Tag Archives: Health

Menu Plan Monday & Grocery Round Up: 11/29-12/5

As part of my Holiday Food & Financial Diet this month, we spent Sunday morning planning out three and a half weeks worth of meals to last us until we leave for Christmas. These menu plans were especially tough because I’m also putting some restrictions on my diet to ward off holiday weight gain and hopefully cancel out the damage I’ve already done.

We originally planned to reduce meat consumption, but I’m also limiting my wheat and carbs consumption (to an extent) for the next three weeks. Trying to come up with vegetarian meals with pasta and bread off limits was pretty much impossible. So we planned a pretty chicken-heavy meal rotation with a few healthy carb-heavy meals (like red beans and rice) and lots of soups for the next three weeks.

Chicken wasn’t on sale this week, but we have enough in the freezer for this week’s meals. We’re crossing our fingers that it will go on sale next week so we can buy enough to carry us through the month. (Cross your fingers for me!)

This week’s total was $52. That total isn’t necessarily true to what we spent for this week alone, though. Because we already have meals planned for the next three weeks, we picked up several sale items that we know we’ll need in the near future.

Here’s the first installment of our December meal plan:

Saturday: Thanksgiving leftovers
Sunday: Turkey sandwiches
Monday: Chicken fajita tortilla soup
Tuesday: Chef’s salad
Wednesday: Red beans & rice
Thursday: Vegetarian chili
Friday: Grilled chicken wraps

I hope you’ll come back for week two of my month-long menu plan!

Now head over to OrgJunkie for more menu plans.

Introducing the “Holiday Food & Financial Diet”!

Photo by rwhitlock

I don’t know about you, but the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are a dangerous time for my waistline and my bank account. The holiday spirit tempts me to overspend on entertainment and gifts, and the holiday parties and meals tempt me to eat and eat unhealthy foods.

This has been a weekend of gluttony, and with our trip home for the holidays coming up in a scant 24 days, I’m looking ahead to another week of overeating, overspending, and expensive travel. This year, I want to nip it in the bud. I don’t have the will power to resist on the holidays themselves, but the least I can do is control myself in the weeks in between.

So how are we controlling our diet and spending in the next few weeks?

1. We’re reducing our consumption of meat.

We have a couple steaks and a few chicken breasts in our freezer. We’ve decided to pick up some extra chicken breasts to last us through the month, and then ration our consumption for the next few weeks. This will not only reduce the amount of meat we’re eating and buying — it will also ensure that we’re not leaving a freezer full of meat when we head out of town for Christmas.

2. We’re trying month-long menu planning.

I typically only menu plan on a week by week basis. This month, we’re going to try planning out our meals for the next three weeks in one fell swoop. This will allow us to maximize purchases, ration our meat consumption throughout the month, and clear out the pantry before our trip.

3. We’re cutting our entertainment spending and staying home instead.

With our big trip back to Indiana coming up, we’ve decided a few weekends at home won’t hurt us. This will not only free up some extra money for travel and gifts, but it will reduce the temptation to overeat at a restaurant or splurge on movie theater popcorn.

We’ve cut our usual $50 for entertainment out of the budget. Typically this goes to the occasional movie or meal out. This month we’ll stay home on the weekends, utilize the library, and revisit some movies we haven’t watched in ages.

4. We set a budget of $50 each to shop for each other — and we’re sticking to it.

Both of us were willing to give up receiving gifts from the other, but neither of us wanted to give up the fun of shopping for the other. Finding that perfect gift for the person you love most is so much fun. The trick is to avoid the temptation to go overboard. Last year, we were limited to $50 each, and we had a lot of fun finding small, practical but thoughtful gifts to put under our tree. We decided to maintain the tradition. Nothing big or flashy, just small tokens.

5. We kept our Christmas shopping list short.

It can be so tempting to shop for anyone and everyone in your family this time of year. I firmly reminded myself that the people I love who love me will understand that we’re not in a place financially where we can buy flashy gifts for our extended family. We used an Amazon gift card I received through MyPoints to shop for our nieces and nephews who are 5 and under, and we’re putting together gift baskets for immediate family.

I’ll revisit this topic throughout the month to let you know how I’m doing. I hope you’ll join in, too! The holidays themselves may throw off your financial and fitness goals, but if we can control ourselves for a few weeks in between it might not be so bad!

If you’re planning on joining in, please leave a comment and let me know how you’re cutting back for the next three weeks!

Why pay more for lean ground beef?

Tony and I don’t eat a lot of red meat. Occasionally we’ll grill a nice lean steak, but we eat more chicken than beef. It’s mostly because when we do buy ground beef, we like to buy very lean beef, usually about 90-94% lean. Have you seen the prices for lean beef? It rarely falls below $4 a pound. We’d just as soon cook with chicken, which is healthier and only $2 a pound.

This week, Tony had a craving for Shepherd’s pie. We were picking up our Thanksgiving turkey and some steaks on sale. We needed beef for the pie, but I wanted to save some money. I decided for this week that the extra 10% fat in the $2 a pound ground beef wouldn’t kill me.

I was shocked at how much extra fat cooked out in the pan. We’ve been cooking with lean beef for so long that I’ve gotten used to seeing very little fat in the pan.

We cooked all of the fat out, drained it completely, and patted it down with paper towels to remove the excess fat. And you know what? It was basically the same. Obviously, I can’t say for sure that it was just as lean as the 90%, but it sure seemed like it once it was drained well.

I know, this one seems like a no-brainer, but it’s a revelation for me. I’ll never pay $4 a pound for ground beef again. That works for me!

Feeling down? Don’t let it tempt you to overspend (or overeat)

It’s just been one of those weeks. Everything is just … blah. Nothing in particular, really. Maybe it’s because it’s my first full week back after a short vacation. Maybe it’s because I’m feeling deprived of fall in the 85-degree heat. Most likely I’m just more than a little homesick for the beautiful Midwestern fall weather and for my friends and family back home.

At any rate, I’ve been feeling down in the dumps.

Usually when I’m down, the first thing I reach for is something extremely bad for me to eat. Chocolate. French fries. Pizza. Whatever. But I’m watching what I eat now, so that’s not really an option.

Instead, I was craving seared tuna. A downtown restaurant makes a delicious seared tuna that I found myself thinking about as the afternoon wore on. It seemed like the perfect comfort food. I was so tempted to call my husband after work and tell him to forget about the meal we’d planned (roasted chicken breasts) and take me out to dinner.

But we’re already cutting it close with our grocery budget for the month. And honestly, overspending or overeating never really make me feel better when I’m down. Sure, it’s great temporarily, but when the meal is over and the bill arrives, I feel sick — not just because I’ve probably eaten too much and wrecked a week of dieting, but also because it’s extra money we shouldn’t have spent.

It never fails. I feel worse than I did before the meal.

Instead, I called my husband and asked him to start thinking about how we might recreate the seared tuna recipe. On my way home, he gave me a very short grocery list. Basically tuna and rice. We had the rest of the ingredients on hand.

For about $10, we made our own seared tuna at home. It was absolutely delicious and completely satisfied the craving. The chicken breast that we defrosted in the refrigerator last night will be just as good for another meal early next week.

The money we spent will fit easily in our entertainment budget for which we allow about $12.50 a week. No big deal this weekend since we’re going to a work-related picnic Saturday that won’t cost us a dime.

After a healthful, delicious meal I’m feeling better, and I didn’t have to break my diet or my budget.

Stay healthy, save money

Photo by smaku
It’s that time of year again. One by one everyone in the office and at school starts sniffling, coughing, and sneezing. It’s only a matter of time before you come down with it, too. Or is it?

Cold and flu season is no fun. Getting sick not only makes you feel bad; it can be expensive. Even if you don’t need to pay a visit to the doctor or fill a prescription, you’ll still spend money on expensive over-the-counter drugs and lose valuable time when you could be doing something productive. It may even affect your paycheck if your employer doesn’t offer sick time.

While a flu shot may ward off the flu, I choose not to get them. The last time I had a flu shot, the nurse nicked a nerve and my arm was sore for 6 months. So I choose to fight off illness the old-fashioned, frugal way. Here are some tips to keep you well this flu season and save money:

1. Take good care of yourself.

Plenty of sleep and a healthy diet go a long way when it comes to staying well. Try to get 8 hours of sleep every night, and make sure your diet is rich in whole grains, protein, produce, and calcium. Avoid alcohol and don’t smoke. It seems obvious, but taking good care of yourself in general is half the battle.

2. Keep your hands clean.

Washing frequently throughout the day will decrease your risk of picking up germs. I always carry a little bottle of hand sanitizer in my purse, and frequently pull it out and use it throughout the day. Always wash your hands before eating.

3. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth unless your hands are clean.

Your hands are the first line of defense when it comes to germs. They’re the body part most likely to come into contact with germs through doorknobs, phones, and other things you touch. Whenever I tell people this, they look at me like I’m some kind of germaphobe. But when you absent-mindedly touch your face after picking up germs, you infect yourself.

Make a concerted effort to keep your hands away from your face unless you’ve just washed or sanitized them. If you get an itch, just use the back of your hand or your wrist to scratch it. It only takes a couple weeks to form a habit. Pretty soon you won’t even think about it anymore.

4. Carry a pen.

Think about how often you pick up a pen without thinking about where it’s been – at the bank, at the grocery store checkout, at a co-worker’s desk. If you keep a pen in your pocket or purse and always use your own, you’ll decrease your chances for picking up a virus from a germy pen.

5. If you do get sick, be courteous.

If at all possible, stay home until the virus passes. You should be getting rest anyway. If you absolutely have to go to work, try to isolate yourself as much as possible. Make sure you cover your mouth when you cough, but don’t cough into your hands. That will just ensure that you’re passing the germs on when you touch things around you. Instead, cough into your sleeve. Try to keep your hands clean, too.

Of course, there’s not a lot that moms can do to prevent kids from bringing viruses home from school. However, taking these steps will at least help you avoid picking up viruses from other places.

Keeping your immune system strong by taking good care of yourself may even protect you when the kids do bring it home. At the very least, being in good health with a strong immune system will shorten your recovery time.

5 ways that budget management and weight control are alike

I’m pretty proud of our financial success in the past few months. My husband and I have improved our financial health immensely since our wedding. Unfortunately, the same isn’t true for my physical health.

I’ve been avoiding the scale for the past month. I didn’t want to confirm what I already knew. Last night, I finally decided to face the inevitable. I’ve gained 8 pounds in the four months since my wedding. Yikes. I was 3 pounds below my regular weight on my wedding day, but I’m officially 5 pounds above my “happy weight” – the heaviest I’ve been in two years.

One of my first posts was about how I lost weight using basic budgeting skills. Now that the honeymoon’s over, and it’s time to get real and lose these pounds I’ve put on since the wedding, I wanted to revisit the topic. Only this time I’m talking about why constant monitoring and reassessment are crucial to staying physically and financially fit.

Here are some tips I’ve found helpful when managing my weight and my budget:

1. Be realistic.

Sometimes it’s necessary to go on a strict budget to pay down massive debt. You may have to cut all discretionary spending for a little while to overcome a major financial hurdle. However, if you try to maintain that level of restriction for too long, it’s harder to stay on track and meet your own high expectations.

Your best bet is to find a comfortable balance between necessary bills, discretionary spending, and saving. Maintaining a reasonable budget requires constant monitoring, but it shouldn’t be incredibly difficult or make you feel deprived.

The same is true for weight management. Find a comfortable weight within your healthy range that you’re able to maintain without going to extreme diet measures. Once you get there, maintaining that weight requires constant monitoring, but it shouldn’t be a terrible struggle as long as you’re eating well and exercising.

I’m able to stay at my healthy weight pretty easily just by avoiding overeating and staying active. When I try to venture below that weight, like I did for my wedding, every pound is an incredible struggle. My body just doesn’t want to be that thin. So I’m happy to compromise. I may not be thin enough to feel comfortable in a bikini, but at least I know I’m in a healthy weight range.

2. Frequently monitor your progress to catch yourself before you veer too far off track.

Once you find a comfortable budget, it’s crucial that you measure your progress regularly. Without careful planning and monitoring, you could easily throw your entire monthly budget off track with one weekend of bad decisions. Imagine how bad it could get if you just stopped monitoring your spending for months at a time.

Just as you check your budget frequently to make sure you’re not overspending, you must weigh yourself regularly. A slight increase in weight could alert you to a problem in your diet and activity before you veer off track to an unmanageable degree.

3. The longer you avoid the problem, the harder it is to resolve.

It’s much easier to pay off your credit card balance every month than it is to pay down several thousand dollars of debt that’s accrued over months or years. It’s also a lot harder to lose weight when the pounds have packed on over time. Overcoming a 1-pound weight gain usually just involves watching what you eat closely for a few days. I’ll have to work a lot harder to lose these 5 pounds. It would be even harder if I waited until I was 40 pounds overweight again to get back on track.

4. Constantly adjust according to your changing needs.

When it comes to budgeting, everybody knows that you can’t continue spending the same after a major pay cut. When your income decreases, your spending must decrease, too. Likewise, when you welcome a new baby, your discretionary spending is probably going to take a hit to accommodate for diapers and formula.

You must find the same balance between activity and calorie intake for weight management. I think part of the reason I’m struggling more to maintain my weight is because I changed my job. In retail, I was on my feet 8 hours a day running around the store, moving heavy objects, and constantly moving. I didn’t watch my diet as closely as I should have, but the constant activity made it easy to keep extra weight off. Now that I’m sitting at a desk all day instead of moving, I need to seek out more activity outside of my job and become mindful of what I eat to avoid weight gain.

5. Sticking to it and making the right choices are the hardest parts.

Everyone knows that the easiest way to stay ahead of the game financially is to spend less than you make. We also know that the best way to maintain a healthy weight is to burn more calories than you consume. It all sounds so easy when you break it down into those simple equations, doesn’t it? The truth it, it’s not that easy.

The part that’s left out of that equation is the constant struggle every day to make the right choices and stick to your commitment. After all, if it was as easy as it sounds, nobody would struggle with their weight or their finances.

The best thing that weight control and budget management have in common? They’re both totally worth the struggle.

Photo credit

Life without a microwave

Yesterday, Kelly at Almost Frugal Food wrote a post about heating and reheating food without a microwave. Like Kelly, I don’t have a microwave, and I don’t want one. So I thought I’d throw in my two cents and tips on the topic.

Cutting the microwave out of your life is a great way to improve your diet. My husband used to live predominantly on microwaveable food in college. Generally, the stuff is pretty bad for you.

Cooking without a microwave is also better for your budget. Convenience foods, which come complete with high-tech packaging designed to make them taste less like microwaved food, are also a drain on the budget. Cooking with whole foods from scratch is much more economical than packaged convenience foods designed for microwave cooking.

I’ve also just never been completely comfortable with the idea of microwaves, to be honest. The idea of toxins and carcinogens being released by heating plastic in the microwave is more than a little disconcerting. Am I being paranoid? Probably. But I can live with that.

The bigger issue is that I hate the way food tastes when it’s heated or reheated in a microwave. It always comes out with a chewy, dry consistency. For the longest time I thought I hated leftover pizza. Turns out I just hated the way it tasted when it was reheated in a microwave.

Many people react with shock and horror when I tell them I don’t have a microwave. “How do you reheat anything?!” It’s like the entire fabric of their universe is crashing down on them.

I’ve never understood why people are so horrified by the idea of life without a microwave. The truth is, there’s nothing a microwave can do that a stove top or conventional oven can’t do better. It takes a little more time, but the tastier results are worthwhile.

Soups and pastas can be reheated simply by throwing them into a pot or skillet over medium-low heat on the stove top. Pizza, casseroles, and lasagna can be reheated for 10-20 minutes in a 300-350 degree oven.

Need to defrost meat? Refer to your menu plan before you go to bed, and place the meat you’ll need for tomorrow’s dinner into the refrigerator to thaw for 24 hours. Forgot to take your chicken breast out of the freezer last night? It happens. Just put it in a bowl in the sink with slow, steady stream of cool water trickling into the bowl. It’ll thaw in about 20 minutes.

The only thing we can’t make is microwave popcorn. No big deal. We buy stove top Jiffy Pop. It’s more fun anyway. :)

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Be familiar with what your insurance covers, and make sure your doctor is, too

About a month ago, my husband and I both went to the dentist for routine exams and cleanings. Because we’d been uninsured for a year, it was our first visit in about that long. It was also our first visit to a new dentist, so they did a full round of x-rays in addition to the cleaning and exam.

No cavities or problems for either of us (woo hoo!), and routine preventative care is fully covered by my insurance, so we left that day with no bill. Or so we thought.

Two weeks later, I received a statement of benefits that said we’d been denied coverage for $14 of each of our claims.

When I called to ask about it, I was informed that my dentist took three of a certain type of x-ray. My insurance only covers two within a 12-month period. My dentist hadn’t checked to see what was covered, and I didn’t know, so I let them take the x-ray that may or may not have been necessary. Because x-rays are considered “preventative care,” extra ones are not even covered by the 80/20 part of my policy. For preventative care, it’s all or nothing. We’re responsible for 100% of any preventative care that isn’t covered.

Luckily, it was only a $14 x-ray. So our total out of pocket for both of us will be $28. Without insurance, we would have paid over $500 for our exams, cleanings, and x-rays. If you ask me, $28 for healthy smiles is a bargain.

This experience made me think, though: what if the uncovered procedure had been something more expensive? I had no idea what my insurance actually covered as “preventative care.”

I assumed that my entire visit would be considered “preventative care,” but I didn’t know enough about my policy to ask my dentist questions. I certainly didn’t know enough to say, “My insurance only covers two x-rays, so if the third isn’t absolutely necessary, I’d really rather skip it.” I don’t know if dentists take kindly to this kind of request, but I’d be comfortable asking if I had known it was necessary.

We already made appointments for our second cleanings and exams of the year six months from now, so I decided to check with my insurance company to make sure it will be covered. I didn’t want to be stuck with 100% of the cost of our second cleanings/exams if my insurance only covers one cleaning for each of us per year. Turns out we’re each allowed two cleanings and exams per year, so we’re fine.

What did I learn from this? Though I’ve always checked my insurance policies for general information (i.e. do they cover 100% for preventative care? What percentage of other procedures and prescriptions will they cover?), it’s also important to look at the minute details that I might otherwise ignore, such as exactly how many x-rays they cover and what’s considered “preventative care.”

Not only did I not know that my insurance only covered two of that particular type of x-ray, I had no idea that they were taking three of them. In the future, I’ll be prepared when I show up for doctor or dentist appointments. I’m going to become familiar with the little details of my policy, and I’ll begin the appointment by politely requesting to be informed of each procedure they’re going to perform. If I’m educated about what they’re doing, what’s covered by my insurance and what’s not, I’ll be able to make educated decisions about whether I want to go through with the procedures or not.

Obviously, if the doctor deems the procedure medically necessary or if it’s an emergency, then I won’t be crunching numbers in my head. Our health comes before money. But if it’s just an extra x-ray and the doctor says there’s no harm in skipping it, I might want to pass.

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Will joining a grocery co-op bust my food budget?

I love the idea of a grocery store co-op. Cooperatively owned by community members, these stores sell local produce that is organic and free of pesticides. Not only does shopping there support local growers, but it reduces your carbon footprint by reducing the emissions created by the huge semis that transport produce to grocery stores from distant locations.

I used to shop at the local co-op occasionally when I was in college, but I never became a member. The produce was fresher, tastier, and better quality overall. But it was quite a bit more expensive.

While they do sell packaged organic and specialty foods, those items are way overpriced, so we only plan to shop at the co-op for produce. But we’re trying to reduce our grocery costs, and even with the discounts, I’m afraid that we’ll pay a lot more for our produce.

I think this is a really important cause, healthy produce is important to me, and I understand that local farmers can’t compete with the prices of larger distributors. So I’m willing to pay a slightly higher price for the quality and the cause, but we can’t afford to completely bust our food budget to shop there.

The membership dues are $30 a year. That fee entitles us to the member discounts, including select items at 25% off every day. They also send additional discount coupons in the monthly newletter and periodically offer member appreciation days for a 10% discount.

We’d also have the opportunity to volunteer a few hours per month to receive additional 12% discount days, and we’d receive an annual patronage refund dependent upon how much we spend. I can’t find any hard numbers on the co-op’s website or through my research on what kind of refund we could expect, so I’m assuming it’s not much.

We’ve decided to go there this weekend, check out the prices, and ask some questions about the discounts and the patronage refund. This is something we’d like to do, but not if it’s going to drastically increase our grocery bill.

We’ve shopped at the local farmer’s market before, and I’ve considered that as an alternative. I like the produce, and I think the experience is fun overall, but I don’t think it’s practical for us on a weekly basis. It’s kind of far out of our way, so I feel like our additional fuel consumption is offsetting some of the benefits of shopping there. It also forces us to get up and dressed on Saturday mornings earlier than we’d like, and the vendors there only take cash (which I find inconvenient because I generally don’t carry cash).

In addition to the costs, I’m also concerned that we might be joining a little late in the season. We live in a warm climate with a long growing season, so we can probably expect to see local summer fruits and vegetables at the co-op for at least another month or two. But what about the fall and winter? I would hate to pay our dues now and then have to wait through the fall and winter to start buying produce there.

Do any of you shop at a co-op or belong to one? What are your thoughts?

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