This post is more than a recipe for soup, although there is that, too.� If you have read my blog for any length of time, you know I am a fan of challenging myself, usually for 30 days. There is a reason why I have an entire section in my blog devoted to Endeavors. I think whims are fun and often the result of our subconscious trying to tell us something. (Like, loosen up and have fun.)
True to form, I have two new endeavors underway. One will last 30 days, the other much longer. I’m three days into the 30-day challenge, so I’ll share that one today.
We are really trying to have a no-spending month. It’s not a new concept, and I’m sure you’ve read several bloggers write about their own spending hiatuses, most notably Rachel from Small Notebook (a great blog, by the way) and Rachel from Heart of Light (another great blog). I tried to find a third no-spending Rachel but came up dry.
This is something I thought we should do but have put off because, dang, it looked hard. I can tell you that three days in, it’s not easy. It’s not hard, either. More than anything, it’s frustrating. Frustrating because I am forced to put off a fun or frivolous purchase and frustrating because by doing so I realize, in an often blinding moment of clarity, just how often those fun or frivolous purchases arise.
Today Mikey stayed home from school; we’re sharing colds. On our way home from dropping Nicholas off at school, I told him he could put on his comfy-cozies (what we call sweats) and watch Dinosaur Train under a blanket nest on the sofa. Then I remembered he outgrew all his comfy-cozies by several inches. It took me a few seconds to remember our challenge, but I did. Were it not for the challenge, I would have headed to Target and bought him lounging pants. Instead, we went home and hung out high-water style. $20 saved, at least. It’s Target–you know I would have bought something else I needed.
Mainly, though, this challenge is about our eating out budget. In the last couple of weeks we have spent far too much money on mediocre food outside the home. Do you do what I do? I don’t feel like cooking. I’m tired. I want a break. I deserve a break. So we go out to eat or grab takeout and it tastes okay. Not great. Certainly not worth the $40-$50 it costs to feed a family of four something other than fast food. Fast food–that’s another burr in my shoe. Since when does fast food cost $20 for a family of four, with two of those meals from the kids menu? That’s just…unconscionable. The Mister always jokes that we are paying them to kill us slowly, both financially and physically. He’s right.
Small Notebook Rachel puts a cap on her essentials spending. Last time is was $250 for all essentials, including gas and food. Heart of Light Rachel didn’t cap and allowed for some shopping. I’m doing something closer to that version. We aren’t eating out for thirty days (really, that’s all The Mister wants out of this) and I’m keeping the rest of the spending to a bare minimum with some exceptions, like my mother in-law’s birthday at the end of the month. I’m not giving myself a food budget. What I spend at the supermarket is what I spend. What I do buy outside the supermarket has to be something I can’t put off until November, unlike take-out.
And that’s a shame because, really, there is nothing I want to do less than cook dinner with a cold. (The Mister gets home too late to make dinner.) I’d rather lay on the couch like a Roman and have people wait on me. Alas, not this month. Instead, I made soup from two of the many cans of white beans I, according to my pantry, seem to be collecting. Two down, twenty more to go. October, it appears, will be high in fiber.
White Bean, Garlic, and Kale Soup
adapted from Picture Perfect Weight Loss Cookbook
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
8 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 1/2 cups beef broth (I used homemade)
1 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup water
2 bunches kale, ribs removed and thinly sliced
1/4 cup freshly shaved Parmesan cheeseI doubled the recipe.
Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. dd the onion, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes or until the onion is tender. Toward the end of the cooking time and as the pan gets dry, add 1/4 cup of the broth, 1 tablespoon at a time, stirring after each addition, to brown the onion.
Stir in the beans, water, and the remaining 2 1/4 cups broth and bring to a boil over high heat. Add kale, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the flavors have blended and the kale appears cooked through. (It will be a dark, army green–just don’t obliterate it.)
Serve and sprinkle with the Parmesan.
Jules – what a great 30 day challenge. In the last year, I’ve cut down our spending dramatically. I’d go to Target or Michaels for something we need (undershirts or ribbon) and come home with all sorts of stuff we don’t need (those $1 bins are pure evil). I haven’t even really been thrift shopping much – there’s nothing we NEED. I think I need to start a 30 day challenge to eat what we have in our pantry and freezer to clean things out a bit. Wonder how long I could avoid going to the grocery (except for milk & fruit & vegetables) just eating what we already have? Hmm….
Good luck with your no-spending challenge. It is indeed a challenge! We are unofficially in frugal mode as our daughter just started college and we feel the squeeze. I am giving myself the hairy eyeball every time I think I NEED something and it seems to be a good deterrant. Like commenter Julie, I am going to do a pantry and freezer exercise to cut the food bill, and stopped thrift shopping because it was an easily justified way to buy more stuff (“but it’s only $4! I can’t afford not to save that much money! haha).
What a great challenge. Something I think I’ll try myself.
Also, we did at one point eat what we had in our pantry and freezer. It was incredibly surprising how long we went, probably a solid 3 weeks and then some.
When school started this year, I committed to making a meal plan for the week every Friday. The unexpected benefit of this is that I no longer find myself running out to the store every day, or sending the hubby on his way home from work, which has greatly cut down on all sorts of impulse spending. I thought it would be a drag “having” to make a certain thing each night, but it’s really a relief – I’m using up stuff in the pantry and freezer since I’ve planned for it, and I just don’t have to think about dinner so much every day.
Jules-isn’t it funny how, when we try to do something positive and challenging we instantly hit a road block??? (like your cold) I find that so often (when I start out to lose weight there will immediately be a social gathering that “calls” for food, or my whole family gets sick and I can’t exercise, etc., etc. good on you for your spending hiatus!!!!
And LOL about your Roman person. I *think* that’s called a “man-cold” if you act like that though. :) Get better soon my friend.
Actually, I consider it a blessing. I was sick and didn’t want to cook. Normally, I would have The Mister pick something up since he gets in too late to cook. Instead, I was forced to make soup and it was sooooo delicious. The Mister said it was one of the best soups he has ever tasted, and I kind of agree. I don’t know if it’s because we happened to have homemade beef stock, but it was a damn fine bowl of soup. Perfect for the sniffles.
But, yeah, I’m waiting to start feeling better. This cold sucks.
What a fantastic challenge!!!
Good luck!!!
xo
Here’s a chili recipe I love using canned white beans.
http://www.bhg.com/recipe/chili/winter-squash-and-sage-sausage-chili/
I totally agree with you about the cost/mediocrity of restaurants. As another poster said, a meal plan really helps. I groan while I’m making it, but then it’s nice to see that list on the fridge and not have to think about it after that. I have to cook because the list tells me to.
I hope you get to feeling well soon.
I like this challenge. We have done this before and it is a great attention-grabbing method for nailing down how one spends money. The evening drive-by for a slush was putting a serious dent in our budget and when we went on the challenge we were shocked at how much we saved!
Best of luck to you with both of your challenges.
I’m so making this soup next! Thanks for sharing!
Mmm….I have a recipe just like that from Jamie Oliver, and I make it all the time.
I need to do an eat-in challenge. It’s the biggest suck on my budget, because I buy all kinds of groceries that I never end up using PLUS crappy take out.
I think you’d like the potato soup I posted about too, especially since it’s lighter than the traditional cheese potato soup people think of, and it costs about $5 to make. Cha-ching! And my kids LOVE it, like crazy love it.
It’s getting the tiniest bit chilly out here (in GA, chilly = 70 degrees or less) and this soup sounds PERFECT for a chilly night!
I call that the Devil complex. There is always that little devil lurking around, trying to make anything you decide on difficult. Like the cold. Or twisting your ankle just as you get into a rhythm of working out.
Once you get past that hump though, it’s all downhill from there!
I’m working on picking up or putting away a box a day until they are gone. We moved a month ago and I am so ready to have my living room set. We still have boxes and things we haven’t touched. It’s time.
Get better soon Jules! Our family was felled by a nefarious cough, three weeks later we’re finally starting to dig out.
I love “Endeavors” too and I love taking time to reflect and renew. I think it’s part of the rythmn of life and one of the reasons I love Lent so much. I’m sure there will be lots of times this project will be annoying or a struggle but at the end it will be so much more satisfying than if it were easy.
For the life of me I read the whole post (in my email reader) and thought it was Smitten Kitchen. I was wondering when she had her second child… lol. gwad, your food pictures are getting great and my coffee was way too weak.
Holy cow, what a compliment!
Good luck! And really, the first week or two is the hardest, while you try to adjust and remind yourself that you can’t just buy random stuff. Then it gets better and you don’t have to think about it anymore (in my experience). Finally, you feel sort of freed, for not having to think about it at all. Shopping is time consuming!
And I needed this recipe today! I’m sitting on two massive bunches of kale from my CSA box and was feeling too lazy to figure out what to do with it. This looks perfect.
And to make this the longest comment ever, I’m trying your protein diet from a while ago, just for the week, to see how it goes and if I can handle it. How did you survive for longer? I’m impressed.
Sorry you are sharing colds, but what fun to curl up at home together.
Sending you and M a hug :)
Sounds yummy! Can’t wait to make the soup. Love the recipe! Hope you and Mikey feel better soon!
I recently printed out my bank statement with the intention of adding up how much I spend on take out. After a quick glance, I quickly set it aside for fear of seeing the actual total. If only I could gather the courage to try such a challenge, Chris would be oh so grateful. Then maybe I could convince him to stop buying those blue ray dvds and other “needs” of his own! Thanks for such a great post as usual. I’m on the late train so I didn’t comment on the “Electrical Current” but it touched me more than anything I’ve ever read. You truly have a gift.
oy. I need to jump on this bandwagon as well. while the occasional impulse purchase yields something i love love love and use everyday, more often then not it’s just me looking at my bank account going “wait, where did this $17.99 come from? umm…..” and the take out! single girl + new york = a lot of “well it’s not like i’m going to buy all the ingredients to make pad thai myself….it would cost just as much as ordering!” not good.
I find that cooking twice what we’ll eat and then freezing the extra makes life easier. On those nights where you’d normally be too tired to cook, you can defrost something healthy and yummy rather than getting expensive, crappy takeout. Okay, we do still occasionally get takeout, but only the stuff that actually tastes good!
Mmm… This looks amazing! I might have to try it.
My husband and I are in the middle of paying off our student loans, and have done 3/4 of our total $75,000 in debt in a year and a half. Occasionally we go through periods like this – we always do a month too! :) My husband (who’s name is Archie) calls it “Stingy Archie”.. ha. It’s not fun, but totally worth the sacrifice!
I discover that cooking two times just what we�ll take then very cold the excess can make life easier. About these times wherever you�d commonly always be too weary to prepare food, you can defrost a thing nutritious and also mouth watering rather than receiving pricey, inferior takeout. Acceptable, many of us do still from time to time receive takeout, although simply the particular items that in fact likes beneficial!
Thanks for nice sharing :)