Monday Money Menu 8 28 23

79 Days until payday

Shocking News!

Got an electricity shut-off notice today, so I ponied up some cash. I had a 44 cent positive carryover (I think) which was obliterated by the $60.90 I shelled out today. So I wasn’t kidding about the next week being rough. Oh well.

Bet you can’t eat just one…

Today I experimented with making potato chips. There’s a reason why I shell out for Lay’s Classic. They. Are. Good. Chips. I used my mandolin for the first time today, and sliced up a potato. I also used my cooking thermometer, and it was hard to keep the temp at 365F. Still, I thought the temp should be even higher. I ended up with some browner chips than I wanted them to be. But I ate them anyway, even the soggy ones. When you’re a member of the CCP*, and love potatoes anyway, there was no chance of not eating each one I cooked.

I had trouble keeping the oil at 365 Fahrenheit.

Killing Trees One Textbook at a Time…

I spent most of the day working on stuff for work. It went a bit quicker this time, because I printed out the textbook. E-books are okay and everything, but I was flipping back and forth, back and forth, and it was time wasting. With a hard copy, I could look at the next chapter and focus on what I wanted.

Butt Hurt? No, a Hurt Butt!

My butt hurt from sitting for hours, so I went for a walk and checked out the neigborhood. There are lots of interesting little stores, and I found ground red pepper in one. That ingredient had been elusive for a while. But I know where to get it now. I’ll continue to use my chili powder until it runs out.

Urine Luck!

More plants have sprouted too. I swear, some shot up an inch overnight because I don’t remember seeing them the previous day. The power of the PEE!

The quick guide/recipe here. Good luck. You’ll need it.

*Certified Chip Party. I ain’t no commie!

Sunday’s Money Menu 8 27 23

80 days until payday

Deficit carryover today: $1.95

Spent today: $12.71

Deficit carryover tomorrow: $4.66

Friendship, Friendship, It’s the Perfect Blendship

It WAS a social weekend after all! Long conversation with a friend yesterday, and a former colleague returned and sent a message today. We had some lemonade at our favorite spot, then went to get pizza at Champion’s. I just wanted a regular ol’ cheese pizza, which I got…but it had a strange sweetness to it. Was it vanilla? Caramel? Seems like in China, what should be sweet is salty, what should be salty is sweet. Sugar on popcorn is a thing here. I should have taken a picture of the pizza. Looked like a regular cheese pizza, but it tasted… different. Champion’s staff DID warn me, but it was still a surprise.

Fortunately my mozzarella cheese arrived via Baopals, and I guess I’ll try making pizza this week, since I got my pepperoni a couple weeks ago. Baopals now delivers to the United States, so you might want to check them out, especially if you just moved to the U.S. from China.

Bob Barker Didn’t Go Over…

Enough with the blah blah, you’re thinking. How did you DO today with your money diet?

Not great; I blew $3.75 on some chicken nuggets, oranges and green onions. Orange chicken seems to be hitting the spot lately. I have enough rice and sugar and edible corn starch, I just needed the main ingredients. So I am hoping this will keep me going for the rest of the week.

I’m saddened by the passing of Bob Barker. When I was homeschooled, he was a big part of my childhood. I’d watch television before my homebound teacher arrived. So morning daytime TV was a big deal to me. Sort of ironic that he made it very close (three and a half months to his next birthday) to $100 without going over.

Ba dum crash.

Bills, Bills, Lots of Bills, Gas and Electric and Internet Bills..

Back to the money situation: shortly after midnight last night, I paid some on my electricity.

Yeah. This week is going to be hard, I think. I’m covered for food, but there’s electricity (the a/c has been running nearly non-stop, I owe on my gas bill, and I know I’ll have to pay for my internet soon. But I’ll try to stick to my guns as much as possible. My challenge is to live on my remaining $2300 I got in July.

The world won’t end if I don’t make it. But I want to see if I make it. It will be an important learning lesson. I had a YouTube link to my most recent video. But here’s one I made that I think is pretty funny. It’s the most viewed video on this channel. The second most watched video is my Steve Aoki one, which got copyright restricted. I’ve made 43 videos so far, which isn’t a lot. I’m hoping I can do more. Editing takes soooo much time though. Plus, I want to get my hands on some funny clips and memes. I’ve seen some killer content on YouTube that makes me want to get better. But I know how long it takes to get better. And I can’t afford an editor on $10 a day.

Today’s money-saving tip: Add nitrogen to plants by peeing! Yes, just take one part of your urine, add ten parts of water, and add it to your soil. For the math-challenged: if you have one cup of urine, pour it into a large container, add ten cups of water, and then add to yourr plants. This is aimed more at container gardening.

Saturday’s Money Menu 8 26 23

81 Days until payday

$11.95 DEFICIT

$1.95 DEFICIT carryover to Sunday.

Blah, Blah, Blah

Well, I knew I wouldn’t be able to spend for a couple days since I went to Tacos. But that’s okay. I woke up early, messed around online, and had a lonnnnnnnnnnng conversation with a friend back home. I have zero social life here, and we hadn’t chatted in a while, so we chatted online for over six hours.

I finally had lunch (more orange chicken) and had a delightful after lunch nap. I usually don’t do that, but the carbs were very relaxing. I got up and popped some popcorn, and read a bit. I am on the computer too much these days. Then, I felt hungry for dinner, so I fixed yet more carbs (delicious pasta and garlic bread) and worked on one of my writing/marketing courses. I finished another one today, so that makes two this summer.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

I’m trying to save my weekends for the “fun” stuff—chatting with friends, craft projects, making videos, reading, napping, exploring on foot or by bus—and doing the “serious” stuff during the week. My faucet still seems a bit wonky—I put another washer in there, and it STILL drips. So I don’t know. I just turn off the water to the kitchen faucet and turn it on when I need it. In case I forget to turn it off, I put a pitcher underneath the tap to catch the water. I then use the water either for my plants, or to wash the next round of dishes that come through.

This might be a week of carryover deficits. The electricity needs paid, and the internet will probably be due soon, and I need some fresh fruits and veggies. Ah well. It’s not like I desperately need new clothes or anything like that.

What is Draining the Life Force out of My Tomatoes?

I might do some plant research tomorrow. On two of my tomato plants, the branches/stems become wilted. Like someone drained ALL of the moisture out of them. The rest of the plant looks okay, until another wilted stem shows up. My pepper plants look good though. But I’ve not had luck with tomatoes here in Xiamen. Maybe I am picking the wrong variety of tomatoes. I usually just take the seeds from whatever variety I am currently eating and plant them. Maybe next season I’ll send away for some disease-resistant seeds.

Friday’s Money Menu 8 25 23

82 Days Till Payday

Carryover: $5.07 (I didn’t spend that penny on Thursday.)

Today’s budget: $15.07

Today’s spending: $27.02

Overage for tomorrow: $11.95

Budget Blown!

Blew the budget today. Not exactly sure why. Maybe it’s a combination of stress, heat, and getting some things done this week. I am almost finished with a writing/marketing course I’m taking, and it just felt good to get out. But mostly it was to a see a friend who is helping out in my favorite Mexican restaurant. I hadn’t seen her in almost two years, which astonished me. I did come back to Tacos within a day of getting back to Xiamen. But that was back in January 2022.

The Hungry Cook

Anyway, I had two beef tacos, two Cokes, chips and cheese, and I was STILL hungry, so I ordered French fries. ALL of it was amazing. I had a nice chat with my friend when she had a few minutes to spare. I told her about my apartment and she asked me if I did any cooking at home. I whipped out some photos of my most recent meals. She asked me if I was a good cook, and I said yes. I rarely, if ever, burn/undercook anything, and everything usually tastes really good.

It was good seeing her again. It’s been a very dry summer, socially speaking.

No spending until Sunday, unless I want to further go into “debt.”

Thursday’s Money Menu 8 24 23

83 Days until payday

Today’s score: $4.94 (strawberry cream cheese and four oranges)

Carryover to tomorrow of $5.06

I’ve discovered flavored cream cheese. Milkana brand sells these tiny tubs of cream cheese and the strawberry flavor tastes like thick strawberry pudding. It’s a nice low-carb way to have some fuel before I decide what I really want to eat. But it’s so freaking hot here I’m barely eating.

But—with the heat, and walking a lot, and swimming 60 laps a week, I’ve dropped some poundage. I’m now the thinnest I’ve been in decades. I’m still ~~fat~~ morbidly obese by Chinese standards, but by American standards, I’m just fat, I guess. I’m not drinking as much regular Coke, and the lowered sugar intake has done a number on my appetite. Plus, there’s a recent, disturbing observation—whenever I eat too much sugar, I itch. Like everywhere. I notice it’s more with the Coke, and since I’ve cut back, there’s no sudden itching. My body is so weird.

To reach my goal weight, I’ve got about 13 pounds to go. A juice fast would do it. But I’d have to make sure the fruits and veggies I use are super carefully washed if I want to make juice. I’ll have to think about it, because lately, I’ve been geeking out over refrigerated oranges. They just taste so good chilled!

I’m slowly rebuilding my meat stash after cleaning out the freezer. It was probably a bad idea to do it while on a $10 a day money diet, but the fridge really did need cleaning. I try to keep some sort of protein in the house, because it seems like having meat before I go to bed really helps.

But then again, I’ve been eating right before I go to bed. I’ve been eating either pasta or rice, and it’s given me some of the best non-sleeping pill sleep I’ve had in a while. Like, REM-deep sleep. Like vivid dreams sleep. I dreamed the other night that Loudermilk was real, not just a television show and I was hanging out with Ron Livingston. THAT was a really nice dream.

Anyway, that was my Thursday, August 24, 2023.

Wednesday’s Money Menu 8 23 23

84 Days till payday.

Carryover from yesterday=$3.80

Today’s budget: $13.80

Amount spent: $13.79 (food and electric)

Carryover to tomorrow: 1 cent

Math is Murder

I hope the math is making sense to you. It’s making sense to me. But it’s waaaaaay too much adding and converting for this math-challenged writer. I have to convert Chinese Yuan to American $$$ then add up the total I’ve spent each day. All I know is for the most part, I’ve spent under my $10 allotment for each day. I started to get all excited, and figured if I could keep this up for a few years, I’d have quite a chunk of change saved. But like the maid who tossed her head at her fantasy, and ended up with broken eggs she had been carrying in a basket on her head en route to the market, I’m trying not to get ahead of myself. It’s a cute story I read in a book decades ago. I wish I’d held on to that book because it had a great collection of short stories, poems and fables for children.

Today’s word is “Estimsies”

I’ve had these money estimates/fantasies (estimsies?) before, and they’ve been dashed like so much Ikea dinnerware. I need to stop thinking about how my life will be once I get that chunk of money saved, because it may never happen.

Today I stayed home and worked on my course for this semester. It’s been looking like it’s going to rain any minute for the past several hours. But I have a Zoom webinar coming up and I may get out of the house for a while after that.

Successful Bloggers do what now?

I’m a little amazed I’ve posted for like 10, 11 days in a row. But seems like the successful bloggers do that, so I guess I’ll give it a try. I guess if I run out of material, I can always pull out my journals and compare what I was doing a couple years ago to the same date now.

The rent is too damn high actually not bad

But I’ll keep doing daily updates on the money situation. I feel pretty good about living on next to nothing. Rent will be due in October, so we’ll see what happens with that. Hoping I can pay one month, then postpone the rest until I get my check. I just realized that paying rent will break my $10 a day rule. Hmmmm. Unless I just don’t buy anything for 40 days in a row…or my landlord agrees to postpone my rent payment until I get paid.

Stay tuned!

Tuesday’s Money Menu 8 22 23

Days until payday: 85

Today’s score: $10.88

So because I didn’t spend my entire $10 allotment yesterday, I had a carryover of $4.68. Which meant today’s budget was $14.68. I spent $10.88. Which means I have $3.80 to add to tomorrow’s budget. $13.80 for those of you not keeping score.

In case you’re wondering, I COULD spend more. I estimate I could spend $24 a day until payday and still have some money left. But I don’t want to do that. This experiment has been excruciating and fun at the same time. It’s forcing me to decide what’s necessary, and what’s just plain old desire.

Someone messaged me on Instagram asking me if I’ve considered investing. I had to laugh—to be able to invest requires money. I don’t have that. I’ve THOUGHT about investing, but with no cash, it’s not happening. And people, when I say I have “no cash” I’m not talking about, “Oh heavens to Betsy, I’m down to my last $25,000, whatever shall I do?”

I’m talking about NO CASH.

But dinner was nice.

Orange chicken with oranges and green onions over rice. Hello Kitty approved1

Monday’s Money Menu 8 21 23

86 Days until Payday

Today’s score: $5.32

I feel like I didn’t get much accomplished today, but I actually did.

I paid some toward my electricity and treated myself to a bottle of Coca-Cola.

I also managed to put a washer in my kitchen faucet. May not seem like a big deal to you, but it’s something I hadn’t really done before. Earlier this summer, I switched out the showerhead, and that felt like a victory too. Now that the kitchen faucet is okay, I can leave the water on. It’s not dripping, but I KNOW I’ll be using more water. Oh well.

I know it’s not environmentally correct, but I tried to print out my textbook at school today. I figured I could just stick my USB into the copier and go to town, but no. Apparently printer access via computer is only through the computers in the admin office. The only staffer there had given access to her account to five people, and she couldn’t add me. That’s because she can’t delete the five people who have access to her account. I prefer making notes in real, honest to God textbooks. Flipping back and forth between the PDF is time-wasting. And I know it will cost around $45 to print the thing out, which is why I went to the office today. I guess if I use my account to log on to a staff computer, I’ll be able to print the textbook out. I also learned quite a few things today that make me go “hmmmm.”

It takes me about 40 minutes to get home if I leave at 5 p.m. I had to wait a half hour for the bus (it should have only been 15 minutes or so) which makes me think I might have to take Didi (Chinese Uber) to go to school in order to make it on time. At least I can take the bus home, which will save me money. But if I have an 8 a.m. class, it means I’ll have to be at the bus stop at 6 a.m., and hope the bus gets there on time. Then, it’s a 20 minute walk across campus, which is way too much exercise that early in the morning. And we are NEVER supposed to be late. I can’t afford that type of inflexibility, so I guess I’ll Didi to work.

So today wasn’t a bad day at all. I’m really trying to look for the positives in everything lately. It seems to be working.

Sunday’s Money Menu 82023

Burger King, not Jack Berger

I used part of my $10 today to get Burger King and to pay a little on my electric bill. Checked my bank balances and spent the rest of the day working on craft projects, sorting through things, and figuring out my next projects.

I’m a picky eater. So when I get a burger, I usually just get onion on it. No mayo, no ketchup, nothing except onion. So explaining that to the staff at my local Burger King can be challenging. I saved a photo from when my order was absolutely perfect. I whip that out and show it to them, but sometimes they interpret that to mean, “no onion on the burger.” I use my translator app to specify, “just onion on the burger, no sauce,” but sometimes that leads to more confusion.

A Whopper combo, onion only, please

Since the world is heading towards as little human interaction as possible (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing) the crew member was trying to input it on the dining room order screen. She was having difficulty, then I said, “Ni you Ingwen?” She switched to the English option and I took over. I was able to customize my burger and lo and behold, a Whopper onion only was what I got.

I realized I should have said “Ni you Ingwen ma*?” But whatever. She got it.

It was nice to get out after an incredibly rainy week. It’s poured in the afternoon several days this past week. In a way it was nice—looking out the window at the storms, knowing I could sort through craft stuff, cardboard and packing material, take a nap, or watch YouTube.

Saturday afternoon’s entertainment. And it was FREE!

All Summer Long

It’s been a lovely summer in so many ways, and I still have over a month of it left. But to calm my anxiety, I need to get ready for the next semester. I am glad I have a lot of time to get stuff done, but I don’t want to leave things to the last minute either. It’s my goal to have everything (and I do mean everything) ready to drop. This money diet thing has really gotten me to think differently about things.

Some people say, “baby steps, baby steps.” That’s fine. It’s all well and good if you have a daunting task, or need to make changes. But sometimes you have to fucking LEAP. Cut back on unnecessary expenses? What’s “unnecessary”? I mean, I thought I was living pretty frugal as it was. How about living on $10 a day? That’s pretty fucking frugal. Let’s see how I do.

Eighty-seven days until payday.

*Ma is what you add at the end of a question. Like, if someone fell down, you could ask them, “Ni keyi ma?” Which is basically saying, “are you okay?” It’s basically a verbal question mark.

Here’s photos of how to get the most out of your toothpaste tube!

Now, cut a little more off the tube here. Maybe a quarter inch or so.

Squeeze to get desired amount of toothpaste.

Replace tube end. I figure I have at least another week’s worth of toothpaste left. And if you’re really dedicated, SCRAPE the inside of the tube out, like I do.

Saturday’s Money Menu

88 days until payday.

If you’re new here, welcome to the blog. If you’re wondering what the hell is going on, click here for the deets.

Not THAT type of 420

Today’s allotment was $4.20 cents, all of which went to the electric company. My electricity and gas is hooked up to my WeChat. My landlord kindly informed me that I have around $63 USD due, which is well over 400 RMB. But no shut off notice, yet, so it’s all good. What’s nice is that I can send any amount I want towards the bill. I’m hoping I can sloooooowwwwwwly pay the bill and still leave a bit of cash each day for fresh veggies, or the odd piece of meat.

Why am I limiting myself to only $10 a day? I’d like to have some cash left when payday rolls around, thanks very much.

So what did I do after sending $4.20 to the electric company? I had a pretty productive day. I started out gardening. I prepped some soil for my new sprouts. I’ve got about 19 of them going, ever since I saw online you can add nitrogen to your soil by mixing pee with water. Wanna try it? The ratio is one part pee to 10 parts water. For the math challenged, it means if you have a cup of pee, you need to add ten cups of water. It’s okay to add more water if you want, because human urine tends to be salty. But it WORKS. Just a few days after adding the solution to my dormant soil, sprouts popped up. And they continue to pop up. If all of the sprouts survive, I’ll have myself one hell of a garden.

Peppers Going Bananas

And I realized why my peppers revved up so late in the year last year. My balcony is covered. That’s really nice, but during the summer, the plants don’t get as much sunshine as they probably should. But with fall creeping in, the sun isn’t so high in the sky. And there’s that sweet spot where the sun is just high enough to hit in between my balcony roof and the top of the building a football field opposite me. And that’s why the peppers went bananas in late September and early October and were STILL producing in November. Of course, summer here lasts for about six months, then cools off into fall, and stays that way until April.

It doesn’t snow here. It always cracks me up to see Xiamenians bundled up in down jackets and hats. Although I admit I caved when I was working in an office with no heat whatsoever, and the doors were open to the elements. Fifty degree weather outdoors is refreshing. Indoors, it’s miserable. It got so bad I bought a North Face jacket. Of course, the next day it got warm. I haven’t worn the jacket in a year, but I’m not going to donate that coat. It was expensive enough when I bought it (on sale) and I don’t know what my work building will be like this “winter”. If I decide to take a nap during lunch, I don’t want to freeze.

Domestika, and Magix, and YouTube, oh my!

For the rest of today, I worked on my craft project on Domestika. I’m making a miniature room. I don’t have the proper tools, so my frame isn’t as precise as it could be, but whatever.

I also decided to mess around with my new video editing software program I bought months ago. It seems unnecessarily complicated, with three screens, but I realized this program is for people who are just a bit more sophisticated about videos than I am, and probably aren’t trying to edit videos on a 15-inch laptop. If I had a desktop with two monitors, I probably wouldn’t have been as bewildered as I was earlier. I even managed to make a brief video you can watch here. It won’t be shown at Sundance, but this afternoon, I messed around with some pictures and music, and I’m feeling a wee bit more comfortable about this software. Although I won’t say I’m delighted with the software. A lot of it goes back to me just plunging into something without looking at the demo, or reading the instructions. Thank Christ I didn’t become a surgeon.

I will say one thing—this software seems to be able to format/render/whatever the hell it’s supposed to do a lot quicker than my old software. But it’s only a two minute video. I’m sure when I make more epic masterpieces, I’ll be leaving the computer on all night in order to get things done.

I’m so sorry, Mr. Kubrick

Even simple videos require time. And some really great stuff on YouTube… well I can’t even imagine how long the editing takes. I know I suck at making videos, but I’m hoping to get better.

And even though it’s been a very lean summer, it’s been an amazing one. I’m learning stuff, getting stuff done, writing a lot, taking those first steps, feeling better physically, and mentally…well… it’s a brand-new feeling. Like things are becoming clearer.

Maybe it’s all this creative stuff I’m doing. I need to try and really make a good work/life balance, because that’s something that’s been missing. I feel like I’m working all the time and can’t do anything fun, or I have months of not really having to do anything.

Not having to do anything rocks.