photo by slworking2
And not just because I'm getting bigger around!
Financial belts are more what I'm talking about. It's been a really thin month at the hospital and as a result, I have barely worked at all. It's the culmination of a lot of different factors, but the net effect has been an incredible slimming of our income.
One the one hand, it would be easy to get pretty stressed about this. We were hoping that once the holidays were over, February through June would be our time to lay away a nice amount of money for things the baby might need and for my (unpaid) maternity leave, which will probably be about 8 weeks. It takes a fair amount just to keep our ship afloat in this area, sans extras, and so we've planned to be proactive about saving up enough to take care of it. Based on past months, it seemed like it wouldn't be a problem.
So far, that hasn't been able to happen. What has is that we've re-determined to get back to basics and really live according to our priorities. We canceled our YMCA membership, since we'd really only intended to belong during the winter anyway, and February in Virginia has given us enough 60- and 70-degree days to believe that, while we may still have a few chilly ones left in the next month or so, we can (for the most part) move our workouts back outside. Matt's been walking to work; when I work, I walk too, and when I don't, I walk him halfway and then walk back home. Getting out and seeing things starting to turn green is a lot more refreshing than pedaling a stationary bike anyway, it saves gas (and therefore money), and it's free. Folding-bike shopping trips can't be far behind!
We had also considered going out to dinner for (though not ON--we aren't crazy!) Valentine's Day. There's a French place really nearby that sounds great, and we thought it would be a nice change of pace for us. After sitting down and crunching the numbers, we decided to stay home instead. We aren't even planning to cook anything fancy or out of the ordinary--we realized that our everyday life is really special enough as it is. We're just as happy sitting around eating pasta, watching the Cosby Show (from Netflix), enjoying our cats and listening to Farmer Boy (from the library).
I've also retooled how I do our meal planning--I used to allot a lump sum for the monthly food budget, then plan menus weekly, but without a real eye as to how each meal/week affected the total. It was more based on estimates. You can imagine how that went: we over overspent. In the past, there was cushion in the budget to cover it; now, there just isn't. But now that we're ordering monthly from a food co-op anyway, we've started planning our meals monthly again as well, and I've broken the budget down into what we get from the co-op, what (milk, eggs, meat, etc) we get from local farms, and what is left to spend each week on things like produce and other necessities at the grocery store. We've also started keeping a price list so that we can estimate, before we even go out the door, how much we're going to spend each week and keep it in check that way. (It also helps to KNOW where things are the cheapest, otherwise we have a lazy habit of saying "Well, we're at Whole Foods for salad greens, we may as well pick up x and y and z..." all of which are probably close to a dollar or more cheaper somewhere else.) So far, it's been really helpful to be able to see, for example, that when Mushroom Bourguignon requires $4 worth of mushroom broth and $8 worth of portabellas (to start with), we're probably better off choosing something else--or at least balancing it with lower-cost selections throughout the week and the month. Our favorites aren't necessarily our most expensive meals anyway. And we've found other ways to stretch, too--we can get a pound of local sausage for under $5, and we've realized we really don't need more than a quarter of it to make a good-sized batch of sausage gravy and biscuits. That means we can make it every Saturday (a fun tradition) and only have to buy sausage once a month. We absolutely want to do everything we can do avoid having to sacrifice quality in our food budget, so instead we're doing our best to stretch ingredients and substitute cheaper--but equally healthy--meals as much as we can. Since meat has held even less appeal for me now that I'm pregnant, and we were 90% vegetarian anyway, it hasn't been a problem to limit ourselves to, say, a pound of sausage and a pound of ground beef (which gets split between things like chili and Ham Mush Med) a month. We could easily do without them entirely, but I feel like the extra boost of iron and protein are probably a good thing a few times a month.
We've also resolved not to spend anything for at least the next month that we don't absolutely have to. For example: we're running low on castile soap in the shower. My first impulse is that Dr Bronner's is a great deal on Amazon, and with six bars, then we'd be set for a long time! Then I remembered our promise to each other to avoid ALL unnecessary spending, and I dug around in the bathroom for a couple of minutes until I found four total bars of Aveda, Aveeno, and Burt's Bees (some were samples, some were freebies, and all have the benefit of being healthy, chemical-free soaps). They aren't huge bars, but that should easily last us at least a month, if not several, and will have the added bonus of clearing out some of the clutter in the bathroom. Voila. Next time there's a little bit leftover, I'll go ahead and order the Dr Bronner's. Just not this month.
We had also cut back our charity budget temporarily because, well, it really wasn't there to give. Then last night we were at Trader Joe's and there was a woman standing outside with an index card stating she had lost her job and had nothing to feed her four children. I'm a cynical person by nature, but when it comes to people suffering, I would rather err on the side of being duped than ignore someone who's truly in need. Luckily, Matt feels the same way--without saying anything, we looked at each other, went in, and filled a basket with some basics like rice and beans, pasta and sauce, peanut butter and bread, apples, bananas, and milk. Matt carried them out and we gave them to the woman, who burst into tears. Opportunities like that help us realize that in the midst of feeling like our financial situation is really tight, we have such an incredible amount to be thankful for.
So that's how we're choosing to view the current situation: as an opportunity to take stock of what really matters, and learn to really trust God to give us (and show us) the things we really need.
We've even got a theme song.
I've also retooled how I do our meal planning--I used to allot a lump sum for the monthly food budget, then plan menus weekly, but without a real eye as to how each meal/week affected the total. It was more based on estimates. You can imagine how that went: we over overspent. In the past, there was cushion in the budget to cover it; now, there just isn't. But now that we're ordering monthly from a food co-op anyway, we've started planning our meals monthly again as well, and I've broken the budget down into what we get from the co-op, what (milk, eggs, meat, etc) we get from local farms, and what is left to spend each week on things like produce and other necessities at the grocery store. We've also started keeping a price list so that we can estimate, before we even go out the door, how much we're going to spend each week and keep it in check that way. (It also helps to KNOW where things are the cheapest, otherwise we have a lazy habit of saying "Well, we're at Whole Foods for salad greens, we may as well pick up x and y and z..." all of which are probably close to a dollar or more cheaper somewhere else.) So far, it's been really helpful to be able to see, for example, that when Mushroom Bourguignon requires $4 worth of mushroom broth and $8 worth of portabellas (to start with), we're probably better off choosing something else--or at least balancing it with lower-cost selections throughout the week and the month. Our favorites aren't necessarily our most expensive meals anyway. And we've found other ways to stretch, too--we can get a pound of local sausage for under $5, and we've realized we really don't need more than a quarter of it to make a good-sized batch of sausage gravy and biscuits. That means we can make it every Saturday (a fun tradition) and only have to buy sausage once a month. We absolutely want to do everything we can do avoid having to sacrifice quality in our food budget, so instead we're doing our best to stretch ingredients and substitute cheaper--but equally healthy--meals as much as we can. Since meat has held even less appeal for me now that I'm pregnant, and we were 90% vegetarian anyway, it hasn't been a problem to limit ourselves to, say, a pound of sausage and a pound of ground beef (which gets split between things like chili and Ham Mush Med) a month. We could easily do without them entirely, but I feel like the extra boost of iron and protein are probably a good thing a few times a month.
We've also resolved not to spend anything for at least the next month that we don't absolutely have to. For example: we're running low on castile soap in the shower. My first impulse is that Dr Bronner's is a great deal on Amazon, and with six bars, then we'd be set for a long time! Then I remembered our promise to each other to avoid ALL unnecessary spending, and I dug around in the bathroom for a couple of minutes until I found four total bars of Aveda, Aveeno, and Burt's Bees (some were samples, some were freebies, and all have the benefit of being healthy, chemical-free soaps). They aren't huge bars, but that should easily last us at least a month, if not several, and will have the added bonus of clearing out some of the clutter in the bathroom. Voila. Next time there's a little bit leftover, I'll go ahead and order the Dr Bronner's. Just not this month.
We had also cut back our charity budget temporarily because, well, it really wasn't there to give. Then last night we were at Trader Joe's and there was a woman standing outside with an index card stating she had lost her job and had nothing to feed her four children. I'm a cynical person by nature, but when it comes to people suffering, I would rather err on the side of being duped than ignore someone who's truly in need. Luckily, Matt feels the same way--without saying anything, we looked at each other, went in, and filled a basket with some basics like rice and beans, pasta and sauce, peanut butter and bread, apples, bananas, and milk. Matt carried them out and we gave them to the woman, who burst into tears. Opportunities like that help us realize that in the midst of feeling like our financial situation is really tight, we have such an incredible amount to be thankful for.
So that's how we're choosing to view the current situation: as an opportunity to take stock of what really matters, and learn to really trust God to give us (and show us) the things we really need.
We've even got a theme song.
3 comments:
Wow. You really ARE hippies! I didn't think there were even any of us OLD folks alive who remembered THAT wonderful song. Perfect plans, perfect theme song. For Valentine's Day, may I just say, y'all are loveable. Or is that lovable? And p.s. I've been on the receiving end of a basket of groceries or two in my day, literally and figuratively. When I sent Valentine's packages to my sisters yesterday, I included a can of deviled ham in each package, just to keep alive the memory of when we waited for packages from our grandmother with deviled ham in them. Funny the things you remember in this world -- that woman won't forget you all. Happy Valentine's Day.
You guys can't possibly know how proud we are of you. I guess that the four of us in the Midwest did something right.
Just neat.
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