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.

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!

That whole upward mobility thing is overrated

Thought I had this morning on the way to the shower...

When did it become a NORMAL EXPECTATION to have a bigger house than our parents? My grandparents, for example, had a much SMALLER house than THEIR parents. They built it from scratch and paid for it as they went along.

Maybe I'm clinging to the idea because MY house (condo) is MUCH SMALLER than my parents' small house? I don't know. We bought what we could afford at the time- and good thing, too, because life threw us a few work lemons in the meantime but we never had a problem paying our mortgage.

I'm just sayin.

Be Frugal, Live Better

Here are some examples. I follow almost all of these. Even number 37.