by Kristine | Apr 18, 2016 | Challenges, Wedding
The wedding date has been locked in & is slowly creeping up on us. One of the biggest things when planning a wedding is the all important budget. We’ve picked an amount that is reasonably small, but big enough for us to have the important things to us. I’ve employed quite a few money saving strategies for the wedding, which is a story for another post. I think, if we hadn’t organised for a winter wedding, the cost would have been easily almost another $2000. Which isn’t a laughing matter at all when you are just starting life out together, every cent and dollar counts!
Given that we haven’t quite reached our target savings as of yet, I’ve been employing quite a severe regime to save. One of the things that I will be trying to do is to have a ‘no spend’ challenge. At this point, I’m aiming to try it for at least a month & for as long as I can go in an effort to make everything stretch that little bit further. One of my bridesmaids inspired this as she is doing a ‘no spend’ year. She has been unemployed & they’ve just bought a house & are renovating it, so things are a little tight on their end. The rules of the challenge are that you are allowed to buy groceries and food items, replace things like deodorant, shower gel, make up, undies and essentials, but you are not allowed to buy new things. For example, if I want to go to a party, I have to reuse the clothes I have in my wardrobe & am not allowed to buy anything new.
I’ve done a bit of a recon of the items in my room and I feel like I’ve got enough cosmetics to last me a lifetime, face creams, body lotions, clothes and stationery to last me till my grandchildren and heaps of accessories that I can reuse to jazz things up. I will be allowed to buy things like petrol, pay bills (duh!), get foodstuff for home. I will not be allowed to buy new clothes, eat out unless I don’t have a choice and random impulse buys when I visit the shop. And cause we are planning the wedding, we will be allowed to spend for wedding related purposes. It will be interesting to see the results after a month of trying this out. Wish me luck! 🙂
by Kristine | Jan 12, 2013 | Challenges, Project Vegetarianism
I must say, this has been a bit of a slight fail. I was going really well on day 5 of the challenge until I accidentally ate a piece of salami yesterday. It actually took me about an hour to realise what I had done.
I had a 4pm appointment with a client of mine who always forgets, and I expected him to forget to turn up again. So, I agreed to come around to drinks after work which started at 4pm. Next thing I know, I got a phone call from reception saying that my client has actually turned up. So I went to tell the person who was organising the food about it, and let them know I’ll be at drinks about 5pm after my appointment. She was dishing up some salami and crackers. I was hungry and grabbed the salami while talking to her and ate the bloody thing. I hadn’t even realised till after when I stared at the cheese plate after my appointment and was contemplating what to eat. Lo and behold, I had consumed meat. Bah.
So, as part of the challenge I now have to start blogging for 7 days straight or else Matt will hijack my Twitter account for 7 days. I initially was planning to stick out the rest of my challenge till Sunday, but writing this post has made me really crave some form of meat again. Call me cruel or ignorant, but I will still continue eating meat like I did before. I guess the thing I will be changing is to actually add more veggies to my diet and possibly go vegetarian once a week just in support of Matt. I think my digestive system will revolt at meat being introduced to it once again after 5 days, but I think that’s a price I’m willing to pay.
So, what other challenges would you like to see me or Matt do? Leave a comment!
by Kristine | Jan 9, 2013 | Challenges, Project Vegetarianism
Since Matt became a vegetarian this year, I’ve decided to go on a 7 day challenge just to see what its like. I did try it for a week a few years ago, but failed at day 6 when I ate a bit of sashimi for dinner. Thought I’d give it a go again this time round just to see what its like again. Mind you, I’m the sort of person who craves meat & has actually eaten a whole roast chicken on its own in one sitting just cause I was hungry. I’m not sure how I’ll fare but its worth a try. This time there’s a bet going on with whether I can do this or not. If I manage to go 7 days (12am Monday – 12am Monday) without meat, I get to pick a place & Matt will have to take me there. And if I fail this, I was given the choice of having to blog every day for a week or no Xbox for a month. Needless to say that I’m going with blogging every day 😛 And should I fail that too, I have to give up my Twitter account to Matt for a week & he gets to hijack. Needless to say, its a pretty big incentive for me to ace this challenge 🙂
Day 1 was pretty easy to see the least, I had slept in and was only starting work at 11.45am yesterday so I had some instant noodles with egg in there for brunch. Didn’t feel too bad as I’m used to eating that for meals or snacks. Later that night, Matt & I traipsed to the local curry place. Usually I have either the curry chicken or butter chicken with rice. But seeeing as I had just started the 7 day challenge, I had garlic naan with some lentil curry. I must admit, I am a bit of a fan of that curry. I first ate something like that when we were in Melbourne in November so I was quite used to it. Though, the next day my digestive system rioted as the curry had butter & cream in it. I’ve recently developed a intolerance to lactose, though I can take small amounts of it at, so it isn’t that big a deal.
Day 2 was slightly harder as I had to carefully ponder my options of food for the day. I had cous cous for lunch and dinner was at the local Japanese place where I had edamame beans, agedashi tofu & seaweed udon. I was full from the food, but there was a certain satisfaction to it that was missing.
Day 3. Now this has got to be a bit of an epic day. I bought one of those San Remo pasta snack for 1 things (Mac & Cheese is still vegetarian, I checked) and decided to have that for breakfast at work. I didn’t exactly follow instructions as I was at work & really couldn’t be bothered measuring out liquid. Bad bad idea. I managed to burn that in the microwave. Heh. Last time I’ll do that again. I ended up having brunch while at a team meeting – scrambled eggs on toast with some baked beans. Yummy & filling but naturally my stomach is rioting again. I forgot scrambled eggs have dairy in them *facepalm* I’m actually beginning to question how lactose intolerant I am. If I can’t have dairy, my options are pretty limited for food & will have to become part vegan for the next few days till this challenge finishes!
All in all, I must say not eating meat isn’t as bad as it sounds. I’ve almost reached the halfway point and I must say that I can live with being vegetarian a few days a week. It’s the thought of never having meat again that scares me. My body craves meat every so often & I can’t say no to it. Guess its all about balance, hey? 🙂
Recent Comments