Share your dollar stretching experience!

Dear All, Due to extreme dissatisfaction with the Writer's Digest database (after using it for 4 months), I canceled it yesterday & will get a refund for the remaining 1 yr, 8 months.  There is another, FAR more robust, database out there called Wooden Horse.  I'm going to get a 24-hour subscription to it, & spend the rest of today looking up all of the magazines in which I have any interest right now, & printing out their demographics, editorial calendars, & writer's guidelines.  Then I'll see over the coruse of the next month whether that info actually turned into good queries.  If so, I will probably subscribe, but not for too long a period -- I took a risk that wasn't so calculated, with the Writer's Digest database.

Yorus in Him, Deb

It's raining here today and starting to cool off (snow next week) I'm going to be staying home if possible and clean the often neglected family room, the boys never clean in there for some reason when it's their weeks to clean so I get stuck with 3 weeks worth of mess. I've also got to start researching and drafting my thesis for class. Ds#1 is cooking tonight which means I have no idea what supper is I'll ask him an hour or two before supper and his answer is "food".

 Cool here this morning with rain coming later. DH left early to fly to Fla. He is speaking there for the weekend. I wil try to get caught up on laundry. DM has Dr appointment this morning and DD has one this afternoon. She has braces and this is her monthly check up. Hoping they will come off by summer. DS works the afternoon then needs ride to train station. Off to see his girlfriends family. Train cheaper than gas. He wil come home on Sun. I will be everyones rides. so gas will be used.  Food will be leftovers. Babs

Today started off pretty blech.  I got up at 4:50 as usual to see dear bf off to work and he was fiddling around with the pipes under the sink. Apparently we have a pretty solid clog in the main pipe, and the sink backed up when he was filling the coffee pot this morning. So we were mopping a flood of water up off the floor at 5:00 a.m. grrrrr...he got as much of the clog out as he could before he left for work.  I need to go to Ace Hardware on my lunch break (its on my way to the house) and grab a bottle of Draino.  The normal maintenance man is on vacation this week, so there's no point in calling the landlady--all he would do anyway is dump some Draino in the drain anyway. The cost of a bottle of Draino is much less than one of us staying home and missing hours waiting for a plumber to come.

I was so frazzled by then I went to Dunkin Donuts for a coffee and muffin for breakfast ($3.60).  We have leftover cheeseburger pie for both of us for lunches today.  Dinner...I haven't even thought about it yet, to be honest.  But I do have some eggs I need to use up, since they "expire" on the 15th (I've never had eggs actually go off less than 2 weeks after the use-by date), so we'll probably do a breakfast for dinner.  I'll hardboil some as well to use for snacks/part of breakfasts next week too.

I guess I'll go ahead and fully mop the kitchen floor tonight, and get the kitchen all sparkly. Vacuum and dust, and that means I can be lazier on Saturday since we'll be doing the grocery shopping on Sunday.

TGIF for sure

Gorgeous here today!  Should be mid-80s!  The next five days are going to be superwarm, up to 90 on Sunday.  Can't wait to be outdoors!

So I am taking the kids to the zoo with a friend this afternoon.  We have a zoo membership so don't have to pay to go ($50/year and DS LOVES it-a great outing for him; our visits every year more than pay for the membership!)

Otherwise, still need to plant those final peppers and tomatoes, maybe this morning I'll do that if DD takes a nap.  Lentil tacos for dinner.  Also need to make some bread for this weekend.

Happy Friday everyone!  Ariana-sorry for your plumbing problems!

I understand about pouting animals...usually takes a day or two before we are forgiven.  Our cat (the one with jaw cancer.. hard bony tumor)  is hating the cone around his head at the moment so is not even making an effort to adjust, knocking over water, food every where.  Each vet has to see for himself that he not in pain etc just hates the cone and vets.  Never had a cat get a cone so dirty, had to get another one from my mom to swap because I can't get it clean enough by just wiping.

Since the kid with a gun yesterday at the high school, school is closed today so our student has a day off from classes.  DD going to school, me to work and ds to grandmas. Grandma picks up dd.   need to be home by 4 because the washering machine repair guy is coming to fix the washing machine. hopefully a cheap fix.  breakfast at home. lunch is leftover twice baked potato stuffing for me. some of the potato left in the shells starting turning black (since tues) so I couldn't use them all so really stuffed the remaining ones. got 15 for the freezer instead of 20.

Georgia rule is the new movie tonight on moviecentral so probably will watch that. Dh going out with his friend like usual.

Not much here. Just general cleaning today. We be shoveling ourselves out today. We have gotten 9" of snow so far and it is STILL coming down. We are under a blizzard thing until tomorrow. So I will not be going anywhere today if I can at all help it( which I think I can lol).

Anne

I love this thread! It is so motivating!

 Today is pay day so bills get paid first. Then usually it is grocery shopping time. However, the two-year-old threw a very nasty tantrum so we ended up leaving with nothing.

Stopped at the library for movies for movie night tonight. Supper is pizza from Papa Murphy's. Had a $2 off coupon and a stamp card which we filled today so our next pizza will be free. Splurged and got a chicken delite pizza to try for me in addition to a family sized pizza for the kids. Dinner for the 7 of us is under $17 for take out. It is a treat and we don't do it very often but we usually have carpet picnic and movie night on Fridays.

 Unfortunately, though, will have to make an extra trip into town tomorrow for groceries when hopefully it will be a more tantrum free time.

Colleen