My Two Challenges for the Month...And How They Have Been Adjusted

After yesterday, I figured out a few things.  First, if I am to not spend money or eat junk food for a month I better be held captive in a remote place with no hope of running into my friends, a store, or a fast food place for the entire month.  That being said, I do want to reap some of the benefits of these challenges so this is what I have changed:

• Whole 30/Paleo Challenge.  This is what I wanted to do, and what happens when you don't do it right.  I even had this nifty paleo grocery shopping guide.  And then I ran into some friends and collectively we ran into In N Out Burger...and boy did that burger taste good.  But oddly, a bit after eating the burger, I had a weird feeling.  I am thinking it was the wheat in the bun that made me get this odd cough that I always got after eating except I hadn't noticed it at all the few days that I didn't eat any wheat.  Then I thought hmmm.  If, as I have suspected for some time, wheat has such an impact on me, I certainly didn't want to throw in the towel on the whole diet thing.  But at the same time, I am pretty convinced that I can't do a strict paleo diet because, well, I really do love food.  Greek food, Chinese food, Mexican food, French food, Thai food...you name it and I will probably want to eat it.  So...I decided that while the challenge may be a fail, making better choices in the food I eat is doable.  So today, I just decided to eat what I want but to make better choices.  We went to lunch at The Palms today and their buffet is awesome.  Instead of eating everything there, I started with a big salad then moved on to vegetables, salmon, and a couple of beef ribs.  I skipped the beautiful dessert trays and had fruit for dessert.  I also skipped anything with wheat (such as breaded and fried anything and the pita that would have been good wrapped around the falafel balls and tzatziki sauce which I ate by itself), but did have some dairy (couldn't pass up the mozzarella and tomato salad).  Also, hubby thought I would cave and head to Baskin Robbins but I didn't and the only snack-type item we have at home is fresh fruit so I will try to avoid bringing any junk food into the house.  Overall an OK compromise (but I would have really liked to do 30 days of strict paleo just to see what would happen!).
• No Spend Challenge.  Again, I seem to not be able to not spend.  So I have decided to watch what I spend but try to justify each item I purchase (and hopefully talk myself out of buying things I don't really need).  Today hubby spent $1 on the slot machine while he was waiting for me (and won $13).  We also had a nice buffet lunch which was free from the comps he received from the casino.  That was all of the money we spent today.  I will probably be shelling out $95 for karate lessons this month which I will justify by saying that earning a black belt is one of my goals for this year AND that at six lessons a week or 24 lessons a month, the $95 breaks down to a bit less than $4 per lesson which is a bargain.

So there you have it.  I have very little willpower, unfortunately, but I will use what little I have to make small changes over time which will (hopefully) lead to bigger and better changes in the future!

Day 3 of My Challenge...Utter Fail

The long and short of it:

• No Spend Challenge: $56 for our storage unit (pretty necessary), $12.95 at a local Asian store for stuff we didn't really need, $1 for a banana and tangerine because I forgot to bring a snack with me and I got hungry, $17.56 at In and Out Burger because we took our friends there for dinner.  FAIL
• Paleo Challenge: See the In and Out Burger above.  FAIL

tl;dr I suck at challenges and have no will power...zero, nada, zilch. Ayayay

Day 2 Challenge Update

A quick update of today's challenges:

• No spend challenge.  Today we did spend some money but it was for a bill (cell phone $30), food ($18.71), and hubby got a haircut ($15 including tip, using a $2 off coupon that was going to expire at the end of the week).
• Paleo challenge.  I am happy--and surprised--to report that I was all Paleo, all day.  The headache is subsiding, and I ate nothing but healthy, Paleo-approved food today.  I miss snacking and had the faint urge to get a Baskin Robbins Blast but resisted.  A lot of people have noted that after the initial "carb flu" detoxing days right after they start a Paleo-type diet, they feel like they were "shot out of a canon" and I am really looking forward to experiencing that feeling so I will stay strong and resist...basically all of the foods I love (dairy, bread, snacks, etc).

A Couple of Challenges for January

Along with making some general resolutions for 2012, there are two challenges that I will be doing in January:

• The first is a no-spend challenge over at Carla's blog.  For the month of January, which, crossing my fingers, should be really quiet with not a lot going on, I will try to spend NO money for the month (except for food, see second challenge below).  Other than a few bills (cells, tithe, electricity, savings, grandson's school) I don't foresee anything coming up that I would NEED to spend money on (unlike this past month where there were all kinds of things popping up that required money).  If I can possibly get by without purchasing anything but food and paying my meager bills I will.  Even if something comes up (like I have been wanting a new pair of tennis shoes) I will try to put it off until February.  NO SPEND JANUARY!
• The second is a Whole 30 Challenge.  I have been wanting to "go paleo" for a while but with traveling and holidays and friends bearing yummy food and checking out restaurants in Las Vegas, I have failed miserably at past trials for this.  Anyway, I came across a Whole 30 challenge which is a strict paleo type of diet and for ONE MONTH, I am really going to buckle down and try my best to stay with this eating program.  I really want to see if it is as beneficial as they say and see how one month of concentrated effort and eating right impacts my body.  This is going to be way harder than not spending money because, well I LOVE food.  Ayayay   There is some more information on this challenge here and here.

Do any of you have interesting challenges you will be trying in the new year?

Chicago Travel Challenge: Part 1

I was reading the Mogul in Training blog and she had done a challenge to spend only a certain amount on her last vacation. I have never really had a budget for a vacation before so I thought I would give it a try.
This week the hubby and I are in Chicago because I am attending a conference for work. A couple of days before we left, I sold a desk which I had on CraigsList (part of my $1500 challenge) however I had already reached the $1500 so didn't need the funds for that challenge so I thought I would take the $300 and see if we could keep our spending for five days to $300 or less for both of us. A few things are working in our favor, namely the five star hotel we are staying in is paid for by a client (rant about these kinds of hotels below), airfare was also paid, we long ago got over buying souvenir trinkets, and, since we only travel with one carry on bag each, it is really hard to buy much because we would have no way to get the excess stuff back home. I did a bit of research before we left to find out what (really cheap, preferably free) things there are to do in Chicago and was able to develop quite a list. Here's how our money has been spent so far:

Day 1 (Monday): $56 spent

• Two three-day CTA (bus/subway) passes $28 for both. This is one of THE BEST investments we made for our trip. With this pass, you can use any bus or subway for an unlimited amount of trips for 72 hours. We have been literally all over Chicago using these passes so this already saved us a bunch of money (and hassle) over using a rental car.
• Dunkin Donuts, $2. This is my favorite donut place and we don't have this on the West Coast so a necessary splurge.
• $4 for a two litres of pop and bottled water for the hotel room. Using the mini-bar is insane because the prices are so high so we go to the local corner store and buy beverages for the room at a fraction of the price.
• KenKee Restaurant, $22 for both of us. We went to Chinatown and looked into the windows of restaurants until we found one packed with local Chinese people. This is a sure-fire way to find a good restaurant because if all of the locals eat there, it is pretty much guaranteed that they have good food and good prices. We weren't disappointed--the food was excellent!

Day 2 (Tuesday): $25.55 spent

• We headed to REI because they had a big sale and this could have been a budget buster but I couldn't find anything I really needed so we just looked but didn't buy. Free.
• Next we hopped on the subway to Greektown and went to Mr Greek Gyros for lunch (another place packed to the gills with people during lunch). $14 bought us a huge helping of rib tips and rice and a huge gyro and fries. Excellent food, huge portions, and great prices!
• I gave $1 to a guy who was singing and playing his guitar in the subway. A good price to pay for 10 minutes of good entertainment.
• We then hopped on the subway again and went to window shop at the Magnificent Mile--Macy's, Saks, and dozens of other stores that are incredibly expensive. Bought nothing so this cost 0.
• The Museum of Contemporary Art was right down the street from the Magnificent Mile and it was FREE today. We wandered around in a nice air conditioned gallery and checked out the (decidedly odd in my opinion) artwork.
• Across the street was the Northwestern School of Law. I wanted a sweatshirt from the school but we didn't feel like walking to the other end of the campus in the heat so this stop cost nothing.
• A Starbucks stop cost $5.35 for both of us.
• We discovered WowBao which produces great Asian buns in this same area. $3 for two buns.
• We finished up with a lite dinner at The Dog Joint in Lincoln Park (we had headed over to the zoo but it was closed), so dinner cost $5.20 for both of us (a hot dog for hubby and a hot dog with all the fixins, hold the hot dog, for me).
• Leftovers from earlier today was the perfect late night snack for hubby, cost, free.
• A beautiful fireworks show provided evening entertainment for about 30 minutes and it was right outside out hotel window in the middle of the river so we didn't even have to leave our room to watch it! Free!

Day 3 (Wednesday): $46.63 spent

• We hit the subway early this morning so we could be at the Lincoln Park Zoo when it opened. Apparently every other school kid in Chicago did the same--I have never seen so many kids in one place at one time! The zoo was great--clean and lots of animals to look at and photograph. Best of all, this attraction was FREE!
• Lunch was in Chinatown where we broke our cardinal rule of restaurant finding and went to a restaurant that had no people in it. The food wasn't all that great unfortunately. $15 for two lunches that were only so-so.
• $1 went to a lady who was singing in the subway--she had a beautiful voice! Here name is Miss Flow she has a website.
• $4 for a Starbucks during a break at the conference I was attending (bad habit, I know).
• After looking over the entirety of Greektown for a place for dinner, the only restaurant that was packed was Mr Greek's so we went here again--a spanokopita dinner complete with rice, salad, and bread and a pork chop dinner for hubby cost $15.10 for both of us.
• $1.10 for Dunkin Donuts (again) to bring back to the room for dessert.
• $10.43 for a six pack of bao from WowBao which will be a late night snack.

And a short rant: I pretty much detest 5-star hotels, even when someone else is paying for it. Give me a nice Comfort Inn type hotel any day. At least with a mid-range hotels like a Comfort Inn or Quality Inn, they include free wi-fi, free exercise room, free parking, free pool, and even free breakfast! Most 5-star hotels, like the one we are staying in, nickel and dime you to death! Room, $250+, parking $15, internet $10 (per computer per day!!), health club $15, breakfast $10+. Ayayay...

An Update...Or Rather Three Updates

Feeling much better and now ready to rock my financials. Here's the update:

• $1500 challenge. I made it! In addition to the $1000 I had collected in the previous update, I sold a gold bracelet that I never wore for $300 (not at a "Cash for Gold" place but to a local jeweler who pays much higher rates for salvage gold), and hubby won $200 at his weekly poker game so I did complete the challenge (and made my house payment) but I wouldn't recommend doing this with something as important as a house payment because it is TOO stressful. Fortunately I didn't have to tap into the emergency fund to make the payment! The best part is that hubby's credit card is half paid off and as soon as I get my bonus I will pay off the other half which was the whole catalyst for this challenge.
• The house sale. Not so much good new here. We have only had a few people look at the house since the end of the tax credit in April. The house may also be priced a bit high for the market so we may end up just keeping it until the market values raise around here. We aren't pressed to sell and we want to be able to make a reasonable profit so we will decide in June whether to pull it off the market for a while. Once we do decide to keep it, we will begin doing some renovations including a new kitchen floor and new appliances and counter tops in the kitchen., which should make it both nice for us to enjoy while we live here and add some value for the next time we put it on the market.
• Travel. I am heading to Chicago next week for a business trip (of course the hubby is tagging along as we always travel together). We always have a budget, sort of, in mind for our travel but it is usually pretty flexible. I read this post over at the Young Mogul blog and it gave me the idea to set a really tight budget for the trip and see if we can actually meet it. So next week's posts will revolve around how to squeeze every penny out of our travel dollars. I have already done a bit of research (Googling 'free things to do in Chicago') and found that there will be a Turkish Community Festival when we are there complete with free entertainment, a free day at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, and free entrance to the National Museum of Surgical Science which should be interesting as well.

How Far Can You Get on $10?

This is how far... Today I took my $10 and headed out (on foot so there was no transportation expense) to see how much I could buy. Here's what I got:

• Birthday card for a friend in Japan $0.54
• Overseas stamp for said birthday card $0.98
• My favorite Trail mix $1
• One pound of pasta $1
• One can of pasta sauce $1
• Box of Special K Cereal $2
• One banana $0.26
• One candy bar $0.34
• Five hours of ice skating $2.50

For a grand total of $9.62. The remaining change will go into my change jar.

I needed to get the card because my friend's birthday is next week (so technically I am late doing this because it will take at least a week to get to her). And the stamp is important to actually get the card to Japan. While I was at the Dollar Store getting the card, I picked up the pasta and sauce so that I can make a pasta bake tonight for dinner. I also get my trail mix from the Dollar Store because it is both cheap and has all of the stuff I like in it (dates, soy nuts, etc) and since I will do the marathon this weekend, the trail mix is necessary as this is what I usually eat when I am walking. Hubby asked me to pick up dessert for him so he gets cereal, something he actually likes to have for dessert in the evenings. The cereal was on sale with an in-store coupon. The candy bar was also on sale with an in-store coupon and even though I rarely ever buy candy, it looked good (and like a cheap treat because at the time I was craving a Starbucks which would have taken nearly half of my $10). I was also hungry this morning and the banana looked good (and cheap as well; I looked at the strawberries but one pound was $2.50 so bananas were a better value). Finally, I was looking at our local newspaper online this morning to find out what was happening in the community and saw that every Wednesday at the local ice skating rink, you can pay for skate rental and skate for free. For FIVE hours from noon to 5pm. Wow. While I only skated for about 45 minutes--I didn't want to get blisters because of the marathon--I still think that is an exceptional value. The rink was full of parents of kids who got out of school early today and had the same idea.

So this challenge shows that you can actually get pretty far on $10 in an average American city. I would have liked to buy a pound of frozen vegetables to add to the pasta but I didn't have the extra dollar to do so. It made me think about people who really only have $10 to buy food for themselves and/or their family and how they would have to make choices between the kind of food they buy whereas many people just toss whatever they want in their cart without needing to make hard choices. I also thought about the lady over at Less Is Enough who did a $1 a day for food for a month challenge. When you are just starting off on a challenge you have to make choices but as she showed during her project, you can use your money to buy more than enough for one meal, thus having leftovers (which we will definitely have with the pasta) so some of this money from today's project will actually feed us lunch for the next couple of days.

Overall this was an excellent lesson in stretching my money AND in making choices that would give me the best bang for my buck.

Inspired for a Challenge (Or Two or Three)

I find inspiration in all kinds of things. The news, some blogs, and a comment are my sources of inspiration for some challenges I will hold myself to in the coming weeks.

• I was perusing CNN and came across this interesting challenge, How Far Can You Get on $10? Well I aim to find out. Tomorrow I don't have much work (only one short meeting), so I will take my $10 bill and see how far I can stretch it and how many interesting things I can do.
• A personal goal is to walk a marathon and it just so happens that a walking marathon is coming up this Saturday in Vancouver, WA. This should be quite the challenge and it is on my goal list (note the '400 Goals in 400 Days' that I posted about a while back has been downsized to 43 goals that I intend to achieve this year starting last Saturday which was my 43rd birthday..more on this in a later post) so I am hauling my carcass down to Vancouver and will hopefully complete an entire 26 mile walk in one day!
• I received a comment from Young Mogul who pointed out that my no spend week some months ago was really not much of a challenge because I stayed home most of the time and of course, unless you are a dedicated online shopper, you really can get by without spending money if you stay home because there is both no temptation and no place to spend your money. Of course she was right. So...my challenge for the last week of the month (April 25-May 1) is to do a no spend week. This should be a lot more challenging because I have out of town meetings/training sessions four out of seven days that week. And of course the very first place our car pool group stops on the way to these meetings is Starbucks, and of course I have a Starbucks addiction...and so you can imagine how challenging this may be.
• Then I came across some other interesting challenges: a $40 weekly spending/entertainment plan, a one week on $20 challenge, and a post by Betsy at Married With Luggage about a number of people who have challenged themselves to live with just 100 things. The month of May looks like it may encompass all of these things--we should have an offer on our house soon (so says our realtor) which would mean next month will pose a number of challenges: we need to downsize our stuff considerably to fit it into our new place (the 100 thing challenge or thereabouts), and I also intend to keep my spending to between the $20 and $40 per week because I told our lender we would have hubby's credit card paid off before the house closes which means every single penny I can round up will go to that debt.

So stay tuned...this should be an interesting month and a half...