Thirty Days -- Day 31: The Thirty Day Challenge was so yesterday...

As of last night, I have successfully completed my Thirty Day Challenge. In true teacher-fashion, let me break this down for you in a few main areas.

(Photo courtesy of weheartit.com)

The challenge was to...

• not spend any money on food that did not come from my regular grocery store trips, including dining out, fast food, snacks such as Starbucks, or take-out for 30 days (May 16 -- June 16).

A quick recap looks something like this...

• On Day 1, I realized that many, many people had read about this, so I had no option to fail.  That was good for me.
• Day 4 found me realizing that sometimes my careful planning was not carefully planned enough, and I had no quick fix to solve the problem.
• We found new and fun ways to curb our boredom on Day 7 that did not include spending money on ice cream or some other treat.
• On Day 16 I walked down Santana Row and realized how amazing everything smelled, yet I found the strength to say no even though I wanted to say, "YES, Let me have some of that, and that... and that!"
• Day 29 gave me time to reflect on how great it is to have friends in your life -- especially when you are trying something different.
• Yesterday, Day 30, I could successfully say I DID IT!  And then I realized that it was not just 30 days, but 32 days, because I went from the 16th to the 16th (which gives an extra day right there) in a month that has 31 days (and there is Day 32). 

Three things I learned from this are...

• Our culture GREATLY revolves around food, and especially dining out.  There were times when I could not spend time with my friends because I needed to "just say no".  I don't think this is a bad thing, but I have decided I would like to make more opportunities for my friends to spend time together without spending so much on food.  Let's get back to potlucks and movie nights!  Just as fun, and way cheaper.
• I am an impulse food buyer.  Giving up going out to eat for dinner was not that hard as I can make really good food at home (although sometimes I just don't feel like it).  The challenge was saying no to the smells that wafted in the air as I passed a bakery, the sight of well advertised food, or suggestions from others.
• Leftovers.  It is one little word, but it means so much. 

And there we have it, folks!  The funny thing is that I was just invited to Chipotle (one of my favorites) as I was typing this, and I turned down the invitation.  "Nah," I said, "I have some pasta in my fridge, I think I will just eat that.  But have a good time!"  I don't know if it is because I really want to eat the pasta or I don't want to spend the money I worked so hard to save, but I do know this: It was easy to say no.  What a change from 30, I mean 32, days ago!

Just something to think about!

Thirty Days -- Day 29: I get by with a little help from my friends

Where would we be without friends?  Well, lonely (for one), bored (most of the time), and in my case, totally off the wagon.

The Thirty Day Challenge wagon, that is.

I cannot count the times that I have been able to pull in one more successful day because of the support of a friend.  For instance, there was the day I was running late and threw a bagel and a tub of peanut butter into my purse.  How I wish I could have gone on that show they used to have with the purse challenge.  If they asked for something edible I would have won, hands down.  That day worked out pretty well, but the next day I had no peanut butter to put on my bagel since I left the jar on my desk at work so I figured I would just take the bagel with me -- except I forgot at it at home.  So instead of a bagel with peanut butter I was just staring at just the peanut butter.  Not exactly considered food all by itself.  Imagine how happy I was when five minutes after arrived a colleague handed me a bowl of berries and said, "I have a lot today.  Want some?  And there is pastries in the kitchen if you want. Please, take some.  We have too many."

Excellent.

Or there was that day when another friend called me to meet at a restaurant.  Of course, I had to say no.  "Ok, how about In n' Out and we just get soda?"  Still no.  I told her not to worry, I would meet her there and get a water.  It may just be $2, but my deal was no money spent on things other than from my kitchen; $20 or $2, it did not matter.  Yet when I arrived she had a soda cup in her hand and an empty one across from her, waiting for me.  Not only was it sweetened with (loads of) sugar, but the rootbeer that afternoon was extra delicious with a large scoop of kindness mixed in.

Things like this, as well as other friends inviting me over to their house while my husband was out of town for ten days or having a positive attitude when asked to eat my home cooked food instead of that of a professional chef made the past twenty-nine days positive.

Tomorrow is Day 30.  I have come this far, I will not fail.

Next 36 hours?  Bring it on.

Thirty Days -- Day 16: A trip down Temptation Lane

Yesterday I had some time to kill.  I was between an appointment that was finished and another that was not starting for another hour and a half, so I headed out for a walk. 

The problem was not with my walk.  It was with the things I found on my walk.

See, I was not in the park.  Nor was I in my neighborhood.  I was at Santana Row.


Normally I would love this opportunity.  There are so many great stores and a ton of amazing restaurants.  But I am not in my "normal" phase right now.  I am in my Thirty Day Challenge right now, remember?  So as I walked down the street towards what used to be Borders and turned the corner I couldn't help but think of all of the options that I was missing out on.  Starbucks, Ben & Jerry's, Wahoo's Fish Tacos...  sounds delicious, huh?  Yeah, I thought so, too. 


That's when I quickly headed into H&M.  No harm could be done there as there is nothing edible for sale.  But one can only spend so much time in H&M when you have no desire to buy clothes at that moment.  All too soon I was back on sidewalk, willing myself to pass by the sushi, pizza, and fruit tarts I passed by.

Why do they need to make their food smell so darn good???

Still with time to burn and not trusting myself to have the self-control I needed at the moment, I nearly ran all the way down to Crate & Barrel.  Once again, no food.  Thank goodness.  Instead there were plates and cups and table clothes and other things that would just go so great with my decor...

You are trying to save money this month, remember?  Maybe Crate & Barrel was not the best place to be.  Finally I realized I just needed to hop in my car and head back to work and wait for Kindergarten graduation to happen so I could help cut the cake and mix the punch. 

Later that night I arrived home, proud of myself that I made it.  I had faced Santana Row without spending a dime.  It was a little difficult, but I did it.  Good thing I had some Prestigio Cake leftover to reward myself with ;)

Thirty Days -- Day 7: The Kibe Adventure

On Sunday, the 7th day of our no-eating-out challenge, we found ourselves a little bored.  I had been planning on making a Brazilian food item (well, Arab-Brazilian actually, as crazy as that sounds) for quite some time.  However, the first direction on the package was something like, "Blah blah blah for three hours blah blah blah..."  Yeah, that's enough to make me rethink this whole making-a-kibe-thing.  But when we had some free time -- yes, more than three  hours -- and we couldn't do our usual boredom-breaking activities (take a walk to get ice cream, head to the park with a frisbee and a bag of sandwiches from Togo's) we decided to go for it. 

The directions cracked me up... "Put on blander..."  Huh? 
I had Paulo read the directions in Portuguese just to make
sure I wouldn't mess it up!

The three hours part wasn't so bad.  I just had to let the wheat
soak for that long.  Easy peasy.

So, per the directions, I put the onion and mint leaves "on
blander" AKA in the food processor.  Then threw it in with
Bulgar wheat and 1/2 a pound of ground beef and some salt.

Mix, mix, and then mix some more.  And then, mix it again.

The finished product!  They are not the most beautiful, I know,
but oh-so-tasty.

Paulo enjoying his kibes while talking to his family in Brazil.
A true Brazilian experience while in America :)

COST: $8.60         Per Serving: $2.15
Plus tomato salad and bread/butter: $3

Thirty Days -- Day 4: The Slippery Slope

It is 10:10pm, meaning ten minutes past my "bedtime", and yet I am waiting for the pot of water on the stove behind me to begin to boil.  No, I am not in need of a late dinner, nor do I need a late night snack.  Rather, I am preparing a lunch for my husband for tomorrow. 

So far, this whole not eating out thing has not been too difficult.  Rarely do we go out to eat during the weekdays as I create The List every week and am ready to make a home cooked dinner every night.  Since this 30 day challenge started on Monday and today is Thursday, I have only encountered week nights so far.  So I have to say no to a parfait in the afternoon when I am bored and have a few minutes to run down the street to grab one, whatever.  Not too bad. 

Yet.

And then we came to tonight.  I made delicious chicken thighs cooked in BBQ sauce with onions, a good sized salad, and some garlic bread.  Fantastic.  But what I thought would be enough for dinner and leftovers, well, let's just say I underestimated.  The conversation that followed went something like this:

Paulo:  "Can I have seconds?  Do you have enough?"
Tiffany: "Sure, but don't eat too much, you need some for your lunch tomorrow."
P:  "There is no way that is going to feed me tomorrow.  I will just eat it now."
T:  "What?  That's enough, for sure."
P:  "No, Babe, it's not.  Maybe enough for you, but I am bigger than you.  I need more food."
T:  "But I don't have any more food..."
P:  "That's OK, I will just grab a sandwich."
T:  "NOOOOOO!  You can't do that!"
P:  "Why not?  What else am I supposed to do?"
T:  "But the 30-day challenge... we will break it... it has only been four days..."
P:  "Babe, it's only once."
T:  "NO!  That's how it all starts!  You do it once and then you want more!"

My neighbors are probably saying a prayer right now asking for intervention on what they most likely (and understandably so) assume to be a potential drug addiction.  The poor man asked for a sandwich, yet by my response you would have guessed he asked for a joint. 

But I still stand by it: JUST SAY NO.

Running through options in my head, I came up with a plan.  Trader Joe's, oh-so-conveniently located next to our gym which we were headed to anyway, carries fresh packs of tortellini for $1.99.  I have left over red sauce in the fridge.  Hence, I am now cooking pasta at 10 o'clock at night.  A sandwich costs about $5, right?  So really, what are we saving? Three bucks?  It's not that much, but $3 is $3, and if I can save that much ten nights, that is $30.  So, yes, that is some motivation right there.  But the bigger motivation?  I don't want to have to come to you, eyes downcast and voice low, admitting defeat this early on.  No leftovers for lunch?  I will make it happen! 

I have a feeling Paulo will be sick of tortellini at the end of this month...

The time has begun. Goodbye dinners out, hello super planning!

What did I do this weekend?  I ate out. 

Of course, there was a whole bunch of other stuff thrown in (trip to the beach, visiting new places, so on and so forth), but when you are on a mini-vacation/three day weekend trip, that is what you do.

It is one of the joys of taking a trip -- although I am enjoying my new hobby of cooking, I also enjoy taking a break from it! 

But today IT started.  This morning I woke up, realized I had nothing in my cupboards (due to the long weekend out of town) while simultaneously realizing that, no, I cannot just grab a bite on my way to work.  Digging back a little further in the empty cereal cupboard I found some instant oatmeal -- fruit flavored.  The only problem was I have already eaten all the flavors I already like.  Which is why the box was shoved back into the abyss in the first place.  Oh well.  Strawberry oatmeal it was.  It wasn't as bad as I expected (although it can't hold a candle to peaches and cream). 

I still have no food in my cupboards (well, NO FOOD would be an exaggeration, but the right stuff to make a meal?  Yeah, not so much...) and I am tired and it is rainy and all I want to do is sleep.  But I will not!  It is only Day 1.  I will succeed!

Besides, I don't really have the option to fail.  Over 80 people read my post about my super plan.  Eighty.  Accountability -- it is the thing that will make this work for me.  Failing in front of myself is one thing; failing in front of 80 people, not going to happen.  (It also helps that Heidi and Fam are joining me.  Thank you, Friend, for stepping up to the challenge!)

Thirty days without spending money on anything extra food-wise?  Bring it on.

Thirty Day Challenge: Are you brave enough?

I am going to skip any great intro and just come out and say it:  We are going to give up eating out for a month.  Completely and totally, for thirty days we are not going to have any food that does not come from our own kitchen.

It is not that we are going on some organic hippy movement, or we have lost a job and therefore cannot afford to do it.  Rather, we have some extra expenses (expected and not expected) coming up in the next two months and we want to avoid that feeling of, "Where did all of our money go?!"  You all know this feeling I speak of, and it does not feel good.  So we decided to be proactive... what could we do to cut back on this right now so when we get to the end we are not left in a state of shock?  Where does our money go, anyway?

Well...

There are detours on trips...

... and lunch dates with my love...

Celebratory dinners

Fun with the girls

Sushi (It gets a class of its own)

Snacks

Picnics with friends

Late night snacks with "family"

and finding coffee to wake this Brazilian man up in the morning.

Did you know that the average American spends more than 5% of their paycheck on eating out?  The average.  But I know a lot of you (no, surely not YOU!) would probably be able to raise your hand if I asked who falls into the ABOVE average category.  We are American, it's what we do. 

But what if we didn't?  Five percent, that is a lot of money.  If you spend more than five percent... that is a lot more money.  Think of what that could go toward. 

So here is my plan:  Starting next Monday, May 16, I am dining-out-free for thirty days.  No dinners out, no oatmeal from McDonald's when I am running late, no snacks.  Nada.  But that also means one other thing: Nothing extra being spent.  Nada, as well.  All of that extra money can go towards the other things, and leave me a little happier at the end of this heavy month.  I don't think I have ever in my entire life gone that long without grabbing at least a small bite to eat, so it will probably be a little tough, but tough things make us tougher, right?  And hopefully will keep our wallets a little more full.

Now comes the question... who's in?  Who thinks they have what it takes?  Come on, you know you wanna!  And besides, misery loves company, right? ;)