Our First "Oops"

Last Sunday when Irv and I were finishing up our grocery shopping and headed to the checkout....I looked in our carts and thought, "Oh man, this is going to be the best week yet. The carts are very empty. We are going to have so much money left out of our $150!! I even had $4.75 in coupons! Chee Hoo!!"

Imagine my shock and dismay, when the checker finished tallying up our groceries and the bill was $146.06 PLUS we had already spent a little over $5.00 for bagels at the bagel shop!!! WE WENT OVER OUR BUDGET!!!!

For those of you who are new to my blog....we are trying to stay on a budget. We are allowed $150 a week for all food and household items. IF we have any money left of the $150, we get to use that for carry out on Friday night.

I kept looking at the receipt on the way home, because I was so sure there was a mistake. I even added everything up in my head and unfortunately, it was right. We didn't really buy a lot, but some of the things we did buy were a bit more money. Irv was out of meat so he purchased quite a few things, and I was trying a couple new recipes this week and needed some things I wouldn't ordinarily buy. It wasn't that we bought lots of junk, we didn't, we just spent more than normal.

Now, I could cheat and take money out of our "surplus" envelope and get carry out tonight, but I'm not going to do that. What we are going to do is cook dinner at home tonight, and then use one of our restaurant gift cards that we have been hoarding and go out to dinner Saturday night.

No harm done....but in all honesty, I'm still a bit upset that we spent that much.

Who You Gonna Call? Fur Buster!!

My Saturday started with the Andrew, the Dish Network dude at our house at 8:00 a.m. Wow! What an awesome picture we have now. We've never had digital so it is quite an improvement and for $30 less per month than we were paying for cable I might add!

We went to run some errands after the Dish dude left. I needed a few little things at the fabric store so I can finish up more of my Itsy Bitsy Tote Bags. I get into the store with my list in hand and realize that I left all of my fabric scraps that I needed to match at home. UGH!

Can you tell me how a dog's hair gets IN the bathtub when the shower curtain is closed and so is the bathroom door??? Is it waiting in the hallway like a little army of hair, so when you open the bathroom door it can ride the air currents up and into the tub? Irv brushes Maggie regularly, so we decided he isn't using the right kind of brush. The girl where we buy our dog food told us that the Fur Buster is the best, so of course we went and bought a Fur Buster. For $22 this thing better work really, really well! I do NOT like the hairy bathtub!

Our envelope system is working well so far. We added envelopes for some things we had not thought of, and we are also being very careful with what we spend. We are going to get the newspaper today and check for other coupons we might be able to use too. I'm actually finding this to be kind of fun, and Irv is playing along nicely.

Today is my mom's birthday. She passed away in May of 1998. I still miss her a lot. There are times even 11 years later when something awesome will happen and I will think, "I have to call mom!" I just think it will always be that way. This is one of my favorite pictures of her. She really didn't like her picture taken, but this is so "her". Cigarette in hand, those lovely fingernails, everything she wore matched, hair the easiest style she could get away with...and I can almost hear her saying, "Oh, Katrina do you have to take my picture?" I love you mom....Happy Birthday!

What's on your agenda for this wonderful January Sunday? Anything exciting? For me it's grocery shopping and then everything I didn't do yesterday! :)

Mish Mosh

I made a trip to the chiro yesterday and did not work out. :( It's the first day I've missed. Maggie and Wrigley road with us. Sparky doesn't like the car.

I have a real messed up spine and one of my shoulder blades sticks out more than the other. When I do arm and shoulder exercises it starts to get very uncomfortable as it did on Friday. On top of that, I took one of those quick little "oops" slips on some ice Friday. I didn't fall, but it was just enough to cause my muscles to all tighten up on me. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up where I left off some time today. I am tweaking the yoga and pilates exercise plan to include some leg exercises. I am really enjoying the workouts right now.

My healthy eating is going pretty well also. I'm just watching what I eat and trying to make better choices where my snacks are concerned. I'm also making sure that one dinner a week is a nice big salad like this one I had last week so I'm getting some greens. Yes, that whole thing was for me and I ate every last bit of it!

I have my shopping list and coupons ready and we are about to head to the store. Hopefully we will come back with a few dollars left so we can get our favorite Friday night carry out!

I snapped this shot of our icicles right before Irv went out to knock them all down. If you leave them they can actually cause your roof to leak. I think they are so pretty though.

One last thing.....do you have cable TV or dish? We pay a ton for our basic cable and are considering taking one of the special offers for Dish Network to save some money. We have always had cable. Your thoughts?

Stupendous Saturday!

I started out the day Saturday with another trip over to the blood center. I couldn't donate last week because my iron level was too low. That's the second time that's happened. Well, it was lower this week! Trying to find more iron rich foods to consume!

Next, we headed over to the bank to take out the cash we needed for our new envelope budget system. I am excited and ready to go. We did have a couple of little glitches though. Irv mentioned that we needed salt for the softener......he wanted to rent a movie for tonight....and he needed to get our Lotto tickets. Hmmmmm...I hadn't figured those things in. I made more envelopes and next time we will take out money for entertainment and salt and Lotto. Irv said we could give up on the Lotto, but we have been playing the same stupid numbers since it started and wouldn't that just suck that the first time we don't buy them....our numbers are picked? I know it wouldn't happen, but just in case....I'm still buying!

I managed to list my first Itsy Bitsy Tote Bag in my shop, FourDogDay. The tote is perfect if you don't like to drag a huge bag with you when you go shopping. If you don't read Lanyard Lady's blog...check out this post of hers. Lanyard has a bad shoulder because of what she was carrying in her purse. Too funny....not the bad shoulder, but the stuff that was in her purse!

This blue bird fabric was left over when I made Angela of Pickles on Pizza a vendor apron. It's so darn cute I decided to make a little desk clock out of it. I just love it!

Then I went all out and made two other big clocks. One of these will get listed today and one tomorrow. The first one is leaves on a light gray background. Very outdoorsy.

The second one is my absolute favorites! It's birds in black and white with a little tan thrown in. I think I am going to have to make myself one of these to hang somewhere in my house. It's so ME!

After that it was time to see if I could find some coupons for grocery shopping today. We will be heading out soon and I was hoping to save a little money using coupons. I didn't find too many, but I did get a couple of good ones. We eat very specific foods and brands and are not very flexible, so coupons might be a difficult thing for us.

I have my Week #1 Food Envelope and I put my coupons right in it. I will let you know how we do and if we are able to stay well under the $150 limit so we can get carry out next weekend. Wish us luck!

After that, I still had to hit the floor and do my Pilates. I opted not to walk because the wind chill made it painful to even be outside.

Then I collapsed! Not really. It was an awesome day. Hope you have a good one today. Don't forget to do something nice for yourself today.

A Small Success

Irv and I did our grocery shopping yesterday morning. If you recall, when our new budget starts on Friday, we are going to attempt to only spend $150 a week on food and household items. That includes any carry out food we happen to buy.

Well, I am happy to report that we only spent $100 at the store yesterday. Now before you start jumping up and down celebrating our success, let me add that we didn't need any laundry soap or softener or coffee or any "big ticket" items.....so this was strictly food for the week. I'm not sure what will happen when we need those things.

We shopped carefully, and I had looked in the cabinets and freezer to see what we already had so we weren't buying things we really didn't need. I didn't add things up as we went because I really wanted to see if we could do it and still buy what we wanted. We have plenty of food for the entire week and if we were on our budget, we would have $50 to spend on carry out if we wanted to.

Today I start working out and walking too, and I'm not sure how that is going to go. It's a lot to try to fit into an already busy schedule....but my plan is to put me first and that is what I am going to try to do. With that said...it's time to get going. I have to work today!

Make it an awesome day for yourself.

Organizing

I am pretty darn pleased with myself right now. A few of the things that I really wanted to get done, are done. Now, all I have to do is follow through with my plan and all will be well in my world!

Here is my little work out calendar. Notice how I only wrote down one week worth of exercise? That is just in case I am being a bit over-zealous and my plan needs tweaking after week one. I am really worried about finding this much time for working out and walking, but we shall see.

Next, I took a planner that we got in the mail with something and I turned it into my meal planner. I recorded what I plan to have for dinner next week. It's all written in pencil because I know that one of those nights Irv will make a yummy frozen pizza and then I will have to move things around. The neat thing with this is that I can write things in ahead of time if I think of something I want to make for the following week and then I can use that to help me make my shopping list for that week. I can also jot other things we need in the little note section.

Last is the shoe box with my envelopes for our new budget....they are just waiting for payday on Friday and then we will get started. We get paid every other week, so I have envelopes for week one and for week two....for things like food, gas, dog food and spending...the things that we normally use a debit card for, but won't be anymore, therefore keeping us from overspending. At least that is the plan!

It feels good to have some plans in place. I am anxious to get started. The first test will be when we go grocery shopping this morning. This will be our dress rehearsal. I am anxious to see how we do. My goal is to only spend about $120 today, so we have money left for carry out on the weekend. :)

Subject change....I listed my cute new little Sun, Moon and Stars tote bag yesterday and popped it on Facebook. My sister in SC saw it and immediately bought it! I finished this one yesterday and I will get it listed some time today. I hope it sells as fast! I love the little plastic "buckle" thingy. I thought it was such a fun thing to use to keep the top of the tote closed.

Well, we are off to the store. I'll let you know how we do. Make it an awesome day for yourself!

Budgeting Fun

Irv and I have really struggled financially during our 37 year marriage. With medical bills, raising 3 active kids, being unemployed and underemployed…we dug ourselves deep into debt. We got out a couple of times by refinancing our house but then crawled right back in again. We don’t want to refinance again at this stage of our lives and in this economy, so what option do we have? Only one…it’s time to tighten our belts and bite the bullet.

Let me say that Irv and I don’t live a luxurious life. We have a tiny house, don’t wear fancy clothes, don’t drive fancy cars, but we do live beyond our means at times, and that is a problem.

We have always had the mindset that if we need or want it and don’t have the money for it, we’ll just charge it and pay for it when the bill comes in. Well, we follow through on the first part and charge it, and then we never follow through on the second part of paying it off when the bill comes.

Doing that over the course of many years digs you into a great big debt hole and that is where we always seem to be. It isn’t that we can’t pay our bills, it’s tight, but we can pay them, it’s just that we seem to have more and more bills every year. We really haven’t charged much in this past year except for car repairs, tires and our new dryer, but it will take a long time to pay that off.

I’ve been working for a while on a budget…one where we truly set limits for our spending. We would take cash out for weekly expenses like food and gas on payday and leave the debit cards at home. Then if we need or want something and don’t have the cash for it…we will have to think about whether or not it’s something we have to have right now or not.

Debit cards are a great way to see where your money is going, but it’s also very easy to overspend…oh, it’s just a cup of coffee, or it’s just a pair of shoes, or it’s just some carryout….when you add that all up over the course of a month, you may have spent hundreds of dollars you didn’t really have.

The first thing I would like to do is to set a food/household budget. Irv and I tend to buy whatever we need/want. We have no idea what we’ve spent at the grocery store until we get to the checkout. It could be $120 or it could be $170. Then on top of that…every Friday and Saturday night we get carry out. Nothing expensive, but it’s still $25-$30 a week. Do we really need to spend that much on food and household supplies a week? I don’t think so. It's just the two of us for Pete's sake!

I think we should be able to keep it under $150 total. So, my thought is that we take $150 with us to the store, pay attention to what we are spending….then if there is anything left of the $150…that is what we have for our weekend carry out.

I love my carry out so you can be sure I will be paying close attention to what goes in that cart. I also read once that if people looked in their cabinets and freezer they could probably eat for a week or two without buying anything but perishables. Think you could do that? I think we could. What a great way to save some money. Plan your menu around what you already have on hand!

The other thing we need to look at is our personal spending…all of the little junk we spend our hard earned money on….but my head is spinning and my vision is blurred by little dollar signs right now so I think that is enough for today.

How do you keep your spending under control?

Super Duper Sunday

We said good-bye yesterday to our old....very old dryer and said hello to our new one.

We also said good-bye to Mr. Fish. No, Mr. Fish did take the plunge...after we redid the living room, got the new chairs and moved things around...there was really no room for Mr. Fish. We had him on top of the little fake fireplace and I really needed that space for other things. So I posted an "ad" on our online bulletin board at work, and a nice kindergarten aide e-mailed me and said she would love to take Mr. Fish off our hands. Sweet! More room for "things".

I hurt my back again on Monday moving some boxes around in our archive room. I was SOOOO careful and lifted properly and it just didn't matter, so I've been hobbling around again this week and yesterday I needed a healthy back. I had so much computer stuff to do in my etsy shop FourDogDay, and sitting is the pits when you have an unhappy disc....so I just did a little at a time, and then walked around and then did a little more. I'm not done yet, but I did get some pillows in my shop that I had never listed.

I got a good nights sleep and I am headed out this morning to meet Tresa at Richard Walkers for breakfast!
We will fill up on some high energy foods and then over to the mega mall....Woodfield! (Woodfield photo from mallmemories.com)

After what I am hoping will be a super successful Christmas shopping venture....we will bop on over to IKEA and have some fun looking at home decor and fabric!

When I get home....I will collapse! What's on your agenda for today?

Monday, Monday...So Good To Me.....

Happy Monday! Thanks to Christopher Columbus...I am off today! Bless his little exploring heart!

Sunday turned out to be a pretty good day. We went grocery shopping and on the way I got a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks and then stopped and picked up a Pumpkin Bagel from Einsteins. Mmmmmmm....good!!

After not shopping last weekend because of the craft show, I really expected to fork out about $230 at the checkout, especially since our cart was overflowing....but we got off easy at $176!! I never thought I would say $176 was good, but we didn't shop last week so that is really good!

We had to listen to a young female...I won't even call her a woman...because it would be insulting to the word...it's hard enough to call her a female....yell and scream across the store from our checkout to her husband or boyfriend that he got the wrong macaroni and that she told him to send back $2.00 with one of the little kids and not $1.00...when everyone in the friggin' store heard her yell $1.00.

She snapped at the kids for nothing. She was the rudest most obnoxious young "thing" I think I have ever seen, and the fact that she had three darling little kids made me physically ill.

I get very uncomfortable when people are rude to other people and degrade them, and she did one heck of a job. I came so close to telling her to zip it up. I wanted to ask the guy if he was married to her and if he said yes, I was going to tell him how sorry I was. It took me a while on the ride home to get the whole scene out of my head....but I finally did.

The rest of my day was awesome. I took another 180 photos of things for MyOtherShop. This time it was aprons and tote bags. What a job it is when you are so behind....

The pins and the coasters in the photos are already listed, the aprons and totes will get listed today....I hope! I will be SO happy when I am caught up!

Did I tell you Irv wants another dog? We'll talk about that another day......

Gotta Grocery Shop

Irv and I grocery shop on Sunday mornings. We are usually there by about 7:30 a.m. We drive about 25 minutes to get to a particular store because they have a great selection of everything and their prices are by far the best around. They happen to be open around the clock...not that I would ever need or want to shop in the middle of the night, but I'm sure some people do. I love almost everything about this store...even their bathrooms are very clean! They also carry lots of organic and gluten free foods. It's also "employee owned". Great place!

There are two things I don't like about the store. The first is that most of the time their produce sucks. It either already looks "old" or it is "old" by the time you get home from the store. That is a problem when you are a vegetarian and shop once a week.

The other thing that drives me crazy is that they like to use that big Zamboni looking machine to wash their floors....on Sunday mornings around 7:30 a.m. Now I am thrilled that they keep their floors so nice and clean, but why can't they wash them in the middle of the night when very few people are in the store? Sometimes you have to get out of the way of the guy doing the floors, and it always leaves the floor wet in spots. On top of that, they use some gross chemicals, and the smell wafts through the store making me wonder what I am inhaling and giving me a nasty headache! UGH!

I just might have to drop them a little e-mail and express my displeasure.....

So, where and when do you do your shopping? Chain store or mom and pop store?

It's Happened Again!

Every season when I dig out my clothes from closets, boxes and spare dressers, I ask myself the same question, "Where the hell are all my clothes?" Then I remember.....the clean out. At the end of each season I take a long hard look at my weary wardrobe and pull out everything I didn't wear that I thought I would, and things that don't fit right, and things that don't look right, and things I really don't like and I take them to the local resale shop. I always think, "I will just buy some new things next year." Well, next year comes along and I never have the money to go out and buy new to replace all of the old I gave away, so I end up making do.

I think however that I have been making do for so long now that what's left...just won't do!!

I need some summer clothes for work. I have the cute little tops I bought for Tresa's showers and the rehearsal dinner, but once school ends next week, I can wear whatever I want to work, and I want to wear jeans, capris and t-shirts. I have the jeans and some capris....but the t-shirts I have left can't be worn to work. They are either fraying, have holes in them or are an awful color because of our rusty water.

Guess I'll have to head out and buy some stuff. I'll start out at Walmart and Target because I really need to get a lot of bang for my buck. If that doesn't work, I'll head on over to my favorite store and get no bang for my buck at The Gap!

The nice thing is that whatever I buy I can wear on vacation too. That is how I will justify the purchases! :)

How does your wardrobe hold out from year to year? Any better than mine?

Rice Crunch-ems Made Of Gold

Irv and I always grocery shop at the same store and we always shop on Sunday morning. This morning we were up and out of here early. We stopped for our weekly bagel and headed to the store. I knew looking at my list that it was going to be an "over budget" shopping week. I needed toothpaste (and I use Tom's at $4.39 a tube), face lotion (Kiss My Face at $9.29 a bottle), laundry soap (Ecos brand at $7.49 a bottle), potty paper (a new one that just came out by Marcal....no bleach or bad stuff for $7.29 for 12 rolls) and Irv was out of animal body parts....oh, sorry....meat, plus I needed my organic frozen fruit and eggs plus all of the usual stuff. I estimated $140-$150.

I got to the register and I always "help" the checker by pushing the items to the front of the cart for her/him and moving our cold stuff from the little kiddie seat down to the cart so they don't have to reach.

She was just finishing up and I glanced at the monitor to see what the damages were....it said a whopping $187.30!!! Now, I know I left Irv for a little while, and he often sneaks little things into the cart when I'm not looking....but not things that cost that much! I immediately said, "Uh, there is no way our bill is that much." The girl looked at me as though I was some kind of alien from another planet. "What?" she said. I said, "I knew our bill would be a little higher this week, but not that high."

She hit a key on the register, printed out my receipt, tore it off and started looking at it. She turned it toward me and my eyes immediately went to an item that had too many digits. "Ugh, what's that?" I asked pointing to the item. She turned the receipt more toward me and there it was......Health Valley Rice Crunch-ems....$33.79!!!

"Gee, that would be my box of cereal," I said laughing. The girl wasn't laughing, but started to rummage through my bags for the box of cereal. I found it and handed it to her.
The girl scanned it again and sure enough...$33.79!!

I wonder if any unobservant, in-a-hurry shopper actually paid $33.79 for that cereal and didn't realize it! Ouch!

Still looking a bit dumbfounded, she removed the charges and rang up the right charge. She still didn't smile or say, "Oh, I'm so sorry that we almost overcharged you by $30.25!" I thanked her and took my new receipt and my cart full of groceries, went right over to the little bench and sat down to go over my receipt. I usually do that on drive home, but under the circumstances I thought I would check it before leaving. All was well, so off I went on my merry way.

The real bill was still higher than I had estimated, and normally I would be really upset that we spent that much....today I was happy that my bill really wasn't $187.30!

Spring...Where Are You???

I know, I know...it is only January 31....I have lots of winter left here in Illinois. So, what does an old lady like myself do when it's still winter and you are so sick of it that you want to cry? Well, you shop of course!

I headed to the DSW this morning and to the mall. On the list of things I need was something to wear to the next wedding shower, girls night out and the very casual rehearsal dinner oh, and shoes for the wedding.

I found no shoes I liked at DSW, in fact, they only had about 6 pairs in silver, so I headed to the mall. Get this.....I'm in Ann Taylor Loft looking at all of the new stuff when I found that great pair of pants. $59.....wasn't sure if I wanted to spend that much, but they were cute, they can be worn most of the year and I can wear them to work. So, what the heck! I get to the check out, the lady scans them and they come up $10. Okay, that would be really nice, but these were up front with all of the new arrivals. She went and got a different pair and scanned that one and same thing. She said, "I guess they are $10!" Then she says, "And everything that is on sale today is another 50% off, so they will be $5.00." Are you kidding me? I was like that lady in the IKEA commercial..."Start the car, start the car!" as I ran out of the store with my bag!!!

I also got a cute kelly green sweater, an ivory cardigan and a moss colored cami. Not sure what I will wear when, but it's a start.

When I got home, since the trip wasn't as successful as I had hoped, I decided to shop online. First I went to zappos and ordered two pairs of silver shoes for the wedding. When I first started looking at shoes, I was going to wear pantyhose....but that really limited the kind of shoes I could wear and I really wanted cute strappy little things. So, it will be bare, very pale legs for me, but I'll have some darn cute shoes. The wedding is at night, so no one will see my legs...right? Zappos has free shipping and free returns. Can't beat that! I love them both, but I'm also looking for comfort. This is a stand up all night wedding and reception so they have to be comfy.

Next I went right to Gap and ordered my skinny jeans. Now these might end up going right back, but they are just so darn cute! I looked at them in every store I went to, but they either didn't have the dark color I wanted or they didn't have my size or they had the dark color in my size, but they were $140! So, I should have them in a few days. I saw tons of people in the mall of all ages in them today. Some had on boots but others had on the little flat ballet slipper type shoes. Some had them rolled up at the bottom. I can't wait to get them! I ordered my usual Gap jeans size, so hopefully they are sized like their other jeans and I'll be good to go!

Tomorrow I will tell you what an old man that absolutley hates winter does to pass the time until spring gets here. Rest assured....he doesn't shop....at least not for clothes! Can you say "seeds"?

Quack! Quack!

I can't believe I have to go back to work tomorrow. I have had such a nice time being off this past week. I did get some stuff done today though. This morning we went grocery shopping.....and man I hate the way the prices have gone up. We use to be able to get by spending $125 or less a week. Today was $140....again! I guess that is the "new" $125, because we can't seem to get back down to $125. There are only two of us....how can we possibly spend that much?

Anyway, after shopping I took a ride over to one of the resale shops in search of treasures, and I found some. I was mainly looking for things to decoupage and things to use to decoupage the items I'm making. I hit the jackpot!

I found some old sheet music, a couple of books that have pictures and text I plan to use, an old wooden spoon, a horrible looking purple shelf and a bunch of wooden ducks!! I could hardly wait to get home to show everyone my great finds!

The purple shelf got some strange looks for sure. It's a mess. Not sure who painted it, but they missed spots in some areas and had paint running everywhere in other areas. I love stuff like that though. It will be really cool when I get it done.

The ducks are amazing! Just great little wooden guys that I will sand, paint and decoupage. They are just so darn cute!

I worked on some of the trays I started the other day. I am trying to give them a well worn look. I love this brown striped one. It's received rave reviews from the men in my house. I just have to seal it and it will be ready to go!

I also asked Irv if he could make some minor repairs on the shelf and the ducks. His reply was, "Not today". I said that was fine, but tomorrow would be great!! So, things are going well in the preparation for the reopening of MyOtherShop.

Oh, I also pulled out that file folder...the one with all of the receipts in it from FourDogDay....ugh....I figured out what I've made and what I've spent and I am still deeply in debt, but 2009 is definitely my year. I have a great business plan and some great products coming out and a great attitude. 2008 was a year of learning and trying to figure out what I could do for my business and what it could do for me. I think I have it kind of figured out.