Wednesday Once Again

Today was Wednesday and payday. Usually I'm busy getting things done, paying bills, figuring out what needs to be taken care of and so on.



Today, not so much. I'm still having a hard time getting off my rear end and doing anything. My resistance is getting worse, if that's possible. I wrote a lot of cheques the other day and in some way my mind is telling me I've done a lot and to chill. There's money in the bank to pay the cheques that are coming through right away so that's fine, but I have bills I should have paid and I haven't done so. That really sucks.



I finally forced myself to go look at my account online and it's not too pretty, for a couple of reasons. First, the cheque I wrote for the dentist came through just before my paycheque hit the account and put me in the red. Luckily for me, they just charged me a few cents interest and didn't hit me with an NSF! The $360 or so is a problem because I won't get any of that money back from extended medical. The second issue is the money I've been spending on physio. Now, I will get most of that back, but I need to get the receipts together, fill out the form and send them off. This is a task I'm definitely not good at and I know it. Paperwork, especially financial paperwork and I are not the best of friends. But, if I don't send it in, I won't get any money back. It's a pretty simple concept. And I can't keep spending $100 to $200 per month on physio if I'm not going to do what I need to do in order to get reimbursed.



So, I can tell that I don't have enough money in the bank right now to pay all the bills and that makes me crazy. It's lucky that this month is one of the two times a year that I get 3 paycheques. That will help get me straightened out but I need to do more.



I need to cut down some spending. I know that the one area where I'm really bad is with food I eat out of the house. It's probably lucky in some respects that we keep kosher because I can't just eat out anywhere. There are only 5 places in the city where I can eat a real meal. Four of them I never to seldom eat at. Ah, but that fifth one is a killer! It's the cafe in the building where I work. I always used to have breakfast before I went to the office, mostly my protein drink, which costs about $2.50 per serving. Then I started "forgetting" to buy it or not having enough time to have it at home but "forgetting" to bring it with me. And, wonder of wonders, I discovered how much I liked the coffee and giant cinnamon bun at the cafe. Of course it costs more than my protein drink. I think it costs $4.25 but I'm not positive because, worse than having it on a regular basis, I also tab my breakfasts and pay my tab (or pay it down) when I get paid.



Okay, that's bad enough. Then there's lunch. When I'm home I usually make myself a couple of pieces of cinnamon toast and a cup of coffee. Sometimes I have a couple of cookies or brownies too. Other times I barely remember to eat.



When I work the better part of the day at the office I'm usually ravenous by about 11:30 am. And the cafe has really nice food. Sushi ($7.50), a great sandwich ($7.50), salads ($4.95 to $6.95). I think even the cheese pizza is now $2.95 (and I'm not really full afterwards) and the cold drinks are about $2.50. I've been gradually spending more and more money at the cafe, particularly when I have both breakfast and lunch there and I realize that it can't continue at this rate.



No, I'm not going to suddenly start brown bagging it. Sorry. I've tried it and it doesn't work well for me. I never have the time to make it, we don't keep a lot of food on hand like fruits, veggies and salads because They. Always. Go. Bad. Always. In fact, that's probably my second biggest waste of food money. I keep thinking that "this time" I'll really eat that bag of salad (and I'm not talking the family size bag, just the one for one or two people) but I always end up throwing out a half empty bag of liquified lettuce! I'm wasting both food and money. At least, when I eat at the cafe, I'm eating every bite.



But here's what I'm planning to do. Cut out the breakfasts. Just drink my protein drink. It's cheaper, better for me and probably has less calories! For lunch I'll either have a slice of pizza or a $4.95 salad. This again is cheaper than a full meal because I won't buy a pop or a lemonade or Snapple to go with it and it's healthier (the salad at least) because I never eat veggies at home. And it also has less calories. Do you think that possibly those 2 pounds that snuck onto my body recently could have come from all that food I'm eating at lunch?



So, for now, this is the plan. We'll see if it works or if sometime next week I suddenly crack and start stuffing cinnamon buns down my throat! If I just save $5 per day, that's $100 or more every month! And, just maybe, I might finally be able to lose a pound or two.