Meal Planning=Ickyness

We (drum roll please) are going to reduce our food bill by 1/3. Yay! Awesome! We're going to save soooo much money! Oh wait, how am I going to do that? What am I going to cut out? How do I keep our diet healthy?! My solution: go to Google. In this case, I don't really like what Google says.

You see, most sites list menu planning, or meal planning, as the most important thing you can do to save money. I don't like menu planning. It's boring. It limits my creativity. It puts me in a box. And it can help me achieve my goal. Bother.

So I've written down a basic outline of meals based on what we currently have. We stuck to it this week (with a Taco Bell exception) and I'm pleased with this small success. On to the next week! And on to planning my shopping list! And here's where I run into a problem. I've calculated what I can buy this upcoming week. I've written down where to go to get the best price. I've done this before. And guess what? I walked out with stuff NOT on my shopping list. How do I achieve success this time? The only thing I could come up with was to shop without the kiddos, because my attention is too easily diverted when they're with me. We'll start there.

Here's my menu plan for the upcoming week:

Monday-Salmon patties with homemade bread (Sams sells salmon patties for a reasonable price)
Tuesday-Chili (vegetarian)
Wednesday-Tacos (with beans from the previous day's chili)
Thursday-Sandwiches (homemade bread)
Friday-BBQ Chicken
Saturday & Sunday-Sandwiches (homemade bread)

Lunches are sandwiches or quinoa with vegetables. Breakfasts are oatmeal or cereal (or pumpkin bread if I motivate myself to make it). You will note that this diet is high carb; my low-carb diet is out the window at the moment. I'm still tracking my intake and hope to keep it around 200 grams. We're also not Paleo. I can't afford the grass-fed beef and super-healthy chicken so I don't want to be consuming copious amounts of the inferior product. I will try to purchase organic fruits and vegetables at the farmer's market and I'm thinking I might start making leaf teas for the kids to drink in place of milk. In a weird way I'm excited; I can't magically increase my salary but I might be able to increase our available income by managing our food intake better. I won't be making my own cleaning or skin care products (I'm done with crunchiness for now) but I can reduce what we use right now.

Sounds fun, right? Right. I will have fun. I will stick to a plan. I am motivated. I still don't like meal planning.

The Cat is Out of the Bag

I wonder where that expression comes from? There is this fabulous book that can tell you, only I forgot the name of it. Next time I come across it I think I'm going to have to buy it. Anyway. I was going to wait. A long time. Maybe forever. I don't like people coming up and hugging me, smiling and saying congratulations, or asking me questions. But Damm was talking to his recruiter about insurance. And he mentioned something that he should've told the recruiter was non-repeatable, because 5 minutes later the recruiter told Damm's mother (I have no earthly idea why he's talking to her-I keep forgetting to ask). After that I had to tell my mother. We haven't told any extended family members because there are quite a few here celebrating Damm's mother's graduation and that would be the worst form of torture I can imagine. So yeah, I'm knocked up again :P And this time I'm getting the t-shirt. "It" is due August 11. I have not been to a doc...

So I won't forget ..

"I'm a little hunter short and cute. Here is my bow, Here is my boot. When I get all worked up then I shoot!" And I can't come up with the last line. Needs to rhyme with the little teacup song.

A tanking guide.

Here is the situation: Your guild has been busy all day long while your at work. You finally get home and log in and are informed that the GM(and main tank) is about to leave and you are now assigned tanking duty. You start to panic. You don't know what to do. And agro is already spiralling out of control. Ever been in that situation? I have. So I decided I would write a guide for this very situation. Step 1) Are the appropraite debuffs up? Step 2) Do you have the tools? Step 3) Are you practicing the fundamentals? Step 4) Are you prepared for the long haul? And Step 5) How to finish with a resounding silence. Are the appropriate debuffs up? You absolutely MUST have these debuffs up to start and you need to keep them up. There are only two of them and here they are in the order of priority: a) Clean Diaper. If Orclette's Diaper isn't clean you won't be able to contain the agro. I don't care how good your other fundamentals are. This is a MUST HAVE and should be chec...

Two, and three.

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