I go back to my job next Monday, working 2 weeks at full-time hours in order to avoid repaying my employer the few thousand dollars they used to 'top up' my EI payments for 17 weeks. I am also starting the last 2 weeks at said job next Monday.
Because I work for a procedure and policy crazy company, I am not allowed to either be demoted or cut my hours for my position. So I quit. Not officially yet, though... I'm making them wait until Monday when I can access my work email to send the official word. This also delays their search for my replacement by a week, missing out on the ever-popular weekend help wanted ads. But I know, and they likely know, too, that the person who will get my job is doing my job right now as my 'replacement'.
Maybe this happened for a reason. I certainly was not looking forward to going back to work. Especially at this job. I've lost a lot of admiration for my job over the last 18-20 months. I like being a designer and editor, but not under severe restrictions and rules. So maybe this decision by my boss and his boss (and likely with heavy handed input from HR) is going to make my hopes to be self-employed move a little faster. I haven't really done anything beyond work on some designs and collect some graphics for the last few weeks, but now, with no job after the 18th, which also means no income, maybe getting back to work on actually legitimately starting this 'business' is something I should be doing.
Or maybe I should just go and find a part-time job for a bit to help with bills while I work on my plans. I don't want to assume that I'm going to find a job immediately - it is the Christmas season, but I finish at my job a week before Christmas, so it's pretty unlikely I'd start anywhere for a while - but I need to have a plan. Or several.
I have no idea what the future holds, but I don't plan on just throwing in the towel and taking whatever job I can. I need to keep my family in mind when looking and I'd like to actually like my job for a change, and if I can find something that's a little different from what I tend to end up doing (cooking, newspapers), even better. A little change of pace probably wouldn't hurt.
In a perfect world, I wouldn't go back to work at all and happily do my 'specialized stationery', as I've started referring to my projects as, staying at home, raising my daughter. Money wouldn't be an issue and it would be all sunshine and rainbows all the time. In reality, we have bills to pay, a house to maintain and a daughter to raise. I have a feeling that I'm going to lose this battle and end up working full-time anyway, putting my dreams on hold, yet again, potentially forever this time.
Showing posts with label self-sufficient. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self-sufficient. Show all posts
Trimming back
For the majority of my adult life, I've been 'working poor' - barely keeping my head above the poverty line, whatever that may be. I learned a hard lesson when I was 22 - you can't run from your debts. Especially when your parents co-sign for the loans.
And now with a house and a 6-month old baby and absolutely no desire to return to my moderately well-paying job come December, I've been hunting down ways to make things in our life a little lighter on the pocketbook.
For me, it's hard. I have a very set income right now (thanks to EI) so what I get is pretty much already gone by the time I even get 'paid'. Ninety-five percent of my 'bills'? Personal debt. It sucks. Massively. But I do have a car and I am, in theory, building credit history. And we have the house, which is a massive step beyond renting. Especially in a city where rents have skyrocketed and it would be impossible for us to find anything with a small child that would be half-decent and pest-free.
For my partner, he's got personal debts, too - student loans. And he takes care of most of the hosuehold bills, too, because he's got the better income. Always has, and likely always will.
Even with a precarious juggling act every month when it comes to paycheques and bills, I still feel like we could be doing a lot more to cut back. Like I've mentioned before, I'm trying to cut back on the grocery bill by making our own bread (which tends to start at $2 a loaf, and that's the low-end stuff). I have a garden, which is doing okay for it's first year; most of what comes out of that garden will be used for my daughter's food - I absolutely refuse to buy pre-made baby food for her. I want to know exactly what's going into her body and it saves money. It also takes a grand total of 1 hour every couple of weeks to do up a couple of ice cube trays of fruit. But I digress... I know there are other things we can cut back on. The only question is - do we have the willpower to do it?
The local message board here has been rife with comments about the standard of living here and how people can save money. There are the obvious suggestions - walk instead of driving, get rid of your cable, don't buy name-brand products... but when you've been doing things like that for 10-15 years, it's hard to change the habits.
So the search goes on. When the time comes, I will have to go back to work. I'm hoping to keep a part-time schedule so we don't have to put our daughter into child care, because that would mean me getting a second job, leaving me no time with my family and someone else raising our child - not exactly the ideal situation. What I need to do between now and the time I do have to go back to work - that'd 4.5 months from now - is figure out how people do live on 1.5 incomes. And still enjoy life.
I think the lottery's looking mighty good right now...
And now with a house and a 6-month old baby and absolutely no desire to return to my moderately well-paying job come December, I've been hunting down ways to make things in our life a little lighter on the pocketbook.
For me, it's hard. I have a very set income right now (thanks to EI) so what I get is pretty much already gone by the time I even get 'paid'. Ninety-five percent of my 'bills'? Personal debt. It sucks. Massively. But I do have a car and I am, in theory, building credit history. And we have the house, which is a massive step beyond renting. Especially in a city where rents have skyrocketed and it would be impossible for us to find anything with a small child that would be half-decent and pest-free.
For my partner, he's got personal debts, too - student loans. And he takes care of most of the hosuehold bills, too, because he's got the better income. Always has, and likely always will.
Even with a precarious juggling act every month when it comes to paycheques and bills, I still feel like we could be doing a lot more to cut back. Like I've mentioned before, I'm trying to cut back on the grocery bill by making our own bread (which tends to start at $2 a loaf, and that's the low-end stuff). I have a garden, which is doing okay for it's first year; most of what comes out of that garden will be used for my daughter's food - I absolutely refuse to buy pre-made baby food for her. I want to know exactly what's going into her body and it saves money. It also takes a grand total of 1 hour every couple of weeks to do up a couple of ice cube trays of fruit. But I digress... I know there are other things we can cut back on. The only question is - do we have the willpower to do it?
The local message board here has been rife with comments about the standard of living here and how people can save money. There are the obvious suggestions - walk instead of driving, get rid of your cable, don't buy name-brand products... but when you've been doing things like that for 10-15 years, it's hard to change the habits.
So the search goes on. When the time comes, I will have to go back to work. I'm hoping to keep a part-time schedule so we don't have to put our daughter into child care, because that would mean me getting a second job, leaving me no time with my family and someone else raising our child - not exactly the ideal situation. What I need to do between now and the time I do have to go back to work - that'd 4.5 months from now - is figure out how people do live on 1.5 incomes. And still enjoy life.
I think the lottery's looking mighty good right now...
The Great Granola Experiment
Since we had our daughter 6+ months ago, I've been on a semi-mission, to try to get our lives pared down as much as possible without eliminating what we consider necessities (ie.cable and internet). I've learned to make bread, cinnamon buns, and homemade baby food. I try to keep 'extras' down to a minimum, but that hasn't exactly been the soaring success I had hoped it would be. But I try, and in this day and age, with the economy plodding along at the bottom of a sewer and my desire to not go back to work (at least full-time) once my mat leave is over, you have to do something to pinch pennies.
So I decided to make granola bars. From scratch. As healthily as possible.
I tend to not follow recipes, per se. I tend to use recipes more as guidelines, except when it comes to baking. Because baking is like chemistry and you don't fool with chemistry. So the 'recipe' I used today I will likely never use again, if only because I tend to avoid measuring things most of the time. Because I'm lazy.
Before someone points out that making granola bars is 'baking', I say no, it's not. I cooked more than baked, even roasted more than baked, with this recipe. The only 'baking' I did was putting the mixture on a cookie sheet. That's it.
Anyhoo, the granola bars. The 'recipe' I used was an amalgamation of this one and one from one of my mom's diabetic cookbooks. Want a healthy recipe? Use a diabetic one. Guaranteed.
Yesterday, I picked up most of the ingredients at the local bulk store. When it comes to something like this, where I only need a wee bit of this and that, I don't like to buy full sized containers - it's more than likely I won't use it in time and it'll go bad and then there's all that money down the drain. Shopping in bulk has it's downsides, too - unless you're willing to run to the scale every single time you scoop something out, it's all a crap shoot as to how much you're actually buying. And it's the bulk store -there's all those sugary goodies there, calling your name... mmm.
So I decided to make granola bars. From scratch. As healthily as possible.
I tend to not follow recipes, per se. I tend to use recipes more as guidelines, except when it comes to baking. Because baking is like chemistry and you don't fool with chemistry. So the 'recipe' I used today I will likely never use again, if only because I tend to avoid measuring things most of the time. Because I'm lazy.
Before someone points out that making granola bars is 'baking', I say no, it's not. I cooked more than baked, even roasted more than baked, with this recipe. The only 'baking' I did was putting the mixture on a cookie sheet. That's it.
Anyhoo, the granola bars. The 'recipe' I used was an amalgamation of this one and one from one of my mom's diabetic cookbooks. Want a healthy recipe? Use a diabetic one. Guaranteed.
Yesterday, I picked up most of the ingredients at the local bulk store. When it comes to something like this, where I only need a wee bit of this and that, I don't like to buy full sized containers - it's more than likely I won't use it in time and it'll go bad and then there's all that money down the drain. Shopping in bulk has it's downsides, too - unless you're willing to run to the scale every single time you scoop something out, it's all a crap shoot as to how much you're actually buying. And it's the bulk store -there's all those sugary goodies there, calling your name... mmm.
List o'ingredients, and like I said, they're all rough estimates:
2-3 oz raw macadamia nuts
2-3 oz raw hulled sesame seeds
24 oz rolled oats (I used the large flakes, not the small 'quick' rolled oats)
2-3 oz brown flax2-3 oz bakers red bakers bran (hard)
2 oz slivered almonds5-6 oz mini chocolate chips
6 oz orange flavoured cranberries
7-8 oz hulled raw sunflower seeds
2-3 oz wheat germ
6-7 oz blanched peanuts3/4-1 cup honey
2/3 cup brown sugar
4 tbsp margarine (although, I'm sure butter's fine, too)
splash of vanilla extract
a few shakes of cinnamon
Now, I used unsalted EVERYTHING, except the margarine. I avoid salt like the plague if I can help it. Have for over 20 years. I don't see the point in salting everything to death, but I'm going to have to get over that opinion next year when I go to culinary school.
2-3 oz raw macadamia nuts
2-3 oz raw hulled sesame seeds
24 oz rolled oats (I used the large flakes, not the small 'quick' rolled oats)
2-3 oz brown flax2-3 oz bakers red bakers bran (hard)
2 oz slivered almonds5-6 oz mini chocolate chips
6 oz orange flavoured cranberries
7-8 oz hulled raw sunflower seeds
2-3 oz wheat germ
6-7 oz blanched peanuts3/4-1 cup honey
2/3 cup brown sugar
4 tbsp margarine (although, I'm sure butter's fine, too)
splash of vanilla extract
a few shakes of cinnamon
Now, I used unsalted EVERYTHING, except the margarine. I avoid salt like the plague if I can help it. Have for over 20 years. I don't see the point in salting everything to death, but I'm going to have to get over that opinion next year when I go to culinary school.
I took all the nuts and chopped them up with my mini food processor so they were a little finer - not into a paste, but small enough that they'd blend in well with everything else. Put them into a large bowl and mixed them about a bit. Spread them onto a cookie sheet (or two) and pop them into the oven (set to 300º) for about 20 minutes to toast them. I toasted some of mine a wee bit too much, but each oven is different, each cookie sheet is different. Trial and error and all that.
In a heavy pot - and I think it has to be heavy for this, no flimsy pots for this step - melt the butter, honey, brown sugar, vanilla extract and cinnamon. Bring it to a boil, but watch it - it's sugar and can burn like there's no tomorrow if you're not careful. Turn the pot down to a slow simmer (I went right down to the last setting on the dial for this) while the nuts/grains finish toasting.
In a large bowl,put your non-nut dry ingredients. For one batch, I used raisins and chocolate chips; the other was orange-flavoured cranberries. It's personal preference, really. I'm not a big fan of dried fruit, so I tend to always go with raisins or cranberries when given the choice. Take the tray of browned nuts/grains out of the oven and pour into the bowl. A warning if you use chocolate chips - they melt. I didn't mind that they melted, though. That meant that I had a lovely chocolate flavour throughout the bar, not just whenever a chip appeared. For that reason alone, I may use more chips next time.
Stir the nuts/grains and non-nut ingredients together. Pour the hot sugar mix over the nut/grain/ etc. mixture and stir well. It has to be mixed well or it's definitely not going to work. Once everything is mixed together, spread it out on a greased, foil-lined cookie sheet (grease the foil, not the cookie sheet). Take a second sheet and press down as hard as you can - this will help compress everything so you don't end up with granola bits in the end.
Put the tray into the oven (still at 300º) for 15-20 minutes, depending on how crisp you like your bar. Here's where I had my biggest problems. My bars were set on the outside of the tray, but definitely not in the middle, so I put them back in with foil around the edges, about a 2" border (again, an estimate). Kind of worked. What worked - or at least has seemed to work at this point - is putting the tray into the oven for an additional 5 minutes (after the original 18) and turning the oven off. I left them in for about 20 minutes - they weren't cooking at the same temperature, but the heat (hopefully) should be helping with the stickiness.
I've left both trays sitting on the counter to cool completely before I cut them up. I tried cutting when they were still warm and started to make a mess, so I figured if they were allowed to cool, it might work. If it doesn't, I've got granola for cereal for the next month.
Hours later, after everything has cooled:
Perhaps waiting this long to cut them wasn't the best of ideas. An hour, maybe 2 would have been ideal; 7 hours? Yeah, no.
And the 'leave them in the oven after you turn it off' plan? Again, yeah, no. Sure, it would probably work if I cut them almost immediately, not hours later. Hours later they were hard, slightly burnt... things.
So now, I've got some raisin
/chocolate and orange cranberry granola bars, as well as a lot of granola that I can use on the yogurt I don't eat. I guess this is as good of an excuse as any to start eating granola. It's either that or feed the remnants to the birds.
So now, I've got some raisin
/chocolate and orange cranberry granola bars, as well as a lot of granola that I can use on the yogurt I don't eat. I guess this is as good of an excuse as any to start eating granola. It's either that or feed the remnants to the birds.Lessons learned:
1. I need to be more organized. That's obvious every time I cook/bake.
2. I need to use my other camera to take photos. Yikes.
3. It's hard taking photos and making stuff at the same time. I'm surprised I didn't burn myself at some point.
4. This may be one of those things I use an actual recipe for. Next time.
1. I need to be more organized. That's obvious every time I cook/bake.
2. I need to use my other camera to take photos. Yikes.
3. It's hard taking photos and making stuff at the same time. I'm surprised I didn't burn myself at some point.
4. This may be one of those things I use an actual recipe for. Next time.
Mmm... fakey goodness
Why is it even possible that I can buy 'fat reduced' margarine and 'salt free' margarine, but not 'fat reduced, salt free' margarine in the same container? Is there a rational explanation as to why the two can't be one, like the salt's needed to keep that oddly chemically food product cohesive, or maybe the fat replaces something when the salt is removed.
Either way, frustrating.
I spent 10 minutes being gently nudged in the margarine section at the store by little old ladies and their massive shopping carts just to buy the one 'food' that will never go bad or rot (it's true - possibly) so I can make homemade granola bars. Of all the ingredients, it's the only non-healthy one, as far as I can tell (unless you're allergic to nuts or honey, anyway, and if you are, too bad, so sad)... I ended up choosing the 'fat reduced' margarine over the 'salt free' because I don't add salt to my food to begin with. And with 2% of my daily sodium intake in 2 tbsps, I don't think adding 4 tbsps (that'd be 4% of my daily sodium intake) to a granola bar recipe that will make a couple dozen bars is going to kill me. The fats that exist in the nuts are much better for me than the ones in the margarine, so I'd rather take nut fat over margarine fat any day. Trying to be healthy and all that...
That said, photos and recipe of my first attempt at making granola bars to follow, possibly tomorrow, possibly 3 months from now - who knows.
Either way, frustrating.
I spent 10 minutes being gently nudged in the margarine section at the store by little old ladies and their massive shopping carts just to buy the one 'food' that will never go bad or rot (it's true - possibly) so I can make homemade granola bars. Of all the ingredients, it's the only non-healthy one, as far as I can tell (unless you're allergic to nuts or honey, anyway, and if you are, too bad, so sad)... I ended up choosing the 'fat reduced' margarine over the 'salt free' because I don't add salt to my food to begin with. And with 2% of my daily sodium intake in 2 tbsps, I don't think adding 4 tbsps (that'd be 4% of my daily sodium intake) to a granola bar recipe that will make a couple dozen bars is going to kill me. The fats that exist in the nuts are much better for me than the ones in the margarine, so I'd rather take nut fat over margarine fat any day. Trying to be healthy and all that...
That said, photos and recipe of my first attempt at making granola bars to follow, possibly tomorrow, possibly 3 months from now - who knows.
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