Homebody Getting Back to My Roots

Have you ever had a fantasy about spending your day however you wish away from your home since there is always something to do there, laundry, cleaning, organizing, menu planning, cooking, etc???

Well my fantasy has come true and it ain't that great!

Here is my story: OD is going to be moving to Reno from Oregon to do her ultrasound externship. We invested in a new home 2 years ago with her. Somehow a shower door never got put in the master bath. DH (being a construction foreman in his previous career) decides he will go put one in. Well I haven't been up to OD's in over a year. I will go too and help start getting house ready to sell. DH packs the necessary tools, I pack 3 outfits and clean underwear each, pack the dog's backpack with his toys and water and food, oh and OD wants to use my sewing machine, in that goes too. In the spirit of my total frugalness I also pack our coffeepot, filters, grinder and beans. Why drive to town to get coffee each morning (which is what we normally do, see what being here as done to me?).

As we head off for the five hour drive I ask DH shouldn't he call and make sure there is a shower door that will fit her bathroom....."Oh NO, I'm sure they will have one at Home Depot".

We arrive late on Wednesday the 18th. DH gets up bright and early and decides to call Home Depot. Guess what?? No shower door that will fit, have to order it. And even worse, the local glass company that he calls to see if they have one, will install it for $50.00. We spent probably more than $100.00 on gas for a round trip!

Well OD has a big test Friday so she wants me to come back "next week" to help start going through stuff and getting house ready to put on the market.

So remembering my fantasy (OD already had an out of town trip planned for the weekend), I said I would just stay here and DH could come back and get me in a week or so.

What was I thinking?? Yes I can walk out the back of OD's home and take the doggies on a long walk through the parts of the development that are not developed yet and the view is beautiful, I think that is Mt Ashland I see on my walk, and yes it's quiet and peaceful, but I want to go home!! I miss my bed, I miss my house and even miss my DH!

I have been working since I can work anywhere and OD is finally getting boxes and should be home any minute to start going through stuff, but I can't wait to get home. This morning DH said he probably can't come to get me until Saturday, but if we get everything done in the next few days I may beg him to come and get me earlier.

So in conclusion, be careful of what you wish for. It was okay for about 48 hours, but now I want my life back!

I paid our taxes and left about $30.00 in our checking account, so when I went to the pharmacy today to pick up some cough syrup and albuterol (allergy seaons), I pulled my Visa card out assuming I would have to charge it. The cough syrup was the good prescription kind!

Anyway I just finish chatting about taxes with the clerk when she rings me up.... $15.43 total. Whaaat??? I think I have a $20.00 bill in my purse. Sure enough I did. I was thrilled to not have to put that on my Visa. DH get paid this week, so we will be fine.

The albuterol was a $10.00 copay and the cough syrup was $5.43 generic for Mytussin. I guess I am used to my Advair inhaler, which is about $75.00 even being run through my insurance (no generic yet).

I spent some time today shredding old tax documents from 1999-2001 and organizing the actual returns, filing away 2006 with supporting documents.

Dinner was Carnitas DH made yesterday. Still plenty of leftovers for tomorrow too.

DH bought a bag of onions at Costco today (he had to get stuff for work) for 99 cents a pound, 10 pounds for $9.99. He had just paid $1.58 a pound at Winco this weekend and we used the one he bought. When did onions get so expensive?

One year ago I picked up my sweet Landon at the animal shelter in Grass Valley, CA. I lasted 4 months without a dog thanks to my daughters sending me pictures of dogs from petfinders.com.

I miss my daughters....

So today in honor of trying to not spend any money we don't have to spend, we had friends over for breakfast instead of going out. On the menu was quiche (from the freezer), potatoes fried with red bell pepper and onion, sausage bites (bisquick, cheese and a package of the bear sausage cooked and crumbled small), fresh fruit salad, bacon and orange juice and coffee. It turned out very well and cost about $15.00 for the entire meal with leftovers!

DH made carnitas tonight and instead of pulling pork loin from the freezer we paid $1.28 a pound for at the local Winco, he found large pork loin chunks for 98 cents a pound yesterday. So we grilled that tonight after grilling tonight's steaks. We will be having carnitas tomorrow. Here is the recipe if anyone is interested and it freezes well.

Carnitas

2 pounds boneless pork loin cut into 2-3 inch chunks
2 tsp salt
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp oregano
2 pressed garlic gloves
½ onion, thinly sliced
2 tsp sugar or brown sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Place pork, spices, garlic and onion in a large stockpot. Cover slightly with water and bring to a boil. Cover pan and reduce heat. Simmer for one hour. Add sugar and lemon juice. Remove lid and simmer until liquids have nearly boiled off.

The carnitas can then be grilled before serving them. However, they can be served as is immediately or frozen and stored for future use.

Serves 8

We eat them with plain boiled beans or in a tortilla with grilled pepper, onion, and avocado.

Grocery total so far this month: $150.26, right on track for my $300.00 budget.

We find out this evening where OD is going for her ultrasound internship. She was hoping for Ft. Worth, Texas, but the hospital decided not to sign a contract for this year. She was very disappointed. The placements are sort of like getting your name drawn out of a hat. You have two choices and put them in one or two different cities and somehow they draw names out.

DH cooked Saturday and yesterday we went to friends for Easter Dinner. The only thing we took was that Jalapeno/artichoke dip and crackers from Costco.

So our grocery spending was quite low for last week. My groceries at Winco were $31.67, the skinny cows from Safeway $4.89 and $14.97 at Costco for a half gallon of half and half and the dip and crackers.

Tonight is venison burgers again. They were delicious and we have the buns leftover, so what the heck we are having them again, what 3 days later?

We had boneless thighs (from the freezer) barbecued marinated in Soy-Vey sauce and are having stir-fry tomorrow made out of the leftovers.

Then I think we will have Lasagna from the freezer Tuesday, more (leftover) stir-fry on Wednesday and then I will need to figure out something for Thursday and Friday.

This week's ancillary spending will be high. Dear Doggie's one year checkup is tomorrow and DH's oil and transmission fluid need to be changed in his truck. However, groceries should be low again, will probably just run to Safeway for veges for tomorrow and may run into town later this week for more stuff. Maybe I should plan next week's menus.....

PG&E: $171.16
Gasoline: $409.24
Groceries: $375.94
Eating out: $162.88 (ouch)
Pets: $57.62 (another ouch)
Medical: 87.78 (one prescription, teeth cleaned)
Husband: $234.31 (new work boots and pants)
Me: $49.87 (two sweatsuits on E-Bay)
Tax Return: $540.00 (ouch)
Household: $152.68
Toiletries: $11.78

All our other costs are pretty fixed.

In January and February we spent under $300.00 for groceries and under $100.00 for eating out so I am slightly disappointed. DH pointed out we stocked up on Tri-Tip, but 10 of them at $2.99 a pound.

I am really going to try taking over some of the cooking. It's silly to wait for DH to get home tired to cook for me. Last night I made deep dish pizza which turned out deeper than I expected since I used a 9 by 13 pan instead of a cookie sheet! It was good though.

DH and I also discussed trying the rest of the year to not buy anything we didn't really need and stop running to Safeway for one or two items. That was on Monday. By 7:30 that evening he wanted ice cream and ran to Safeway, picking up a 6-pack of "Skinny Cows" for $4.89 with 50 cents off with club card. Part of our problem is not planning for those nights when we really want something sweet and no we don't necessarily eat it if it is in the house...

Anyway I decided to run into town yesterday before the carpet cleaner arrived at our home and checked the price of Skinny Cows at Winco....$3.45 for the same 6 pack as at Safeway. I ended up getting two pints of Haagen-Daas (did I spell that right?) ice cream, chocolate for DH and coffee for me for $2.48.

So let's see how long I can manage to shop and cook. I spent $31.87 for the rest of the week, veges, milk, frozen french fries(Ore-Ida, green tag special), hamburger buns for burgers tomorrow, tonight is turkey stir-fry. I also picked up sour cream and ricotta cheese.

The carpet cleaning was way more than I expected, but stains came out so I am happy. This is the first time I have had my carpets cleaned since we had new put in almost 5 years ago in the livingroom, 3 years in the back room, almost 3 years in YD's room and 1 year in our bedroom. The bedrooms were all remnants that cleaned up better than the expensive plush in the livingroom. The bedrooms are that sort of stamped look carpet, not berber... anyway the house is looking pretty clean and we are making sure we take off our shoes before walking in the livingroom.

Onward!

Today was a no spend day for us after talking DH out of going out to breakfast. OD was leaving to go home after spring break and she wanted my biscuits anyway...

Then DH was moving our couch to the laminate part of our living room since the carpet is getting cleaned on Tuesday. He found a rolled pack of quarters and some more change under the couch.

$494.97
$ 10.52 found money
$ 20.00 saved not going to breakfast

$525.49 new total

I also made about $700.00 more this month than planned, which will go towards our tax bill.

Back in 1979 I played an April Fool's joke on my husband by having my boss (orthopedic surgeon) put a cast on my arm. I went home and told DH that I had broken my arm at work. I could only stand it overnight and made my boss come in on Saturday and saw the cast off. I am so suspicious that anytime anyone says practically anything to me on April 1, I figure it is a joke.

Okay I am going to be honest here. I don't cook. I have not cooked more than a meal here and there for over 25 years. Wait I take that back, I did a few of those OAMC things back when the girls were all home that we worked into the menus.

So our local Safeway was remodeled and had a grand reopening sale. We received 3-$10 off $50 purchases.

So one day we go try to find stuff to add up to $50.00 (on sale of course) so we can get our $10.00 off. One thing we bought was Bertolli "Complete Skillet Meal for Two" at 2/$10.00.

So tonight DH is feeling not well so I pull one out, plop it into the skillet on medium and come back in 10 minutes where it is DONE! I selected the Shrimp, Asparagus & Penne combo.

I counted 12 small shrimp, the equivalent of about 2 stalks, okay maybe 3 stalks of asparargus and about 1/8 cup of pieces of red pepper. There were about 1 inch pieces of frozen red stuff that I assume was the creamy tomato basil sauce. I measured it after it was done and it was about 3.5 cups.

It was fairly tasty, but I started adding up how much it would have cost to make it and decided it is time for me to start doing some more of that Once A Month Cooking thing.

It would be easy to put this meal together and freeze yourself.

Freeze a bottle of vodka pasta sauce, in an ice cube tray. Trader Joe's is very good. Cook up a package of penne pasta, chop up some asparagus or broccoli. Open up a jar of roasted red peppers from TJ's or chop up some fresh. Count out 12 little shrimp from a pound of those 20-25 per pound shrimp. Cook the veges and shrimp together. Toss in the drained pasta. Layer in single layer on a cookie sheet and stick in the freezer for 20 minutes. Pack into freezer bag with a couple of cubes of frozen sauce and there you are!

DH arrived home from Las Vegas this morning (hmmm is that why he doesn't feel good) and while he was gone I had a frozen leftover meal of bow tie pasta and a chicken breast left from chicken cacciatore he had made. It was enough for two meals and was delicious.

Anyway Bertolli has definitely got me thinking!

Okay my last post should have read.

$0.00
+ 158.22 Amex Rebate
.12 found change by washer/dryer
200.00 in Verizon/Costco rebates.
Total: $358.22

My latest additions:
Found $25.00 in a gift bag that still had a gift it in from a friend from my birthday in December. I think I stuck the money my mother gave me in the same bag. Then I found a quarter under the couch when I went to get my Roomba unstuck. Also DH and I went to the movies yesterday with free coupons that saved $11.50.

Okay and one more.... last week I found a $100.00 (okay a little less) gift certificate from the local Gottschalks's store that was a rebate for what we had charged in 2006. Usually it is a negligible, but we bought a new mattress this year so it was worth using. I found it two days before it expired!

So new total: $ $494.97

I guess it's time to start or catch up.

My original $20.00 was spent on You Need A Budget budgeting spreadsheet.

This has made me so much more aware of spending, that and reading everyone's blogs.

So I am going to go back over my receipts and find any discounts/coupons/rebates, etc and add to my "account".

I will also add in "found money" and the difference between using "blue money" and the face value.

So today:
I received two $50.00 rebate checks from our new cell phones. We already received two other $50.00 rebates on the same phones. There was a rebate from Costco and a rebate from Verizon.

My husband's cell phone is paid by his business, so basically we added me onto his account and I will pay $25.00 a month.

I also found 12 cents on the floor around the washer this morning.

Oh and yesterday we got our annual rebate from our AMEX that was $158.22.

Woohoo it has been a good month!

Start:
$0.00
add: 178.34

Total: 178.34

My husband is cleaning out the freezer. He did something similar last week in our pantry. Unfortunately he decided to throw out some cans of food that we probably have had since the days of our children believing in Santa!

He decided to place the cans that needed to be used soonest on a top shelf so that when meal planning, we would look to this cans first when deciding what to create for dinner.

He is going to use a similar method in our freezer. We have chicken dated April 2006, which means it is a few months past it's prime freezer life (9 months for chicken from the charts I have seen).

While making scones this morning (from scratch natch) DH brought in some mystery packages that we had properly sealed with our food sealer. One of them I recognize as Turkey soup base.

Now turkey is a great year round by and we usually pick up a few extra during the holidays. I feel very virtuously frugal as we simmer the carcass and then pick it clean. Unfortunately those frozen packages never seem to actually become soup!

DH also found a zip lock bag that had a few of his favorite teryaki marinated then barbecued chicken thighs. He was quite distressed when he realized he missed out on microwaving and enjoying one of his favorite foods.

So our goal is to organize and recognize that in order to be truly frugal, we must take that second step and actually eat our leftovers or second harvests. The first step is to have a set area to put those things, which in our case is the top shelf of our freezer and a top shelf in our pantry.

Happy Sunday!

If you were getting sucked into the Round Table Pizza ads about the Artisan Prosciutto pizza... don't bother. We got a large for $14.99, which was $7.00 off and it was very bland. We rarely buy pizza and wish we hadn't!

DH stopped at Costco yesterday to buy Aleve for my back and picked up a few more items. I realized this morning he didn't give me the receipt.

I called him as he was driving to work and asked how much he spent? $84.15.
How much was the Aleve? $14.25.

Okay the rest was groceries right? No.... he also bought Advil PM and Excedrin.

Well how much were they? He dug the receipt out, put his cell phone on speaker and proceeded to tell me...$11.99 for the Excedrin and $16.99 for the Advil PM.

How much was tax? $3.13.

Sorry I said... can't help myself...

Unfortunately he thought the Excedrin was Advil Migraine (I guess his ability to read is leaving him in his old age of 48!) The box color was the same he explained....we will be returning the Excedrin. He even admitted he was excited when he thought that Costco was carrying Advil Migraine (since only certain drug stores carry it and it really is the best thing for common headaches).

Now it's time to enter in YNAB!

Monday I awoke from an earthquake and yesterday with snow on the ground for the first time in about 17 years... so this morning seems like just another normal morning.

DH went to Costco on Saturday and found the spiral hams for 97 cents a pound. He bought one for each of his employees.

We have had two meals out of ours (along with some chopped in my salad yesterday, froze two packages with our Food Sealer and today I am soaking and cooking beans with the bone. Not bad for $10.00.

Back pain does that to you. We were able to stay under budget for our trip to NC and I felt it was a privilege to be there. Unfortunately the last day my back was so bad we switched to an expensive room with a bed that was actually comfortable with a jacuzzi in the room. The hotel (Marriott) allowed us an early check-in and I used that jacuzzi 3 times in 24 hours for about an hour each time before leaving for the airport. It was well worth the money!

I met with our accountant this week and the news was bad... first estimate $8700.00 additional payments besides the quarterly deposits I made. Hopefully the home office deduction will make some difference!

DH found spiral hams at Costco for 97 cents a pound. We cooked that on Sunday and are now being creative with leftovers.

We also received in the mail two $10.00 off coupons at our local Safeway. We don't shop that much there but DH and I wandered around (well I did until my back got to me and then I went and sat in the car) trying to come up with $50.00 worth of good buys to get our $10.00 off. At the checkout DH was at $45 and the checker still took the coupon. One good thing we got was Fresh Gourmet salad croutons for $10/10. We had just bought a package at Winco and they were $1.59. So knowing they were good, we bought 5 more packages (I eat salad every day and I love croutons.)

I have only earned enough this month to cover our health insurance (we purchase our own being self-employed), but YNAB program is helping me to stay on track. That may be all I am able to work for a few months.

Since I posted. Getting used to being home alone I guess.

We managed to get YD moved to NC the first week of December and managed to hurt my back in the process. Work has been slow, but will start picking up again in June. I am excited to start using the YNAB system that I just purchased. I would say that is my $20.00 start to the $20.00 challenge.

We leave a week from today for another trip to NC as SIL is arriving home from Iraq. We used miles for our flight, but have to drive to San Francisco again as that is the only way we seem to be able to use our miles. There is never a seat out of Eureka it seems.

We rolled coins and have almost $400.00 just from that to take with us. DH saves his change, I am obsessive about exact change!

17 days until we have an empty nest. In the meantime MD has arrived home to spend the time with her younger sister.

So food is going to be costing a bit more in those 17 days.

I have harvested lots of local apples and baking a lot of apple crisps!

I bought halloween candy for 75% off Long's Drug Store. Total of 126 bags for just over $100.00. It's the yummy stuff too like Snickers, Milky Way, Reese's.... All going to my SIL and friends in Iraq.

It's going to be interesting to see how low our food budget can get with just the two of us.

I feel like like is really starting over at almost 49 years old!

The sun has been shining and our Indian summer is going on and on...

I am still eating from our freezer and pantry. Right now we have two months worth of grocery budget in that checking account (separate account, DH keeps checkbook). So we will have plenty of money to restock once we have used up our food stash.

I received a refund check from my Gottschalk's account of about $37.00. Somehow I overpaid on our new mattress.

I have $800.00 set aside for our trip to North Carolina December 1st when we go to help YD set up her apartment.

The new year will bring a new budget with no dependents (except my fox terrier Landon)!

Wow almost a month since I last posted. I have been busy clipping coupons, matching coupons to ads, planning menus, using up leftovers, reading my library books and rebuilding my computer myself instead of paying someone to do it.

I spent almost 3 hours on the phone today making reservations using our airline miles. But we will be flying to North Carolina with our youngest daughter to set up housekeeping for about $20.00 a piece.

We still are eating out of the freezer and have not bought any new meat except Italian sausage and ham hocks. Beans are soaking for the crockpot tomorrow (along with the ham hocks).

There is lots to do to prepare for YD leaving. Need to compare shipping vehicle costs and shipping packages costs since we will be shipping what little she is taking with her.

Her apartment is ready December 1st which is the day we are flying. Her husband will be home early March from Iraq, but the college starts spring semester January 5th, so she needs to get settled and signed up for school.

Lots of changes going on in my life....

I seem to have posted every five days for the last few entries.

I have been very busy and had an eye appointment. I was given new contacts to try out and now I have to wear reading glasses to be on the computer, but see better overall.

So now I need to order new glasses since I have been without since my grandpuppy ripped them off my face being affectionate and they pretty much disintegrated back in July.

So today I am going for a teeth cleaning.

Tomorrow will be my first half of month subtotals.

It is the MOST beautiful time of year here on the North Coast of California.

We are still eating out of the pantry, but stocked up with the Costco coupons on cleaning supplies (soft scrub and Clorox clean-up), toothbrushes, scope, lever 2000, dawn liquid, honey bunches of oats and last but not least 2/1 30 count Nestle candy bars (for SIL in Iraq). It was a bit difficult to resist the lawn Christmas ornaments. DH especially liked the Santa climbing up the stairs...., but resist we did!

Some good, some bad over the last five days. I did get the food for OD made and frozen. She left yesterday with 3 small styrofoam containers of lasagna, burritos and lentil soup. Before she left, I gave her dog and my dog baths, which saved $30.00 (for both).

After OD left for 5 hour drive back to Oregon, I realized I was coming down with a migraine. I got my work done and at 4:30 I almost called DH to stop and bring something home for dinner.

But NO! I still had time to thaw some chicken or something from my very full freezer. Luckily I found the Orange Chicken from the buy 1, get 1 at Costco in one of their coupone books. Turned out the sauce was frozen separate from the chicken nuggets in two separate meals (2 bags of sauce, 2 bags of chicken). So yippee two meals. Anyway I already had broccoli and cauliflower roasting in the oven and I stuck the nuggets in the last 15 minutes and made some rice (from the pantry stock). A victory, I didn't give in to conveniece and feeling sorry for myself. It was a pretty tasty meal too even if I say so myself (DH has done 99.9% of cooking for the last 25+ years of our 28 year marriage).

Wednesday was DH's birthday. Unfortunately the girl's wanted to go out to sushi. Somehow I ended up paying and crap, sushi is expensive. $59.00 for the four of us and my mother-in-law. For that price we could have had Chinese for at least 2 meals. I don't even like sushi that much. I mean it's okay...

Luckily for dinner we had the first of this year's venison in the form of venison burgers. Yum very tasty.

So that comes back to this morning, woke up at 4:15 with head pain, popped a pain pill and DH woke up and made me an omelet (we decided not to go out to breakfast, another victory!) before he left for deer hunting again. Oh it's our anniversary and we knew DH was leaving and considered going out.... We had eggs, leftover bacon, avocados and tomatoes, oh and fresh basil. Yum!

Yesterday DH brought home from work the Costco Connection magazine, a new Costco Coupon book and the October issue of Consumer Reports. There is an article on Supermarkets! The shopping tips were nothing new or earth shattering, but the interesting thing was the supermarket ratings.

Quick picks for low prices were Trader Joe's, Costco, Aldi, Sam's Club and WalMart Supercenters.

Top Regional chains: Wegmans, Publix, Raley's, Harrs Teeter and Hy-Vee.

Best for meat and produce: Wegmans, Raley's and Whole Foods Market.

I was happy Winco (where we regularly shop besides Costco) was #11 out of 54 markets surveyed. But then Safeway and Costo are the other other stores that were surveyed that we have in our area (North Coast of California).

Another very motivating force lately was a book I purchased at our church presale rummage sale, (I was dropping things off and bought some books and a new bread maker). Anyway the name of the book is "Credit, Cash and CoDependency" by Yvonne Kaye, Ph.D. This was a very interesting book that I got a lot out of.

I haven't done my monthly subtotals because my head hurts, but tomorrow or Sunday will be paying bills, etc.

There are some interesting Costco Coupons that I will be taking advantage of.

Oh back to food. Tonight I made macaroni and cheese with pasta from the pantry. It's amazing how much I have been pantry cooking since Dido's inspiration. The rice from last night, oh and I baked a cake for DH and made my own frosting..... something I hadn't done in years.. when did I cross over and start buying canned frosting??

Thanks for all the motivating posts everyone!

Here is my bedroom color, if you can call it a color with black and white. It's very dull to some I'm sure, but very soothing to me.

It's a gray day here on the North Coast and OD is home for a visit before her college starts. She gets so busy with work and school that she starts buying frozen stuff to eat, so I decided to send her home with some frozen food.

My plan is burritos, lentil soup and lasagna. DH is at Costco buying some supplies, but I also have some of the ingredients on hand, like the pinto beans (just boiled for 2 minutes, soaking for 2 hours, then throwing in crockpot the rest of the day), a large can of tomato sauce, canned tomatoes and onion and bell pepper, lasagna noodles, lentils and chicken broth.

I won't be sending it all home with her, which will also help us on those busy days. I will have to be careful the rest of the month to keep food under $500.00.

I did a freezer and pantry enventory and here is my freezer enventory (Dido inspired me):
4 lbs butter
2 pkg of cooked turkey leftover.
2 pkg of turkey broth (with meat in them).
2 pkg pork tenderloin (Costco)
2 cornish game hens
6 pkg - 2 in each of chicken breasts (Costco)
2 pkg - 2 in each of New York Steaks (Costco)
1 rib eye steak
1 chuck roast
2 large racks of pork (Costco carries this around the holidays, leftover from last holiday season)
3 large pkgs of pork of some sort, boneless chops? (that's what happens when we don't label pkgs)
4 pkg of pork for carnitas or chili verde (basically chunks of sirloin for $1.28 lb)
1 pkg of sliced beef for carne asada (sold at same store that sells the pork sirloin chunks - Winco)
6 pkg of bone in chicken breasts-3 in each pkg
22 pkg of 1/2 lb each venison burger
10 pkg of venison steaks (about 3/4 lb each)
1 frozen orange chicken pkg meal from Costco
1 large bag of frozen strawberries (Costco)
1 whole filet mignon (having tonight for dinner)

Then in the small freezer above the frig I have another pkg of strawberries almost gone, whole wheat flower, flax seed and 3 different containers of ice cream (partially eaten).

Seeing the movie The Wicker Man....DH's birthday is Wednesday so we decided to do something "fun". At least I took my own snacks.

My enabling friends think that $600+ for food for three (groceries and eating out) "is not that bad". I think it is very bad....

So my goal for September is $500 for the month (combined groceries and eating out).

Also I was a bit shocked at the almost $70.00 in pet costs for one little dog. I usually buy his toys at the Dollar Store, but do feed him expensive Innova dog food. I also bathe him myself except about once every six weeks take him to the groomer for a good bath, toenail trimming etc. Lola my grandpuppy is coming for a visit so I did buy her a new toy today at the Dollar store. But for September, my goal is $50.00 for Landon.

I am copying Flash here, but these are my daughters and their pets. All three puppies were rescued from shelters. My doggy is in the middle with my YD who is recovering from a bad case of mono (not in this picture of course, this picture was taken in early June).

I feel very confident I wrote down everything spent this month.

Totals:
Groceries: $451.41
Eating out: 166.80
Household: $402.64
Auto exp: $1,875.73
Personal Care: $88.52
Pet: $64.97
Gifts: 472.88
Family Fun $141.44

The family fun was high due to high school reunion costs. The Household was high due to a new vacuum and new crockpot and the auto was high due to new tired, alignment and radiator on the old truck and air condtioning work on Volvo.

I did an enventory of my pantry and have so much food I could probably feed us dinners for 3 months from our pantry/freezer... well maybe not three months, but 2! So I will be doing a personal pantry challenge.

I was a bit surprised at our eating out. We had two dinners out and the rest was crap lunches and coffee. Definetely need to work on this. Our anniversary and Dh's birthday is next week, so this will be a challenge.

Need to consider goals for September.

I read about people finding money and think why not me?? Well today I am cleaning off my desk and find a Christmas card from my mother with $25.00 in it! I think I am going to hide it in my drawer!

Yes YD's throat was even worse yesterday so DH came home from work and off to the ER we went again. This time they ordered antibiotics finally. Her throat was one big mass in the back....

Didn't bring her insurance card and off we went to the pharmacy to find out the difference was $50.00 without insurance and her copay of $3.00. I went home and got her card and dropped her and DH off.

Of course the prescription did not get processed until I came back with the card. So I starated wandering around the drug store and found a coupon book with a coupon for $1.00 off Aquafresh. Wait didn't I just see Aquafresh on sale for 99 cents this morning in their Sunday ad??

Now before finding this site, I would not have even been looking for coupons or coupons books. Well indeed I was right, except the toothpaste is on sale Thursday through Saturday... so anyone with a Long's Drug Store, look for the in store coupon book and head over to get your free toothpaste.

Then I had DH pick up a SF Chronicle so I could check out if it would be worth it to buy the Sunday paper.

So tonight I am cutting all the coupons out and figuring out what I will actually use and will send the rest on to Flash. I may be capitulating soon.....now how does the train sork???

Yesterday was a no spend day finally. This morning started out with no half and half (a necessity in our house), so DH ran to expensive Safeway and bought a half gallon $3.79! It's way cheaper at Costco or Winco where we usually buy it.

After reading Diva Jen's latest blog entry, I think her idea of planned spending would work better for us. We don't buy a lot of food at once and it seems like we always need something. Town is 15 miles away and so DH does a lot of shopping for us.

Today our planned spending includes a new crockpot that happens to be on sale at the local department store with a 10% off coupon. For $29.99 (-10%) we will get a 5 quart, plus a little tiny crockpot free.

The lentil soup on Wednesday was not done after "cooking" all day so I think it is time. Having thought about it, I think our crockpot has got to be at least 15 years old!

I'm looking forward to some easy, yummy crockpot meals in the fall/winter.

I entered all the past 10 days of spending into Quicken. It will be interesting to see how the first month's spending will turn out. We did have several purchases this month that were unusual including new tires and radiator for our 89 Chevy truck, a new vacuum and now the crockpot.

Today is YD's birthday and she woke up with such swollen tonsils she was having real trouble. So off to the ER we go again. Thank goodness she has good insurance through her husband. Her two presriptions, steroids and pain pills were $3.00 each.

Spending:
08/21-
$1.00 coffee
$8.10 post office (mailed pkg to Iraq)
$44.51 Winco for groceries

08/22
$11.70 to Walgreens for a big bottle of Advil Migraine.
$3.21 to local movie rental for 3 movies for sick YD.

08/23
$19.70 to Safewday

Today:
$9.50 for cake for YD (What happened to me baking cakes??)
$32.00 carry out Chinese food (what YD wanted and let's face it she is sick as a dog so whatever she will eat, we'll get).

Advil Migraine Geltabs are expensive, but they really do work better than anything else I have tried and FAST!

Plenty of leftover take-out for lunch tomorrow. DH ate his carnitas that he brought home from hunting since he didn't want it to go to waste.

DH made lentil soup in the crockpot yesterday, unfortunately it did not cook all the way through, even though part of the day it was on high. It was definitely hot, but not hot enough to cook so I guess this means I need a new one.

Local dept store has a big one with matching little one on sale for $29.99. May end up getting that tomorrow when I take YD in to town for yet another doctor's appointment. Her pediatrician office kicked her out when she got married. Then came the ER visits and she needed followup liver tests, etc since they were elevated from the mono.

I guess I better make a list of errands to run in town since I don't go that often.

We ended up spending Saturday afternoon in the emergency room with YD who turns out to have mononucleosis of all things. That ends her soccer season and brings into question her semester of college starting in another week.

Luckily she is covered with military insurance now so the ER didn't cost us anything, but DH ran to get her a bagel during the ordeal and then stopped to get her a sandwich on the way home since we were going to our high school reunion.

We spent $30.00 on drinks at the open bar and had a good time catching up with old friends. I went to the reunion breakfast this morning that was $11.00. DH got up at 5:00 to go back up into the mountains to hunt.

I worked all afternoon and fried zucchini from mom's garden and had leftover chicken thighs DH brought home from his first few days out hunting.

So total for the weekend: %54.50 plus whatever DH's gas fill-up was.

With my high school reunion tonight I have been on the lookout for something to make my hair look thicker.

I was at a salon and found Nioxin Niogel "for fine and thin looking hair" in the clearance bowl of stuff.

I tried it out this morning and it STINKS! I don't think I have ever smelled any hair stuff so stinky other than T-gel shampoo maybe. I paid $5.00 for it. I wonder how much it really costs?? I have to admit it did fluff up my hair pretty well though.

Okay I have a hair appt for a trim. I work hard to get my work done before I run into town.

I stop work at 3:00, get ready to go, stop and pick up my paycheck and pick up a coffee. I get to the hair salon about 15 minutes early for my 4:30 appt. Well no my appointment was at 9:30, not 4:30. I wanted to cry. This is the second time I have missed my appointment becaus