Saving Cash - Day 3 - Meal Plans and Grocery List

Before I start today's blog, I wanted to post the picture we finally downloaded of our freezer on Day 14 after spending no money for two weeks. Thought you might appreciate it. Usually, our freezer is quite full.

It's been an easy feat saving cash today. My husband spent no money today since he ate free cheese and crackers at work. I ate breakfast super early with a double espresso at home, only had a $10 co-pay at the doctors, mailed some letters with stamps I already had, and then went and bought our first two bottles of red wine since we started the "no spending money for two weeks" experiment. The wine was a splurge, for sure, but it tasted delicious with our homemade beef stew for dinner.

Speaking of dinner, I realized I never posted our meal plans for this week and next, and I also forgot to share my shopping list with you all. I'm still stuck with tougher meal choices this week because I have to continue eating a low-iodine diet for an upcoming body scan on Friday. Hopefully Friday night I'll be given the "ok" to resume eating normal foods. I had chicken on the menu for this week, but had to change it around because it was outrageously expensive at the store. I'll work more chicken and fish into the menu next week. (I can't eat any fish this week because of the iodine and have to make sure any chicken is salt and broth-free.)

By the way, my first big shopping trip to our local grocery store on Monday was a disaster. The kids were not at all patient with me as I carefully checked coupons and specific products for purchase. They spent a lot of time picking on each other, while I was trying really hard to follow my list, and find good deals. After we got through about 2/3 of the store, I gave up on my efforts at discipline, and checked out. I didn't buy everything I wanted to get, and I forgot to give the salesclerk my coupons worth about $7. At least most of the items were also discounted with my store fidelity card, which I did have on hand. Next time I do the "big shop" I will not take both kids for my sanity and to save money.

Two- Week Meal Plan: (I bought most everything we need for these meals)
Monday - Steak, salad, homemade vinaigrette and sweet potatoes.
Tuesday - Meatloaf, orzo rice, and sauteed mushrooms
Wednesday - Beef Stew with potatoes, turnips, celery, carrots, tomato sauce, tomato paste, balsamic vinegar
Thursday - Kids will eat at our neighbor's house (I'll probably have stew)
Friday - Kids and husband will eat at International Night at local elementary school
Saturday - Going out to dinner to celebrate a family birthday in Baltimore (This will be our first meal out since we started the experiment!)
Sunday - Grilled Sausages, Potatoes, Salad, Sauerkraut

Monday - Chicken, sweet potatoes, veggies
Tuesday - Lasagna with veggies, Bread, Salad
Wednesday - Leftovers
Thursday - Thanksgiving - Take wine, cheeses, vegetable side dish
Friday - Dinner with family (my mom cooks...)
Saturday - Fish, rice, veggies
Sunday - Homemade chicken soup with corn, noodles and sandwiches

My husband helped me figure out how to post a link on the blog, so if you want to download my shopping list, you can! (We had trouble finding a way to post the link, so we are using a site we found; please do NOT pay any money to download it. As far as we can tell, it should be free. If you have any problems, send me a comment, and I'll try to solve any issues.)

My grocery list is more or less set up by aisles, so you can cut and paste it to suit your favorite grocery store. I also have notes on good prices I've found; feel free to edit them to your stores and region. It's one of my personal goals to note the best prices for all of these items, though some prices, especially for produce are seasonal. And of course, you should add in your own favorite foods and staples. Hopefully this will help you organize your trips to the store and save you some time with your planning. Typically, I try to have a few printed out at a time, and as we need items I'll just circle or highlight them on the list. Anything unusual that I buy which isn't worth typing, I just jot down in the margin. I do the meal planning on the back as I plan the shopping list or vice versa. At some point, I also try to put the final meal plans on a blank calendar and post it on the fridge. It makes me stay focused and I feel good about being organized!

Day 14 – Two Weeks of Saving Money (Saving Cash)

It was two weeks' ago this evening when we decided to try to not spend any money for two whole weeks, beyond our regularly scheduled bills, utilities, and our mortgage. Although it wasn't easy, we did quite well in the end. Check out my post on Day 7 for the mid-week review. Here are the results of the second week of the experiment. Drum roll, please… TOTAL SAVINGS FOR THE TWO WEEKS – about $1320. Talk about saving cash! Wow. And we still have a lot more work to do. The experiment is NOT really over. Stay tuned to see where we go from here with a goal of saving cash. In the meantime, here's this last week's breakdown.

Money saved this week = $720 (estimated, of course):

1. Food and dining expenses (including going to coffee shops, husband's lunches at work at restaurants, Farmer's Market) - about $370 saved
   
2. Retro Black Tie Event in our neighborhood - saved $105 for tickets + $100 for a "retro" dress (I really would have loved going to this event.)
   
3. Ladies' Night In with friends- saved about $30 by not going out (They knew I wasn't spending money, so they offered to stay in!)
   
4. Electronic Gadgets $50 (My husband longingly went to Best Buy twice to look around)
   
5. Clothing $50 (I'm planning to hit a consignment store and Salvation Army to check out the clothing bargains)
   
6. Out of area YMCA $5 (husband was going to work out near work one day, but waited, so he wouldn't have the extra fee)
   
7. I-Tunes music downloads $10
   
8. Cut up a high interest rate credit card – priceless
   

Money Spent:

1. Gas – Bought only 5 gallons for Beetle, and filled up the Toyota since the price per gallon was good (I could have gotten by on 5 gallons or less, though)
   
2. Salt-free snacks – Spent under $6 for salt-free almonds and salt-free rice cakes, not entirely necessary, but greatly desired due to my low-iodine diet
   
3. Co-pay at doctor visit - $10
   

What helped us through the two weeks:

1. Regularly scheduled home delivery of half gallon of milk and dozen eggs
   
2. Our last delivery of our pre-paid Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share of vegetables – which lasted us through the week, with lots of salad and various greens
   
3. Netflix and Cable – Instead of going out, we have interesting shows and movies to watch (I know we could have cancelled them, and we're negotiating that now)
   
4. Our fridge, cupboards, and storage – dried goods like pasta and rice, frozen meats, canned goods
   

The top ten things we ran out of, in alphabetical order, because it's hard to decide which made us suffer the most (editor's note (husband): lack of espresso was the most painful):

1. Bread (but we made it from scratch instead)
   
2. Espresso, caffeinated
   
3. Fruit of all kinds, canned and fresh
   
4. Gas for the cars (but we did buy some)
   
5. Honey
   
6. Jam
   
7. Laundry detergent (husband says there are a few drops left, enough to eke out half a load, but I don't believe him)
   
8. Meat and fish (beef, chicken, lamb, fish, pork)
   
9. Olive oil
   
10. Onions
    

The other staples we ran out of:

1. Pasta
   
2. White granulated sugar
   
3. Cream cheese
   
4. Yogurt
   
5. Dried thyme and bay leaves - which we seem to use in every other meal
   
6. No-salt tomato paste, no-salt Dijon mustard, no-salt tomato sauce, no-salt diced tomatoes – all necessities for my low-iodine diet
   
7. Celery, White Potatoes
   
8. Cheddar cheese
   
9. Eggs (but we got more every Monday morning)
   
10. Cheerios, Rice Crispies
    
11. Plain popcorn and pretzels
    
12. Scotch Brite Scrubbies (certain pans have not gotten cleaned very well for a week!)
    
13. Believe me, there are plenty of other little things on the list, but I'm not going to write them all here!
    

What are the top purchases requested for tomorrow?

1. Tomatoes and cucumbers – 4.5 year old son (Believe it or not!)
   
2. Tomatoes! – 7.5 year old daughter (And even after pressing her for more ideas, that's all she wants tomorrow, she says, with salt and pepper)
   
3. A good steak and beer – husband (Guess that's dinner for Monday night)
   
4. Anything and everything that is salt-free and therefore ok for my low-iodine diet, but especially everything listed in #6 above, and red wine. - Katy
   

I know we can't keep eating out of our cupboards forever, but it is tempting. We need some better sources of protein and some fruits, in particular! But it has been a great experiment and an eye-opening experience. Tomorrow I'll share my master shopping list, my two-week meal plans based on what we already still have in the house, and some of our ideas for cutting more costs. Saving cash is our goal. What about you? What are you doing to save? What are your cost-cutting techniques? I'd love to hear what you have to share. And if you have stopped spending money too, send some comments to share with everyone! And let's hope that I don't spend all of our hard-saved money tomorrow at the grocery store!

Day 13 – Almost There!

The Pizza Hut car was on our street twice today. I longingly wished for a pizza… Buying one is out of the question. Although we're not spending any money, we could scrounge up the ingredients for the pizza dough, but the pizza sauce would have to be half a can of no-salt tomato paste. That's about all we have. And about 3 tablespoons' worth of a chunk of cheddar cheese. Could toss some greens on top. Or some black radishes. But no pepperoni, no green peppers, no mushrooms. Doesn't sound too appealing. And so we will wait until next week.

But we ate well tonight. We ate the last of our frozen chicken, two boneless breasts dredged in flour, non-iodized salt, paprika and ground black pepper, sautéed in canola oil. Everyone but me also had freshly shredded parmesan cheese on top since we still have a hunk left. I baked last week's gift of brussel sprouts spritzed with olive oil, and salt and pepper. Again, the others had parmesan cheese melted on top. My husband even decided to mix up some biscuits (from scratch) which they enjoyed (but alas, no butter for me, so no biscuits).

Due to arrival of international leaders for the G-20 Economic Summit in DC, it took my husband a frightening 2 hours and 15 minutes to get home from work yesterday, as compared to his typical 35-minute drive. That wasted quite a bit of gas in our Beetle, I was really disappointed to see when I was driving it today. So we'll have to stick with my car tomorrow if we want to make it through the day without getting gas yet a-gain.

My cell phone hasn't been able to hold a charge on the battery for several weeks, so finally we looked up our plan, and saw I am eligible for a new phone. My husband, who is a great lover of new technology, asked me which model I wanted. I replied that I would take the best one that's free. He asserted that no such phone exists. In the end, I don't even see a point in getting a "nice" phone. I just want something that will get good reception, and can be hands-free. As much as I might like a Crackberry, I probably don't need that addiction to add to my current list of weaknesses. We'll decide before Monday which free phone I'll get. We also looked at my fees for text messages. I pay about $10/month now, and I can probably get and send as many messages or more by getting a $5/month plan. That's $60 saved for the year, which is certainly some sort of family splurge – maybe one nice dinner for the family at a restaurant. Or maybe that's money for one week's grocery bill ;) We plan to review our plans in more detail to see if there's more fat to trim. My husband has a pretty extensive plan for his phone, but most of that is reimbursed since he uses his phone so much for work. Still, we want to review this, because telecommunications is one area where Americans tend to spend a lot, and often way more than they intend to. Intentional, not accidental spending, is one of our new goals.

We're getting intentional. Deliberate. Cutting coupons. Making a 2-week menu plan. Checking out what's on sale at our local stores. Determined to spend way less than two weeks ago. Researching the cheapest prices for the items we want to have in our basement bodega. We're getting ready. We're almost there!

Day 12 - Slowly the Spending Starts

This is really yesterday's post, reporting how Friday went. I had a doctor's appointment about 40 minutes from home in the morning. With rush hour traffic out Route 66, it took a bit longer. Reluctant to put gas in my car earlier in the week, I noticed the empty light fading on and off on my way out of town. I could have called AAA for free to bring me a gallon of gas if I ran out, but it just seemed like it was time to put gas in the car to make it the 25 miles or so back home. For $2.29 a gallon, I decided to go all the way, and fill up the car. Gas in my neighborhood was running at least 5 cents more per gallon, so I decided it would be a good idea. Why is it that we are willing to go out of our way for gas that's 2 or 3 cents cheaper a gallon, but many people won't clip a few coupons that would save them $10 or more on a visit to a grocery store? I put $24.25 worth of gas into my car, and drive home worry-free.

For dinner last night, we finished out last frozen ground beef, a taco seasoning packet, our last frozen soft corn tortillas, our last shredded cheddar cheese, the last of our salsa, and the last of our olives. I couldn't eat any of it because of my low-iodine diet restrictions. The kids and husband had decent soft tacos. I ate leftovers from earlier in the week and a big salad with mixed greens from our farm-share. We never could have made it through the last two weeks without our fresh veggies from our Potomac Valley Farm.

The two-week experiment in not spending money is still going pretty well. What is getting to me is my special no-iodine diet that I must follow for two weeks. We still have some canned goods left in our pantry, but all of them contain salt, so I can't eat them, assuming that the salt is iodized. In the fridge, there are no condiments I can use, except the teaspoon left in our no-salt added Dijon mustard, which I use daily to make a vinaigrette. I'm telling you all of this to soften you up for our first non-essential purchase of the two weeks.

I met friends last night for a "Ladies' Night In" where we watched a movie and had a chance to hang out without kids. Everyone was very conscious of my food limitations, so we planned some snacks I could eat as well. But on the way to my friend's house, I was craving a crunchy, non-vegetable snack. Options were limited, so I stopped at the grocery store and bought plain, salt-free rice cakes. I also got some unsalted almonds. Total bill $6.96. I could have contented myself with the snacks my friends brought: delicious dairy-free, soy-free chocolate which was amazingly decadent and raw veggies. But on the way over, I wanted something else. I figured that it was a forgivable splurge, because I really haven't had many food choices this last week on this annoying diet!

On our last day of the experiment, I'll detail our plans for the next week, where we hope to spend as little money as possible except where we can get good savings on our purchases, and start "stocking the basement bodega" as Gregory Karp (Spending Smart, Living Rich) calls it. And, we must set a holiday spending budget…

Day 8 – Getting over the shock

Is it really possible that we saved nearly $500 - $600 last week by not spending any money? I am still finding it hard to believe. On one hand, I'm excited about the actual money we saved, and on the other hand I am embarrassed over how much we may have been wasting these last few months. We looked over our finances on our Mint account (which we love, by the way) and based on past spending patterns, it seems pretty accurate.

Bills continue to roll in. I got a $30 bill from a specialist I saw recently and need to check to make sure I didn't already pay it. And then I got whammed with a $251.31 hospital bill for the thyroidectomy I had done LAST November 26, 2007. Nothing like efficiency on the part of health care insurance… I don't know why they are trying to charge this to me now, so I am sure I will be spending quite a bit of time frustrated on the phone with our former health care insurance to try to figure this one out. Not my idea of a fun way to spend a morning.

On a brighter note, I culled through a bunch of piles of clothes that have been accumulating in my bedroom. My last two trips to Africa were less than three weeks apart, and I hadn't fully unpacked yet! So I got a neater and more peaceful room out of my efforts as well as some possible extra cash ---I decided to return some clothes. I have a nice travel skirt to return (too small), some J-41 shoes which I love but are too small, a pair of pants I bought last time I was at Target (not flattering), and a sports bra/tank (I decided I already have enough since I do laundry every other day anyhow). All in all, this should be a good way to put some money back onto our credit cards! Oh, and I forgot to report that last night we cut up our credit card with the highest interest rate, which was earning us nothing, and we hadn't had it for a super long time anyhow. While I'm on the phone with the health insurance tomorrow, I will also multi-task and try to score some lower interest rates on the credit cards we still have. I'll let you know how that goes.

On another blog, someone suggested that watching electric/heating costs is a good way to save money. I totally agree, and we're working on it. I think we need to start with the winter weather-proofing. Our house was built in the 1930s and it has its share of issues. In the DC area, temperatures are supposed to drop to near freezing tonight which is cold for us, so we better get started soon. In the meantime, I'm going to go out to our little backyard garden and pick the last of our green tomatoes and the basil in case it does actually freeze.

Lastly, for anyone following my thyroid issues and current low-iodine diet, I am proud to report that even on this diet where I have to avoid so many foods, I have not yet gone to the grocery store. I really thought I would need to, or worse yet, I would use it as an excuse to go shopping. At least now, I think when I really absolutely do need to go, I will be able to keep it to the bare minimum needed.

Another day down. Thanks for your support and comments. And here's a shout-out to my cuz who is planning to stop spending tomorrow. Glad I could be of some inspiration!

Day 5 - Part 2 - Thyroid Cancer Stories, The Dreaded Low-Iodine Diet, and Still Determined to Keep Saving Cash

I know this might be too much information for the average reader, but hey, you are not the average reader. You know I love Africa, you know I am crazy enough to try to not spend money for two weeks, and you may know that I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer early last December. Long story short if you're not up-to-date on the thyroid cancer part: everything is going very well, and does go well for most people with a small tumor of papillary cancer, which is what I had removed last November.

When I was at the doctor yesterday, I got two pieces of unexpected news. Neither was earth-shattering, but for some reason really set my head spinning. First, I found out that my thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) was WAY above normal levels (mine was 26 – normal is .5 to 5.0). A change in my prescription should solve the problem in a few weeks. In the meantime, I can expect to have symptoms of hypothyroidism: fatigue, being tired, getting bloated, slowed metabolism, gaining weight, and others which are equally annoying. Not a huge deal, but I was surprised my TSH levels had changed so much since I was last tested about a month ago. The other bit of news was regarding the dreaded low-iodine diet (LID). As I mentioned in another recent post, I have to do a Whole Body Scan (WBS) as part of a check to make sure that no thyroid cells are found in my body, because if there are some, they could be cancerous. (Mine were removed in my thyroidectomy, and then zapped with a radioactive pill in early 2008, so I shouldn't have any at all.) So anyhow, the low-iodine diet prepares your body to want to suck up the radioactive iodine they will give me in a pill, so they can then scan my body and look for uptake. Ok, if this is too medical for you, here comes the day-to-day part of it. I thought I needed to start this diet in a week or two. The nurse said, nope, you should have started a few days ago to be on the conservative side. So…

I can't eat any iodine. Well, officially I can eat miniscule amounts, but basically, I have to avoid it all. Iodine does NOT equal salt. But that said, salt in the USA has iodine added, unless you specifically buy non-iodized salt. Pick up any pre-packaged products in your house. Most have salt. You have to assume it's iodized. All dairy products also contain iodine. Potato skins contain iodine. Rice has iodine too, although basmati rice apparently has very low amounts. Many dried beans have some iodine. Store-bought meat usually is packaged with some broth or salt. And on goes the list. I'll be doing this LID for about two weeks. Last time I had to do it, I started shopping at least a month in advance, because it is so incredibly hard to find products with no-salt added. Even sea salt naturally contains iodine, as do all products from the sea (fish, shrimp, algae). Soy has iodine too. And soy is in so much of what we eat as well! Ugh! So when I found out I was supposed to start eating low-iodine products immediately, my head started spinning. Could I go home and eat anything besides greens? What would I make my friend for lunch? Would I be able to eat the same thing too? Would I have to buy a lot more "necessity" items to do this diet?

Everything at the doctor's office took much longer than planned. At 11:30 I was still in line to get my new prescription so I was forced to cancel my lunch. I came home and made myself a salad, and found no-salt Dijon mustard leftover from last LID, so I made myself some vinaigrette. (Store-bought salad dressings are out of the question.) Eating low-iodine, is eating healthy in general. The safest way to go is with real foods, whole foods, made from scratch. Because this is the most important test for me to check on any active thyroid cancer, I have to take it very seriously. My head was spinning for a few hours while I contemplated my fatigue which I thought was caused by jet-lag from my trip to Senegal last week. Guess not.

We were having company for dinner, so we got out the non-iodized salt, and started coming through the fridge. We had already defrosted a small boneless leg of lamb, and planned to bake it with some herbs, garlic and sweet potato slices from our veggie farm share. Some delicious mixed greens with my no-salt vinaigrette, and we were ready for dinner. I pulled out a bunch of our favorite appetizers, including olives, salted corn nuts, baked pitas, and chorizo. (Appetizers were NOT LID). Both guests brought a bottle of red wine, which was a welcome addition to a meal with lamb, especially since we didn't have any on hand!

One of our guests was the friend who initially told us about his friend David Hochman who did a similar experiment for one month and wrote about it in Reader's Digest. I did finally find the story for free online, so here it is: http://www.rd.com/advice-and-know-how/hochman-family-cuts-spending/article99718.html. Maybe it will inspire you too! We had a delicious dinner and even managed to end it with some dessert, Turrón, from Spain. It's a honey almond nougat-type sweet. Oh, and did I mention we not only got some red wine from our guests, but also a huge stem of fresh Brussel Sprouts?

Must admit: I'm considering what I need to buy at the grocery store for my LID, but I really want to keep it essential and minimal.

Savings Surprises: Normally we would have gone out to buy plenty of groceries for company and red wine. I'm sure we saved at least $50 by eating and drinking what we had on hand, and probably another $50 worth of groceries we would have just bought, just because.

I had some down time between dropping my son off at pre-school and my doctor's appointment. Normally I would have stopped in at Starbuck's for at least a coffee, and maybe a treat as well. Must have saved around $5.

I didn't think I would make it through the day of low-iodine eating with food we had on hand. If we weren't doing this experiment, I probably would have gone to Trader Joe's, Giant, and Whole Foods, and I guarantee I would have spent at least $50 - $100, probably at each place.

Day 3: Barter for the bubbly widow?

My husband was looking to barter for an old, bubbly widow last night after the election results came in. It was our first debate over the intricacies of not spending any money for 2 weeks: Could he sell something in order to buy a bottle of French Veuve Clicquot champagne? I held the hard-line. Even if he sold something to get the money, he would still be spending money. So I said no. And, after all, we did actually have two bottles of champagne in the fridge already. Actually, I think he is still open to making a trade, though what he would give in return, I'm not sure! Send me an email if you can help us out…

Fasting, we both went to get routine blood-work done this morning. Ugh. We both had to leave the house without our morning coffee. And we wouldn't be able to buy any when we got there. In the end, I never made my normal double-espresso. I don't know any more what is making me the most tired: staying up watching the election results, jetlag from last week's trip to Senegal, or skipping my caffeine today. Likely, it's a combo of all three. I packed a variety of snacks to eat between the blood work and my appointment, and avoided the temptation to buy a muffin at the snack bar. So far so good.

Next, I had a visit to my new endocrinologist to follow-up on last November's thyroidectomy and not entirely surprising diagnosis of thyroid cancer. All is going well, but I had conveniently forgotten that soon I would have to do another Whole Body Scan (WBS) which will check my entire body for any signs of thyroid cancer. Without getting too far into it, I'll tell you the parts that impact our pact. To prepare for the scan, I have to take a low dose of a radioactive iodine pill. To prepare for that, I have to eat a low/no-iodine diet for several days in advance. (Thyroid cells are the only ones in the body which absorb iodine, so if any thyroid cells are "hungry" for iodine, they will absorb the radioactive iodine and then will show up on the scan.) Iodine is in a surprising amount of foods. First off are all the salt-added products, which is fairly obvious, but also shrimp, other seafood, milk, certain vegetables, packaged meats, etc. So now my wheels are turning, because I will almost certainly have to go shopping if I have to do my low/no-iodine diet. I don't know yet if I will start the diet this Sunday, or the next, but I guess you will hear all about it in time!

So I did charge the co-pay for the visit to my doctor. Parking in the garage was free. The doctor visit falls under necessities, and was planned.

On the way home from pre-school today as we approached our neighborhood library, my almost 5 year old son asked wistfully if the library was free, or did we have to pay? I assured him that it is free, as long as we return our books and videos on time, so we went in for a while before lunch. We borrowed videos, and I got a book on reusing stuff to make new stuff. Thought I might find a new project to do even though I can't buy anything. We'll see about that.

Tomorrow should be a normal day, so hopefully not too many temptations to spend.