Nothing like being stuck in traffic on your way home when you are going into a long weekend. I took tomorrow off so we can do a weekend getaway but I’ve been stuck in gridlock for about 2 hours. My guess would be there was some sort of accident but I wouldn’t know since I haven’t even made it that far yet. Oh well, at least it gave me time to write a post, check twitter and update my facebook status report. That’s three less things I need to do when I get home so I can get right to packing my clothes.
I just discovered an amazing new pizza restaurant. Actually its not new its been there for about 30 years but now its under new ownership. I had been there before but wasn’t really impressed. I had always heard they had really good pizza I think they just ran out of passion. Now the new owners seem to have an excess of passion which shows through in the product they put out. Now lets just hope they can keep up this sort of quality for the next 30 years so I don’t have to find another quality pizza joint.
There was once a time when after I cooked a meal if there was just a small portion left I would scoop it into the trash and go on about my business. Those days are done, now I use everything. If there is a small portion of tuna casserole left instead of going into the trash it goes into a small single serving tupperware container. Typically this ends up being the perfect size for my lunch. Not only do I not waste dinner but it saves me money on the back end with saving money on lunch.
I know this may sound like common sense to most but when I think back to how many “lunches” I have thrown away over the years and the dollar cost associated with it, the number ends up being hundreds per year.
I want to take this time to wish you all a Merry Christmas. While I am always happy when Christmas day rolls around it always seems like it’s gone all too soon. I take time to meticulously decorate my home. I spend a ridiculous amount of time planning out how to get the perfect gifts for an acceptable price and I record every Christmas movie that I can. To some it may seem a little bit excessive but for me its all just part of the fun.
The problem is when December 26th comes along the rest of the world lets you know in no uncertain terms that the holidays are over. I don’t let that dissuade me from celebrating in my own way so I keep the holidays going as long as possible. This goes not only for the Christmas time but for anything that you see as being fun or relaxing. When you find, “your thing” hold onto it as tight as you can because if you don’t just as soon as it sneaks up on you it can be gone, if you let it.
Merry Christmas to All
The major hurdle in cutting the costs in your daily life boils down to one thing, making tough choices. I can nickel and dime all weeklong and it still may not add up to whether or not I really needed to buy that new pair of shoes, those DVD’s or a new PS3 game. While this should hold true all the time, especially in times of recession; we need to ask ourselves do we really need that? If the answer is no it would probably be a good idea to skip it. I am not saying never reward yourself with anything but be prudent in your decisions.
I am not sure if all car insurance providers give a defensive driving discount but ours does. Every year we save 15% off of our car insurance because we have completed a defensive driving course. The first year we did it the savings was 10%. The class involved a classroom setting and a couple of hours of our time. Subsequent years we have saved 15% due to completing the advanced portion. The best part about the advanced portion is we were able to do it online. It simply involved taking a series of tests which didn’t take much time to complete. Check to see if your insurance company offers this discount, it is well worth the effort.
In the past I drank a lot of pop and juice, but now that simply is not the case. It wasn’t a conscience decision on my part its that I figured water was healthier for me. A byproduct of me attempting to be healthy is that I noticed I save a lot of money by not buying soft drinks. I would say just at work I save about 20 dollars per month bringing water instead of buying pop. At home I still buy juice and have the occasional glass of kool-aid (I’m a big kid at heart) but lately I have noticed even the kids are getting in on the act. It always catches me off guard when I look over at the youngest drinking a glass of water instead of cherry kool-aid but it is happening more and more frequently.
Times are tough. I am not sure if its the same for everyone but in my particular situation inflation is definitely outpacing wage increases. Its not necessarily at the point where it is effecting my quality of life but I need to stave things off before it hits that point. Actually, everyone needs to be in this same mindset or you may find yourself in a position where you end up falling behind, not a good place to be. This is pretty much an account of the steps I am taking to make sure I don’t get caught behind the 8 ball. My plan is to handle the situation before the situation starts handling me.