Expect Less

One week in to No-Spend month and I think I’m doing fairly well. I’ve spent $35 on food so far, and nothing else. Most of it went to vegetables at the grocery store, though I also got a few peppers from a farmers market last night.

Last night I also got together with a couple of friends and we made pizza, entirely from scratch. They brought the dough and some toppings and a cheesemaking kit, so I got some milk and we made our own mozzarella. For a first attempt, I think we did pretty well, though it still needs some refinement. I think we kneaded it too much, for too long.

Other than that I bought my usual Monday morning bagels, but this week they told me to grab an extra half-dozen because they had a lot sitting there that probably wouldn’t sell anyhow. So I ended up with a dozen bagels for $2.50! There are 3 left now, as I’ve been having my lunch on them instead of the usual tortillas. It’s nice to have the variety, but it’s also much more filling, so I’m less likely to eat two of the veggie burgers for lunch.

I still think that this is going to be a very manageable month. I don’t know if I could live under these restrictions every month, but I think coming out of this I’m definitely going to be more aware of where and how I spend my money.

On a side note I’m just a few days away from going for a month without using my credit card, and actually receiving a bill with a positive balance on it. It hasn’t been hard at all, and there aren’t many purchases I’ve considered making that I’ve had to turn down now that I’ve told myself it’s just not an option.

For the first day of my No Spend month, I didn’t spend anything. I’ve been buying a half-dozen of “last night’s” bagels at the bagel place near work on Monday mornings, microwaving one a day for breakfast, for the past two weeks. It’s filling enough, and it’s a cheap way to eat since I can get 6 for $2.50. On days when I’m hungry for more a bowl of oatmeal supplements breakfast nicely.

Lunch was two frozen veggie chik’n patties on tortillas. I bought a good supply of tortillas and veggie burgers/chik’n patties when Simon Delivers went out of business, so I’m pretty stocked on those. MOst days I’ll eat two of them, one around noon and one around 1:30. Spacing out the times I eat lets my body process the food better and keeps my hunger on more of a level throughout the day, rather than fluctuating from stuffed to starved.

Dinner was a couple of the veggie burgers with some tomatoes, mushrooms, and cheese. This was the last of the vegetables I had on hand, so I’m going to need to make a trip to the grocery some time this weekend. I also need to get ingredients for some of the recipes I’m hoping to make, and for salads.

Entertainment for the evening was reading a book, watching some videos I had, and reading online. I cleared out a few saved items from my RSS reader, and just enjoyed a pleasant evening at home. I also turned down an invitation to meet some friends out at a bar.

One day in it’s hard to say how this will all play out, but I’m enjoying myself so far. I like these challenges and seeing if I can meet them. I just checked my credit card balance to make sure I hadn’t accidentally charged anything to it online, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that, since my last statement, I have a positive balance. A refund was posted to the card for more than I’d spent on it before deciding to hide it away for a month. Quite a nice little bonus.

After work today I swung by the ATM and got my money for the month. $160, cash. I had to do multiples of 20, so I ended up with $160. I’m still going to try to keep myself to $150, though.

I also picked up a few recipes online that I should be able to make in bulk to feed myself for several days without spending a huge amount of money. This weekend I’m thinking about making lentil tacos and Zen Habit’s Best Soup Ever.

So far I’ve spent nothing today, and I have no plans to go out tonight, so I think I’ll be alright for day one. I even went to the ATM that doesn’t charge any fees, so no $2 was taken from me before I even began.

And so we begin what I expect to be a very interesting month.

I just read about trying a No Spend month, and while I’m completely blown away that 3 people got by on $250 to cover their food, gas, and entertainment costs, I think I might give myself $150 for August until I leave for Iceland on 29 August. I only have one event scheduled that month - a birthday party - so I won’t have to cancel out on any plans or anything.

Still, $150! I’m nervous, but I think I can make it work. I’ll definitely have to eat out a lot less, and give more thought to the food I buy at the grocery store. Since I don’t have any fuel costs I have a bit of an advantage, but the cost to feed three people isn’t drastically more than the costs to feed one. I think I’ll be making lots of leftovers, though they’ll probably be consumed mostly at home, since I don’t want to be microwaving any plastic Tupperware.

One thing I didn’t see addressed was the policy on using food that I already have at home. I have a fair bit in my fridge, so digging in to that would make the whole situation much easier. I suppose it’s up to each person how they want to handle it, and I think that I’ll just go about things as I normally would, except with less dining out and entertainment events and more thought to what I’m buying when I go grocery shopping.

I’m going to try something out to cut back on another aspect of my life - I’m going to try to make it until the end of August without using my credit card. I’ve been lucky in my financial situation in that I’ve never carried a credit card balance over from month to month.

Still, I know that the ease with which I use my credit card has affect how much I can save each month. My credit card, especially when used to eat out and go to bars, has been a huge factor in this. A quick glance at my statement from Discover Card shows that I spent $330 at bars and restaurants last month, and that’s just at the places that took Discover.

So here is what I will do. I will take my credit card and put it in a drawer. I’ll stop taking it out with me, and when I’m going out for food, I’ll pay with cash that I withdrew before heading out. I’ll keep a tally of everything I spend eating out or drinking, and see how that keeps me in check.This will be tough, because I love going out with my friends. All the same, I know this will be a good thing to do, and a good test of self control.

Unchecked dining out is not one of my largest expenses, but it’s one of the easiest to curtail at this time, and one that’s entirely unnecessary. I know how to cook, I have a great place to have a friends hang out, and I can make the change today.

A different post is that I feel like my apartment has become an unnecessary expense - not that I don’t need a place to live, but I don’t need the place that I have. That, however, is something I can’t address until my lease is up next year.

I’ll try to make a point to provide regular status updates regarding these cut backs. Here’s to hoping it works well. Since tonight’s a friend’s birthday night out, I’m going to be challenged right off the bat. This should, however, have the added bonus of keeping from drinking too much. Double win!

After nearly a year of being my primary grocery supplier, and 9 years in business, I received an email this afternoon that SimonDelivers is shutting down. They blame the situation on the current economic conditions, specifically food and fuel costs.

This is really disappointing to me, as SimonDelivers was a major factor in me realizing that I could live without a car. Now that I’ve moved downtown, though, several grocery stores are easily accessible by bicycle so it’s not as major of a setback for me. Still, the convenience was incredible.

This past weekend I’d done most of my shopping but not submitted the order yet. When I realized this on Sunday night, I hopped on my iPhone, hit a couple buttons, and my order was placed, all from the comfort of the patio of a local bar.

One option I do have, in addition to shopping like a real person (and maybe joining the co-op!) is the online shopping/delivery of Lunds & Byerly’s. I’ve seen their vans around my neighborhood occasionally. I don’t think there are as many delivery time options, but it’s still an easy way to get my grocery shopping done.

Just read “Why Bother?”, an article from the NYT, and while it’s about making an effort to be green and being conscious of the environment and our impact on it, I think some of the ideas can be applied to living with less clutter as well.

Our culture has so many expectations for us, and it can be challenging to stand up to them. When I sold my car a few months ago, there were quite a few people who thought it was a dumb idea, they couldn’t see the point of it. But since I got rid of it, I’ve driven a car three times, and only for 5 minutes in the past two months. I don’t need it to function, I don’t need it to see my friends, I don’t need it to live my life. I know a several people who could get by without a car with just a little more effort or allowing a little more time to take a bus, a cab, or even getting HourCar for the afternoon or a rental car for the weekend.

I haven’t talked about it a lot here, but I’ve been trying to eat locally, avoid eating meat (3 weeks without meat now), and waste less. I’m still far from perfect, and I know I’ll never get there. But I can make the effort to make less of an impact, and if I can at all inspire others around me to do the same, then I’ve done something to change the world. It might be tiny, but that doesn’t matter. As Gandhi said, “Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.”

NYT Article found via What I Learned Today

I just wanted to share these writings by Merlin Mann on 43Folders about cutting back on clutter. He has some very good advice in here. I’d elaborate, but I need to get some work done.

A few weeks ago my buddy Scott mentioned an approach to exercise he’d read about called Tabata. As he explained the basics to us, I saw a lot of things that appealed to me - speed, effectiveness, and minimalism. I’ll be explaining this as I understand it and practice it, though there are several possible approaches.

Tabata isn’t about building massive muscles. It’s about toning and defining your muscles, and it’s about burning fat and having a cardiovascular workout. Basically, you’re sprinting through a series or exercises, taking quick breaks in between them.

You pick 4 exercises that will work as many muscles as possible; I’ve been doing pushups, burpees, jumping rope, and thrust squats. I have a few more exercises I’m considering throwing in to the mix, but so far this has been a good mix. Then, using a timer of some sort (I have an mp3 with tones), you do 20 seconds of an exercise, as many as you can with good form. Rest 10 seconds. Do the next exercise. Continue on this path for 16 minutes, or 8 sets, moving from exercise to exercise. Some people do a single exercise for 4 minutes before moving on to the next. I like rotating because it lets me start fresh on each one and wear down equally through each, rather than starting my last exercise already exhausted.

When I first heard Scott talk about this, I figured there was no way 16 minutes of exercise could be that hard. But wow, is it ever. In only a few weeks I’ve noticeably lost weight, I have more energy, and I have no problem finding 30 minutes to warm up, exercise, and then cool down. You could do this anywhere, really - the only equipment I use is a jump rope and two dumbbells for the thrust squats, and other exercises could always be used as well.

An added bonus is that, by its very nature of keeping you in constant motion, you can’t get distracted by the cute girl on the treadmill or the highlights on Sportscenter. There’s not time for that, there’s just time to ask yourself why you’re doing this to yourself before starting in on the next set.

I’ve gathered up several links that have given me more information on Tabata over the past few weeks. You can get ideas for other exercises and see some other accounts of how well Tabata is working for these people.

• Testosterone Nation
• Tabata Training: Is Tabata Training the Ultimate Fat Loss Workout? on Squidoo
• Pump up Your Workouts with the Tabata Method - Warrior Fitness World
• The Buck Stops Here: Tabata Intervals
• Goals To Gold

I did a Tabata workout this morning, and raised my weights a few pounds in addition to adding a jump at the end of each burpee. When I reached the final 4 minutes it took all I had to even stand up after doing pushups. It’s incredible how much you can push yourself in a short period of time.

I moved this past weekend, from Bloomington to Minneapolis. This looks to be a significant lifestyle change, as I expect that living without a car will be much more feasible now. There are two HourCars within two blocks and a few more within a twenty minute walk.

The biggest challenge of this move has been a significant reduction in closet and storage space. I can no longer effortlessly store 8 to 10 rubbermaid boxes throughout the house and in storage in the garage. As a result, I’ve been doing a lot of rearranging and sorting of the boxes I have left, and finally worked myself down to 4 boxes, which fit in to my hall closet without too much trouble. One contains electronics and home improvement hardware. One contains my old NES and Genesis systems. Two contain mementos. Apart for that I have 6 empty boxes that I need to pass along, sell, or otherwise free myself of.

As the final steps of settling in are completed, including mounting the TV on the wall, building out a new desk, and building out a small window seat in the bedroom, I think this place is really going to feel like home. I’m thrilled with how things have come together, and I’m looking forward to these last few touches that I think will make a bit difference.

Once the TV is up there will be pictures, but until then things just don’t feel right so I am holding off.