Eating on a Budget: Day 1

I never got around to posting any sort of announcement, but I have decided to try an experiment: for the month of July I am going to spend no more than $200 on food. That includes all groceries, meals out and any snacks I may purchase while roaming the city. That $200 does not include food I get for free, or food that I had around before July began.

Well, July has begun, so let's take a look at how I've done so far.

On July 1st I found myself with a bad case of the blues. Also, on June 30 I had stayed up until about 4. Thus, on July 1st I slept most of the day and for food I ate a giant bag of M&Ms given to me as a gift as well as the better part of a giant bag of conversation hearts that I had purchased last week at Economy Candy (when I bought them I had been hoping they were the last surviving Necco Sweethearts before they changed the recipe. Alas they were not). I also, in an attempt to eat *anything* of nutritional value, scarfed down two plain hard-boiled eggs and two rice cakes. Oh, and for breakfast I had cardamom crisps I got at Ikea a couple of weeks ago.

To sum up:

Money Spent: $0.00 ($200 left)
Nutritional Ranking: 2 (the M&Ms had peanuts!)

So there you have it. Day 1 of my attempt to save money on groceries. Not really a lot of good lessons or tips in there, other than that sleeping through most of the day while in a depressive funk might prevent you from spending money. Tomorrow, we'll find out how well I did today. Special sneak peek: the candy hearts are now entirely gone.

Adventures in No-Poo

I mentioned in my first post that part of the inspiration for this website came from bothering my roommates with stories of my hair. Well, here's a fuller account.

I have become a participant in what has become known as the no-poo movement. No-poo meaning no shampoo. The idea is that most commercial shampoos contain lots of harsh ingredients that strip your hair of its natural oils, causing it to overcompensate and get super oily and greasy super quickly (thus necessitating the need for more frequent shampoos). In addition, those same ingredients may be causing all sorts of other problems. Check out the Cosmetics Database to see what I'm talking about. There are a lot of negative things that can be traced back to various chemicals that are put into all sorts of hygiene and beauty products and which are not regulated in the slightest.

Some people go no-poo to avoid these chemicals. Others go no-poo to limit plastic consumption. Still others circumvent shampoo to save some money. Others do it because they've discovered their hair looks better without it.

I decided to go no-poo in January for three of those reasons, while hoping for the last one to come true. I would love for my hair to look magical and gorgeous without spending any money, contributing to overflowing landfills or contaminating myself with chemicals. We have yet to see if that's possible.

My journey thus far:

Shalom

In high school I ended up taking the required economics class at a local Christian college. Theoretically it would be more rigorous and difficult than the one offered at my high school, and it probably was, but seven years later there's only one concept I remember. It's not supply and demand or... I can't even think of another actual economics subject. No, the one concept I remember is that of Shalom.

You see, as I learned it there are four parts or aspects of Shalom:

• love of God
• love of self
• love of others
• love of nature

Perhaps love isn't the best word, but it's the way I remember it. Our lives, it was suggested, should be about improving and nurturing relationships with each of those things. Our pursuit should be achieving shalom in those four areas.