by mashing his foot on the gas. When the next light went red, he screeched to a halt, and I slowed to a stop a few seconds later. I was laughing so hard that I was almost crying at his futility, but it was also frustrating to see that gas guzzler waste even more gas (and put wear on the breaks!) because the guy was such a racer.

I have been using the cruise control in my sweet little Civic to keep me at the speed limit or just slightly below if there is no one behind me. The best part is that like coming off of junk food, coming off of speeding was only hard for a week or so. Now, I just don’t feel the need to go any faster. How much does it REALLY affect how much sooner I get where I am going, after all? Speeding sure didn’t help my friend in the SUV.

Juiced Out

Right now I am drinking a glass of lemonade. Sure, it tastes good, but even I know that the real reason that I am drinking juice is because I want sugar. Badly. Cultural cravings like this are hard, but I know that I can do just as well without juice, so here comes the hard part… I have to get RID of the juice. No kidding. Not only is this going to wind up being healthier, it will also be cheaper for my family.

Payday (thus shopping day) is this Friday. That means that I get to go shopping… and leave my lemonade off the list. Wish me luck… I’m gonna miss my juice!

~Dionne