Walking to Zabars

Today my fiance and I are going to walk about 70 blocks to Zabars, a specialty store here in NYC. We need the exercise and walking there means we won't hang out for an hour and load up our cart with every delicious thing so that will help save lots of money. I am trying to live my life more like my ancestors would have 100-150 years ago (baking my own bread, walking instead of driving, etc.) and hopefully this will help me slim down a bit and save a bit of money as well! I think that might be my 30 day goal sometime this year to REALLY live that way (handwashing my own clothes, etc. on top of everything else) but it will be at least September before that is a possibility because of the wedding and the showers and everything that is happening before then that is wedding related.

This is still leftover weekend, apparently. Everything we are eating is leftovers from this week so none of it will go bad hopefully. It always hurts my wallet to see food being thrown out.

Leftovers Again

Today was a day of leftovers so nothing I ate cost anything additional, plus I got breakfast and a soda for free at work. I was sad to find out that the cornbread I made a few days ago had gone bad though. :( I ended up having to throw out half a pan of cornbread! Next time I make it the cornbread lives in the fridge until we finish it instead of in the microwave.

Long Time No See

My computer repairs ended up taking a lot longer than I had anticipated. Almost 2 weeks! And then once I got it back I had to deal with all sorts of other stuff (more flooding in the apartment, for one) so I haven't been around much lately.

My fiance got a part time job on top of his full time job. He is working for the census and is hoping to pull in $1500-$1600 for our home ownership fund. He is still applying for higher paying full time jobs as well. I am currently learning Finnish, in part because it will be nice to speak a bit of it on our honeymoon and also because it will boost my resume a bit to have a foreign language on it. I am also starting to look into some possible classes to improve my resume so that I can possibly move into a higher paying position in the future.

I am making pizza tonight and I made my own dough and my own sauce. It is much cheaper and much healthier to do it this way so that counts as a double-win!

Tacos and a Free Show

Last night I made tacos. They were tasty and the mix I made from scratch was super cheap. I think I probably used about 75 cents worth of spices and I got enough taco seasoning to make tacos 10 or 12 times.

Tonight we have tickets to see a stand-up comedian that my fiance likes. We got them for free through a program we use to get cheap entertainment so we are pretty excited about that.

On Monday he has an interview for a new job that would be a $13,000 per year raise. Woohoo! Everyone keep your fingers crossed for him!

Computer Repair

My laptop has not been functioning properly for a while now but I haven't had the money to get it fixed. My fiance works with a man who can fix it and has discovered that the fan stopped working. We ordered a fan online and he is putting it back together for me today so I am super excited about that! $30 to fix my computer is a lot better than I would pay anywhere else. I am going to bake him some cookies to say thank you for fixing my computer for me.

I'm going to the grocery store tonight to pick up foodstuffs for the next week or so and I am baking a chicken. I am going to make stock with the leftover chicken parts afterwards so I can use it for soup in the future. Yum!

Fruit

Okay, I've made an official decision about fruit. I am not buying it from my grocery store any longer. They have a crappy selection and the prices are only so-so. From now on I am buying my fruit from the fruit vendor across the street from my office. He carries great stuff (as evidenced by the orange and banana I had for lunch today that were delicious!) and the prices are really good considering he isn't selling in bulk. This will save me a ton of money on fruit that gets purchased and then thrown out after a single bite because it sucks so hard.

Starving

I am so super hungry! I am making dough for pizza and it takes a long time to set up. I think I might make a grilled cheese sandwhich or something while I wait.

I bought store-brand tampons today. I don't normally use tampons actually. I am a pad kind of girl but pads are more expensive than tampons so I bought them instead. Hopefully I don't freak out too badly about the change.

Bread Day

Today I am baking bread from scratch! I am baking a loaf of wheat bread for myself and a loaf of white bread for my fiance. We are a two-bread household apparently. Making it from scratch is really cheap so I can't complain.

Also we ended up winning $18 on the race yesterday! Gotta love when that happens!

Kentucky Derby

Today is the Kentucky Derby. We don't live in KY but apparently my fiance is salivating at the thought of putting money on the races. I have talked him into placing no more than two $2 bets. If he had his way we would spend about $100 on horse races today so that is saving a lot of money.

I am going to the grocery store today and my goal for this month is to only eat things that I make myself. This will save me tons of money on impulse buys this month! Next month I think I am going to try to eat on $4 per day but I think we will have to wait and see about that.

Cleaning

Today we did a lot of cleaning and I gathered up all the spare change I found around the house while cleaning and put it in our change jar. I found about $3! Gotta love when that happens.

Zombie Party

Tonight we went to a post apocalypse party at a friend's place and everyone was required to come in costume. We went as zombies (super cheap...the cost of some black make-up and fake blood and we were both in full costume!) and because it is only polite to bring something to a party but we don't have a lot of money to spend I bought a cheap Duncan Hines cake mix, some frosting, and some red food coloring and made a cake that looked like a brain. It was super cheap and everyone thought it was great so it went over well. Tomorrow we have free tickets to a show downtown called Defending the Caveman. I've heard good things about it so we are looking forward to it.

Eyebrows

I plucked my eyebrows yesterday. I let them get crazy bad before I realized that I did indeed need to do something about them. I was just distracted with all the slumlord drama and didn't make time to do it but yesterday I got my tweezers and my mirror and got down to it. I used to pay someone to wax my eyebrows but I can't afford to spend $15 every two weeks to get them done any longer so I just do it myself. I haven't gotten a hair cut in a while but I am not going to attempt to that myself. I will leave it to the professionals so I don't look like I got my hair caught in a wood chipper.

Food Freak Outs

Yesterday I microwaved my lunch at work and when I took it out of the microwave the container bumped the edge of the counter. This doesn't sound like a big deal, except that the force of it threw my lunch all over the floor. I ended up going to McDonald's for lunch and crying a little bit because I was so angry (about lots of things actually, not just the lunch, though that was the catalyst for the tears) but I got fed so it wasn't a big deal. Then this morning I put some oatmeal in the microwave and it swelled up, causing it to pour over the edge of the cup and all over the microwave turning plate. I stood there and looked at it for a minute before I just pulled the plate out of the microwave and scraped the oatmeal back in the cup. I microwaved it for another minute and monitored for spillage this time but I was not about to let the microwave beat me two days in a row. I also was not about to pay for a new breakfast when I had a breakfast already in front of me.

I'm Back Again

Our apartment has been a shambles. After the ceiling collapsed it decided to spew water into the apartment so we have been putting buckets and plastic sheets underneath it and arguing with our landlord about him letting us out of our lease. He stopped taking our phone calls and we had to contact a lawyer (a family member who helped us out for free!) to get him to even agree to come in and fix the problem. Then yesterday we had an inspector come out and look at the place AND we discovered partial flooding and new mold in the bathroom. We live in such a slum. :(

However, now that they are coming to repair the ceiling today and the place has been inspected we have a bit more time now so I can get back to updating the blog more regularly. I tried to make a delicious oatmeal recipe I found online for breakfast today but I used about 80,000 times more ginger than you are supposed to apparently and it burned the crap out of my mouth so I threw it out and ate shredded mini-wheats instead. I ate the malt-o-meal cereal instead of the Post or Kelloggs brand.

Yesterday we wanted to do something fun and cheap so we threw a blanket, a kite, and some chips and soda into a bag and invited some friends to a picnic in the park. We enjoyed the day immensely and now we are on the lookout for new kites so we can all have one. I found an adorable sponge bob kite on amazon but I haven't purchased one yet. I can't justify the money on a kite at this point.

Tangerines

When I peel an orange I use a spoon. I know it sounds weird but it keeps the peel from getting under my nails and it is just much easier than peeling it by hand. I tried to peel a tangerine this way and punctured halfway through the thing on accident, spewing deliciously scented juice all over my desk at work. I learned that the only way to peel a tangerine without using your hands is to quarter it with a knife and then remove the peel from each section. Rather than throwing it away after my messy experience I cleaned up my desk and ate it. It was tasty!

I got my book for my book club today. I ordered it on Amazon for like $3 so that was pretty awesome. It is a really good book so far too so I am doubly excited about the book club meeting this month.

Ceiling Trouble and Garlic

On Saturday our ceiling above our washer and dryer collapsed. Specifically it collapsed while I was under it and poured plaster and crap all over me. Now it is dripping water slowly into a bucket while we try to convince our landlord to let us out of our lease since this is the 7th flood in 12 months. First collapse though!

Tonight we went out to dinner in mourning of my fiance not getting the job he interviewed for two weeks ago. He felt bad and wanted something deep fried so we stopped and ate out. I got a cheap dinner special of 5 wings and fries and he ordered the fried flounder. We ended up spending $25 we didn't really need to spend but it was important for him to feel better ASAP so out we went. He is filing his taxes now and it looks like he is getting a decent refund of about $450 so we aren't too upset about the $25.

After dinner we got home and I realized we didn't have anything for lunches tomorrow (or for the rest of the week for that matter) and so I defrosted a pork roast in the sink and chopped up some potatoes, carrots, and celery and put them in the slow cooker then covered everything in cream of mushroom soup and now it is going to cook overnight while we sleep so that we have delicious lunches and we won't have to eat out again. I also took a head of garlic, broke it down into cloves, minced and froze the pieces so that I can avoid the problem I tend to have with garlic. Usually when I buy a head of garlic I use 3 or 4 cloves and then it rots. This way I get to keep the entire thing and make good use of it without any waste.

Bagel Day

On Fridays my office brings in bagels. Yum! I got a free breakfast and even brought home a spare for Ben to eat for breakfast. I made a brisket in the crock pot today while we were at work and it came out wonderfully tender and delicious. I knew if I didn't have something ready for dinner we would end up ordering pizza or something and spending money we don't need to spend so I made sure to put something in the crock pot this morning before we left for work. I am going to make omlettes for breakfast and we will have brisket for lunch tomorrow. Then we are going out to CT to see Ben's grandma for her birthday. We can't afford a fantastic present but she loves candy so we put together an easter basket for her. It was a cheap but fun present and honestly when you are 95 candy is an excellent gift.

Grocery List

I put together a grocery list today for when I go shopping on Saturday. I stuck to really affordable foods and we will still have plenty of variety in our diet and lots of meat. We should probably eat less meat but we are working on one thing at a time and right now for me that is putting in 45 minutes of exercise every day. Next month we are going to try to eat on $4 per day or less every day and see if we can do it. I think we should be able to do it with no problem!

Too Much Ham

I had a ham sandwich for dinner tonight. We have a crap ton of ham from when we bought an 11 lb ham last week and I am reaching a point of disgust with the ham. I am going put the rest in the freezer and thaw it out later because I can't eat another ham related meal without gagging. Ham is delicious but not for 5 days in a row.

Take Out

I ordered BBQ takeout tonight despite having food in the house. I ate half of it and am taking the rest of it for lunch tomorrow. I'm writing postcards to my family to keep in touch and I normally send postcards that are larger in size and have less standard pictures on them (for instance, I have a postcard that shows Judy Garland's comeback concert at Carnegie Hall rather than a picture of the Coca-Cola ad in Times Square) and I just can't stop myself from buying new ones whenever I stumble upon them. I resisted though and I am sending postcards I already have. When these run out I will buy the smaller ones that are 8 for a dollar instead of the ones that are 3 for a dollar and send those instead.

Movies

Today we went and saw Alice in Wonderland after work. We have a card that gets us free movies on Tuesdays so we try to take advantage of that whenever we can. We had to pay a little extra to cover the increased cost of the 3D tickets but for a total of $6 we got to see a really excellent movie.

Despite getting home later than I would have liked I still managed to pack up lunches so we don't have to spend money on food tomorrow. We also picked out a nice outfit for my fiance to wear to his interview tomorrow! We are so excited! Hopefully he will get this job and we won't have to worry too much about money anymore, even though we are saving to buy a place of our own someday and we would still live very frugally and post here about it to save up a downpayment.

Dinner

Today we made the corned beef that we've had for a while and just not gotten around to making. It was tasty and I packed some up for lunch tomorrow for the both of us. I collected all of our change and put it in the change jar as well.

Money

I found a dollar on the ground today! Score! Gotta love when that happens.

Yesterday we went to Zabars to pick up a couple of things and we called my soon to be MIL to see if she wanted anything. She said if we brought her some baked salmon she would pay us back and give us enough to cover some bagels and cream cheese. Because we were kind enough to think of her when we went to the store we ended up with a free breakfast today.

Free Breakfast

Yesterday I found a penny on my way to work. I usually ignore change on the ground because I figure there are people out there who could use it a lot more than I can but with the pending income reduction every cent helps. We also had a friend over last night to play board games so I picked up a couple of cheap frozen pizzas so we could have that while we played. I spent $12 that I hadn't anticipated spending on the pizza but I feel like that was worth it since we didn't have anything that didn't require an hour or more of cooking to eat in the house. Tonight we are making the corned beef we were going to make yesterday and that will be lunch for the next 2 days as well. I also got a yummy looking recipe for free for roast potatoes online.

This morning I had a bagel for free from my office. On Fridays they provide free bagels for everyone and I had a buttered bagel that was super tasty! I went in the break room at lunch to fill up my water bottle and there were 3 bagels still there on the table (they get thrown out if they aren't eaten by 2:00) so I took another and stuck it in my desk to eat before I head out tonight for a show. My fiance's uncle is in a band and we are going to see them play.

Soda

My fiance drinks probably 4 or 5 2 liters of diet soda per week. He is nuts about flavored drinks but as a diabetic he can't drink regular juice or soda. He has about 1,000 various flavored drink mixes but he never uses them and buys soda instead. I have started mixing up the sugar free kool-aid and such for him so that he doesn't have to spend the money on diet pepsi.

Bacon-y Goodness

Today my future mother-in-law invited us out to brunch on Sunday but made it clear that she couldn't afford to pay for our meals because she also recently developed financial problems, however temporary, and just wanted to make sure we knew that it would be on our dime. We don't normally mooch from her or anything, she simply wanted to make sure we knew the score before we joined the game. We turned her down because we simply can't afford to spend the money.

We made bacon sandwiches for dinner last night and I've really made the bacon stretch. Usually a 12 oz. package of bacon is eaten between the two of us in a single sitting (sometimes stretched out into 2 if it is used in quiche or something) but we each had bacon last night, leftover bacon sandwiches today for lunch, and there are still three strips in the fridge. Those will probably be broken up into a salad or some such thing tomorrow.

My fiance applied for 12 jobs today. Hopefully one of them will call him back!

Well, shoot...

My fiance found out last week that he might be losing his job next month. The possibility of layoffs means the possibility of losing 50% of our household income. We simply cannot afford that with our current lifestyle. We put together a budget and my beloved applies for jobs every evening when he comes home from work but we will have to do a lot more to keep this from turning into a huge problem. I thought that to keep myself focused and possibly solicit ideas from other people on how to save money I would start a blog about all the things we are doing to make and save money. Some will be little things, some will be big things, and all will be steps towards building a better, more financially secure future for ourselves.

So far these are the steps we've taken to stabilize our finances:

-I took my work bonus and put most of it into my savings and used the rest to stock up on some essentials at a grocery store in CT where the prices are much lower than they are here.

-We've started collecting things we don't use any longer and put them in a basket labeled "things to sell on eBay"

-I've started cutting our fabric softener sheets in half so we get twice as many runs through the dryer before having to buy new ones.