Granola I did not make

D makes big batches of granola so that he can eat it all week. He uses this recipe (which is from Molly, but he didn't know who that was until I told him) but I think he leaves out the dried fruit and maybe adds a bit of lemon zest.

{d's granola}

I don't usually eat it for breakfast, because I'm loyal to eggs. But I like snacking on it at other times of the day.

Valentine's Day 2011

This year I decided to play with crochet thread for the Valentine's Day cards. I just drew little lines with plain Elmer's glue and then stuck the thread right on. It looks like the glue will be really obvious but it flattens out a bit as it dries and it's fine. The balloons are just red felt hearts.

{valentine's day card 2011}

I was searching through my archives to see if I've adequately explained my Valentine's Day thing (obsessed, platonically) and I think I've covered it. In 2009 I gave it a whole week, complete with garlands, cookies, and cards. Oh, and I participated in Amanda's swap and Lauren and I became instant internet friends.

Last year Circe got a new bandanna and I sent goodies to Lily and became obsessed with her work (and eventually purchased two paintings that I treasure) and we became friends and I got goodies from cevd, who was already a friend. I can't find any record of my cards, but I definitely made brownies. Shaped like hearts.

In summary, Valentine's Day is good for friends.

Also, I haven't decided what to bake yet. But I still have several days for that.

The weekend, briefly

{colors, photos}

{puppy feet}

{breakfast with d}*

{impromtu tea strainer}

{pups, avocado}**

{snowy, avocado}**

{orange}***

{tape, hearts}

* I may do a lot of the cooking during the week, but Dustin is all over weekend breakfast, always. I love it. 

** I'm not the only one obsessed with avocados this season - the pups were eating them all weekend. They can't finish one in a single sitting, but they are afraid to leave them lying around in case the other one steals it.

*** Currently averaging four oranges a day. This is the only time of year that I eat fruit on a regular basis. I'm more of a veggie person normally.

Mondays have not been happening around here lately. I mean, I get up and go to work because there isn't any way around that. But if I don't feel like looking over photos on Sunday evening, then I don't. I've been trying to institute a two hour pre-bed cutoff, wherein I don't do any work for at least two hours before I go to bed. No computer, no filling orders, nothing. I have intermittent bouts of really annoying insomnia (I fall asleep with no problem, but I'm wide awake at 2 am and can't fall back asleep), which I think mostly flares up when my mind is still running too fast at night, so I'm hoping this will help. So far I'm managing to stick to this 2/3 of the time, and I think it makes a difference when I do.

Whew. The point is, sometimes there will be photos on Mondays and sometimes they won't be here until Tuesday. My random and unsolicited sleep musings were just a bonus. You're welcome!

Friday flowers (crafty edition)

At approximately 11:35 pm last Thursday, I got this image in my head of a carpet of paper flowers. But not tissue paper ones - they were flowers with heft, tinted with watercolors. Structural, if you will. And they could be clustered thickly, thus the carpet image, and they would be so easy to toss on tables as wedding centerpieces, without fear of wilting. I tried to explain this to D and he told me to go to sleep. So I did.

But the next evening ...

{paper flowers}

$5 worth of supplies + nearly 8 hours of hard labor. Totally do-able, right? D is still not completely sold - he is kind of attached to succulents, which are also easy to set out and unlikely to wilt and require far less time.

Still and all ....

{paper flowers}

I'm hoping that our current household wedding obsession will calm down once we have our design finalized. Otherwise, you guys might be in for several months of half started projects and wedding babble. We should never have opened these floodgates.

The best combo

I've been all over this lately - ginger + shallots + garlic.

{shallots + ginger - garlic not pictured yet}

All finely minced, quickly sauteed in a bit of vegetable or sesame oil. Tossed with green veggies.

I love using this treatment on bok choy (blanch the bok choy first, drain and then toss in the skillet with the g/s/g saute and add a splash of soy sauce to deglaze the pan).

But it's also good on broccoli (steam broccoli, then toss in the skillet with the g/s/g saute, adding a wee bit of extra oil if needed).

And seriously excellent on green beans (same drill as the bok choy).

It's nice to have a really easy go to combo, especially because we normally keep all three on hand.

New year, new budget (part II)

You guys, I'm so glad that you are as dorkily excited by personal finance as I am. It's nice to have company and I loved reading your thoughts on spending.

Once I knew how I wanted to spend my expendable income, I had to figure out how to stick to a budget. I've always had a generalized budget, but I've never really tracked my spending. My necessary expenses are all paid automatically. My contribution to our joint account (which pays for rent, utilities, groceries, car insurance and any fun stuff we do together), my student loan payments (which I will be paying for a very long time), my savings, our joint savings, and my retirement contributions all get pulled out immediately after I get paid, so I never have to worry about overspending and not being able to meet my obligations. But whatever was leftover was just mine to play with and I'd like to step it up a bit this year, especially with the wedding coming up. 

Soooo .... I'm giving myself an annual allowance this year. I always get frustrated with monthly budgets because my spending fluctuates a lot. I'm hoping that seeing a lump sum sitting there (and diminishing, over the course of the year) will help motivate me to keep my spending in check. The annual allowance is just for money that I spend on fun things (shopping, drinking, buying overpriced cookies, etc). As I mentioned, most of my big expenses come out of our joint account and D and I have a separate budget for that.

Also brand new this year - I created a line item for hair cuts.  I am cheap and I hate paying to get my hair cut. But I also feel significantly better with a decent cut. Dilemma. So I calculated out how much it will cost me to get my hair cut every 8 weeks (my stylist will do a free bang trim whenever I want, which is every 3 - 4 weeks), added it up, gasped a little and then put it into my budget. That money doesn't come out of my allowance, so I won't be tempted to stop going.

I created a super simple spreadsheet so I can have a brief overview of how I'm doing throughout the year. Each month I'll enter my credit card bill + miscellaneous expenses. I put almost everything on my credit card (points!) so the miscellaneous is usually cash that I've taken out for splitting bar tabs. 

You can see the spreadsheet here. Feel free to save a copy to your computer if you'd like - I'm not guaranteeing that it will be the most mind blowing financial tool invented, because I'm using it for the first time. You can make your yearly allowance anything you want. If you change the number in that cell, the others will adjust for you. As you input your monthly expenses, you'll see a running tally of how much money you have left for the year.

I'll keep you guys updated on how it works. I went back and checked my spending from last year and the allowance I've given myself is much, much lower than what I've been spending. The sensible thing would have been to up it a bit, but instead I'm soldiering on. I'll adjust if I need to, but I'm hoping I can stay in the ballpark.

Questions? Ask in the comments and I'll answer as best I can.

New year, new budget (part I)

The last two years I've done a shopping hiatus after January, inspired by Joslyn. The first year was revelatory. The second year was slightly less so, which I took as a good sign because I really do think I improved quite a bit. (If you missed it, you can see all my 2009 shopping hiatus posts here and the 2010 ones here)

The goal is always to think about my spending and to learn to spend more usefully and thoughtfully. What I've learned is that I prefer to spend money on experiences (yoga classes with D, happy hours with my girls, good meals out, premium cable*) rather than stuff. Unless it is really awesome stuff that I will cherish forever (notably, my CathrineHolm bowls that I have not had a second of regret over, despite the high price tag) or use like crazy.

{catherineholm lotus bowls}

Once I figured that out, it was a little easier to prioritize. I spend less on clothes than I used to (although I could still improve - my goal is to stop buying anything cheap, ever). And I feel less guilty about spending money on the experiences I love. I'm naturally a saver, so I can't focus too strictly on cutting back or I start to stress out big time and not want to spend any money at all. If you read quick financial tips, they tend to emphasize cutting your spending on frivolous items. Cut back on your eating out, paint your own nails, make your coffee at home, watch DVDs instead of going out to movies.

To some extent, I agree. You can save a lot of money by making your own coffee in the morning and if you're stopping for coffee just because you can't get your act together to make it, you might want to look into that. But, if you stop for coffee every morning because you love the ritual and you truly enjoy the luxury of having someone else make it for you, then prioritize it and make room in your budget. You'll just have to give up something else that you like less (cheap tee shirts that fall apart after you wash them, maybe?).

I don't buy coffee every morning, but I do buy myself flowers almost every week. Because I like it. So I make room for it. I also like going out to eat regularly, and I'm happy to pay for it. I like being with friends, and I don't mind buying ingredients for a really nice meal or paying for my drinks if we decide to go out. It would be cheaper to stay home and just eat beans all the time, of course. But these things improve my life, tangibly. I'm careful not to take them for granted, to remember that I'm lucky. I don't deserve these things, in the sense that I'm somehow entitled to them as a right (indulgences are not rights even if it seems like everyone else can afford them - I think we tend to forget that sometimes). But I deserve them in the sense that I work hard for them and I budget for them and I appreciate them.

I save money on things I don't care about as much. I always pack a lunch (or eat frozen meals) at work, because running out to buy lunch and eat it in a rush by myself doesn't make my life any better. I take the bus to work and D and I share a car (and all the expenses that go along with owning a car), which is a pain sometimes, but not that often.  I avoid wandering around in stores because I know I'll be tempted to make impulse purchases and I don't need extra stuff. I check books out from the library and only buy the ones I really love. I have a $10 cell phone and a prepaid plan that costs me less than $10 per month, because I don't like talking on a cell.

Here is the bottom line - your expendable money should be giving you joy, making your life richer. I can't have everything I want, but I can pick and choose the things I want the most and then make them happen.

Tomorrow (if you aren't all completely sick of personal finance already) - my new strategy for this year.


* I used to try to convince myself that we should cut our cable, but I've come to peace with it. We love cable, we look forward to all the new shows and we watch them together, so I'm classifying it as together time. Also, crafting without cable really sucks.