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.

Inappropriate Questions for a first date...

....or a 2nd date...or well, until you actually know the person a bit better.

-"Did you sleep with (fill in the blank with your celebrity boss) to get your job?"
-"When was the last time you slept with someone?"
-"When was the last time you masturbated?"

Can we say, red flags?  I don't really care if you drive a BMW, own a successful internet company, got drunk and paid for my whole evening.  There are very few scenarios where I would deem these questions appropriate for a first date.  And certainly, they do not impress me and make me feel good about going on a 2nd date with this guy.  Seriously, sometimes I feel like signing these guys up for Emily Post's etiquette newsletters.

Just so we're clear....

... massacre-ing my name (after I've corrected you twice) while asking me out on a 2nd date, is definitely not kosher.

... cutting a first date short after 34 minutes, then calling and requesting another chance and a longer date, is just confusing.

Seriously, just be cool.  And learn how to properly pronounce my name.

Drinks with a 20-something.....

Today's blog entry isn't so much a dating dilemma, more like the state of my dating world.  Last night I met up with a 20-something for drinks.  It took 3 weeks to actually get to the point where he didn't text me the night of, to ask me out.  I had been straightforward and explained that he needed to at least give me 24 hour notice when making plans.  I think that's fair, considering my schedule is usually overbooked.  Of course 3 hours prior to our meeting, he texted to let me know that he had double-booked the evening and hoped I didn't mind that he only had 2 hours free to hang out.  Lucky for him, I am actually a fan of having an out-time.  I've been on way too many painful dates that dragged out longer than necessary.  The ability to see the light at the end of the tunnel is strangely comforting to me.  So in all honesty, I often double-book my nights in order to get as much done in the little bit of free time I have.   I guess with that in mind, I can't actually be annoyed with my 20-something male counterpart on this issue. 

However, when I showed up at the Whitehorse Inn (the agreed upon meeting place), the 20-something, who I might add has spent weeks trying to get a date with me, is already there.  He's got a drink and he's hanging out like he owns the place.  But, here's the part that I find annoying.....it doesn't occur to him to offer me a drink.  Is it strange to have the expectation that a guy that asked you out, would then offer to buy you a drink?  I admit that 9 out of 10 times the guy buys the first round of drinks and I then get the 2nd round, but I feel like in order for that to happen, he needs to first offer.  Okay, so I didn't let this derail me, I asked him if he would like something to drink? (playing the nice girl)...to which he declined, since he was already nursing a drink.  Then we sat down and had a lovely conversation.  

Thing is, lack of social courtesy aside, I find him to be an interesting guy, whom I enjoy hanging out with.   But, this was only date #1....and it felt like i had so much to teach him about my expectations.  It all seemed like way too much work.  So I think he just knocked himself down to the "friend" category.  I suppose a 6 year age difference is just too wide a gap to consider us on a level playing field.

Next up....a boy I met on an internet dating site.  I'll keep you posted.