A Short Post About 2013

Been awhile. Been busy. Life and Stuff.

Here are a few stats from our 2013 budget/expenditures. The good and the not so good.

Groceries:

This is for a family of 14. At any given time 1 or 2 kids could be out of the house but we also have friends, acquaintances and those we can hardly tolerate over for meals a lot.

Food and Drink Expenditures for 2013 (includes eating out).
Year - $15,120 ($1,080 per person per year)
Monthly - $1,260 ($90 per person per month)
Daily - $41.54

Average cost per meal per person = $1.15. I used 12 family members since sometimes kids are out of the house. But really it's more like 99 cents per person per meal.

We used to spend $1,600 per month a few years ago. But when Aldis opened our monthly bill dropped dramatically.

Granted some of the kids are young. But 7 of them are age 12 and older. Plus my wife eats like she is going to the chair.

And no we aren't eating junk all day long. Plenty of fruits, veggies and meats. Everyone is fairly healthy...well Sam is coughing like she's gonna hack up a spleen, but she'll live.

I could save even more if I could break the gallon-a-day milk habit my kids have.

The Feds need to take cost efficiency advice from us.

Utilities:

Average Monthly Expenditures

Electric - $250

Natural Gas - $115

Water - $100

Average per month for all 3: $465

Before 2013 we were spending well over $500 per month. So it's improved but is still too high. This older rambling house that has been added on to many a time is very inefficient to heat and cool. And 5 loads of laundry and 2 loads in the dishwasher daily adds up. Plus thankfully the kids bathe/shower daily...for the most part.

Retirement Savings:

Without going into specific dollar amounts. I was able to funnel 30% of my salary into retirement investments. A major improvement over years past when it was usually in the 10-15% range. The main reason for this was the paying off of our mortgage in the fall of 2012.

Medical Expenses:

$225 per month. I could reimburse myself for these costs from my Health Savings Account (HSA) but choose to pay for them out of pocket and let the HSA buildup tax-free.

Gasoline:

$150 per month (no work commute and no excessive hauling the kids around)

Kids Activities/Sports/Piano/Trips/Fun etc:

$200 per month

Homeschool Expenses:

K-8th grade (5 kids) -$1,000 for the year. That is mostly for an at-home tutor/teacher helper. Less than $100 was for books and supplies.

Tutor Fees for 2 high-schoolers - $5,050. Plus a few hundred dollars  for books.

Rethink Your Eating-Out Attitude.

Rethink your eating-out attitude.

Food! I love eating! And I love eating out, though we do it rarely. It is awesome not having to cook and having someone to wait on you and clean up after you. It's like being a king and having your own personal servants.

But I have to have a plan when I head out. Pack food and drink and bring it with you when you head out into the world. Otherwise you will end up starving and settling for eating at any old place and paying $20 for some greasy fried food and sugar water. I hate paying more for crappy food that I can prepare better and cheaper at home.

I prefer to make eating out something special I do with my wife, and on occasion with some good friends or family. Plan it out ahead of time and be careful of spur of the moment eating out decisions. Make the good money you are spending worth it. Don't settle for second rate food and service. Your wallet and waistline will be grateful.

The Lord Giveth and the Lord Taketh Away

$77, 25 used books, a dozen used DVDs, 10 2-liter bottles of soda’s and about 20 used stuffed-animals. Add in 6 hours standing around in 90 degree heat and high humidity plus cranky husband and kids. No not a plot for a sitcom or horror movie, just another Labor Day Fair at church.

77 dollars is what we spent at the used book/DVD sale and on tickets for the kids to play games, that is how they won all that wonderful colored sugar water, disguised as soda. Plus a bunch of lice-ridden stuffed animals. I guess if you add in the gnats, mosquitoes and flies it was a bargain at twice the price. The one year old has so many mosquito bites that he looks like Darth Maul from Star Wars...or maybe my sister in-law.

Maybe I can find a way to deduct the money spent from my taxes.

Bacon! Bacon would have made the day tolerable.

Eating Down the Apocalypse Supplies

Our cup, pantry and freezer overfloweth.

Because of this borderline hording mentality I seem to have developed, we are well stocked in the dry-goods, staples and frozen meat departments. Heck I've got enough toilet paper stocked to wipe all the asses in DC, and enough toothpaste to brush out their lying mouths. Living in the DC area I'm not sure how I will know if the Zombie Apocalypse has actually happened or if it's just business as usual in DC.

We have accumulated a lot of rice, pasta, cake mixes, chicken and ground beef...we have enough chicken and ground beef for McDonald's to serve a few more million. We also have half-a-dozen jars of jalapenos, I don't know why.

So for the month of September we are gonna "eat what we have" and not buy a lot of groceries. The obvious exceptions being milk, eggs, bread and fresh fruit and veggies.

Besides making some room in the pantry and freezers, I'm curious to see how much less than normal we spend out of our monthly food budget.

Will post an update on October 1st on how it worked out.

***all posts applying to my family only - your results will be different***

Eat at home to reduce your food expenditures

Duh you say. Seems pretty obvious, right? Well some will claim that eating out can be cheaper than cooking at home. Really, they will. I've heard people say it, and I've read it on financial websites. Setting aside the nutritional disaster that are fast food and restaurant meals, is there any truth to this? Well no, at least not for us. Let's take a look at it, using my family as an example.

Home-cooking:

12 of our kids still live at home. At any given time there can be up to 14 people to feed per meal. Let's assume that 2 of the kids are absent from each meal per day; eating at friends, away, working, at classes, in the county lockup etc...

So that leaves 10 kids + 2 parents. I should mention that 8 of the kids are eat-anything-that-isn't-tied-down-and-a-lot-of-things-that-are boys, not that the girls are shy about packing the food away.They are their mother's daughters.

12 mouths x 3 meals per day x 30 days in a month = 1080 meals per month.

We spend $1400 per month on food (2012 data), that works out to $1.30 per meal. Or $3.90 per person per day.

That $1400 per month includes drinks and snacks, and any eating out that we do. Not to mention that my overly-social bride loves to have company over. These are nice meals too. I'm not talking Ramen noodles.

Now do you really think you can feed yourself for that when eating out?

Rough Average Price per Meal at some well known eatery's.

McDonald's (not really edible food, but lets count it anyway)
$3.50 per meal = $3,780 per month

Starsux, Dunking Donuts. Coffee and a Pastry
$4 per meal = $4,320 per month

Apple-bee's, Chili's, TGI Fridays etc....(they are all the same)

$10 per meal = $10,080 per month

Outback Steakhouse
$20 per meal = $21,600 per month

I'm not including tip and taxes in the eating out figures.

Yeah, I know most people aren't eating out every meal. But you get the point. Eating at home saves money.  Lots of money.

As you can see we crush the eating out options. Even if you were to get 2 items off the Dollar Menu at McFatties, we would still win.

Lot's of people like to complain to me about never having enough money, even though they have good paying jobs. These are the same people eating out 3-5 times, or more, per week. Take a good look at your eating habits. Your wallet and waistline will thank you.

Sure we eat out occasionally. Sam and I go out for lunch on the 20th of each month, we were married on the 20th. I take the kids out on their birthday's, one-on-one. We usually go out to eat once or twice on our yearly trip to the beach. But that's about it. We never stop for fast food cause we are running late or didn't plan a meal. We plan out our meals ahead of time. And since we buy sale items in bulk, there is always food in the house. We don't stop for slurpee's at 7-11 after the kid's soccer games. Or for a cup of coffee on the way to work. We don't run inside to the food shop while we are pumping gas and buy over-priced junk. Listen that is fine if that is the way you want to live. It's your money and totally your right. But no one wants to hear your whining about not having the money to pay your bills each month. I don't care and I don't feel sorry for you. Get some help. Go on a fast. Cut up the plastic. Do something.

So eat out a lot if you want. But the cost can be pretty high.

And remember to never waste food. Even watermelon rinds have uses.

McDeath

Since most of you probably don't live in the DC area where this add is running....



Sure it's a cheap-shot, sure I would never go vegetarian (blah), put it does make a point. The very ironic thing is that I am typing this while eating a McDonald's breakfast - hey I was running late and didn't have time to have a good breakfast.........

I DON'T CARE

from a yahoo article on America's worst French Fries

Worst Order of Fries
Five Guys Fries (large)
1,464 calories
71 g fat (14 g saturated)
213 mg sodium

They are so yummy that I could care less. I'll just run another 15 miles that day :p Plus the large order of fries is HUGE. No one, not even my bride, eats an entire large order by themselves.

Today's Workouts

7 miles running on the trails wearing my Asics Trail Attack running shoes. Saw 6 deer, 1 groundchuck, 7 hikers, 1 runner and 1 mountain biker.

Had six Whitecastle cheeseburgers for lunch afterwards.

Deep Fried Butter - For my Bride

Who has been known to eat a Fried Oreo every now and again.

From MSN

Who among us hasn’t simultaneously marveled and shuddered over accounts of deep-fried Twinkies? Deep-fried Oreos? Deep-fried bacon?

Well, brace yourself, because a new deep-fried item has been invented that’s so bold, so audacious, so brazen, it’s bound to take your breath away. The invention is none other than:

Deep-fried butter.

That’s right. This artery-clogging, heart-stopping dish is among eight new deep-fried concoctions that will be unveiled to the public at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas later this month. Each year, fair concessionaires try to outdo themselves by dreaming up recipes that could send you racing to your cardiologist if they became regular staples of your diet. The friendly competition has become so intense that fair officials have dubbed the fairgrounds the “Fried Food Capital of Texas.”

This year’s fried butter entry is the brainchild of 39-year-old Dallas resident Abel Gonzales Jr., winner of past state fair competitions for his Texas Fried Cookie Dough, Fried Peanut Butter, Jelly and Banana Sandwich and Fried Coke recipes.

(That’s right. Fried Coke.)

To make fried butter, the butter itself needs to have an outer coating, or shell, if you will — something that can withstand the bubbling cauldron of the deep fryer.

“I mean, butter by itself does not taste good,” Gonzales said. “Nobody just grabs a stick of butter and eats it. That would be gross.”

So here’s what Gonzales does: He takes 100 percent pure butter, whips it until it is light and fluffy, freezes it, then surrounds it with dough. The butter-laden dough balls are then dropped into the deep fryer.

For purists who just want the unadulterated taste of butter, Gonzales serves up plain-butter versions of his creation. For others who want a little more pizzazz, he offers three additional versions with flavored butters: garlic, grape or cherry.

“When you taste it, it really does taste like a hot roll with butter,” said Sue Gooding, spokeswoman for the State Fair of Texas. “It tastes great.”

“It’s like a mix between a biscuit or a croissant that is just stuffed to the gills with butter on the inside,” Gonzales said. “I think that’s the best way to describe it.”

An order of fried butter will get you three or four pieces of piping-hot dough in a little cardboard boat.

“Any more than that and I think it would be a little bit too much,” Gonzales said. “A little bit too rich.”

New Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream Flavor

In honor of the 44th President of the United States , Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream has introduced a new flavor: " Barocky Road ."

Barocky Road is a blend of half-vanilla, half-chocolate, surrounded by nuts and flakes.

The vanilla portion of the mix is not openly advertised and usually denied as an ingredient.

The nuts and flakes are all very bitter and hard to swallow.

The cost is $100.00 per scoop.

When purchased, it will be presented to you in a large, beautiful cone; but, then, the ice cream is taken away and given to the person in line behind you.

You are left with an empty wallet and no change, holding an empty cone with no hope of getting any ice cream.

Are you stimulated?

Doesn't Look Like $72.83 Worth of Steak

Does it?


We wouldn't normally spend that much on meat for a week let alone one meal. So how did this happen? Well it happens when you are buying a whole bunch of groceries and not paying all that much attention to what you are buying. Oh and when you confuse a $ (dollar sign) for a Lb. (pound sign).

Quick math lesson - A steak that is labeled "net wt 1.29lb, unit price $9.99/lb" does not cost $12.90 total for almost 10 pounds of meat for a cost of $1.29 per pound! Never mind that that one little steak in no way, shape or form looked anything like 10 pounds of beef. Compound that fact times 6 steaks and you get one pricey meal.

Now doesn't that make y'all feel better about any financial mistakes you've made recently? Just doing my part to make others feel good about themselves. Our normal 'buy a bunch sale price' for meat is $1.99lb or less. So that's why more than one steak was purchased.

For the record the steaks were great! We also had red beans & rice, salad and garlic bread.

BTW - Cooking over a charcoal grill on a day when the temps are pushing 100 is a real treat. Apparently I wasn't as dehydrated as I thought I was from the trail run earlier in the day. Oh well the sweat must have added some extra flavor.

Cecilia (Hunter) wasn't impressed.


Afterwards we had family movie night. Tonight was the 'classic' The Sandlot (rated PG for some language - you have been warned)

Ham Porter: Hey, Smalls, you wanna s'more?
Smalls: Some more of what?
Ham Porter: No, do you wanna s'more?
Smalls: I haven't had anything yet, so how can I have some more of nothing?
Ham Porter: You're killing me Smalls!

Ham Porter: This pop isn't workin', Benny! I'm bakin' like a toasted cheese-it! It's so hot here!

You Can Have it Your Way at Burger King

Unless of course you Baby doesn't wear shoes.

Burger King: No shoes rule taken too far with baby

By JIM SALTER
Associated Press Writer

SUNSET HILLS, Mo. (AP) - Like most restaurants, the Burger King in this St. Louis suburb has a no shoes, no shirt, no service policy. And baby, do they enforce it. Too much so, the company admitted, after apologizing for restaurant workers who asked a mother to leave because her 6-month-old wasn't wearing shoes.

Jennifer Frederich, her mother and Frederich's infant daughter, Kaylin, stopped at the Burger King in Sunset Hills on Sunday. The baby was shoeless _ Frederich figured tiny baby feet were immune from the rule.

But workers told the family to leave because the shoeless baby was violating a health code. In fact, shoelessness is not a health code violation in St. Louis County.

Ah the joy of dealing with power-hungry minuiam wage workers or maybe they were just nit-wits or having a bad hair day or I guess they could have been just trying to follow the "rules" exactly.

First the creepy King commercials and now this...not a good year for BK.


At least Burger King was smart enough to recognize that they had a problem here and apologized. Hopefully the workers were canned too. But don't worry about them, I'm sure they are now working at Taco Bell or McDonald's.....those places are even grosser than Burger King.

5 Powerful Reasons to Eat More Slowly

From Dr. Mercola

Many people rush through the day, with no time for anything. When they have time to get a bite to eat, they gobble it down. That leads to stressful, unhealthy living.

Here are some reasons you should consider the simple act of eating slower:

1) Lose weight. A growing number of studies confirm that just by eating slower, you’ll consume fewer calories -- in fact, enough to lose 20 pounds a year without doing anything different or eating anything different. It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to register that you’re full. If you eat fast, you can continue eating past the point where you’re actually full.

2) Enjoy your food. It’s hard to enjoy your food if it goes by too quickly. Make your meals a gastronomic pleasure, not a thing you do rushed, between stressful events.

3) Better digestion. If you eat slower, you’ll chew your food better, which leads to better digestion. Digestion actually starts in the mouth, so the more work you do up there, the less you’ll have to do in your stomach.
4) Less stress. Eating slowly, and paying attention to our eating, can be a great form of mindfulness exercise. Be in the moment, rather than rushing through a meal thinking about what you need to do next.

5) Rebel against fast food and fast life. A hectic, fast-paced, stressful, chaotic lives -- the Fast Life -- leads to eating Fast Food, and eating it quickly. Rebel against that entire lifestyle and philosophy with the small act of eating slower.

Arby's Curly Fries Update

After my munchies attack the other day while running and the scarfing down of the Curly Fries, I emailed Arby's the same story I posted here. Here is the response I got today from them.

Dear Rob;

Thank you for your comments. Our customer’s input and comments are always welcome and very important to us. We use this information to guide the decisions we make about our brand and our products.

Thank you again.

Sincerely,

Arby’s Customer Relations


What a let down. No coupons for free product. No offers to stay in Arby's commercials or Fear Factor and eat other weird things. I could see a whole new reality series about runners who are forced to eat things they find while out on the roads running. No book deals to write about my life as a Running Curly Fry Eater. No movie deal to play a ridiculously good-looking Vampire who has given up human blood sucking and only eats Arby's Curly Fries in order not to upset his human girlfriend.

Yo Curly Where are Larry and Moe

My workout adventures yesterday.

For breakfast I took Barbara and Dominic to McDonald’s after 8am Mass. It was the feast of St Barbara, even though some commie at the Vatican took her off the calendar – but I digress.

Anyway I had a breakfast biscuit, hash brown and coffee. At 11am I went out and biked 26 miles. I got home around 12:30 and had a few more cups of coffee. I meant to have some Gatorade and a Power Bar but I got sidetracked with work.

At 2pm I went out for 10 mile run. A half of a mile into the run I realized I had forgotten to bring my bottle of Gatorade. I figured it was no big deal because it wasn’t hot out and I wouldn’t get dehydrated. I forgot about the lack of calories I had taken in.

At the 2 mile point of my run I started getting that light-headed low blood sugar feeling and my legs were feeling wobbly. For those of you who workout, this is called Bonking. I decided to switch my run to 6 miles and just try and get home without fainting.

At the 3.5 mile point I was feeling really weird, like at a Grateful Dead concert weird. Now I’m not thinking clearly at all. I decide to try and figure out who I know that lives near where I am at. So maybe I can get some food or a ride home. When low and behold what’s this littered on the ground? An Arby’s bag?

Hmmm I like Arby’s. Open up the bag. An empty milkshake cup, an empty roast beef sandwich wrapper, rats I like roast beef, and at the bottom of the bag…jackpot….an extra large order of Curly Fries that for some reason haven’t been touched.

I stick my glove covered mitts in there and start shoveling those fries in my mouth like I’m going to the electric chair. They are cold but so scrumptious. Too bad there are no ketchup packs to munch on too. It takes me about all of 90 seconds to eat them all. I look in the bag at the receipt from the food; it’s from yesterday afternoon, around 24 hours ago. Oh well it has been pretty cool recently. Kinda like a refrigerator. (It has been 4 hours now since I scarfed down the fries and no food poisoning …yet) The light headedness starts to go away and I decide to finish the last 2.5 miles of my run. Those are the fastest miles of my run, I’m Frying…I mean flying home.

Forget steroids and EPO, Arby’s fries are going to be my new performance enhancing drug.

Happy Thanksgiving

Did you go with a traditional turkey? Or maybe something more exotic like a Turducken.

We went the turkey route. But here are some pictures of a Turducken we had at a party a few years ago. It was yummy.

How to Live Longer

How different lifestyle changes can add years to your life


1.8 years

Be a winner


2 years

Eat chocolate


2.5 years

Have lots of sex


3 years

Be religious – and have friends


3.6 years

Eat less meat


3.7 years

Keep active


4 years

Drink wine


4.1 years

Have low blood pressure and cholesterol


5 years

Be educated and play golf


6.6 years

Eat well


7 years

Lose weight


7.5 years

Stay positive


8 to 10 years

Don't smoke


10 years (men)

Get married


10-plus years

Be happy


14 years

Change your lifestyle - Researchers found that those who exercised regularly, ate five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, didn't smoke, and had a moderate alcohol consumption lived an average of 14 years longer than those who adopted none of these behaviours.


20 years

Be wealthy and live in the right neighbourhood

Free Grub on Halloween and Voting Day

Halloween:

Free Burrito at Chipotle

Voting Day:

Free Donut at Krispy Kreme

Free Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream from 5:00 – 8:00 pm

Hippie Lettuce is Better than Iceberg Lettuce

...at least on tacos out in Colorado.

LAKEWOOD, Colo. (AP) - A Colorado couple found an unusual topping on their order of tacos: a small bag of marijuana.

They discovered the drugs with their order from a Del Taco restaurant and called police, said Lakewood police spokesman Steve Davis.

Twenty-six-year-old Dennis Klermund, who police say waited on the husband when he picked up food Oct. 16, faces charges of possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

Klermund no longer works at the restaurant, said manager Ulises Montero. A message left for Klermund was not returned.

I don't know why he got fired. It sounds like a good business plan to me - give people the munchies so they will buy more tacos. Kinda like when Coca-Cola actually used to have coke in it.

You'd have to drug me to get me to eat at a Taco Bell type of place. That stuff is low-grade dog food. How my kids can eat at Taco Bell is beyond me, and I'll eat pretty much anything, anywhere, anytime.

'Dine and Dash' Caused by the Munchies

At least that's what I'm guessing. Sometimes you are just really hungry and got to eat, money or no money.

Waitress: Ready to order Hon?

Miss Teen Louisiana: I'll have some Moose Track ice cream, and a whole pizza just for me, and some chips, and a soda, and some chocolate...maybe some Chinese food, gummy worms, lasagna, rice, ramen noodles - lots of ramen noodles, fried chicken and a cheese-hamburger with the works...oh yeah, I almost forgot I wanted some fries with that...gravy for the fries please

Miss Teen Louisiana arrested, loses crown

BOSSIER CITY, La. (AP) — Miss Teen Louisiana lost her crown 11 days early after being arrested on charges of leaving a restaurant without paying and carrying marijuana.

The manager had found a pocketbook at the table, and police found Evans' driver's license and about 2 grams of suspected marijuana in it, Natale said.

And yes she is blond.