"Retrench? Retrench! How may I retrench?! A baronet must be seen to live like a baronet!!"
One of my favorite rainy weekend things to do is drink tea and watch Persuasion. I've been thinking about that particular film a lot recently as starting now I am Retrenching. Not in Bath like Sir Walter Elliot, but (soon) in a new apartment! A wee place of my own! So perhaps it's more like the Dashwood Ladies, a simpler and less extravagant life in a cottage by the sea...except I'll be in a studio apartment in Ravenswood, Chicago.
Unfortunately a studio has a much higher rent than what I'm paying now, so some budget Retrenching is called for. I hardly spend like a madwoman as is, but taking a good look at my expenses is called for. I've done more math in the past few days than I'd like to think about.But I also feel like I've got a better grasp on my money use, which really is my biggest problem.
Money comes in, money goes out and I'm only vaguely aware of it. It's a numbers thing. My brain doesn't care for them. Growing up I'd "launder my money" by leaving bills or even checks in my pockets which Mom would find when she washed my jeans. As a grown up I may check my bank accounts daily and have even set up an online budgeting tool but it does little good. The numbers on my screen still remain vague symbols nothing more.
And so I'm going old school folks. I'm going to write everything down. I'll be like Mr. Bennet in his study having a night cap while tallying up the ledger book. I've got a calendar laid out with when my paychecks come in and how much they'll be, when rent/utilities/fixed expenses etc go out, and I will record grocery and other expenses as they happen. Miss Cait, who I've taken to calling my Financial Advisor, sent me an article from this website, Wise Bread (bread!!) which has lots of excellent advice on wise money use. Miss Cait and Lisa have adopted a Cash Only budget for dining out/entertainment and I think it sounds like a good idea. After all, once cash is gone it's gone! And I've stopped putting mine though the wash ;-)
Not surprisingly, I spend a good part of my money on food. I KNOW RIGHT!
I've already begun to be creative on my grocery trips. By shopping mainly at my local Mexican grocery not only am I saving money but eating more fruit and veg too. Score! Whatever I can't get there I'll buy at the Jewel, trying to get things on sale or with coupons. Having a Walgreens around the corner is a convenient and dangerous thing, so I've been sticking to one trip a week.
As to what I'm buying, that couscous has become a favorite as half a box makes up almost three meals. Madness! I love tuna on buttered toast (a less freaky take on the classic sardines on toast) which is great because tuna is damn cheap. Cornmeal is also damn cheap. I'm scheming to whip up some dried cranberry corn muffins this week. Oh! and did you know that fiori pasta cooks up to be like twice it's original size? I had Miss Ashley over for dinner a few weeks ago and seriously over estimated how much I would need to feed two! Loooads of leftovers. Do you have any secret weapons in your Makin' It Last Arsenal? Any stone soup style recipes?
Speaking of stone soup, a few weeks ago I was reading the blog of a fashion designer who likes ajeweler who made a tasty looking potato and rosemary pizza which came from a blog calledStonesoup. And at Stonesoup I stayed for several hours pouring over her loads of amazing recipes and guides for a healthier, money saving, less wasteful, and more Aussie life style. Some top picks:
7 Unusual Tips for Reducing your Food Costs (My friends and I run into the produce waste a lot due to unreliable schedules, but see! Frozen Veg is ok! The Aussie lady says so!)
7 Golden Rules for Freezing Food (I can't wait for summer and the "berry glut"!!)
Lots of ideas and schemes! And honestly it's kind of a fun challenge. I used to do technical theater after all, which really boils down to making something awesome out of a whole lot of nothing. My family calls it Sandin Ingenuity. It must be a Swedish thing, coming from a culture centered around this untranslatable idea of 'Lagom'. Which thanks to my recent trip to the Swedish American Museum's exhibit on the Smorgasbord as well as watching the No Reservation's Sweden episode I've become aware of. An idea that what you have is just right. "Making do" without the negative connotations. Finding joy in the simple, sometimes even free things. Like tuna on buttered toast. Public Parks. And good friends.
Fortunately, I'm not a baronet with social expectations to uphold. Retrenching is not going to force me to rent out my ancestral home and move to Bath or anything like that. It's just getting me into a new apartment, which I just got approved for!
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