Back on the wagon $5 a day.

Three years ago when I was a completely different person, I had a blog called ysalife.blogspot.com I wrote about some of the challenges of living as a Young Single Adult. I didn't keep it up very well but there was one thing I wanted to get back on the wagon with. I challenged myself to not spend more than $5 a day on anything that wasn't a set monthly bill, namely: food, fun, and fuel. In order to develop better spending habits, I did pretty well on it even if I didn't keep up on posting about it. You can read what I did post about it Here if you want to. when I did stop I felt I had acomplish my goal of developing a habit of thinking about what I bought and if it was worth it.

   I have really let that habit go. I thought I was doing ok but I have never been very good at tracking my spending so I didn't really know how much I had been spending on food and splurges. I knew I was spending more than before because I had changed what I eat and the way I think about food. I now refuse to give money to factory farms or to Monsanto if I can avoid it. I drink local raw milk, buy  local pasture raised eggs and chickens, and local grass fed beef. I buy as much local and organic produce as I can find and afford and I avoid prepossessed food as much as possible. I felt (and still feel) the higher cost was worth it but I wasn't keeping track. Last week I added up what I spent on food in the last month and was shocked to realize I had spent $300 just on food!! ( I included eating out when I was at work but not in the evenings that was counted as entertainment.)  I couldn't believe it I went through and added it up again. How could I have spent so much on food for just myself?  I was so caught up in getting the good stuff I wasn't looking at my budget in fact I hadn't re-evaluated my budget for the new way I was buying, I just thought the higher price was worth it. but last month when my car needed a few repairs (another $300+ worth) money got tighter and I needed to add everything up to see where I could cut back.

So now that you have the back story I will lay out the rules. Many others have done challenges on eating well on a dollar a day and their rules are all pretty much the same: Start with nothing and only spend $1 a day on food for usually 30 days, One guy did it for 100 days and came out under budget by quite a lot( he used super couponing techniques). They did it as a way to prove that you can still eat nutritious food while on a very restrictive budget, that saying your low budget keeps you from eating healthy is simply not true.
While I applaud their achievements, I am not doing this to make a political point, I am doing this to develop better spending habits. So while others started with nothing in there pantry I will of course have full access to all of my food storage, Others did not allow themselves to accept food from others (samples, parties, the candy tray at work ect...) I will be free to eat whatever is offered to me (although I might decline for other reasons). I am not going to be super strict with myself  but I will have a few hard rules.

My Rules:
Every night before bed I will add one 5 dollar bill to my wallet
I will not carry debit card with me unless I am getting fuel
Any money not spent rolls over into the next day
Money in my wallet will be used for Food, Entertainment, clothing, and any non essentials 
Any money spent online will be taken out of the wallet and put back into the bank
Any additional money earned (selling stuff online ect..) will be added to my wallet total.
I must menu plan and stick to it
Try not to waste any food

Buying Exceptions:
I am allowed to buy fuel with my debit card every other week
I am allowed to buy gardening supplies with money earned while babysitting
If I see a great deal  on something important (like local meat or organic food storage items) that I don't have the money in my wallet for I can stock up if I can afford it otherwise.

The real Challenge wont be eating for $5 a day ( I feel I could do that easly ) It will be keeping up my standerds for food while still having money for entertainment and other non essentials.  I try to buy localy, organic, humanly raised and minimally prepossessed. I also buy raw grass fed milk which is $7.50 a gallon, pasture raised eggs can be $7.00 a dozen and I have seen grass fed ground beef up to $10 a pound.( I don't buy it at that price though.)


Hopefully I can get back into good spending habits with this system and get to point where I always have a good build up of roll over money to pull from. I started on February 25th and Have $10.71 in my wallet today. I did buy some things with my Debit card once because I have been suffering from constant heartburn recently and I was trying everything under the natural sun to treat it. Nothing helped for long and so reluctantly I started taking Omeprasole. I hope one 14 day course is all I have to take, I don't like taking medicine for an extended period of time. Other than that I have stuck to my rules completely. I even went to a movie last week ( I had a voucher to see Les Mis I only ended up spending $2)

the only way this will work is if I have someone to report to. Thats where you come in, I will be posting updates on how I am doing and what I am eating maybe even recipes. Its your job to keep me on track.

Wish me luck...

Where I Am Now

     Take a minute and consider where you are right now. I am not talking about your physical location, I am talking about where your are in your life, How do you feel about right now? Are you Happy where you are?  Are you working toward being somewhere else? Do you scold yourself or feel sorry for yourself for not being where or who you want to be?  Consider what Shawn Achor says in this Ted Talk:

 

Is the way that see where we are affecting our happiness? I know that I spend a lot of time daydreaming about the day when I will finally have everything I want. The spacious but practical farm house, 10+ acres of land to farm, and raise animals. Where I will produce as many of the things that my family need as possible. When I have that THEN I will be happy.  Is that the way that you feel? Once you have what you have been dreaming about then you can be happy.

    You can call me Jane (of all trades). Right now I am 26 years old, the 3rd child of 6 and the only girl, I have 2 best friends, who challenge and encourage me. I live in a wonderful rented duplex in the Salt Lake Valley with two amazing roommates,  I work 4 days a week as a nanny for infant twins, plus I work at a small specialty shoe store 2 days a week, I enjoy working but wish I had more time for all the little things,  I am single and I am a Mormon. (I just couldn't resist the reference to the ad campaign).


     I am so blessed when I think of where I am right now. Even though I am striving to be somewhere else in the future I can find Joy here. In my rental house's back yard, I was able to build two 4X4 Square Foot garden boxes and put several large pots on the patio. I am truly grateful for my gardens and am excited to start my first seedlings indoors when I get home from work tonight. I also have a large canning garden one of  my best friends, Zipper and I share in my Parents un-landscaped backyard and I can't wait to start tomatoes seeds under my grow lights. While I don't have the several acres I daydream about, I don't let that stop me from enjoying my gardens now. We are planning to can, freeze, dehydrate and preserve all of the tomatoes, pickles, green beans, beets, winter squash and parsnips that we both will use for the whole year. We also plan to glean as much fruit from neglected neighborhood trees as we have time to process.  It may not be my own farm but the sense of satisfaction from growing and preserving some of my own food is more than enough for me to be happy right now.  

I ultimately want to own 10 or more acres debt free where I grow and raise 95% of my families food completely self sufficiently. Including breeding, raising, and processioning heritage breed live stock in a humane and respectful way.

    While I don't own any land right now I can be content in purchasing humanely raised meat, eggs and dairy from small local family farms. Right now I have a local source for raw grass feed milk, pasture raised eggs, grass feed beef and free range chicken. I can't bring myself to buy any meat knowing that it lived a horrible life so I could have cheap protein. Even when I go out to eat I order vegetarian, I still eat meat when visiting my parents for Sunday dinner and I don't worry too much  that they don't feel the same way as I do. I can be happy not let the playful teasing get to me because I know they mean it in love. They know it means a lot to me.

I love my roommates dearly, one is my other best friend, Rue who loves to do all the geeky things with me, we watch shows like Dr. Who and Firefly, we go on random adventures, we laugh our heads off over nothing together and cry on each others shoulders. I couldn't imagine a better roommate or friend. My other roommate moved in less than a year ago, we get along great, her enthusiasm and drive are great motivators for me to work harder everyday.

Yes I am very blessed when I sit down to write it out for you. But there are some things about right now that I have wanted to change and at times I have been very depressed over. For example: As long as I can remember I have wanted nothing more than to be a wife and stay at home mom. I never thought I would still be single when I turned 25.  I don't know why the Lord is asking me to wait for this righteous desire and even though I have complete faith that his plan for me is infinitely better than my own, It still hurts sometimes to feel like you aren't good enough to have what you want most in the world. There isn't a lot I can do to, being a girl means my options are limited. I have asked guys out and paid for dates, I have tried online dating and I go to my ward activities, but there is only so much I can do to try and change that part of where I am. I know one day I will have what I have been longing for and it will be worth the wait. I can find happiness in that.

Join me as I share my daily life finding happiness in where I am and work toward where I long to be.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jane