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Since so many people have asked about our experience with the Cooperative Auto Network (CAN), I figured I’d post a few of the positive and negatives we’ve encountered through our nearly 3-year membership.

This one’s a doozie, so if you’re not really interested in how CAN works for car-sharing, you may want to skip this installment.

First, the Upsides

Save-on-Driving. Our average CAN bill ran about $200/month (up to $350 in the winter when we drove further distances and stayed out longer, and as low as $50 in the summer when we only took a short trip or two). That includes gas, maintenance, insurance and BCAA membership. The maintenance part was a big selling-point for me, because I was still sore about selling my lemon for the cost of repairs to the transmission that had just failed. It felt amazingly liberating to no longer worry about being hit with a huge, unexpected repair bill.

Pick a car, any car. Living in Kitsilano (one of the most densely CAN car-populated areas), there are vehicles available within two blocks of our home in any direction. A Crossover/SUV, a station wagon, a 4-door coupe and a pick-up truck. There’s also a minivan a couple blocks past that. And the 4-door has snow tires. We’ve used all of them for different reasons. It actually helped us narrow down our own car choices for when we started looking (small station-wagons work really well for us).

Saving the planet, one (less) trip at a time. Having that small barrier between wanting to drive somewhere and making the trip happen (booking the car, getting to the car) meant we had to think about every drive we took and determine whether the trip is worth it. Often we realized it was something we could accomplish on foot, bike or bus. And if timing was one of the issues (short time to accomplish a task that meant other transport isn’t an option) we often found that we could put off the “unnecessary” trip until we had more time to run the errand, and made due with other things.

But of course, with great savings and convenience comes great compromise. Which brings us to…

The Downsides

These may not be what you think, since we were well prepared for the inconveniences of not being able to have a car exactly when or where we want it. We were also willing to accept the inevitability of having to deal with other people’s life snafus and be inconvenienced by the occasional late car, lost keys, messy vehicle or empty gas tank.

I wasn’t prepared, however, to deal with the way I experienced the “shiny, happy co-op” is run. Two specific instances leap to mind:

Ill Communication. CAN occasionally sends out newsletters to the membership, and gives off an impression that they want their members to get involved with helping to make the co-op better for everyone. Occasionally I have sent communications offering to volunteer in capacities I’m proficient in, or offer some feedback on how the co-op could be awesome and improve things for all members with tiny changes. I have never received a response. Not even a “thank you for your message.” Speaking to other friends who are members and have tried to communicate with the borg, they get the same reply (read: none).

Shame on You! This is not to say that the CAN offices are incapable of communicating, because they certainly are good at calling people out on the tiniest infractions. When one is a member of a co-operative, I was under the (apparently misguided) impression that the objective is to be co-operative. This means that when I get to a car that has some trash in it, I throw it out. When the gas tank isn’t left at half-full (one of the code-of-conduct guidelines), I just fill it (not like it comes out of my pocket, remember, gas is included in the usage fees). If someone is a couple minutes late, I have patience, and if I’m going to be late, I call the co-op offices so they can inform the next member I’m on my way.

I think the only way a co-op can function productively is if everyone tries their best, and holds the belief that everyone else is trying his/her best. Yes, sometimes shit happens, but patience and understanding, rather than tattle-taleing and beratement are going to go a lot further in making the community work.

Unfortunately, not all members think that way, and the CAN office staff seem to be in the latter camp as well. I will fully admit to having committed every infraction above on occasion (because shit happens) and every time I did, I would get a nasty (and vaguely threatening) phone call from the office telling me what a bad community member I was.

And it’s not like we did these things often. We got no more than half-a-dozen phone calls over our 3 year membership. It’s just that CAN staff call to relay the complaint on each and every instance, with no verification or filter. I could complain about every car I got into, and the previous drivers like would’ve received the same troubling messages. But what point does it serve?

The final straw on that one for me was when we were walking to a car and our dog (admittedly off-leash) got in the way of a cyclist, who had to slow down, and wobbled a bit getting around her. Sorry, our bad, and our bad dog was leashed immediately afterward. We apologized and continued on our way. The cyclist stopped up ahead and gave us the stink-eye for a while, but we didn’t think much of it, got in the car and drove off.

About 30 minutes later, we got a very nasty phone call from the CAN office, shaming us for getting in the car with a wet (false), muddy (false) dog with no blanket on the seat (true). The angry cyclist had waited for us to leave, and phoned up CAN to lie about us, and the CAN staff took his word as complete truth! What angry cyclist wasn’t privy to was us vacuuming out the car after we used it (which we do often, having a hairy dog and all).

I can understand that there will be problem users who regularly leave the car in a terrible state, or otherwise violate the code of conduct for CAN members, and there will be problem members who have zero tolerance or are malicious to other members. Staff can and should make complaint notes on individual users (and complainers) files when “infractions” (whether real or imagined) are reported. Patterns of abuse should be reported.

But considering we have never before or since been called out for leaving dog debris in the car behind us (cleaning up the hair & dirt is something we’re really pro-active on), I was (and am still) quite angry about their process. I told them so on that phone call, and suggested they update the way they process complaints instead of insulting the membership that keeps them running. I was summarily brushed off and told “we don’t care how you leave the car (huh?), you broke a rule!” Nice.

The Snowmageddon Incident. It was a few days after Christmas, the main roads were clear (though side-streets were still a mess), the city had been at a stand-still for over a week and we were desperately trying to get in one family visit before the holidays ended. We tried to book a car.

Unfortunately, with the state of the side streets (where all the co-op cars live) it was nearly impossible to park or move cars of any sort. Some cars were in worse predicaments than others, with a few being immovable, period, and others being out and about (though in the wrong spots sometimes).

This would have been a perfect opportunity for CAN to use the power of their community to make life a little better for the entire membership! Instead, they managed to further alienate this member (and I’m assuming I’m not alone).

We booked Car A, which was supposed to be available. After suiting up in snow gear and tromping out to Car A, then walking a full block in every direction from its designated spot (as per the CAN suggestions), Car A was nowhere to be found. We called CAN and told them as much. They said “look harder.” We did. We never found Car A.

We phoned back and told them as much, and the person on the phone heaved a frustrated sigh and said they’d book us a different car. When they told us what was available, we picked Car B. We booked Car B and went to its location. Car B lives behind a neighbourhood house – to get into the parking lot one needs to drive down a narrow 30 foot alley and into a small lot. That alley and lot hadn’t been shoveled since the first snowfall, and Car B wasn’t going anywhere without at least 5 hours of labour and perhaps a bobcat.

We called CAN back again and explained that Car B couldn’t be moved, is anything else available?

I was then schooled on the policies of CAN that if I canceled this car I would be charged the cancellation rate (over 100% of the hourly rate). It’s up to the members to carry a shovel and one books cars at his/her own risk. And what were we doing driving in this weather anyhow? (Remember, all the main roads were totally clear and people were driving all over the place, we just had to get through 3 blocks of shady side-streets).

We paid the cancellation, finally got into Car C after a bit of digging with a borrowed shovel (at least it was on a road, not in a lot) and got on our way. So we were treated poorly by CAN office staff twice on the phone because of their own lack of record-keeping (again, why not mark that car buried in a parking lot as unavailable until confirmation that it’s dug out?), spent 2 hours roaming around in the snow and paid essentially double for the use of one car.

CAN has the ability and technology to make notes on user and car accounts. And they didn’t add notes to either of those to try to facilitate the moving and use of cars that were available. Who knows, perhaps car users in a certain area would’ve even been willing to have a “digging out” party for some of the trapped cars – I’d be interested in volunteering my time for that (actually, I tried after CAN told me it was my responsibility as a member who decides they have to drive in the winter to have a shovel, I couldn’t buy one anywhere in the city).

Those are the two biggest incidents I’ve had with the office staff at CAN. There have been dozens of other little encounters here and there that registered on the “annoying” meter, and of course some perfectly pleasant encounters as well. However, the pleasant ones have been the exception, rather than the rule.

So in addition to being made to feel like a criminal when life gets away from me sometimes, and knowing that the CAN administration is going to not just “not bring members together” but actively contribute to making life difficult when something happens that affects the membership as a whole – well, it makes it pretty easy to drop them like a hot potato when you consider….

The Uncomfortable-sides

Tick Tock. CAN works like a hot damn when you need to use a car. And by that I mean the car is actively involved in what you’re doing. Hauling people or things. Running errands with a CAN car is fully awesome. It feels like it makes less sense to use a CAN car just as transportation, where it sits for hours (or days).

My parents live in Maple Ridge. To get there on public transit on a weekend would be a 2.5 hour journey (one way), on which we can’t bring the dog. Driving takes about an hour. But of course we don’t just drive there, turn around, and drive back. So the CAN car sits, parked outside their house for a number of hours. We try to tack some errands onto either end of the trip, so we’re being more efficient with our car use, but it feels wrong to book a car for a whole day just to have it sitting, unused, most of that time.

Same goes for hiking in the summer and skiing days in the winter, with the added inconvenience of needing to book at least a few days ahead for a full-day’s use. It’s awfully disappointing to be psyched about an adventure to have it foiled by the weather, and have a car all day to pay for. Same with an unexpected great weather day, and the inability to go further than our own feet can take us (good weather adventures always include the dog) because the cars are all booked. We have no qualms about renting a car for multi-day trips, it’s just those full-day outings that somehow feel like the wrong use for a CAN car (when we can get a car for the day).

Translink FAIL. And then of course there’s the fact that I just can not efficiently get where I need to go right now on transit. CAN was great while I was working downtown and had a 20-minute bus or bike commute, flexibility to telecommute whenever I felt the need, and no extracurriculars further than a few minutes walk or bus from work or home. Now my work schedule is much less flexible, my transit commute is a full hour on a good day, existing extracurriculars are still downtown (where I don’t work anymore) and we’ve joined a sports team that plays in fields all across the city.

If there were efficient transit options to the particular area of Richmond I work in, it might be a different story. But I’m in a business park a 40-minute walk from the 98 B-Line (or new skytrain line), serviced by one, terrible bus that doesn’t show up with any regularity (#410 I’m looking at you!). My choices are to take transit and deal with 3-hours of commuting every day, and have to stop doing anything else on weekdays (good bye professional & social events, and ultimate team) or get a car and drive 40 minutes a day total, throwing in a few days biking to work a week (80 minute round trip) on days where I don’t have anywhere to be immediately after work.

CAN was awesome for us while our lifestyle supported it (very short, efficient transit commutes) though its usefulness was already running its course. We longed for the freedom to have some spontaneous new adventures, with the dog, which just wasn’t possible with CAN. That alone wasn’t enough to justify going back to car-ownership, but when our planet-saving & community-building efforts resulted in being treated like dirt, it made it a lot harder to feel particularly fondly about the organization we were supporting (ZipCar would always be just as expensive as owning a car for us, so we never considered it an option).

After the “angry biker” and “snowmageddon” incidents, we had already been thinking about time frames for buying a car. My change in employment situation and the great deal on a car that worked for us sealed the deal.

Hopefully that gives everyone a pretty good picture of what we experienced with CAN. As I said, it was pretty great for a while, but for us it had a very limited lifecycle of utility. It has made is think more about where and how often we drive though, and I think everyone can benefit from going car-free more often than we (as a population) currently do.

Those three years were years that we felt we had a viable option for transportation outside of owning a car, or having no access to a vehicle at all, and for that I’m really, really grateful. If I still feel positive enough about CAN, even now, to leave our shares in the organization in case we’d like to use a bigger car, van, or truck someday, imagine how much more successful they could be if they started treating their members as valuable assets rather than annoyances.

The catalyst for it all was my new job in an area that’s highly inconvenient to get to by public transit. But really, Neil and I have been thinking about re-joining the ranks of the car-owners for quite a while. Combine that with neighbours who were leaving the country and had to sell their car which was coincidentally in great condition and in our price range, well it became inevitable.

Welcome “Big Red” (the name bestowed upon her by the previous owners) to the house of Watkii (that’s plural for Watkiss)

We really enjoyed our years of car-sharing, and are keeping our memberships with the car co-op for emergencies when we may need a second car, pick-up truck or minivan at any time, or if ours ends up in the shop. But we’d reached the limits of what we felt comfortable using the co-op for. It’s great for running errands or heading out for a few hours, but what we really missed was heading out for a guilt-free day-trip, parking the car somewhere and hanging out. That could be to a beach too far to walk to with the dog, or to visit family or friends who live in areas not serviced by transit. It feels a bit wrong taking the co-op cars out of the fleet for hours upon end, and it’s always a disappointment when we’re having far more fun than we imagined and have to cut it short because we can’t extend our time with the car.

We’ve also honestly become a bit disillusioned with the community aspect of the Car Co-Op. I had a whole rant typed up about all the ways that organization manages to shoot itself in the foot (yes I have sent those to CAN, they did not reply: problem #1), but perhaps I’ll save those for another post.

However, after spending nearly 3 years without using a car as our primary mode of transportation, we certainly think about driving – when and how far – quite a bit differently now. We’re much more conscious of it, and that’s a good thing!

From a budget perspective, we’ve been putting away what we can spare into a “planned spending” (different from debt repayment/emergency/savings) account for a car. We didn’t plan on having anywhere near enough to purchase anything until after our debt was fully paid off, but having our budget and debt repayment under control meant when the company Neil works for met their goals and was able to give out the annual employee bonus, we were able to use some of that to round out our car account and avoid going further into debt to acquire a good car at a good time.

So yes, I believe it’s now officially road-trip time!

Of course we can’t go too far (it would have to be a weekend) or spend too much money. And the trip must be dog-friendly – within those parameters, where should we go, what should we do? Tell me in the comments!

Best suggestion (meaning the one we choose to do) gets a CD copy of the most-excellent road-trip playlist my iTunes genius thingie came up with.

I had dinner at db bistro in Vancouver the other night, and it was fantastic! better than I expected!

I’ll admit, when db bistro first opened its doors in Vancouver I was curious, but not quite chomping at the bit to try it out. I’d already been to the db brasserie in Las Vegas, which was good, but not great. I expected much of the same in Vancouver.

In fact, I went to db bistro shortly after it opened for lunch on a Wednesday in December 2008. The food was fine, but the service was downright awful. Forgotten cutlery, missed drinks, mixed-up orders, and a constant need to flag down our server (even though there were only 3 tables in the entire place) plagued the whole meal. I chalked it up to new-opening jitters, but man was it ever disappointing.

(For the record: I had planned to write an email to the restaurant shortly after my visit tell them about my experience, but snowmageddon happened and I got distracted.)

So when I saw the usual cadre of local food bloggers and journalists pumping up its perfection a week or two later, I figured the restaurant was on its best behavior and had brought in a few service ringers to ensure things would go smoothly for the media. Meanwhile, I’d decided to wait awhile for my next visit. Hopefully by the time I returned, they’d have ironed things out enough that the hoi palloy would have a good time too.

My second visit happened to be a couple nights ago, and it was much, much better!

We wandered down to the restaurant at about 7:30pm on a whim, without a reservation. It was about 75% full and we were seated promptly. Our server was just the right mix of attentive and friendly (without being aloof or too familiar). Now that the service experience was sorted out, the food absolutely shone. We started with the shared charcuterie plate, which was perfect. For mains, Neil had the infamous db burger and I had the night’s special, which was a broiled skate wing over spring vegetables and new potatoes in a white wine & butter sauce. It was heavenly. Dessert was the apple tart for Neil and the raspberry napoleon for me.

We thoroughly enjoyed the food and the experience. And when we left, despite being “nobodys” on the local food scene – just a couple of neighbourhood locals who popped in for a late Tuesday dinner – we were given a fond sendoff that made me want to plan my next return.

Except, I have this day-after sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when I think about what’s on the menu.

Looking at the Seafood Watch guide, Atlantic Skate are on the “avoid” list. I was told this was a Pacific Skate, but information on them is really sparse. Despite the well-reported and much hailed opening of the local spot prawn season, the May menu at db bistro features a Nova Scotia Lobster Salad. And while my dessert was indeed delicious, raspberries aren’t growing anywhere in the northern hemisphere at this time of year.

I am also highly skeptical of the whole concept of the “May 2009 Menu” considering it’s almost identical to the “December 2008 Menu” from when I dined there last. I have no problem with keeping signature dishes and specialties on a static restaurant menu, but I’d like to see more of a demarcation and highlight on the true features and seasonal dishes – both so I don’t miss them, and so I get a better feel for what will be there next time and what’s a special treat that may not stick around for long.

I know these things aren’t important to everyone, and they in no way detract from the deliciousness of the food we had – it takes quality ingredients and a dedication to good cooking to produce a quality meal – but it is something that’s important to me.

db bistro and its sister restaurant lumiere live the birthplace of the 100-mile diet, where decades old restaurants like Bishop’s (and later Raincity Grill) started, grew up, and continue to flourish because of their commitment to local, sustainable products, and where our farmer’s markets regularly land in continental and international top 10 lists.

It’s pretty obvious that while Chefs Boulud and Istel are already doing a fantastic job, they could be doing much better on the local and sustainable front. And it’s a challenge I’m looking forward to seeing them rise to!

When I first started taking cooking more seriously, I aimed straight for the Joy of Cooking.

After cooking many of the recipes therein, I’d gotten a bit more comfortable with the idea of cooking rather than assembling and picked up a copy of Jamie’s Dinners. It’s a beautiful book, full of outright food porn (and Oliver’s pretty easy on the eyes as well) and the message that one can just “throw a few things together” and end up with a delicious meal!

It is true that one can do that. And wonderful things occasionally come out the other end. But for those of us who knew only how to follow directions, but not how food works (read: me) the book results in much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments.

I will say now that Jamie Oliver’s recipes stack up as some of my favourites and this book holds such treasures as the first meal Neil ever cooked for me, a few go-to recipes for dinner parties and some handy tricks for packing tastier sandwiches.

But it took me quite a few spoiled dishes and a scrambled carbonara (confession: I still can’t temper eggs*) before I learned the cardinal rule of pretty much all cooking, and an essential element of success with this particular cookbook: TASTE EVERYTHING AS YOU GO!

When making food that you’re going to eat it would seem like common sense to focus on the taste of what you’re preparing. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. It’s easy to get distracted during the cooking process by remembering all the ingredients, trying to prepare them without slicing off pieces of one’s digits, not burning whatever’s on a heat source and trying to finish a few dishes all at the same time so the beans aren’t stone cold and the potatoes dried out because the meat’s still resting.

However, the recipes in Jamie’s Dinners ONLY WORK if you are tasting as you go. I learned that lesson the hard way, but I did finally learn it. I learned that a bit of lemon juice or zest brightens up a dish, tasting pasta while it’s cooking is much more reliable than timing it, a pinch of salt is a lot bigger than I’d thought and adding a little bit more than a little bit makes all the flavours sing. Also, there are no hard and fast rules about how much of any herb or spice you should add to a dish. It all depends on the volume and condition of the ingredients you’re using. If you taste it and like it and want more of that flavour, add a little more.

Suddenly, everything I cooked started turning out much, much better. Not only was I making tastier dishes, I was also salvaging dishes that were starting to go south by adjusting the ingredients and seasonings as I went.

Finally, thanks to the Joy of Cooking and Jamie’s Dinners, I’d become comfortable with what I was making, as well as the food-saving habit of tasting as I went. But I still didn’t really understand how ingredients work together to make dishes. That started to come together after I picked up The Improvisational Cook…

(*by the by, if you’re interested in hearing more about how my continued lack of ability in combining uncooked eggs with hot food, check out my latest disaster on the Menus from an Orchard Table cook the book blog – coming up later this evening!)

Ever since Karen’s Post on the meal that turned her into a foodist, I’ve been thinking about how I ended up going from a re-heater and assembler of things that come in boxes and cans to a competent, enthusiastic, and dare I say pretty good cook.

For me, a lover of processes and gleeful follower of directions, it all started with the acquisition of some key cookbooks.

While I’ve always been an enthusiastic consumer of great food it was never something I felt the need to investigate further. Good food just appeared on my plate, why question it when there is eating to do?

Unfortunately, when I moved out on my own to go to university, the food ceased to be as good. My complete disinterest in learning how to reproduce the food that had effortlessly (at least on my part) shown up on my plate finally caught up with me. After my millionth meal of Chunky Soup with Pillsbury Crescents (which alternated with a pre-packaged freezer section stir fry and pasta with a jar of sauce dumped on top) I’d had enough. I saved my pennies and invested in the tome my mother always referred to for all things culinary: The Joy of Cooking.

Cue Whole New World soundtrack, complete with flying carpets and cheeky monkeys.

Stupid things that had never occurred to me all started coming together. Broth doesn’t have to come out of a carton? Ranch dressing didn’t originate in a bottle? Doughnuts don’t have to come from Tim Horton’s? AMAZING!

I have no idea why these things didn’t ever occur to me. I grew up eating (even helping to make) homemade jams, preserves and pickles. Homemade bread was a regular occurrence. And there was always a TON of baking around. Again, I just never put much thought into it.

But once I started reading the Joy of Cooking, I started trying out a lot of the recipes. It did not go well at first.

The biggest piece of advice I can give to any aspiring cook is don’t be afraid to throw it away. You will make some entirely inedible things. And the more you practice, the less often that will happen.

After a year or so of using the Joy of Cooking as my kitchen companion I started getting more comfortable with ingredients. Mistakes were happening less and less often. The best part of The Joy of Cooking for me is the level of detail it goes into explaining the ingredients and processes. Not only do I learn how, I also learn why.

Any time I thought about a food I’d have normally bought pre-made, I instead roamed through the book, reading up on the origins of recipes, then trying them out for myself.

Eventually I figured I was ready for something a little less structured and more challenging. So moved onto my next critical cookbook acquisition: Jamie’s Dinners by Jamie Oliver, which I’ll pick up on in the next post…

(in the meantime, if you’re curious about what else I’m cooking up these days, check out CookTheBook.ca)

A few years ago I volunteered with Junior Achievement BC, leading the A Business of Our Own program for a grade 6 class.

One of the units in the program is to guide the students through thinking about how to market the class business (in this case, chocolate sales to fund their class trip) and make some ads to put around the school to promote the sale.

The kids were super excited about the exercise that day, because (as their teacher so excitedly informed me) they’d just had a great discussion on advertising and marketing. Three seconds in and it became apparent that they had just crucified the entire advertising industry for the two hours before I walked in the door.

Not that I wanted to stifle their preshus, preshus creativity – but that day’s entire lesson became an exercise in steering the kids away from dreaming up mind controlling robots and back to making posters that say “chocolates are tasty and the proceeds go to a good cause, so you should buy some” and thinking of effective places to display them.

I still wonder what those kids think of advertising today (I bet they’re all busy whining to their parents about needing an iPod and some name-brand sneakers), and I’m still a bit annoyed at that teacher for encouraging such a black and white view of the world.

I know as I’ve grown up I’ve challenged myself on a lot of preconceived notions I wasn’t really aware I held. I make a conscious effort every day to check in with myself on whether I’m being truly open-minded, and accepting of others (note – I don’t have to agree with them, but if their decisions don’t affect me, why not just let it go).

And as Neil and I start thinking about what kind of parents we want to be when we start a family in a few years (repeat: in a few years! parents: you may peel yourselves off your respective ceilings), one of the things I’ve flagged as something I think is important to reinforce from an early age is that there are many, many different ways and things to be, think, do and believe. And different does not immediately mean wrong or bad – it just means different. And more often than not, that is a-okay.

I have no idea how one goes about doing that, since kids’ brains are necessarily hardwired to think in black and white, rather than shades of grey, as they figure out the world, but I’d sure like to try.

Anyhow, along that vein, this has got to be one of the best commercials I’ve seen lately. And not just because the hippo snarling at the cat is adorable.

It’s one of the few things out there that doesn’t beat the same “smarmy advertisers tricking our preshus babeez” drum, and instead encourages something we could all stand to practice a bit more: take some time to think for your damn self, and come to your own conclusions.

The fact that someone put house hippos (or any number of other make-believe characters and scenarios) on TV isn’t inherently bad. The fact that this commercial is the exception, rather than the rule, and that we don’t do much to encourage a bit of critical thought around what’s on our TV, is.

January. February. March.

We’ve spent April being much more accountable with our spending, which brings with it a lot more peace of mind than we had in March. Unfortunately, now that we’re back to keeping careful track of our money, it’s become obvious we’re pretty consistently going over on our monthly variable costs allowance. This month we missed the $1000 mark by $266.62.

And yet our budget is still on plan and our debt-payoff still on track.

Clearly it’s time to re-evaluate.

When we started down this road we were going on the assumption that what we’d identified as our fixed expenses wouldn’t change much from month to month, and if they did, we’d either adjust by taking needed extras out of savings, or by putting unexpected windfalls onto the debt.

It hasn’t exactly worked out that way.

Starting out with the $1000/month goal was much easier when we had a full larder, a stocked freezer, wardrobes in good repair and a bunch of extra personal care products and unspent gift cards stashed around the house. We were able to use a lot of the funds we’d ordinarily have to spend on keeping ourselves fed and clothed to instead keep us social and entertained. We also had things around that were sunk costs, like our season’s hockey tickets – long since paid for, but instead of going to the games, we’d sell the tickets to get an influx of cash into our coffers and choose a cheaper activity.

One of my favourite pieces of financial advice (again from Gail Vaz-Oxlade) is: to make your budget balance, you need to either spend less or earn more. And we’ve found little ways to earn more every single month to add to that $1000. It’s not always by finding ways to bring more in, sometimes it’s because another budget category wasn’t fully utilized (our transportation budget always seems to come in under our budgeted amount).

We’ve realized over the past four months that $1000 for our basic food, clothing and entertainment needs is a lot less feasible than we originally thought. We still try to aim for it, and still opt for more frugal choices than we used to make, which is definite progress!

This means our debt isn’t being paid off any faster than we’d originally anticipated, but it is being paid off at the rate we’d set for ourselves, which is enough for me. At this pace, we’ll be debt-free by the end of October. Well within our original “end of the calendar year” target.

As I said back at the beginning of this exercise, working hard to pay off the debt is one thing. But when everything is said and done, building up sustainable financial habits to carry us into the future are far more important.

And for this month’s details:

Biggest Win: Our tax refunds. Last year we were hit with a huge bill that we weren’t expecting or prepared for. After that nasty surprise we approached tax planning through 2008 with the attention it deserves and have a nice sum back which has allowed us to attend the Provenance series – fun, fantastic events that also support a cause near and dear to our hearts.

Biggest Fail: For the first time in a long time, we can’t identify any major catastrophe that befell us that we couldn’t handle (we ended up having a car we were using towed – but our savings account is now more than robust enough to take care of a tow and a parking ticket) or horrible mistake we made. And that feels really, really good.

Debt Paid down in April: $2800

Amount left to go: $14,153.21

Discretionary spending for the month: $1266.62 and we’re okay with that.

With the changing of the seasons, changing levels of exercise (now that I’m biking to work again almost daily) and a lapse into eating garbage and drinking too much beer & wine (the sunshine turns me into a serious boozehound), sleep, once again, eludes me.

I can’t quite remember the last time I fell asleep easily and slept through the night without waking up tossing and turning, or just waking up way too early and not getting back to sleep.

Thankfully, getting back into a routine that works for me and my lousy brain has helped some.

Except now I’m being sabotaged by my alarm clock.

My alarm clock is old. And I am surprised that it didn’t give up long before now. It’s a Sony Dream Machine that was gifted to me for my 9th birthday (no, I did not forget a “1″ – the thing really is just about 20 years old). It’s dingy and ugly and the radio receiver has never picked up a clear station. But it’s been a reliable alarm for the past many, many moons, so why fix what ain’t broke?

Because eventually it breaks. At 5:06am.

I have no idea why, but suddenly the speaker started buzzing. We thought it might be because of a cell phone, but no, the phones were both in the kitchen. And it wasn’t the typical cell-phone speaker interference noise. That’s more of a “chip-chip-chirp” while this was a “BzzzzzzZZZZZZzzzrrrrrRRRrrrrrzzzzzrrzzzZZZZ” only to be stopped by unplugging it.

It does not help that removing anything from the bedroom plugs first requires moving one of two full, heavy nightstands.

I was not amused.

So tonight we try again to sleep all the way through the night.

Anyone out there have recommendations for a good alarm clock.

We were invited out to Chai for a friend’s birthday last night. It’s one of those places we’d never think to go on our own, and being dragged out by other people is one of my favourite ways to discover a new restaurant.

I always check out restaurant reviews and websites before I go for the first time so I have some idea what to expect. When I found reviews and eventually pricing on the website, I was ready to be indignant and annoyed and write a scathing review on this overpriced gimmick as soon as I got home.

Instead, I was pleasantly surprised!

For some inexplicable reason, health food or whole food or vegetarian/vegan restaurants seem to go hand-in-hand with questionably grungy atmospheres and service staff who have tripped the light fantastic a few too many times, and can’t focus long enough to bring the table some drinks, let alone process orders in a reasonable amount of time. Granted, sometimes that’s what you want, and if that’s the expectation you have, and you feel it’s a good value for your dollars, it doesn’t matter.

And my dollar:value equation stops far short of the $27 per person Chai charges for their buffet if it were the typical lacklustre space, spacy staff and limited selection of veggies and tofu.

Thankfully, Chai has kicked it up a few notches to balance out the value equation.

The space is stunning, and though I was skeptical when I read that it’s like you’ve been “whisked away to another land” it really is. It reminded me of a Berber camp. Or a Middle-Eastern place we went to in London. And though I doubt the decor is truly authentic to any specific culture, I didn’t feel like i was tied in any way to Kitsilano, or even Vancouver while we were there. It was obviously put together thoughtfully and deliberately, and it shows.

The buffet was also delicious. The restaurant boasts an Ayurvedic menu with all organic ingredients that are sourced locally wherever possible. The main buffet has fully a dozen different vegetarian, meat and fish curry-type dishes; there’s also a raw salad bar, and a delightful dessert buffet.

I think it’s especially hard to strike a good balance of value for price at ethnic buffets, where the cuisine is based on some of the least expensive food in the world. But by providing a great variety of dishes, not limiting the menu to vegetarian, including dessert, and serving it all in a lovely, unique atmosphere, Chai has managed.

if that wasn’t enough, they completely sealed the deal with the service. The staff were helpful, attentive, kept our plates cleared and drinks replenished, and were completely, genuinely friendly. We were free to eat, rest, lounge, eat some more, and just linger in each other’s company as long as we pleased. I know in the restaurant industry, the ability to turn tables is crucial to success. If Chai has managed to find a mix that allows them to complete the experience by letting us linger, I can’t find fault with that.

Oh, and there is a bellydancer!

So while Chai certainly isn’t cheap, it is one of those places where you get what you pay for, in a very good way.

One of the most fun things about getting into cooking has been learning more about the food that goes into recipes. I’m not particularly interested in the different ways and things that can come together to make yet another condensed-soup casserole, but I love getting right down to the ingredients: how do I know this or that foodstuff is going to be the right one in any given recipe, and how does the quality of it affect the end result.

Now pair this with a husband who grew up on an organic farm and wants to get back to eating food that’s good for the body, the farmer and the planet, then shake it all up with the fact that there is a huge trend throughout the culinary world these days toward “sane eating” and getting back to the origins of ingredients.

What do you end up with? Provenance.

This series seems like it was tailor-made for us. I’m so excited that we’re going, and I hope I’ll see you there:

Tuesday, April 21
Join Anthony Nicalo for the official book launch of Provenance: a blueprint for the modern eater. Guests will learn to assess the sources for food they eat and will learn practical tips for buying clean, healthy food.

Monday, April 27
Special guests include Mike McDermid, Program Manager of Ocean Wise, and Chef Robert Clark of [C] Restaurant discussing the importance of understanding seafood’s impacts on our oceans. Guests will enjoy sustainable seafood hors d’oeuvres prepared by Chef Robert Clark and fish-friendly wines.

Tuesday May 5
Jason Pleym, founder of Two Rivers Specialty Meats will shed light on what is really going on in grocers and butcher shops, while guests taste naturally raised meats.

Wednesday May 20
Mark Bomford, the Program Coordinator for the Centre of Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm will share tips for buying and growing sustainable produce.

Tuesday May 26
Farmstead Wines founder Anthony Nicalo lifts the veil on wine marketing and connects guests to authentic wine and artisan farmers.

Saturday June 6 at UBC Farm
This special fundraiser features international food expert and author of In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan. Pollan will share his manifesto for eating. Guests who participate in the full series will receive a gourmet picnic lunch at UBC Farm.

And by the by, this ain’t no “blogger promo” post – I’m genuinely excited by this, and we’re paying the full shot. Support what you’re passionate about. I think it’s worth it.

I am not a very timely movie watcher.

Unbelievable

Didn't see it 'till last week

Love the woodchipper

Remember the woe and gnashing of teeth and rending of garments I kicked up over our last power bill?

The next one has arrived.

And we are pleased!!!

Our power consumption went way back down to a completely reasonable 962kWh for the past 57 days. That’s fully 1/3 the amount of power we used in the previous billing cycle, and our slick $68.12 bill reflects that.

And thanks everyone for all your power-saving tips from the last entry. We spent much of February and March with sweaters and slippers on, and the shades drawn to keep as much heat in as possible. We kept it a cool 19 degrees inside (down to 16 when we weren’t home and overnight), and kept things romantic with the lights down low a little more often.

We didn’t change out our chest freezer, so it’s good to know that wasn’t one of the huge energy-sucking culprits, nor did we do any less cooking and baking than usual.

Now that we know the double-whammy of an unusually cold snap and being home all day for the duration of it is what did us in, we’ll be prepared if that situation arises again. I can tell you now that there will be a little extra in the emergency fund for not only the higher power bill, but also for the extra blankets and sweaters we’ll be wrapping ourselves in for those few weeks!

January. February.

Oh March. What the hell happened.

I went to look back through our statements to find out where the money went this month, and it turns out I have absolutely no idea.

Thankfully our plans to pay our line of credit, mortgage, etc. have been automated. So we did fine in that regard. And we didn’t use our credit cards. But any extra cash I had after purchasing the MacBook, as well as an undetermined amount of change from our change jar just sortof… evaporated.

Biggest Win: Managing to pay the amounts planned on our line of credit account.

Biggest Fail: Losing track of where our money was going. We certainly didn’t do anything fancy or exciting with it, since we realized on the last weekend of the month that we’d run out of cash and had to adjust some plans. But other than realizing where “the end” was, we don’t have much of an idea about where any of the money went.

Numbers this month:

Debt paid down in March: $2900.00

Amount left to go: $16004.88

Discretionary spending for the month: no idea. More than $1000… not much more, but no idea how much. Oh, plus the fancy new MacBook for about $1500

Lessons Learned: The biggest bummer about “losing” the extra money we had is that one is not having put anything extra toward our debt. If we’d have stuck to our variable spending budget we would’ve been able to pay down our account those few hundred dollars more.

So we’re back to writing everything down, and hoping that paying more careful attention to the budget in April makes sure we’re back on track.

Are you reading the FoodTV.ca blogs? If you aren’t, and you like to cook and/or watch the food channel, you should be!

Not least of all because their shopping blog, Bazaar, does regular book giveaways. Of which I’ve won two. Because apparently not too many people are reading yet (since I’m certainly not naturally that lucky).

Anyhow, I was super excited to get my copy of Mark Bittman’s book Food Matters, and managed to read it in just a few hours. Mostly because I totally skimmed the first half.

The book’s content falls on an interesting line: the first half seems to be fully already preaching to the choir. If you haven’t already read The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, both by Michael Pollan, Bittman’s content in the narrative part of the book seems a bit thin. But if you have read either or both of those books (especially the latter), again the first half of Food Matters seems like unnecessary overkill.

Where this book really shines is in the latter parts, where Bittman gets into instructions and recipes for what he calls “Sane Eating” (or eating like food matters).

For those of us with whom Pollan’s books have resonated, but who are still floundering a bit with how exactly to eat mostly plants when so many of our meals have been meat-centric for so long, this book is pure gold. Bittman’s plan is to eat mostly vegan (though he has limited dairy, like cream in his coffee) until dinner, then whatever the hell he wants.

His recipes are also really elemental – breaking down ways to change up each recipe by changing the vegetables, starches, sauces, legumes, etc. depending on what’s local, in season and in your pantry. I’d be highly intimidated by most of these recipes if I were a novice cook, but as someone who’s just looking for new ways to put basic ingredients together to achieve a filling, nutritious and “sane” diet, this totally fits the bill.

Bittman’s been publishing a lot about his book and some of the recipes on his blog; check it out for a taste of what’s in the dead-tree version.

It’s been in the works for a little while as I’ve been kicking at it when I’ve got some spare time, and I’m happy to say that my latest wee project, CooktheBook.ca is finally up and running!

Inspired by blogs like Alinea at Home and others who cook their way through entire cookbooks, I’m hoping this site will turn into a bit of a community for Canadian hobby chefs and home cooks who want to do the same.

Currenty I’m cooking my way through Menus from an Orchard Table, and my friend Jen is making all the recipes in Super Natural Cooking.

Stop on by and tell me what you think!