Wednesday, April 6, 2011

$0.50 Lunch for 2 and a Step in the Right Direction

Today my 2 year old daughter was watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and they were all staring at a big bucket of spaghetti (that's about all of the storyline I caught). The next thing I know, she comes to me saying, "Mommy I want sketti!" She wouldn't drop it. 

I had planned on getting in the car and taking a little drive to get some lunch out on this sunny day. I've been feeling a little down all morning...nothing serious. It's just things aren't going how I've  planned (don't you hate that?!) and I'm a little confused about some decisions I need to make. It's kinda weighing me down. And when I feel this way, my first reaction is to jump in the car and head to a fast food restaurant. When really, I just need to stay home, deal with the actual emotions I'm feeling and save the money! Sure I justify it by saying, "Oh it's a pretty day, lets jump in the car and enjoy it. Besides, I have a coupon for a free whatever."But deep down inside, I know it's the wrong thing to do.


So after a serious inner struggle, "Should I, shouldn't I?" My daughter was still asking for spaghetti, so I decided to stay home and just make spaghetti for heaven's sake! As I stood in the kitchen preparing the food, I immediately began to feel better because of the good decision I made to actually stay home. Could this be what happiness is? One good choice after another that just adds up to one great day you can be happy with? Sure, I consider myself a pretty good person who makes pretty good choices. But it's those daily ones that are easy to overlook because they're not "big sins" or "actually wrong," that can weigh heavy on you over time. 

The decision to take a nap instead of finish the laundry (then you have no clean clothes the next day and stress about it), deciding to eat out when you have perfectly good food at home to cook (then you wonder how your money just seemed to pour through your hands that month), messing around online too long instead of playing with your bored and lonely child (and you wonder why they throw a major hissy fit for attention when you won't even look up from your facebook page). It's the little things, ya know? 

Sure, no one is perfect and we're going to decide to do things we want sometimes, instead of what we need to do. But it's a balance. And lately, the scales have been tipped on the wants side a lot more around here and I've been feeling miserable.


Anyway, as I was making the spaghetti, I realized that I was using items I had gotten couponing. The spaghetti was part of the deal from Kroger where I stocked up and got 32 boxes completely FREE! 


The other was a can of Hunts tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano already added (I almost always try to buy cans of tomatoes with seasonings already in them).


 The tomatoes were $0.50 I believe. 


I blitzed the tomatoes up in the Magic Bullet thingy (the off brand version we got for Christmas...works just as well!) with a little salt and a little sugar (to cut the acidity of the tomatoes) and heated the sauce on the stove. When the spaghetti was done, I added a little olive oil for flavor and mixed the spaghetti with the sauce and added a few dashes of Parmesan cheese on top. It was yummy and my daughter ate every single bite!


I am so proud of myself for creating a great little (low-cal) lunch for 2 for just $0.50! It feels good to do the right thing. Going to try to do that a few more times and we'll see just how good I feel by the end of the week!

6 comments:

  1. Good for you! The spaghetti sounds delicious, too!

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  2. I love this Angie. We just had this conversation last night about grabbing food when we have food at home that is super easy to cook...better for us and cheaper.
    Thanks so much for the reminder of the other things too.
    Always making the right decisions...is hard. (well at least trying to make the right decisions. :0)
    Hugs!
    Rebekah

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  3. LOVE this post! You are so right angie! I have been cooking more and I just feel BETTER not wasting money on fast food or being lazy. I also try cleaning the kitchen and doing a little bit of cleaning before bed too. Anyways i think that is sooo sweet that you indulged your daughter with spaghetti today! Super sweet & savy savings! You can do this girl!!

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  4. I'm proud of you!! I always feel better when I make good decisions. Keep up the good work!!!

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  5. You are good in what you do. Keep it up

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  6. Wow Angie ~ what a wonderful realization ~ how many times have I too have done the same thing!
    I am so happy for you ~ one small change at a time adds up!
    For me today has been a 10 minute day ~ dealing with some emotions and such so I allow 10 minutes for cleaning and 10 on the phone or 10 on the computer ~ it helps!

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