CAN YOU DO THE SCRATCH-N-DENT HIP-HOP IN YOUR FUNKY BOOTS?

Got cases of chicken noodle soup yesterday at the scratch-n-dent for $3.88. Only catch? No labels. So, I spent a bit of time yesterday writing the contents on the cans & boxes. Each year finds somebody sick and wanting chicken noodle soup! Other good buy was pretzels 4 bags/$1. And I got Hubster some funky color shoe-polishes for his cowboys boots which are funky colored for .88 a can.


HOW ABOUT THE LENDER'S WALTZ?

Yesterday my step-dad paid me $50 on the computer he bought from Hubster. These dollars have to go back in the kitty. Sorry Hubster!


CAN YOU DO THE 401-K MAMBO?

This past week I finally got through all the paperwork on CashHappySon's 401-K offerings and got him signed up. Reading them is bad enough but explaining those things to another person is complicated to me, so I fell back on the nice explanation found around page 90 in David Bach's 'Automatic Millionaire' book. We set CashHappy's deferral rate to 18% which should just about match what he's been putting into his Roth.

Still left to do is stop CashHappys' Roth contributions for now. With his car payment, paying room & board here plus trying to save for moving out he can't afford to do both right now.

His 401-K plan does not offer an employer match that I could see. But, it did have a place to set up automatic 1% yearly increases, which we did. Thing is, the kiddo is 19. How likely will he be to stay at this place of employment? Ehhh, not too sure, but we're doing what we can while we can.


DO THE HEALTH-INSURANCE MOMBO??

Also yesterday we spent some time on the phone with FrugalSon's employee benefits office getting him signed up for health insurance. He finally got some small scrap of paperwork saying the open enrollment dates, which window was mighty short for use in view of vacation plans. There were no written explanation of benefits forthcoming!! BAHHH! It's complicated enough - try doing it without the info in front of you!

Eventually we got him signed up for health & dental insurance yesterday. They offer disability but the lady did not tell us about it and we'll have to call back another day to get a rate quote! Sheesh, it's always something.

Also on FrugalSon's we'll have to adjust his Roth contributions downward by about $30 a month in order to make his small salary cover everything. He's been contributing the maximum, but we'll just have the insurance and lower the contributions for now and if no huge expenses come up during the year attempt to fully fund his Roth from his emergency or car repair savings at the end of the contribution period.


DO THE HULA??

What I want to know is how do parents with 6 to 15 children handle all the paperwork for all their jobs??? Good grievies!!! I'm tired with just two of them still at home!

My parents generation never had to help with all this stuff because it didn't exist back then! They can say life is easier now, which may be true, but it is more complicated and comes with more hoops to be jumped through - what with the limited open enrollment dates and such! PHEW!


DO THE SHAREBUILDER BOO-GA-LOO!!

For myself there's a problem in my Sharebuilder account which requires me to send a notarized letter. I went to my bank last evening (long hours) and no notary was on duty. I'll be going back this morning to get the darn thing notarized and off in the mail. Due to security reasons it could not be handled over the phone. Pain in the patumpkus!!


I WANNA SEE YOU BELLYDANCE!
This entry reminds me of one of my favorite HAPPY songs - I Wanna See You Bellydance by the Red Elvises! Stop the music from up above & listen to a clip here:


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QQZMZQ/ref=dm_sp_alb?...

or listen to the entire song & watch them at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY_Ylj87e3g

Great Album!


No, I don't think I can dance - but if they keep those hoops low enough I think I can roll through them!

Anybody have any bunion pads? Ben-gay??

---
edited to add:
Found money in house clean-up:

$20 CHALLENGE
$022.74 balance
+000.28 clean-up
_______
$023.02 MTD

2008 Challenge Total $164.10
Challenge Cumulative Total $692.71

The conversation over on the SavingAdvice.com forums about folks trying to feed themselves on limited means and with limited shopping options has got me feeling all Lennonish this a.m. But, Albert will work! We're ALL needed to fight the gorilla on our joint humanity backs! No man is an island.



-------
The May utility figures are in:

$90.75 CableTV/Internet/Phone
$92.00 Gas
$63.00 Electricity
$49.40 Water/Ambulance
$14.00 Trash
_______
$309.15 May total

April totals were $318.70, so we're down $9.55 this month! YEAH!!

-------
Cleaning out the wallet to add to the $20 Challenge:

$013.25 balance
$020.17 cleanout
_______
$33.42 May MTD

2008 Challenge Total $141.08
Cumulative Challenge Total $669.69

Yesterday on a small grocery shop ($36.27) at Aldi's I went ahead and bought powdered coffee creamer there at $1.49 when I know I can get it cheaper at the dollar type stores, where it's usually just a dollar.

I did it the last time I shopped as well. And, I'm aggravated at myself about it.

No, I wasn't out, but I didn't want to run out either and I lazily didn't want to stop at the dollar store. Grrr!

And, I'm wondering just how much this convenience shopping is taxing me in a year's time?????

So, on the shopping list for the next dollar store shop? A BUNCH of creamer! Perhaps a years worth!

And another thing that came to mind while perusing the ticket upon my arrival home...the tax rate. There are two near-by Aldi's in our general metro area. One of them lies in a different town. I'm thinking the food-tax rate might be different in the smaller suburban town. I need to check on that. The difference? The one in the main metro area is 18 miles from my house. The other is 21 miles away. If taxes are lower, in the long run, it might pay to drive the extra 3 miles. Yesterday, I was already in the neighborhood of the one I shopped at. Next time, I might have a choice.

What kind of Convenience Tax are you paying? And on what? Is it worth it to you? How often are you convenience taxing yourself??? And would the actual tax rate on what you are buying be cheaper if you drove a few more miles? Would it be worth it to you?

Yesterday we did shopping & banking errands while we were on our way to and from set activities.

FrugalSon, TheGrrl and I, packed a few homemade sandwiches & filled bottles w/homemade tea and headed to the lake (about five miles away). No swimming but they enjoyed a walk before and after lunch and we had a fire in the firepit and watched a family of ducks, enjoyed lots of pretty wildflowers, and soaking up lots of good Vitamin D sunshine. Cheap entertainment. I read my book and laid in the sun while they held hands and walked around. Then we let TheGrrl-i-o practice her driving on the empty roads around the lake. She says I'm more patient that either of her parents.

Got good stuff at the scratch-n-dent grocery on the way home from the lake. 2 jars of soup base .79 a jar, 4-parmesan cheese shaker cans .99, small mayo/mustard jars at .49 each for vacation packing, 2 BIG boxes of cheeze-its at .99 a box, 4 big jars of dill pickles at .99 a jar.

We came home, put up our groceries, and I mowed the acreage up top while the young'uns picked up more broken limbs left from the ice storm.


(Our house sits behind & under those evergreens about half-way down the road)

Then we cleaned up & went to see Speed Racer at the matinee movie at an increased price of $2.75 - up from $2.50! GRRR! I'm tired of them raising the prices of the matinee!! It makes my Frugalicious Gene (TM) pucker!!!

Then we came home and ate Mother's Day leftovers of baked ham, creamy 'funeral' potatoes, green salad and German Chocolate cake.

It was a full, yet inexpensive day for me. CashHappySon's car had to be towed back to the place we had the motor replaced at. Possibly a cracked head or busted head-gasket or some doo-whicky. If it's either of those two things it should be covered under the warranty and all he'll have to pay is the towing fee. Fingers crossed!

Deposited two recent Pinecone checks. I'm adding them to the challenge:

$20 CHALLENGE

$000.00 balance
+010.00 surveys
_______
$010.00 May MTD

2008 Challenge Total $117.66
Cumulative Challenge Total $646.27

Thursday afternoon I fell down the steps on the side of the house. Poooh! I did twist and I did shout. Uggh! Hubster went by my niece's house and borrowed a foot brace which allows me to hobble around enough to get to the bathroom!

I mentioned in my last blog post that the frig went kaput. Hubster is out shopping for us one right now. He just called on the phone. We are attempting to be wise shoppers and getting the bottom of the line! I think we'll get out with a new machine right at $500. Does stainless keep the food colder? I don't think so.

Putting it on the CC which will be paid off next month. This one will be Energy Star rated at $43 a year to operate.

I just added the last of my 2007 contributions to my Roth! Yeah ME!!! Phew. Two whole weeks to spare! hahaha I used my money from Ameritrade and the bonus from Suze Orman's promotion. That and the interest it earned made me able to slide the last little bit in there.

I'm already into my 2008 contributions as the Household Budget contributes $100 a month, and I've been contributing $101 on autodraft since the beginning of the year. Though I'll have to come up w/considerable difference to max it out in 2008. Most of this difference will be from selling junque & the $20 Challenge.

Went this afternoon and had the AARP folks do our taxes again for FREE. Yeah AARP! We have a very small refund from state and Fed both. Very closely figured - under $200 back on both. So, that's good. We didn't loan Uncle Sammie too much, and yet we don't owe him any either. E-filed, so shortly to have a bit back and we'll probably split the little bit into our Roths.

Today the house budget bought Hubster some floral arrangments for his parents' graves. He waited too long last year and couldn't find any the day he wanted to go out to the cemetery. Another thing off the to-do list.

Yesterday I took FrugalSon and the TheGrrl and we went to see 10,000 B.C. at the matinee. So yesterday I spent $2.50 from my Entertainment Fund. She came back to the house and we made goulash, salad, corn, hot rolls and apple pie for supper.

Before picking up TheGrrl FrugalSon and I went grocery shopping with a list and menu in hand. I bought for three weeks worth of meals and a months worth of snacks. I'm trying to stretch out my buying time to see if I can make it to finally doing 1 month grocery shopping trips. If I get lucky I'll be able to stretch what I've got here with what I purchased and make it w/o another grocery shop this month. Will have to go to the bread store though later in the month.

Housebudget spent on groceries $138.75. Housebudget spent on snacks $21.00 (this also included some meat as they carry Owens brand frozen there and two cases of corn at the scratch n'dent store.) The main grocery shop was at Save-A-Lot.

I watched and their register showed that something like $124 worth of my purchases would have qualified to be purchased with food stamps. I had never realized their registers showed such information before. So basically everything but tax?? I'm too pooped right now to figure it out or dig out the receipt to look.

I went long on flour, corn, beans and rice this trip. This is part of my keeping a years supply of groceries on hand most of the time. I bought two cases each of canned corn and northern beans. About three big bags of flour and 10 lbs. of rice. The prices of grains are predicted to be heading up, Up, UP.

I need a case of Milnot or equivalent brand, but will have to wait till next big shopping trip. I was shooting to only spend $140 at the grocery, so I came pretty darn close. I just bought a couple of cans of Milnot instead of a case. It's figuring that running tax that gets me every time. I got everything on my list except raw popcorn. Not microwave. Can't get just regular popcorn at Save-A-Lot here for some reason. I ask every time I go for the girls to put it on their buyer's list. Can ya'll get it at your Save-A-Lots???

Today I personally have had a no-spend day.

Tonight's menu - Steak Fajitas, Refried Beans, Spanish Rice, Fruit Cocktail, Iced Tea. A little pricier than I like to do at home usually, but it was at FrugalSon's request and he doesn't get to eat at home most nights as he's at work, so...for him (and his grocery hauling muscles) I'm doing it.

----
edited to update the mortgage balance over on the left:

New Balance $18,757.98
Actual remaining time frame 5 yrs. 4 mths.
If we continue making the extra $71.04 principal payment that we've been doing our house will be paid off in July 2012.

Well I DID have a four day streak going...

Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday were all No Spend Days for me. Yesterday I spent as listed in my last entry. But hey, four days in a row was good. Going to spend a bit now as I'm off to the grocery store for the old pre-snow stockup. It's cold out there right now and overcast, snow predicted to come rolling in this evening some time. I believe the weather man, this time!

Perfect!!! FrugalSon just gave me $6.25 left from his December Entertainment budget - "to help you with that pizza from the other night Mom", you know the one we invited his girlfriend over for? What a trooper!

Wooooot!!!

Now normally the Frugalis family makes pizza at home which I can make a couple of nice pizzas for about $5 or less, so even w/the coupon the other night it pained ol' Mom's Frugalicious Gene (TM) to pay for pizza (no, I didn't say a word as it was my idea to do it this way), so this is a nice surprise.

Unexpected, so, I'm taking it to the challenge!

Plus, the dryer fairy left me a penny. Thank you muchly!!


$20 CHALLENGE
$001.46 balance
+006.26 pizza rebate & dryer fairy
_______
$007.72 Jan MTD

2008 Challenge Total $7.72
Cumulative Challenge Total $536.33

Ughhhhh!!! Grocery Dissatisfaction



I just spent $ 82.65 at the grocery store and still feel like there is nothing much here to eat. Several things in the store were noticably higher.

The canned chili I buy that we use on our hot dogs, normally 75-79 cents, now $1.15. Tortilla chips normally 99cents a bag, now $1.19.

Come on people, raise the price if you must, but why not oooch it up a little at a time rather than just gomming on a 20-36 cent hike all at once???

Corn at least ought to be getting cheaper with everyone planting it for ethanol purposes, surely it can't all be used for fuel production as there aren't that many plants yet! GAAA!!!

Baking in the oven is an easy doooo-waaa recipe:

Sausage & Potato Casserole

Uhhh....pardon my exactness! heeheee!!

Slice up a bunch of potatoes, add in some chopped onion, garlic, a can or two of cream of mushroom soup, a dash of milk, a half a stick of margarine cubed, stir. Add on top a chub of raw sausage chunked around (we like Owen's Italian but any ol'sage sausage'll do), sprinkle w/cheddar cheese, season salt & garlic salt and bake at 350 for an hour to an hour and 15-30 minutes.

-------

I make a huge restaruant size pan of this and there is never any leftover, and there are just four of us here eating it. Granted 3 are hungry adult sized males, but geeee - they scarf it down. Makes it a winner in my book.

Oh yeah, FrugalSon & I went to the antique booth and I can tell you the results of March's sales were none too fabulous. Made my rent and then some but nothing to write home about.

We then went out to a small lake nearby and did our exercise/walking/hiking doo and caught of few of those Solar Vitamin D rays ourselves.

Hit the bank on the way home to deposit the check and then to the grocery with the above results. Now I'm Capital P - PoooPed!!

...ohhhh, and who here heard Cramer's confession that may get him in deep?

Money's Tight and You Need to Eat??


...then here's a little inspiration!!

Hungry Much?

http://hungryforamonth.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_hungryforam...

Hungry Much?

This blogger reminds me much of our own dear LRJohnson!!

All I can say is WOW!!

HELLOOOOOOO SPRINGTIME!!



Good news is that I was able to turn off the heater today and open the windows and patio doors for some nice cross ventilation. It feels great when those fresh breezes come wafting through to help clear out the winter stuffiness!

When I left the house awhile a go I saw that I have two daffodils that are bloomed out by my driveway! HELLOOOOOO SPRINGTIME!!

Daffodils are always a Happy Sign!

Of financial note I spent $31.02 yesterday at the scratch n' dent and got some great buys - Catsup at 25 cents a bottle, crackers 50 cents a box, BBQ sauce 50 cents a bottle, syrup 35 cents a bottle, sausage 99 cents a roll, etc. Came home with five HEAVY sacks of groceries.

Warm Cockles and Budgeting Done Right



Here's hoping there's a chicken (or TWO) in every one of your pots for 2007!!

After this post I'm off to make a big pot of chicken soup for the hungry hordes who are bound to come out of hibernating some time this year! In the crockpot is the traditional New Year's hoppinjohn (blackeyed peas & ham).

Ta-da, just now checking the mail from the last few days and here's the tag notice for Hubster's car. Happy I am that the money is sitting there all nice and pretty in savings waiting to pay the little sucker!!! Anticipatory budgeting does work if you do it right!! Yeah Frugalis Family!

Just updated the mortgage information over to the right! Oh how I wish that bugger was gone! Good to know that zillow.com states my equity is inching upwards quite nicely! Warms the cockles of my heart!!

Ummmm...I'm with disneysteve, moving and selling is quite the chore. That's why if The Hubster and I do decide to downsize it'll be one last hooray right about the time he retires. Getting his Dad's house ready to sell was a MAJOR chore and still we have no buyer in sight! I'd hate to be trying it when he's pushing 70's or beyond! Makes me tired just thinking about it!

My mother just recently built a home and she is still a year and a half later disconcerted when trying to find her stuff to bake and get ready for the holidays!!

NEW always sounds fun and exciting...but a wise person counts all the costs, eh? Seems more and more I turn things down because of the effort it would require.

How about you?

Loving from the Oven

In the oven are some Jiffy banana nut muffins = 29 cents. Thawing is some Owens roll sausage = 99 cents. For supper tonight we'll dig into this along with a couple of cups of milk = 50 cents and some scrambled eggs = 36 cents.

Supper for two $2.14!!

I've been outside and am afraid for my house as it appears it will disappear in an avalanche of leaves. I keep sweeping the patio and keep sweeping but those dog-gone leaves and acorns just keep coming!! Piling up maybe a foot or more deep in the corners! Jeepers!


If you don't hear from me for a few days break out the leaf blowers and come in after me, okay???

Frugal lunch today was leftover spaghetti and earlier FrugalSon and I had a cup of hot cocoa w/marshmellows (20 cent bag on clearance) before he headed out to work.

November Expenditures:



11/1 Grocery Expense 83.34
11/1 Paper Goods 34.23

Notations: $4.00 of the grocery was for part of a Christmas gift for my brother. I usually buy him food that doesn't need refrigeration. Got him a couple of those beef sticks.

And $2.00 of the Paper Goods was for candles for some Christmas candleholders to be sold in my antique booth.

Catching Up Update - Up Up I say!

Sunday was a no spend day. FREE breakfast in Sunday School class. Somebody brought Braum's sausage biscuits which were really good. I had never eaten one before. There were other things such as FREE muffins, FREE coffeecake, and FREE coffee. Hallelujah!

Monday was also a no-cash spend day for me. The Hubster did however make the downpayment on the windows which we'll be paying cash for! No payments, yeah!!

Over the weekend FrugalSon had to make a big car repair expense to his lil' truck, a whopping $2.17 for new fuses so his horn could beep once again.

Yesterday morning The Hubster was looking for his snackcakes (his one big requirement for a happy worklife) and so we trotted down to the basement to the freezer only to find that everything in there was thawing out! Glad we made the visit.

When I returned from my morning errand CashHappySon and I worked on throwing out what needed tossing ($$'s down the drain) and getting the rest into the cooler. Then upstairs to shuffle the refrigerator's freezer to fit in as much as we could.

Ended up cooking some of the meat in the crockpot for the dogs. Nice treats! ...and cooked about three packages of sausage links for the boys.

Those wouldn't fit into the upstairs freezer. They had a nice breakfast and lunch on them and still have some leftover. SIGH! Bad freezer!! We checked and no the breaker hadn't switched off or anything. Boo!

Later The Hubster calls and has me plug it into another socket. Ta-da it works! It is an older freezer that I got from my Mom when she replaced hers.

I'm thinking at this moment in time I'm just going to leave it empty and unplugged unless someone wants to gift me with a side of beef or a hog or something! Saving on electricity.

I just don't think I utilize it as much anymore w/just the four of us at home right now along w/the inconvenient trek to the basement to stock it or retrieve something. If it were upstairs maybe! It's TOO TOO TOO Ugly for upstairs though.

Along with that is the car maintenance that The Hubster had done yesterday. I sent him in to get his scheduled oil change only to discover that it is time to do the 30,000 mile maintenance in order to keep his warranty in place.

This little bit of sunshine cost us $534.00 on the CC!! Jeepers! November is looking slimmer and slimmer as we also had his $626 crown thingy earlier this month that went on the CC!

The E.F. is definitely taking a hit, as there is no way I can cover all that out of current income and still be able to eat and have utilities, much less have gasoline for work commute!!



Okay Lord, I need a lot less money going down the drain and much more money coming up out of the drains! Up Up I say! And again I say UP!!

I Also Agree With Tina



Right Tina, you should blog about Starbucks more often!

hahahaahhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaa!!! Let us see where this takes us!

Starting hits 14,262

I am decidely not a coffee snob. I paid $1.00 a brick for the last coffee I bought and I bought all the scratch n' dent store had on hand that day! Hot and brown and I'm okay as long as there's loads of sugar & creamer on hand to dull it.

Holy Taco Mole!!!

Found a steal yesterday afternoon. Before the movie CashHappySon and I were out and about letting him put his application in some places. He's ready to move on from burgercentral - he's stayed the year his Dad & I required from him. He's a bit of a flutter-bye and we're trying to discourage that in the job market.

We went out to the big salvage barn near here - they sell gas, groceries and hardware...it's about 20 minutes from nowhere. It's a kind of scratch and dent store. I shop there frequently and CashHappy knows the owner/manager from the drive-thru lane and our visits to shop. The guy wasn't there but we brought home the application to fill out. Anyway, while there I spent big money yesterday. A whole .26 cents!! Wee-ha!

They have those neat little taco bowls in a large sleeve with 15 of the corn taco shell bowls in it for 25 cents each sleeve. With tax that is .0173333 cents each folks! Bet you can't guess what we're having for dinner tonight????



If they aren't stale I will go back and get some more and put them in the freezer!! This is how I feed my family cheaply. I look for deeeeeeeeep discounts and then when the item tastes good I heaviliy stock up.

Holy Taco Mole - Think I may have a SCORE!!!!

Also yesterday I spent even more money - GASP! Got two new stained glass candle stands for 50 cents each and a box of 4 blown glass ornaments for 12.5 cents each. These are all for Christmas giving. I'll add some candles from the dollar store to the holders.

For myself I bought a green blown glass money frog. I'm fung shuei-ing my money sector! (Wooo-ooooooo did you feel a newage breeze just then???) Really just a cute little frog that is going to sit on my entryway table. I paid 25 cents for him.

I Have Been Influenced and Gone To Pot!

I've gone to pot! I've been listening to all this soup talk and when the temperature dropped this morning about 15 degrees in 5 minutes I knew it was time.

Time to drag out the soup pot.

Because some of the girls were looking for soup recipes, I decided I'd post this one that I made up as I went as it turned out really tasty. A well-stocked freezer and pantry is a wonderful thing!



Gone To Pot Soup
by LuxLiving Frugalis

1 lb. Owens Regular Sausage .99
1 small onion chopped .25
2 T. chopped garlic .10
1 can whole peeled tomatoes chopped .28
1 can chicken broth .50
1 can spinach .28
2 cans yellow squash .28 x 2 = .56
1 tsp. garlic salt .05
1 tsp. Season All .05
----
$3.06 plus tax

Brown the onions, garlic and the sausage. Once the onions are translucent add the remaining ingredients. Simmer on low heat for at least 10 minutes.

Yummy!

Double Fudge Chocolate Chip Toffee Almond Cookies

Good, good, good.

Trying to be frugal and use up some things that have been hanging around the pantry. Don't ask for a recipe, because I don't have one. I just tossed dry ingredients, additions, margarine, vanilla and water. Baked at 350 degrees for 13 minutes.

YUMMY lovin' from the oven!!

Saturday Luncheon Score



Forgot to record that I scored big the other day on Corned Beef at a discount store (I may want more so I'm not giving up my source just yet! ) it was 1.30 a can.

The last time I had bought some was at Save-A-Lot for $1.79 a can. I can normally find it around 1.89-2.29 in the normal grocery stores around here. So, I'm going with the 1.89 as the more 'normal' amount and say I saved 7.08 by buying by the case of 12 with a .59 cent a can savings.

12 x 1.89 = 22.68
12 x 1.30 = 15.60
_________________
savings 7.08 per case!

What do I use Corned Beef for? With two teen boys here the usual Saturday lunch is BBQ Sandwiches. I'll add 1/2 bottle of the Kraft BBQ sauce I got in June for .67 a bottle (pre July Fourth sale). So lunch w/a bag of .99 chips and pickles .50.

1.49 chips/pickles
1.30 meat
.69 HB buns
.33 sauce
.34 porkn'beans
_______________
4.15 quick lunch for four + tax

Some time I might add the 7.08 per case to a challenge or something but this time I'm leaving it in the grocery budget for next month because it is still a bit too tight for my tastes.

Try this BBQ sometime. It's not for everybody, BUT, it's what Hillbilly Brand BBQ sauce used to sell in the grocery stores when I was a kid. Mom would buy these great sandwiches and bring them home...we all thought it a treat.

Now it's just the normal out of the pantry Saturday lunch here.

All I have to do is remember to buy the HB buns & chips and we're usually good to go by picking the canned goods off the pantry shelves.

Come October 1st with the new grocery budget allocation I'm going back in for probably 2 more cases! Just LOVE a good food score, don't you????

SCRATCH & DENT

Went on a scratch and dent grocery shop today. Paid 16.63.

Purchased:

6 pkgs. Lil' Debbie snack cakes - regular size packages at 50 cents apiece (now in the freezer)

2 LARGE pkgs. Lil' Debbie snack cakes at .99 each (now in the freezer)

4 pkgs. of granola bars at 50 cents each w/discount 1.78

4 pkgs. of spaghetti seasoning mix
4/$1.00 w/ discount .26

2 extra long rolls Owens sausage @ 2.50 each

4 bottles of shampoo/conditioner combo @ .50 each

2 large bottles of mouthwash @.89 each

tax .83
--------
16.63 LOVE MY SCRATCH & DENT stores! This is one of two close enough to my house to visit rather regularly!

This was budgeted grocery money, so I do consider this an unofficial no-spend day as I spent no other money besides my budgeted funds.

I never know what the discounted items will be. Sometimes when I get to the car I'll send the boys back in for more, but today I didn't have time.

The boys were supposed to go to a company party/seminar/pep rally type deally-who this afternoon and I took them and no sooner got home than they called for me to pick them back up as it had been postponed. Uaghhhh!!!

I hung up and headed towards the door and then decided why not give a shot at getting a freebie out of this deal? I hit redial and told CashHappySon to get me an ice-cream out of the deal since they had failed to call and let them know not to show up today on their normal day off.

When I got there...free ice-cream!! Ta-da!! I made a vow when I started blogging here not to BUY any ice-cream until 2007, but I never said I wouldn't eat any of the free stuff!

Hiddy Ho There Neighbor

A big Hiddy Ho There Neighbor to My Corporate Sponsors Proctor & Gamble because in today's mail came $37 worth of their coupons for such items as Swiffers, Febreeze, Cascade, Mr. Clean, Dawn, and etc.! Thank you. Thank You!!! This will get my couponing back up and running. Don't know who turned me on to it, but thanks!!

Here's a link to P&G:
http://www.homemadesimple.com/common/languagejump.jsp

Earlier today went to the clothes resale shop with the dudes. I bought them their pick of clothes for Christmas - to put away till then - 3 pairs of jeans each, 2 shirts apiece, and each a pair of dress shoes.

So for six jeans, four shirts and 2 pairs of shoes I paid 90.87 total or 7.57 per item average. Not bad.

They will be styling come the New Year and will have forgotten by Christmas what we bought! NICE to have that out of the way.

This was budgeted gift money we spent, so nothing to wank the budget out of alignment! YEAH!!

Only thing left to buy for them is to fill their stocking...which usually has candy, batteries, shaving cream, shaving lotion, music CD, paperback and cologne in it...most of which can be taken care of inexpensively w/clearance, coupons, sales, or BOGOs!

This was definitely a spending day...

Just home from the Walmart where Frugal Son added $3.00 to his $25.00 Employee of The Month gift card he got from work and was able to get himself a new pocket watch, a pair of jeans and some new black socks. He did okay! The socks were already budgeted for in his Clothes Escrow.

CashHappySon bought himself some new black socks as well (they need them for the job) and it was his turn to buy the dog-food and I had a $1.00 off coupon. He also had budgeted back for Clothes and Dog Food so all on an even keel here.

Of course this is the child (I mean young man) that saw 3400 gazillion other things that he now HAS TO HAVE Moooommmmmmmmm! Right kid. No problem but sorry Charlie...save up your money because it isn't in your budget today, but you can allow for it on your next paycheck if there's enough left over after you pay your bills.

I'm such a killjoy!


(photo credit: F. Pancake)

All this black sock talk reminds me of that childhood song we used to sing "Black socks they never get dirty, the longer you wear them the blacker they get!" Does anyone know if there are any additional verses? Those are the only ones I ever learned.

I bought file folders and paper for the printer which had gone up in price .62 cents since my last purchase. Uhhhh, price check on aisle 11, I think somebody forgot to roll back these prices!! These two items were already in the Office Supply Escrow budget so everybody got out under budget! YEAH US!!

CashHappySon went by work to see if the boy was there who was going to buy his guitar amplifier. No go on that deal, but both of them got offered some extra hours so home we ran to get their uniforms and now the house is all quiet again. Ahhhhhhhhhhh!! Silence - how I love ya, how I love ya silence!!

GRACIAS DOUGHBOY!!



Yesterday's coupon savings added to $20 Challenge in Piggy.

$20 Challenge

11.60 balance forward
11.50 coupon savings
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23.10 September MTD

A Big Shout Out to My Corporate Sponsors Pillsbury and Old El Paso (among others I can't recall for the life of me at the moment) for the coupons! Gracias Doughboy!!!

And thanks to all you SavingAdvice.com forumites and blogmasters for inspiring me to get back in the coupon game. Me and my checkbook thank you too!

"Nanny Nanny Boo Boo!"

Another NO SPEND Day!! YEAH!!!


We had a delish lunch of BBQ ribs that came out of the crockpot fork tender - ya gotta love what a crock can do to cheap meat!! The ribs were on sale earlier this weekend and I got about 15 lbs. for 10 smackos (that's .67 a pound folks) and we'll be eating pretty for the next week on these.

Ribs, potato salad, corn on the cob, pickles, chips and bread and butter, with - you guessed it - the THANK GOD last of the left over birthday cakes!

YUMMERS!!

Jumbo Jumbo aka The Bologna Wars

Okay who ate the last of the bologna and bread and didn't bother to tell me???? GRRRRRRRRRRR!!! Nor did you write it on the list???

Nothing like a hardworking husband trying to pack a lunch with no bread and no bologna at 6:30 a.m. saying sweetly, "Honey is there any bologna anywhere?".

Of course I was just at the grocery store yesterday picking up stuff for the last of the August birthday dinners and could have picked it up -- so back I trudge.

$.79 Loaf of bread
$.75 bologna on sale
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1.54
.12 tax
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1.66

Rounding up the total and writing a check for $2.00, leaving .34 to add to my $20 Challenge and try to catch up with Ima? PRICELESS!

I mean I MUST MUST MUST be compensated for feeling like a goof-ball writing a $2.00 check, can you imagine my chagrin if I'd of had to write one for 1.66. Couldn't be done!

$20 CHALLENGE
20.71 balance
+ .34 spoils of war
_____
21.05 balance forward

And yes, we managed to pack his lunch. Thank the Frugalista blood that runs thru my veins, you'll remember that poor hamsteak that I'd made into portions for 5 meals. Guess who got nice little ham steaks for lunch. Bread? We used the Hamburger Buns that were in the cabinet. Battle won. Now to the wars.

Can you people not see the grocery list on the refrigerator? Is it too much to ask that you PLEAAAAAAAAAAASE write down when you use the last of something?

!!!!!!!PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!

It's supper time and I'm not especialy hungry for anything here and there's nobody home but me. The pizza delivery number was looking interesting but all ya'll tough nuts were peeping over my shoulder so I went on a pantry dive.

What to fix cheap for myself and The Hubster when he gets home???

I wanted to make pancakes and have link sausage, but the pancakes always make my smoke alarm go off. So no, to that. I think okay I'll make muffins then. So I go to my pantry to see what kind of muffin mixes are in there. There are three kinds that I can see.




One uses Milk and Eggs, one uses just Milk and one just uses water. I opted for the water as being the least expensive to prepare.

Note each was inexpensive to begin with. I thought The Hubster would prefer a glass of milk to go with instead of hidden inside the muffins.

And the winners were:



Cinnamon Biscuit Mix .59 (I used a tablespoon more water than called for and baked it in the mini-muffin tin.

Owens link sausage .50

1 cup milk each .40 (milk was on sale this week

mandarin oranges .13

powdered sugar icing .10
_______
Total 1.72 + tax

Eating 1 adult male + 1 adult female

Leftovers 4 mini-muffins and 1 serving of mandarin oranges (can was .25 on sale)

Yo Quiero Tostadas $2.18 plus tax

Tostada Shells .25
Refried Beans - canned .33
Meat - .00 -free from Dad
spices - .05
tomato - .50
onion - .30
sour cream - .35
cheese - .40
salsa - .00 -free from takeout leftovers


No lettuce - we were out of it and an unexpected appointment kept me from hitting the grocery as planned. Iced tea. Leftover birthday cake.

Eating - 3 males age 17+above, 1 female

Here in Kitchen Dough I plan to discourse on the high price of food and the adventures of feeding a family on a squeakers budget!!