Uber Cheap January Progress Report

At the beginning of the month we challenged ourselves to an Uber Cheap January. The basic rules are 1) Spend less than $350 on food; 2) No eating at restaurants (until 1/28); and 3) No booze.

Update: with just one week left in the month, we have about $70 left to spend on food. We are pretty stocked up, but we are heading to Miami for a camping festival next weekend. So I predict that we will have to be pretty frugal next weekend to keep under goal.

I’m declaring the weight-loss portion of this diet a fail. One of the nice things about the Whole30 is that as long as you followed the rules of the diet, you could pretty much eat what you wanted and still lose weight. I honestly thought that just not eating out and not drinking alcohol would result in weight-loss. But I think perhaps I am just too good at cooking tasty food and not very good a portion control. As my friend Joanna said, “At least you didn’t gain any weight.” Very true.

I feel like I slightly cheated because I had made a trip to Costco at the end of December and stocked up on a few items that I am still using. So that may have driven down my monthly grocery bill. However, to balance that out, this month I had a few unusual grocery expenses. I bought 2 replacement SodaStream canisters and also bought some spices and supplies at a Thai market that should last me a few months and that drove up my monthly total a bit.

One thing I learned is that I tend to overestimate how much I can or need to cook in a given week. The amount of food I bought the first week lasted me almost 2 weeks because we hadn’t used it all. I wonder how often that happens to me, but I just end up buying more anyway because I want to make a different recipe. Trying to stay on budget really made me more aware of this habit and less wasteful.

Here are some of my favorite recipes from the last few weeks:

 

From wino to teetotaler?

Is it just me or is “teetotaler” one of those words that sounds kind of like the opposite of what it means? Kind of like “spendthrift.” What’s up with that? Teetotaler sounds like some one who gets so tipsy that they just teeter around bumping into things until they are. . . like. .. totaled. And spendthrift sounds like someone who is so budget conscious that they hate to spend even a penny, except at a thrift store perhaps.

But these words actually mean the opposite of these things and I digress.

As has become a bit of a tradition in January, I like to test the theory that “I can quit at any time” by abstaining from booze for the first month of the year (disclaimer: this year I plan to fall off the wagon on January 28, because. . . vacation).

My goal for this is threefold:

1.  Disrupt my daily drinking habit.
2. Save money
3. Lose weight, improve my health and well-being

Well, here I am on the 4th day of the new year and I have to admit it has already been hard. New year’s weekend felt like the culmination of all of the holidays and I found myself in the blessed position to be in the company of fabulous friends. I’ve considered implementing a rule that I can drink if someone offers me a beverage and it is free, but the part of me that is a rule follower knows that is kind of pathetic.

If you are also challenging yourself to a “Janupause,” here’s my advice (that I am telling myself as much as to you):

• Get help. Tell a few folks to help keep you accountable.
• Drink other beverages. I am rediscovering my passion for tea, apple cider and seltzer water.
• Pretend it’s a cocktail. Sip that seltzer water from a martini class, garnish it with a lime wedge or raspberry.
• Stay positive. I always expect that all of my troubles will be solved the moment I stop drinking, and it can be discouraging that I don’t suddenly feel magically better just because I stopped drinking. Some mornings I even still wake up feeling “hung over” tired, slow and grouchy. I guess that is just my rhythm.
• Don’t make a scene. Enjoy time with friends when you are with them and enjoy that damn soda water. They don’t need to be reminded smugly that you aren’t drinking for 27 days.
• No excuses. No having a bad day is not a good reason to down a bottle of wine after work. Nor is catching up with your long lost BFF a reason to have just 3 bloody mary’s. Pour yourself a seltzer water and put some pineapple in it to make you feel fancier.