I really thought that I had graduated from cooking injuries now that I am doing a minimum wage challenge rather than a food challenge, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. I have two nice lumps on my head to prove it. You’re probably wondering “How the hell does someone get lumps on their head cooking?” which would seem to be impossible in most cases, but I assure you, I manage to find ways to defy the odds when it comes to things like this.
The house where I am house sitting has a fancier than normal kitchen and cooking area. Over the stove it has some contraption (I believe it’s an industrial-sized fan, but I could be wrong) which apparently makes it a better kitchen and some people may think looks really cool:
It seems, however, to have been built with someone who is 5′ 5″ tall in mind. Being 6′ 3″ this contraption is at my eye level:
I leaned over to look pasta sauce inside the pot I was stirring on a back burner, and when I went to stand up, slammed the back of my head into the underside of the fan contraption. The shock (and pain) instinctively had me reach for the back of my head to try to rub the pain away. This action brought my elbow down knocking over the boiling pasta pot on the front stove burner (while I did get a small burn from contact with the pot, the water and pasta luckily spilled in the other direction so I also didn’t end up with a burn from the boiling water). However, with the boiling water spilling, I instinctively jumped up and back, once again slamming my head into the fan contraption. After about 30 minutes of putting together rather creative word strings at the top of my lungs which could never be said on TV or the radio, I came to the conclusion that making pasta is much more dangerous than everybody lets on and settled on a sandwich instead.
After spending the last few days indoors in front of the computer, I really needed to get out. I decided to walk to Annadel CA State Park which ended up being about a 5 mile hike round trip. It was great to get out and the trees against the sky looked beautiful (and a reminder that I need to make sure that I get out often even when things are busy at the computer)
It ended up being another no spend day and it looks like being creative with the food allowed me to get through this house sitting without having to supplement as I originally thought I would have to do. I’ve managed to keep spending far below what I thought I would until this point, but I think that I will need the cushion since I don’t have any house sitting jobs lined up for February and that will give a much better indication of whether or not I will be able to continue to stay within my budget.
Today’s Spending
Food: $0.00
Car: $0.00
Housing: $0.00
Travel: $0.00
Misc: $0.00
Total: $0.00
Total Spending
Food: $7.39
Car: $0.00
Housing: $0.00
Travel: $0.00
Misc: $16.15
Total: $23.54
Next article: Day 18: Near Money Disaster
Jeffrey strain is a freelance author, his work has appeared at The Street.com and seekingalpha.com. In addition to having authored thousands of articles, Jeffrey is a former resident of Japan, former owner of Savingadvice.com and a professional digital nomad.
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