Update

What a week.

I've been shopping, but I'm proud to say that I've only bought food & a few other necessities. I haven't spent much -- around $50 or so. I was lucky enough to find some amazing meat markdowns on my shopping trip this week so hopefully that keeps us stocked up for a while.

I've also ventured into soap making for my son. If all goes well, I just might try making soap for the three of us to use & stop buying soap from the store. Right now I'm trying an oatmeal soap for Kiddo. I figure the more I can do myself, the less I'll have to rely on the "big man" who runs these stores & imports items from other countries which is slowly stealing American jobs away.

We're a Union family. American jobs are the only way for us. We won't even step foot in our local Home Depot because they hired out-of-state contractors to do the work on that store instead of hiring in-state local workers. I try to avoid Walmart at all costs. 95% of my grocery shopping is done at Kroger. I even buy my gas at Kroger to take advantage of their discount.

For buying the cats stuff, I go to a local health food store & a local pet food store. My cats eat grain-free in an effort to make them healthier.

Anywho, it's just been a heck of a week over here. I apologize for not blogging more. I've been fighting with so many people over so many issues. I hate jumping through hoops. I can't discuss some stuff that's happened yet, though. Let's just say I'm physcially, mentally, and emotionally exhausted & can't wait for these hurdles to be past us so we can get back to some normalcy in our lives.

One thing I can talk about is that my husband's identity is believed to have been stolen. We woke up Friday morning to fraudulent charges on our debit card. We've filed a police report & we're working with our bank to get things reversed. Right now we can't do anything till all the charges clear the account, which may take another couple of days since there isn't nearly enough money in our account to cover the charges that were made. Our debit card has been canceled and blocked by the bank & a new card has been ordered. Ugh, it's just such a headache.

In good news, I got to see my kid brother this weekend. He's home from college on Spring Break. My brother & I are about 8 years apart so we don't have a real close relationship like I'd like to have, but at least we don't hate each other.

Now I need to get back to my duties of laundry, making dinner, cleaning...
Oh, and did I mention we're hoping to have a yard sale in two weeks? Yep, I'm busy.

I've been home for the past two days doing a whole bunch of nothing, which means no shopping!

However, I do need to go to the store tomorrow & hopefully I won't buy anything stupid. I'm currently browsing sale ads & trying to stick to what's on sale and stockpiling a bit as my budget allows. It seems that grocery prices have gone through the roof lately. My budget seems to get tighter as each paycheck comes around.

I guess it makes things a bit tougher when you buy things that coupons aren't common for. Examples are flour, yeast, milk, fresh fruit, meat, etc. Some people are lucky enough to have stores that give discounts/coupons out for those items but, unfortunately, I don't have any stores like that near me. I do most of my grocery shopping at Kroger. Walmart gets very little of my business & I try to shop at the local health food store for things as well. I really wish we would get a Target in this area. Oh, I want a Whole Foods and/or a Trader Joe's too! Ah, maybe one day...

I'm working on getting enough bread loaves frozen so I won't have to make bread for a couple of weeks. You can make bread & freeze it for up to six weeks and the yeast will still be active when you thaw out the bread. I have one loaf of Kiddo's bread frozen already, but seeing as how he eats one loaf a week & the hubby eats 2-3 loaves of bread a week (and I have zero loaves frozen for him) I guess I should get started.

And now I'm off to get dinner ready to go into the crockpot tomorrow. I'm hoping that if I get dinner started tonight that it'll encourage me to get other things done tomorrow... like making bread.

Today's purchases...

Holding myself accountable:

At Kroger:
Pack of chicken legs for dinner. A meal for my family under $2? You bet I'm gonna pick it up!
Bag of organic whole wheat flour for Seth's bread. Yes, I can buy the other stuff, but I try to keep his diet as organic as possible.
Total spent: $5.80

At a local health food store:
Two big cans of cat food. Smokie, my eldest cat, has no teeth so she gets a meal of soft food every day so I can make sure she's eating. Would you believe buying the bigger cans at the health food store is cheaper than buying the individual cans at Walmart? Makes me feel good!
Big bag of yeast. This is the only store that sells this particular size of yeast & it's cheaper to buy it this way.
Coconut milk dessert bars for Kiddo. A need? Not necessarily. A treat for him? Definitely. He hardly ever gets things like that. It came with 8 bars in a pack, so they should easily last him at least that many nights.
A bag of organic gummy bears. Again, a treat. Not necessarily a need. Of course, Kiddo thinks he needs everything in the health food store.
Total spent: $20.60

Please don't smack my hand for buying Kiddo some goodies. I promise that he hardly ever gets goodies like this... maybe once every other month or so. I'd just rather make him goodies than buy them, you know?

Want versus need.

Okay, so we finally paid off our family car that we bought new when my now seven year old son was an infant...

So, now our next goal is to get a bigger, newer family car & let the hubby have the car we just paid off. The hubby's car is just a car that gets him from point A to point B. It does its job, but I'm worried it'll die beyond reasonable repair before the end of the year. It's already in need of new tires & a welding job in order to pass state inspection this year.

I keep trying to win a car, but since that's not happening it looks like I'll just have to save up & buy another car.

I figured up that if we pinch pennies really tightly & the hubby keeps working like he is now, we can save up enough money for a newer car in a few months. I'm hoping to get the newer car before kiddo starts second grade in the fall.

So, this is where you all come in.
You're going to hold me accountable for the money I spend on frivolous things... you know, things we don't need. Obviously food & gas for the cars are necessities and that's where the majority of my budget goes every week. But, lately I've been guilty of buying a pizza to bring home for dinner or something else like that. I know that the small things add up, so I figure if I write it down I can smack myself if I do something naughty.

Help me achieve my goals! Give me a good smack on the (virtual) hand whenever I'm naughty. It'll take me a little while to get going, but I'm hopeful that we can do it.

So now I need to figure up my wants versus my needs.
Kiddo is outgrowing every pair of pants he owns. My kid needs clothes, right? Not many, of course, but enough to get him through about a week (I do his laundry once a week).
Thankfully it looks like his summer stuff from last year should fit him this year. I *might* have to buy new shorts, but I won't know that for a little while yet. It's too cold for shorts right now, anyways.
The hubby keeps ripping holes in his work pants & there are a couple of pairs that are beyond repair...

This may be harder than I thought.
BUT, I can do it!
Please let me succeed...

Early birthday present

Kiddo's early birthday present...

Thomas & Friends LIVE on stage!

He LOVED it! We traveled over 2 hours to go see this, but it was so worth it.

We spent the entire day out as a family. We shopped till we dropped & then went to see Thomas. It was such a cute show!

We sat about 2/3 of the way back in the theater & no flash photography was allowed, but I think my pictures came out pretty good regardless.

I know it's odd that my kid is almost seven and still loves Thomas, but I think a lot of that comes from the fact that his daddy works on the railroad. Thomas is on television one day a week in our area & he always screams with joy when he realizes it's time for his weekly Thomas episode.

A few more pictures from our show for your enjoyment...