*updated 09/16/10*
Well what do you know! After berating myself over it for 3 days and suffering various ulcers and anxiety over it...I got a call back from the club manager today telling me that they were able to reactivate me! Yes! I am so happy! He gave me a month-long pass to use until he was able to clear this up with his manager but based on what he told me, there was a slim to non chance. This is such a welcome surprise!
*end update*
When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.
There is no use crying over spilt milk.
All sorts of clichés that are designed to make one feel better when one screws up doesn't usually actually make one feel one whit better about the screw-up. I guess what separates happy/contented people and unhappy/depressed people is how a person actual deals with said screw up.
I screwed up big and I *felt* like it was the end of the world but really, it's not that bad. It'll just cost me. Several years ago, my employer gave me a pre-paid 3 year membership to the gym with an annual renewal of $24. Great deal! I was set for the rest of my life! Fast forward to last year--I moved and forgot to change my address. I was sick of all the gym's spammy emails so I unsubscribed from the emails without realizing that they wouldn't send me account information either. In the past, when my renewal date was due, they would let me know. Somehow, this location was different. I went at least two times after my renewal was supposedly expired and they let me in. Basically, I was never informed that my renewal was due and I didn't find out that I was passed due until Saturday.
So what is the lesson here? Obviously, my error was in not updating my address--an error the club people liked to repeat "it is YOUR job to update blah blah" and they did not like it when I replied, "and it is YOUR job to not let people with overdue accounts in and it is YOUR job to collect payment due. Had YOU denied me entry the first 2 times after my membership expired, I would had been put on notice that it was due and I would have made your "reactivation period". Long story (somewhat shortened), despite my best efforts, my ability to re-activate hangs on a very thin-to-nonexistent thread and my life-membership has ended due to my screw up.
At first--I had a mini panic attack because I don't want to re-buy the membership. Then I had a small anxiety attack because they don't even do the 3 year membership + lifetime renewals anymore even if I could scrape together the hundreds to pay for it up front. All I can say is...this totally sucks but I have done all that I can do short of contacting the Regional VP (which I plan on doing if the club manager denies my activation). What is the point in letting this add additional stress into my already stressed out life? What good can come from the pit of acid stirring in my stomach from utter injustice of this? How can I benefit from berating myself since I am already suffering?
No...I must think positively and think of the best. I made a big mistake according to my life and situation but in the grand scheme of things, it is such a minute little insignificant thing. No, this is not something that I can someday look back and laugh at but if it does not get resolved the way I wish it would, there is no use dwelling on it. I will cease to think of it and if I must think of it, I will just consider myself lucky for having even gotten a supremely great free gym membership for the past 6 years.
Total Spent on Food today: $.85
Est. Cost of food: leftovers, so $0
Monday, September 13, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Day 12
I just spent probably the last vestiges of summer indoors pounding out a memo and policy revision for work. Now I have to get started on school work. Since the last week in May, I have not had a single day off from either work or school or both. This is the craziest and busiest year but thankfully, it is my last year.
Anyway...we woke up too late for breakfast but we got free coffee drinks at church today. That was nice and unexpected but church tends to be pretty nice and unexpected anyway :) I very much wanted a Vietnamese baguette for lunch today but I balked at blowing $6 on one meal so we went home instead. I went deep into the hidden depths of the freezer and pulled out two varietals of frozen homemade dumplings. We went to town on that I and I cleared precious freezer space in the process...just in time for dinner.
Ahhh...dinner. Have I mentioned how much I love Sunday dinners? We get fed so well!
Mama-in-law made chive pockets and loaded us up with a gallon zip-lock bag of leftovers.
We might never clear up enough freezer space to buy 1/16th of a locally raised grass finished cow but I'm totally fine with that if we continue getting yummy homemade food from our parents! Yay for having parents close by!
Total spent on food today: $0
Est. Cost of Food: $0
Anyway...we woke up too late for breakfast but we got free coffee drinks at church today. That was nice and unexpected but church tends to be pretty nice and unexpected anyway :) I very much wanted a Vietnamese baguette for lunch today but I balked at blowing $6 on one meal so we went home instead. I went deep into the hidden depths of the freezer and pulled out two varietals of frozen homemade dumplings. We went to town on that I and I cleared precious freezer space in the process...just in time for dinner.
Ahhh...dinner. Have I mentioned how much I love Sunday dinners? We get fed so well!
Mama-in-law made chive pockets and loaded us up with a gallon zip-lock bag of leftovers.
We might never clear up enough freezer space to buy 1/16th of a locally raised grass finished cow but I'm totally fine with that if we continue getting yummy homemade food from our parents! Yay for having parents close by!
Total spent on food today: $0
Est. Cost of Food: $0
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Day 11
Just as a recap...we are now 1/3 of the way through with our social experiment. How do I feel so far? Pretty good! Our fridge is at a manageable capacity right now. We are eating our produce before it goes bad. It is also making me more creative in using up leftovers and it has helped us reduce the amount of meat and eggs we eat. What we should have done was get blood tests to check our beginning weight/blood sugar/cholesterol and all that stuff so we can compare 30 days later. Anyway...day 10 and our pantry and freezer is still going strong. The vegetable and fruit situation is not something we're going to sacrifice or skimp on--remember--the goal is healthy--so we will buy more as we run out. No biggie.
The " total spent on food" is how much we actually spent this month to buy food or groceries.
The "estimated cost of food" is a more accurate measure of how much we spend each month because we were basically just eating through our previously purchased supplies. Once we run out, we'd have to replenish it. I divided the "estimated cost of food" into servings and multiplied it by the two of us when we had guests over for dinner. We often invite people over but that number is variable. I wanted to specifically measure how much the two of us spend.
The total "estimated cost of food" is the total cost of food including ourselves and our guests.
Here is a brief recap of our 10 day expenses:
Total Spent on Food/Groceries: $15.06 or $.75/day per person. This number is a little off because I bought $32.58 worth of groceries on August 31st, so really, the total I spent so far is: $47.64 or 2.38/pp. I didn't add the August 31st grocery cost to the "Estimated Costs" because I accounted for each item individually so I only included what I actually used. That is different from this total because here, I included the cost of all the groceries, including items that I have not yet used.
Estimated Cost of Food (based on 2 people): $47.68 or $2.39/day per person.
Estimated Cost of Food (including our guests): $70.12 or $2.34/day per person.
Today, we just ate leftovers for lunch and went to a friend's house for a BBQ dinner. It was a potluck and I brought a seafood quinoa dish. I had this frozen mussel broth leftover from when my friend's visited me last month and it was a rich, yummy, wine-y concentrated broth that was perfect for cooking the rather tasteless grains of quinoa. Add in some fresh sliced corn (thanks 10 for $1!) and a small handful of frozen seafood mix, I was all ready to go. It looked and tasted luxurious but it probably cost $3 to $5 total in ingredients. I'll just say $5 to be on the conservative side. I wish I had taken a picture but we were in a hurry. It was gobbled up pretty quickly but I'll just ask you to take my word for it that it was a good potluck dish.
Total spent on food today: $0
Est. Cost of Food: $5
The " total spent on food" is how much we actually spent this month to buy food or groceries.
The "estimated cost of food" is a more accurate measure of how much we spend each month because we were basically just eating through our previously purchased supplies. Once we run out, we'd have to replenish it. I divided the "estimated cost of food" into servings and multiplied it by the two of us when we had guests over for dinner. We often invite people over but that number is variable. I wanted to specifically measure how much the two of us spend.
The total "estimated cost of food" is the total cost of food including ourselves and our guests.
Here is a brief recap of our 10 day expenses:
Total Spent on Food/Groceries: $15.06 or $.75/day per person. This number is a little off because I bought $32.58 worth of groceries on August 31st, so really, the total I spent so far is: $47.64 or 2.38/pp. I didn't add the August 31st grocery cost to the "Estimated Costs" because I accounted for each item individually so I only included what I actually used. That is different from this total because here, I included the cost of all the groceries, including items that I have not yet used.
Estimated Cost of Food (based on 2 people): $47.68 or $2.39/day per person.
Estimated Cost of Food (including our guests): $70.12 or $2.34/day per person.
Today, we just ate leftovers for lunch and went to a friend's house for a BBQ dinner. It was a potluck and I brought a seafood quinoa dish. I had this frozen mussel broth leftover from when my friend's visited me last month and it was a rich, yummy, wine-y concentrated broth that was perfect for cooking the rather tasteless grains of quinoa. Add in some fresh sliced corn (thanks 10 for $1!) and a small handful of frozen seafood mix, I was all ready to go. It looked and tasted luxurious but it probably cost $3 to $5 total in ingredients. I'll just say $5 to be on the conservative side. I wish I had taken a picture but we were in a hurry. It was gobbled up pretty quickly but I'll just ask you to take my word for it that it was a good potluck dish.
Total spent on food today: $0
Est. Cost of Food: $5
Friday, September 10, 2010
Day 10 & Recap
Today was a bust-I haven't been feeling well lately so I called in sick today. I ended up sleeping until 2:30PM!! Wow. I pretty much let my body sleep until it was time to wake-up and I guess I needed all that sleep. Maybe I overindulged a little too much because I now have the "too much sleep" headache. Needless to say, I did not have breakfast nor did I have lunch. I ate 2 or 3 mini buns throughout the day and a string cheese. I do not really feel like eating since I haven't actually been active today. Tonight I tried to burn up excess energy by going on a massive cleaning spree. We are usually pretty good about keeping the house tidy but there are still bits here and there to clean up. I ended up thoroughly cleaning the downstairs bathroom, vacuumed, deep cleaned the kitchen (includes scrubbing down stove, mopping floor etc), and emptied our recycle bin. I feel a little better with some physical assertion and the house is gleaming again!
Hubby fared much better today. It was his annual review and his supervisor treated him out to lunch. Along with a fatty burger, hubby got a side of awesome! Normally, we'd go out to celebrate but tonight, he has to pick up some friends from the airport. We are going to celebrate by doing something nice for our parents. Probably a nice dinner with his family and the equivalent of a nice dinner with mine since Papa prefers cooking over going out. That will blow our experiment right out of the water but one must celebrate good news with loved ones!
Total spent on food today: $0
Est. cost of food: $.50 (homemade buns) = .50
Hubby fared much better today. It was his annual review and his supervisor treated him out to lunch. Along with a fatty burger, hubby got a side of awesome! Normally, we'd go out to celebrate but tonight, he has to pick up some friends from the airport. We are going to celebrate by doing something nice for our parents. Probably a nice dinner with his family and the equivalent of a nice dinner with mine since Papa prefers cooking over going out. That will blow our experiment right out of the water but one must celebrate good news with loved ones!
Total spent on food today: $0
Est. cost of food: $.50 (homemade buns) = .50
Dream Haven
Hubby and I became homeowners last year just as the housing market sank in a free-for-all. Due to the current housing situation, we probably cannot move out for a couple of years unless we do a lateral move. I love our house, our neighbors, and the things/amenities in our area so I'm happy with where we are. The only downside is that we live about 30 minutes away from the city center. It is a trade-off though--the closer in to the city we live, the less we can afford in terms of a house and neighborhood. Our future will change drastically in another year--so we'll reassess our 5 year plan at that point.
Once in a while, I check our house value online even though it is completely pointless. Sometimes, just as a dream, I look up houses in our ideal neighborhood. May I just say that the property taxes in the city are REDONKULOUS? Yet another good reason to live in the 'burbs. We can actually afford to retire there!
Still...one can dream. Although not pictured, there is also a separate office/building too!
Might I just add how much I adore this side patio! Imagine the parties we could have out there! So elegant. So dreamy. Le sigh.
The house is actually not expensive for what it is but the property taxes are killer. Property taxes are nearly $15,000 a year and it is an expense that will likely increase in the future. Still, I adore older homes. This one was built in 1928. It looks like it must have had a lot of fun during its times. If walls could talk, I wonder what stories it has to tell.
Once in a while, I check our house value online even though it is completely pointless. Sometimes, just as a dream, I look up houses in our ideal neighborhood. May I just say that the property taxes in the city are REDONKULOUS? Yet another good reason to live in the 'burbs. We can actually afford to retire there!
Still...one can dream. Although not pictured, there is also a separate office/building too!
Might I just add how much I adore this side patio! Imagine the parties we could have out there! So elegant. So dreamy. Le sigh.
The house is actually not expensive for what it is but the property taxes are killer. Property taxes are nearly $15,000 a year and it is an expense that will likely increase in the future. Still, I adore older homes. This one was built in 1928. It looks like it must have had a lot of fun during its times. If walls could talk, I wonder what stories it has to tell.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Day 9
So exhausted today...I had to be out the door early today so we didn't have time for a real breakfast. It's fine...we're both kind of sick of oatmeal by now. Wednesdays are my longest days (13 full hours) so I didn't have time to cook dinner nor did I have energy to care about the next day's lunch when I returned home at 10:30pm. Good thing we still had some leftovers so lunch was taken care of today but dinner was another story.
We got off early today to pick up the car from the shop and got back home before 6pm. I had some defrosted chicken from earlier in the week but wasn't quite sure what to do with it. We have been craving fried chicken ever since we watched "Man vs. Food" on the Travel Channel so I decided to make some yian xu ji (Taiwanese snack food of crispy fried chicken bits tossed with spices and basil). To make our meal healthier, I tiredly started cutting fresh corn kernels to make some seafood & corn chowder. It has been damp lately and we are both fighting off colds so I wanted to make warm or hot foods. I got out some greens and rehydrated some shitake mushrooms intending to braise it Chinese style but about five minutes of listless preparation, I decided to screw it. I turned to an equally tired hubby and said, "Howzabout some ramyun?" to which he replied, "I was craving that on the way home today!"
Happily energized now, I made Hubsters in charge of making the ramyun while I finished frying the chicken. I love cooking in my Le Creuset because it retains heat so well. I was able to fry the chicken in less than 10 minutes when it normally takes me double that time in a wok. Hmmmm...yian xu ji. What is it about crispy, salty, sweet, spicy fried snacks that makes it so darn satisfying?
Do I feel a wee guilty for eating stove top ramen and fried chicken for dinner with nary a vegetable in sight? Only for 2 seconds haha. It was darn good and satisfied our tired and cold bodies and souls.
Cost spent on food today: $0
Est. Cost of food: $4 (chicken) + $3.40 (2 packs of ramen) + $.80 (2 certified humane eggs) = $8.20.
We got off early today to pick up the car from the shop and got back home before 6pm. I had some defrosted chicken from earlier in the week but wasn't quite sure what to do with it. We have been craving fried chicken ever since we watched "Man vs. Food" on the Travel Channel so I decided to make some yian xu ji (Taiwanese snack food of crispy fried chicken bits tossed with spices and basil). To make our meal healthier, I tiredly started cutting fresh corn kernels to make some seafood & corn chowder. It has been damp lately and we are both fighting off colds so I wanted to make warm or hot foods. I got out some greens and rehydrated some shitake mushrooms intending to braise it Chinese style but about five minutes of listless preparation, I decided to screw it. I turned to an equally tired hubby and said, "Howzabout some ramyun?" to which he replied, "I was craving that on the way home today!"
Happily energized now, I made Hubsters in charge of making the ramyun while I finished frying the chicken. I love cooking in my Le Creuset because it retains heat so well. I was able to fry the chicken in less than 10 minutes when it normally takes me double that time in a wok. Hmmmm...yian xu ji. What is it about crispy, salty, sweet, spicy fried snacks that makes it so darn satisfying?
Do I feel a wee guilty for eating stove top ramen and fried chicken for dinner with nary a vegetable in sight? Only for 2 seconds haha. It was darn good and satisfied our tired and cold bodies and souls.
Cost spent on food today: $0
Est. Cost of food: $4 (chicken) + $3.40 (2 packs of ramen) + $.80 (2 certified humane eggs) = $8.20.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Day 8
Today was both a bad day and a good day. The bad was totally preventable, which makes me all sorts of upset but the good was very much a product of my own doing so it makes me all sorts of happy. In my profession, one must pass several tests in order to practice and pass I did! On the first one at least. I have more to come but climbing over this hill helps reaffirm my decision to quit a decent career in order to pursue this new one (which will leave me riddled with debt upon graduation).
Ahh finances. This relates back to my earlier bad. The bad is that my car headlights got bashed in last night. I do not want to go into the gory details of it but at least nothing worse happened. It could have been stolen, smashed some more, gutted, etc etc. Nevertheless, this will cost us an estimated $190 to replace. Le sigh. We received the car as gift but along with it came lots of overdue maintenance work. After comparing quotes, the estimated cost will be anywhere from $600-$900. But fix it we must because it was pretty much a ticking time bomb of a death trap. Brakes? gone. Transmission? Within an inch of it's life. Axles? Both to be replaced. This doesn't include the requisite fluid flushes etc etc. All in all...we are looking at probably $1000 in immediate repairs.
At that point, part of me wondered if it wasn't smarter to just sell the thing and get a new one. The current bluebook value of the car (based on mileage) is worth anywhere from $1800-$4000. No...not worth it right now. It is still better to stick it through and literally drive it to the ground for another 2-3 years before getting a new car.
Oh right...back to the experiment.
My meals today:
Breakfast: made oatmeal but proceeded to lose my appetite immediately upon receiving that dreaded phone call informing us of the headlight bashage so I didn't eat it.
Lunch: Still no appetite
Dinner: one bun and an apple and coffee.
*edit* I ended up buying a cup of split pea soup today (both the cheapest and the healthiest) for dinner because I obviously did not pack enough today to last me for 13 hours. I felt horribly guilty because I had SPENT MONEY BUYING FOOD but it is not good to starve. At least that was a good reminder that even when things come crashing down (or in our case, getting bashed), we should still remember to take care of one's basic needs. *end edit*
Husband's meals:
Breakfast: probably oatmeal
Lunch: leftovers
Dinner: leftovers
Total Food Expenses today: $2.95 (split pea soup)
Est. Cost of Food today: $.50 (apple) + soup = $3.45. Buns & leftovers previously accounted for.
Total expended on sheer stupidity: $190
Ahh finances. This relates back to my earlier bad. The bad is that my car headlights got bashed in last night. I do not want to go into the gory details of it but at least nothing worse happened. It could have been stolen, smashed some more, gutted, etc etc. Nevertheless, this will cost us an estimated $190 to replace. Le sigh. We received the car as gift but along with it came lots of overdue maintenance work. After comparing quotes, the estimated cost will be anywhere from $600-$900. But fix it we must because it was pretty much a ticking time bomb of a death trap. Brakes? gone. Transmission? Within an inch of it's life. Axles? Both to be replaced. This doesn't include the requisite fluid flushes etc etc. All in all...we are looking at probably $1000 in immediate repairs.
At that point, part of me wondered if it wasn't smarter to just sell the thing and get a new one. The current bluebook value of the car (based on mileage) is worth anywhere from $1800-$4000. No...not worth it right now. It is still better to stick it through and literally drive it to the ground for another 2-3 years before getting a new car.
Oh right...back to the experiment.
My meals today:
Breakfast: made oatmeal but proceeded to lose my appetite immediately upon receiving that dreaded phone call informing us of the headlight bashage so I didn't eat it.
Lunch: Still no appetite
Dinner: one bun and an apple and coffee.
*edit* I ended up buying a cup of split pea soup today (both the cheapest and the healthiest) for dinner because I obviously did not pack enough today to last me for 13 hours. I felt horribly guilty because I had SPENT MONEY BUYING FOOD but it is not good to starve. At least that was a good reminder that even when things come crashing down (or in our case, getting bashed), we should still remember to take care of one's basic needs. *end edit*
Husband's meals:
Breakfast: probably oatmeal
Lunch: leftovers
Dinner: leftovers
Total Food Expenses today: $2.95 (split pea soup)
Est. Cost of Food today: $.50 (apple) + soup = $3.45. Buns & leftovers previously accounted for.
Total expended on sheer stupidity: $190
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