2014 Body and Wallet Diet - Week 13

Finally back at it after the wedding...

Crock pot clam chowder (sans potatoes and flour)

Velveeta Rotel Main Dish 

2014 Body and Wallet Diet - Week 4

This week (week 4):
Moose: Crustless Spinach Quiche with Turkey Sausage - $22.07, 10 servings at ?? each

Dri: Bacon Explosion with Cauliflower - $26.34, 10 servings at 385 calories each

2014 Body and Wallet Diet - Week 3

This week (week 3)
Moose - Chicken Stir Fry - 10 servings for ~$20, 250 calories each

Dri - Comforting Ground Beef and Cabbage Casserole 10 servings for ~$18, 450 calories each

2014 Body and Wallet Diet - Week 2

Last week (Week 1):
Moose- Shepherds pie (10 servings at 369 calories a piece) = $25.71
Dri- Spicy chicken and spinach casserole (10 servings at 418 calories a piece) = $23.10

Ran into some issues last week.  Something in the shepherd's pie made me sick all week, had to make Moose give me his spicy spinach casserole.  Oh well.  Hopefully this week is better.

This week (Week 2):
Moose- Grilled chicken breast with asparagus and Parmesan cream sauce (10 servings at 525 calories a piece) : $29.01
Dri - Mushroom and Goat Cheese Meatloaf (10 servings at 511 calories a piece) = $32.71

Up a bit on calories, up a bit on cost, but still about on track.  We should try to aim for 400 calories, but this week, we ended up a little higher.  Still pretty good, though!

We still ended up spending about $125 at the store total.  We did buy some other things like toothpaste, etc at the store this week, so hopefully we can still get the bill down as we get used to this new eating plan.

2014 Body and Wallet Diet - Week 1

Moose and I have decided to diet before our wedding in February.  In addition, we've decided to attempt to keep to a real budget.  Turns out we spend a lot of money on food.  Like a lot.  We buy full groceries, eat out a ton, and end up throwing leftovers and unused food away.  We had some success last year with a diet that involved making casseroles and portioning them out.  So, combine the two and you've got the bulk-food body and wallet diet.  Goal is to make two meals with 8-10 portions each on Sundays, keeping the week's food cost around $50-75 at the grocery store.  We're still going to do our traditional Monday night dinner with friends, but hopefully we can make enough to eat lunches and dinners through Friday, and perhaps Saturday.

Goals (listed cleanly):
1.  Go grocery shopping Sunday.  Buy only what is needed for the week and keep it to $50-$75
2.  Sunday afternoons, make two meals with 8-10 portions of each, making enough for lunches and dinners through at least Friday.
3.  Lose weight.
4.  Save money.


Week 1 recipes

Low Carb Shepherds Pie

Low Carb Spicy Chicken and Spinach Casserole

I think I know what I want

I think I know what I want.

I want to work at Graco until I have kids.  I don't want to have kids until I have my car loan and student loans paid off.

I want to be able to have the option of being a stay-at-home mom for a while, only a few years.  We'll see.

Then want to go back to school at the U and get a Master's in education, like what Adam did.  2 summers and 1 full year of teaching.  You get a Master's in education and you get a teaching license.  Maybe I'd even be able to squeeze in a few tech classes I wanted to take before.

Then I want to get a teaching job where I teach kids basic electronics and basic software.  Think EE1301.  Start with binary and basic circuits.  Do cool labs with LEDs and logic circuitry.  Do some assembly on microcontrollers, do some C on microcontrollers, do some HTML5 or Java on a computer (of course, I'd have to learn this too).  HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE?  I wonder if there is a technology magnet school somewhere in town where I'd be able to do that.  Or maybe do it for home school groups.

I know Moose wants to go back to school at some point.  Maybe he should do that sooner rather than later and I could support us for a few years.  Hmmm... hmmmm.

Anyway, I just wanted to post that here because I think it's neat.

Mo money, mo problems

I've been working really hard to reign in my spending. I've been doing somewhat better, but I still spend too much on silly things.

It has worked fairly well for me in the past to compartmentalize things. This is why I have so many bank accounts. I think I may need to split it up further. Here's how my split sits right now:

Joint bank account (rent, gym, other joint bills): $500/paycheck
US Bank account (remainder): $1000-ish/paycheck

Out of my US Bank account:
$425/paycheck - Car or Student loans
$250/paycheck - Savings
$40/paycheck - Gas
$10/paycheck - MPR Membership

This leaves me with about $400 or so to play around with. I tend to blow through this, especially when things like groceries are purchased.

I'm thinking I need to change up the split a bit more...

Joint bank account (rent, gym, other joint bills): $500/paycheck
TCF Bank account (fun money): $200/paycheck
US Bank account (remainder for bills and stuff): $800-ish/paycheck

Then I can only spend the stuff in my TCF account... I dunno how this will work, but I might want to consider splitting my paycheck up like this automatically and see how it goes for a while.