June - The Month of "No"

Let me start this post by saying that I need to do better in my life.  Finances and health are the two major things that keep me up at night.  Oddly enough, a good nights sleep would improve my health, but lets talk about that later.  :)  So, to help me achieve success in both of these areas, I decided that June will be the month of "No" around our house.  Jim didn't really have an option, and, well, he's not REALLY taking it to heart, but he lets me do what I want.  :)

So, what is the month of "No" exactly?  Well, for the entire month, if we don't need it, we don't buy it.  This includes going out to eat, which, lately, we seem to do pretty much every single night.

So, here's the thing.  Jim works a crappy schedule.  He gets off at 10pm, and home around 10:45/11ish.  On a good day if he happens to go in early or not take a lunch, the earliest he gets home is 10:15pm.  This makes it really hard for me to be motivated to cook dinner.  I am up early each day and have to be logged into work by 9am.  I seem to be logging in earlier and earlier each day due to various work issues, too.  I work until usually 6pm.  By the time 10:15 rolls around, I'm tired and I don't want to cook dinner.  I'm also starving at that point, because I like to wait to eat with him, so that hamburger and super duper extra large french fries from a fast food restaurant sounds pretty dang enticing.

Well, there are 2 major problems with this.

1. It's super expensive to eat out each day.  Especially when you've waited too long to eat and maybe order more food than you should.  
2. It's not healthy.  Even the more healthy option of grilled chicken (which I do order regularly) is loaded with salt.

On top of that, Jim stops each day and grabs lunch on his way into work.  I, luckily, work from home and am able to keep a mostly healthy and inexpensive breakfast and lunch routine.

So, it is the 6th of June so far, and we've done really good!   I decided we were only going to get what we absolutely needed at the grocery store, and make meals at home with food in our pantry and freezer.  I luckily have a pretty large and robust pantry, because I do LIKE to cook, so I have a leg up on most people.

This last week, we went to the store and bought basically just veggies and rice for ourselves.  I did have an event at my house with about 12 people, so I spent a bit of money on that, but as far as just Jim and I, I've cooked every night.  I've even eaten the dreaded leftovers (yuck!)  :D

This stuff is going bad casserole.

So, last night, we had "this stuff in the fridge is about to go bad casserole" and tonight we had chicken quesadillas.  We've also had tacos, hamburgers, chicken burgers, sandwiches, and loaded baked potatoes.

It is my hope that this month will demonstrate that we can save money and be healthier by making these small changes.  So, here's to the month of "No!"