Monthly Archives: September 2012

The small picture

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Saturday was a small picture kind of day. Mr. Wonderful and I hit the trails at our local state park and had a lovely time hiking and playing with our cameras.

We both have jobs that are so consumed by details that we sometimes forget to stop and enjoy the small things in life. So that’s what we did on Saturday. We took time to breathe the fresh Ohio air and we photographed little details along the way, things we ordinarily might have just walked past.

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It was a delightful, relaxing day and perfect reminder to be grateful we live in the woods and so close to parks where we can enjoy the outdoors.

A No Spend Challenge

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I’m thinking about doing a no-spend challenge. I do this periodically, choosing a period of time like one month or even just two weeks and work to not spend money.

Whenever I do this I always set some ground rules. For example, I have to drive to work to make money so buying gasoline is non-negotiable.

But I don’t NEED that pack of gum at the gas station or that cool t-shirt on clearance at TJ Maxx. In fact, I don’t need to spend my free time browsing stores and buying things at all.

I usually set a grocery budget for the period. Say maybe $5 or $10 a week to buy fresh milk, fruit and bread if need be. Sometimes I spend every penny on these perishables and sometimes I don’t buy anything at all. But the grocery budget can’t be spent on a pastry and a Diet Coke just because I have a hankering.

This comes up after a recent review of my budget where I tried to figure out ways  to pay for some reasonably expensive home protection items I purchased after the burglary at Mr. Wonderful’s house. This has been a very expensive month so far and I need to plug up the holes and get things back to normal.

I’m not a big recreational shopper but I notice that I’ve been doing more of this than normal lately and it really needs to stop. If I need a pair dress shoes for work that’s one thing but browsing the stores for the sake of seeing what they have is a very bad habit.

This weekend I walked in a local 5k and then went hiking with Mr. Wonderful. We spent a few dollars on a Subway sandwich for a picnic and we took our cameras out to play (pictures coming soon). If I had been home that morning I would have made something for our picnic but a $5 footlong was still was an inexpensive option and the hike was a relaxing way to spend our day. We went home later in the day and watched movies, lounging on the couch and enjoying each other’s company.

That’s the way it should be.

We didn’t frustrate ourselves with the crowds and high prices in stores and we just relaxed. We didn’t do anything that cost money. We just had a nice, quiet day.

To put this in perspective, on Sunday we had a whirlwind day with his family eating out and shopping to celebrate his dad’s birthday. We had a terrific time and I adore his family but I was exhausted. Plus I spent money that I shouldn’t have. Not much, really. I used a Kohl’s card to buy something and used $5 cash to cover the balance owed. And then I spent about another $20 on some other small things. Like I said, I didn’t spend a lot but I still spent. And I still came home with that vaguely dissatisfied attitude toward my life that sometimes creeps in when I’m comparing my stuff to other people’s stuff.

And you know something? My stuff is just fine. It’s even nice! There’s nothing wrong with my stuff.

I am aware that my neurosis is bleeding through here. My apologies.

Anyway, it is  better for my morale if I stay away from stores and shopping for a while. It’s also better for my budget if I leave my money in the checking account where it belongs instead of in the stores.

As I have been writing this insanely scattered post it has occurred to me that the No Spend Challenge needs to begin today.

I will attempt to make it to October 5.

It has been a while since my last one of these so I fully expect slip-ups but will do my absolute best to only pay my bills, buy gas for my car and pick up the absolute necessities for food. I have a pantry and freezer full of supplies so that part shouldn’t be too hard.

One confession though. I have to travel some and I usually indulge in some kind of fast food meal, mainly because it’s just too hard to find food for the road that doesn’t need refrigerated or heated. But my idea of cheating here is to take my own aluminum water bottle and apple from home and grab a Subway breakfast sandwich or a value menu burger. So this category isn’t the budget breaker it could be, I suppose.

But as we know, every penny counts so I try to keep this occurrence to a minimum.

Ok. So who’s with me? Who is willing to pack their lunch, give up their morning Starbucks coffee and spend their weekends living instead of shopping? Anyone?

Cleaning out the fridge: a frugal lunch

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I had some stuff in my fridge this morning that was approaching the point of no return. Another day or two and they would either get tossed or pushed to the back of the shelf to languish until the mold is so severe I contemplate how badly I want to save the container.

Sigh. This is not a good place to be.

So today’s lunch is an assortment of bits and pieces that might otherwise have been wasted. Some turkey, a banana that was a day away from turning soft, some very tasty hot pepper jack cheese and the last of this week’s grapes. It’s a little bland looking but very tasty.  It’s also a nice feeling to know that this stuff I worked to pay for won’t be wasted.

One of the greatest joys

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One of the greatest joys in my job comes from the people I meet each day. Granted, some of the people who wander into my office are difficult, at best, but most are very nice.

Two of my favorite people on the planet are an elderly man and woman who live in the community. I have become acquainted with them over the years because they volunteer in the community and are fixtures at a one-room school house museum near one of our state parks.

They have been married for 64 years and still look at each other with such love and adoration you would think they were a couple of teenagers. They stopped by today to say hello and they stayed to chat a while. They shared the story of how they met and talked some about their marriage.

In 64 years they have never had an argument. They say they normally see eye-to-eye and talk things out when they don’t. She said he has never made her cry and she has tried to never hurt him either

In a day and age when marriages rarely last beyond five years it is refreshing to meet someone whose love has grown stronger with the decades.

That’s not to say that life has always been perfect. He squinted away tears as she talked about their daughter who died of a brain tumor at the young age of eight. He barely made a noise as she talked about how you simply never get over that kind of loss. Their daughter was beautiful and smart and was loved by all who knew her. Her life was cut tragically short by an illness they couldn’t detect until it was too late.

But they stayed together, they raised three other children and, in their golden years, they seem content and in love. Clearly, what matters most to them isn’t the stuff they have accumulated over the years or the money they have. It’s the time they have together.

The way they look at each other always stops me in my tracks. It’s like that person next to them is the only person who matters, like no one could ever take their place, like there could never be enough time for them to be together and show how much they care.

You simply can’t put a value on that kind of love.

Today

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These last few weeks have been a struggle. Ever since the burglary I notice that I’ve been giving myself a free pass. A pass to eat that cookie because it comforts me, a pass to spend $20 on scrapbooking supplies to preserve my memories, a pass to stop worrying about anything because, after all, life is short. Why waste it worrying?

While science and common sense prove that stress will kill us, I have swung too far in the other direction. I don’t really worry about anything. Nothing seems to scare me these days.

Debt no longer weighs heavily on my mind and, consequently, I have been spending too much money lately. To be fair, much of the spending has gone toward home security measures and replacing the phone I ruined dropping it in water because I was terrified to be without it for even a minute. But the total has been creeping up and I just don’t care.

This isn’t like me.

It also isn’t like me to eat out a lot or to indulge in foods that I know are bad for me. After all,  I’m trying to clean up my diet, improve my lifestyle and become healthy. Cookies and garlic bread are not part of the plan. Neither is the pizza and Diet Pepsi I guzzled at a meeting last night.

My behavior is wrong. I know that. I should be sleeping, drinking water and eating a more balanced diet. I should stay away from stores and be happy with what I have and stop spending money on fast food and magazines (Magazines have long been a vice. I’m much happier when I’m not reading them too. Will have to cover that in a future post!).

I need to face the fact I’m struggling to pull it together and that I’m not especially happy most of the time. I keep thinking tomorrow will be better, next week I will be back to my old self, after I eat this wonderful slab of Chef Mary’s Cornbread Salad I will be ready to go again. But it never happens.

Today hasn’t been awful. I ate a good breakfast and reasonably balanced lunch. My snacks have been within reason. I haven’t been near a store and haven’t spent money on anything today. After work I plan to walk two miles before heading home to see my parents. I’m having dinner with them to celebrate the eight year anniversary of my dad surviving a heart attack.

And see? You would think the fear of bad genes and bad lifestyle choices would scare me into making better decisions! Not tomorrow but today!

Today I will be happy. Today I will treat my body kindly. Today I will pay attention to what my life needs. Today I will take charge and choose the good stuff. Today.

I found a lot of time

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There aren’t enough hours in the day. Don’t you agree?

That’s why I made the decision a few years ago to pull the plug on my satellite television. I was spending about $50 a month for 150 channels and nothing to watch. So the satellite is gone but I still have network tv thanks to a cheap antenna.

I’m not one of those tv snobs who claims to be above it. In fact, I LOVE the Big Bang Theory and my Sunday morning revolves around Mr. Charles Osgood on CBS Sunday Morning. But I try not to allow the television to dictate my schedule or to take up too much time. Sometimes I turn it on for noise in the house while I do chores. Sometimes I can go all day without flipping it on.

And you know something? I don’t miss the satellite and I have found so much extra time to read, walk, do chores and other things I enjoy.

Have you tried it? Why not flip off your tv tonight and do something else? You might be surprised how much you enjoy it!