The Little Things

It's been months since I've written anything here, so this will seem like an odd post, but I want to talk about. . .groceries.  Well really, all of the little tasks that seemingly don't take that long, but collectively vacuum up loads of time.  Like grocery shopping, meal planning, cooking, laundry, cleaning the house.  I revel in doing some of these things when there is time (ie, cooking--never, ever laundry), but in recent months, there has not been much extra time.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, T is living in a different city a few hundred miles from here.  It is far from ideal.  We decided to move to the country we are currently living in because we thought it would be easy for him to work here.  That, and the fact that it is relatively stable, were the primary factors in our decision making.  We thought we would have a pleasant few years living here, and it seemed like a good time to get out of America (and holy god, that was an accurate assessment--but I'll save that subjectd for another time).  Unfortunately, getting him the legal permissions he needs to work here turned out to be waaaay more complicated than we anticipated, possibly because they changed the rules after we started this process, but that, too is a story for another day.  He likes his job in the city we were living in before we moved here, so we decided that he would keep it until everything got cleared up here, which we thought would happen within a few months.  Unfortunately, "a few months" stretched to 6+.  So, he is there and we are here, and he comes and visits every couple of weeks.  It is not ideal, but we are making it work.

Which gets to my lack of time.  Because I am on my own with the girls, I have tried to streamline basic tasks.  I want to spend my time with them, not doing things around the house.  They complain pretty regularly that I am too busy doing THINGS, vs. spending time with them, and it's true that I am having a hard time balancing it all--work, kid activities, mundane chores, SLEEP.

It got especially bad with meals.  There was no incentive for me to make creative meals, because they kids simply turned their noses up, and it didn't feel worth the trouble to make elaborate meals for myself.  But then it felt like we were eating nothing but pizza, pasta, and chicken, and something really had to give.  I was feeling terrible, too.  A friend told me about a meal box service she was using, and invited me over one night to try one of the meals.  It was pretty good, but I still wasn't sold.  I've tried all of the major meal boxes (ie, the ones that deliver groceries and recipes each week) in the U.S., and while some of the recipes were good, I'd found them a) expensive, and b) still time consuming.

BUT.  While I was checking out the meal boxes offered in this country, I found one that offers the ingredients ALREADY CUT UP.  All of the meals can be made in 20 minutes or less.  So I thought I would give it a shot.

It has turned out to be a godsend.  First of all, the meals are delicious, and there is huge variety.  Second, the portions are generous.  A two person meal easily serves the girls and I, AND there is enough left over for my lunch the next day.  That alone is saving us a ton of money, because I had been unable to get my act together to make my lunch every day, and now it's done in one fell swoop.  The girls are trying lots of new things, which is great.  The meal kits are flexible enough that I can generally make the meals a bit blander and plainer for them, while still making my portions spicier and more complex.  And here is the real kicker:  my grocery bill is waaaay down.  When I meal plan, I typically end up with more leftovers, and/or leftover ingredients (ie, you don't need a whole container of basil, but you spend the money on it, and then it goes bad before you can think of another way to use it or remember to freeze it).  With this, I'm not paying for all of the ingredients I'm not using.  And there are not too many packing materials with this particular service, either, like some of the ones I've used in the past.

So, dinner is fun again.  And it's quick.  And it's easy.  And I'm eating better.  And I'm saving money.  I would have never thought all of that was possible.  I thought that by spending the money, I was mabe making my life a little easier, but it turned out to have a whole host of benefits that I did not even realize, including actually saving me money.

Now if I can just find a hack for the laundry and the cleaning.