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Cooking for one SUCKS! For 12 years, I’ve had a full table. If the kids weren’t all here, there were friends of another. Food and meals have always been BIG. But now my one kid at home works at a restaurant almost full time so there is rarely anyone to feed but me. (And I am not a big fan of my leftovers so batch cooking doesn’t really work even in smaller portions.)

On top of that, I am still trying to make good eating choices in consideration of my diabetes and weight loss goal. I am down almost 30 pounds in the last 6 months. Woot, woot!

But meal time is hard, especially at night when I am tired of sitting in front of my computer.

Then there was TikTok foodie videos…

TikTok has become my food guide. In a 60 second video, people show you how to make healthy, quick food for one. And I am here for it. This is my favorite so far..and it literally took 10 minutes to make.

Steam bag of riced cauliflower, shredded, season rotisserie chicken and then Hellman’s Spicy Mayo to top it off. I add a side of bell pepper with cream cheese and everything but the bagel season. So good! And literally 10 minutes to make. Loaded the dishes in the dishwasher…which made for less then a minute to clean up.

Anyone else struggle with cooking for one?

Hope

Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 5 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.

My Splurge

by Hope

This summer I splurged. Don’t worry, no debt involved.

And before anyone asks, since I started my corporate job, I paid extra toward taxes every pay check. I had no idea how the large corporate salary, bonus structure and then income from my business would affect my tax rate so I was overly cautious. As a result, I got a VERY LARGE tax return. I won’t do that again…but it did make getting Princess a car and me my…

Doable without taking on any debt! And I love, love, love it!

Build a life you love

I have spent decades now building a life I love. Choosing work that allowed me to focus on my kids and never miss a thing with them. But it wasn’t til now, til here…that I no longer seek an escape. I have a home I love. My dogs have free roam of the house and yard, thanks to the doggy door and fenced yard. Stable love and relatively secure finances. I have the love a good man. And now I have the “luxury” item I always wanted and sought when we traveled – my very own hot tub.

So my splurge, well, yes, I could have put it toward my debt and been all done with my medical debt. But this…this gives me a peace and fulfillment that I have been seeking for a really long time. And it has taken away that “itch” that has been constant in my life for longer than I can remember…to plan the next adventure. Now I’m content to just be here. I work longer hours, more contentedly than every before and then I end my day or even start it floating in the water. Pure bliss.

I highly encourage everyone build a life they love, work at something that doesn’t feel like work and more importantly know that when the darkest times come…there is light on the other side. I would never be able to appreciate everything in my life now without the dark times.

Hope