Zero Spending Challenge – Day 4

Today was one of those days. Crazy busy at work, then go, go, go before finally getting home and wanting nothing more than to climb into bed. So. Tired. Funny thing. It’s easy to not spend money when you’re too busy to think about it! lol

Breakfast was a muffin. Still not sick of those! But I really, really wanted a latte. So I made one. With my Keurig and something I totally free at my local Ralph’s grocery store.

This stuff is fun! No, it isn’t Starbucks, but it hit the spot. And since it was free, well, it’s even better! And it saved me having to pull out my immersion blender, so that’s fewer dishes to wash. Sweet!

Since I was so busy today, I packed an ultra quick lunch. Quick, yes, but still satisfying. Besides, pickles count as produce, right?

For a quick lunch, these seasoned tuna pouches can’t be beat. I also like the ones with crackers, especially the Spicy Thai Chili version. But this is what I had on hand. And, as I said, I’m making do with what I already have.

Dinner was the high point. I didn’t have to cook…or even eat at home! Hooray for being treated to dinner! We went to this fabulous little hole-in-the-wall burger place and I ate until I thought I would pop. So good!

Then I had to walk around to be burn it off. I doubt I made much of a dent in the calorie count, but it was totally worth it!

So, yes, today was a good day. But it was very tiring and I’m looking forward to sleep. Tomorrow will be another busy day…but a good one. I have exciting plans, actually! Yep. It’ll be a great weekend. Hope you’re looking forward to yours, too! Happy Friday and welcome weekend!

Zero Spending Challenge – Day 3

How do you celebrate something without spending any money? This was the question I had to tackle today.

You see, hubby got a promotion at work today. It’s only 50 cents an hour more, and it’s still part time, but the hours are better and it’ll be a lot easier on his body. So we’re excited! First thought? “Wanna go out to dinner to celebrate?” After all, that’s what we normally do! Not being able to go out does mean we save that money, but it did seem to diminish the enjoyment of the promotion announcement. Another good way to celebrate? I haven’t actually figured that out. I’m open to suggestions, that’s for sure!

Food today was easy. We ate more of those yummy blueberry muffins for breakfast, which was fine. I really, REALLY wanted to stop at Starbucks for a latte, but I do have a Keurig at work, so I need to stop spending extra money on coffee. Seriously. I will live without it.

As I mentioned yesterday, there were about a million pounds of food left over from the potluck yesterday, so I made up a delicious taco salad for myself.

Is it bad that the lettuce is the part that excited me the most? It’s only day 3, and I’m already starting to miss vegetables quite a lot. I do love my veggies!

Dinner was another simple one. I found some garlic naan bread in my freezer and a jar of marinated cherry tomatoes in my pantry. When did I even buy those? Who knows? Still, I had a nice collection of ingredients. Even hubby could tell what I was going to make, and he can’t ever tell! lol

Obvious as can be, and he got very excited. I had to kick him, lovingly, of course, out of the kitchen so I could actually cook. See the green stuff in the picture? That’s my homegrown basil. I’ve kept it alive for over two years now in my kitchen and I’m far more proud of that than I probably should be! But it did mean I got to put something green on the pizza. Not really a substitute for vegetables, but it made me feel better.

How fabulous does that look? Those marinated cherry tomatoes are gorgeous! And I’ll let you in on a little secret: They taste great, too! I ate a couple pieces of the pizza, and hubby polished off the rest so quickly that he burned his mouth. 🤣 Now it’s time for those dishes, a cuddle with the cats (and one with the hubby), and a little reading before crawling into bed for the night. Happy Thursday…here’s to it almost being Friday and the end of the work week being in sight! Just seven more days of this challenge! I can do it!

Zero Spending Challenge – Day 2

I got to go shopping today! And it didn’t count as cheating! This was probably way more exciting to me than it should have been, and may possibly indicate that I have something of a shopping addiction. More on that later.

Overall, today was an easy day. I’m so glad I had the blueberry muffins made for the week. I really should do something like that every week. It makes mornings so much less stressful! Plus, I get to eat while I work with the kiddos, so I get to sleep an extra FIFTEEN WHOLE MINUTES! I’m not kidding when I say that this is a huge benefit. Seems like I never get enough sleep anymore. Remember when you were a kid and fought against that early bedtime? Yeah. An eight o’clock bedtime seems pretty amazing to me now. And naps. Wasted on the young. 😁

I decided to completely stay off the internet and email today, since I’m noticing that most of my shopping temptations seem to come from that direction. It actually helped quite a bit, and I didn’t find myself tempted in any way. Until after work. But I’m not there yet.

Lunch was awesome! I mentioned yesterday that we were having a work potluck. Mexican food. Yum! I brought the taco meat, for which I had everything on hand, and also some shredded garlic jack cheese. I know I said yesterday that it was gouda, but I was mistaken. It was jack. And it was good!

I cooked up the meat before work and stored it in the fridge until it was time to eat. I was worried people wouldn’t be happy about the cheese, but nobody complained. To be fair, there was so much food that I’m not sure anyone thought anything of it!

That’s my taco meat down in the corner. Everyone took seconds. 😄 Don’t library potlucks rock? And I didn’t have to pack a lunch, so that was a bonus! Plus, there’s enough food left over, that I can eat it again tomorrow for lunch. I love when things like this happen!

And then came the shopping. I had to run out to get some supplies for tomorrow’s craft program. It’s a fun one, and I know the kids will love it, but I needed black acrylic paint, and I was all out at my location. So I headed out to buy some. And some foam brushes. But since the library is paying for it, it isn’t cheating. It’s just work.

It was, however, a temptation. A big one. I kept looking around the store and seeing all kinds of things I wanted. Or that were on sale. Or that, well, mostly just things I wanted. They weren’t needs. Because, really, what so we actually need? So very little. We are so, so spoiled. I left the store feeling ashamed of myself for being so tempted by stuff. I think I might have a problem with shopping. I didn’t know that about myself until I started this challenge, so it’s been good for that, at least.

Dinner was quick and simple. Just a matter of pulling a few ingredients​ out of the freezer and pantry and cooking them up. Just don’t ask how long those bread sticks have been in my freezer. I’m thinking Valentine’s Day…

I’m lucky they still tasted okay! Anyway, it only took about 25 minutes to get dinner on the table. Hubby was beyond happy. I think he’d eat pasta every day if I let him! Truthfully, though, it’s nice to have something quick and comforting at the end of a long​ day. And since we both had rough work days (big projects at mine and long hours at his) quick and easy did the trick. Yum!

And with that, my day is done. Nothing left but to clean up the kitchen, cuddle with the hubby, and look forward to a great day tomorrow. Now if only I can avoid going into any stores, that would be great! I’m a fifth of the way through this challenge already. I’ve got this!

 

 

 

Zero Spending Challenge – Day 1

Day 1 and I’m already starting to stress. Do I really impulse spend that much? I don’t feel like I do, but now that I can’t spend anything, I feel like there’s so much to buy! Today alone, the following things happened:

• I remembered that there’s a potluck at work tomorrow. I’m supposed to bring taco meat and grated cheese. Ground beef and taco seasoning I have, but the only cheese I have grated or in a block is mozzarella, feta, or a garlic Gouda! Guess it’ll have to be the Gouda! Why didn’t I plan ahead? Ugh.
• My favorite history curriculum site offered a 40% off EVERYTHING just until tomorrow! There are some things I’d really like, but I had to pass. Deleting the email didn’t feel very good…
• I had to skip my monthly delivery that I get of household stuff…things like dish soap and paper goods. Yes, I probably have enough to get me through the next month, but what if I don’t? *sigh*

I did it, though. I stayed strong. In all honesty, though, it was actually pretty stressful. Hopefully this gets easier. Oh, please tell me it will get easier!

On the bright side, food was a breeze. I made up a batch of my favorite Lemon-Blueberry Muffins, and we can have that for breakfasts all week. While I’d be happy with eggs, hubby is a carb ONLY person in the mornings, so I’ve come to accommodate that. Besides, these are easy and delicious muffins, and I had everything on hand.

 

It was a work day for me, so I packed my lunch. I generally pack a lunch for the hubby, too, even if he’s home, like he was today. Otherwise I get home and find him gnawing his knuckles in hunger because making lunch seemed like too much effort. Besides, making two sandwiches takes barely more time than Making one. The ingredients were simple, although I’m realizing that I’m almost out of sandwich bread, so a baking day is going to have to be in my future.

As a side note, if you are still using plastic baggies for your daily sandwiches, I highly recommend giving a Bee’s Wrap a try. These beeswax-coated wraps do a great job keeping a sandwich moist and delicious, without the waste and environmental impact of plastic baggies. Plus, it supports bee-keeping, and that’s always a good thing. And did I mention how cute they are?

For dinner, I was super excited when I found some thin-sliced pork in my freezer. Pork is pricey, so I watch for it to be discounted at the grocery store and pop it into my freezer until I’m ready to use it. You see, in my house, thin-sliced pork is only used for one thing. Can you guess what it is?

Yep. Curry rice with tonkatsu. Mmmm…delicious. and the best part? This is the one meal hubby cooks! So I get to come home to a fresh, tasty dinner. Makes the end of the day even better.

Now my tummy is full, my heart is happy, and I’m ready to continue on with the challenge. See you on Day 2!

Zero Spending Challenge – Introduction

So…this is how it happened. I was on my way out of the house to meet a girlfriend for lunch at Panera, when my phone buzzed at me. I checked it (of course!) and saw it was a push notification from my bank telling me that my account was overdrawn. Now, I found this a bit surprising, since there had been plenty of money there an hour before and, well, I hadn’t actually SPENT ANYTHING since I was just leaving the house for the day. So I opened up the account and found, to my dismay, that someone had apparently gotten my debit card number and transferred all my money (plus some I didn’t have…hence the overdraft notice) out of my account. I was dismayed, horrified, and not a little bit angry. But I kept myself from falling apart (Not gonna lie…it was a close call!) and phoned the bank. The customer service rep went over the details and agreed it was fraudulent. Faster than you can say “Fraud Alert!” the wonderful people at Chase had credited back the balance, removed the overdraft fee, and blocked the card so the meanie who tried to steal my money couldn’t get anything else. Crisis averted, I went to lunch, met my girlfriend…and realized I was going to have to ask her to pay for lunch his time since suddenly I didn’t have a working debit card. Yikes! Without a debit card, how would I pay for anything?? How would I survive???? Honestly, I just don’t carry cash, so I had none on-hand, and here I was with no way to even go to the ATM. I really didn’t want to make the time and effort to go in to the bank to pull cash. So I talked to the hubby, and the Zero Spending Challenge was born.

Here’s how it’s going to work. The bank says it could take up to 10 days for me to get my new debit card. So for the next 10 days, I’m not going to spend anything. But like any good challenge, there are a couple exceptions, and here are mine:

• Hubby has enough cash on hand right now for a full tank of gas, which we’ll need so we can get to work, so we’re allowed that purchase.
• Bills still get paid. They all get paid online, anyway, and I’m not going to pay late fees because of this, so, yeah.

And that’s it. Other than those two exceptions, we’ll be spending no money at all for the next 10 days.

None. At. All.

Scary…

On the bright side, I have a chest freezer that’s full of…I’m not even sure what. Seriously. What’s at the bottom of this thing? I should really be using up what I have, anyway. I have a moderately well stocked pantry and am perfectly capable of baking just about anything. True, I don’t have any milk, and that’s going to be rough. But I don’t have little ones at home, and hubby and I won’t die of malnutrition if we don’t have milk and fresh veggies every day…right?

I guess we’ll see how it goes. I’ll be posting the challenges, the triumphs, and what meals I manage to get on the table at zero charge. Feel free to follow along with me…just don’t judge too harshly if I serve mac and cheese for every meal! lol Here’s to frugality and making lemonade when life gives you lemons. Speaking of lemons, I actually do have some of those! Now I just get to decide how best to use them. What fun this will be!