Rose's basketball games went pretty well today--for Rose. Our team lost both games but Rose made the most baskets of any of her teammates in the first game and was one of only 3 people to make any baskets on her team on the second game.

The first game was against our own school's other team and they have most of the 6th graders and the 5th graders they do have are the most advanced players. They didn't divide it up well, not mixing the experienced kids with the less so ones. Of the 10 kids on Rose's team, only half have played before. And this is the team they practice and scrimmage with, so we knew going in we wouldn't beat them. I just told Rose to do her best and she did.

The second game went pretty well considering that 5 out of 10 of their players were half a head to 8 inches taller than Rose who is the tallest girl on her team. There's not too much you can do when people outreach you by that
much, so I'm proud my daughter did so well against them.

I do wish they would have separate 5th and 6th grade teams and not combine
them together. They have enough kids to do it and its hard when you are
overmatched because of height, even though you play well.

I just wish that the girl who used to bully Rose would get her act together. She used to be such a good player and now she's just acting like a ditz and has made maybe one basket in 3 games when she used to be a top scorer. She doesn't pay any attention to what's going on around her, I don't know why she is even out there if she isn't going to give it her best. Well, she doesn't bully Rose anymore. Kind of hard to when Rose has flown right past her in skills this year. It's a good thing Rose isn't the vindictive sort or she'd have good reason to bully back now. Or at least tease.

Anyway, I still feel really good about Rose, knowing she is getting better and better all the time and trying hard.

We got smart and packed lunches today for the kids, since the games were from 12 to 2 and they just get so hungry. If we hadn't packed food, they would have wanted to go down the road to the Casino and get sub sandwiches at their market store that has a Port of Subs in it. Wanted to prevent the "can we eat outs" from happening.

After that we went into my mother's house to do laundry and Mom took over so we could go do the rest of our grocery shopping. We are trying for a weekend shop that means we won't shop again for the month except to buy eggs and milk. That is the best way I can think of right now to keep to the grocery budget of $200 a month.

Then Mom decided to take the kids overnight so we came home without them. I made whole wheat hamburger buns tonight as we are planning on making cheeseburgers for lunch tomorrow. I've got a few ideas to try next time to see if they might work better. We put them in a 9 X 13 glass pan and next time I think we'll try using a cookie sheet instead. The pan works great for rolls but less great for buns. I think I'll see about finding a different whole wheat bun recipe that's a little different, too.

It's late now so I will post our spending journal for today tomorrow.

Today was payday so of course, I paid some bills and we went grocery shopping.

Bills paid:

$260.00 Medical
$ 20.00 Rose's Lunch Account
$ 20.00 Tobias' Lunch Account
$ 93.00 Puget Sound Energy
$400.00 House Mortgage
--------
$793.00 Bills Paid

Groceries bought:

@ Terra Organica:

$ 7.98 2 5 lb bags of organic 100% whole wheat bread flour
$ 3.38 2 packages of organic 100%whole wheat tortillas
$ 3.39 1 box of Wheatines organic crackers
$ 5.09 1 jar of Spectrum Omega-3 Flaxseed Oil Mayonnaise
-------
$19.84 Total at Terra Organica

@ Fred Meyer:

$12.40 for 7.2 pounds leanest hamburger
$11.98 2 packages organic uncured ham
$ 2.10 for 5.53 pounds navel oranges
$ 1.99 1 gallon 2% milk
$ 4.99 1 gallon organic non-fat milk
$ 3.29 Organic Yogi Ginger Tea
-------
$36.75

$56.59 Total grocery spending

@ Fred Meyer non-grocery spending

$ 1.98 2 packs key sorters
$ 3.29 bottle of Rolaids
$12.98 2 bottles Vicks Sinex nasal spray
-------
$18.25
$ 1.87 sales tax
-------
$20.12 Total non-grocery spending

Meal Out for 2 at Cinco de Mayo

$21.13 cost of meal
$ 1.96 sales tax
-------
$23.09
$ 5.00 tip
-------
$28.09

$897.80 Total spending today

I still have some bills to pay and $300 or so to do it with but have will not sit down and do those until this weekend.

The hamburger was the leanest they make and was all in the reduced bin so it went straight into the freezer when we got home.

The oranges were on sale for 38 cents a pound, really great price.

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Edited to add:

I forgot we got $20 worth of gas today, too.

$897.80
+ 20.00
--------
$917.80 Total payday spending.

I've been thinking a lot lately about things I can do to stay the course, or improve it. Some may call them goals or resolutions or steps and put them along with the new year, but I don't. Because I don't really like anything that starts with the new year or in any way smacks of a promise to do something better or different in the coming year, because take a wild guess what happens when I do do that? Anyone? Yeah, I don't do them.

So these are just things that I'd like to learn to do so that things go better for me as I go.

I'd like to keep my grocery budget to $200 a month, or rather $200 every 4 weeks. We have four people in this house. DH, who can usually eat a horse and drink a cow in one week's time. But he is only home 12 days out of every 28, and he is fed by work when he is up there. Me, and I eat maybe 2200 calories a day but I exercise vigorously five days a week and on my off days tend to only eat 1800 calories. My daughter, who has 1.5 hour basketball practice 3 nights a week and 2 1 hour long games on Saturdays, who tends to eat 2000 calories on work out days and 1400 on non-workout days. And my son, who is currently going through a growth spurt and eating about 1200 to 1400 calories a day depending on physical activity.

I think we should easily be able to stay within this amount if we completely stop buying convenience foods and eating out. I am wanting to eliminate all not from scratch foods anyway, as they have so many unhealthy ingredients. This should leave us with about $100 for meat protein, $30 for dairy and $70 for 100% whole wheat bread items, fresh fruits and vegetables each period.

We eat a lot of protein due to postprandial hyperinsulinemia (all of us have it except the youngest one and we feed him the same as us as he is showing signs of it, just hasn't been tested) and we don't like vegetarian meat substitues or beans of the non-string or green variety. Cutting back on protein is not an option for us to save money.

I think $100 a month should be adequate. We can usually get 10 pounds of hamburger @ $1.48 per pound, 10 pounds of chicken hindquarters @ $0.39 to $0.59 per pound, whole chickens at $0.59 per pound, beef roasts @ $2.49 per pound, tuna fish $0.99 (label must read tuna, water or tuna, olive oil, salt is okay--no autolyzed vegetable broth or any other additives), turkey legs or necks for $.0.69 per pound. We get 4 18 packs of organic omega-3 eggs a month at $2.19 per pack. If there is a good sale I will buy salmon or other seafood like shrimp or crab, but that is rare. All meat must be free of added ingredients, like a "10% solution added to enchance flavors," non-genetically modified, wild caught and not farmed in the case of seafood, no growth hormones, and free range. We prefer grass-fed and kosher, but sometimes there is a limit to what we can expect from our local grocery stores and most organic meat is out of our price range.

The most expensive thing is the sliced sandwich meats from Applegate Farms that have no additives, preservatives or in the case of ham has not been cured. The kids take that for lunches. Once it is opened it must be used within 4 days. I really need to divide these packages up and freeze the excess because the kids won't go through a whole one in a week's time. And also the organic milk is very pricey, too. DH drinks regular milk but the rest of us drink organic. DH can go through one gallon in 2 to 3 days by himself while we go through 1 in about 5 days. I can get coupons from Organic Valley dairy and I use my reward coupons from Fred Meyer as well.

I also need to start making my own bread products again. I have the bread machine, the ingredients and the recipes, but I never quite get around to it. I need to get around to it. Bread is pretty much my last convenience product but since we buy organic bread and 100% whole wheat bread, it is pricey. I can do this. I just have to want to.

This is all doable. It just needs to be done-able. Okay, making up words now. But I think my point is clear here. Just do it. I'll very grudgingly let this be categorized under goals, but I consider it more of a plan.

I reckon I'm going to have a lot of these no spend days over the next few weeks, and will really have to keep a sharp eye on the spending. That's okay, though. I don't want to be lax with it. Tomorrow should be no spend, also. It helps when you don't leave the house?

Dinner tonight was out of the freezer, turkey necks, which the kids love and broccoli and cauliflower, which the kids also love. I ate other food that I had on hand as I didn't feel like thawing out two packages of turkey necks. This was a pretty cheap meal as I got the necks the week after Thanksgiving when they were selling for 29 cents a pound.

My goal for the next two weeks is no eating out at all. Not even cheapy fast food places. Everything home-cooked and from the current stores in the freezer, fridge, and pantry.

I found out last night at the grocery store that they didn't have gallons of Organic Valley milk because it was affected by the big power failure down Seattle way. Bummer. Not sure when they will get it into the stores. That will be the only grocery spending I will do until the 5th, but only if they get production back up and running.

Okay, these late night or early a.m. entries are starting to be a habit with me. I think the whole holiday thing threw my sleep cycle out of whack and I need to reset the whole system.

DH had to leave for Alaska today so on the way to the airport we stopped at McDonalds to use all the gift certificates we got for Christmas. Not the greatest eating healthwise, but I didn't have any sugar, just drank water with my burger and fries (I'm sure those had transfats!) Felt sluggish after eating it, too. Well, what do I expect eating white flour?

I withdrew $50 from the bank today, $30 for DH's travel money and $20 for my incidentals. I'm going to try to make it last until January 5, which is our next payday. We won't eat out at all between now and then, either.

I used the last of the grocery money tonight, too. I bought apples, organic milk, bananas, marked down shrimp and salmon (from the day before Christmas, (I froze them when I got home), hamburger, lettuce, green bell peppers, and a Danish squash. This will supplement the rest of the produce I have on hand and some of the fruit should last until payday. If not I have canned pineapple and home canned peaches. I may have to borrow from my change jar to get milk, but I think it should last if we keep it to one glass each at mealtimes (and I only drink it once a day) since DH is gone now. He's the biggest milk drinker.

I had to work out a very careful budget but I've covered all the bills there will be between now and the 5th. Buying that generator really knocked us for a loop, but I still feel it was a necessary purchase, even if we don't have another power failure this cold season. It will definitely hit our savings account hard, but then what was I really saving for that can't be put off so we can absorb the hit?

What else today? I read another chapter in The Underground History of American Education. Honestly, its like working my way through a thesis. It is interesting and it is giving me a lot to think about, but its sooooooo long.

Oh, and I watched The Devil Wears Prada, which was given to me as a Christmas present. I liked it, it had a wicked sense of humor. It sounds like it was quite different from the book though. I don't know if I'll keep it or not. I've been trying to winnow my DVD collection down a bit, preparing to sell stuff on half.com. I'll have to think on it a bit. I've got a box of books ready to go, though. I just have to find where DH put them.

Things I have done that needed doing:

Cancelled (again) AutoVantage
Cancelled (again) Tickle.com
Cancelled (again) Preferred Home Network
Cancelled Onlingo
Cancelled Video Professor

I don't know if I will get any money back from the companies that I had already cancelled months ago and they failed to stop charging my credit card or not, but I did lodge complaints about AutoVantage and PHN, with BBB. They were very rude to me on the phone about it, even though I had confirmation numbers and names of people I had spoken too. Tickle was very nice to me and promised they would look into it and refund any money that was due back. Notice how they didn't get reported to the BBB. If any of them try to charge me again we'll go the route of disputing with the credit card and seeing if we can't block charges from those companies.

I finished knitting one hat for Dad and worked some more on Rose's scarf.

I went to the bookstore and bought my Christmas presents from Mom which I will give her tomorrow to wrap and give back to me on Christmas Eve. It seems silly to do it that way and a waste of wrapping paper, but its what she wants to do, so okay. The books I got were by David Bach, both that I have read before and wanted my own copies of, The Automatic Millionaire and Smart Couples Finish Rich. I had $3.65 left over out of the money she gave me for my present. I think I may break my no sugar rule and get a gelato for myself with it! But not until I'm alone after the kids have gone back to school and DH is up in Alaska again.

Today was the day of the automatic deposit of $10 to savings so I sent that off to ING.

I went to Costco and got all the fixings for my Christmas Lasagnas, except noodles, they didn't have there and I forgot to get them when we were at Fred Meyer later so I'll have to get them tomorrow. We have to go back to town tomorrow because our front door knob will not open from the inside anymore. It just stopped working and DH is unable to fix it with his usual tinkering. We could just go out the back door but its not in the best location what with all the extension cords for the Christmas lights. It's also quite a ways from the alarm system, which gives you 30 seconds to get out the door before it goes off. Which is fine if it is just you and not two little kids you are trying to rush out the door. So we will be buying a door knob and lasagna noodles.

I picked up a copy of The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto at the library today. Reading it on the net was just getting to my eyes and really, I just prefer reading books on the printed page.

My day in a nutshell.

Not too much to report on today. I did finally get my antibiotics so maybe I can put this sinus infection to rest. That would be good. Prescription cost $25.

I also spent $23.17 at the grocery store buying organic meat.

DH took the kids to the Santa Train. I decided that I would just make myself sicker if I went, so I didn't. They had a good time, and had a great photo taken with Santa.

I did drive down Starry Road tonight to see some of the lights. They have some amazing houses out that way, storybook beautiful, so I at least saw a little without being exposed to the cold air.

DH found my notebook tonight of all the trial offer membership numbers and when stuff was cancelled, confirmation numbers and the name of the person I spoke to. Now I can go to town on the companies that did not cancel my memberships when they said they would and have continued to charge me. And I will take no prisoners.

Lisa in WA

Today, well technically yesterday as its after midnight, was a no spend day. We didn't go anywhere so that makes it pretty easy to achieve.

I cashed out a PTR today, $5 from TinklyCash. They generally have 24 hour payout, but after that last time with the owner gone on a trip it took a couple weeks, so who knows?

I was able to put up a few more light displays, a nutcracker and a penguin on tree stumps in the garden, and the seal that spins a package on its nose I decided to try to put up on top of the arbor. It was a little difficult to hoist it up there, but I got it up there and cabled it to the arbor and it looks great. I like having...I guess I'd call it texture in my display. So stuff isn't all just flat and at one height.

I'll have to wait until DH comes home to do the train. It is just too heavy for me to lift with one hand and where it goes, I have to climb a ladder to get it up there. Fortunately he will flies home on Wednesday morning.

I wanted to go out to eat today but told myself no and we had a smorgasboard of leftovers. They need to be eaten and money certainly didn't need to be spent. I really didn't want to cook and I think that is why I was wanting to go out, but I really only had to warm stuff up in the micro so its not like I had to cook.

I am planning on going to town tomorrow as soon as the kids get on the school bus. I have a few groceries I want to pick up and I need to deposit a check that came in the mail yesterday. Depending on my energy levels I may pick up the gifts for MIL and FIL and my mother. I hope to be back home in time for lunch. If I eat a good breakfast before I leave I don't think I will be tempted to go out for lunch, but if I leave the house without eating, which I am prone to do, I will have no resistance at all. Now is not the time to be wasting money. Especially with a fridge full of homecooked leftovers.

Did my big Costco run today. I went in with a list, I came out with 3 items that were not on my list. Sigh. We go in with such big expectations sometimes. But the three things I did buy that were not on the list were okay.

Blackberries
Blueberries
A Duracel charger pack with 6 rechargeable batteries ($30)

The fruit was a complete and total impulse buy. It looked very, very good and I rarely buy Costco fruit but these just jumped into my cart of their own accord, so what can you do?

The charger pack was so I could have my own charger that DH doesn't know where its at so that he can't put it somewhere that I can't find it. Oh, he claims its in the room with the books, but um...can't prove it by me. This way I'll also have a set of rechargeables for the digital camera and a set for each of the childrens' Christmas presents charged and ready to go. I was planning on this purchase anyway, just not today.

I put $40 on the gas card while I was there. But I spent more than I planned and this is the first time I've gone over $100 (not counting the gas) in months. I had to buy Ziploc baggies and T.P. though and that does get pricey. It should last quite awhile, though. I also bought slipper socks, 10 pounds of chicken and 10 pounds of beef, pot pies, eggs, cheese, lettuce and yogurt. I am restocking a bit after the loss of the big freezer last week. So I guess the higher amount is to be expected. Didn't over do it because everything must fit into the half size chest freezer. Ended up with a total bill of $187.33 (including the $40 onto the gas card). I would have made it under $100 without the impulse buys and before the cost of gas. So I still feel I did okay.

Anyway, at check out I asked for boxes and they packed the one ridiculously full. It had all 20 pounds of meat in it, plus 4 pounds of cheese and the package of pot pies. We're coming up on 35 pounds of food. I just looked at the guy and I said in a good-natured tone, "Tell me something. Do I look like SheRa: Princess of Power to you?"

He gave me a blank look and I said, "It's too heavy, I can't lift that into my car."

Then he laughed, I guess he finally got it, said "Oh, nope, not really, I'll repack it." He didn't look older than me, he should have grown up with the same cartoons, should have been a little faster on the uptake. But oh, well. He did repack it so I could then lift it easier. At least, I didn't have to rescue my Omega-3 eggs from this one.

After that I got gas. The machine kept shutting off, even though I know it should have gone to 15.5 gallons as I had just over 2 gallons in the tank and its an 18 gallon tank. That gas gauge is computerized so I don't have to guess. I finally gave up at 12 point something gallons, so not a full tank but close enough to end up with 15 gallons in there. Spent just over $30 and have enough left on the card for another full fill up.

I spent $15 (including tip) for lunch at the Mexican place, had beef fajitas without the tortillas, about half a cup of the rice, no beans (they gave me lettuce instead), lettuce, and some chips and salsa. Ended up bringing half of it home for a whole other meal.

Deposited $15.50 in rolled coin at the bank with the CC payoff account, but forgot to deposit the $5 check from Your2Cents.

Went to Haggen and bought bananas, organic milk, shrimp, hamburger, Isernio's mild Italian chicken sausage (Fern, they have a website if you were interested in these nitrate/nitrite free and sulfate/sulfite free suasages, www.isernio.com, its a Seattle based company), 100% apple juice, 100% whole wheat hamburger and hotdog buns, a magazine for me and some Ocean nasal spray for Rose. Spent $73.29 there.

Then I went and picked up the kids and came home. The roads were really good. The highway is completely bare and the main roads in town were a lot better. Mom's street is still bad and my own street is still bad, but things are melting and it got up to a balmy 41 degrees F today, so all's good here on the weather front.

More people have put up Christmas lights now that they don't have to freeze to do it. We even had two new houses on our street put up lights so the kids were excited. I suppose I'll have to go work on finishing our display. For normal people, we'd be done with what is already up, but we aren't normal people. We get our address submitted to the paper of lights to go see in the county, though after last year I may request they not print it since we had $90 worth of lights stolen. We budget twice as much for electricity for the month of December. You can see where I'm going with this. I'm not much of an indoor decorator, though we do put up a tree and a little village, but we all love the outdoor Christmas stuff and the neighborhood kids adore it. One kid asked at Halloween when we were going to set it up.

I think I've covered everything for the day now.

It warmed up today to 26 degrees F, still below freezing but a lot more bearable and easier to keep the house warm at a lower temperature. Tomorrow it is supposed to be 32 degrees. It is also supposed to snow. Guess how happy I am to hear that? I just got dug out, for goodness sake.

It has been 8 days since my kids last went to school. Crazy. At this rate we'll be making up snow days until July. Which will give me a lot of time to work in my garden without the constant "Mom can I's" that I always get the minute I walk outside the front door.

I got a call from the library's automated system this morning to tell me each of my kids have an overdue item. The library isn't even open because of the storm! Like it would matter if I could turn it in they wouldn't be able to check it through. Stupid computers.

The school website hasn't yet posted whether there will be school tomorrow or not, but I am doubtful. The roads are still pretty icy and since 95 percent of our school district is bused, and because it is still so cold out for kids to be waiting for the bus, I somehow don't think it will happen. Yet, I hold out hope.

I did make the kids clean up the living room today. They have been camped in it for a few days and I was just sick of the mess. Now I'm on here mostly avoiding doing another load of dishes and finishing cleaning out the freezer now that I have an empty trash can again. Or almost empty. Paper plates are starting to look very appealing right now. Seems like these kids do nothing but eat when they are home.

At least today is a no spend day. I see a lot of those in my future, but hope I can at least get to town on Friday to pay the mortgage. I suppose I could do it over the phone since my CU that gets the paychecks direct deposited holds the mortgage, but I'd also like to deposit all that rolled coin and the survey check I have burning a hole in my purse. And maybe dump the kids with my mom for a couple of hours so I can just recharge my batteries. I need some me time, seriously badly.

I also need to go to Costco to get toilet paper, lettuce, meat and Omega 3 organic eggs. I'm on my last carton of eggs though it has 14 in it (out of 18). We usually go through 4 a day when DH isn't home, so that puts us out on Saturday, or not enough for everyone to have them on Sunday. I also need to get some more of those nitrate/nitrite free, sulfite/sulfate free, sugar free sausages. And some organic milk. I really don't care for this other stuff, although the kids like it.

I am trying to keep my chin up right now but I feel very whiney. At least tomorrow is the $10 deposit to savings, so my savings will go up.

Edited to add:

And they just posted school closures for tomorrow on the school's website. Darn it!

Okay, I have to admit it. My furnace is currently set on 74 degrees. And I don't even feel guilty because 4 hours on 70 did NOT get the house warm. Did I mention that almost all of the wood has frozen into a big lump that is refusing to yield any real useable bits? Anyway, after a half an hour at 74 the house is finally warm, so I will go turn it back down to 70.

It is, as my title states, currently 8 degrees outside, for our non-American friends that is way below freezing, which is 32. It was warmer during the day, 14, but the sun was out so it felt warmer and the wind wasn't blowing and that helps.

The three of us managed to clear the snow off the car, dig it out and shovel a path from the back of the car to the end of the driveway. I tried to open the doors on the drivers side. The door has a keypad, which unlocks the doors and the trunk. Well, it unlocked every door but the driver door which was frozen. I couldn't get the back door to open, so I went to the other side of the car which is more sheltered and under the tree. That one I managed to get open, then crawled through, unlocked the driver door and pretty much kicked it open, or at least pushed really hard with both feet. Turned it on and got it defrosting and popped the trunk and yay! had a can of deicer, so did both the front and back windows on the driver's side. The kids had to crawl through to the back from the front but managed okay.

So we ended up going to town and getting milk after all. I had to get regular milk because they were out of organic in the gallon size. Now I have enough of a problem paying the price for a gallon of organic milk, I am NOT going to pay a buck less than that for a half gallon, that's for sure. But I got 2 regular gallons for $3.96 so not bad. Picked up a few other items.

At least by the time we got to town the doors had thawed out and everything opened properly. We probably could have waited the storm out but quite frankly if we hadn't had a change of scenery I think we all would have gone nuts. No school again today and none scheduled for tomorrow.

The roads are a little scary, mostly ice, but I have years of experience driving on ice. And at 20 to 35 mph depending on conditions, there's not much I can't handle. Steered out of one skid just fine, which surprisingly happened when I was only going 14 mph. Some people were crazy and trying to pass, thinking what? that the speed limit is 55 so they're going to try to go it, and let's just say there were a lot of cars off the road. Though I do have to say when we got to the bare patches it was annoying that no one sped up on those sections. But oh, well.

On the way home, we were less than a mile from home when we had to stop and wait for an accident to be cleared. Had to wait about half a Hilary Duff Christmas CD before we could continue on. I think that's about 20 minutes, for those of you without kids.

But we got home safely and soundly and I have enough milk and other things that I shouldn't need to go out again for anything. That doesn't mean I won't. We may go to Mom's tomorrow to do laundry and give me a break from the incessant "I wanna play in the snow," which ain't gonna happen in the teens and lower, babies. At least Grandma has TV. Yes, I will deaden their minds for a day every so often if it means I get a bit of peace. LOL I want school back in session!

It's snowing hard and fast here tonight. That doesn't always mean anything here on how deep it will get. We've been known to get 3 feet overnight or 2 inches. Usually somewhere in between. We had about a half inch when I got up this morning and an inch by 2 p.m. and then it stopped. Started up again a half an hour ago and its already added an inch.

I decided to go in and pick up my kids instead of having my mother bring them home. I really needed to go grocery shopping. I went to Fred Meyer so I could also pick up waterproof gloves for the kids and look at the boots. They had a good price on the boots so I got Tobias a new pair. His old ones are too small, they were too small by the end of last winter. Rose can wear mine until I get a chance to take her to try things on. Her feet are shaped in such a way that I can't just pick her size and they'll fit. I found good gloves for them, too.

I stocked up on apples, oranges, and bananas. They had braeburns on sale for 88 cents a pound. I wanted the more expensive honeycrisp but couldn't justify the $1.99/lb price and braeburns are good. Organic bananas were 79 cents a pound while the regular ones were 99 cents, weird. The oranges were a little more than I like to pay but I didn't want to go to another grocer and I knew they were still cheaper than at the organic foods store.

I bought some root vegetables, parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, carrots, sweet potatos and will be roasting them probably tomorrow. I have only had sweet potatoes once before but I think its going to be fine. Have some acorn squash I can add to it.

I picked up the organic deli meat without nitrates/nitrites and sulfates/sulfites for school lunches and some organic 100% whole wheat bread and same type of hamburger buns and organic non-fat milk. They had bagged broccoli/cauliflower cut up for $1.25 for a one pound bag that they were clearancing, I got two. Looked at the chicken but the stuff they had on special was from Cincinatti and I prefer to get my chicken locally. Usually they have local stuff on sale but I think they are still trying to move a lot of holiday stuff out.

After FM I went to Terra Organica, the organic foods store and picked up a couple packages of organic 100% whole wheat tortillas, 2 packages of organic multi-grain pancake mix, and some free range organic chicken broth.

Then I went and got my kids and Mom sent me home with a couple of uncooked sweet potatoes that sister had left behind and the rest of the 100% whole wheat rolls from Thanksgiving.

I'll need to go meat shopping I think sometime next week. I really need to see what I have in my half size chest freezer, which I think is just turkey legs and necks (no thank you anytime soon), a 4 pack package of bacon (and not the good kind, I mean it tastes good, but its full on nasties) and 4 pounds of hamburger. I think there might be some steaks and a whole chicken in the freezer that is in my fridge. Maybe I should concentrate on getting that used up first and then worry about meat shopping later on.

When we got home the kids played in the snow for a half an hour and then I made them dinner, turkey and cheese quesadillas and leftover potatoes and gravy. I'm going to throw the turkey carcass in the crockpot tonight with water, salt, celery, carrot, onion, garlic and dried parsley if I can find it. I usually use fresh parsley when making stock but didn't think about it when I was shopping and don't have any now. Then I'll make turkey noodle soup tomorrow with the result. I'll make whole wheat egg noodles with my pasta maker or see if I can't find where the whole wheat spaghetti noodles got to. I'll freeze part of this.

I think I'll make up TexMex turkey and rice tomorrow, also. I have a really easy recipe. Cook rice, dump leftover shredded turkey on top, cover with two jars of medium salsa (organic, preferrably), stir, heat, stir again. Voila. Sometimes I'll throw in extra diced tomatoes, drained if I have a can. I prefer to use brown rice but it works with white minute rice, too,and is faster. Usually I make it with leftover chicken but since I have all the leftover turkey, that's where it goes. I'll freeze up some of these in meal sized portions, too.

Just checked the google weather report for my little town and its supposed to snow all day tomorrow. Really, really glad I got groceries today.

I am feeling better again. I got quite a lot of extra sleep while the kids were at my mother's and I am hopeful I am on the upswing, but I did feel a bit dizzy today while shopping and I still have a cough. If the roads are not too bad I will try to see the doctor though on Tuesday. I want to make sure I don't have bronchitis or the start of walking pneumnonia. He's usually slammed the first day back after a long holiday so I don't even want to try for Monday.

I finished reading the book Odyssey by Jack McDevitt. Hard sci-fi/excellent. Watched the movie Someone Like You. Funny, sad and sweet romance and Hugh Jackman is always good whether he's a romantic lead as in this or Wolverine from X-Men. And pretty to look at. LOL

I went Christmas Looking today. This is a lot like Christmas Shopping, only without the actual bying of anything. I did a fair bit of Christmas Looking at Barnes and Noble and have a very good list of items that I think will do very nicely as presents. There was a series of drawing books that I would really like to get for my daughter. She's very artsy crafty, loves to draw and paint, and has some good instincts that I think these books would help channel along.

Found a doorstop..er, coffee table book, on castles that DH would drool over if he'd been there with me. He loves this sort of thing, it has pictures and architectural interest with both the insides and outsides and the art and interior design and the surrounding countryside. It is a real work of art.

Found a book on crocheting that I want so will give the name of that to Mom when she asks me what I want.

I looked at "stuff" at Costco while I was there to buy eggs, nuts, and cucumbers. There wasn't really much that caught me eye in the Christmas decorations. I have learned not to use exposed bulbs or holographic thingies with exposed bulbs in open areas or the rain just shorts them out within a day or two, so that cuts out a lot. I tend to stick with rope light structures mostly now.

I looked at "stuff" at Rite Aid, but they don't have more than half their display up yet, and none of their standee stuff at all. Rite Aid had the church I want the last two years, I am hoping they have it this year. I want to use it as a train station for our rope light train, as it looks like an old-fashioned train station as well as a church.

I looked at "stuff" at Fred Meyer, didn't like anything there, either. Sigh. Picked up organic nitrate/nitrite free lunch meat for the kids' lunches next week while I was there. Got myself some more Vick's Sinex nasal mist (a full $1.20 cheaper than anywhere else) and then signed over my first born at the pharmacy so I could get liquid Children's Motrin Cold medicine (in grape). It has sudafed in it so of course its behind the counter now, too.

Can I just say that I hate having to go to the pharmacy for over the counter cold medicine. It is so stupid. The meth heads are going to get their supply regardless, all they are doing is annoying the crap out of the rest of us with sickness. I mean the last thing I want to do is stand in another line after standing in the first line, to even find out if they have it in grape, because heaven forbid I come home with berry flavored, or bubble gum flavored, or horror of horrors, cherry. Then I have to fill out all my information in their little book, because they are too lazy to do it themselves (like at WalMart who enters it into the computer once so then all they have to do in future is put your license number into the computer and its all there), so that if I buy more than my allotted (sp?) amount of cold medicine they can hunt me down and search my cupboards for incriminating amounts of ibuprofen cold, sudafed, and dimetapp. Hmm, she has adult formula, junior strength formula, and children's formula! She's trying to buy them all at once. Over limit! Over limit! What does that mean? She must be a drug addict!

Or maybe she has a small child, a medium child, and an adult and they are all freaking sick right now. Geesh. Heaven forbid you try to stockpile medicine for the winter! Because it would be so much fun to run out in the middle of a cold and drag a whiney, feverish, germ-spewing youngster through the six inches of standing water and the torrential downpour to get another bottle. And after all that crap of being told they have Children's Motrin Cold, in grape, which is what I specifically ask for each time I ask, they hand me Children's Ibuprofen Cold, Kroger brand. "What the heck is this?" "Oh, its our generic store brand. And look, its in grape, just like you wanted." "No. I wanted Children's Motrin Cold." "Oh, we don't have that." ARGHHHHHH. Bought it anyway, but I tell you, as much as I normally love shopping at Fred Meyer, I will not be back for a loooooooong time.

I'm just glad the kids were with my mother. I had a hard enough time navigating today without them. Did buy a few more groceries as Haggen. Enough so I wouldn't have to buy any more this week.

Paid $29.59 for 3000 mile service/oil change today and $10.37 for two big container of egg drop soup. Also spent $13.58 at the grocery store for organic milk, all natural sausages and an Archie digest comic for Rose.

Entry # 5 today.

I can't for the life of me remember to post everything in one post today, I keep forgetting little things that I want to say.

Anywho...I spent $1.79 on a half gallon of milk today at the convenience store. I decided to skip going to town today as I was able to make an appointment for an oil change for tomorrow, so decided I can save the gas and go to the grocery tomorrow. I'll have to fill up tomorrow, but I still have $40 on my Costco cash card, so I can go to their gas station. Payday is Friday and I am so looking forward to it. Then I'll do my real shopping and go to the bookstore Friday. I should be able to get buy until the following payday before filling up again. We don't drive near as much now that soccer is over.

I'm making stew today instead of any more soup. It is far too cold for just soup and I want something more rib sticking. So I cubed and browned up some chuck roast, made a nice rich gravy, threw in some carrots and potatoes and put it in a covered clay cooker in the oven on 225 to simmer away until dinner time with only a few pokes from me throughout the day. Slow cooking is supposed to minimize the creation of transfats in the cookng process.

This will be wonderful for the kids when they arrive home from school today, exhausted and cold beyond all reckoning.

The bus driver laughed at me this morning because I'm sitting out there on my camp chair, wrapped up in my soccer blanket a.k.a. the Ugliest Afghan in the Universe, with my hat and scarf and gloves on, but hey, I wasn't the one sitting in a heated bus, now was I? I was pretty comfy, except for the exposed part of my face and my feet. My feet are never warm outside.

I have to run to town today and buy some organic milk and organic sliced turkey. I'm also going to go into Barnes and Noble and look for a couple of books. I won't buy anything there, I'm just looking to see if I want to buy these particular books or not. Amazon doesn't carry one of them and Half.com doesn't have either one, either. But if I like what I see, I can put them on my Christmas list.

All I really want to do is curl up in bed and go to sleep. Only I'm not the least bit tired so all that would accomplish would be getting me warm and giving me a very lazy morning. Too much to do for that. I could justify lazy yesterday, when I was watching the movie, because I was rolling newspaper sheets and folding them into kindling sticks (see Tightwad Gazette for instructions), and then when I got tired of that I knitted a little. But not today as no matter how hard I try to make them, the dishes simply do not rinse themselves or climb into the dishwasher on their own, and the laundry is even less compliant.

Ran down to the convenience store today to buy a gallon of milk @ $2.49 and a newspaper @ 50 cents. I wanted to get a 99 cent big grab bag of Cheetos, but that is a big "NO" and still related to my sugar binge on Saturday. I didn't really want them want them, wasn't really hungry, I just kind of was having my head turned by them.

I decided not to go to town today. I didn't sleep too well last night. Well, I slept well between 1:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. and then again between 6:30 and 7:40, but you can see why its not really well with that kind of pattern. I went to bed at eleven, too so I don't know why the tossing and turning.

I might go tomorrow, but the kids have 1:00 early release so I would have to leave as soon as they got on the bus to get everything done and be back on time. I need to do the bank run and I need to pick up three t-shirts and a witch hat. Rose is converting her Princess Gueniverre costume into a witch costume for Halloween. I may also get a piece of fabric that has glittery spiderwebs on it to use as a shawl for her. I need to get on the ball and finish Tobias' ghost costume, also, but have everything for that. Just need to do it.

It is cold here today. It is very windy but I can't hang clothes outside due to intermittent sprinkles. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny again, and hopefully the wind will stay! Lately its been dead still on sunny days.

I have a nice fire going and am finally feeling it at my end of the house after several hours. I wish the wood stove was in the middle of the house and not at the far end from where I like to spend all my time and not to mention, sleep.

FIL says he has two more pickup loads of wood to bring out so it is possible I won't have to buy any. I'll have to see what it is and whether it is really as dry as he claims it is. It often isn't. May still buy wood anyway and let it sit in the shed for next winter. We'll see.

Okay, let's get the savings update out of the way. Yesterday was the auto-transfer of $10 to savings. The CU also put in their teeny tiny amount of dividends for the interest of $0.43. Total in this savings account is now $1116.43. That 43 cents is probably going to drive me crazy for a bit until I can add 57 cents to make it even again. I hate odd money amounts, I will always even it up when I can.

I received a check from NFO surveys of $10 yesterday and along with $25.50 in rolled coin, deposited it today into CU#2. Bringing the total in that account to $118.58. Oh, I don't think I mentioned that I had gotten a $70 medical refund last week to start this account.

So total savings right now is $1235.01. I also have an additional $10 that I will deposit on Monday. With that deposit I will only need $5 more to hit my goal of adding $250 to savings by the end of November. I'll meet that next Thursday with the auto deposit! I'll have saved $250 in one month instead of two.

Now I just need to get on the ball and open an ING account. Anyone have a referral they can send me? Baselle, do you have any? That would be appropriate since it was reading her blog that got me started on the whole ING thing.

Anyway, since it was payday I paid the last two bills that needed paying for this pay cycle, more to MBNA MC and my life insurance.

Then I went shopping. I spent $12.08 at the organic food store for 2 packages of organic 100% whole wheat tortillas, 6 pluots, and a jar of Spectrum mayonaise with omega-3 and flax seed oil.

Then I went to the farm stand and paid $5.97 for one large white onion, 6 ears of corn, 6 bananas, a big bunch of red flame grapes and two yellow summer squash.

From there I went to WalMart and spent $14.46 for a white twin sheet, package of 40 bandages with a free Neosporin sample, and a bottle of Ultrafine Mist Vick's nasal spray. Had to go to the pharmacy and pay $7.33 for a 48 pack of Sudafed and while there got a free sample of Pepcid AC.

Then I went over to Costco and bought 2 chuck roasts and a package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, 2 18 packs of brown Omega-3 organic eggs, and a container of Electrasol dishwashing tablets. I also added $80 to my cash card while I was at the check out for their gas station (which I didn't fill up today). Total was $139.08. We will fill up tomorrow after the soccer game. I really don't like to do it there so if DH is home, I'll wait until he can unless I am running on fumes.

Then it was to the Franz bakery outlet store where I got $9 worth of 100% whole wheat flour bread and from the free rack a package of eight 100% whole wheat hamburger buns. Of course, there's no way to coupon with this sort of shopping, but that's the trade off for healthier eating. I did get a milk coupon from Organic Valley though, so I am happy about that and will use it the next time I get milk.

I have started reading the Schwarzbein Principle which I think will go hand in hand with my husband's Ultra Metabolism book, only geared more for women. It's interesting so far.

I'm not sure if I ever said, I finished the book on CD "Start Late, Finish Rich," by David Bach. Really interesting, has some good ideas, but the more of his stuff I read the less I feel like we started late. We have a good chunk in the 401K and have a lot of equity in our house, almost 2/3 of its value is paid for. I have put "The Automatic Millionaire: Real Estate" on hold. I've read or listened to everything else the library has by this author and have really enjoyed it. He gives a lot of solid information in a simple, understandable way. I highly recommend his books.

Food today:

Breakfast:
Cascadia Farms Organic O's cereal
organic milk
organic omega-3 eggs
organic apple

Lunch:
carrots
pineapple
wild salmon patty (made with scallions, organic omega-3 egg, garlic, and real parmesan)
salad with grapeseed oil
water

Dinner:
chuck roast
corn
potatoes
banana
green beans
organic milk

And that's all she wrote.

Rose had to go to the orthodontist today. They took out her U wire and replaced it with a W wire. This one is pushing a bit more than the last one did and is really bugging her. Not as much as the first appliance that took up the entire roof of her mouth, though.

That's two visits this month, so there should be a nice sized rebate coming from the doc's soon once they run through the insurance. For those new to my blog, we paid the entire amount in advance last year and then 6 months later our health insurance upgraded and gave us both orthodontics and vision that we didn't have previously. So the doc runs it through the insurance and then we get cut a check.

Didn't do much else. Oh, spent $9.98 for 2 gallons of organic milk.

As for the new eating update:

Breakfast:
Omega 3 organic eggs
100% whole wheat toast
organic banana
2 stalks of celery
organic milk

Lunch:
100% whole wheat bread sandwich with organic peanut butter and organic jelly
organic milk

Dinner:
Tacos made with either organic 100% whole wheat soft tortillas or organic corn taco shells
organic lettuce
organic cheese
hamburger
taco seasoning without trans-fats or hydrogentated fats
nectarines
organic milk

I have $2 to add to the $30 I will be depositing in savings tomorrow. With the auto deposit, that's a total of $42 going in tomorrow.

Oh, I almost forgot, I wrote a check to the chiropractic yesterday for $175. This covers three visits per week for the 4 of us, though we seldom go more than twice a week. That still works out to 9 visits a month X 4 people, so 36 visits, averages to $4.86 per person per visit. Not too bad. If we went through insurance we'd have to pay $15 co-pay for each of us, plus 20%. DH and I both have mild scoliosis and have both visited a chiro since we were young teens. Our kids have always gone. No one wants to end up with the hump DH's grandma had or the one his mother is starting to develop.

I guess that is all for today.

This is my 4th entry today, just as a head's up to those of you that read my blog, you may want to expand the all entries feature.

Yesterday we went into town and dropped the kids off at my parent's house so we could go to the local organic food store, Terra Organica, and read labels and buy some pantry basics and fresh produce. We ended up spending about $100.

We bought lots of broccoli and cauliflower, enough to fill 3 gallon size ziploc baggies and barely be able to close. We bought a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread, a package of multi-grain pancake and waffle mix, 2 pounds of 100% whole wheat flour, 2 quarts of pure maple syrup, 1 pound of brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cornmeal, 8 honeycrisp apples, carrots, potatoes, parsnips, turnips, and pineapple. We bought dolphin safe wild tuna, organic lunch meats that had no nitrates or nitrites, sulphates or sulfites, smoked turkey, roasted turkey and non-cured ham. 2 gallons of non-fat milk, a jar of honey and roasted cashews. 1 bag of potato chips (potatoes, peanut oil, salt was the only ingredients) for the kids' lunches. Soy nuts. 1 pound of shrimp. One whole salmon that they filleted for us and cut into family size servings. Bananas. Multi-grain crackers. Cheddar cheese. Apple juice and grape juice, both 100% juice.

I think we did fairly well. We ended up with 2 big boxes of food. Nothing we bought had trans-fats, saturated fat, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, or white sugar. Everything was organic and non-GMO, no antibiotics, no hormones. No sulphates or sulfites, no nitrates or nitrites, no additives, and no perservatives. So $50 was food budget and the rest was pantry restocking budget.

As a few people would like to know how we are all doing with this new method of eating, well DH has lost 15 pounds in a week. Rose has to wear a belt to keep her jeans up and I've lost about 5 pounds myself. Tobias does not need to lose weight but his attitude is worlds better.

Today's food:

Breakfast:
Multi-grain pancakes with pure maple syrup (just a little, that stuff is sweet) for everyone but me, I had 100% whole grain toast
eggs
banana
milk

Lunch:
T had lunch at school and R had a packed lunch
DH and I had:
bowl of fruit (honeydew, canteloupe, grapes, pineapple)
15 shrimp in garlic olive oil
1 slice of 100% whole grain bread
milk

Dinner:
broccoli and cauliflower (yes, my kids love this)
beef chuck roast
potatoes
grapes
milk

Food is tasting better and better by itself as the frankenfood build-up washes out of our systems. My skin is completely clear again. Rose's skin, which was just beginning to show signs of adolescent acne, is comepletely clear again. We all feel better. I haven't had an ache or pain today at all, which is saying something. I sure hope this is the boost my immune system needs and for Rose as well. Who knows? Maybe I will be able to start saving the money for medical that I usually put away each month for something else.

Deposited $10 automatically into savings today, bringing the total to $1106. $19 more and I am halfway to my two month goal of adding $250 by the end of November. Forgot again to bring the rolled coin with to deposit, but we didn't end up going to that side of town today anyway.

We went grocery shopping (DH came home from Alaska yesterday) today. First we went to the farm stand and for $17.55 we bought:

8 kohlrabi
10 nectarines
4 Italian plums
1 head of iceberg lettuce
6 ears of corn
1 package of fajita seasoning dry rub mix (no fillers, just spices)
16 ounce bag of sunflower seeds, shelled (no artificial ingredients, just seeds, canola oil and salt)
1 white onion
1 head of garlic
1 gallon of 2% milk

Then we went to Haggen and bought:

1 gallon organic non-fat milk @ $5.69
1 2.28 lb butternut squash @ $2.03
1 1.85 lb acorn squash @ $1.65
1.7 lb baby red potatoes @ $1.68
5.2 lb value pack beef chuck potroast @ $10.69
1 package of bendy straws @ $0.99
magazine @ $3.50

For a total of $26.61 spent there. The $3.50 magazine was an unnecessary expense, so I will be adding $3.50 to my savings next time I do go to the bank, well actuallly round it up to $4 as I don't like an uneven total, I like whole numbers. The bendy straws are for the sake of everyone's sanity around here. We'll just leave it at that.

We are switching our family diet over to whole foods and made from scratch foods completely now. DH is finally on board this train and I think it is best for us all. It'll improve our health and lower our food bill. I think I can keep us to $50 a week for groceries doing this. Possibly less on the 2 weeks out of every 4 that DH is living at work.

With this new method of eating, I'm going to just throw the daily menu into the blog.

Breakfast:
100% whole wheat toast made with honey
soft-boiled Omega-3 organic egg
milk

Lunch:
freshly juiced apple juice
cucumber slices
chicken on salad
plain yogurt with blueberries stirred in

Dinner:
beef potroast
corn on the cob
potatoes with gravy
broccoli
cauliflower
nectarine
milk

It seems a lot written out, but everything is also portion controlled. Rose in particular can overeat to excess even with her high activity level, so I figure if I'm dishing up everyone's plate ahead of time, she can't complain too much if the portions all look the same. DH will just add in more food for himself later on if he needs it.

I think this will save on our food bill quite a bit. We've been spending about $300 a month and eating way too much junk, so I hope it works like I think it will. I just have to plan ahead more, as it requires a lot more cooking and prep work than boxed pizzas and taquitos. I am pretty sure I can do it, I just hope DH continues to back me up on it.

As planned, I deposited the $65 that used to pay the cable bill into savings. I forgot the $16 in rolled coin at home so I decided to just deposit $16 anyway into that account, and then decided to add an extra $5 in as well, for a total deposit of $86, bringing the total in savings to $1096.

Bills paid today:
House mortgage: $374.86 plus an additional $24.14 to principal, total payment of $400
Property taxes: $364.69
School fees: $40 to the lunch program for both kids (really need to cut this out when I am well again) and $6.90 to the book program for Tobias
Water Delivery: $66.57 for 2 months water delivery (this is a necessary expense for us as our local water district has e.coli in the water too many times a year for us to feel safe drinking it)
Basketball fee: $25
Groceries: $46.96
Gas money: $80
Misc.: $24 (will be used at soccer game tomorrow and for a meal for 3 of us)

I have $375 left which will go towards the medical mortgage next payday, along with the $625 from that week's pay

DH will be working 3 weeks instead of 2 in December and will be home for Christmas, leaving back for work on the 26th. So that will be an extra $1950 or so that can go straight to savings. And there should be an extra thousand to $1950 in November when DH will get an extra pay period (he gets 2 extra checks a year depending on how the calandar falls. Combine that with the five extra days he is working for his alternate next year and our tax return and we should just be able to swing a new (to us) car.

I have my eye on a vehicle that has been sitting on the lot for a bit. If it is still there when we are ready to buy and if it is mechanically sound, we should be able to drive a good bargain for it. I know it may be gone by then but its already sat on the lot for 3 months and if its still there come April, I think they'll be dying to get rid of it. I'll definitely run the VIN first though. If not, well, we've waited this long, we can wait longer if need be.

So, I'm at Costco and this couple gets behind me in line at the checker and they are seriously crowding me. Not just invading my space bubble, but pushing their cart into my back. I had to ask them twice to stop shoving it into me. The third time I just sort of leaned back and gave the cart a little shove. I heard a little yelp. That stopped that, but...as I'm unloading my cart they are grumbling at me taking so long. I only had 8 things in my cart and I had to wait for counter space to put stuff up.

Anyway, I get my cart cleared and I go to push it into the cart aisle and the woman has walked around me to stand in the cart aisle and is putting stuff down on the counter. When she finally moves I push my cart where it goes and turn to walk into the customer aisle to pay and they've shoved their cart right up against the end of the counter. So I try to walk around them and they manage to block the customer aisle. I am biting my tongue pretty hard at this point.

I say excuse me and they just look at me blankly. I let out an exasperated sigh of noise and say, "I don't care how much of a hurry you are in to get out of here, if you don't let me get back ahead of you to where my groceries are, you are going to be waiting an awful lot longer." I said it politely, when what I really wanted to say is 1. not appropriate for a family forum and 2. not words I say out loud or usually even in my head.

Finally one of the employee's physically escorted the couple out of the way. And they had the nerve to bellyache the entire time as if they thought I had cut in line in front of them. I so wanted to give them a piece of my mind or say one of the lovely, bitingly sarcastic remarks I had going on in my head. But I didn't. I held my tongue.

These people really should have known how to behave, they had to be a good 20 years older than I am, but they were behaving as if they were (well, I was going to say teenagers, but I've seen better behaved teenagers) raised in a zoo. They were just flat out rude. But I calmed myself down by imagining dumping a bucket of ice cold water over their heads. And when I was done I smiled at them and with as much saccharine as possible told them to have a nice day now. I thought the lady was going to blow a gasket as I casually sauntered away.

Anyway, I spent $31 there on groceries and loaded $50 onto my gas card, then went and got gas at their station. It is at $2.55 a gallon now, spent $32. Other expenses today $6 for 4 hot chocolates at the soccer game but my mother will reimburse me $3 of that. I also spent $6.70 at Arby's for lunch.

Both kids were home sick today. We went into my mother's house to be sick there for the day. The kids were happy to camp out in front of satellite TV. I did go out for a couple of hours, Mom was happy to watch them and give me a break.

I went to Walmart to buy cheap chicken soup, real sudafed (only have to sign over your first born to purchase it there, not also and arm and leg), grass seed to reseed the lawn where the pool was, a small space heater (my room is furthest away from the wood stove and also is on the windiest, coldest side of the house so there are some nights during winter when I need it) since the old one died last winter. Oh, also got a little decorative scarecrow that I attatched to my front door for fall decoration.

I like to change my front door with the seasons, so this little 89 cent scarecrow was a cheap way to do it. I also have a red bell wreath for winter time, a pretty rainbow pastel colored bow for spring and crossed American flags summer. Fall was the only season I didn't have anything for and seeing that silly thing grinning at me did wonders for my spirit when I put it up tonight.

I also looked through the Christmas stuff. They have a revolving light lighthouse and a revolving train train station that I want to get for my Christmas village set. But I refuse to buy them in September. The lighthouse will actually go with the stuff I already have as its mostly a fishing village. I buy one thing a year, generally, so probably will not get the train station unless I get it as a gift for my train crazy son for Christmas.

Afterwards at my mother's we finally had a chance to look through all her end of life paperwork. I am durable power of attorney in both health and finances and have copies of the medical directives on both parents. She gave me a copy of the list of assets, banks and bank accounts, the lawyer's address and phone number, and showed me where she is keeping the will as I will be executor. The lawyer also has a copy in her office. We discussed what to do if she goes before dad, who to call to get him set up in a local nursing home, the name and number of his neurologist, and both of their wishes regarding disposal of remains (cremation, scatter ashes, no funerals).

She also has explained how the mortgage debt will be settled if she goes first, if dad goes first, or if they go together. And I will have custodial access to a money account to pay for all the expenses that may come up before the will can be carried out. So that won't have to come out of pocket and be reimbursed by the estate upon distribution. That is also a relief.

I have been after my mother for five years to get this stuff taken care of and am so glad she has everything in order now. It is one less worry for me to have everything clearly spelled out. I watched her go through not having any of this stuff taken care of with Grandma and her Alzheimer's disease and I did not want to be doing that myself one day.

Now I just need to do all the will stuff for DH and myself.

I finally hung curtains and a valance in the kitchen today. It is so nice to be able to walk in there in my nightgown and not worry about the neighbors. They are very pretty, white with cherries embroidered on them in blue and a little eyelet lace.

My kitchen looks so nice now, between the pretty pine table and chairs, the new curtains and the matching dishes. Never thought I'd get to this point. Next project in there is to change the surface of the counters and backsplash. We will be using linoleum tiles to cover the surface in a pretty blue print that just happens to match the color of the cherries on the curtains.

So what does my kitchen have to do with saving money? Well, the nicer it looks the more time I want to spend in it cooking and if I am cooking we are not eating out, hence we are saving money. Always a good thing.

Money from ReadRevenue showed up at paypal today so I transferred that to my CU, should show up by Friday.

Not too much excitement today. The autotdeposit was today so savings is $10 richer, putting me at $947.

We loaded $100 onto our Costco cash card and then used it to put $30.19 worth of gas into the car 2 today @ $2.58 a gallon, 4 cents less than a few days ago. It is weird seeing the gas tank on F, or even on the right side of the halfway point, really.

I had a doctor's appointment this morning, so $15 co-pay and $10 perscription. My kidney infection came back or else its a new one, so I'll be on antibiotics 3X a day for the next 14 days. Oh, joy. Big old capsules, too. Bought organic milk at the store my pharmacy is in so $5.29 for that.

I pulled all the meat off the rest of the turkey bones and seperated it into packages and froze it. I then threw all the bones and skin into the crockpot with 6 quarts of water, a head of crushed garlic, a chopped onion and salt and pepper and am making broth. I will have it going all night and it should be good and rich in the morning when I'll pour it through a seive and then I will make turkey noodle soup to have with supper tomorrow.

I am really into having soup right now. It is very comforting The weather turned on us this last week or so, went from mid to high 70's to wet, rainy, mid 50's to low 60's, and one night got down to 33! Yikes. It hasn't been that cold again, but we really have to drain the pool tomorrow before it happens again.

As for the soup, twice this week we've had homemade chicken noodle at dinner and tonight we had golden potato (DH's great grandmother's recipe), very rich and good, very satisfying and I notice it cuts my appetite for the heavier protein that follows. I still eat the same large amount of veggies as usual, though. But they are cheaper than protein, usually.

I may make a nice onion soup, possibly French onion, but I really don't know if I have the patience to be finicky. I like the ease of crockpot soup. It allows for a large degree of laziness. Which the lousy weather is encouraging. Just want to curl up with a good book under the covers. The current good book I am reading is "Smart Couples Finish Rich," by David Bach. It is very good and I am learning a lot. I had no idea the limits on spousal IRA's for a non-working spouse (when the working spouse has a 401K) had risen so much. Last time I checked, it was a lot lower. This book was written in 2001 and it was $2000 then, so it might be more now, even.

I will have to look into that. I'm not sure when I might be able to fund one, but I want something in my name for my own personal security. My DH is a solid man who I don't think would ever leave me for any reason and seems to think the sun rises and sets on me for some reason and I see no reason I would ever leave him, he is kind, good and a wonderful spouse and father and I kind of think the sun rises and sets on him also. But I still want something in my name. Security is my biggest issue. I want it no matter what else happens. The idea feels right.

Not much else today. Oh, DH took Tobias to soccer and they are having team pictures so that was $8. School photos were yesterday and today so that was $16 for both kids. We only get the 8X10 and scan it to make copies on the school ones, and the 5X7 team photo with the individual shot in the same photo for sports photos. Rose will have her team photo tomorrow, another $8. I wish these weren't all in the same week, but I guess this is a good week for it if it has to be all at once.

Okay, I think that's it then for today. Got in a very talky mood, I guess.

I went to the Farmstand at a nearby farm and this is what I bought for $10.48.

3 heads of broccoli
1 head of cauliflower
6 ears of corn
6 nectarines
5 pounds of kohlrabi
1 large red pepper

Much, much cheaper than anything in the stores right now. Going to the source when you live near it anyway really helps cut down on the grocery expenses.

I am going to go down to one of the farms this week and get corn to freeze. There is this one farm that sells ears of corn 10 for $1.00, so I usually get 100 ears for $10 and do them up for the freezer. DH is allergic to corn so it is only for the 3 of us and it lasts a long time.

Today saw the $25 Shell gas card from MyPoints arrive in my mailbox. The $3 ReadRevenue transfer from payapl to my CU showed up today so I moved that to savings, bringing the total in there to $813.

I did not get over to the other CU to open the CD, probably won't until Wednesday. I had to go finish getting school supplies, and stuff for school lunches, and then I had to get the kids new soccer gear, Rose needed socks and shin guards and Tobias needed bigger cleats. They both had their first practices today. Unfortunately, after next Tuesday their schedules will divirge, which means we will be at the practice fields four days a week and the game field once a week. Yuck, ugh, and blech. Their first game isn't until the 9th.

I stopped by the school and got their class lists. Tobias is happy because his best little girl friend is in his class and so is the female half of the new set of twins who moved in down the block. And two boys and two other girls from his kindergarten class are in his first grade class also.

Rose is really thrilled because two of the girls she really likes and has been friends with since kindergarten are in her new class. I'm thrilled, too. These girls come from good families with similar values, don't swear or smoke (the parents), and have the same sort of background as we do. I much prefer her being with these girls than one of the others who wasn't the best influence and had a totally disagreeable personality, at least around me. She's not in the class.

It's an advanced class of grade 5, they will be mixed in with some kids from grade 6 for reading, writing, science, computers and math, but have music, art, p.e., and history at grade level. This could be quite a challenge for Rose, because even though she is very smart, she is also lazy about school. I hope it challenges her in a good way. She gets frustrated fast when she doesn't "feel like" learning. But she also got frustrated fast being bored with being ahead of the rest of grade 4 last year and having to wait for the others to catch up.

I am really looking forward to Tuesday. I don't know which of us is the most excited. LOL

Our freezer quit working in a quite spectacular fashion. Combine this with the door being left open a couple inches and it was not a pretty site that greeted me. Since it is older than I am by a few years, I guess I'm surprised it lasted this long.

There is no fix to it, it won't turn on anymore and there were sparks involved and a rather obnoxious noise when it quit. So we had a nice 2 inch layer of water/ice cream/stickiness of unknown origin to deal with on the laundry room floor. Okay, well it is mostly cleaned up now, though there is still a high level of stickiness. But I am soaking that up with wet towels and hopefully by morning it will just wipe up. One can hope.

We probably lost about $300 worth of food since we had a lot of beef, chicken, and fish and shellfish in it. Very little was salvageable. Pretty much just the butter and some bricks of cheese and frozen berries that were in the back behind everything else and were still frozen solid.

Well, today was payday and we did have the $65 that we normally used for the cable bill when we still had cable that was going to go into savings and I was ahead on the house insurance payment, so the extra money I was sending there I combined with the old cable money and we bought a half size chest freezer at Sears for $189 with tax. At least the door to this one can't be left open. Well, it could, but people would notice.

Fortunately it only took the freezer 4 hours to get cold. We did a big Costco run today, $145, and were able to cage freezer space from a neighbor until it was cold, but we would have just used our ice chests if we couldn't have.

Obviously savings did not get as big a boost today as planned, but I did put in the $50 I owed it, so it is now at $779.85, so I have passed my goal of $750 and am on my way to my next goal of $1000. Just $221.15 to go. I'm a little irritated when I think it should be $844.85, but for the freezer debacle and then I'd only have $155.15 to go. I need to look on the bright side and consider that at least I had the money available to replace the freezer without putting it on a credit card. That is always a blessing.

This purachase wouldn't be quite so bad if it wasn't for the fact that DH's birthday is on the 30th and he wants a weight bench. Well, that will have to wait until next month. My mother's birthday is on the 28th and I have to figure out what I will do for that. I have to drive DH to the airport that same day. My sister and her family will be at my mom's for dinner so we will make it back in time to go there, also.

Today I also stopped at a farm stand and spent $10 on fresh fruit and some sweet corn.

Bills paid were the power bill, internet bill, propane tank rental bill, and phone bill. I also have to pay the mortgage out of this paycheck and the medical mortgage, but haven't made it into those banks yet. Will probably do so on Monday.

Also spent $55 to get a new tire for my ten-speed and had them put it on the wheel. It is made for bumpy roads or it would have been $15 cheaper for the tire. We have very bumpy roads out here, so felt the expense was justified. DH will put the wheel back on my bike in the morning and he has already put on the new, cushy gel seat and then he has to put the new pedals on his bike and we need to finish teaching Tobias how to ride without the training wheels, he's about five minutes from it so should be good by the end of the day tomorrow. Then we can start riding again, this time as a family.

Samples in the mail today were Degree anti-perspirant, biore face wash (2) and pore strip (1), and miessences body wash. I just sent for that last one this week, so it came super fast.

Paid fines at the library today (not my fines, DH, the kids, which is DH's responsibility as well, and one lost book of T's) and picked up my hold, which is a book on CD as the library didn't have the book at all. It is The Automatic Millionaire. Should be interesting.

I have to write a balance transfer check out and mail it off tomorrow. It will pay off the Chase card and then everything will be combined onto the other card, so we will be down to just two credit cards with balances on them. This one is at 6.99% until April. Two payments will be a lot easier to manage and keep track of.

I think that pretty much covers everything that we did today.

Did okay on grocery shopping. Some stuff was on sale, mostly all of it. Had coupons for ketchup and it was on sale, so ended up getting two 36 ounce bottles of Heinz for $1.75 each. There are only 3 things in this world that I have brand loyalty, too. Heinz ketchup, Miracle Whip salad dressing, and French's mustard. Well, the last one is DH, who barely eats mustard but must have that brand for when he makes deviled eggs. But I now have a good stash of the brandies to hold us off for awhile and can go back to my no name store brand stuff for everything else.

Spent a few cents under $100 for 2 weeks worth of groceries. Was restocking some staples on sale or would have only spent $70. Haven't made it to Costco yet this paycycle and hoping to avoid it until the September paycycle begins.

Also went to WalMart to buy a birthday present for my neice's party today. While there I picked up the cheap meds, vitamin C, nasal spray, Rolaids. I was given a free sample of Oxy Clear acne wash or something like that. Well, maybe Rose can use it in a few years but so far puberty has brought no zits. Spent less than $30 total there.

Okay, let's see how I did, today.

Organic milk (gal.)--normally $5.49 on sale for $4.99
Regular milk (gal.)--normally $3.49 on sale for $1.99
Iceberg lettuce--normally (in summer) .99 on sale for .49
Green grapes--normally (in summer) $1.69 lb for total of $2.64 on sale for .98 lb--$1.52
32 ounce Heinz ketchup--normally $2.39 with .50 coupon $1.89
1 container Pilsburry milk chocolate frosting--normally $1.99 with .40 off coupon $1.49
4 jars Miracle Whip--normally $3.19 per jar, on sale 2 for $3.00 limit 4
2 packages Dannon Danimals drinkable yogurt--normally $3.19 a pack on sale for $2.99 plus $1.00 coupon if you buy 2
Kroger 2 lb cheddar cheese--normally $5.99--on sale for $4.99 with $1.00 coupon was $3.99
20 cans 8 ounce FMV tomatoe sauce--normally .33 each for total of $6.60 on sale for .19 each for total of $3.80

not on sale
2 nectarines @ $2.49 lb was $2.04
Vicks Sinex 12 hour ultra fine mist nasal spray $6.49

Fred Meyer Reward rebate coupon of $3.00 off any purchase

Total regular price: $50.62
Actual price paid: $37.32
Money Saved: $13.30


But I would never buy some of the stuff at the non-sale prices to begin with. The Miracle Whip and Heinz ketchup or the brick cheese for example would be cheaper at Costco in the big bottles or brick but with the sale and the coupons the weren't. So I don't know how true my actual money savings is. My total in non store coupons was $4.40 and with my rebate coupon of $3 I know for sure I saved $7.40 over what I would have normally spent.

So for me True savings was: $7.40. But it was still fun to calculate it all out.

Now if we turn my receipt over we have 1/2 off a second sandwich if you buy a sandwich meal at Port of Subs

$2.00 off any hair cut at Great Clips

$5.00 off two dinner entrees at On Rice Thai Cusine

$18.99 for an oil change and filter at Expert Tire

And a couple other coupons I wouldn't use.

We will for sure use the Great Clips coupon though. Both DH and Tobias need hair cuts and they like Great Clips.

With that coupon, I'd say true savings is $9.40 and if we use the oil change one its about $6 off the regular price around here.