Day 8: Only $236.77 to go

Posted on May 9, 2013 by abbietoeknee

YES – I know. I really blew through money since my last update. The expense of having far too much fun on the weekend AND preparing for my housewarming party this weekend.

Day 3 (Friday): It was an easy Friday night. I had people over and lots of chow and drink was devoured. $0 spent. ($443.50 left)

Day 4 (Saturday): Saturday was ugly. Drinks, chow, and who knows what else – set me back $37.50. Most of my spend was loosely related to a charity event – so I don’t feel so horrible about it? ($406 left)

Day 5 (Sunday): Tacos for brunch set me back $8, and all I could mimosa was $12. (How can you turn down a 60 degree covered patio and endless champagne?)  Tack on my $12 dinner … and wowsers, I paid for a day of relaxation. ($374 left)

Day 6 (Monday): I stopped by Gateway Market to replenish the chow devoured Friday night.  Bye bye $25 ($349 left)

Day 7 (Tuesday): Big news at work meant my team wanted to go out for lunch. I’m a newbie still, so I felt obligated to tag along. We ended up at Hu Hot Mongolian Grill. Not my favorite place for lunch, with a $13 price tag. Far too much money for low quality food. Alas. ($336 left)

Day 8 (Today, Wednesday): I stopped at Costco to get party supplies. Food, liquor and all the fixins – set me back $99.23 ($236.77 to go).  Also stocked up on my favorite organic chicken thighs, which will make for good meals this week.

 

Good news – no more needed spending this week. I’ve got enough food and booze to kill a small army!  I’m holding myself to spending NO MONEY next week other than on my Prudent Produce delivery and whatever it will take to fill up my gas tank.

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Day 2: $443.50 left.

Posted on May 3, 2013 by abbietoeknee

Thursday is my favorite day of the week because Friday is near AND I get my Prudent Produce delivery. If you don’t know about Prudent Produce - it’s the greatest: Weekly Organic Produce Delivery! TO YOUR DOOR!

I couldn’t score all the goods I did today at the price I pay – much less shop around all the stores in Des Moines to find them organic. There is a set weekly menu – but you can make substitutions for other pieces of produce. I get the small bin and it costs me $26.50. I think it’s a steal, and I’m amped to dig into it all. :)

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Day 1: $470 dollars to go.

Posted on May 2, 2013 by abbietoeknee

photo 1

I deposited all my change at the bank this morning.  The residual$7.17 floating around my car and wallet is now safely in my savings account. My credit cards have been tossed to the side, locked away for safe keeping, and my sturdy leather wallet -replaced with stacks of flimsy green bills.

A lone credit card is tucked away discretely in my car for purchasing gas. (It’s silly to turn down 5% cash back on trips to the pump, right?)

Today was an uneventful day of spending…. other than sending through a $30 auto debit for my internet. I embark upon 30 more days in the month with just $470 left to spend.

The weekend is approaching and I’ve got to build a game plan. This month holds all sorts of potentially budget busting adventures: my housewarming party, tailgating for charity,  and a weekend getaway. Aside from that – my horoscope insists I am a social butterfly this month.

How much did you spend today? And please – if you ate sushi today, tell me all about it. I’m going to go look at raw fish online, for now. Very social of me, I know.

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Buy me a Drink: The $500 Experiment

Posted on May 1, 2013 by abbietoeknee

I am incredibly lucky to have escaped college AND law school without credit card debt. I don’t spend more than I make, however, budgets and I aren’t exactly on the best of terms.  Ultimately, my savings account is the loser. Let’s look at the positives though, at least I have one?

I have been throwing the idea back and forth with Amy to really cut back on spending. We both share the warm embrace of Tom and Donna’s “Treat Yo Self” motto. While they celebrate once a year – Amy and I were quickly giving each-other bi-weekly encouragement on treating ourselves (and the sushi and vodka was adding up).

I proposed we embark upon a May challenge to get our spending in check, holding each other accountable to spending less but customizing our experiments to fit our own individual expenses and goals. To encourage transparency - and to scare myself into actually following through (in the event Amy crumbles and tries to suck me back to the dark side) – I wanted to make my endeavor somewhat public. So alas, for all six of you who subscribe to this rarely updated blog – or whom accidentally stumble upon it…. here are the details of my May Budgetary Experiment:

My spending money for the month is limited to $500.  This is the amount I have the discretion to spend and will not be going towards the essential bills (rent/utilities/phone/car insurance/etc). What I will need to cover:

  • Food. 
  • Gas.
  • Alcohol.
  • Internet.
  • Household goods/toiletries.
  • Gifts.
  • Etc.

Tomorrow it begins. Before work I will take my debit card to the ATM, gather up $500 (well, $470 to account for the $30 auto-debit set up for my internet). If I can stick to this, I’ll be able to put away almost 40% of my income for the month, and what a relief that will be for my savings account.

So help me out this month. Buy me a drink? (Whisky please.)

 

 

 

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No electronics after 11pm.

Posted on January 2, 2013 by abbietoeknee

I decided this was a great resolution for 2013. Last night was an incredibly painful start, as I laid awake in a quiet, noiseless room at 2 AM, unable to figure out how to coax myself to sleep. For many years I’ve come accustom to soft black noise of Hulu playing on my laptop or music pumping out of my ipod. In law school, I’d listen to lectures on property law, because nothing made me fall asleep faster than in depth discussion regarding the Rule Against Perpetuities.

Why the change of heart? Well, I keep reading articles about how electronic disrupt sleep, and how using them before sleep makes it harder to fall asleep. And I believe them, 100%. I did a brief stint in 2011 with no alarm clock. I retrained my internal ticker and stopped using alarm clocks entirely. (I’ll save that voodoo for another post.) During that time, I was electronics free at bedtime – AND IT FELT GREAT. Sleep was restful, I woke refreshed and alive, and falling asleep was easy, after a few days of adjustment.

Of course, I haven’t quite figured out how to measure my success at this no electronics after 11pm business. Say, for instance, when I’m out with friend’s on weekends and am being pressured to play a game of Mario Kart at midnight. So perhaps it’s best to say my actual resolution is: GO TO BED BY 11PM ON WEEKDAYS. NO ELECTRONICS WHEN GOING TO SLEEP.

Hopefully you all can hold me accountable for this, should I be blogging/tweeting/facebooking after 11pm.

What are your resolutions/goals for 2013? 

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The 4 Essentials

Posted on September 10, 2012 by abbietoeknee

Almost every juice I make has one of these four ingredients. And more often than not, it has all of them. Just like you build a good soup by starting with a great stock – together these build my most basic juicing “broth”. It has a mild flavor and hefty volume that mellows more flavorful fruits and veggies.

1. Lemon. Beyond adding a bright flavor to any juice, it’s packed full of Vitamin C, potassium, magnesium, and calcium. Keeps you regular, detoxifies the liver, clears up your skin, and alkalinizes the body. Buy organic and you can juice them whole, but peel them if you buy conventional.

2. Ginger. Spice up your juice with a thumb of ginger. Start small and go big – it can pack quite a punch. It’s a great source of potassium with powerful anti-inflammatory benefits, and is known to offer immune support and improve digestion. (Get sick in China and everyone will tell you to eat more ginger!) Per usual, take a peeler to it if it’s nor organic.

3. Celery. It’s mostly water so it generates a healthy volume of juice with each rib. Unfortunately – I’d suggest only juicing organic celery because conventionally grown is one of the “dirty dozen” and is known to have high amounts of chemical and pesticide exposure.   It’s a natural source of sodium and adds a neutral earthy flavor to juice. Stalks are long and lean like our bones, and are good for them because of the silicon and sodium content (silicon is a strengthener in the molecular structure of our bones, which are made up of 23% sodium).

4. Cucumber. So fresh and so clean. Like, celery, cucumber is mostly water and makes a healthy amount of juice. If it’s not organic, give it a peel – to limit your exposure to all those chemicals and petiscides. Cucumber is a natural diuretic so helps you flush out all extra bloat and push out the toxins. Not only are cucumbers relatively mild and flavorless, they’re affordable – especially during farmers market season!

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Juicing: Where do I start?

Posted on June 5, 2012 by abbietoeknee

 1. Buy a centrifugal juicer.

There are multiple types of juicers and all have their benefits and drawbacks. I must warn you, if you google “what kind of juicer should I buy” the result will be confusion and intimidation. To get started juicing up your life – you need something easy to incorporate into your life – which is why I recommend centrifugal: they are affordable, fast and easy to clean. Once you become addicted/advanced/wealthy – by all means invest in the another juicer – like this $2,500 Norwalk. Until then, let your budget be your guide – and invest in one of these:

  • Breville Compact Juice Extractor - $100
  • Jack LaLane Power Juicer Pro - $150
  • Breville Juice Fountain Plus - $150
  • Omega 9000 - $220
  • Breville Juice Extractor - $300


2. Put your juicer on the counter. 

Like they say, out of site – out of mind. My juicer sat in the closet for 2 months before I opened it. It took another month for me to actually start using it. Ditch your excuses, clear off some counter space and show that puppy off. After all, you probably will end up spending a few hundred dollars on it!

Every time you walk by the juicer think about all the nutrients you are missing out on. Did you have 10 servings of fruits and veggies today? What about yesterday? Eventually guilt will set in and you’ll be more likely to put the hunk of machinery to use.

3. Find some recipes and stock the fridge. 

Confession: I am horrible at following recipes. I’m more mad scientist at the stovetop than cautious chemist, which was disastrous when I began juicing.  You can buy books stuffed with recipes or you can stick to the wealth of information google offers. To start, pick recipes which are chalk full of fruits and vegetables you don’t mind chewing – if you’d eat them in their natural state – they won’t be too offensive when juiced. This is my suggestion:

Amateur Hour Juice

  • 1/2 lemon
  • 2 carrots
  • 3 ribs of celery
  • 1 red apple
  • 1/2 cucumber

 

I know you probably have thousands of unanswered questions – give me time – I’ll work on adressing them all. But for now, are you ready to begin? 

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A new type of junky.

Posted on June 3, 2012 by abbietoeknee


The first step is admitting you have a problem. Hi, I’m Abbie and I’m a caffeine junky. Soda has never been my drink of choice, but I could down an iced coffee faster than you can say “onomatopoeia” and my thirst for iced tea is unquenchable. I’ve been clean for about two years. Well, relatively clean. A coffee and tea here and there – but a far cry from my former 6 shots of espresso a day. August of 2010 – I gave it up and never looked back. The headaches were as exhausting as the adrenal fatigue I was experiencing, but it was worth it.

Okay, I’ll admit it. I indulge in a weekly iced coffee –  sweetened with a bit of honey and a shot of cream. (Enjoying one as I type). But for people married to their daily dose of caffeination and looking for a way out – I suggest a juicer. Yes, unleash your inner Jack LaLanne! I quit cold turkey, but I’m positive had I had a juicer in 2010, it would have made coming down from my caffeine binge far more pleasant.

For Christmas I got this guy and now juicing is my new addiction. Mornings aren’t the same without a tall glass of green. Nothing picks you up like 20 oz of the phytonutrients packed into a pound of fruits and vegetables. You can drink all the vegetables you dread eating and if you do it right – it’s pretty delicious.

I’m so amped on juicing that I want to share it with everyone. There is so much to teach, and so little time. My June goal is to document my Juicing knowledge and suggestions here on the old blogzilla …. so hopefully I can send friends, family, and strangers to it to read about my tips/tricks/suggestions.

So what are your questions? What do you want to know? How can I get you amped on juicing?

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Week 1

Posted on February 24, 2012 by abbietoeknee
Beef Pho

I'm a big fat cheater! But how can one resist a big fat delicious bowl of Pho from Rolling Wok?

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Paleo, nice to meat you.

Posted on January 30, 2012 by abbietoeknee

Last night my dad grilled the most perfect medium rare rib eye. The steak, a product of a cow who lived a sustainable grass fed life,  was delicious, juicy and the best evening treat. I looked down at my last bite of steak – thinking about how long it took me to get to the point of embracing beef.

It’s not my fault, however. For most of my life, 15 years at least, my parents were vegetarian. While I wasn’t vegetarian myself, the only time I ate meat was when eating out or at a friend’s house. At age 16 I was nearly ruined of meat forever. While staying with my grandmother, she slapped two pork chops in a pan and fried them up for 2 hours and called it dinner. I was forced to choke down the dry grey meat and remember that I was just sure it was exactly what twine tasted like.

Fast forward to college, where I did my own experiments with being vegetarian and eventually vegan. Both, horrible failures all resulting in general malaise, injuries and serious anemia.

Now, after having dined in China, chowing on the parts of animal you never imagine seeing, much less eating –  I am happy to call myself a meat eater.  In fact, I want to embrace this lifestyle and begin a new phase in my life of chowing.

Yes, I’m starting a Paleo journey. You’ve probably read about it, if not use “the google” or accept my simple explanation:

 What is this paleo? Think caveman. Hunt/gather …. no time for all that cultivation and processing. High in meat, eggs and fish… plus vegetables, fruits and nuts for good measure. And those foods that come packaged… you don’t buy ‘em.  As for dairy… well unless it’s raw skip it.

Ready set, here we go. In theory, this shouldn’t be too hard, although – I’m still trying to figure what the paleolithic human did when he craved chocolate chip cookies. Discuss?

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