A documentation of my journey to improve my life
Category: Scale My Life Blog
Big Plans For The Day This was supposed to be a good day. Actually I’ve been looking forward to this day for a while. Funny how just when you think things are going fine and you’ve got everything under control, that’s when life will pick you up, whip you around and land you so drastically off course that you’re not sure how you’ll find your way again. I woke up at 6am on Friday nervous and excited about the busy...
My old roommate and good friend Ryan Majeau and I often debate, about pretty much everything (we’re both stubborn). One time we got into an argument (debate) about whether it was more expensive to buy your lunch out everyday or spend the time to make a bag lunch. His argument was always for eating out. He figured by the time he bought bread, lunch meat, cheese, and veggies to make a sandwich, then added a granola bar and maybe an...
Well folks, I made it. 7 days living off of $56.45. Here’s how the score broke down: 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup $1.78 Mickey of Alberta premium whisky $12.64 Red pepper $2.97 Green pepper $ 1.15 Sweet onion $1.12 Cilantro $1.29 2 cans of 6 bean mix $1.94 1 can of corn $1.47 .67kg of black beans $2.65 1.03kg of brown basmati rice $5.20 5 mushroom Mr.Noodle packs $1.65 1 box of Safeway brand KD $.69 1/2 dozen...
Who’s Got What It Takes To Live Without? Of course living on $56 for food, gas, entertainment, and booze for a week is crazy; it’s ridiculous, drastic, and near impossible. That’s the point! This challenge is supposed to be an exercise in extreme budgeting practice. It’s meant to throw you in an uncomfortable situation and see how (and if) you handle it. What if $56 is all you had? What if your world changed in a second and you had no other choice...
Self Inflicted Pain My first day of this new challenge was by far the most difficult. Being so busy rushing around with the end of last months cooking challenge I didn’t get a chance to go grocery shopping for this month. This meant when I woke up day one I was somewhat limited on my food selection. From 6am when I woke up until after 8pm all I had to eat was two eggs and two granola bars, which I had to...
Date night with Lee. My will is shaken, but not broken!
“Why only budget $250 for a month, that’s crazy!” Let me first begin with my motivation for this month’s budget challenge. I suck at budgeting This could be due to a lot of reasons but mostly because I am simply not a planner. Planning involves foresight, scheduling and attention to detail, all things I’m not naturally astute at (unless you look on my resume). I’m more of a spontaneous, adventurous kind of guy. I plan what I have to (the big stuff...
My name is Richard Groves. I’m 33 years old, a native of Kelowna, BC (one of the few who actually grew up here!) and I like long walks on the beach. I met Ryan about a year ago through the Kelowna Jaycees (Jr Chamber). I live a fairly frugal lifestyle. I walk to work so I won’t have any vehicle expenses to worry about this week (the 50cc scooter isn’t insured..yet!), I never really stopped eating like a Uni student...
THE CHALLENGE “In an effort to BE BETTERTM I’m going to challenge myself to live on $250 for the entire calendar month of March”. Ryan said it with a completely straight-face. I nodded and smiled and made all the right encouraging noises but in my head my initial reaction was ‘why would anyone actually want to do this?!’ My wife Lee and I, both being accountants, already run monthly family budget spreadsheets that we use to regiment our spending. We’re...
I had it all planned out. This was the last night of my 1 roast 3 meals challenge and I wasn’t going to let it kick my ass again. The first night was a marathon of beef cooking and the second was a chaotic pot pie experiment. Both nights I got distracted and both nights we ended up eating after 10 o’clock. But that wasn’t going to happen again. This time I had a plan. Step 1: Where did I go wrong?...
