Seventeen Cents

I figured out what to do with that $0.17 I had leftover from my grocery shopping for Live Below the Line.

Lucky that it's on sale this week. I was afraid that tax might bump it up to $0.18, but I got lucky.

Why do I need ramen? For the seasoning packet. My rice-and-kidney-beans-with-minced-garlic dinner on Day 1 was so bland that I had trouble eating all of it. Last night I added water to make soup.

I'm sure you will be shocked to hear that it wasn't a dramatic improvement. However, I am hopeful that adding a third of the Ramen seasoning packet will add enough flavor that I won't have to force myself to finish my dinner tonight, tomorrow, and Friday.

I don't know exactly what I'm eating on Saturday, but I can tell you that it will NOT have rice, beans, whole wheat toast, eggs, potatoes, or garlic in it.

Here's my Day 3 breakfast. It's difficult to crack open 2.4 eggs per day, so I have some days with 2 eggs and some with 3. This is one of my 3 Egg days. Thank goodness for a non-stick frying pan that lives up to its name! (That's American-style Toad in the Hole, in case you can't tell.)

Update on the beans: They're simmering away on the stove. They've been going for a couple hours at this point. I am NOT going to make the same mistake twice. Hopefully they'll be ready soonish.

(Did you miss the bean story? Check out my blog at the LBtL site. While you're there, I'm still looking for sponsors. Any amount will help - it's amazing how quickly little donations can add up. Deen's page is here, although she's already met her goal. Lucky! (Go Deenie! Excellent fundraising!))

Day One

Well, I've made my breakfast. What's that? Almost 11 pm is kind of late for breakfast? Why yes. Yes it is. I meant to have breakfast around 4 pm, like usual, but I had to boil the eggs, and then I wanted them to be cool before I ate them, so I started cooking the (dried) beans for my lunches this week. And then I had to mince all the garlic. And since I'd gone that far, I might as well make my dinners for the week (more dried beans) (and then rice).

So I got a bit of a late start. Luckily it's the first day, so I wasn't hungry at all going in. I think I'm probably going to end up skipping my lunch just because I have to be in bed early tonight. At least almost all of the cooking is done though. That will be a big help going forward. (Tuesday's and Thursday's breakfasts can't be cooked ahead.)

So, here's my Day One Breakfast. Posted a scant 59 minutes before Day Two starts for most people. That bottle is actually full of tap water (hence no label) because I buy 2 bottles of water per year and reuse them to death. And tap water is allowed without having to come out of the $7.50. So.

If you're feeling inclined to sponsor me, you can do so here. Deen's link is here. Thanks for reading/commenting/silently supporting!

Living Below The Line

I've done my shopping. Okay, actually my sister did my shopping. Between my new meds and my blood sugars fluctuating a ton (although on a consistently downward trend overall), my vision is shot. I can't see well enough to drive, or even well enough to reliably find food on grocery store shelves. But my glasses are OVERcorrecting my eyes enough to make things even worse. Supposedly this will settle down in a month or so.

It had better. I can't function like this. Let's ... well, I was going to say "let's not even talk about how close to the monitor I'm leaning to be able to proofread this," but then I got curious. And a ruler. It's tricky to measure the distance to something from your eyes, but it's about 8.25 to 8.5 inches.

ANYWAY, on to the point of this post.

This is all the food I can eat for the next 5 days, while I participate in the Live Below The Line challenge. I got very lucky because eggs and potatoes were on sale, and I still ran out of money before I could get a can of tomato paste.

In case you can't see clearly, this is what I got:
$1.29 - 8 lbs russet potatoes (yep, EIGHT pounds! Great sale!)
$1.19 - 16 oz (18 slices) whole wheat bread
$0.99 - 1 dozen large eggs (another sale)
$1.44 - 1 lb kidney beans
$1.16 - 1 lb pinto beans
$0.86 - 1 lb brown rice
$0.27 - 1 bulb garlic
$0.13 - tax *sigh*
$7.33 - total

So I have $0.17 cents leftover if I decide that I need to figure out the price per gram of salt or pepper (which, along with a few other spices, are the only exception to the Buy The Whole Container rule). There's actually $0.18 in the photo, but that's an oops. I did the original addition yesterday but didn't check the amount until after I'd taken the photo. Apparently my overnight memory isn't as good as I thought.

You can still sponsor me here if you're feeling generous. Deen is also doing the challenge (for her second year). Her page is here. We're both raising money for UNICEF.

I'll be posting photos of my meals on my Twitter, if you're interested in following me there.

Feeling Virtuous

I'm feeling very virtuous tonight.

Obviously that virtuous feeling is fairly easy to come by, if grapes and weights are all it takes. But it's been a long time since I bothered to pay attention to fruit, and even longer since I've exercised.

Of course this isn't some sort of unprompted leaf-turning. I was diagnosed with diabetes last week, and all the advice I've received so far is heavy on fruits, vegetables, and exercise. So I'm trying. Not sure how long I'll be able to maintain the motivation, but there's always hope, right?


Just a reminder that I'm doing Live Below the Line later this month. You can sponsor me here if you'd like. Deen is also doing the challenge, and her page is here.

Have a Smartphone?

I don't. I have a prepaid cell, because at my current rate of pay ($0 per year, not including xmas and birthday gifts), I can't justify spending more than the ~$7.14 per month that I pay now.

HOWEVER, if YOU have a smartphone, have you heard about this app from UNICEF?

I was going to write a post this week about exactly what UNICEF does, since I can't be the only one who doesn't know precisely. In the process of gathering information for that, I found this app. It donates money to UNICEF to provide clean water to kids for every 10 minutes that you don't use your phone. Apparently Giorgio Armani Fragrances really hate it when people are on their phones in restaurants? Or the bus? Or something like that.

Anyway, it sounds like a fairly painless way to do some good. Check it out?

And if you've forgotten why I'm talking about UNICEF, or if you missed my last blog post, I'm raising money for UNICEF doing the Live Below the Line challenge this year. You can sponsor me (or just find out more about it) here. The site accepts donations through the end of May.

(Deenie's page is here. She's much closer to her fundraising goal than I am.)

Grand Plans

Earlier this year, I was thinking about my blog. My poor neglected blog. And I thought that it might be nice to try to get back to knitting more. I've missed knitting and how it soothes me. I figured that if I was knitting, I'd have things to blog about.

That was in early January. How early? Before my birthday (the 4th).

HOWEVER, I now have another reason to get back to blogging. 

This year I am doing the Live Below the Line challenge at the end of April. Check out the link for more detail, but basically I (and thousands of others) commit to spending $1.50 or less on food every day for 5 days. That's $7.50 for 5 days. This number was chosen because of the millions of people who live on less than $1.50 per day for EVERYTHING. I'm just limiting my food budget to that amount.

The Live Below the Line challenge has two purposes: it raises awareness and it raises money for global charities through sponsorship. I've chosen UNICEF as my charity, and if you're feeling generous, you can sponsor me here. I will also be blogging there from now through the end of the challenge (May 2, 2014). I'm going to try to blog about it here as well. And during the challenge itself (April 28 to May 2), I'll be posting pics of my meals to my Twitter account.

(Deenie is also doing the challenge. It's her second year. She's the one who got me into it. Her sponsorship page is here.)

Hopefully the knitting will come.

New Book! (That rates a new post.)

Hey, guess what! KD Sarge has a new book out! Captain's Boy came out April 1. (Yes, I'm late. Shhh.) As you all know, I'm really quite lazy, so here's my review from a couple of other sites. 

I was so excited to see another installment in the Dream'verse, and Captain's Boy does not disappoint!

This is the fourth book in the series, and it's fun to see all of the characters from the Pendragon's Dream towards the end of the book, but the story centers around Donte and Selene. During the course of the story, they experience so many things that are horrible reminders of the past and daunting new situations, but they learn each other's strengths and how to work together. I love having the backstory that explains glimpses of their relationship that I got from the other books in the series.

I wish it was my gift to write insightful reviews that drop hints to tantalize, but I'm afraid I would end up spoiling the story somehow. So I will simply say that I HIGHLY recommend this book.

If you've read the earlier books, you may remember that Donte and Selene show up a bit in Knight Errant and are mentioned in His Faithful Squire as well. This is one of those universes where I really want to know more about every single character, so I loved this book. And really, let's be serious: any book with Eve and one of her rescues in it is a must-read. 

*looks pointedly at the reader* 

A MUST read. Have you bought it? Have you read it? If not, you know what to do.

Check out this link to the Chronology of the Dream'verse and be sure that you haven't missed any of the free stories that have been posted over at Turtleduck Press.