Wednesday, January 28, 2009

This & That

I've been struggling with the fact that I have nothing to blog about. Nothing.
It's been cold. Grey. Dreary. Very run-of-the-mill for late January. Boring and dull would be good adjectives.

Which I guess is a good thing given the daily news. We have jobs which allows us to continue as normal. My heart goes out to the millions who have chaos in their lives due to job loss.

Oh, this post sounds depressing. I'll try to improve the tone. Enough already.

Today I've got random items to share.

Last night was my book club meeting. Turns out I was hosting. Not originally planned but I volunteered as the scheduled host had a sick boy in her house. Mind you, I worked until 5pm and we were meeting at 7:00. Between 5 and 7 I had to do some taxi-ing of kids + feed myself & Lawman.

Dinner had to be quick & easy. I received a recipe from my SIL on Monday for an Omelet in a Bag. What? I know, sounds strange. Turns out, it works great.

Start with quart size ziploc freezer bags and eggs. 1 ziploc + 2 eggs per person.


Crack the eggs into the ziploc, close and give it a good shake to mix up the eggs. Add your favorite omelet fixin's; we used green pepper, shredded potato and shredded cheese.

Zip bag and place into a pot of boiling water and boil for 13 minutes.



Remove bag(s) from pot and dump the omelet onto a plate. Wala! Dinner is ready. I plan to make them again with the girls as an experiment of sorts. I think they'll enjoy it.


It is customary at our book club that the hostess provide yummy drinks and dessert. Since I didn't have time to bake and my magic wand was broke, I knew the chance of me pulling something fabulous out of thin air was slim to none. Popcorn and hot choclate would have to suffice. We were watching a movie after all. The movie version of our book. I thought it would be perfect. Turns out it was. Here's the popcorn recipe I used.

Now for a thought that's been bouncing around in my head for a few months. A No Spend Month or 30 Days of Nothing. Have you heard of it? I've read accounts of several families experience with this. Basically, for 30 days you eliminate all non-essential spending. I mentioned this to my family last fall. Not interested. I mentioned it again in late December. Amy's family is having a No Spend Month in February. Mary's family has done this more than once. I read Rachel's account this fall.

I mentioned this idea to Lawman again on Monday thinking that if we were going to do this, we better make a plan as February is literally only days away. Lawman's response? "Every month is a no spend month in this house." Obviously, he's not excited about this little plan. So I let it go. Some battles aren't worth fighting.
His little comment did give me something to think about. Is every month a no spend month? For the most part, he's right. We aren't frivolous. We don't eat out excessively. We don't spend every weekend at the mall. We see a movie at the theatre about once every 6-8 weeks (if we're lucky).

What I had hoped to accomplish with a no spend month was an educational opportunity for our girls. I know the 12 year old doesn't grasp the amount of cash it takes to keep this family functioning. The 15 year old (B2) has a better understanding. She knows how much we pay for the mortgage and utilities. It's good for her to know but we have the understanding that the information she is privvy to does not leave this house. If we didn't think she was mature enough to be responsible with this information, we wouldn't have shared it. My folks didn't discuss finances with me and I don't want to make that mistake with our girls. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to budget when I left home and the absolute worst thing was that I got a credit card in college. Suffice it to say that I learned some financial lessons the hard way.

I know B2 has taken my rambling to heart. She did a no spend week for herself last week. No lunch out for her. She made a lunch every day.
Have you done a no spend month? Something you'd consider? I know we spend more during the warm weather months when it's easier to go out and do something. Maybe we'll re-consider this spring.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow, for not having much to blog about - that was a lot! i'm with lawman - we have not been spending anything outside the expected - bills, mortgage and food. and yes, the days here have been glum. glum - is that a word?

Anonymous said...

That was some darn good popcorn.

Anonymous said...

Ditto that!!

Jill said...

I did a month of nothing in October. It was a fantastic experience for us. It gave our kids a lot of knowledge/experiences that they wouldn't have had otherwise. It gave me the knowledge that I can live very comfortably on much less than I spend now. Mostly it really re-oriented my thinking about what are "wants" versus "needs." A lot of what I thought were needs are actually just wants. I'd do it again, definately.

And, sometimes, popcorn and hot chocolate are the best "treats" ever!

Jill

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing the omelet recipe and with pictures. Along with being fast and easy, I love the way they look.

I haven't tried the no spending for a month, but each year for Lent our family gives us something together. One year it was drinks other than water, the next it was resteraunts, and this year is sugar. It's a spiritual thing, but also pratically speaking it brings awareness to just how much you use or overuse something. We splurge on Sundays which always makes the forbidden special and celebrated. Thanks for your post!