Getting my day in order

I told you about Fly Lady dot net yesterday. Well, I did step one kept my sink shining and today I got up and got dressed head to toe first thing, which was step two. Even gave my nail polish a touch-up.

Now I have to get ready to go to the dentist to finish up my work from last week and get a cleaning.

Yesterday's finish-up-what's-in-the-house supper was a success. I took the beans, petrified carrots, onion, and taters and threw them in a pot for a couple of hours, then took out enough for dinner, puréed it and threw in some curry and cream (naughty naughty!) and it was awesome. I took another bowl of it and threw it in the freezer for a rainy day and the rest I split up for our lunches today. Today's version looks more like stew. I love making soup, the next day you feel so skinny.

I forgot to do something with that ground beef, though. Will think of something today that can be tomorrow's lunch since we're going out with friends tonight for chinese. There's not much going on in Trieste as far as ethnic food but there is one (of many) Chinese restaurants that is really good. I've already got steammed dumplings on the brain.

This not going to the store all week trick  is not as easy as it sounds. I'm used to stopping at the grocery store to pick up a couple of things as a motivator to take the dog out, because I feel more productive if I'm doing two things at once. Now I am going to have to embrace the walking for walking's sake concept. When you start making a habit of NOT spending money, grocery shopping sometimes masquerades as necessity. It's the one place you can actually justify spending money and, I must admit, spending money does feel good sometimes. Of course what I buy doesn't matter, it's the thrill of buying something. This is a good exercise to get over that.

Which sounds extreme, but what if shopping were just about getting what you needed and NOT about getting some other kind of thrill?

I would certainly be richer if this were the case.

I decided to up my EARNING ceiling

I think an extra 500 billion will do. I just felt a little too limited before.

Soup! I can't believe I hadn't thought of that!

Thanks, Laura!

Ever try FINISHING all that food you have in your house?

That's what I am doing this week. Since we are leaving for a two-week Stateside vacation on Friday, I have decided not to buy any groceries at all this week. Not even as an excuse to spend money. Nope. I am making do!

Here's what I have left in my fridge besides condiments (ran out of peanut butter today, so it's definitely time for a trip to Wisconsin).

Yogurt (baby will eat that nasty stuff), some petrified carrots, half an onion, boxed wine (I use it for cooking, I swear), milk.

In my freezer there is some miscellaneous meat including ground beef.

In my food pantry there is; coffee, pasta, jelly, and tea, and some baby food (for when I'm lazy or when I'm trying to eat all the food in the house). Magic ingredient. POTATOES!!

In my cupboard there is some flour, crackers, melba toast.

Here's what's on the menu for tonight. Gnocchi (note to self: google the recipe for gnocchi without egg), meat sauce (Hmm. No tomato sauce, must make the white kind). This should give us enough food for tonight and lunch tomorrow. For tomorrow night I will have to get creative. I think I saw a bag of dry navy beans. What can I do with those? I have until tomorrow to think about it.

Finishing what you've got forces you to be creative. Try it!

What we can look forward to!!!

Love THIS.

I Heart Fly Lady dot Net

Oh I'm totally going to do this! I already did step one. I think I am on my way to eliminating chaos in my life. Do you know Fly Lady? Marina turned me on to her. With little baby steps  she will help you de-clutter your life.

And my life has a lot of clutter. Let me tell you.

Step one is to shine your sink. It's like giving yourself a little hug. Try it. Actually, it forces you to get rid of all the crap that is in it and empty the dishwasher so you can put that crap that was in it, in it. 


Brilliant!

The road to financial independence is paved with HONESTY

This is what we use  to track EVERY GOSH DERN PENNY that enters and exits this house, physically or virtually, EVERY MONTH. This excel has been with us for the last three years. Writing down everything we spend was the first phase of our little project to see where our money was going and  to find out if it was really possible to live off one salary (while socking the other one away in savings). It was not possible, but we did come close by cutting a lot of the eating out column (beer was also included in that column, much cheaper to have happy hour at home!). Note: this sheet even counts coffee out of the machine and gelatos. No expense is too small to record. It may seem a little much, but if you want to do big things, you have to be drastic.

As you can see, the last column is what is left over at the end of the month. Sometimes it's in the negative (like when I have to pay my taxes) but it all averages out as the months go on.

It is a great way to be accountable for what you spend. I do not have a fancy cell phone (I lust for one. I am not made of stone, people!) but every time I look at this and see there's some money in the savings column, it reminds me of the big picture.

There's no better way to be honest with yourself and with your partner, than coming to terms with where that money is going (hopefully into your orange account, or, preferably somewhere you can get a little more interest).

You'll notice we do not have any credit card debt on this sheet. When I moved to Italy, I said good-bye to credit cards for good (paid them off with the money I got from selling my car). I paid off my student loans as fast as I could and now the only debt we have is our house (eight more years on our mortgage and that will be gone too). As a rule, we live simply and pay with what we've got.

ps I took out the numbers but I left in the comments just to show how we remember what we spent money on. We like to look back at last year at the same time and remember what we were up to. It also helps if you're looking to change phone companies, etc.