Budgeting

(Sigh) I’ve been messin’ up. 

Last week, I made a few mistakes: (1) I didn’t bother to meal plan (2) I went to the grocery store without a list and (3) I didn’t cook the meal I had planned to cook. 

The result: I’ve not been eating very healthy and I’ve been buying take-out. Would this be a big deal for most people? Of course not. But, I’m not most people; I’m quite exceptional – exceptionally fighting through the torrential rains of a nightmare storm I’ve created for myself. Translation: I’m too broke to do this type of stuff. 

Up to this point, I was doing so well. For over 3 months, I was consistently setting aside time every week to figure out what I’d cook to eat over the upcoming 6 days. With a budget of $25 per week for groceries, one has to make plans, think things through and prepare a list. After having prepared, I’d go to the stores I needed to go to with my Out of Milk App at the ready, and would purchase the items I needed. Even with my small food budget, I still ended up going to multiple grocery stores. Unfortunately, one place doesn’t have everything I need at prices that make sense. 

I was sure to set aside time to cook and store meals that I could quickly put together during my usually busy week. I always made a huge salad. Throughout the week, I’d take a little bit of it out of the big bowl, put it in a smaller bowl, add the dressing, then toss and serve. I also prepared two meals that could warm well in the microwave. Lastly, I’d put together a small snacky kind of item – something I could grab a little bit of when I just wanted to nibble on something. Usually, this is tuna. I can just spoon a little bit of it out of a container and have it in between meals. 

My shopping list primarily consisted of vegetables, beans and some form of turkey. As I’ve said before, I have a very limited diet. I’m gluten free and dairy free. When it comes to animal-based proteins, I only consume seafood and turkey. (People often ask me why I eat this way. I’ll explain in an upcoming post.) Prior to getting serious about becoming debt free, I usually ate seafood and rarely ate turkey. Remember, I was the queen of the white tablecloth restaurants. When I sought to be frugal or to cut back on spending, I’d buy fresh salmon, shrimp and crab legs from the grocery store. Those days are over. Aside from canned tuna or salmon, I have eliminated seafood from my grocery list completely. It’s much too expensive. Turkey is cheaper and goes much further in a range of different dishes during the week. 

So, last week, on the heels of what had been a super busy prior few weeks, I decided I’d just go pick up some stuff from one grocery store – a store that I’d been meaning to visit. I didn’t feel like meal planning. I didn’t have any food in the fridge and I knew I’d need something soon. 

The plan was to go into the store and buy the stuff I usually buy – vegetables for salad, turkey, maybe some beans, maybe some tuna. I don’t need a list for that, I reasoned. I know what I usually get. 

MIstake. Mistake. Mistake. What did I end up buying? Oh, let me show you. 

• Gluten-free bread ($4.99!)
• Strawberry fruit spread ($3.79)
• Cotton Candy grapes (these grapes, which really do taste like cotton candy, are the best grapes in all the land, but I had no business buying them because they are $3.99 per pound)
• Dairy-free yogurt (2 at $1.59 per cup)
• French vanilla granola (a ¼ pound at $5.49 per pound)

A bought a couple of other small things but the items above were the ones that should not have happened. The grand total for this grocery store visit was $24.84. 

That’s not a bad total. Frankly, my foray into No Shopping List Land wouldn’t have been that big of a deal if I had just done what I told myself I would do – cook a meal, using what I had in the freezer and in my pantry. That would subsidize the stuff that I bought from the store. Did I do it? Nope. 

As the weekend progressed, I couldn’t convince myself to cook. I didn’t feel like it. I told myself that I’d just have to eat peanut butter and strawberry fruit spread sandwiches all week (which is something I don’t normally do because I don’t usually have gluten-free bread in the house). The problem is that there weren’t enough slices in the gluten free loaf that I bought to feed me for a week. 

Instead of cooking, I went on a lovely date with Mr. Nice For Now and spent the majority of the rest of the weekend working. I kept telling myself that I should go ahead and cook the rice and spinach that I’d need to eat throughout the week because the turkey was already gone and the loaf of bread would be gone soon, too. The yogurt and granola were almost gone as well. 

My desire to cook during the week continued to wane. So what did Single Girl do? I justified making stops for food at quick service restaurants here and there throughout the week. I say that I “justified” it because I was in a position to buy the prepared food without, technically, breaking my October budget. I had some funds in a separate account that were surplus funds for the times that I didn’t spend all of my allocated pocket change for the month or had not fully spent the funds allocated for a different discretionary item. There was a little bit of money sitting in that account, so that’s what I used to support my fall off the wagon.

I’ve been reminded that, in order to succeed on this journey, one has to be diligent in staying focused, in following routines, and in developing habits. I fell off the wagon and I’m feeling the consequences of that. 

I’ve learned 4 key lessons: 

1. Cooking Is Not Optional

For where my life is right now and what I’m working on, I don’t have the option to not cook. I cannot use busyness as an excuse; I cannot use work as an excuse. It needs to be a permanent part of my lifestyle. It seems that I’ll need to start being a bit more creative in what I cook so that I feel like I’m getting a little bit of variety. But, not doing it at all just isn’t a step that I can take. 

There must always be something in the fridge or on hand that I can put together quickly, so I that I don’t feel inclined to just pick up something while I’m out. With my diet, I can’t eat cheap, quick things like dry Ramen or regular bread, so I’ve got to be intentional about having meals and snacks on hand for those times that I’m feeling tired or pressed for time. 

I’ve also got to remain prepared with foods that I can take with me when I won’t be at home working. What I typically do is put some tuna in a glass container, along with a couple of ice packs in my lady-style lunch bag. I take that with me when I’ll be moving around. Even that takes planning and preparation. 

2. Keeping A Routine Is Essential

My falling off the wagon isn’t my biggest concern. Staying off of the wagon, however, is. As James Clear says in his book Atomic Habits, imperfection is inevitable; the key is to get back on track as soon as possible.

The first mistake is never the one that ruins you. It is the spiral of repeated mistakes that follows. Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit.

~ James Clear, Atomic Habits

I’ve got a long debt repayment road ahead of me, so I must routinize money-saving activities. Since having food to eat is a multi-step process (meal planning, grocery shopping and meal preparation), I have to make sure that I have a routine – a strong set of habits – around each of the steps involved.

3. Allocation of (and Commitment to) Making Time Is Necessary

I’m literally, going to start blocking off time on my calendar for the activities surrounding my meals. Otherwise, I’ll let other things seep into the time I need to get this stuff done. It wasn’t that hard for me to fall back into old habits because living this way is still fairly new to me. With every week being different, I’ll probably designate certain days for certain activities, giving myself some flexibility on the time of day that I will do each item. For example, prior to my tumble from the wagon, I did my meal planning on Thursdays, my shopping on Fridays and my cooking on either Saturday or Sunday. When my most recent tennis season started, much of my Sunday afternoons became occupied with tennis matches. So, perhaps my cooking day will be Saturdays, when I have Sunday matches and Sundays when I don’t. 

If I were trying harder to meet men, I’d do my shopping on a weekday evening, right around the time that the fellas get off work and are in the store picking up their dinner. They’re usually in the deli area or near the hot foods bar. I’ve been going to the stores on Friday afternoons and evenings because I like being in the store when there aren’t as many people around. And, I hadn’t been all that pressed to meet any one. I’m thinking that I’ll change my program soon; I’m starting to feel a greater desire to meet more people. I’ll probably change my shopping day to a day and at a time when I might be more inclined to see something I want to see. :0)

4. I’ve Got to Streamline the Process

I like the Out of Milk app that I’ve been using and will continue to use it for my shopping list and for the tracking of the costs of different grocery and household items. I feel that there’s room in other areas of the process to streamline and make it more efficient – especially during those super busy times and when I don’t feel like doing the work. One way to do that might be to focus on making more crockpot dishes. Given the time of year, stews, chilis and soups would be a great meal choice. 

My Recommitment 

Even though I didn’t, technically, break the budget, I spent more money than I needed to. What’s worse is that I didn’t even really enjoy my shenanigans. I didn’t have that much money to spend, so I had to go with low-cost, quick food that I don’t even particularly like. Chipotle isn’t bad; it’s just not my preference.

Plus, I want to be deliberate in the choices that I make. So, if I’m going to have a freestyle kind of week, I want to have made the active choice to do that, without feeling any reservations or guilt. 

Will this one week of freestyle foolishness be highly destructive? No, of course not. If I were to continue on this pattern, would it sabotage my aims? Absolutely. I’m committing to getting back on track.