The trouble with schools...

The trouble with schools is that they don't prepare you enough for college life. Honestly I feel like while I learned academic bases that aided me in my first year of college, I was inadequately prepared for many of the social, home skills, and studying aspects of college life. But more on that another day....

I have always been a big fan of massive, life-changing projects. My intense personality enjoys the thrill and control that comes from attack a new task with everything I have. It is a trait that comes with some perks, especially as need for control in my life leads to good grades and organized spaces. But the issue with my personality is that I also get bored. Easily. Quickly. I build up all this momentum, attack my project of the moment for a time and then get bored and quit. Sometimes I see the project through to completion, like when I do school projects, room reorganizing, or crafts. But most of those have an incentive, like good grades, clean room with furniture in places you can access, or finished product. You would think that my fitness projects (which have been many and varied) would get finished for the incentive of a rockin' body and more energy. But no. I am too busy (and maybe lazy) to give up free time worrying about my health. I would much rather read a new book or nap or watch a movie/TV than worry about working out. Or eating healthy.

I love to cook and experiment with food. But as a college student its hard to feel motivated to make a bunch of food for yourself (feeding friends too often gets expensive). Living in a dorm with a (super expensive) meal plan doesn't teach you how to shop or feed yourself when you move off campus. Living at home with your parents may aide you in knowing how to cook and what sort of things to buy, but it didn't teach me how to prepare food for one. I knew how to shop and cook these massive family-sized meals. But I needed to be able to feed myself. For less $$$.

My friends, inspired from Pinterest, started shopping twice a month. One big shopping trip before the first of the month for EVERYTHING. And then again in the middle of the month to replace the dairy and produce (milk and fruit) that doesn't keep well or last the month. And it took a couple months of experimenting (what to buy, how much, etc). But it saves them money! And I decided I wanted to try it, BUT with the added bonus of planning my meals. I don't want to buy a whole bunch of food and not plan out what I'm making with it. Not enough control for my taste. Plus what if I forget to buy something I needed for a favorite recipe? It could happen!

So my goals are as follows:

1. Plan my meals for next month
2. Put together a shopping list
3. Shop only twice that month for groceries
4. ACTUALLY FOLLOW IT!

For me I knew to go through with these goals (and last for a whole month) I needed some incentive. And support! So the plan is that you can follow this with me if you want. I plan to start this October so the next 12 days will be the planning. And I will be posting my finalized October meal plan, Recipes, and Shopping List sometime next week! And then give you an idea throughout October of how much this is actually working for me. So wish me luck!

And we're off......

Lisa Jean ^_^

Note: The post title refers to a song from the AMAZING musical production of Wicked. Because the trouble with schools is they always try to teach the wrong lesson.