Wordless Wednesday

Well, you know I can't be TOTALLY wordless, I don't work that way. I am going to keep this short, though, as a break from the books I write as posts (I know they're long guys). This is my Noah on New Year's Eve. He'd just been groomed, hence the cute bow you can spy on his collar.

Noah is my little fluffball of love :-) He's hardcore on giving kisses to anyone who'll accept them. We probably feed into this by letting him kiss us all the time.

He also jumps like a cat. From the back side of the couch, he'll jump up to the top of the backrest part. My husband taught him that little trick :-/

No matter what Noah does, though, he just wants to give and get love. He dislikes being yelled at, and will just roll onto his back and show us his belly, saying "Sorry guys! You're the boss!"

In short, I love my Noah.

Miserly March

Holly at Scattered Words celebrated Frugal February, which inspired me to practice Miserly March. The idea is to limit expenses as much as possible for a month. I tried to do this in February, but I was a Frugal February Fail. We went out to eat, we bought stuff, we were NOT frugal.

But I intend to redeem myself. I even found a way to make my March goal alliterative! Yay Miserly March!

First off, I want to ask: do you have a spreadsheet where you track your monthly income and expenses? I'm a finance (and excel) person, and I have to admit that even I wasn't tracking this stuff as well as I should have been. Now I have an Excel sheet that's amazing. I track all of our income, subdividing it out by where it's coming from. Then I track our expenses, subdividing them by card, account, or bill. I separate out fixed expenses (car payment, loan payment), from those that vary: gas, electric, credit cards. This really helps me see just how much control we do have to change a given month's bill, and how much is locked in. Overall, this spreadsheet is great to see how much our income is (hopefully) outpacing our expenses, and how much we can save each month. So with this wonderful financial data in hand, I look forward to seeing how much of an impact I can have with Miserly March! Who knows, if it's successful I may just have a Miserly May as well!

Purposes of Miserly March:
1. To see just how much we could cut expenses if needed, in order to make sure we have plenty saved in our "emergency fund".
2. To use all the pantry items that have just sat there for way to long.
3. To learn how to cook new, inexpensive meals.
4. TO SAVE MONEY (duh!)

How To:
1. Shop less. We have an unfortunate habit of buying food when we still have stuff at home. This makes our pantry area uncomfortably full, plus sometimes stuff goes bad. Plus, every time we go to Costco, impulse purchases happen. The total effect of that decreases if we go less often! Also, the money we spent on the food is just sitting on the shelf, not doing anything, while we're spending more that *could* be earning interest.

2. Only buy essentials. No, I don't really need a new pair of jeans. But even more than that, I don't need to buy the expensive olive tapenade when I can instead make hummus for cheap!

3. Eat in! It's so difficult to do this ALL THE TIME, especially when we're busy. We're pretty good about doing it 92% of the time. We need to get better! To be honest, I'm the bad one in this regard. A couple days a week I'm away from home for 14 hours, and I find it difficult to bring enough food. I need to get more creative, keep food in the car, do something.

4. Cut down on gas/electric/water usage. We're already allstars in this dept., but I'll try to improve. Shorter showers, making sure ALL the non-essential lights are off ALL the time.

5. Perform a financial analysis to make sure our investments and loan payments are being alloted as efficiently as possible. Investment performance changes. Everyone must constantly re-evaluate investments and make sure that his/her money is being utilized well.

Now I must admit, I do have some purchases I plan on making prior to the onset of Miserly March. Well, just one really: we just bought some wine, thanks to BevMo's 5cent wine sale, and we desperately need a wine rack. So I'll be cruising Target/Big Lots/Cost Plus to find one that's not too expensive, in honor of the upcoming Miserly March.

Feel free to join in the fun, and post about your cost-saving tips!

Are You Kidding Me?!

That is the thought that passes through my mind 95% of the time that I map a hot vegan spot I've heard of. Why this thought, you ask? Because all of these places are SO CLOSE to my old apartment in Hollywood. The apartment that, when I lived there, I wasn't vegan. I was becoming a vegetarian, and I was way too removed from the LA veggie web-world to read blogs that talk about all these veggie food gems.

So now I'm stuck miles away, in a vegan food desert. Well, we have some options, but they're pricey. I'm stuck in "Whole Foods Vegan World" and the hollywood area is "Cool Inexpensive Vegan World with a Million Choices". I'm about 25-30 miles away from these great places, and in LA traffic that's a decent distance.

I know a lot of vegans would like to be "only" 30 miles from many vegan restaurants, but it's really not close enough to conveniently visit these restaurants with any regularity. We stopped at one place on the way home from visiting family last weekend, and it was still a good 40 minutes from the restaurant to home. Today's had a lot of bummers, it's one of those days, and reading about yet another vegan place in Hollywood was just too much.

Juggling

I often imagine myself as a juggler, trying to keep track of all my activities and not letting one of them fall. The thing is, I figure most jugglers max out at four balls/bowling pins/sticks of fire. I have a lot more than four things going on. I have school, two jobs, my own business, plus a house, a husband, and a dog!

While this blog seemed like something that might add to my workload, in reality it helps me streamline and prioritize my work. Many of the tasks I added to my 50 in 500 List were related to my major tasks. These mini-goals on the list help me stay focused and motivated. Plus, when I do accomplish something, it's great to come back to the blog and write about it. I love seeing the items on my list get crossed off.

To be honest, I would not be half as productive if I didn't keep lists. It is so easy to get sidetracked, or be lazy and not get something done. When I have a task written down on a list, though, I feel this push to get it done and cross it off. This is the only way I get around to finishing stuff that I don't want to do, but need to do.

To give you an idea of my list mania, let me tell you about my winter break. (Yes, I had a winter break. I work at a college. They have to give us holiday breaks to make up for the low pay.) In Excel, I titled columns with different types of projects: work, home, urgent, business, etc... Then under that heading I listed the tasks I wanted to accomplish. I ended up with a list of 35 tasks. I then implemented a multi-level system of coloring in and crossing out to show my level of completion for each task. Plus I kept track what percent of the tasks I had completed.

It's sick, I know. What's amazing, though: I completed 30 projects in about two and a half weeks. Some were big, some were small, but they all got done. Now you quick ones may have notices that I said there were 35 tasks on the list, and 30 were done. The remaining 5 have either been completed since then, are in progress, or were determined by myself and my hubby to be unnecessary. I'm okay with them not getting done in that two and half weeks. To be honest, I know that I make my lists a little.... demanding. It means I push myself to do my best and I don't slack off.

43. Make decent throw pillows

DONE

Look at my gorgeous pillows:

I actually made these a while back. A few were made from leftover fabric, and I bought some fabric at Joann's for the rest.

Pillows are really easy to make. The most difficult challenge is how to keep them from being lumpy. Using filling, it's really hard to avoid lumps. The material just doesn't stay smooth. So the key to un-lumpy pillows is to line the inside of the fabric with quilt batting. I put two layers of it. Here are my quick instructions:

1. Decide what size pillow you want and cut fabric, leaving a seam allowance.
2. Cut some quilt batting to the size of the fabric. 1 or 2 layers of batting is best. It is difficult to sew through more layers than that.
3. With wrong side of the fabric out, and the batting outside that, sew together 3 sides of the pillow. NOTE: the batting might be caught in the presser foot. Make sure to push down on the batting by the foot so it doesn't get caught. ALSO, I think the pillows look better if you round the corners as you're sewing the fabric. Square corners end up looking awkward.
4. At this point, I sew together about 80% of the 4th side, leaving 20% open so I can stuff it.
5. Tie the thread, and flip the pillow right-side out.
6. If you want to sew a button onto the pillow like some of mine have, do it at this point.
7. Stuff pillow. I break up fill into small bits so that it is less likely to be lumpy. Don't understuff: the pillow won't be comfy.
8. Sew the opening up by hand.

Pillows are pretty simple to make, and they look quite professional. The biggest thing is sewing the quilt batting to the fabric so that the pillows aren't lumpy.

To see my complete 50 in 500 List, click here.

13. Train dog to NOT bark at people who walk by the house

DONE

I didn't even realize I'd accomplished this until I was reviewing my list, and I realized the dog doesn't bark at people who walk by anymore! Training the dog is work because he is part terrier, meaning he is very strong-willed. We really have to be consistent, and even then it takes a while to modify his behavior.

Since I absolutely love my dog and think he's the cutest thing in the world, here are few pictures of him. This one is of him mid-leap running on a dog beach we visited recently:


I absolutely love that picture because he just looks so darn happy.

This picture is of him digging a hole in the sand on the same beach. He LOVES to dig in the sand, and we don't mind it because he's so funny doing it!

Also, we rescued Noah from the SPCALA shelter in Long Beach. The shelter was really nice and clean, and the dogs were pretty happy. Noah is a great dog and I am so glad we have him! Everyone who is able should rescue a pet today.

To see my entire 50 Goals in 500 Days List, click here.

10. Get a new "in a pinch" dish

DONE

I have become a pro at several new dishes in the last few months. One of my go-to favorites recently has been chili. I got tired of buying canned chili that wasn't that good and seemed expensive for the ingredients. So I transitioned to buying chili spice packets and using my own ingredients, and now I completely make chili from scratch!

It's really pretty simple. First I saute some onions. Then I add in a rinsed can of kidney beans, a can of diced tomatoes, about 1/3 of a can of vege-burger, some pasta sauce, some tomato paste if it's on hand, and spices: cumin, chili pepper, oregano, etc...

I simmer everything for about half an hour or so to blend the flavors.

We usually make chili dogs or chili burgers with the chili, but occasionally we eat it on its own.

Some things I love about chili are that it's warming and satisfying, plus it's healthy.

To see my entire "50 Goals in 500 Days" list, click here.