Catching Up

I know I haven’t posted anything here in a minute, and part of me feels guilty about that, but I’ve had some things I needed to work through.

I am still around, even though I’ve been less active than I intended.

Paul’s hours at work have changed again (for now, he’s back to his regular hours) and that always means a disruption in my schedule.

I’ve been trying to make some decisions about things to do with the business.

I’ve been battling my sinuses and allergies.

I’ve been taking a deep, close look at our spending.

For a couple of spenders, that’s been uncomfortable. Honestly, before this spending scrutiny, I would have said it wasn’t that bad, but it actually is.

The money bleeds out in little ways you don’t always notice. A quick stop at McDonalds for a mocha frappe – $3. A couple of energy drinks when we go out – $5. Biscuits from Bojangles on payday – $7, once a week eating out becoming a few days of eating out (it’s always cheap, $5 foot longs or a $5 pizza, but it adds up, and you don’t realize it). Before you know it, you’ve spent $20 you didn’t realize you’d spent.

The truth is, I’ve realized we’re paying a lot for convenience. Pre-made is fast and easy instant gratification. It’s not hard after a bad or long day to get sucked into it.

I do believe in rewards for good behavior (I guess it’s the mother in me), but if you’re not careful, you can reward yourself right into the poor house.

So, I’ve been looking at some of the conveniences we enjoy with an eye to “how can I still have this but it not be so expensive”.

I’ve started with consumables.

This week, I made homemade pizzas instead of buying the $5 ones. What I made would have actually been on the $8 menu if we’d eaten out. Pepperoni, mushrooms, green onions (which didn’t do as well on pizza as I’d hoped. Next time I’ll put them under the cheese or in the sauce), bell peppers, bacon bits and black olives. They were delicious. The cool thing is, I had enough cheese and vegetables to make salads and also put some of the vegetables in the spaghetti I made last night.

I’ve been stalking the produce department at Ingles and catching some of the produce on mark-down, too. This week, the baby spinach for salads and mushrooms were both on markdown. So were the carrots I got Paul and Duchess (our 4-legged baby) as snacks.

I’ve also been on the recipe hunt and have found some quick, easy (and cheap) ideas for breakfast and lunch.

While recipe hunting, I also found a recipe for making my own bisquick mix and this morning, I found a recipe for making iced mocha coffees.

The ingredients, at a glance, look like you’re paying more than you would be to just go buy one pre-made but you have to remember that those ingredients will make more than one.

Remember the pizzas? Yes, I paid more than $8 by the time I bought everything, but I still have a box of crust mix, enough sauce left for about 4 more pizzas and I would have had enough veggies to do pizza again if I’d wanted.

Those veggies did get repurposed into two other dishes (three on the bacon bits and green onions because I also made chicken salad this week and put a little in both of those).

If I’d only made pizzas with it, I could have made 2 meals with it for about the price of one meal out.

The iced mocha? I pay a little over $3 for a small one. With the ingredients, most of which I keep on hand anyway, I’ll probably pay about $8 but I’ll be able to make more than 3 drinks from it.

If it’s like the pizza, I may find I prefer the taste of homemade anyway.

If you start to look at convenience products in this way, you’ll find that in most cases, while it may be easier to buy it premade, it would be cheaper (and maybe even taste better) if you made it yourself.

For me, doing more myself does add work to my day. It takes more time and energy to do it myself than just going and buying it but I’ll be saving money and I’ll know exactly what is in what I’m consuming. To me, that’s a good trade.

I’d been wanting to move away from feeding the big corporations more of my money but it can seem overwhelming. It’s hard to know where to start sometimes. I’d also been wanting to move away from processed foods. This concept will help me save money, help me stop feeding big corporations and also help me feed my family a healthier diet, even if it is pizza and iced coffee.

So as you can see, there are big changes happening around here. Change can be scary, and painful as well, but in the end, change is sometimes necessary.