Book Review: The Frantic Woman's Guide to Life

Aside from reading other women's blogs and checking out my favorite (now defunct) magazine, I haven't really done much investigation into the methods used by others to organize their homes, lives, and checkbooks. Well, it turns out that the local library has quite the selection of books on this subject! While browsing, I thought this book might help me out, so I took it home:

The Frantic Woman's Guide to Life
by: Mary Jo Rulnick

What I loved about this book: The book is separated into three sections: the first is for year-round issues, the second is for issues by month, and the third is a bunch of extra stuff that may or may not be helpful (i.e. a few recipes, lists of things to take on a car trip, etc.). For the most part, I went through the monthly sections in part two to see what advice I could glean. Each month provides a lot of information about commonly celebrated holidays, issues that generally pop up during that month, and helpful tips on preparation for upcoming months. And, best of all (for my list-making-obsessed self), every month has a checklist at the end of it that contains all of the tips in the chapter.

End of chapter checklist for May.

What I disliked about this book: The author really tries to account for women in all stages of adult life. However, I found that there wasn't a whole lot of special information geared towards women living with boyfriends/husbands that do not have children. It's almost as if the author assumed that all readers were either married with kids, or single. A great example was the February chapter, which featured lots of suggestions around Valentines Day - most of them for celebrations and craft projects with children, or ideas for single women without a significant other to spend the day with. Additionally, much of the advice is for home-owners (which I am not) and didn't really account for women in other situations (like apartments, renters, etc.). It was a little off-putting, but not enough to outweigh the rest of the great advice in the book. Plus, this might (over time) make the book more useful - you could use the advice as it pertains to your life now, and then revisit it with a different perspective when you do have children.

Overall Recommendation: This is a good one! I was sad to have to return it to the library, and am considering looking for a second-hand copy somewhere that I can keep. I need it just for the spring cleaning checklist (it's nearly 4 pages long and contains a lot of things that I would never even dream about cleaning!)! However, I'd suggest checking it out from the library first and seeing how much you like it - if you're not a big list person, then you might not be as much of a fan as I am. :)

I need some suggestions...

Matt and I both graduated from college a year and a half ago. Man, are we proud of those super fancy diplomas we put all of that hard work into! We got them, put them in matching frames, and then... they sat in a closet.

It seems kind of silly that this THING that I put so much work into is sitting in a closet collecting dust, but I have no idea what to do with it! I could take it to work, I suppose, but no one in my office has their diplomas on the wall, and we tend to move offices a lot anyway. I could display them in the living room, but I don't know if that's tacky or not.

If you have one, what did you do with your college diploma?

Grocery Blogging

What better time for a grocery post than during the new Top Chef episode! Seriously, I'm in love with Stefan and Fabio in this season. How can you NOT love watching Team Europe talk smack to each other?

Anyway, I went grocery shopping tonight (finally! It's been on my to-do list since Sunday) at the local grocery store. I started out with a decent list - some staples and some bits and pieces for recipes this week - and I have to admit that I succumbed to a few of the sales. Here's what I came away with:

• 2 1-pound packages of tofu
• 5 Lean Cuisines (5 for $10... I don't love them, but they are good for the nights that I have to eat dinner at work) - not on the list
  
• Almost 3 pounds of grapes - not on the list
  
• A 2.5 pound head of cauliflower - not on the list
  
• Can of corn, can of stewed tomatoes, and can of black beans for black bean soup
• Ricotta, parmesan, and mozzarella cheeses for lasagna
• Whole wheat english muffins
• Veggie broth
• 1/2 gallon of milk
• A dozen eggs

Total spent: $43.17. Not too bad. This means I have $106.83 left in my grocery budget for my February Food Challenge. Now you might be wondering - why didn't Becca buy many fresh fruits and veggies? Well my friends, I also got my Fresh Abundance box this week! I haven't shared a picture of an actual box yet, so here it is:

There are all kinds of awesome things in here: apples, oranges, pears, bananas, tomatoes, an avocado, an onion, a red pepper, a head of lettuce, two heads of broccoli, a bunch of collard greens, and a fresh bunch of cilantro. I am so excited about the fresh cilantro I can't even tell you. I've never cooked with it before, and I'm excited to find a recipe to try early next week (recommendations welcome)!

Project 13: Stationary Supplies

Despite the fact that I am absolutely horrible at keeping in touch with people, I really enjoy writing and sending letters and cards. Even in the age of email, there's something so fun about getting a physical letter from a far-off place (haha, I just made Spokane sound whimsical)! Unfortunately, I've had my address book, cards, stationary, and card making supplies spread all over my apartment for the last year, making it incredibly difficult to find anything when I needed it. This, of course, meant that I didn't end up sending what I needed to (uh... Christmas cards? Yeah, those didn't happen). So this weekend, I embarked on Project 13: Stationary Supplies, to organize all of my thank-you notes, stationary, cards, etc.

Step 1: Round it all up in one place.

Card making supplies and stationary.

Step 2: Neatly arrange it all in a pretty box.Everything all neatly arranged in it's new home!

Step 3: Put the lid on and store that bad boy!
So much prettier and easy to find!

The most important part of this process was getting rid of all of the superfluous packaging! I didn't realize how much space a little pack of thank-you notes took up because of its little box - and when you have 10 little boxes, so much room is lost! Also, the box I used is a photo storage box from Michaels; when I bought it, they were on sale for under $4 a piece. They fit cards and envelopes very nicely, and come with little dividers that you could use to separate cards by type if you wanted. I highly recommend them.

February Budget

One of my New Years Resolutions for 2009 is to make a budget and stick to it. Unfortunately, I fell down pretty hard on this one in January. I actually have no idea how much money I spent last month - I could figure it out if I really wanted to, but I don't. It's depressing.

Well, it's time for a change! I'm taking Krystal's February Food Challenge, which for me is going to be $250 - $150 for groceries, and $100 for food out (food at work and meals out). This is going to be a challenge, since we'll be spending a three day weekend in Portland this month, and Valentine's Day always prompts food purchases. Honestly, though, menu-planning and packing a lunch for work seem to have really taken care of a lot of my miscellaneous food expenses, so I think this is totally doable if I commit to bringing my lunch and saving the $100 for a date night or two and Portland!

I'm also going back to the Fritter Finder spreadsheet that I used for several months at the end of last year to keep track of expenses. I've set a goal for myself of keeping miscellaneous spending below $400 for the month - which will be a challenge for sure considering the Portland trip and a few other adventures I have planned for the month.

If nothing else, I figure February is a short month, so it can't be too hard to meet these goals, right? :D

Storing Magazines

I love love LOVE magazines. I love getting them in the mail. I love flipping through the pages and seeing all the glossy photos and the bold headlines. I even enjoy the ads; it's the bright colors, creative photography, and snappy wording that gets me every time. Unfortunately, this means I have a LOT of them, and there is nothing harder than trying to declutter a ridiculously huge stack of magazines.

My magazine storage bin at home.

You're probably wondering - what the heck is that binder in there for? Well, that's my magazine decluttering secret! Every time the bin gets full, I take all of them out and put them "in the binder". Let me show you how it works:

Magazine, binder, three-hole punch, paper, scissors.

Basically, the reason that I usually hold on to a magazine is for an article or two - but what's the point of keeping an entire magazine just for that? If the article is double-sided, I rip the whole page out, hole punch it, and stick it in the binder. If it's a smaller article, only taking up part of a page, I clip it and attach it to a sheet of notebook paper. Then the magazine gets recycled!

Finished product!

It is so much easier to flip through the pages of a notebook looking for an article than shifting through a stack of magazines trying to remember which one it was in. Anyway, I just thought I'd share this little tip with you all - it's helped me keep down the clutter tremendously.

Menu Plan Monday

Oops! I totally forgot that I hadn't posted my menu for this week yet! I bought a little magnetized Menu Plan pad for the fridge at Michaels, and didn't even realize that I had yet to transfer it! Oops! Anyway, this week is going to be a kind of eat-what's-in-the-pantry/fridge/freezer week, so not a whole lot in the cooking from scratch department. Don't forget to check out Org Junkie's website for more menu-planners!

Monday (class night): Leftovers (I have Shepherd's Pie, Matt has pulled chicken)

Tuesday: Spaghetti and steamed veggies; garlic bread if I make it to the store before dinner!

Wednesday: Tofu and veggies and brown rice in this stuff:


Thursday (class night): Soup and grilled cheese

Friday: Black Bean Vegetable Soup

Saturday: Miracle Lasagna and some veggies/garlic bread on the side

Sunday: Maybe a trip out for Thai food? Either that or leftovers.