Month End - April 2011

Well, it's pretty safe to say that if I was still employed right now I'd be pretty darn happy about this month end update. While the debts only changed by about $400, most of that being my car payment, my assets increased by almost $3000. My last pay check, rather than being the typical 80 hours, was 64 hours of regular work time, 40 hours of severance, and however many vacation days I had left on the books (there was a few). It does NOT include my income tax return, or any EI payments. 

	31-Mar-10	31-Mar-11	30-Apr-11
Chequing	$116.66	$166.51	$2524.12
Savings 1	$0.24	$0.26	$1.26
Savings 2	$100.00	$0.90	$1.90
Savings 3	$500.00	$580.07	$1000.13
Investment	$2,189.67	$1,362.91	$1,538.46
TFSA	$0.00	$2,514.04	$2,494.42
RRSP 1	$1,525.96	$1,649.01	$1,678.23
RRSP 2	$3,868.08	$4,027.81	$4,050.77
RRSP 3	$0.00	$889.90	$889.90
ASSETS	$8,300.61	$11,191.41	$14,179.19
Car Loan	($13,138.27)	($8,665.84)	($8,299.58)
LOC	($10,000.00)	($10,950.00)	($10,950.00)
Credit Card	($5,155.65)	($4,030.33)	($3,990.50)
DEBTS	($28,293.92)	($23,646.17)	($23,240.08)
Net Worth	($19,993.31)	($12,454.76)	($9,060.89)

So, financially speaking, I did alright last month. I'll admit that there were a few slip ups in the cash only goal department, and I did an abhorrent job of tracking my spending at the end of the month. On the bright side I can report that there were a lot more no spend days in April!

But today I'm not going to spend too long looking over my finances. I've got lots of stuff to do keeping me busy! My $2 dinner party is tonight, and it looks as if I'll be able to do it with tonnes of wiggle room to spare! I'm currently sitting at $6.23 to make a meal for 4 people. If it wasn't for the fact that the weather just turned ugly I'd consider ducking out to the store to grab some yogurt to make raita. I may still do that, we'll see.

Have a good day everyone ;)

2 Bucks

I mentioned a little while back that I'd be doing a post on a $2 dinner party. I was driving down Whyte Ave yesterday when I remembered a) that I hadn't done the post yet, and b) that the dinner party was this weekend and I hadn't planned anything yet! Crap.

Anyway, the $2 dinner party is essentially a cost controlled potluck where no meal component costs more than $2 a serving. The party host provides the main course, and a topic of conversation to discuss. Everyone else brings either an appetizer, salad, dessert, or something else to add onto the meal. Since the number of people attending will vary from party to party, your available funds for preparing the meal is going to vary as well.

The friend who originally came up with the idea hosted the first party in March. She prepared chicken pot pies with a biscuit topping, and rosemary focaccia bread to start. I believe she had $12 to work with, and she only went over budget slightly because she threw in a sweet potato she had on hand that wasn't actually required (there was more than enough food, trust me!). It was a tasty success.

I checked the attendee list yesterday (we organize it on Facebook), and I had 3 people attending, with 2 maybes. After asking the maybes to give me an idea if they were going to be able to make it, I had one attendee drop out, one maybe bump up to attending, and one non-response bump up to maybe. So, I'm again back to 3 attending and 2 maybes. Ah well.

I'm going to assume that 1 of the 2 maybes will actually show up, so I'll be feeding 4 people. That gives me $8 to work with for the main course. My first thought was a pasta dish, such as a carbonara, which is still my standby if need be. I can get good pasta and individual slices of bacon cheap at the Italian grocery store. However, I'm thinking more along the lines of Indian food this go around. My goal meal for the party is to do vegetarian samosas, dal (daal, dhal, dahl, etc...), and naan bread for under $8.

I'll put the price breakdown for what I end up making on here for you guys when I'm done.

If I buy something that doesn't get used in it's entirety, I'm only going to be counting that fraction of the price towards my total. I'm already planning to take the remaining tomato paste and turning it into pizza sauce for leftover naan bread pizzas anyway(Om Nom Nom). Because there are so many different spices in small quantities (does 1/4 tsp of cinnamon even register on a bulk scale?), I'm going to assume my spices/salt/pepper will cost me $0.75. That may be a little on the high side, but oh well.

So, I'm off to the grocery store this morning. Wish me luck!

Leftover leftovers?

Okay, so it's really freaking cold outside, and I don't really want to go out there right now.

Which kinda sucks, because I need to pick up groceries soon.

I looked over my fridge, tossed the items that needed tossing (how did 4 month expired yogurt get missed in the last clean out?), and assessed what was left. Not much. A couple eggs, a splash of milk, some mouldy cheese and a container of spinach cheese dip from going out with a friend a couple days ago. On the counter was some bread crusts leftover from having some friends over for an english tea a little while back.

My fridge is not usually this barren. I blame the weather.

I have a reasonably stocked pantry, but I was feeling the need to use up what was in the fridge before tapping that. Well, tapping that too much anyway.

I trimmed the mould off the cheese and cut into small, meltable pieces (there was too little to shred). After cooking a pot of penne and draining it, I threw the cheese pieces to melt, and added the remaining spinach cheese dip. The result was a cheesy spinach pasta, with a little kick. For whatever reason the restaurant we got the spinach dip from does theirs with a tex-mex edge. If I find the pasta is too dry when I reheat it, I can throw some salsa in quite easily to fix that.

The bread crusts (about 1/2 a loaf's worth?) were torn up into little bite sized pieces and spread out in a baking dish. My last 3 eggs and splash of milk were whipped together with a few handfuls of homemade vanilla sugar and vanilla extract. I say handfuls, because I was too lazy to get a measuring cup out of the cupboard. 3 handfuls - That's about as precise-ish as I can get on this recipe. On top of the crust pieces I liberally sprinkled nutmeg and cinnamon, as well as a few handfuls of crushed walnuts and a handful of dark chocolate chips, before pouring the egg mixture over it. I pushed the bread down to make sure it all soaked up some egg mixture, covered the dish in tinfoil, and put it in the oven at 350 Fahrenheit for about 35 minutes.

Om nom nom.

I have some Devon cream in the fridge at work to put on that bad boy.

I now have breakfast and lunch for the rest of the week :)

Then I really have to go get groceries :s

Has anyone made anything interesting out of their leftovers lately?

Staple Soup

Kelly over at Almost Frugal did a post recently on the 6 key ingredients she uses in her day to day life to make quick easy meals. It's good to have fall back stash of multi-purpose foods you can rely on in a pinch when you need to make a quick, easy and cheap meal.

Reading through her list I realized a) I don't bake as much as I should, and b) I'm running out of my staples at home and need to stock up! Haha. It got me thinking though. While initially I looked at the list and thought "Yep, those are my staples too", I realized afterwards that they really weren't anymore. My staples have shifted.

These are Kelly's 6 Staples:

1. Flour
2. Baking Powder
3. Salt
4. Oil
5. Milk
6. Eggs

These are my 6 Staples:

1. Tea
2. Milk
3. Sugar
4. Bread
5. Eggs
6. Pepper

That's not to say that I don't use the other items, because I do, it's just that these are the 6 I use most frequently and almost always have on hand. I'd be lying if I said I never skipped meals and just had a cup of tea instead because I'm busy or on the run. I almost did that tonight :s Add on some squash, onions, garlic and canned tomatoes to this list and I'm pretty content for quite a while.

I'm not going to put up a recipe for my top 6, because I'm pretty sure most of you can figure out what goes into an omelet or french toast yourself, but I will put up one I did recently with squash and garlic. Actually, I do it frequently. It's stupid simple.

Basically:

= 

You take a medium sized butternut squash, cut it into chunks that are similar in size to a golf ball, and put them in a roasting pan. Then take the papery peel off ~8 cloves of garlic, and throw them in the roasting pan with the garlic. Drizzle with olive oil, wrap top with foil or lid, and put them in the oven at 350F/175C until they're softened and toasty (about 45 minutes). Let them cool enough to handle, and take the peel off the squash (you're supposed to do it first thing, but I find it's easier this way). Put the squash and garlic into a pot, and cover with either stock, or water with bouillon cubes/powder. Simmer on medium-low for about half an hour or so, then remove from heat. Either transfer this to a blender, or use an immersion blender, and blend until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste, reheat if necessary.

It's really easy to make, and super forgiving. You can put the stuff in the oven and walk away to do something else while it's roasting. Ditto when it's simmering. It's really adaptable too, you can add all sorts of seasoning to it. I usually like mine with just salt, pepper, and a dollop of either yogurt or sour cream.

Anywho, I have homework calling my name. Have a good night everyone. Happy eating :)

Used

I'm conflicted at the moment.

I had an absolutely great time last night. I went for dinner with a friend at Mongoli Grill (a build your own stir fry place), then went to the season opening Oilers game (hockey for you not in the know. Battle of Alberta - Edmonton vs. Calgary, freaking awesome game). Bought a jersey, had a Starbucks & Baileys, cheered on my team to a fantastic 4-0 win and had a general good time.

... and I feel guilty.

Why? My friend makes loads more money than I do, and he paid for all of it. Well, almost. I paid for my coffee, but he probably would have paid for that too if he had been ordering at the same time. Dinner (business expense, we discussed work), game tickets (family has season tickets) and jersey (he swears it's an early Christmas gift). That's a couple hundred dollars. I know he's SUPER generous with his friends and family, has all of his debts paid off, makes 6+ figures and year and has nothing to do with it but spend it or save it... but I feel guilty accepting it. It's too much, and I don't feel like I can reciprocate. He's seeing someone, and not that kind of guy, so don't even let your mind go down that route. And please don't roll your eyes about "oh, what a terrible problem to have...". It doesn't feel good. Unless I can reciprocate it, I feel like I'm using him. I'm so much more comfortable with our usual Starbucks and farmer's market wandering.

Advice? Anyone?