Fast Food Lunch – Black Bean Salad

I love this lunch.  In less than 10 minutes you have a yummy satisfying meal that is easy to take along.  Especially good for people like me who hate sandwiches and don’t love eating meat.

Toss a couple good handfuls of spring mix salad or baby spinach in your lunch container.

Crack open a can of black beans and rinse them really well in a colander.

Grate up a tablespoon or so worth of whatever cheese you have on hand.

Top salad with about ¼ cup black beans, a tablespoon or so of cheese, and a sprinkle of taco seasoning.

You can add whatever other veggies you have on hand if you have the time or feel so inclined.  Diced red onions are nice if you feel up to slicing them in the morning.

Pop the lid on and remember to give it a good shake to mix it up before you eat.

Variations:

Keep the beans, use feta cheese, sliced kalamata olives (you can buy a little jar of these), omit that taco seasoning, and mix up a quick dressing of balsamic vinegar and olive oil to take along in a separate container.

Be creative.  Check out your pantry items and the condiments in your fridge.  Banana pepper rings, sundried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and so on can make the salad much more interesting and tasty without increasing the prep time.

The Sixth Week

Into the jars went $160.00 in cash for our variable expenses for the next week:

Transportation: $52.00

Food: $55.00

Entertainment: $20.00

Clothes/Gifts: $10.00

Everything else: $23.00

Added to the cash from last week the jars contain:

Transportation: $77.08

Food: $55.04

Entertainment: $38.68

Clothes/Gifts: $42.38

Everything else: $93.00

This budget is pretty comfortable.  We are beginning to wonder if we even need to expand it at all once we’ve finished saving for our trips this summer.  Maybe we will just keep saving the same as we are now.  Although it would be nice if we each had an allowance that we could spend without having to answer for it at all…

End of Week 5

After a week of spending cash only this is what our jars look like:

Transportation: $25.08

Food: $0.04

Entertainment: $18.68

Clothes/Gifts: $32.38

Everything else: $70.00

This gets easier each week.  When faced with making a cash purchase you ask yourself; “Would I rather have the cash or this item?”  Many times the answer is the cash.  When we were spending on debit it felt like we never walked out of Walmart without spending about $100.  Last night we spent just $2 there.  Also going to the dollar store usually cost us around $20, nowadays we spend a dollar or two to buy whatever we went in to get.  This saves more than just money, we spend way less time wandering around the stores looking at all the other pretty stuff to buy.

Side note: There is more in the Clothes/Gifts jar than the start of the week because I returned something and replaced the money.  

What's wrong with debit cards?

What is wrong with debit cards? Especially if you have no overdraft it's not like you are spending money you don't have. They should make life simple. Not having the hassle of carrying cash all the time. But maybe the problem for us is they oversimplify money.

When you are shopping are you carrying a calculator to keep an exact figure? Are you doing a rough running total in your head? Or are you just tossing stuff in your basket knowing that you have your card so you will be able to pay for it? When you hand your card over to the teller and punching in your PIN do you know even know how much you are paying?

Frankly, there are plenty of times I've walked out of the store having no clue how much I paid for my groceries. The clerks don't bother to tell you how much it is half the time. I used to think they were rude, poorly trained, or just slightly incompetent, but now I am wondering if part of the problem is they see we aren't listening anyways.

When you pay with a debit card all you have to ask yourself is "Do I have enough to cover this purchase?" You do not need to consider whether or not you should be spending that much or if part of that money would be better spent elsewhere. You don't need to do the math to see if that will cut into the funds you had set aside for transportation or gifts or catching a movie. There are plenty of times I've bought something I didn't especially want just because it seemed a waste to use my card for such a small amount.

At least for us putting away the debit cards means we are more responsible in our purchases. You cannot spend more than you intended when you only have cash. Put down the cookies/pop/chips/whatever junk food you really don't need and really don't want to put in your body anyways. You will make more room in both your budget and your jeans.

The Fifth Week

Into the jars went $160.00 in cash for our variable expenses for the next week:

Transportation: $52.00

Food: $55.00

Entertainment: $20.00

Clothes/Gifts: $10.00

Everything else: $23.00

Added to the cash from last week the jars contain:

Transportation: $91.08

Food: $61.86

Entertainment: $32.37

Clothes/Gifts: $15.14

Everything else: $70.00

We threw an extra dollar into the Everything else jar so that it would be an even $70, mostly because we couldn’t make change to have it at $69.  There shouldn’t be anything too crazy this week.  Spending should be back to normal for the time being.  Still saving away for California but getting closer each cheque.  Hopefully we will buy our tickets in the next couple weeks.

End of Week 4

After a week of spending cash only this is what our jars look like:

Transportation: $39.08

Food: $6.86

Entertainment: $12.37

Clothes/Gifts: $5.14

Everything else: $46.00

Entertainment is getting better and better.  Soon we’ll be saving enough money to actually go to a nice restaurant or do something fun.  We drove a lot over the weekend.  Bought some ready made food at the grocery store since it was such a go go go weekend.  Less time = more money

The Fourth Week

Into the jars went $160.00 in cash for our variable expenses for the next week:

Transportation: $52.00

Food: $55.00

Entertainment: $20.00

Clothes/Gifts: $10.00

Everything else: $23.00

Added to the cash from last week the jars contain:

Transportation: $142.50

Food: $92.83

Entertainment: $28.36

Clothes/Gifts: $40.00

Everything else: $46.00

We’ll probably be spending more out of the Transportation jar this week since we’ll be doing a lot of driving this weekend.  Also having company in means we’ll be spending more out the Food jar.  Since we’ll be doing some cake decorating I’m not sure where I should take the cash for the fondant and gum paste.  It could be food, or entertainment, or gift since I’ll be doing it as a gift for some friends.  Instead of looking at it as a riddle I should look at it as a benefit to have such flexibility.

End of Week 3

Having been relying completely on cash for 3 weeks now I can honestly say it isn’t that difficult.  The benefits far outweigh the challenges.

After a week of spending cash only this is what our jars look like:

Transportation: $88.49

Food: $37.83

Entertainment: $8.36

Clothes/Gifts: $30.00

Everything else: $23.00

Still having cash in all the jars is such a victory.  I love that we have more left in the Entertainment jar than we did last week.  It is like we are really getting this and might be able to wean ourselves completely off the fast food lunches.  Before I could be lazy about making lunch in the morning thinking; “We don’t have the time, we’ll just have to grab something”.  Now thinking; “I don’t want to waste the budget on fast food, I’ll make a quick lunch”.

I have to say yesterday going to Starbucks for a $0.25 tall brewed coffee helped with saving money in the entertainment and eating out sector.  Somehow it tasted oh so much better than a coffee that costs full price.  As a general rule we don’t bother with Starbucks, too easy to walk out of there having spent $6 with not much to show for it, but who could resist a deal like that?

The Third Week

Into the jars went $160.00 in cash for our variable expenses for the next week:

Transportation: $52.00

Food: $55.00

Entertainment: $20.00

Clothes/Gifts: $10.00

Everything else: $23.00

Added to the cash from last week we are looking at:

Transportation: $128.50

Food: $63.52

Entertainment: $23.65

Clothes/Gifts: $30.00

Everything else: $23.00

This budget really seems to be working out well so far.  Although, as shown by our fumble last week, it doesn't give a lot of room for unexpected expenses.  Which is why it is not a long term solution for us.  Just a Spartan budget to get us to our convention in California.  After that we will give ourselves more spending money.  Unless we decided to save for a trip back to Asia...

End of Week 2

Two weeks in and we are still doing great... mostly.  We might have kinda sorta completely blew our budget this past week...

After a week of spending cash only this is what our jars look like:

Transportation: $76.50

Food: $8.52

Entertainment: $3.65

Clothes/Gifts: $20.00

Everything else: $0.00

Again we have money left in all the jars save one; the Everything else jar.  This was because we had to buy dog food for Danger, which cost $46.00 and some cents which was chipped in by the Food jar.  Considering we bought the last bag of food back in March it really doesn't cost that much per month.  But Danger wasn't done spending after getting his dog food.  The weather is gorgeous and warm and it feels so good to walk in the park and the park is so pretty and so completely full of fleas.  Although we didn't see any fleas on Danger and we could have waited 3 weeks until we had enough money in the jar for his treatments chances are not only the dog but also the house would be infested by fleas at that point.  Not worth it when we have money in the bank to cover this.

Because we are only 2 weeks into living on the jars and the money that goes in them needs to accumulate in order to pay for bigger ticket items I'm not going to worry too much about this little hiccup.  It is also a very rare occurrence for us to buy both dog food and flea treatments in the same week.  We have plenty of time to stagger them.  I thought of dragging money out of the other jars to cover it, but then thought this would probably end up with us in the same situation with a different jar a few weeks down the road.

Once Danger was done spending the car decided to take it's turn.  It demanded new brakes and a bearing.  Since we need to keep our car happy and healthy we stole from our California fund and had the necessary repairs done on our little car.  Could be worse, we could have had to put the repairs on credit.

Side note:  Our Transportation jar balance has increased since we put money in it at the start of last week.  This is due to someone chipping in for gas money.  Thought we might need it in transportation for an oil change or car wash.