We had a fun baby shower last night for friends, and now I've got leftovers galore-- everything from half-full bottles of wine to pesto salad and caprese and chocolate tart.

C'mon over for lunch or we'll be eating this all week!

My lettuce mix seedlings are up as well. I'm glad they can tolerate chilliness since it's getting cold here again tonight.

And another bit of "lettuce": I sold some Gymboree pants on ebay for a lofty $2.75 bringing my total up a bit. I've taken photos of other of DD's clothes to sell and will try to get them listed tomorrow. My Disney Steve challenge money is lacking, but I'm determined to catch up!

The word has just spread at DH's job that they're cutting salaries. No official word yet on the numbers. I guess better a lower salary than no job.

I plan on spending (ha!) spring break decluttering the basement and listing ebay items. This morning I freecycled a bunch of toys to a lovely woman with 9 (!) kids.
The delight on the little boy's face when he saw the bag of toys was immensely heart-warming.

We roasted a turkey breast over the weekend. For me, this is one of the easiest cheapest most delicious meals we all love. I predict at least two more meals from it (at 99cents/lb) before it becomes soup.

I read a quote in the NYT over the weekend commenting on how people shopping for groceries are now armed with calculators, papers, lists, and coupons --as much info as if they were shopping for cars.

It's true around here. People are standing in front of displays a long time, comparing unit prices, going through their coupons, and putting things back on the shelf.
Our local store had a special on milk, and every single person I went by had the two gallon special in their carts.

That title either sounds like a children's book or bad omen to me.

Today after picking up DD from school I was greeted at the back door by a possum. Now we live in the suburbs and often have raccoons, deer, and even an occasional coyote, but this possum scared the heck out of me. People are telling me they think they're cute, but not me. Ugly!

No real financial news except the approaching end of the semester and the realization I have one paycheck left at my normal four class full time load.

The weekend was fun--full of friends and Christmas tree shopping and a few hours spent grading projects and reading papers.

I'm actively looking for ideas for Christmas for my 20-year-old nephew who lives in a frat house and is, according to my sister-in-law, hungry all the time. I'm thinking a homemade food basket with emergency supplies. Any one
have good ideas for things to include?

While I was off moving my mom into assisted living, DH bought a new microwave. He's picking it up at Sears tonight, hoping they'll give him the additional 5% they're advertising. He also opened a Sears charge to get 15% off, so I think he did a pretty good job getting the price down. He HATES to haggle, but he asked for ways to save $, and they offered to take the sales tax off too, so he did well.

Now I need to list some ebay things to help pay for it. I cleaned out my mom's cupboards when we left the house and brought cake mix, muffin mix, and assorted other things home. Looks like the church dinner folks are having mom's cake mix tomorrow!

It makes me tired--even with a list, even if I do the shopping with DH. And I see so many folks lately inspecting the unit pricing, reaching for the back of the shelf bargains, I think there's at least a little anxiety that goes with grocery shopping in this sort of economy.

I did ok with double coupons today--a couple of free things and $2 off our regular coffee--but still it wears me out.

Maybe I should've bought vitamins!

Our local farmers' market is small but fun.
We bought yellow tomatoes, cukes, green and wax beans, corn, and my favorite--beets.

A little jaunt to the library rounded out the morning, and now I've sent DH and DD off to amuse themselves so I can get my last-minute class planning done. I printed out our family calendar for the month, and we are busy busy busy.

But I still love the first day of school and all those new faces and possibilities.

before the insanity of the university starts again. We're out to a friend's house for dinner tonight, want to pick up some great sweet corn tomorrow and get ready for school by cleaning and organizing a few things.

I'm making a mixed berry fruit tart tonight and going to think about how sweet summer is before it's gone.

My money goal for today is to sign up for bill pay on the second emergency checking account. They offer $25 for the first time you use it, then I'm canceling it after I pocket the $25.

I wish all my SA friends lovely summery weekends!

Yesterday was pretty fun as DH returned home from England with all sorts of goodies, including hand-me-downs for DD from her favoUrite cousin and all the British cooking magazines I love etc.

DD went to a funny birthday party at a pet shop and had a great time. I managed to delay the adoption of the "free fish" she was given a credit for until I check Goodwill for fish bowls. I don't think I want to spend $5 on a pet store fishbowl for a fish with a life span of a week or so.

So with all this plenty surrounding us, I've challenged myself to walk an hour a day and buy only dairy and produce for the next few weeks. We have tons of stuff in the freezer and pantry, and I'm going to stir up some wondermeals from them.

Tonight--Tikka chicken masala

We had a 6th birthday party for DD this weekend and the bakery sent my husband home with the wrong flavor (NOT CHOCOLATE!) cake.

This all happened about an hour before the party. So what does the bakery tell me? That if I wanted a refund, I shouldn't have served it. This to a woman with a houseful of 6yearolds wanting the Surf's up cake.

I'm calling the store manager!

On yet another former rant, check on yesterday's NYT for an article about foreclosures and the foreclosee's penchant for designer handbags.

My DH will eat anything without complaining or even minding. His mom is a baaaaad cook. I refuse to blame English cooking in general, but her cooking fits the stereotype. DH is happy to eat whatever's put in front of him. He has no qualms about bringing home office leftovers and eating them for dinner.
We don't generally eat leftover office food for dinner, but it's a quality worth cultivating, I think.

My father was a lovely man, but always wanted meat and potatoes and 2 veg for dinner. Anything that smacked of leftovers or thriftiness was scorned.

I do think being willing to challenge your own ideas about all sorts of purchases can really help save.

Remember the old joke?
Define Eternity: two people and a ham. That's how I feel right now. We've been eating ham non-stop since Sunday. I've made lunches, dinners, breakfasts, and we've still got more of that pig than I thought possible. I see bean soup in my future. That's a scary thing when you look in your crystal ball and see bean soup!

Besides my ebay listings for today, I discovered that good ole Walgreen's (aka Al green's) now offers their Easysaver rebates on line! I'm stupidly excited about saving the postage and having their site remember to "send" it for me.

Maybe that's the effect of 5 days of eating ham!

My local grocery is pretty mundane; it has a decent enough produce sections, ok meat, and floral, and bakery. The prices are ok, and the specials good. I stay within budget frequently when I'm there.
But put me in the "upscale" grocery store, and my self-control seems to slip away. The bakery is oooh so tempting, the ready-to eat foods look so appealing, the plants, the wine, the beautiful expensive out-of season produce--I become transported to another lifestyle and spend too much.

Am I alone in this horrible temptation? I've got to stay away from there--even their specials!

My beautiful treasured cup of coffee bit the dust this morning while I was teaching my 8am class. I should know better than to gesture and clutch caffeine at the same time! $1.43 all over the classroom floor!

But my class enjoyed it!

I thought I'd leave it up to all of you to determine a decent metaphor for this winter.

I have the February grumpies again. The Child is ill, so DH and I have been tag-teaming her care. I had to go teach this morning, but came home early, so he could head off to work. Half my students have this same kind of bronchial crud that the Child has.

But the only thing I spend money on lately is parking. It's too cold to walk 6 blocks and then have to pay for frostbite treatment!

I spent the weekend visiting my mom and brought her lots of treats and supplies.
I flew for free with my NWA airmiles, and abstained from the airport food. The plastic-wrapped sandwiches were nearly $7!
Yikes! Someone should do an article on airport food prices. The captive audience thing has gone too far, especially with the no-liquid rule. I usually bring an empty water bottle with me to refill, and boy was I glad. Bottled water was $2.50.
That delicious combo of water and a day-old sandwich would've set me back $10 with the sales tax, Outrageous!

After a brief foray out into the world yesterday for groceries (it always costs double when I bring DD and DH along), gas, and Office Depot, I came home ready to tackle the taxes.

And done they are--with a nice refund to boot! I know it's more sensible to monkey with our withholding, but that nice check is so lovely. I'm eager to get them mailed off. I have to say, Turbotax is a dream for me to use. It truly is tax software for dummies.


My goals for the week are to get the taxes mailed, the returns done, and walk from the free parking to add to both the calorie expenditure and the parking fund.

It continues hectic as heck-tick here, but spring can't be THAT far away, can it?

I took my evening class to the movies last night to see a film version of a book they'd been reading. They cracked me up because they all smuggled in soda and snacks.
Not surprisingly, they're all working adults attending college in the evenings.

I've taken "traditional" college students to the movies before, and have never seen a single one smuggle food in.

Coincidence? Or are my adult students already "smarter?"

My only spending yesterday was on coffee. Not fancy lattes--although I really wanted one--but just coffee at the university spot to get me through the morning classes, and coffee --ugh-- from the machine to get me through the 4+ hour evening class.

Perhaps I should volunteer to make coffee for students? I had one fall asleep the FIRST day of class.

Today's devoted to some freelance editing work and might just turn out to be a NS day.

I'm as happy as can be today because of my cereal bargains. The grocers had a deal on General Mills cereal: buy 6 and get $10 off. I had coupons on all of them, and if you bought all 6, you got milk vouchers worth over $7.
Total spending on 6 boxes? $1.50.

Now why this makes me so pleased is work for a psychologist, but it does. That and the 27 cents found on the ground today. It's very funny, but it feels like some kind of triumph when all you hear is economic horror stories on the news.

Now if Ben Bernanke could perform this sort of feat at the Fed, just think where we'd be....