Category Archives: Lemons to Lemonade

Losing Weight the Frugal Way

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To lose weight the frugal way is to simple eat less and consume food that are cheaper but still hold nutritional value.

I’m tired of yo-yo diets, and intense workouts that I eventually get tired of and quit.  I knew this at the beginning of the year, but I haven’t found an acceptable substitute until now.

So what is my new magic bullet for losing weight?  Adopting a more frugal lifestyle.  I’m going to set a money limit for how much I can spend a day for food, and stick to that number!

For a month, I’m going to use 2 dollars for breakfast, 3 dollars for lunch, and 5 dollars for dinner, so I’m not going to spend more than $10 a day.  The idea is to come in below $10, not to meet that number everyday!  In fact, I’m really hoping that I can get away with only $6.00 a day.

I plan in creating a journal (as I have in the past), but this time instead of just recording what I ate, I’m going to record the cost of what I ate and do a tally at the end of the day (or the next day) to determine if I met my less than $10 goal or not.

You might be wondering why just a month?

There have been studies that concluded that if you do a task/job or whatever for 21 days in a row, it become habit-forming.  So after those 21 days, the task become part of your routine.

What will I do with the money saved from this new weight loss approach?

I’m going to channel the extra  money into my “Dividend Stocks, Free Lunch Experiment #10“.  The experiment has been repurposed to really provide a meal that I will cook for my family once a week on Thursdays.  Previously, I was saving $40 a week to fund the experiment, but now I think I’ll jump the number up to $50 or $60 a week (depending on how well I do with my calculations above).

What is different this time?

Previously, I had no really big motivator do lose weight, but now that I have a more concrete purpose to back the goal up, it become more rewarding!  It’s also nice to start losing weight at the beginning of the month instead of on an off day.  While not a huge reason, it does make the journal seem more legit.  Another nice aspect is this process is now a win-win.  I win because I will be losing weight and I win again because I will be saving money.

Bests,

MR

Using Wasted Time To Your Advantage

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Lately, I’ve learned to take greater advantage of dead or wasted time periods!

Such “time periods” are when you are driving to work, waiting in a fast food line (or really any line), walking out to your car, waiting for the kid’s current sport practices to finish, waiting in the doctor’s office, and so on…

For most of these tasks, I try to find a book to read that isn’t to the point where I would have to take notes or need to think really deeply (so most of the books out there…).  I’m sure I look a bit odd reading my “book of the moment” as I walk through the halls on the way to my car to leave.  Or when I’m in the elevator reading a few sentences or two.  But it’s really a great way to go, walking/waiting/driving time would be wasted time for me.  Of course while walking and reading, I have excellent vision and know the terrain very well!!!  If I didn’t know where I was walking (or if I were going up or down stairs) I definitely wouldn’t be reading and walking at the same time.

For those times when I’m driving, listening to audiobooks is my favorite way to make use of that time!  It use to be listening to music, but with audio-books I learn stuff, which is great!  In fact, there is nothing better than listening to an exciting story while driving on a trip for vacation!  It helps keep me up while driving through the night!

Lately, I’ve been trying to think of blog topics while driving.  Surprisingly, it’s not as easy as it sounds, at least not for me.  Either it’s in the morning when I’m still groggy or traffic is too busy, so I’m constantly keeping my focus on my surroundings.  Definitely not the easiest was to concentrate.  But still, I get general ideas, and write them on the back of an junk mail envelope.

Do you know of any additional ways to use wasted time periods more efficiently?

Bests,

MR

 

 

Everything Goes Trash Night is Like Bizarro Christmas

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Bizarro Santa

Bizarro Santa

 

Today is almost like a holiday for me!  It’s the only day of the year that I do a bizarro twist in my trash routine and actually look forward to taking the trash out!

You see, in my city, once a year the city will pick up anything that doesn’t fix in the trashcan.  On this day it’s much like the Bizarro Christmas…

The conversations goes as follows…  this toy can go, that toy is broked, goodbye “Mean Green” lawnmower, broken sled, old basketball hoop and broken kite!

It’s a balance, I don’t want to throw everything away, and actually some things were saved by my daughter…  Hello old yucky kitchen set that my daughter still wants, hello old but-still-in-decent-shape bike that my son want to give to Goodwill.

Everything Goes Trash night is a busy night for tinkerers!  For they play the role of bizarro Santa during this fine reverse Christmas day!

As my wife was sitting in our bedroom, she heard a noisy truck than made such a clatter (the noise woke up my son too).  With the TV and lights turned off in both bedrooms, my wife and son in parallel watch as a man in a old red sleigh pickup truck take “Mean Green” (my old broken lawnmower) away.

As I stopped to watch too, I feel guilty knowing that “Mean Green” was pretty busted up and even missing a handle.  But that doesn’t stop the tinkerer man, he goes right to work and heaves it onto his truck bed much like Santa does with a bag full of toys as he put them on his red sleigh.  The tinkerer didn’t look up and went right to work, shifting his truck to run as it took off with a noisy jerk!  I start to wonder if we should have left cookies and milk…

As I’m typing this I can hear the tinkerer’s truck on other stops in the neighborhood.  the clanging of other mechanical things onto his truck (which was actually pretty full when he took my lawnmower).

You might think that I’m making fun of this man (the tinkerer), but actually, I think he’s awesome and here’s why:

  1. The tinkerer will try to make something that will work out of the mechanical trash that he collects (but probably not “Mean Green”, because it was very busted up).
  2. The parts that doesn’t work may be recycled as he takes the metal chassis and other pieces of such very broken machines to a metal recycling center.  To make money of course!
  3. By salvaging these machines, he is keeping money in the economic system.  When the pieces go to the junkyard, these machines/materials leave the economic system.  So he is in his own way helping the enconomy.  Betcha didn’t see that one coming!
  4. Obviously, the machines he takes partially won’t go to the landfill and this is a very green activity.

So I really like this special day because I get rid of our oddball and large broken trash, but it’s also a very green day with tickerers coming out to save the day!

Bests,

-MR

5 Ways To Lessen The Duration Of Undesirable Events

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Undesirable Events:

As a child, I would dwell on undesirable events such as major tests in college, dentist visits, certain family functions, and so forth.  I use to dread the events the very moment I would wake up in the morning, and think negatively about the event for the entire day and sometime into the next day and beyond…  So this following advice is for the benefit of someone who still goes through these emotions and for my kids since I’ve noticed that they display some of the same reactions to such undesirable events as I once did.

Drawing out the Duration:

Now that I’m no longer a child, I’ve come to realize that such behavior is both time and thought waste.  To dwell on the what ifs and continue to complain about it is a type of opportunity cost, because such efforts are in vain.  The are in vain because that’s wasted energy that could be enjoyed doing other things.  In stead of enjoying at least a little of the day, I use to go into such a negative spiral that I was miserable for that entire day!  Even when the day might have been filled with some great positives, I would take that one small negative and convert my entire day to a negative. 

5 ways to Lessen the Duration:

  • If possible, do the event with speed and effectiveness.  To do it slowly and draw it out make the negative event take twice as long!  So if you have to do a chore do it quickly and be done with it.  As I kid I learned this lesson fairly quickly.  The same can be said with homework…
  • Cap the amount that you let the event affect you.  I’ve learned that sometimes I use to make mountains out of mole hills.
  • If the event is a mindless boring event, use your mind to escape!  I’ve been able to think of some great ideas (and even blogging articles) while in such mind-numbing events.
  • Quickly forget the event.  If there is no life lesson (like a dentist appointment visit), forget it as quickly as possible!  Why dwell on such a worthless thing to think about (brush your teeth after every meal).
  • Pepper in some activities before and immediately after the negative event.  The activities could be productive activities so that you feel like you accomplished something even though the negative event happened.  If you don’t have and productive activities to do, then consider doing cheap positive activities (a walk in the park, a movie and/or dinner, finishing a good book).

View every day as an opportunity to experience or accomplish some positive or at least productive activities.

Readers, we would love to hear if you have any techniques to lessen undesirable events in your life?

-MR

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