The Economy of Jobs

Yesterday, I was on my Facebook and I saw an article about a law student who is suing her school because she can't find employment.

First Reaction: Honey, it's not the schools job to get you a job.

Second Reaction: I get the disappointment. We are told the expected steps of life which includes the idea that college will feed naturally into employment. Many schools promise employment eligibility as part of their marketing pitch which often gets confused with employment guarantees. It's not the same, but people think it is.

The idea that even law students are struggling intrigued me, so I looked up the current job market for prospective law alumnus. Surprisingly, compared to the 91% rating before 2008, it actually doesn't look that great. A job that has historically signified wealth and stability, now has students pulling in poverty level jobs while carrying massive tuition debts to the tune of 100,000 or 150,000. Some law schools are going so far as to invent programs to incubate their alumnus who are unable to find work by either reimbursing a percentage of their tuition or creating law firms within the school itself and hiring their students.

I can't imagine the interest rate is all that great either. Talk about financial slavery. It's worse than loan sharking.

Is the problem the school, the student, the tuition, or the market?

I started to compare the traditional epitome of a college education to my own education in massage therapy, a skill type education, for clarification.

Skill type educations are traditionally looked down on and viewed as leading to impoverished and limited lives. That is, if you call learning how to live longer with more strength and flexibility, relieving pain and discomfort in others, having a lifetime to continue studying and practicing a passion, and travel the world while doing so limited. Yea, I'm sure that's way more limited than studying in one school for three years and then having an office in one town you don't dare leave while "hopefully" making ridiculous money. Really, it's just different strokes for different folks.

Honestly, the real issue there is budgeting practices vs life goals, but that's a whole other blog.

Anyway, refocus back to this subject. After only 6,000 and one year of my life in massage school, I could find a job and pull in figures anywhere from 10-70,000 depending on where and how much I want work. Did I mention full time for massage therapists is only 17 hours a week? That's a win for the writer in me. Again, a job is not guaranteed, but it's likely, because according to the American Massage Therapy Associations website, the industry is one of the fasted growing in America by whopping 11% a year.

(Pause: 6,000 debt vs 100,000 in debt yet both currently have about same earning power for the first 5 years. Let that sink in. Now, if you really have to, get some paper and a pencil and do the math. Financially, which situation is really the better one here?)

Let's also not forget that degree markets are totally saturated thanks to over emphasis of the importance of a college education over the last few decades. Don't get me wrong, I completely value my college education for the critical thinking it gave me and no small amount of pride. However, it did not guarantee me any well paying jobs which is what this article is about.

Let's put some perspective on this based on numbers I found between 2009-2011 that illustrates supply and demand.
Population                                                  Percentage of United States

United States            ~309,349,689
Massage Therapists  ~ 288,546                  0.00093%
Lawyers                   ~1,225,452                0.004%
Nurses                     ~3,966,939                0.13%
Mechanics               ~763,700                   0.0025%

(Pause: Can we just cry for a second for the poor nurses? My 2008 graduating class was basically shoved towards becoming something in medicine for stability and baby boomer reasons. Once the boomers are gone though, then what? Hopefully those nurses are working towards their plan B.)

Who has the better deal here? Who is more financially better off and more able to function as an adult in society? Who has more spending or buying power the lawyer or the massage therapist? Who is more affordable or in more demand the one with skills or the one with a degree?

Basically, I am living the millennial realization.

My skill job is more immediately going to put me in a better situation financially, emotionally, and physically, than my graduate degree.

Why?

You could argue that in a perfect job market, where everything was working the way it was supposed to, lawyers would quickly pay off their debts and live in incredible situations within ten years that even the massage therapists could never have. The market, however, isn't perfect. It never was and never will be.

Let's also not forget the human factor. Like everything else in life, your career ultimately becomes what you put into it. The title doesn't matter as much as the work and the passion you put in, because that will always have some kind of satisfying pay off down the road. You may have to take a few other jobs so you can, I don't know, actually afford food until you get that pay off, but if that's your dream and you study and apply it, it will happen.

Now I know there are people out there who are smarter than me and can see all the little loopholes in this argument I am making, and probably a few of them are unemployed law students with too much time on their hands. That's o.k. I know that there are instances where I could be wrong.

Here are a few things I think you'd agree with.

• It is cruel to put people into un-affordable situations and essentially make them financial slaves to a dream that may never be. 
• The problem isn't the job market, the problem is partly the tuition cost. Less money going into student debt means more spending power for the economy which, by the way, means more jobs for graduates.
• Saturated markets don't hire. The more college graduates their are, the less meaning that diploma will have.
• The schools business isn't revolved around babysitting, but educating and letting the students take charge of their own lives.
• All these data points I made mean nothing in the face of work ethic, trial and error, and how actively the individual decides to pursue the field of their education. 
• Being a fantastic (insert dream job here) is a choice. It's up to me to put in the work, to continue my education, to continue to be passionate, to put myself into situations where I can succeed. All that is on my shoulders and success in my chosen career is determined by me and not my school.

Next time I really should focus on school tuition or budget finesse because, gosh darn it, we Americans are ridiculous on both fronts.

Each time I post here I am thankful for the opportunity to keep in practice what I know. I know my writing is still imperfect. In fact, I know some grammar police may look at these articles and sniff at some of my choices, but hey, that's what community is for.

Look! I was a responsible post-English grad and actually saved my sources! That, or I just know how to use the history bar.

Sources
http://abovethelaw.com/2015/08/law-school-to-issue-50-tuition-refunds-to-grads-who-cant-find-jobs/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attorneys_in_the_United_States

https://www.amtamassage.org/articles/3/MTJ/detail/1837

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States

http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/total-registered-nurses/

https://www.studentscholarships.org/professions/150/employed/automotive_service_technicians_and_mechanics.php

The Purposes of Sugar

I just watched yet another documentary in a stream of documentaries that seem to say a lot of the same thing.

We are fat.
And it's the organizations fault.

That's just grand isn't it? Now that so many people know that the government and "Big Food" are out to kill their consumer base, everything should be quick and easy to fix right?

Yeah. No.

Here's the thing. I think pointing fingers does absolutely nothing to solve the problem. The science is there. A lot of science actually. More science than a McDonald's filled with big macs. We know that convenient food in all it's form (not just fast food) is slowly killing us. I did enjoy the picturesque comparison that the documentary made of how soda is the new cigarette. That's pretty on the nose when you consider how quickly sugar is absorbed and consumed from a single can; not to mention the dissolving effect carbon has on bones.

This is not new knowledge though.

It hasn't been new for decades, if you're to believe the research of the documentary "Fed Up."

So why has nothing changed?

I have a few theories.

The first being that the arguments used today are exactly the same arguments people with interests made back in the early days of America when we wrote the Constitution. Back then, there were strong arguments for the abolishing of slavery in the new United States of America, but that obviously didn't happen until much later. Why? What people may not remember, is that a big argument used to keep slavery was that it would put too big a strain on the new economy that was still recovering from the Revolutionary War.

Similarly, the food industry is using the economy, freedom of speech, and freedom of choice to keep it's doors open. Put yourself in their shoes. Wouldn't you be terrified if you were told that the cow that has given you milk to sell for decades was giving bad milk? You would do everything you could to argue for your livelihood and to keep the status quo of what you know has been working all along. Even if someone told you to trade for a new, healthier cow to save your consumers, you'd hesitate to do so wouldn't you? Especially if you hadn't tasted any success or seen any evidence of this new cows ability to support you.

Needless to say. I don't like painting businesses as bad guys. It's not the people so much as it is the nature of business itself. They do what they have to do in order to continue existing. That's it.

The government on the other hand has tried several times to fix the issue. The problem is people don't like given the government too many prerequisite laws they can exploit later. Banning stuff never seems to work anyway. Positive propaganda, on the other hand, does wonders for consumer opinion. Remember the meth commercials? I still have nightmares. What needs to change, is the people.

Which brings me to theory two. These businesses wouldn't exist at all in the form that they do if there weren't consumers to buy the products that they sell. You can argue all you like about long work hours and lack of cooking experience and other excuses, but at the end of it all, that's all anyone has, excuses. Long work hours? You have days off to prepare don't you? Why buy into the sedentary cultural norm of sleep, work, tv? Lack of cooking experience? If you're going to watch tv anyway, it wouldn't kill you to spend a few minutes on a show or a "how to" YouTube video, or you could send a teenager to work in a kitchen and bring back the knowledge he/she gains there. You have friends. Doesn't even just one of them know how to BBQ?

It's tough to change and it's tougher to ask these questions, but it is possible. It's all about the priorities.

Now finally, about sugar.

You all probably remember the cute polar bear ad of the family of polar bears drinking soda together, playing together, visiting the doctor together, getting insulin together, and finally together watching papa lose his leg. And I thought the meth commercials were scary. The end message was that sugar is deadly. It's the new tobacco.

So, all this got me thinking. What is the purpose of sugar in the diet anyway? What does it actually do for us? Is it anything positive?

A bit of research shows that other than turning into glucose for cell energy, which every starch and carb does anyway, all sugar uniquely does is provide taste and texture.

That's it.

Now, is it possible to change and combat this addictive substance?

It's probable.

I tried to be a vegan....well...98% vegan for three months. That experiment cleaned my pallet. Sugars while still appealing, weren't quite so demanding anymore. I now love vegetables and still find ways to eat mostly veggie based meals. I learned what it felt like to feel clean on the inside and I try to recapture that feeling with each meal.

So who knows. I think the key to solving our nations health crisis lies in the tiny choices on each plate, and inside each person, one bite at a time.

Now if they would only focus on the "how" of that in the documentaries.

A Whole New Level of WOW

It's no secret I love cool new things. I love technology, exploration, discovery and innovative ideas that make life better. I also love things that make me feel a little less guilty about the planet/healthier/like I can do it myself.

I've already discussed extensively why less stuff is just good overall for your general sense of well being and your wallet. How about we talk about less trash?

What do you think of when you think of the waste we throw out in a day?

This is what I can list without pausing: peels, packages, floss, tissues, nails, hair, damaged goods, food boxes and bags, dvd cases, sanitary stuff, empty lotion, cream, chemical, cleaning bottles, paper towels, fast food waste, messed up tape, Saran wrap....and I stutter to a stop there.

Bascially, I always believed trash was a thing and would always be a thing, like death, or taxes.

Then I found this YouTube video posted by Seeker Stories in April of 2010, which interviews a woman who only has one tiny mason jar of trash to show after two years of life. She doesn't even own a proper trash can.

How does this even happen? Especially in a society that the video claims throws out 4.3 lbs of trash per person per day?

Well, as the title of this video proudly proclaims, "You Can Live Without Producing Trash." The video then demonstrates how by choosing only the biodegradable, or living without, you can extremely reduce your waste (possibly, by increasing your laundry and travel expenses to composting sites, but hey, there are always sacrifices in this war against pollution).

The thing that caught my eye though, was the toothbrush.

It's bamboo. Like legitimate, food for fuzzy black and white cuddly pandas bamboo.

I love this idea and its not just because it has to do with pandas. I just like the idea of using something that won't sit uselessly for the next thousand years but can be broken down and fed back into the environment that supports me. All relationships are give and take after all and to me natural stuff done right is an investment, not a luxury.

A.D.D. Moment: Someday, I hope they can invent a thing that reduces the trash already buried in landfills back to their molecular state. In a sense, reverse the landfill. Wouldn't that be cool?

So, of course I did my research and found a website called Woobamboo, and wouldn't you know their mascot is a panda? They specialize in bamboo toothbrushes for you, your kids, and your pets and also have their own biodegradable floss (which comes naturally waxed). Eventually, they also want to sell their own brand of toothpaste that comes in biodegradable plastic tubes.

Ok, can we just pause for a minute and appreciate the fact the humanity is cool enough to even think of inventing biodegradable plastic? Science is so cool.

While exciting as this is, I still had a few questions about bamboo toothbrushes. What are the bristles made of? Are they dentist approved? Can you recycle ALL of the toothbrush? Is it affordable?

The answers?

The bristles are plastic like the other store toothbrushes, except they are recyclable with your other plastics. It just requires some plier pulling to separate the bristles from the stick and then you can use the wood for something else. If you are sighing about how having to do one more thing is ridiculous, let me remind you that retirement and the usual resulting inactivity will kill you. Having some tiny, regular things to do keeps you active and alive longer. Enough said.

Woobamboo claims they are dentist approved. It's always hard to really know the answer to that. According to the video I previously mentioned, there were no dentist complaints about her use of bamboo toothbrushes and homemade toothpastes, but I doubt she's downing the thousands of pounds of sugar the rest of America is consuming from their trash packages. Considering that, she might not even need a super powered toothbrush and fancy fluoride pumped paste to keep her purely whites buffed and well.

As for affordable, one Woobamboo toothbrush runs at 3.99, a four pack for 15, and a family pack for 17.50. Which is still a lot cheaper than the 6-12 dollar single toothbrushes you could find on Amazon. Now I know you've seen the 1.99 brushes at your grocery store, I have one, and admittedly, they aren't the best out there. You get what you pay for I guess.

I'm excited to see what else people can come up with. I expect to see a lot of cool innovations to wow me for the next fifty years.

The Thing About Creative Muses

This post started out on just some thoughts about finding and using your muse. However, since it seemed pointless to even talk about finding a muse if you don't know how to use it properly, I expanded the topic to include the entire creative process.

And so we have the following.

My Basic Formula

I realize that not everyone is going to, or even needs to, follow my exact formula. However, it is what works for me, so this is the framework for this discussion.

Routinely practice skill - Ask a question - Trigger the muse - Put it down - Question/Critique

Routinely Practice

Duh. Why do you think I have a blog?

Art is work. If anyone tells you otherwise, they don't get what art really is.

Not every post is muse driven. Most of my posts are driven by the simple need to practice and so I ask myself "what sounds interesting today?" and I go from there. This gives me space to be imperfect and to practice the more mundane skills like grammar, transition, and clarity. Besides, when your muse hits, it can only use what you skills you currently have.

Ask A Question

All new things started with the plausible answers to a question. Is there another way to have light besides fire? Lightning is bright. What if there was a way to capture it's energy?

I use questions to trigger thoughts that usually lead to stories that explain my answers. If practice is the laying out a fireplace, the question is the spark that starts it on fire.

All About Respecting Muses 
A muse is a habit, ritual, occurrence, person, pet, place, sound, touch, thing or combination thereof that gives rise to the creative inspirations.

That's great and all, but what if you don't know what your muse is?

All I can say is, trial, error, no small degree of self awareness, and practice at respecting the inspiration when it does come. By respect, I mean taking the time to really think it out, write it down, or do something to acknowledge it. That action creates a habit and a greater awareness for future inspirations.

Eventually, you'll start to get a sense of what circumstances will usually trigger your inspiration. I say usually, because inspiration can be fickle sometimes and requires a little ground work and some patience.

Putting it Down
As I kinda already said in the previous section, you have to respect the muse by acknowledging it. For me, that's writing notes on whatever I can get my hands on. Paper, pen, phone, scraps, whatever. Then as soon as is possible, I revisit those notes and flush out the broader thoughts I was thinking in a word document.

Questions and Critique
This is the part where I may butt heads with a few people. Some people get the impression that creative words, plays, movies, songs, just kind of appear perfectly out of thin air to lucky individuals who then just tell the rest of the world about it. We "ooo" and "ahh" over the genius of it, then move on.

Reality, inspiration is rarely perfect, but it has the potential to be with some work. If practice is laying a fireplace, and questions are the spark, then the muse/inspiration would only be the tinder. Anybody who has laid a fire before knows that tinder will burn and brightly, but only briefly and with very little heat. If you want a fire, you have to build it on the tinder with small sticks, then gradually adding larger lumber till you can sit a log on the coals and then let it burn. You can't even be willy nilly with that part. If the sticks are misplaced, you can smother your fire or fail to catch anything alight. Fires are logical and systematic. They can be individual and creative, but it has to make sense.

It's the annoying part of creativity. The logic. The grammar. The rules. Realizing that what makes perfect sense and seems awesome to you, may not make sense to Joe in Atlanta. After you've got something going, you have to question it's existence a little and notice the mistakes. It's a painful, but necessary part of creativity that only makes the work stronger. And work it is. Refining takes a long time and a lot of patience. This is what separates the hobbyists from the artists. The willingness to be honest with their creations and to put in the time and the work towards making them perfect. Even this practice blog post has gone through several rewrites.

In Case You're Lost: Example


Practice
As some of you might know, I hadn't written much in the two years after receiving a Creative Writing degree. I missed it. So I dusted off this blog and started to regularly write about things that interest me. I also started studying my art by reading again. It's different than audio books because I can see the words and how they are laid out and that reminds me of some of English's more obscure rules.

Question

My current novel was entirely triggered by the questions: "If there were magic in today's world, where would it have come from? How would it have been created?"

Trigger the Muse

I've been working slowly on this novel for over a year now. I know that relaxing to music while traveling by foot, car, or plane triggers my better thinking. It's not a guarantee that those circumstances will result in brilliant creative thoughts, but it helps.

Over the holidays, I spent a good twelve hours traveling longer than I would have normally due to bad weather and airline maintenance. I took the extra time to ask myself some questions about the plot holes in my current book and boy was the creative muse on fire that day. I would have rather been with my family, but since circumstances were against me, I still consider it time well spent. The point is, it probably wouldn't have been as good if I hadn't been reviewing the project as a whole the week before.

Put it Down
I was grateful my memo pad on my phone was operational in flight mode. When I got home, I transcribed the notes into my usual storage area with additional thoughts and questions.

Question and Critique
After I get a chance to write a few mock chapters with my new ideas, I'll go over them again like a critic or a fan and see if I still have glaring questions.

If I feel like the project is almost done, then I would ask my final questions. "I really like this, but how appealing would it be to other people? Has it been done before, and if so, is it cliche or classic? If it's likable that's great, but is it relatable? If I were someone else, would I still like this?" Most importantly! "Is there anything I could change to make it even better?"


Sometimes, I feel like I'm working at Ironman's computer. I have a bunch of elements and scenes scattered in front of me. I switch, modify, rewrite, review logs, add, subtract, and play it again in my head until it feels just right. Always, I am building and cross referencing to make sure everything will fit together into a complete whole when it is done. (Note: It took many beginners novels and mistakes to learn the importance of that particular skill.)

This is the line where we cross from using the muse, to using the inner critic and the mountain of work that happens afterwords. Both are essential. The inner muse creates the heart and framework, while the inner critic notices the inconsistencies, the gaudy use of "be verbs" and saves us from regrettable mistakes reaching the printing presses.

After the muse, it's all hard work. This is what separates the writer from the hobbyist, but that's for another blog post.

My Biggest Struggle with Marie Kondo

Ok, I obviously love getting rid of stuff.

However, there are two deep, deep, subjects that I balk at dealing with...ever.

Most things, with years of practice and continued philosophical testing have started to come easy.

Money management, after years of practice that's easy.

Clothes, love to donate them.

Dust collectors (statues, odd n ends), VERY easy to get rid of (maybe a little too fun to smash or shoot in the desert.)

Cheap things that are easy to repurchase, why do I even own these?


As for my two worst subjects....

Books....I SWEAR, I WILL read them.

Papers....I'm pretty sure they reproduce. They are impossible to truly get rid of. Especially when I have a note of inspiration scribbled on an old receipt for a book idea that I've had.

The thing about books is I come from a book culture. My family is full of writers. My mom is a librarian. I grew up with two very tall book shelves set prominently in our living room. I've been writing since second grade. I'm an avid reader and like to quickly acquaint myself with whatever local library happens to be near by. I've always had a book shelf stuffed with books. I cry whenever I read about how the Nazi's burned books. Barnes and Noble is my happy place for spending money.

Granted, I'm not a stranger to donating books. It's just very, very, very difficult to convince myself that I will never read, re-read, or even reference a particular book. I try to think about it philosophically. Books are the absolute worst to move. They are heavy and awkward and if you're not reading them, they will collect dust. Once the knowledge or joy has been obtained, what use is it? I have a small collection currently with me and whole collection still waiting for me to sift through at my mothers house. Is it really worth it?

Yes.
Because I need them for professional reference both as a writer and as an aspiring body works expert.
What if I need reference materials when I retake certification exams?
What if this is the only reference I have to that particular inspiring myth?
It's a classic. I like to reread it.
Hello, it's The Hobbit.

I like books. I like having them. I like reading them. I like browsing my full shelf on rainy days and revisiting select passages. It makes my world complete. The only reason I'm not up to my eyeballs in books is because libraries exist.

I guess I can take comfort in knowing that I have the ability to donate books. It's just that more books than Marie Kondo would ever approve of still give me all kinds of joy. That's why, even though I love Barnes and Noble, I only visit once or twice a year.

As for papers. I do try, but I really do think they multiply. I try to revisit the subject on a regular basis for maintenance, but I'm pretty sure it's a losing battle.

We all have our struggles.

Living on $35 A Week Pt 2

As expected, the second week was not nearly as easy as the first week.

On top of the second week doubts, I went from a wonderful holiday Thanksgiving where I had my evenings free back to night school where the only easy food is the local over priced gas station.

I try to plan for these moments, but for some reason apples and carrots do not sound that filling at 8 o'clock at night, especially after a full work day.

I spent a total of 14.95 on gas station junk. As for the rest of my money... I actually have no idea. It had to have gone somewhere else because I only had three bills in my wallet by the end of the week.

It's not easy to budget.

If I've learned anything over the years, it's to keep trying anyway. When it comes to recording and planning my budget, I've gone from ledger, to Excell, to cash envelope, and back to ledgers in the last five years. It works for me. Each week I like to re-evaluate and if I need to tweek what I do or how I do it, I do it right then. This makes it easier to keep regular records that fit into my current lifestyle instead of feeling locked into a method that doesn't fit anymore. The point is, it doesn't matter how the information is recorded, so long as it is recorded and you keep your priorities straight.

This week, I also learned that even if you have good intentions to keep all of your receipts, they do have a habit of getting lost, hence the missing twelve dollars.

So, this next week I'm doing a couple of those tweeks. I'm going back to ledger. What I like about ledgers, is that you just take a notebook, make customized columns for your expenses, needs, income, total value, etc, and then update it every week. It keeps me honest and I can see how well I'm doing at a glance.

I'm also going to keep a small notebook in my purse instead of a pile of receipts. Small notebooks are only a little less likely to get lost. Instead of hoping my bag retains all of my receipts, I will write down the purchase before I even leave the store. This will help me to keep better records.

I already feel really good about this project.

Even though my rent situation is less desperate now that I know where I'm going and that I can afford it, I like knowing that I can handle emergencies. You know those rainy days where your car needs a sudden $500 dollar fix, or those moments when you're slapped with the knowledge that you'll be without a roof over your head if you can't come up with at least $1,000 in two months? This is why savings is amazing. When you have an egg that can handle things like that at the drop of a hat, the world feels so much more secure.

Some people might chaff a little at the restraint of only $35 a week as I did this last week. Really, I do like the restriction because it fits my goals. At this time of my life where I'm moving at least three times a year, I want to be able to just throw everything I own into my little Subaru and go. Buying stuff would be counter productive to that goal. I like the feeling of letting go of stuff. I like not having to dig through piles of  "someday" usefuls to find the one thing I really need. I like my shelves, boxes, and drawers to have only what I love and use, not regrets.

When you think of it that way, $35 a week is really just buying me food and the occasional need like toothpaste. That's it. $35 could surely stretch that far and then some.

Then again, I'm not like everyone else. Stuff really is the bottom tier of my five love languages, while for other people, giving and getting gifts is their very top love language.

I guess, it really is just all about what you value the most.

Living on $35 Dollars a Week

Week One Report

This week was really more about testing my self control and seeing if $35 a week was even possible.

Granted, I wouldn't be so motivated if I didn't have a lease ending in January with little to no hope of renewing it and no savings to speak of for another down payment. The living on $35 dollars a week experiment was really born out of desperation. If I can manage it, I should have enough saved up for a new apartment by the time January rolls around. Cross fingers.

$35 a week is impossible for many people. I considered it possible for my individual circumstance for several reasons: where I live, the fact that I am single with no dependents, I hate stuff anyway especially when I'm about to move, I work at a place that often feeds me for free or at least majorly discounted, and I wasn't going to include the obvious gas and rent bills that are set standards for my checking account anyway.

Food for thought; I only try to get gas once a week and only pay $20 for however much I can get. It seems to me that whether full or almost full, my tank will still a refill every Thursday for $20 so does it really matter if I fill it to that last gallon at all?

The $35 experiment will only work in cash. If I try to use card, it's too easy to forget that what savings I do have is not for paying taxes or buying stuff that is "almost in budget." If I'm going to succeed, it has to be cash. There is nothing more strict, or final, than cash.

Week one I did succeed. I only went shopping three times. Once at Smiths ($26.38), twice at Walmart (total $7.30).  Spending a total of $33.68.

In the end, I got a really good sense of determining what I need vs. what I will actually use within a week period. This includes actually eating what I buy vs. buying what I have good intentions to eat. Every item I considered was weighed against what I had left in my wallet because it's embarrassing to realize I don't have enough cash to pay for what's in my cart and it would be too easy to finish a purchase with my card.

I won't say it bought the healthiest food, but it bought what would go the longest. Suddenly, $4 dollars for only six snack times in a week really didn't seem worth it compared to a bag of carrots.

Trying again for $35 next week. This seems to be working.