We haven't been spending... So what're we eating?

We haven't been spending, so what have we been eating?  From top left: leftover pork with Hoisin sauce, lightly fried garbanzos, roast potatoes, and steamed corn on the cob with salad; dinosaur Jello jigglers; "comida pobre" (rice and beans) with a fried egg and red onion with lime juice; Ree Drummond's baked macaroni and cheese made with egg noodles and canned peaches; (vegan) Minestrone soup; pork with Hoisin sauce and water chestnuts, fresh baked whole wheat bread with butter, and steam spinach with garlic.  (In the spirit of candidness, after making it through the 10 day fiscal fast, we picked up a few groceries, which included new eggs, the cheese in the baked macaroni, a head of lettuce and a cucumber).

HERE'S THE AMAZING PART: Since we started the fiscal fast and have had home cooked meals three times a day, my kids have become eating champions!  Ricky has eaten every meal we put in front of him often with enthusiasm.

Setbacks

I had other ideas for what I'd write today... making our pantry work for us , an awesome Minestrone soup I put together, making tequeños with the kids... unfortunately we had a major fiscal setback.

It was getting late Wednesday night when hubby called to say his car wouldn't start.  Out with the guys, he tried to jump the car with the help of a friend - to no avail.  He took a ride home from one of the guys.  In the morning, my mom kindly and generously helped us stay true to our fiscal fast by meeting us to have the car towed with her AAA membership - she has four tows per year and can use them for other people so long as she presents her AAA card in person.

However, we still had to replace the car battery to the tune of $200 and now face repairs that will cost up to $1000.  I felt extremely discouraged - all this hard work to stop spending, and the car breaks down?  What a cruel turn of events... as soon as I felt the "Why me?" creep up, I snapped out of it and said "LIFE HAPPENS."  This unfortunate event epitomizes our purpose for starting the fast in the first place.  We want to grab our finances by the horns and take control because life happens, and life costs money when it happens.  Unfortunately, with hubby's car in the shop all day, I also had to pick him up from work and bring him to the dealership.  My careful calculation of mileage to drive and gas left in my tank no longer mattered.  (I had actually used the Maps app to plan every distance I would need to drive in the following three days - pick up Grandpa, work out with Mom, etc. - and compared it to my "range" according to my dashboard.)  Letting out an enormous sigh, I put $15.00 in the tank to cover the unanticipated driving.  Bizarrely, it felt like a sin.

What we've learned from this event is not to call it quits just because things didn't go as planned.  We felt so disheartened, it would've been easy to say, "Forget this - we tried really hard and still had to spend money."  Much like slipping on a diet, we could've said, "I ate a handful of chips, so I've already failed and may as well eat the whole bag."  That thinking would've further derailed us.  In reality, the money we saved in the first week of the fast will soften the blow of the car repairs.  And the attitude shift we have experienced about how we spend and how we waste will have long term effects on our financial well being. 

Enjoying the Weekend Without Spending

We started Friday by packing our snacks and then headed to Butterfly World with our annual pass.  The boys wore themselves out running around the park and had both fallen asleep by the time we reached the car.  In the afternoon, I took out the water table (later turned into a mud table) and allowed the boys to play on the patio while I began dinner.  We had a pork loin in the freezer, and I remembered finding Hoisin sauce while doing our pantry inventory.  With a quick google search, I found Recipe 1 and Recipe 2.  I didn't quite have all the ingredients needed so I found myself somewhere in the middle of the two: marinating the pork in 1.5 inch chunks for 30 minutes in a mixture of 1/2 yellow onion, several garlic cloves minced, 2 tbsp honey, and 4 tbsp Hoisin sauce.  I cooked the pork in about 2 tbsp sesame oil, allowing it to brown before covering the pan and letting it simmer on medium heat till cooked through tenderly.  We ate it alongside Jasmine rice and Jolly Green Giant Steamers green beans with almonds.  Everyone loved the meal, and we finished the bread pudding for dessert.  Hubby and I enjoyed some Netflix (account generously shared by my eldest sister) after putting the kids in bed (we cancelled our cable years ago).

Summing Up Saturday:

• Took down indoor Christmas decorations
• Made JELLO with help from the boys
• Went to a friend's birthday party - we had hoped to walk there but rain stopped us; I bought the gift in advance of the fiscal fast
• I lightly fried a can of Garbanzos and added them to the pork leftovers, cooked up some more rice, and packed it all up (along with our green, star-shaped JELLO jigglers) to take to the park - the rain had cleared up so we walked
• Hubby and I enjoyed some Internet TV and microwave popcorn

SUNDAY, SUNDAY...

We almost spent money today!  We did not plan accordingly for the fiscal fast in the area of DIAPERS!  We both thought we had more diapers in the garage... oops!  We did not.  Fortunately, our laziness in returning a gift to Target paid off today: we exchanged the gift for a box of diapers.  I realize in the technical sense, we used a gift card; however, this was a much better option than shelling out cash, and since we exchanged a gift, we never spent our own money in order to get these diapers.  It's all good!  Did I mention we walked to Target?  We did!  We played in the afternoon and had dinner at my parents with my brother also: a wonderful way to complete a splendid, spending-free Sunday.

Notes for Saving and Eliminating Waste:

1. It may seem obvious, but if your destination is nearby, WALK!  Or bike, scoot, skip... You can save gas AND love your heart (I've adopted this phrase from my creative brother).
2. If you haven't already done so, think seriously about canceling your cable (more on this later).
3. Eat your leftovers.  You can even reincorporate them into your next meal.

Day One: Fiscal Fast

I can happily describe day one of the fiscal fast as a success!  We spent the morning at Story Time at the library with friends.  Everyone socialized and played and it didn't cost a thing!  I love public libraries.

I took the boys home for lunch and nap, and in an effort to conserve gas, we stayed home to play for the rest of the day.  The crisp weather called the boys onto the patio, and I supervised from the kitchen while relishing the challenge of figuring out how to make dinner without seeking additional ingredients at the store.  Admittedly, dinner didn't pose such the great challenge I originally anticipated... You see, when I first suggested the fiscal fast, Hubby and I both felt a little nervous that we would have to survive on rice, beans, and pasta, with a scarce amount of meat and produce UNTIL we reached the deep freezer and inventoried the generous gift of Omaha steaks we received from my sister and her husband for Christmas. We are going to eat so well during this fiscal fast that it almost feels like cheating.

Cooking dinner on day one immediately reminded me of a large source of waste in our home: produce.  We eat well and love fresh produce; however, falling victim to the allure of eating out, we often don't finish what we buy before it starts to spoil.  Last night, I took out some slimy lettuce and instead of chucking the whole thing (like I might ordinarily do), I got my kitchen scissors and starting snipping and peeling back layers.  As it turns out, I had enough to make a sizable salad for two.  I also salvaged a few radishes from a half eaten bag starting to go bad.

The most exciting part of dinner for me was dessert (SHOCKING, I know).  We had a half loaf of French baguette hard enough to break a piñata.  French toast for breakfast?  Meh.  Then I thought back to the short time I lived in New Orleans... BREAD PUDDING!  Yum.  I thought anxiously, "I've never made bread pudding.  Do I have the ingredients?"  Almost.  So I took a chance, imperfectly reducing the ingredients and watched nervously as the bread pudding rose in the oven.  I didn't even know bread pudding rises.  Is it supposed to do that?  I don't know, but it tasted delicious and as it turns out, we even had frozen a tub of Cool Whip in the garage.

What We Ate Day 1:

• Mixed greens salad with radish, carrot, green olive and homemade dressing
• Omaha steaks seasoned with olive oil and coarse salt
• Small peppers baked with the steaks
• New Orleans style bread pudding with Cool Whip

Notes from Fiscal Fast Day 1:

1. Learn what your public library has to offer in addition to the awesome selection of books and media.
2. Thoroughly inspect produce and use any good parts before tossing it.
3. Save money by making your own dressings.
4. Try new recipes in order to eliminate waste.

Our First Fiscal Fast

I picked up a penny today.  Let's hope it means good luck.

We first learned the idea of a fiscal fast watching Jeff Yeager on an episode of TLC's Extreme Cheapskate.  When I started staying at home with my children almost three years ago, I'd say our finances needed an extreme makeover...  We have since made several failed attempts at budgeting and saving.  Fortunately, we don't feel the need to live extravagantly so our comfort with living below our means enabled us to get by cheerfully as our income level dropped (I reduced my work from full time to part time before stopping work outside of the home altogether).  With a growing family, however, that's just not good enough.  An onslaught of unexpected expenses including a "hit and run" on our parked car, major home repairs due to leaks, and hospital stays drained our savings.  So it's time to rebuild because we know firsthand the importance of "back up plans" and emergency funds.  And to take it a step further, we want to continue saving for ourselves for retirement and for our kids of course because let's face it, we've grown up.  (Makes me cringe a little.)  We are bona fide adults and should spend so accordingly.  Therefore today we began our first fiscal fast.

What is a Fiscal Fast?

• A fiscal fast is when you fast from spending money, in other words, NO SPENDING.

The GOALS of our Fiscal Fast:

• To hit the reset button on our spending.  I like to think of it as a fiscal cleanse or detox.  We want to save money of course by not spending, but more importantly this period will give us the opportunity to scrutinize how we use our money so that we can eliminate wasteful spending thus saving more.

The GROUND RULES of our Fiscal Fast:

• Do not spend any money for 10 days.
• This includes charge accounts such as credit cards and toll roads, which will just bill us later.
• This includes gift cards because gift cards are cash (essentially).
• This does not include spending other people's money - HA HA that sounds awful!  In other words, if my best friend wants to take me out for a coffee, I don't have to say no.  After all, this fast is about how I'm spending my money, not how she is spending hers.  That said, we will not seek out opportunities to mooch.  No one likes a mooch.

1 Week

My sister, Jessica, did us the honor of capturing these beautiful photographs of Kokito in his first week of life.

Mi hermana, Jessica, nos hizo el honor de sacar estas lindas fotos de Kokito en su primera semana de vida.

Welcome y Bienvenidos

Welcome family and friends to Little Kokos!  We've started this site so that you all can enjoy photos and videos of baby boy, also known as "Kokito".  It's called Little Kokos (plural) because in the future (maybe the near future?), there will be more little kokos running around!

¡Bienvenidos familia y amigos a Los Kokitos!  Hemos iniciado este sitio para que ustedes puedan compartir las fotos y videos de nuestro bebe, Kokito.  El sitio se llama Little Kokos (Kokitos) por que en el futuro, van a ver más Kokitos (más niños, claro).