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Archive for September, 2006

No spending today!

October 1st, 2006 at 05:34 am

So I managed to not spend but $0.30 today (that was on copies of an article for a class... doesn't count! hehe.) I ate both lunch AND dinner at home, no snacks in between, even though I had to go downtown to the university library, and doughnuts were calling my name... I had a salad with tuna on it... trying to eat up that lettuce before it goes bad. And for dinner I made green curry... using one of those last two potatoes I have, and some carrots. I have a bad habit of buying produce and letting it go bad, so I'm making a concious effort. At any rate, same rule should apply tomorrow. Though tomorrow is salsa night. I'm alotting myself the $5 to take the lessons. It should be fun though. I'm excited. I just hope I feel well enough to go. I feel as if i'm coming down with a cold Frown nothing soup and OJ wont fix, though. That's all for today, kids!

Yesterday's Shopping and Inventory

September 30th, 2006 at 03:36 pm

Okay, so yesterday I took inventory of everything in my kitchen (i've seen others do this and I thought it would be helpful!) Here's what I came up with:

A huge bag of frozen chicken tenders
A huge bag of frozen stir-fry veggies
Lean Pockets (roughly 12)
1/2 box perogies
Army supply of V8 juice
Big box of bisquick
1/2 can wheat germ
1/2 bottle Plum wine
small tub sour cream
Lots of cream cheese
Hummus
1/2 jar pasta sauce
Feta Cheese crumbles
6 eggs
2 bags salad mix
army supply of string cheese
carrots
shredded cheddar cheese
a few packages udon
tons of popcorn
HUGE can of mixed nuts
bag of lemon-pepper noodles
1/4 bag sticky rice
1/2 box spaghetti
2 potatoes
nori
rice vinegar
3 huge tubs peanut butter
flour
sugar
brown sugar
cornstartch
baking powder
2 cans tuna
1 can tomato soup (I ate the other for dinner last night!)
1 can beets
1 can coconut milk
1 can potatoes
1 can bamboo shoots
5 cans mandarin oranges
1/2 bag craisins
army supply of nutrigrain bars
Raisin bran out the wazoo
1/4 box bulgur wheat cereral
hot cocoa
a variety of spices
about 2 tbsp of olive oil left in the bottle...
Apples out the wazoo
Beef jerky out the wazoo
Applesauce out the wazoo
Ramen
Easy mac
3 tubs strawberry jam
A ton of blue moon.

NOW I know why BF gets a little irritated when I tell him there's nothing in the apartment to eat. hehe. I did, however, buy a few choice items yesterday (with my $30 limit) to round off some of the perishables...

Yogurt (my powerfood)
2 avocados (my addiction)
Bagels (to go with the mass amount of cream cheese)
Vanilla Icecream (to complement the baked apples I made yesterday)
Coconut milk (I need 2 cans to make curry)
Jasmine Rice (also for curry)
Edamame (my fave snack)
Curry paste (I think mine went bad)

Just as a little tip, me and BF eat a lot of asian food (if you couldn't tell), and a great tip is buying food from asian grocery stores. We have a few near where we're from, and everything is much cheaper. And more authentic!

My goal this week is to only eat out (monday thru thursday... I'm going out of town this weekend, it'll be unavoidable) 2 times. And I'm gonna try and keep one of those under $5. Eating on campus is just so expensive... and one day a week I get lunch with my friend at the school cafeteria... $7 for cafeteria food! But usually it's pretty good and it's buffet, so I get a lot!

At any rate, work tonight! It's a weekend night, so hopefully I'll make some money... hehe. Later guys!

Savings Account

September 29th, 2006 at 05:18 pm

Alright, so I got my loan check in the mail and I opened up a savings account. I currently have $1100 in that account, and I'll be depositing $140 today. I also decided to start my Xmas savings fund, because that's coming up and I think it's better to start early. I've got more than a few people to get things for... though I'm happy to say I took up crocheting and I'm currently making my BF's grandmother a scarf right now... the yarn I'm using is fairly expensive though, so it ends up being just as much as buying a pricey gift... but home-made! I'm thinking about using this recently aquired craft to make a few more gifts as well. At any rate, I'm putting all savings into my savings account, but I'm "separating" them on paper to distinguish what I can spend on what... so here goes:
School savings: $1220
Xmas savings: $20

I have to go to the grocery store today... but I'm going to limit myself to $30 because recently I've been eating at least one meal on campus twice a week. Not to mention, BF's gram took him on a Sam's Club run the other week, so we have plenty of the staples. For free! So I'll budget $30, but whatever I dont spend, I'll throw into the school savings category. What fun this budgeting is!

Not to mention, It's the 4th week of school and I am LOVING it... well, when I'm not stressed out because my work load and school load together are a bit much. I dropped a couple of my other activities to take a little breath. At any rate, I'm considering double-majoring. Yes, that means additional schooling, but it's in my heart. Therefore I have additional financial planning ahead of me. But I figured it out, and if I take heavier-than-usual courseloads, and only 3 classes during the summer, I'll get out within the next 3.5 years. haha. Not too bad... my scholarships will still be in effect by then. Not to mention, BF has been talking about getting married a lot lately. We've discussed it many a time, and though there is no ring yet, we're looking to get married the summer after he graduates. I'm expecting the proposal very soon, however, because he's discussed it all with his grandparents- and even better news is that we have thier blessings!! I'm very happy about that.

At any rate, this is getting very lengthy, I'll cut it now. Thanks for reading, guys!

First Week Survived

September 5th, 2006 at 06:31 pm

So I managed to live through my first week of school. Cant say that it was incredibly easy, but I do give myself a pat on the back for time management skills. I could have had a more productive weekend for sure, but needless to say, I enjoyed my holiday weekend. But it's back to the books for me... and to the restaurant. I've got work tonight. Last week was incredibly trying... didn't make very much money at all. It was very frustrating to say the least. Not to mention, my coworkers weren't helping the situation. A lot of nasty comments were made to me. Ordinarily that wouldn't bother me too much, but it was on a very frustrating day. All of my lunch breaks were spent doing homework and such. Saturday night, I went out with my bf and a couple coworkers [obviously not the ones making the rude comments] and had a wonderful time. The band has been practicing very frequently. We have our show coming up next weekend, which is going to be wonderful. I'm incredibly excited. We've been working on some new material. Once we get a few more songs written, we're gonna record a CD. If anyone wants to listen to some of my solo stuff, however, you guys are free to go to my site. It's only my myspace page for the moment until we get the actual site up and running, but if anyone wants to tell me what they think, please do!

www.taradawnmusic.com

Thanks so much!