Posted by Canadian Dream on September 24, 2009
I’ll be completely honest for a moment here. I know I don’t need lots of tools, electronics or kitchen gadgets that I own in my life. I could very easily live without them, but I choose to keep them because I like them. Not a great reason I know, but you always need some things in your life that really don’t make logical sense. So here are my top five toys and things I like, but really don’t need.
- Deep Frier – I eat way more deep fried items because of this thing than I need to, but the problem is it tastes so good. Try fresh homemade ginger beef and you will want to stop eating out for Chinese food.
- Bread Maker – This is purely a way to be lazy about making dough. I rarely cook any bread in it. Yet I can make better sweet dough for cinnamon buns in the machine than I can by hand.
- Surround Sound – It’s a nice to have toy for watching movies, but strictly speaking not required at all.
- MP3 Player – I love to take this on plane trips or when I take the bus to work. Small, compact and tonnes of musically choice regardless of what I’m in the mood for. Yet I could also read a book, so I don’t have to have it.
- The Second Computer – This was purely an accident that I bought a laptop and decided to keep the old desktop as well. Now it’s just handy to have one of them purely for my writing hobby.
I noticed something interesting about that list. Most of the items on that were gifts from other people. So perhaps that is why I get these items. I just buy want I really need and let other people buy me the excess items. So what do you have you like, but really don’t need?
Posted by Canadian Dream on September 23, 2009
Every once in a while you get an opportunity to do something so different from your comfort zone that you figure if you do it you will be either: a) brave by doing it or b) decide it is breathtakingly stupid idea so you don’t do it. At the time your really not sure which one it is.
These opportunities are really just a testing zone. Can you expand your horizons? Can you deal with the unknown? Can you suck up your fear and do it anyway? By facing these choices and choosing to make choice a) above you grow as a person and often find yourself happier for trying (and even failing at times) than giving up before you start if you picked b).
If you plan to retire early making choice a) is more important than you realize, because that is exactly the choice you face when you decide to retire. Really let’s face it, regardless of your planning or simulations you could be making a breathtakingly stupid decision to retire early. The fact is you really won’t know if you did the right thing until after you did it.
To leave the comfort of how everyone else does it takes dedication and bravery. By saving enough to even consider this choice you will have shown you are dedicated, but are you brave enough? You won’t know until you try and you are often better off trying at some smaller decisions before you ever get close to retirement. Test the waters by living out of your comfort zone and try something that you were planning on waiting until retirement to do.
It will likely be hard work to do. It will make you doubt your decision to try and you will likely feel like giving up at sometime. These are all good things as you can learn how you react to big challenges. Taking the road less travelled is hard at times, but it does make all the difference.
Posted by Canadian Dream on September 22, 2009
Well I’m doing my best to avoid hosting Thanksgiving this year, but for those of you that are thinking about hosting it I’ll offer the following suggestions to cut down your costs and keep your stress level down. After all, what’s the point of hosting if you don’t enjoy yourself a bit.
- Get a Free Turkey. Yes that’s right. Superstore currently has a flier that if you do you usual grocery run for a month you might get a free turkey out of the deal.
- If not Free, Then Go Utility Grade. It might be missing a wing or something, but really you likely won’t notice the difference in taste. Also don’t overestimate the amount of meat people will eat. I typically see lots of leftovers at most dinners because people buy too big of a turkey. If you are going to have a very small group consider just buying turkey breasts and skip the entire bird.
- Delegate Cool Items. If possible get your guests to each bring a salad, buns, dessert item or a wine. Cut down your cooking work and save yourself the stress especially when cooking for a large group. You can even delegate hot items if you have a place to heat them up (oven or slow cooker).
- Keep it Simple. Don’t have too many dishes. Keep it easy for yourself and do the basic: turkey, potato, gravy and stuffing if you are delegating cooking. If you are cooking everything then just add in perhaps two salads you can do in advance. For truly great potatoes try adding a bit of buttermilk or sour cream when you mash them. Also keep any seasonal decorating in the house to a dead minimum.
- Pre-Plan. Do as much work as possible before your guests arrive. Avoid recipes that you have to do at the last minute. It’s possible to have a great meal with you only making gravy after your guests arrive.
- Accept Help. If someone offers to help serve, clean up, take coats or just about anything: take it! Especially when hosting a large group, the clean up is a pain and can take a while.
- Cheat. You don’t have to make everything from scratch, especially if you are not a great cook. I never make buns from scratch for a big gathering, it’s too much work given the cost to buy some. Also consider borrowing items that you might find useful like an extra coffee thermos or slow cooker to keep things warm.
- Relax. At some point make sure to sit down for a while and just enjoy everyone being there. The dishes can wait a few minutes and you will at least feel like it was worth it.
Well that’s my brief guide to a cheaper and stress reduced holiday. What’s worked for you? If you have an idea please share.
