Quote from Debbie  " Hey- it's your birthday money- go ahead!".  Thanks Deb.  Well, official spending total for the day is $24.35.  Started out OK- lunch $2.95 at Taco Bell.  Then to Marc's (deep discount), where I put together what I think is a great birthday present for a four year old girl:  for $9 I got a big Care Bear drawing tablet, Crayola crayons, two sets of watercolor paints (brights and glitter), a neon ruler, a pack of construction paper, cute scissors and matching glue stick, a little green purse, kitten pen set, nice kiddie sunglasses and three little girl type flavored lip glosses.  I like presents that are made up of a lot of cool little things.  Debbie helped a lot in putting this together.

Got a few  other misc. fun things at Marcs, including cute notebook for MIL for 50 cents.  Resisted A LOT of stuff that I liked for gifts but did not need to get today.  Total at Marc's $16.92

Went to craft store Pat Catan because Deb had to check out something.  Ended up spending $4.48 on totally unnecessary totally cute Harvest door hanger thingy and a bag of tiny fake gourds for my tiny basket. 

Well, $10 was a bit unrealistic.  And I have not been driving around at all for the past week, and only drove to meet Debbie (she drove to stores because I have no a/c and it was hot today) and home. I have confirmed that the way to save money on gratuitous purchases is to stay home and out of places where these things are for sale. Which I  will continue to do.

To the good side, I was notified that I got the job I interviewed for last Friday.  Starts Monday 9-11. So that's one day I won't be driving around getting in trouble with "Hey, it's your birthday money" Debbie. 

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Tuesday August 22 : Today I am meeting my bestest friend Debbie uptown for lunch and hangin out. She goes to art lessons at a studio in the Falls, which is halfway between our respective homes.  Closer to me actually.  I have errands up there, so I will drive up and meet her.  We usually have lunch, catch up, hit some discount stores or whatever is on her city agenda (she lives farther from the retail centers).  Past days usually include Sam's, JoAnn's, Archivers, Marcs discount, etc.

SInce I am really being mindful of the money this month, I am going to do some thinking ahead here.  I am scrounging up cash around here for lunch (think I still have some birthday money stashed), and to allocate a small amount for any unexpected bargains.  Here's my spending goal: $10.  I do need to get a birthday present for Jeff's four year old niece, so I might go over a bit, but I am trying not to.  Debbie will  be a real help today- she knows how to stretch the dollar, but she does spend on what she needs.

Am dropping off some unneeded nursing school texts for a friend's daughter who is starting the same program I just finished.  She lives right up by where I am meeting Debbie, so that's a consolidated trip.Did not drive at all yesterday, so that's to the good.

Will report back on how much I did- and did not- spend.

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Sunday 8-20 : Final total for weekly grocery shopping- $68.78.  That includes $8.49 spent at the local veggie market before we hit the supermarket.  I consider this a victory.

Before we left for shopping we went through our recipes (we have our respective files, since I am a vegetarian, he is omnivorous and a mite selective), and got a general idea of what we wanted to cook up for the week.  We had some ingredients in common (a piece of ginger root for 24 cents), he bought ground beef  and lunchmeat.  We also got a half gallon of ice cream from his mom (two for one special on ice cream last week) and picked up some chicken we had stashed in her freezer since our freezer is just a small one atop the fridge. 

We always knew that actually having half a plan before shopping is a good idea, but this is the first time we were able to put it into action. Tonight I will make a batch of my Indian spiced eggplant (my 99 cent eggplant from Thursday's trip to the farm market downtown), a batch of brown rice we can nibble from all week, some pudding to use up the gallon of milk we got on sale (I froze a quart to see if it can be done), and some blueberry muffins to use up frozen berries I bought on sale a month ago for cheap. We will continue to actually look and see  what we have in the cupboard and fridge/freezer that we can use.

Also returned an item to Walmart for a refund of $7.40.

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Here is a listing of actions we have taken- or not taken- to reduce household expenditures this week:

Monday 8-14 : Returned outfit I bought last week. Saved $56

Tuesday 8-15 : Walked to grocery store (4 miles round trip). Only bought what I could fit in my shopping cart- $26. Contacted STRS to withdraw small teacher's pension amount to add to existing IRA.

Wednesday 8-16 : Joined Akron Cheapcycle- website to sell items locally.  Posted dorm sheet set- no response yet.

Thursday 8-17 : Drove downtown (about 6 miles round trip) to farm market.  Only spent $2, got just what we needed and could use in a day or two.  Enjoyed beautiful stands with local produce, bread, etc. Went to library while in town, got free DVDs to watch this week.This evening walked to grocery store (with Jeff !), stuck to our list, spend only $7.75.

Friday 8-18 : Had job interview (successful I think) in AM. Drove 1 mile there and back, but no further driving today (had headache so was not tempted to run around anyway). Jeff took his lunch to work, saving the cash he usually spends on eating out on Fridays.

Saturday 8-19 : Jeff and I tried to consolidate our uptown errands to do in one trip today.  Our itinerary:  drop items at Goodwill, start laundry at his Mom's (we have to use coin-op facility at our condo complex, so it really helps to do laundry at his mom's or my parents'), drop books at library out that way, back to his mom's where Jeff put up his mom's cuckoo clock while we waited for laundry to be done. Took a load home to air dry rather than use electric dryer.  His mom kindly gave us  lunch, and we made dinner at home, thus spending $0 on food, which is rather unusual for a Saturday.  Instead of buying a new feather toy for our new cat who destroyed his old one, we borrowed back some cat toys we had shared with Jeff's mom, thus spending $0.  We did go to a discount drug store to get some necessities, spend about $17, which Jeff says should do him for a month.  Used coupons totalling $4. Had dinner at home using ingredients we had laying around the pantry and the squash I bought  at the farm market on Thursday- very yummy.

Tomorrow will be a test for the budget- we usually grocery shop on Sunday when the sale paper comes out.  Will try to hold it to $60. Stay tuned!

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