Challenge Results

Hi guys! Last week I embarked on my first week-long challenge. I challenged myself to not spend money on eating out for lunch all week, Sunday through Saturday.

Well, it ended up being kind of a crazy week–I accepted a new job offer and my friends and family were so excited–we did a lot of celebrating. 🙂  All in all, I feel like I succeeded.

Here’s what I ate:

Sunday: Pizza. Managers ordered us lunch. It was pretty gross but whatever. It was free.

Monday: I ate leftovers from home. Sunday night I had made home made “Chipotle bowls” with pulled pork, rice, beans, corn, salsa, sour cream and cheese. So much better than real Chipotle!

Tuesday: My coworkers found out I had gotten the job, even though I was trying to keep it under wraps because I hadn’t yet gotten the offer from HR in writing. I didn’t know how the financials were going to shake out so I didn’t want to claim victory yet, but they were so excited for me that they took me to a celebratory lunch. We went to our favorite Mexican joint. We shared queso with chorizo and then I had three tacos: steak, tongue, fish. Delicious. It was their treat, and it felt good to relax and feel happy for myself.

Wednesday: I had a bad day. I had to really, really fight the urge to go to my favorite pho spot. I instead went to the grocery store per Christine’s suggestion and bought delicious sandwich ingredients and cookies. Dark pumpernickel bread, spicy mustard for one side, red pepper hummus for the other. Pepper jack cheese, sliced turkey and baby spinach. The cookies were just sugar cookies. I consider these groceries–not eating out–because this’ll last me quite some time.

Thursday: Leftovers! Wednesday night I made a delicious creamy chicken, mushroom, rice dish.

Friday: I officially accepted the job offer. Mom was ecstatic. She took me to lunch. We had wraps at Whole Foods. I got the Bus Barn! Do all the Whole Foods have the same sandwich bar? It’s barbecue chicken (normally on focaccia bread, but I get it in a spinach wrap), with spicy mayo, lettuce and roasted red peppers. Pressed and melty. Mmm.

Saturday: An old friend was in from out of town and we went out to celebrate the new job. We went to a new Italian place. We shared an appetizer of fried eggplant, and I had a small portion of the fresh frattura, which is pork ragu, bay leaf-scented tomato and red chile. It was delicious and totally worth it. Meal total with tip: $20

So even though I ended up eating out three times–definitely more than what I had planned–I only spent $20 total, so I feel like I didn’t do too bad, especially considering the circumstances!  Also, the previous week I had eaten a lot of cheap, terrible junk and I was feeling generally gross.  I feel much better now.

I´ve enjoyed reading about what you´re all doing for Thanksgiving.  I´m an only child and my entire family lives in Mexico, so after my dad passed away, my mom and I decided to have our own tradition, just the two of us.  We started running the Turkey Day Race in New Orleans´ beautiful City Park every Thanksgiving morning.  It´s only 5 miles and it starts at 8am, so we´re done by 10am at the latest, and so we go home and shower and sleep.  It´s great.  But, since I got married last year we´ve modified this a little.  Michael comes with us to the Turkey Day Race and then in the afternoon we go to his aunt´s house for traditional Thanksgiving time.  This year I think I´ll be bringing a crawfish cornbread.  Last year we only stayed a few hours because we were tired from the race.  I suspect this year will be the same.  Thanksgiving is a good day to rest, because for me, work from Black Friday to Christmas is absolutely nuts.

Thanks for all your encouragement and kind words this week.