Red Food Colouring

I was reading the newspaper the other day at the kitchen table and halfway through an article I noticed my head was about 10 cm from the paper and I was all hunched over and just the whole posture was horrible and I realized I REALLY NEED MY GLASSES. which is funny because, yes duh, I need my glasses. thats why I was given a prescription for them and thats why I have four pairs. but in my head I've always sort of wanted glasses so I sort of over exaggerated my need for them and fantasized about needing them. but folks. the day is here. I really do need them. wearing them right now and forever.

I think its my phone that is making them so bad. I'm always squinting at it and holding it like super stupid close to my face to read it.

anyway.

I've been meditating. I posted a while ago about buying this book and I'm working my way through it. I bought some chocolate for the chocolate mediation and it was reallllllly really fun. I even had peter do it with me once and he was blown away too. its a whole new experience to tasting your food. coles notes version of the chocolate mediation if you want to try it is to open the package, smell it in, notice everything, look at it, really see it. pop it in your mouth. feel it on your tongue. let it melt. resist the urge to bite it. resist the urge of your tongue. taste it. are there new tastes that are appearing? chocolate has over 300 different flavours. let it slowly pool up in your mouth. when its all melted let it drip down your throat. swallow it. think about it. repeat if you want.

when we finished Peter said wow that tasted so good. yet he had a piece before the meditation and wasn't all that impressed. it changes your whole view.



I read this really nerdy money blog called the simple dollar and I read something that I haven't been able to stop thinking about. He is talking about the taking small savings seriously instead of focusing on large investments or making more money in a year.

The same is true for lunch. If you can come up with a lunch routine that saves $3 each day off of what you’re doing now, you’re saving $1,100 per year. That’s about 4% of the take home pay of an average American family for the year. This is saved just by paying attention to one detail and fixing it.
$1,100 is seed money for a microbusiness. It’s a solid down payment on a car. $1,100 is money that can get you through a rough spot.
Again, the counterargument that many would make is that most details won’t save you $3. To that, I say, so? If I can spend fifteen minutes figuring out a more efficient system for doing laundry that cuts energy and water use by 10% at home, I’m saving about $0.05 per load forever. Our family does a load of laundry every day. Over the next decade, that fifteen minutes of thought is going to save us $182.50.
Please, tell me something else you could do in fifteen minutes that would bring home $182.50 after taxes.

 How often do we think, oh whatever its just $3? Just $3 adds up to over $1000 per year! Thats a trip to Cuba or a few days in New York or a good little reserve fund for someone my age.
I think about how often I'm in the grocery store and put something in my cart worth 3$ that I don't really need or could make myself with cheaper ingredients. I'm not going to deny myself that item, but I want to push myself to do it for cheaper. and to think about 'cheaper' options for things that I already consider inexpensive, not just ways to save on the 'big' items. Eating leftovers instead of buying new. making sure to use up all food in the fridge before it goes bad. I feel like this is focusing on food but the same goes for toiletries or entertainment or anything.

For starters I'm making my own salad dressings. Heres my go to recipes for Ranch, Caesar and Italian.

All images from this tumblr
xox