Broke and still five days to go!

Well I am broke, in fact I am about $11 in the hole:-( But I couldn't not go to lunch with my classmates, I don't eat out unless its with other people and it was great to have friends to enjoy a nice meal with.

I have to say that I am pretty proud of myself though, living on $111 for a whole month is pretty good in my book. I think that I will relax a bit next month (its spring break!), but I'll still try and keep an eye on what I'm spending. More making lists before I go shopping instead of just throwing stuff in my cart thinking "Yeah, I need that" or "That looks yummy!" and then not having anything to cook with it.

My sister gave me a gift card for Christmas and I've decided to spend part of it on vanilla beans. I've never cooked with them before, but really want to since I getting more and more into gourmet cooking and I also want to make my own vanilla extract since I don't use imitation stuff and the real stuff is bloody pricey in the stores.

My NEW diet!

So Spring Break is just around the corner and needless to say, I am itching for a trip some where, preferable some where that requires a passport! That being said, I am thinking about starting on my vacation diet. My vacation diet has nothing to do with fitting into a cute dress or a swimsuit and everything to do with having enough money to actually GO some where. Since I am already trying to live on $100/mo I am thinking that this new diet will be to simply give up eating in order to save more money!

I have a feeling that I won't stick to this new diet and that I'll still end up going on a nice vacation some where fun!

Oh, and I still have my $2 left and am pretty sure that I can make it until March one without overspending. The only good thing about not really have close friends down here yet is that I don't have people that want to go out and do things that cost money.

(and according to the spell checker, this is the first post that I've written without spelling errors!)

Grannies and Grits, State Fair and Fried Pickles

Today I went swimming at the gym since the weather was overcast and I didn't feel like going for my normal Sunday bike ride. Towards the end of my swim this lovely Asian grandmother walked in and sat near where I had left my bag. As I got my bag, I asked the lady if the children in the pool were her grandchildren. She placed her hand over her heart, smiled and said "I no english." I asked her were she was from and she replied "I China." This time, in halting bad Chinese I asked her if those were her grandchildren in the pool and this time she lit up and replied that they were. There are few things that warm my heart more then the smile of a proud grandmother, no matter what language they speak.


I am sadly, broke. I have $2 left from my $100 and about 2 weeks left to go. I spent my money going to the Florida State Fair with a classmate and her roommates. It was fun and the fair was HUGE. I enjoyed spinny ride that spun you both round and round and upside down. It was a good ride:-) One of the girls and I were on a quest for pickles, crispy, golden fried pickles with a side of ranch dressing. While it did take an hour to find the fried pickles, they were worth it! Its been years since I had fried pickles, probably since I was waitressing in undergrad.

Also tonight, I again made my Spicy Cheese Grits with Black Beans, they are becoming one of my favorite dishes. I love it when create a new dish and it actually turns out great.

End of first week living on $100 and a blast from the past

Well its the end of week one, and so far so good. To date I have only spend $7.50 (on yuca fries with cheese dip, um-um good!) I still have $92.50, but I need to get milk and oatmeal since I ate the last of mine this morning.

Also, I went to First Friday in St. Pete, it was pretty fun and I love St. Pete. Its a cute city that seems to have a lot of community events going on, too bad I live an hour from there. So far I have been to the Saturday Market and First Friday and enjoyed both. Maybe if I stay in the Tampa area after grad school, maybe I'll move over to the St. Pete area.

I also just looked my up 43 things lists from 2 years ago, so far I have been able to check off 3 things and still wamt to do all the things listed. I had totally forgotten about it until I was talking about bucket lists with someone last night and today I decided to check out my old list.

http://www.43things.com/person/karguo

The Month of $100

I really to either need to get a job or get my cost of living down. I'm going to try cutting back first, then see about a part time job. So my goal this month is to live on $100, this excludes housing costs. I am going to the bank to take out $100 to see just how far I can go with that. I do have a cupboard full of staples so food cost shouldn't be to bad, plus I've found Aldi and I can usually get a free meal or two at school each week.

I have to say that I'm really looking forward to this challenge, as always I love push myself to the limit just to see if I can make it.

So far 2 days in and no money spent, 26 more to go!

I think that I am going to have to delay my thrift shopping spree that I planned until the end of the month to see if I have anything left over after buying gas, food, and anything else that I need.

Biking and a Hot Chocolate Recipe

Today was a good day, talked with a close friend, when to church (sermon was on parenting, so not so much geared towards my single, kidless self), then when on a lovely 21 mile bike ride at Flatwoods Wildness Park. I did the 15 mile off-road trail and 6 miles on pavement to get to and from the trail. It was great fun, sometimes while riding really fast I just have to laugh because I'm having so much fun and feel so free. Anyone else do that too?

Afterwards, I returned home and fixed some veggie fried rice with some leftover brown rice and frozen veggies. It was pretty tasty and healthy. It would have been yummier with some shrimp, but I don't have any hanging around my freezer right now.

So for the recipe:

Dulce de Leche Hot Chocolate - makes about 1 large serving to 2 small

(this is an estimated recipe since I didn't measure while creating this)
1 tbs cocoa power
1-2 tbs sugar (depends on how sweet you like your cocoa)
1 tbs water
1 1/2 dulce de leche
about 1 1/2 cup of milk

Mix the cocoa and sugar together until all the little balls of cocoa power have been broken up, then add the water and mix, stir over med heat until everything is combined, then add the ducle de leche. keep stirring until the ducle is combined or mostly combined (I couldn't quite get all of mine mix in), then add the milk. Keep stirring until its the temp you prefer. Taste and add more sugar if needed.

Enjoy!