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Wednesday, June 1, 2011

NO SPEND MONTH - Day 1, some hate mail, and a recipe

If you remember from yesterday's post, I was going to tell you how I plan to save money on the bus. Three days a week, I take the bus home from work while Craig has the car. Yes, yes, I ride and Israeli bus without fear.

Before I get to that, I want to point something out. Today, I got my first piece of hate-mail in the form of a comment left on my other blog. The person wrote their comment anonymously (coward) and this is what he/she had to say: "israeli couscous sucks ass, so does the middle east, and so do you! "

So to the point and so eloquent - don't you think? I think we'll be changing our commenting settings for both blogs - ya can't hide behind "anonymous" anymore. And, to the moron that wrote that - at least CAPITALIZE the "I" in Israeli, the "M" in Middle, and the "E" in East if you want me to take you seriously. And if you think my country is soooo terrible, you should read the news. We just donated 1,000 hearing aides to Palestinians - something my tax money paid for. You're a pathetic excuse for a human being and you need to grow up. Please go find another hole to crawl down - you're not welcome in mine.

Anyway, back to the bus story. Normally it costs me 6 shekels a ride with two rides home. So that's 12 shekels a day X 3 days a week = 36 shekels a week (or 144 shekels/$42 a month).

Monday I started something new - walking home from the gym. It takes me 35-40 minutes to do it and that's 35 minutes I don't need to spend at the gym plus I walk with my backpack which weighs around 10lbs. and I walk 2.5km. I severely dislike walking on the treadmill at the gym. It's boring and I have to walk 50 minutes each day according to the idiot trainer they paired me with. So, I decided that I'd rather be outside walking than inside a stinky gym. In place of 35 minutes of walking, I'm going to spend about a half hour doing weight training or I'll take a class of some sort. Either way, I'll burn more calories in the long run because I won't be bored.

The bottom line is I just cut my bus expenses from 144 shekels a month to 72 shekels/$21 a month. If I get a bus pass (10 rides for 48 shekels), it's cut even more! They're called "kartisiya" or ticket in English and you save about 20% when you buy multiple rides. So, for 10 rides, I'd be paying 4.80NIS per ride as opposed to 6NIS per ride. That's a pretty good discount, right? Craig takes the car and drives me to work in the morning.

Today officially starts our newest venture in the NO SPEND MONTH! I feel the need to point out that we're not so badly done-by. We have money, not a lot but we have enough to be happy with. We're doing this because of some changes going on in our lives - we're getting ahead of the wave.

What's different this time is the fact that this isn't a "test" like it was in February - we know we can do it. We also have more to work with. This week, I'm planning my recipes around things we already have like wheat tortillas, brown rice, bread, barley, and quinoa. I believe this week's shopping will be the most expensive since we are totally out of veggies, sauces/marinades, and fruit.

Due to the "diet", which is more of a "find things that don't aggravate the Gremlin in my stomach" than a restricted diet, I have to watch what I eat and not over do it on glutenous products. My biggest issue is that none of my "diet" recipes are Kosher. Perhaps it's time to create a Kosher diet cookbook. For now, I'll leave you with a recipe.

5-minute healthy dinner wrap (for 2 people, 1 wrap each):
2 large whole wheat tortillas
10-14 slices of salami
salad mix
bbq sauce/mustard/ketchup/other condiments

Take a frying pan, heat it with NO oil and start placing half the salami slices. While the salami is "cooking", place one tortilla over the salami. The salami's fat will coat part of the tortilla and the tortilla will weight the salami down so it doesn't curl. After a minute, turn the tortilla over so it heats up the other side.

Take the tortilla off after another minute and look to see if the salami has browned and crusted itself. Now, get out a plate, put the tortilla on the plate and place the salami around the tortilla. Take your salad mix and place it in the middle of the tortilla and add what ever condiments you'd like. Then wrap it! That's it!

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