Homemade Granola

I LOVE my breakfast. Most days, I finish my breakfast and wish that I had packed the same thing for lunch. I have been eating the same breakfast for over a year and not a single day has gone by that I grumble "ugh, this again?!"

The parameters to my breakfast are simple; I need something that I can throw together, have it in my bag, and be out the door in a max of 5 minutes. So over the course of my working career breakfasts has consisted of:

• Fruit with some kind of bar

• Cereal/Granola and a container of milk (usually half the milk is spilt in my bag before I get to work :/) 

• Instant Oatmeal with some frozen berries, adding hot water at work

• Steel Cut Oats, made the night before- too much prep to withstand everyday use

I have not been very adventurous with my breakfast choices, but after awhile they all just tasted bland and spilled milk, no matter what container I used, became too frustrating to carry. I had this magical idea of throwing my granola on top of yogurt, instead of milk, and adding a few frozen berries- making my own little breakfast parfait. My breakfast love and I met on that wonderful day! 

Over the past year, my frugal ways have taken over and I have tweaked my breakfast to match my frugalness and also adjusted to my nutritional priorities. Making our own granola became cheaper then buying boxed/bagged granola, it is a bit healthier, and it is fun to make and adjust to our taste. 

So the Granola Breakdown:

7 Cups Old Fashion Rolled Oats ($9.17 for 10 lbs/19.17223 Cups) $3.35

1/2 Cup Shredded Coconut ($2.49 for 14 oz) $.71 

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar ($4.39 for 7lbs/13.42056 Cups) $.08

3/4 Cup Olive Oil ($9.98 for 102 oz)  $.59

1/2 Cup Pure Maple Syrup ($50.00 for 128 oz) $1.56

1/4 Cup Honey ($12.79 for 80 oz) $.32

1 Cups Walnuts, chopped ($23.32 for 3lbs/5.75167 Cups) $4.05

1/2 Cup  Dried Craisins or Raisins, rehydrate by soaking in water for an hour ($2.00 for 10oz) $.80

Directions: Combine Oats, Coconut and Brown Sugar. After they are mixed well, add the Oil, Maple Syrup, and Honey. You can choose to do more honey then Maple syrup, but I love the maple taste :) Put it in a large glass baking dish and roast at 200-250 degrees for about 1.5 hrs stirring every 15-20 minutes. Once it is lightly toasted add the walnuts and re-hydrated fruit for the last 10-15 minutes of cooking. Watch the oats carefully at the end so they don't burn. 

Once they are toasted to your liking, take them out of the oven and spread them on a flat surface to cool- this is when the granola clumps. Store away to eat all week long :) 

This recipe yields roughly 15 Cups or 120 Oz of granola for a total cost of  $ 11.46 per batch.  

In doing a quick review on Google Shopping , here is a comparison to 3 other granola brands:

Quaker Oats Granola $4.50 for 28.7 oz @ 120 oz this would cost $18.81

Special K Granola $2.98 for 11.3 oz @ 120 oz this would cost $31.65

Eating Right (Store brand) Granola $2.99 for 18oz @120 this would cost $19.93

Looks like homemade granola, though an investment in bulk ingredients at the front, ends up being a much better long term investment for our wallet!

With the added extras, my breakfast breakdown works out to be: 

1/2 c Granola $0.38

1/2 c Greek Yogurt ( $2.99 32 oz ) $0.37

1-2 T of Frozen Berries (7.99 14.4 Cups) $.07

1 T Chia Seeds (13.99 appx 90 T) $0.16

TOTAL Cost of Breakfast: $0.98

Nick has suggested that we start making our own Greek yogurt to cut down on costs further but I'm not sold yet! For now I will keep to my $.98 breakfast! 

Happy hUMp Day

Happy Pi Day

GUEST BLOG POST FROM NICK

Hello People of Earth,

Well, its the day that everyone has been waiting for all year. The mass-hysteria that has plagued our cities can finally come to an end. No its not the long awaited end to the zombie apocalypse. Its much better! Its Pi day!!!!! March 14 is the one day a year where we come together as a nation to celebrate the achievements of Mathematics and the Science be eating pie in all its delicious, mouth-watering inducing forms (Savory, Sweet and Pizza).

Today as a guest contributor to the Frugal Optimist, I am going to break down the cost of baking an Apple Pie. Our Apple pie is a simple one, one part granny smith apples, one part dough and one part magic.

The dough used for this pie came from a 20 lb bag of high-gluten baking flour from Costco. It costs us $9.00 a bag. We used approximately 3 cups of flour for this double crust recipe: 1 Cup of flour = 4.25 oz. x 3 = 12.75oz ---> .79 lbs.   $0.35 

Crisco is approx. $5.00 for 48oz. We used 3/4 cup ---> 6oz = $0.63

Cinnamon is approx. $3.00 for a 2.37oz container. We used 1 1/2 teaspoons. ---> .25 oz = $0.33

Nutmeg price $3.00 for 2oz. We used 1/4 teaspoon ---> .004oz = $0.006

Brown Sugar $3.50 for pound. We used 1/4 cup ---> 2oz =  $0.43 

White Sugar $5.00 for 10 pounds. We used 1/4 cup ---> 1.34oz = $0.04

Corn Starch $2.00 for 16oz. We used 1 tablespoon ---> .5oz = $0.06

Lemon Juice $4.00 for 32oz. We used 1 tablespoon ---> .5oz = $0.06

Safeway brand Butter for $3.49 for 16oz. We used 1 tablespoon ---> .5oz =$0.10

Lastly, we bought a 12-pack of Granny Smith apples at COSTCO for 8.98. We used 4 for this recipe = $2.99

Total Pie Cost =  $5.03  for a HOMEMADE Apple Pie! 

If you're not into sweets, you can always go savory for dinner and order a Pizza Pie! 

Happy Pi Day :) 

FreeTax Filing

This week I finished our taxes!!! With a little bit of motivation, Nick convinced me that I could indeed figure out how to do our taxes without spending $100 on an online program or a tax consultant. I was really nervous that if I screwed up we would end up owing more in taxes and therefore negating the idea of saving any money by doing it on my own.

NOTE: I am NOT a tax expert. This is my personal take on my first tax filing experience. Please do what you think is best given your current tax situation and don't cut corners or lie on your tax return! It is important to pay your taxes and keep our government chugging along :)

So quick basics on our tax return:
Federal Tax Return: I completed a 1040 Form and used the lengthy Instruction Booklet. The 1040 Form is only 2 pages with additional backup schedules to help calculate the individual line numbers for the 1040. Some schedules are mandatory, so be sure to read the instructions. You can file for free online or in hard-copy. I chose to complete ours online.

State Tax Return: Different for each state, but if you live in DC you can use the D-40 or a D-40EZ. Determine which is right for you here.

If you are thinking about doing your own taxes this year, I would encourage you to read through my 5 "Lessons Learned" on preparing your taxes for the first time:

1. Complete your Federal Tax Return before your State Tax Return. The two forms work together, to some degree, which was nice to learn. Their is not duplication in everything you submit to the government :) Your federal return walks you through turning your total income into your taxable income. Your total income is decreased by deductibles, such as student loan interest payments, to provide you with your total taxable income. By the way, I think the deductible for student loan interest payment should not have a cap of $2,500, especially for a joint return- give me at least $5,000!!!


2. Your previous tax returns can be a very useful tool. I sat with my 2012 paperwork for the full duration of both my federal and state returns. In terms of taxes, nothing new has changed in Nick and my life, so I knew that I could use my previous year's return as a template. Until we decide to have a kid or buy a house, I think I will be able to manage filing our own taxes using this system. But, if any life changes come our way I will probably use a consultant or online system to help complete our return to ensure that I have a new template to work from the following year.

3. Understand the different Schedules and when to use them. I went through what schedules I submitted last year and looked through each one to determine why they were used. While I was reading the instruction booklet, I made note of where I would need to use the different schedules. This helped me to get organized and not overwhelmed. The schedules seem intimidating but they really are just glorified worksheets. They help you layout how to came up with your number for line X on your 1040, so don't be scared of them.

Nick is an amateur investor and plays in the stock market. It is like his little pot of gold (note: St. Patty's Day is right around the corner!); however, when it comes to filing our taxes this is a HUGE headache. Each trade must be listed on Schedule D and includes the date of purchase, date of sale, gain/loss, a short or long term sale, and magically most of the tax forms we received did not have all of this information. This was really frustrating for me because I had to keep asking Nick to look up each transaction. In the end, I think it took about an hours worth of work for a minimal increase in our income.

4. Do not drink wine while doing your taxes :)  Surprisingly I quickly lost all ambition and focus to decipher the language in the 1040 Instruction Booklet. The booklet is pretty straight forward, but at times it still didn't make complete sense. I reread sections multiple times to figure out what they were asking me to add/subtract or if we qualified for a certain deduction. This was a great time to revert back to point 2, use of our 2012 tax return. It took me 3 sittings to complete our federal return: One for wine :), Two for frustration and missing forms, and the Third sitting took extra time due to a lack of information on our tax forms- see schedule D example above.

5. Do your Taxes Early and Don't Stress! The whole process was fairly easy. By starting them two weeks ago , I was able to take my time and ensure that everything was correct. I had enough time to look through all of the information and ensure that I was comfortable with the final amount we owed. Yes, we did owe, but I could have told you that before I started. If at the end the numbers don't seem to be adding up, you can always take it to one of the tax companies to take a look and pay your fee, but at least give it a try! It is really empowering to understand exactly what deductions we can and cannot qualify for and what percentage of our income goes to taxes.

Good Luck and Happy Tax Filing!

Volunteering: The Brewer's Ball

This past Saturday, Nick and I went back to our roots. No not beer, volunteering :) Nick and I met while serving in a volunteer organization in college. We had to volunteer at least 10 hours a week and it was really a big part of our college years. After graduating, we moved into our adult lives and volunteering became a nice thing to do now and again, but definitely fell to the waste side as a priority.

For New Years, I resolved to participate in at least one volunteer activity a month. I reached out to a close friend, who seems to be volunteering at events or with the Red Cross everyday, and she suggested that I subscribe to Volunteer Match. Within minutes, I came across an event with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for The Brewer's Ball, held this past Saturday at the National Building Museum.

  

Nick is a home brewer, and by default I have learned quite a bit about beer, and have taken over a few batches of beer myself, so I believe I am a Sous-Brewer : ) Don't fret, we will have a breakdown, frugal optimist style, of our next brew :) Our hobby made this event a great fit to get our volunteer legs back! We spoke to the coordinator about the opportunity and she suggested, based on our knowledge of beer, that we work on their "Hopportunity" raffle. They had 35 beers to send home with one lucky winner.

Nick and I worked the room in our sparkly hats and Mardi Gras beads for 3 hours! As a team of 5, we raised over $2,300 from just the Hopportunity raffle. Within the last 20 minutes of the raffle, Nick and I were working the room and sold roughly a third of our sales. It felt amazing to see what a night working a room full of beer drinkers can equate to for a great cause!

Volunteering is a great way to engage in your community and to give of your time when a monetary contribution is not in the cards. But, it is also a great way to learn something new. Prior to last night, I didn't know much about Cystic Fibrosis or that most cases (roughly 1,000 a year) were diagnosed by the age of 2. So, for anyone who would like to learn more about the disease check out the FAQ's from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and if you're so inclined you can donate, or look at their upcoming events and sign up to volunteer, and perhaps Nick and I will see you there!

On a final Frugal note... When trying to save money, I think that it is important to find things to do that will keep you from dwelling on what you can't do. Last night, I was out till 3am raising money, laughing, and socializing without spending more than my metro fair :) So if nothing else, filling my calendar with volunteer activities is a great opportunity to stay busy and be part of my community from the other side of the table.

Note: If I can get 5 friends to help me raise that kind of money for our debt in 3 hours that would be a great volunteer activity too :) Anyone care to join ? he he he!!

The Lunch Edition: Is Making Cheaper Then Buying?

So you have heard it before, one way to quickly save money is by making your own lunch throughout the work week. With this in mind, and honestly a bank account that wouldn't let me eat out everyday, I have been planning my lunches since I started working.

Ahhh... the golden days of being able to walk into a campus dining hall and swipe a "wonderful" card with your schools logo, that magically takes invisible money out of some random account that I don't think about has now caught up with me. So, I guess making lunch is the least I can do to help pay back my student loans and work towards ridding myself of those freshman...sophomore, junior, and senior pounds gained :)

I have been on a salad marathon for 2-3 months. Last week, I hit a wall!! I couldn't stand the taste of spinach! So I decided to revamp my lunch routine. I went into Cooking Lights March 2014 Issue determined to come out with something I wanted to eat for 5 days in a row. I came across a two-page spread for rice bowls.

Now I know that I am probably a bit more nostalgic when it comes to rice bowls then most people. When I was working as a server at a Mexican restaurant it became a staple of my diet. Most nights I usually got a bowl of rice with black beans (yup I was frugal even working two jobs). I use to top it off with shredded carrots, cheddar cheese, pico de gallo, a nice spoonful of guacamole and a dollop of sour cream.  Mixed up it looked discussing, but tasted like heaven at 10pm :)

Okay back to the story, I can't seem to find an online link to this recipe, but I will check back and add a link later if they add it to their site. All of the rice bowls begin with 3/4 c of brown rice topped with roughly five ingredients: a protein, veggie, cheese, herb, and something extra. Looking through the many choices, I decided to go with a salmon based bowl. Nick is allergic to fish, so we made his with chicken instead.

The salmon was tricky. Since I normally don't cook fish, I did a bit of research in advance on the best method to cook a 3 oz  piece. I know that reheating fish isn't good, so I wanted to find an option that would let me cook it at work. I found a recipe that baked the salmon for 15-20 minutes at 350 degree- PERFECT I would use my office's toaster oven and eat a later lunch to avoid hogging the toaster oven :)

I took a 3 oz piece and topped it with salt and pepper some fresh dill and a slice of orange and wrapped it in a tin foil pouch. It tasted great, and I think the orange was imperative to the taste and moisture!

All of the other ingredients were packaged in separate containers on Monday to last us the week. Each day, once I cooked my salmon, I heated my rice, 1/2 c peas, and 1T of goat cheese.

Once heated, I added the salmon, parsley, dill, and 1/4 of an orange mixed with appx 1T of Greek yogurt. The citrus flavor mixed with the goat cheese gave this meal a very smooth taste.

So I think it is time to put the numbers to the test. How much is an average bought lunch, versus making a pretty decent home cooked lunch?

To buy lunch, a few options that I see around the office and being conservative with my cost estimates:
Lean Cuisine, at Costco I did see 5 for 10, so we will say:  $2.00
Subway Foot Long, lets assume you just get their deal: $5.00
Food by the Pound, popular in DC, I would say easy to spend $13, but to be conservative: $8-10

Okay, so this weeks lunch (Chicken or Salmon Rice Bowls):
Salmon, 11.99 for 8 servings =  $1.50 
Chicken, 8.99 for 5 servings  (Chicken was on sale this week!) = $1.80
Goat Cheese, 7.99 for 10 servings = $.80
Bag of Brown Rice (it does pay to buy by unit price, more on that in a future post) $5.99 and used 1/4 bag for 8 servings- so 1/4 bag cost $1.50 turn that into 8 servings and we have: $.19 
Dill and Parsley, 1.09 for each bunch and we used 1/2 for lunch, so .55 for 10 servings, $.055- since the parsley and dill are the same price dill will be $.05 and have parsley at $.06
Oranges, $1.20 each 4 servings = $.40 
Greek Yogurt, 32 oc container cost 2.99 or .09 per ounce, the serving size is 1T or .5 Ounces, rounding up= $.05

TOTAL COST for Monica's Salmon: $3.05     for Nick's Chicken: $3.35

So I may not have beat out Lean Cuisine in cost but maybe in taste :) At least now when I say it is cheaper to bring your lunch, and a complex lunch at that, I can be assured that it is not a lie.

What are you planning for lunch next week?  

I am thinking another round of rice bowls with a Mexican flair, can you say AVOCADO?! 

Happy Friday!

My Standing Desk

I had a co-worker, a few jobs back in 2010, who came in on his first day and started setting up boxes in his cube. I questioned what he was doing and he informed me that he was creating a standing desk. Curious as to why he would want to stand and work all day, I started to do my own research on the benefits of standing at your work station.

I found plenty of skeptics pointing out that not enough scientific studies had been completed to verify that standing all day was healthy or more healthy then sitting, and others questioning what standing for an extended period of time would do to your knees. I recently received this picture below as a PDF from my employer that really summed up why people should consider standing at their desk, The Health Hazards of Sitting. Standing at your desk does not need to be a 8 hour affair. Personally, I aim for 6 hours a day, but everyone is different and you definetly have to build your muscles and tolerance to standing for extended periods of time.

In short, I decided to stand at my workstation for a few days to see if I could/should/wanted to invest in this idea of a standing desk. I immediately noticed a difference in my attention span, a greater attention to detail , and I felt more awake throughout the day. In 2010, I stood for roughly six months and then moved to a different organization and enjoyed sitting on a ball chair. I recently was motivated to get back into the grove of standing though, once again, a new co-worker coming in and setting up boxes in his cube.

I tried to go the box building route again, but got discouraged when everything wiggled, so I started looking at buying a standing desk set-up. Depending on the sophistication of the set-up prices vary; for my needs I wanted something that would work within my current cubical setting. I found standing desks for $69.99 up to $851.05. But given that I am frugal, I wanted to find the best quality for the lowest price possible. So, I decided to make my own!

What I used:

• Measuring Tape
• Wood Glue
• Nail Gun with 2" nails 
• Pine Wood 
• Sandpaper
• Home Depot's Wood Cutting Personnel :) 

First off, I need to thank my dad for walking me through my design and my uncle for letting me use his nail gun and teaching me how to use the nail gun- that was a very important piece!! Nick also deserves a round of applause for agreeing to hold the boards while I nailed them together and he managed to come out of the experience without any holes in his hands. He is a brave man :)

Since this is not a woodworking blog, I will not bore you with the details of creating the boxes, but I will break out the cost analysis.

I made two boxes, one for my monitor and one for my keyboard/mouse. In total, I needed  11ft of 3/4in board 8 inches wide of wood. I went with pine because it is a cheaper wood, lightweight,and would look good in my gray office space.

So here is the cost breakdown:

11ft of 3/4in board 8 inches wides Pine: $25.58
Wood Glue, smallest bottle available: $3.83
Nail Gun and Nails : FREE- this was a huge cost and time saver for me
Sandpaper: $3.97
Cutting of the Wood : FREE- nice trick to know at Home Depot they will do basic cuts for you at no cost

Total Cost: $ 33.38

Total Cost Savings: $36.61 
My cost saving on this project is based on if I were to have bought the cheapest standing desk option I found at $69.99.


Total time for the project: 4 Hours and 25 Minutes
This includes measuring the needed height for the boxes at my work station (10 mins), laying out the design and getting feedback (30 mins), going to Home Depot for supplies (1.5 hrs), setting up and learning to use the nail gun (30 mins), assembling the box (45 mins), and sanding (1 hour).

At the end of the day, I believe this project was well worth the investment of time and money for the benefits of a healthier work environment. If you want to learn more about the specifics on putting together your own standing desk, shoot me an email or toss a comment on the bottom and I am happy to give you some more details.

Happy Standing!

The Game Plan

After writing my first post, I was feeling excited to begin our "elimination of debt" journey. We took our first step forward this weekend by determining if we could take our financial planner’s advice and actually move to living on only one of our incomes and using the second income solely for debt. After a few varied budget mock ups, we have devised a plan.

We are able to cover our monthly bills: rent, groceries, entertainment, gas, cell phones, and savings under one income. The second income is covering our minimum monthly student loan payments, credit card payments, and the extra will be used toward decreasing our debt. We have looked at the flow of our income, as it relates to the preset bill payment days, and though March will be a little tight we have been able to adjust our spending pattern to adapt to our paycheck cycle.

Now it was time to finally look at the hard numbers...what a sobering moment:  

Overall Debt (Credit Card and Student Loans):  appx $180,000

Estimated Time to Payoff (based on current income): 7 Years, 6 Months

Adding up all of our debt to see the total balance has already made me question if we can actually become debt free or if we are just setting ourselves up for failure. I am trying to stay optimistic and I am hoping that once we get going it will become second nature and we will just keep pushing forward.

I have not been able to figure out how to add long-term interest to my calculation, so I know our debt amount will increase over the course of this process; however, I also have faith that our income will increase over the years (hopefully we will find a lost inheritance!) and we will be able to put more towards our debt- so hopefully, they will balance one another out.  

Nick and I have already started talking about second jobs, but having done that for three years I am hesitant to go back. However if you live in the DC area and need help with IKEA furniture, I am more than happy to help! For friends, I work for pizza and beer but given the current situation I think I may need to renegotiate :)

To end on a positive note, our new budget actually has us putting $50 in saving each month, as a direct deposit, so hopefully this will provided us an opportunity to celebrate our little victories along the way. Our first goal is to pay off my Credit Card. I will keep you posted on how we are doing and any fun new ways we learn to save money.