Our Trip to Chicago, In Instagram

Apologies for the radio silence. Kyle and I just returned from a week-long trip to Chicago. It was the first time I'd traveled without my computer since I went backpacking through Europe when I was 25.

To be honest, it was anything but frugal. We (okay, Kyle) prepaid for most of it before I began this project. But we had so much fun and ate so much good food. I'm still getting used to taking pictures of everything — as a "lifestyle blogger" I'm supposed to always do that, right? — but I managed to grab a few Instagram photos. I did not, however,  manage to edit them all with the same frame. Sorry.

The main theme of this trip was food, and I ate so much more bread than I should have. I shouldn't eat any, of course. But who can resist foie gras brioche French toast from Longman & Eagle (where we stayed for the second half of our trip)? Not me!

 Or a carnitas sandwich with a fried egg and pickled onions from Reno?

Or, uh, just about every sausage at Hot Doug's?

We did more than eat, of course. We saw The Book of Mormon, which I highly recommend unless you're Mormon or any other variety of super-conservative Christian. And early in our trip, we visited a friend of Kyle's, who along with his two male roommates in Wicker Park, was hiding this beautiful old couch with a boring beige cover. It broke my heart a little. 

Luckily, they couldn't really cover the beautiful fireplace and window in the apartment.

We also got to go to AmericanaramA, a touring summer festival featuring two of my favorite bands ever, Wilco and My Morning Jacket, as well as a very old Bob Dylan. While I didn't even recognize his rendition of "Tangled Up in Blue," I was glad to see him at least once in my (and his) life.

This was also an opportunity to be frugal: I went in with a bottle of bourbon in my underwear so I wouldn't have to pay for shitty over-priced stadium beer.

By the end of the show, my dogs were barking... and I seriously considered purchasing new shoes the next day, but did not, thank you very much.

Of course, I did do a little thrifting with my friend Holly. I mean, I can't take a trip and not buy anything.

It was a wonderful and much-needed vacation with my wonderful husband, and we were able to celebrate our wonderful new house.

Speaking of, it's time for me to start taking carloads of stuff over there. More updates soon.

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My Sad Sack Lunch

I've impressed myself with my dedication to packing lunches since beginning this project. Sometimes it's leftovers, but most days, I'm able to put together a salad with vegetables from my garden and CSA, and I've even started making big batches of dressing so I can pour a daily serving into a tiny mason jar. It's frugal, healthy, and if I wanted to, I could totally be self-righteous about my local vegetables (I'm not).

But this week, well, I'm just bad at it. There's a lot going on, and I'm not getting a lot of sleep. I was half an hour late to work yesterday. Last night I was up until 1 am working on a freelance article about old barns. We're supposed to close on the house tomorrow (even though I still have a hard time believing that the bank won't pull the plug in the next 24 hours). Oh, and we leave for Chicago Thursday. There are other things going on, too, but I don't have the energy to write about them just yet.

The point is that even though I didn't really prepare a lunch yesterday, I managed to at least stuff what was left of a grilled tri-tip into a sandwich bag. Meat is good for one's brain, so that's something. And who couldn't use more protein? For a minute, I pretended I was going to stick to a strict paleo diet after that steak, but when a bag of M&M's pretty much magically appeared on my desk, that was over.

I'm not complaining about eating a delicious steak. Especially because I didn't pack any lunch today. I have three dollars in my pocket, and I'm going to find a way to turn that into lunch. Stay tuned...

A Traveling Contradiction

I consider myself a fairly green person. I use cloth napkins, I recycle, and as lazy as I can be at times, I still haven't been able to bring myself to get a one-cup brew system for my morning coffee.

Truth be told, my thoughtless spending creates lots of waste. The tank top and underwear I'm wearing were most likely made in sweatshops and will begin to fall apart in a few months, I often have to trash organic food I don't use in time, and whenever I travel (and especially when I fly) I pick up new travel-size toiletries for my trip. Because I rarely check a bag, some of these items — like toothpaste — make sense. But it wouldn't be hard for me to refill my Dr. Bronner's soap or other lotions.

This week, I've been traveling for work and made not one, but two, stops at drugstores for tiny toiletries. And because I didn't think ahead when packing, I had to buy a small bottle of ibuprofen when I got a little crampy (I later found some in my purse).

Though my frugality project hasn't officially begun, I'm already thinking a lot about where my money goes. This week, $20 or more of it has gone to little plastic containers full of chemicals. 

Am I about to turn into that weird lady who travels with a few squirts of toothpaste in a Ziploc bag? (Is it weird that I kind of hope so?)