So today is day 7 of the 30 Days of Nothing – or whatever it is that we are doing. It’s so convenient that the day number matches up with the date of the month….means all I have to do is figure out what the date is today and we’re good to go.<\/p>\n
I thought that I’d take a moment to explain my reasoning behind doing this.<\/p>\n
There are so many others in the world who do with so much less than we have on a regular day-to-day basis. I don’t even necessarily mean me as in our family personally. I was meaning “us” as in North American but yes – even us personally, too.<\/p>\n
We are not rich by “normal” standards, and yet we live comfortably. Sometimes more comfortably, and other times it’s a bit tighter….<\/p>\n
There is also so much waste. It’s sickening to think that we throw away food, clothing, toys, books, etc. without a second thought when others are going without. Even people here in our cities and towns are going without proper food and clothes and “stuff”.<\/p>\n
It’s the sheer amount of our “stuff” that get to me. I’m guilty of it too. “Oh, I want that. I deserve this. I need this.<\/em>”<\/p>\n I’m not saying that “stuff” is bad or that if you need or want or desire something that you don’t have the right to go out and get it.<\/p>\n I’m just wanting to be “AWARE”. Aware of what I need, and what I want and what I have and what i can give.<\/p>\n I want to be able to have extra to give away. I want to have spent less money on crap that I didn’t really need so that I have the extra to buy a hot chilli and a sandwich from Tim Hortons when the guy in the parking lot at Michaels asks me for money. I want to not be so consumed with being busy that I can’t take a moment to walk across the parking lot and get something for him.<\/p>\n I want to be able to give. To give money, support, time, a shoulder to cry on or an ear to just listen. I want to be able to see the person behind the outstretched hand.<\/p>\n I want to not be so consumed with myself and my own needs. I want to be aware and so SO thankful for what I’ve got and for what I’m able to give.<\/p>\n So, this month is me taking account of what we’ve got. Taking advantage of how blessed we are, and trying to be wise with how I spend my money and my time and my energy. It’s about me making sure that what I buy is what we need, and not a waste.<\/p>\n Having said all of that, today I easily doubled my money spent so far this month. But it was money well spent.<\/p>\n We hit the Farmer’s Market and bought $79.41 on Fruit and Veggies. In case you were paying attention, I’ve already bought 10 pounds of apples this month, and so I figured that I’d just get ’em, for cheaper in bulk and so I bought 20 pounds of apples today. They won’t go bad at my house before they get eaten and I expect that they will last for the next two weeks. I’ll need to stash half of them away or my kids will plow through them way too fast. I also got bananas, broccoli, purple cabbage, celery, carrots, cucumber, grapes, oranges, pears, snow peas, peppers (red, yellow and orange), potatoes, plums, acorn squash, butternut squash, yams and zucchini. I also bought a bag of pot barley, some natural tortilla chips and some roasted salted chickpeas.<\/p>\n It seems like a lot to spend on fruit and veggies, but remember that this is primarily the bulk of what we eat.<\/p>\n Then I stopped at the grocery store and picked up some more Almond Milk, Ener-G Egg Replacer<\/a> (I’m wanting to bake, but I’m trying to not eat eggs right now until Siah settles himself down – allergy wise<\/em>), Raw Cane Sugar, a 3 pack of Pork Roasts, and some Lean Ground Beef.<\/p>\n The Pork Roasts had 3 in a pack (like I previously mentioned) for $11.62. That’s less than $4.00 in meat for our family for a meal, and there should be leftovers. And the Lean Ground Beef was $1.87 a pound and that’s a great price.<\/p>\n The Egg Replacer, Almond Milk and Cane Sugar were not absolute essentials, but if we want anything to “snack on” then I have to make it, and I can make a whole lot more by buying the ingredients – even specialty ones than if I just went and bought a snack AND…Siah can have some too – that way!<\/p>\n So, at the Grocery Store, I did exactly $36.01 in damage. Combined with the amount that I spent at the market it brings our monthly total up to…….$217.77. Nice! <\/p>\n In meal related news, I realized that I didn’t post the meals from yesterday and so you’ll get another 2 for 1 right now.<\/p>\n Monday’s Meals<\/strong> Tuesday’s Meals<\/strong> And……Actually I have the next three days meals planned out and so here they are “In Advance” oooo I’m doing good<\/em>.<\/p>\n Wednesday’s Meals<\/strong> Thursday’s Meals<\/strong> Friday’s Meals<\/strong> Apparently, we eat a lot of eggs and a lot of apples. What can I say?<\/p>\n Well, I’m off to finish off a few new necklaces and then I’m headed to bed.<\/p>\n I’ll leave you with a question….<\/p>\n What is your position on people who are down and out asking for money?<\/strong> <\/p>\n I’ll share my thoughts on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So today is day 7 of the 30 Days of Nothing – or whatever it is that we are doing. It’s so convenient that the day number matches up with the date of the month….means all I have to do is figure out what the date is today and we’re good to go. I thought … Continue reading “It’s Nice and Convenient, Like That!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-30-days-of-nothing","category-food"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xangelle.com\/dailygrind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xangelle.com\/dailygrind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xangelle.com\/dailygrind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xangelle.com\/dailygrind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xangelle.com\/dailygrind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xangelle.com\/dailygrind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xangelle.com\/dailygrind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xangelle.com\/dailygrind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xangelle.com\/dailygrind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBreakfast – Eggs and Toast<\/em>
\nDinner – Grilled Chicken, Baked Potatoes, and Peas (Geli cooked tonight so we were lighter on the veggies than I’d have liked)<\/em><\/p>\n
\nBreakfast – Eggs and Toast<\/em>
\nDinner – Ground Beef and Gravy over Brown Rice Noodles mixed with Peas & Broccoli (We had run out to the market and were late getting home and so I threw together what I lovingly refer to as a “Garbage Meal”)<\/em><\/p>\n
\nBreakfast – Cereal<\/em>
\nDinner – Roast Pork with Roast Potatoes and Yams, and Roasted Mixed Veggies<\/em><\/p>\n
\nBreakfast – Super Porridge<\/em>
\nDinner – Chicken Stirfry over Brown Rice with veggies<\/em><\/p>\n
\nBreakfast – Eggs and Hashbrowns<\/em>
\nDinner – Lentil Soup<\/em><\/p>\n