Sep 9
As you may already know, I realized pretty early on that this project made me a smarter spender—not only at the grocery store, but in life. I just didn’t know how much smarter until Adam, Cari and I decided to go on what I thought was a much-needed hiatus.
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I love being a freelancer. I do. I love that I can pick up and go wherever I want whenever I want as long as I take my computer with me and I love that I never get bored with my job because things are always changing. What I don’t love: the fact that I spend about 22 hours a day in my apartment. While I could brag about the fact that I have multiple rooms from which to work (which I do, and I can brag about it because I paid my tiny-apartment dues for nine years in New York) it’s still one space—once space that I occupy alone, except for my dog Jack, my cat Eve, the occasional water bug and whoever is out there, on the other end of whatever Internet tube I happen to be traveling through at the time.
So it should come as no surprise that after nearly 10 weeks of eating almost every meal in officially (and eight months of it unofficially) I had a minor freak-out yesterday and had not one, but two, meals out.
My French press during its 15 minutes...
My dad came up to Kansas City on Friday to help my uncle move. Because they worked well into the evening I made him spaghetti with meat sauce (with tomatoes and bison beef from my CSA, of course) and he stayed the night, even though there was a comedy show happening in my dining room (literally, not a dinner gone awry or anything).
As any good daughter who has a memory foam mattress and a dad with a creaky old back would do, I gave my him my bedroom and slept on the couch (the comedians were in my guest room).
Like me, my dad is a coffee drinker (and peanut butter addict). Unlike me, he is an early riser. But on Saturday morning I, too, woke early… to the saddest sound ever. Read the rest of this entry »
The subject of my—admittedly expensive—coffee habit has been the cause of much ado lately. While I’d like to say it’s much ado about nothing, the simple fact is that I was spending approximately $112 dollars a month on coffee alone—which, on one hand, is ridiculous.
On the other hand, however, it was money I was more than happy to spend. Walking half a mile each way for a four-dollar skim latte added exercise to my newly-sedentary Midwestern life. Plus, it was an extra mile of walking (plus doggie socializing) for my mutt Jack. Best of all, though, it was a chance for a work recluse like myself to get out and interact with friendly baristas and—if I was lucky—bearded coffee connoisseurs. And because I patronized a local, independent coffee shop I was not only supporting fair trade, I was stimulating the local economy, which is an issue very close to my heart.
But when we started this project, I knew it was time to dust off (and wash out, don’t worry) the old Bodum. Read the rest of this entry »
If you recall, I managed—somewhat miraculously—to stick to my budget during my first of two weeks in the Northeast. In fact, I was under budget. But I quickly got back into the routine of being a New Yorker (pair that with the fact that I was couch surfing) and not only did I go way over budget, I didn’t even keep very good track of what I spent.
Here’s what I was sober enough to recount to you now:
The week (my “fiscal week” begins on Thursdays) was off to a pretty good start. I didn’t eat breakfast Thursday and lunch was on my editor. Thursday night, the friend I was staying with made the most delicious fish tacos I’ve ever had (recipe to come later, hopefully!). Friday I skipped breakfast yet again (a bad New York habit I thought I’d broken after moving to Kansas City) and had a $6 street meat lunch. Friday night a now-new friend I’d met through Twitter (@emilyspearl) and this blog kindly invited me over to dinner after reading my post concerning my fear of going over budget while in the city, and made two ridiculously delicious recipes she was testing for Shauna James Ahern’s (The Gluten Free Girl’s) upcoming second book. Even Saturday wasn’t so bad; I skipped dinner and went straight for the drinks—which don’t count toward my $50 a week and led to a drama better left for another blog, another day.
Sunday is when it all went to shit. As promised, I visited my friend The Shameless Carnivore who bartends at Brooklyn’s Char No. 4 for brunch. I spent about $40, including tip. I think around $20 of that went to food. Sunday night I spent about $6 on meat for a friend’s BBQ and Monday night I consumed an embarrassing amount of over-priced, over-processed food before, during and after the Wilco show at Coney Island—which I attended with Adam. But my most shameful moment, however, was not ordering a Nathan’s sandwich by the calorie count (Yes, I really said “I’ll have the 1680-calorie chicken sandwich and the 300-calorie fries!”), but on Tuesday morning when I spent a whopping $11-something at Dean & Deluca for candied pecans to go in my Icelandic style yogurt, all to be washed down by a large iced coffee. To all the people who called me some variation of a yuppie asshole on TIME’s Cheapskate blog yesterday, you’re right (but I never claimed not to be).
And then I came home. Read the rest of this entry »
a summer breakfast: bread, cheese, eggs, fruit, coffee
The older I get, the more important breakfast becomes. In my twenties, I’d have nothing but coffee in the morning — or, worse, coffee and a cigarette. Now, at thirty-six, if I don’t get a decent breakfast, I’m dizzy by ten, incoherent by ten-thirty, and drool-napping at my desk by eleven in the morning.
Last week, I wondered what kind of asshole couldn’t survive on a $50-a-week food budget. Turns out I’m that kind of asshole. At least when I’m traveling. I packed up and took off for Bonnaroo, a music festival in Tennessee, on Thursday and because I was camping on site for three days, my options were overpriced vendor fare or a backpack full of non-perishables including—yes—peanut butter. Considering I’d already spent $25 on my CSA for the week it was going to be a challenge, anyway. I stayed pretty close to $25 when I hit a big box store I’d rather not name (out of shame) for my camp food, but what really got me was the coffee. Because I was too lazy to boil my own water at a campsite, I allowed myself to go over budget to keep caffeinated. At $3 each, two coffees a day, I ended up sending $18 alone just to stay awake. And we won’t even count what I may or may not have spent on magic brownies.
Not only did I go over budget, I did not eat well (even though other people at Bonnaroo managed to). So I’m considering last week a major FAIL. But it taught me something very important, at least something very important about this project. Read the rest of this entry »
lamb patty sandwich with avocado and radish greens
It was a week of reinventing leftover lamb (rehashed as sandwiches and pasta sauce), a week of takeout coffee, a week of political upheaval in Iran that will rewrite the way we get our news. In a vain attempt to reconcile these extremes, I overspent my budget by several dollars, a figure that would have risen considerably higher, were it not for the timely intervention of a post-wedding party in Harlem on Saturday, and a barbecue in Queens on Sunday. You might say that I lacked focus. If you were talking about my food photography, you’d be right.
I am beginning to wonder what kind-of asshole I had to be to think it would be a challenge to eat well on $50 a week. Actually, I know exactly what kind-of asshole: the kind who spends $4 a day on coffee. Yet again, the week is halfway over and I have spent only half of my budget—er, plus the $4 I broke down and spent on an iced depth charge (known on the East Coast as a redeye) this morning. Even better: my fridge is still full.
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