Modern Gal

Fear of Spending

Elizabeth — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 19:36:07 +0000

I have noticed an interesting phenomenon that occurs in the past couple of years. After learning about simpler, frugal living and practicing it, I find that I have a fear of spending. This fear manifests itself in several ways: near paralysis when contemplating a new (necessary) large expenditure, angst when I take money out of [...]

Menu Plan for Week of Mar 21, 2010

Elizabeth — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:14:11 +0000

Last week’s favorite meal was the tofu fried rice, something that will enter in to our regular rotation. For this week, I picked up an organic chicken that I’ll serve roasted today and use the bones and leftover meat throughout the week. Breakfasts: Oat and banana bars, boiled eggs Lunches: Leftovers, hummus, vegetable sticks Dinners: Sunday: Crockpot roasted chicken, [...]

Simplifying St. Patrick’s Day

Elizabeth — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 03:21:20 +0000

I don’t really celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in any large or meaningful way. When I was a kid in school, I always remembered to wear green, and when I was a bit older in my single days, some friends (Irish and others) and I might do a pub crawl and drink green beer. But, in [...]

Vegetarian Fried Rice

Elizabeth — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 03:20:28 +0000

I’ve been trying more ways to serve meatless or low meat meals. Generally, I’m not a huge fan of tofu. I tend to like it in Asian dishes like mapo tofu, but otherwise, I usually find it bland. A couple of years ago, I discovered baked, pressed tofu. Tofu where the water has been pressed [...]

Stock Market Lessons A Year After the Low

Elizabeth — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:03:50 +0000

March 9, 2009, marked the low of global stock markets around the world. Since then, most markets have made a substantial (and fairly sharp recovery) and are up by about 80%. What have we learned since then and how will it affect investment strategy going forward. Here are some of my observations: –Going down and coming [...]

Menu Plan for Week of Mar 14, 2010

Elizabeth — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:08:37 +0000

Breakfasts: Healthy baked oatmeal (w/ cranberries), boiled eggs Lunches: Leftovers, green smoothies, orange slices Dinners: Sunday: Leftover seafood gumbo, brown rice, green salad Monday: Tofu fried rice, stir fried vegetables, sliced pears Tuesday: Crockpot pinto beans, collard greens, cornbread Wednesday: Chicken chili (leftover pintos), sweet potatoes, broccoli Thursday: out Friday: Fish tacos, Aztec vegetables, blueberry crisp Saturday: Fish with pineapple salsa, sauteed cabbage, corn [...]

Monthly Cash Drains

Elizabeth — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 03:39:55 +0000

A lot of people seem to be interested in the piece on surviving without television. I genuinely prefer not to have cable television now, and am happy that I made the shift. It also helps to save money. Digital cable around here is about $65 per month or $780 a year. Over a decade, if [...]

Surviving Without Television

Elizabeth — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:06:48 +0000

It is now somewhere around the 5-year anniversary of my separation from cable television, which to be more accurate is my 5-year anniversary without television, since I don’t watch satellite or movies on the TV either. For people addicted to TV, they are shocked to hear this. Although I will watch TV when I’m in [...]

Dry Rub Drumsticks

Elizabeth — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:23:28 +0000

I am continually searching for simple chicken dishes that I can pop in the oven or crockpot and then forget. One cut of chicken that’s pretty forgiving are drumsticks, which are also fun to eat, and inexpensive relative to chicken breasts. I like to use a dry rub on drumsticks on organic chicken, rather than [...]

Learning New Skills

Elizabeth — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:09:43 +0000

Last week in the discussion on building financial resilience, I mentioned the importance of learning alternative skills. In an environment of uncertainty, one of the best protections anyone can have against becoming obsolete, is to have a diversity of skills. I am aware that this is much easier said than done. In today’s world, people [...]