August 2009 Goal Review

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It is the end of the month and time once again for my monthly goal review.

My first goal is to increase my passive income. I didn’t do anything substantial toward this goal this month. I did reinvest some dividends but I need to do a lot more than that if I want to make a noticeable increase in my passive income. Passive Family Income’s eHow 100 Article Challenge has produced some good results for him and I’m thinking of making a similar challenge for myself in September.

My second goal is to lose weight. I made progress on this goal since my weight dropped from 225 to 221. I’m not happy with this result though because my weight was down to 215 at one point this month. My goal is to weigh 180 pounds by the end of the year. This means I need to lose 10 1/4 a month for the next four months. In the past I’ve lost 10 pounds a month in Guatemala without trying. I’m hoping that is still the case. Once I return from Guatemala though I will have all the Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts to contend with. It would probably be best to lose all the weight while I’m in Guatemala. At the end of next month I’ll know whether that is a reasonable goal.

My third goal is to increase the number of RSS subscribers to this blog to 500. I had a high of 448 subscribers this month up from 430 the month before. I’m making steady progress toward this goal but I need to increase my rate of progress if I’m going to reach my goal by the end of the year.

I made progress on two out of three goals this month. That is what I expected before this month started. Since I came back early from my hiking trip though I should have made some progress on the passive income goal as well. In September I should hit all three goals.

Guatemala Travel Plans

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I will be leaving for Guatemala next week. I thought I would share my travel plans so far although they are subject to change. And like my AT plans they probably will change.

The return date for my plane ticket is at the end of November which would give me three months in Guatemala. I’m now unsure if I want to be gone that long. I’ll make up my mind after I’ve been there for a while. Changing my ticket will likely cost me more than the original cost of my ticket but maybe I’ll be able to find a good deal.

I plan to visit all the Central American countries on this trip. It looks like this can be done fairly cheaply by bus. I’m not sure if I want to spend some time in Guatemala first and then travel or travel first and then spend some time in Guatemala. Or maybe fit the travel in the middle of spending time in Guatemala.

One of the reasons I wanted to visit Guatemala was to prove to myself that I could live on my online income if I were living in a low-cost country. Based on my past experience living in Guatemala I think this is entirely possible. When I’m traveling my expenses will be higher but when I’m just relaxing in Guatemala my monthly expenses should be very low. That is why I want to spend at least one month just staying put in Guatemala.

I will need to find something to occupy my time while I am in Guatemala. I’ve decided not to take my laptop since internet access is widely available and cheap. This will be a little inconvenient since I plan to do a lot of writing while I’m there and I’ll have to visit an internet cafe any time I want to write. I suppose I could just write longhand in my room and transcribe what I’ve written later but that seems like too much trouble. The fact that I have a hard time reading my own handwriting makes that even more of a pain. One way or another I will get some writing done. I’ve planned on doing a lot of writing this summer but I haven’t written very much. Once I am in Guatemala I won’t have any more excuses for putting it off.

Another reason for Guatemala is to lose weight. On my past trips to Guatemala I’ve lost 10 pounds a month without trying. This time I will be trying which will hopefully lead to even better results. I plan to exercise regularly. If I can rent a place with kitchen facilities I plan on preparing almost all of my meals. That should help keep my expenses down and help me lose weight.

My flight to Guatemala leaves Wednesday morning but my flight from Kansas City arrives Tuesday just before midnight. In a strange coincidence my best friend is also going to be staying in Miami at that time. I considered sharing a hotel room with him for the night. The problem is that there is no public transportation at the time I arrive and taking a taxi to the hotel would likely cost more than the hotel room. I can’t justify the cost and plan to just stay at the airport. According to Sleeping in Airports it should be doable.

I’ll let you know how it works after I arrive in Guatemala. My flight arrives in Guatemala at about noon but I have a 4-hour bus ride to my final destination of Xela so I probably won’t get online that day. I plan to have an update from Guatemala on Thursday. There will be a couple more posts before I leave also.

Does Eating Healthy Have to be Expensive?

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Many people assume that eating healthy has to be expensive.  It is true that many cheap foods are unhealthy.  However, that doesn’t mean all cheap foods are unhealthy and it certainly doesn’t mean that a food is healthy just because it is expensive.   I’ve posted in the past about healthy, frugal foods.  It is certainly possible to eat healthy on a relatively low grocery budget.

One common mistake people make is assuming a food that is generally considered the “healthy option” has more nutritional value than it actually does. For example in a post at The Simple Dollar “Thoughts on a low grocery bill” Trent asked his readers to “compare the cheap pasta sauce and the organic pasta sauce on the nutrition label.” The implication being that the cheap pasta sauce would be less nutritious. I was skeptical that the cheap pasta sauce would be less nutritious since studies have shown that organic food is not more nutritious. I decided to actually compare the nutrition labels of the cheap pasta sauce and the organic pasta sauce.

For the comparison I chose the most expensive jarred pasta sauce at my local grocery store which was Bertolli Organic Traditional. I compared it to the cheapest canned sauce which was the Best Choice brand. Most of the nutrition information was about the same between the two brands. There were small differences in the vitamins and minerals. The organic brand had the following percentages of the USRDA: Vitamin A 10%, Vitamin C 15%, Calcium 0%, Iron 10%. The cheap brands percentages are: Vitamin A 15%, Vitamin C 15%, Calcium 2%, Iron 6%. The cheap brand is at least as nutritious as the organic variety if not slightly more nutritious.

If I were to compare the Best Choice Garden Vegetable variety of pasta sauce to the Bertolli Organic traditional the results are even more in favor of the cheap sauce. The cheap brand has 45% of the USRDA of Vitamin A and 17% of Vitamin C. Considering the cheap brand is $1.09 for 26 oz. and the organic is $4.39 for 24 oz. the cheap brand is a much better value for nutrition.

Also the cheaper Best Choice Organic traditional brand was more nutritious than the Bertolli Organic although still not as nutritious as the non-organic Best Choice Garden Vegetable variety of pasta sauce. After looking at the nutrition labels of some other foods in both organic and non-organic varieties it was clear to me that organic food is not more nutritious. There are other reasons for buying organic but if you are buying organic just for added nutrition you are not getting value for your money and are wasting your money. You don’t have to take my word for it, next time you are at the grocery store compare the labels for yourself.

To help you eat healthy while keeping a low grocery budget here are a couple of links to help you save money while buying natural or organic foods.

How to Save Money Buying Natural Foods from Mint.com blog.

Deciding Which Produce to Buy Organic from WiseBread.

***Although it is possible to eat healthy on a low budget I don’t eat very healthy myself. I’m making it a goal to eat healthy for one month and post everything I eat and how much it cost. It may not be feasible to do that while I’m in Guatemala but I’ll do this as soon as possible.

Gleaning for Food

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The Kansas City Star recently had an article about gleaning. Gleaning as referred to in the article is the process of collecting crops from farmers’ fields that have already been mechanically harvested. It isn’t economically profitable to pick the remaining crops from these fields but using volunteer labor the crops can be harvested for use by charities. The Society of St. Andrew, mentioned in the article, is a leading food recovery organization and has a website at EndHunger.org. I might volunteer for this charity in the future.

Gleaning also has a more general meaning of recovering any food that would otherwise go to waste. Some examples of this on a personal level are sharing food from a bumper garden crop that would otherwise go to waste or allowing someone to pick fruit from your fruit tree that you don’t have the inclination to pick. I have benefited from this type of food gleaning in the past although I didn’t know that was the name for it. If you have the opportunity to glean food for yourself it could be a good way to save some money and prevent food from going to waste.

July Investment Income – $82.37

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My July investment income rose to $82.37 from $76.49 the month before. Part of this rise was due to adding more money to my portfolio but most of the rise was from stock market gains. I won’t be adding any money to my portfolio this month so any rise will have to come from further stock market gains. I’m happy with the way my investment income is rising. It still has a long way to go to reach my goal of covering expenses of $1000 a month. If I could lower my expenses and start adding more to my portfolio though this process could be greatly accelerated. That is something I am working on.

Disclaimer: This is not my actual investment income. To get this figure I first add up my retirement savings, emergency fund, and any other money I consider permanent savings. What the total of my savings would earn at 6% interest for a month is my monthly investment income.