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Tuesday, January 17, 2012
I figured it out!
Friday, January 13, 2012
2012 Resolutions - January edition
New Year's resolutions...such a loaded concept. I always have a ton of things that I want to make better about myself. And I thought I was going to have about 40 resolutions all carefully detailed into separate categories. And...of course that didn't happen. But I have decided on a few different "changes" to work in the money category. I'm also pleasantly surprised that I am pretty much sticking to them so far! Some of the others have already dropped off the table, or are on temporary hiatus, but I have come up with a new plan. I am going to introduce some new resolutions every month - working on a different category each time. And I am going to try and blog about how I am doing. TRY I said...no delusions that I will keep it up!
So the catgegory for Janaury is money matters as I mentioned. I make a decent salary and yet, I never seem to be saving much money. I have a few completely frivolous habits, that I never feel very good about doing after the fact. The two that come to mind first are: 1) too many coffees at Starbucks, and 2) too many trashy magazines. The directly resulting resolutions are therefore: 1) I am only allowed to purchase one coffee per day at Starbucks, and 2) NO MORE trashy magazines! Basically, I won't be buying the magazines anymore. If I really want to read a story, I am either going to find it online or read it at Chapters. I can do this...it just makes so much more sense and I won't have to feel guilty about wasting so much money. On the Starbucks front, I am really not interested in decreasing my caffeine intake. Instead, I was just getting into the bad habit of buying too many coffees even though I have a perfectly good coffee maker at home, I can buy Starbucks beans in bulk at Costco and make my own in the morning. Then I get to buy one in the afternoon for a little treat. Cross my fingers, this is actually working so far. I haven't figured out exactly how much this is going to save me, but I am guessing it is in the order of $700/year. As for the trashy mags, it could be as much as $2-300/year. Or maybe more...
The last thing I am doing is "paying myself first". I have set up an automatic transfer into my savings account for the same day that I get paid. I am going to make sure I have a minimum balance in there, that will increase with each pay period. When it gets to a substantial enough amount, I'll figure out something to do with it. Like contribute to my RRSP - how totally exciting!!! :)
So the catgegory for Janaury is money matters as I mentioned. I make a decent salary and yet, I never seem to be saving much money. I have a few completely frivolous habits, that I never feel very good about doing after the fact. The two that come to mind first are: 1) too many coffees at Starbucks, and 2) too many trashy magazines. The directly resulting resolutions are therefore: 1) I am only allowed to purchase one coffee per day at Starbucks, and 2) NO MORE trashy magazines! Basically, I won't be buying the magazines anymore. If I really want to read a story, I am either going to find it online or read it at Chapters. I can do this...it just makes so much more sense and I won't have to feel guilty about wasting so much money. On the Starbucks front, I am really not interested in decreasing my caffeine intake. Instead, I was just getting into the bad habit of buying too many coffees even though I have a perfectly good coffee maker at home, I can buy Starbucks beans in bulk at Costco and make my own in the morning. Then I get to buy one in the afternoon for a little treat. Cross my fingers, this is actually working so far. I haven't figured out exactly how much this is going to save me, but I am guessing it is in the order of $700/year. As for the trashy mags, it could be as much as $2-300/year. Or maybe more...
The last thing I am doing is "paying myself first". I have set up an automatic transfer into my savings account for the same day that I get paid. I am going to make sure I have a minimum balance in there, that will increase with each pay period. When it gets to a substantial enough amount, I'll figure out something to do with it. Like contribute to my RRSP - how totally exciting!!! :)
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Awesome and quick steel-cut oats
UPDATE: after making this recipe a couple of times lately with pretty soupy results, we decided to try 7 cups of water to 2 cups of oats. Worked MUCH better! Unless you really like watery oatmeal :)
So we have been doing this great breakfast option lately...I cook a big batch of steel-cut oats at night, and then portion it into servings the next morning for Greg and I to eat for breakfast at work. Seriously simple...next challenge will be to get the kids to eat oatmeal as well!
Here's the recipe:
8 cups of water
2 cups of steel-cut oats (we get them at the bulk barn)
1-2 pinches of salt
1-2 tsp Vanilla extract (optional)
Set water to boil in a large pot. Once boiling, add salt, vanilla and oats and stir. Let boil for one minute, stir, remove from heat and cover. Let sit overnight. This makes approximately 6, 1cup servings, plus a little more. I add milk and honey, and microwave it for 1-2 mins at work. The remaining portions will keep for a week in the fridge.
Important note: if you add milk, make sure you Tupperware has a tight lid. That is properly closed. I have learned this lesson the hard way. Twice. :)
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So we have been doing this great breakfast option lately...I cook a big batch of steel-cut oats at night, and then portion it into servings the next morning for Greg and I to eat for breakfast at work. Seriously simple...next challenge will be to get the kids to eat oatmeal as well!
Here's the recipe:
8 cups of water
2 cups of steel-cut oats (we get them at the bulk barn)
1-2 pinches of salt
1-2 tsp Vanilla extract (optional)
Set water to boil in a large pot. Once boiling, add salt, vanilla and oats and stir. Let boil for one minute, stir, remove from heat and cover. Let sit overnight. This makes approximately 6, 1cup servings, plus a little more. I add milk and honey, and microwave it for 1-2 mins at work. The remaining portions will keep for a week in the fridge.
Important note: if you add milk, make sure you Tupperware has a tight lid. That is properly closed. I have learned this lesson the hard way. Twice. :)
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Green bean and chickpea salad
Ingredients:
- A bunch of green or yellow beans, trimmed and rinsed
- one can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- approx 1 tsp of salt (the dressing needs to be pretty salty)
- ground black pepper to taste
- approx 1/2 tsp of cumin
- approx 1/2 tsp ground coriander (optional)
- approx 1/2 tsp oregano (optional)
- approx 1 tbsp good mustard (ie not French's) (but also optional)
- 2-3 tbsp cider vinegar
- 1/4 c veg oil (prob not olive oil though)
Boil beans until tender, drain and rinse with cold water. Mix dressing ingredients, then toss beans and chickpeas together with dressing. Salad is best if there is time for it to sit for a while - that way the beans and chickpeas absorb some of the flavour from the dressing.
Notes: the dressing should be pretty tangy before tossing with the beans. The dressing ingredients and measures are obviously pretty much a guesstimate. This is one of those meals where I usually just wing it and taste as I go! :)
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