A ponder

When I was thinking through the whole Live below The Line scenario I realised that I am really enjoying the way I'm doing things now.  Cheaper than Chips started off as a whim, a fancy, based on the fact that I had decided NOT to do LBTL (cough) but felt that I needed a change.

I've done it for just over a month now.  Today is the last day of the fifth week and it seems a good time for a little ponder.  Don't feel you have to read further!  You know what I'm like when I get going . . .

I can see so many advantages.
1.  I'm spending a lot less - and I mean a whole LOT less.  I'm not going into details.  You'll have to take my word for it.  Suffice it to say my bank account never looked healthier and I shall be moving some across to the savings as well as donating to hunger charities.

2.  I'm eating a lot better.  Sure, some of it is 'value' food, but nevertheless much of what's going in is home cooked, fresh, made from scratch and absolutely delicious.  Herbs and spices are having a field day!  The whole day's eating is balanced.  It rather reminds me of how I ate as a child.  The alcohol is out, the fizzy low cal drinks are out and plain water rules the roost (aided and abetted by black coffee)

3.  I'm respecting food more (I hope that doesn't sound silly).  No more shovelling bags of crisps down so fast they hardly touch the side.  In fact, no more bags of crisps - have you seen how much they cost????  I now look at leftovers with new vision.  They are there to be used, not thrown away.  I keep a sharp eye open for things that need using up.  Today I have some rapidly ripening bananas and I won't eat them in time so I am making banana bread to freeze in slices.  See, they're worth using, they don't deserve to be discarded . . .

4.  . . . and, as a natural result, the amount I throw out has reduced significantly.  That's not just food waste, it is also cans, bottles and plastic.  That has to be good.

5.  I'm losing weight.  I know I am because of the way my clothes feel.  I'm not weighing, I'm not thinking about calories.  At first I got very muddled between calories and pennies and I've got it cleared now.  Pennies are a lot more tangible than calories!
Maybe I will hop on the scales at the end of term, just to see.  And maybe I won't.  It doesn't matter.

6.  Perhaps the most important.  I'm in charge, I'm in control!  This is for the rest of my life!  It's fun.