Belated, but delicious.

All aboard the Java Train!

My friend and I stopped for brunch the other day... what you see pictured is Java Train’s special cornmeal waffles topped with a wild rice, cranberry, pecan and cinnamon-apple compote.

So. Yum.

And there was seriously a lot of wild rice on there!

(Okay, the wild rice was kind of a weird texture to have in this dish. But it was still tasty!)

I really had a great post idea...

Seriously.

Now I don't remember what it was.

As for the month in review, I think it went pretty well. I still have one more shopping trip planned with coupons, and will diligently enter my info once I get my bank statement. (I guess then I will see how well I did entering my receipts.)

I'm not convinced that these are behaviors I will stick to 100% of the time, but perhaps I will be more mindful going forward.

Now, the question of March... It is, legitimately, National Craft Month. I think I can get behind that. It is also National Nutrition Month. I did check out the new NEW food pyramid and their eating recommendations -- but that just seems like a lot of work, honestly. And seriously, I know I shouldn't be baking and eating treats all the time. I am a smart girl. (Or so I've been told.). I also have my next race of the series -- a 7k in celebration of all things lucky.

Then I look ahead to the half marathon.

And that really scares the pants off me.

Taxes! Done! W00t!

I just barely made it in my February timeframe, but the papers and receipts and the numbers are over and done with for another year!

Awesome.

This leads me to think... Oh no -- that means March is nearly here.

What will March be?!

Delicious Cheesecake Noms.

I have tried making cheesecake before... (Maple Cheesecake with Baked Pears) It was lovely, and delicious, but these cheesecakes were SO GOOD. Thanks again, Everyday Food. The recipe called for ginger cookies, but I already had Nilla wafers (and can't follow a recipe to save my life) so I used those. My crust pressing could definitely use some work, and I promise to do better next time. The filling was almond-flavored and tasty! "Unfortunately" the recipe only makes 10 cakes, and I had some filling left over -- so I had to eat it. Off the spatula. My life is hard.

They went over great, and I even got to eat one of the final product! I will be making these again.

Falling off the wagon...

I've just been eating a lot of crap lately.

And no one to blame... just because there are treats at work doesn't mean I need to eat them.

I've also not gone running for a week -- and I can't blame it all on Sunday's "snow event," either. (Though shoveling 15" of snow is a workout in itself, for sure.)

To compound it all, what did I do this afternoon after work?

I baked cheesecakes.

Seriously, I am off the wagon and being dragged behind by the reins.

...

I don't want to point fingers, but I do suspect its due to an unusual amount of turmoil in my life right now. I need to reign in the snacking and what-not and get some more structure in my schedule. I will do these things.

(Though I confess I've been thinking I can wait until March 1st -- or at least February 28th, since it's a Monday.)

:)

Warehouse Club Shopping

So I had a very inexpensive food week last week, eating out of the freezer. In contrast, I think I spent $100 on groceries this week. In my defense, I was reacting to not only a bare fridge, but also a bare freezer. Also, it felt like everything I put in my cart at the ol' Sam's Club cost $6. $6 worth of bread loaves, $6 worth of string cheese, $6 worth of Laughing Cow cheese wheels... Plus an enormous bottle of ibuprofen and multivitamins. I was thinking about buying the beef I needed for this week's lunches... but even though I knew I'd be getting almost 4x as much beef for the same price -- I just couldn't bring myself to buy that much extra. I know I can freeze it, but I just don't eat that much meat -- It would be like it was looking over my shoulder all the time, demanding to be used.

Too much pressure.

I failed in my coupon efforts as well. I shopped Saturday because today we were supposed to be buried in snow all day long. I didn't wait for the weekly ads for sales or anything. So I only managed to save $4 at the grocery store.

...and I still haven't started my taxes yet.

The month is drawing to a close! It's time for that last-ditch effort (and to start racking my brains about what next month will be!)

Here comes the spring...

...doo do doo dooo...

I ran outside in the sun and almost 40-degree temperatures today.

It was invigorating.

I did see some folks in shorts. I do not support that.

Not yet.

It's been a week...

...and it's not like I haven't been spending, but I've been holding down the fort at home a bit, so it's not been very exciting.

My weekly shopping trip last week was small, because I decided to use another cost-saving measure called: Let's eat out of the freezer!

This is a good thing to do on occasion, because I love buying frozen veggies, and saving lunch servings, and buying Lean Cuisines... but sometimes I forget about them, and unfortunately they don't last forever!

So this week was Lean Cuisines, supplemented with frozen veggies, and then some homemade soup I'd been meaning to thaw.

Inexpensive and delicious!

A Spending Question...

...Can I feel good about spending $100, when I "saved" $200?

I mean, $100 is no small spending feat.  I went out yesterday to buy an outfit for an opening-night event next weekend.  I did find what I was looking for, and got everything I needed (and more) for less than $40.  I can live with that, because all I have to do is look and see that the original price of the dress was $60... Suddenly all that other stuff I got was almost "free!"

It's all about shopping the sales, I know.  I love clearance racks, and honestly have to be in a pretty serious situation to buy something at full price.

Partially I think this is because I work in retail and I have an idea about how markup works.  When it gets to be super-sale time, and a store is offering everything it owns for 50% off or more -- I know that it's still making enough in profit to keep their doors open.  And if that's the case, how can I ever pay full price?  The markup must be ridiculous!

So, yesterday.  $100 in purchases, $200 in savings.  I never would have spent $300 in the first place, but there was definitely a part of me that feels better about what I did spend.

It's a retail trick that works on me... and as more retailers decide to print that "You Have Saved: ______" on the bottom of the receipt, I guess I'll be feeling that way more often.

34 degrees and sunny!

I could NOT resist a run today!

Apparently today is the first day of the New Year above freezing. I was totally living it up.

I have confirmed that I am solar powered.

I also learned that I need to carry enough tissues to be able to blow my nose about every half mile.

(Probably an unnecessary anecdote, but hey -- it's my blog.)

It's going to be warm again tomorrow, but cloudy. We'll see if I can get myself out again, (I checked and I'm only averaging 1 workout per week. A far cry from my resolution to average 3 per week for the year!)

Augh. Check Registers.

I've never been good at them.  Especially now, in the digital age where I can log in and see my balance any time -- and check cards making near-immediate withdrawals... why bother?

I sense that in my case "why bother" is because it makes it just a little bit harder to make those unnecessary purchases. I make the decision to buy, and then I have to reconsider the purchase when I sit and enter my receipts for the day. (Hopefully the day.  After sitting down and entering all of January in one fell swoop, I would like to not have to do that again.)

Plus, once I get all my spending categories set up, I'll get to see where the bucks are really going.

Food and Finances!

So, this was a little bit of an unusual start... First, it's Wednesday and I usually do my shopping and cooking on Sunday. Also, I had Monday and Tuesday off of work this week PLUS I have tech rehearsals this week... so my standard food needs are all out of whack!

In any case, I sat down with my weekly circulars and decided that Rainbow Foods was this week's destination. (I'm not quite sure about going multiple places to shop -- I know I can save more, but the time and gas driving around is a little counter-intuitive.)

On The List:
Pepsi products (4/$8.88 otherwise I'd never need to buy 4 at a time)
Old-Fashioned Oatmeal (Running low! It's my standard breakfast)
Lean Cuisine (5/$10 -- a great solution for tech week)
Frozen Vegetables (2/$3 -- a great addition to the Lean Cuisines!)
Milk
Eggs (baking oatmeal cookies because I accidentally bought quick oats instead of old-fashioned and I have to do something with them)
Dried Apples (also for the cookies -- I have a couple coworkers that don't like raisins in their baked goods, and I have NO problem with apple cinnamon oatmeal cookies!)

The Process:
So the first thing I did was grab a cucumber for my daily salad... when I got home I discovered I already did that on my last trip, so my salads will be decidedly cucumber heavy going forward. I looked for dried apples in the bulk section, but didn't have any luck. This was probably the most expensive item I bought (and not on sale!) I found the oatmeal, and opted for Quaker, not the store brand, because Quaker cooks up in 2:30... and the other took 5 minutes. Worth .30 to me, because I'm impatient. Other than that, no surprises... I did buy a bag of cat food (on sale) because I always seem to run out at awkward times.

The result:
The trip was a little more expensive than usual, at $36, but I did pick up some specialty things and I shouldn't have to buy soda for a loooong time. However, I saved almost $22.

I think one of my goals should be a trip where I save more than I spend. I know this is possible, I've seen enough news stories and heard enough tales... but it sounds like a bit of work, too.

Recap!

So... let us recall what my goals for January were:

>Hemming the curtains in my bedroom
Done! I still have to get sheers (the ones I'm using now are borrowed from the living room) but I will take it!

>Filling my photo collage frame with awesome pictures
Done and done!

>Getting one of my oversized photo prints framed and hung in my house
Okay, so this one got partially done -- I got an oversized print, I just need to get it framed. And hung. So close!

>Sewing the curtains for my dining room (I bought the fabric Memorial Day weekend)
This was a fail... but I still have hope! I need a lot of room to lay out and cut/pin these, and the space I was planning on using was otherwise occupied on the days I wanted to use it. Soon it will happen.

>Finishing painting the trim in my bedroom - I think I'll save the doors for nicer weather
Yeah... painting in winter is not happening. A little too fumey. (Is that a word?)

>Plus a number of miscellaneous sewing projects that are half-done
I'm not sure that any other sewing stuff got finished... I did some aprons, but they weren't half-done to start with.

Off the list... I got my Disney World scrap book done from 2007, I caught my house scrapbook up to current times from Christmas of 2005, and I started my scrap book for my trip to Germany (2009!)

I also manged to get all the props done for the current play... but those weren't UFOs as much as they didn't exist to begin with.

All-In-All... Epic Win! This was a great 30-Day Challenge, and I will be planning on doing it again before year's end.