The Simple Life - Day 8

Monday = the day I get to replenish my cashflow.  And just in time, as my car was almost totally out of petrol.  $36.07 later and I have a full tank for the week.  Driving-wise, this shouldn't be a crazy week. I'm finishing with the Dog/Housesitting on Tuesday night (when I will head home with a few loads of clean laundry...major score!!) and I have a few days of work scheduled at the Design Center and USC, neither of which are very far from my apartment.  Hopefully I won't get stressed about gas this week.

Speaking of stressing, I think this project is causing me a bit of anxiety.  First off, I can't stop analyzing prices, which is both good and bad.  While I am reconsidering the value of the dollar, I'm also freaking about how much everything costs.  And although I am not broke, I've begun to act like I am.  Therefore all my friends have been buying me stuff, which I find amazingly generous, but troubling, because it was my personal decision to put myself through this experiment.  I feel like I may need to reconsider what I'm doing and why.

Going back to my day, I spent it grocery shopping for lasagna fixings (total cost: $15) and then attended a screening of Kevin, Luke, and Brian's new film, "The Awakening."  Here's where the guilt and anxiety of trying not to spend money comes in.  I didn't want to pay for valet, so I ended up driving around for 20 minutes, looking for street parking...ugh!  Then, I had to come up with a creative way to not spend money on drinks, so I got a club soda ($4).  Sure, both Jim and Ray offered to buy me drinks, but I don't want them always picking up my tab.  That's awful, especially since both of them had bought me dinner at some point over the past week.  The whole thing makes me feel like such a mooch.

Today's menu
~Rice cakes with heirloom tomato slices and honeyed goat cheese (all found in the fridge.)
~Turkey, Green Chili, and Hominy soup (I made it 3 weeks ago and froze half the pot)
~Leftover Salmone e Piselli from Sunday night's dinner

Total spent today: $55.07
Total remaining for week: $19.93

The Simple Life - Day 7

Seriously, I couldn't fathom spending another day at home reading and watching videos.  I think that I have a 3 day limit on staying in and then I need to have an adventure or two.  Sure, I went out with Jim on Saturday and we wandered around downtown.  But, that was Saturday and it was now Sunday and I was antsy all over again.  Taking the dogs for yet another long walk, wasn't doing enough to help the situation.  When Laura called and suggested we take a walk/jog around the SilverLake Reservoir, I was really excited.  We logged in over 4 miles of walking and caught up on all of our projects, but when we were finished it was still fairly early in the afternoon (1:30ish).

So to recap, by 1.30pm on Sunday, I had managed to go on 2 long walks, watch 2 movies, and still found myself seriously bored.   I went home and heated up the leftover soup, cleaned my apartment, pulled out the Christmas decorations and popped in yet another movie (Elf).  Argh!  Boredom!  Luckily, Adam saved the day.  He was tired of being cooped up from working on his EMBA homework and craving some Royal Milk Tea from Royal/T and asked me to meet up.  Perfect!  After a few hours of catching up, over one of my favorite hot beverages (Adam's treat!) I was more at peace with the world.   Then off to Ray's house for a quick stop at the Hollywood Holiday Parade before grabbing a nice dinner (Ray's treat!) and watching Dexter.

After a full day of cabin fever...I was completely exhausted by the time I went to bed.  Perfect!

Today's Menu:
-Homemade Nachos (I found chips and salsa in Chris' cupboards, and had a chunk of cheddar cheese!  Perfect breakfast!)
-Homemade Root Veggie Soup (leftover from 2 days ago)
-Royal Milk Tea
-Salmone e Piselli (from Trastevere)

Total Spent for the day: $0
Final total spent for the week: $67.10

The Simple Life - Day 6

The dogs hopped into bed and woke me up, promptly at 7.30 AM.  Oi vey!  Exasperating.  After managing to quiet them down and comfortably find a nook between the two, I continued with my desperately needed beauty sleep for a few more hours.  If only they weren't so cute, I'd be able to get mad at them.  Of course the best thing about getting up early-ish, was that after taking the dogs for a walk, I was able to make it to Ikea for a FREE breakfast.  It was the only Post Thanksgiving deal that I took part in.  And I am considering a repeat performance on Sunday.


After breakfast I headed downtown with Jim.  We had a lovely adventure at the MOCA, then down to Little Tokyo for ramen at my favorite spot, Daikokuya.  Jim treated, which means that I managed to get through the day without actually spending a cent.  


Total amount spent today: $0
Total amount spent this week: $67.10
Total amount available to spend this week: $7.90

The Simple Life - Day 5

I was completely exhausted today.  I think I'm coming down with something and didn't actually feel like doing anything, so I skipped Bikram Yoga and instead took the dogs on a long walk.  Then spent the majority of the day lying on the couch and catching up with movies, magazines, scripts, the newspaper (I have a stack of Travel and Business sections that I had been meaning to get through) some poetry, and a book.  And somewhere in all of that, I managed to make soup out of leftover chicken broth, ramen noodles, and some root veggies, that I noticed were on the verge of wilting.  I simply roasted the fennel, carrots, onions, and sweet potatoes, then tossed them in the chicken broth with extra water, let it all simmer for a bit, then added ramen noodles.  Delicious!

Here is a list of all that I accomplished today. (I know I'm being a bit obnoxious in creating a list.)
Movies watched:
~Paper Heart: I was surprised to have enjoyed this film as much as I did.
~The Expendables: I admit, I love a cheesy action movie...side effect of growing up with a brother.
~The Princess and the Frog: I love Disney movies.
~Nothing Like the Holidays: I was searching for holiday movies and found this.  I really liked the family in it.
~The Holiday: One of my favorite holiday movies.
~ Sabrina (the Billy Wilder version, which is by far the best!)

Reading Materials:
~Women's Health Magazine December 2010 issue
~ReadyMade Magazine October - December 2010 issues
~Splendor by: Anna Godbersen (this is a favorite book of both Heidi and I...its like Gossip Girl in Victorian Times)

Today's Menu
~Leftover Thanksgiving Dinner for lunch
~Root veggie soup for dinner
~Peppermint Tea

Total amount spent today: $0
Total amount spent this week: $67.10
Total amount available to spend this week: $7.90

The Simple Life - Day 4

Happy Black Friday!

Other then heading to Ikea for their FREE breakfast, I don't think I will be partaking in any Black Friday shopping...too tempting to spend money.

I hope you and all of your beloveds had a great Thanksgiving.  My morning got off to a rocky start, when Angel decided to jump on my head and get me out of bed....(see photo below.  Yes, its true I always have a camera nearby...even in the god awful hours of the morning).

But after a nice long walk and a moment to compose ourselves, we (I mean I) was able to partake in 2 different gatherings. First, with my family in Torrance, we had a lovely Thanksgiving lunch at Mimi's Cafe, it was wonderful to be with everyone.  After lunch, I hotfooted it back across town to finish making the squash, then picked up the rotisserie chicken I had reserved from Ralph's along with a sweet potato pie (oh my lord, they were out of pumpkin!)  Then off to Laura's for our 1st Orphaned Thanksgiving together.  We invited a few friends who didn't have a place to go for dinner.  And everyone brought something to eat: chicken, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, ambrosia salad, and pie!  Yummy!!!

Total spent for the day: $13.76
Total spent for the week: $67.10
Total left to spend for the week: $7.90

The Simple Life - Day 3

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Yesterday was definitely a "spendy" day for me.  I've been house/dog sitting in Glendale, and the trips between the Glendale house and my West Hollywood apartment are beginning to burn a lot of extra gas.  So I started my day by refueling.  Total cost: $31.50 (I only needed 3/4 of a tank).  Then I headed home to get a jump start on my Thanksgiving cooking.  I spent almost an hour dicing butternut and acorn squash.  My plan is to toss the squash in olive oil, rosemary and thyme, then bake until crispy in the oven.   Then sprinkle Ricotta Salata over the finished product.  Should be delicious!  Of course the cost of Ricotta Salata isn't cheap: $3.69/half pound.

My adventures in House/Dogsitting have definitely kept me busy.  Angel, the golden retriever had an ear infection, and I've recently had to spend quite a bit of time at the Vet, taking her in for surgery.  Now that she's back home, I've been very focused on keeping her from scratching her ears.  It's a full time job.  The good news, is that its keeping me from being too social and going to happy hour.  The bad news is that I have to force feed her pills.  I ended up buying a chunk of cheddar cheese and some apple sauce at her owner's suggestion.  Apparently, he usually feeds her pills with the help of cheese, but since I need to give her capsules, I'm going to try and mix them in with the apple sauce.  Total for cheese and apple sauce: $4.36

Of course, since I was at the market, I figured it would be a good time to pick up a few things for the pantry: cinnamon, flax seeds, eggs, pickled tomatoes (strange but i've been obsessed with them forever...this is the reason I needed to put myself on a budget) and asian pears (I've been dying for some fresh fruit...asian pears weren't really the best choice though, they don't have much flavor.) total for those groceries: $5.59

Day's menu:
-AppleSauce Bread from yesterday
-Jasmine Tea
-Kale Chips
-Hot Rice Soup (leftover Brown Rice from 2 days ago, mixed with boiling water and Ochazuke Nori)
-Asian Pear
-Chips and Salsa (I found in the cupboard at the house I'm watching)

Total amount spent today: $45.14
Total amount spent this week: $53.34
Total amount remaining: $21.66

The Simple Life - Day 2

Since Thanksgiving is only a few days away and I will be spending the bulk of my week's financial allotment on that day, I've decided to creatively live off whatever I have in the fridge or cupboards.

Today's menu:
-Applesauce Bread (or what to do with the leftover homemade apple sauce in my fridge. I made 2 loaves, one of which I took to Heidi's house for dinner.)
-Rice and Beans
-Kale chips (delicious, healthy, and so easy to make!)

Luckily, my friends are very supportive of my latest financial experiment, and I have loaded up on dinner party invites for the next few days.  Last night, Heidi offered to have me and Lauren over for her delicious Fontina Butternut Squash Lasagna and a screening of our favorite fall movie, "Anne of Avonlea." (I love that Amazon still sells this movie on VHS).  Overall, good food, great company, excellent film.  Gotta love the simple nights in.

Total spent this week: $8.20
Total remaining money for the week: $66.20

The Simple Life - Day 1

My experiment in financial frugality began yesterday, with a trip to Disneyland.  Not the best place to go to save money.  And with a total amount of $75/week to spend, there was a real possibility that I would blow the entire week's budget on the first day.  Luckily, I already have a Disneyland annual pass that includes parking.  And in exchange for parking, Heidi offered to drive us (gas money savings!!).  So all I had to worry about was food.

I decided to pack a lunch of leftover bean chili, brown rice, sriracha and thai sweet chili sauce, some nuts and dried fruits, and half a bag of cheetos.  It was the perfect amount of food.  The chili and rice filled me up for most of the day and the snacks kept me from buying corndogs, cookies, or churros.  I also brought along my new Bobble water bottle. (This is a really cool product, you can fill it with tap water and it filters the water as you drink it.)

I would have gotten through the day without spending a single cent, except it was FREEZING cold outside, possibly the coldest day of the year.  So I bought some clam chowder.   It was tasty and expensive (relatively speaking!) after using my annual pass discount (10% on most food in the park) the cost came to $8.80...the equivalent of almost 2 days worth of food!

Not bad for the first day of the experiment.  I will have to be conscientious this week because of Thanksgiving and I promised to bring a rotisserie chicken, butternut squash, and pie to our dinner party.  Luckily my freezer is stocked with leftovers, so this week shouldn't be too tough.

Total spending so far for Week 1: $8.80
Money left to spend: $66.20


Elsewhere on the web:
~An article about 'Be Social,' the bi-monthly girls' night that I co-host with my fabulous friend Jacqui.
~My fashion and beauty tips for a bad economy.

And we're back...

So after a long hiatus of not writing on this blog, I'm back!  Over the last eight months, everything has changed.  I left my job, broke up with a guy I really liked, and figured out how to pick myself up and start from scratch.  In doing so, I've challenged myself to all sorts of personal experiments.  1) Try an array of random jobs (via volunteerism, informational interviews or otherwise) and find a passion.  2) 60 days of unlimited dating (basically, accept any date from anyone who asks...I got 35 dates out of this challenge).  3)Create an LA bucketlist of things I've always wanted to do, but never had the time.   4)Give up drinking alcohol for as many days as possible (I last 2 days at first, then tried again more seriously, and got thru about 20 days....its very hard when my social world revolves around bars.)

From all of these experiments, which sometimes placed me in unfamiliar and uncomfortable new territories, I learned a lot about myself.  I know what I can and cannot tolerate from guys, I've seen some really cool things in LA and I've met amazing people while doing career research.

So, I've decided to start another human experiment.  And this time, I will blog about it, so that others can follow along.

I need to simplify my life, wrangle my finances a little bit, and focus on quieter things (like reading all of the books I've been collecting or finishing the Sunday paper).  This challenge is all about living simply.  From November 22 - December 22, I will live on $75/week.  The basic break down for that is as follows:

Food: $5/day x 7 days = $35

+ Weeks worth of gas = $40

Grand Total per week = $75

Yes, I have bills to pay.  And they will be covered.  The $75 will only go towards food, gas, and spending money.  All of my credit cards will be frozen and I will only pay for things using cash.

It's going to be difficult, this is the holiday season and "time for giving," after all.  But, I've got a plan: Holiday cards will be made from things I have around the house, the same with gifts and wrapping.  I will dig through my wardrobe to recycle my party dresses for all holiday parties and become much more creative with my hostess gifts.  Cutting back on happy hours will be the hardest.  But, I won't have to miss out on my friends.  We will just have to do more wine and movie nights at home (I do have a subscription to Netflix after all!)  So stay tuned....November 22 is only 3 days away.