How are you stretching those dollars and cents today? 

hi all, well, we just got back from camp, we had to go pick up ds at 10 pm tonight, a 1 1/2 hr drive  one way, ds had a "break down" and after 2 calls, dh was ready to pick him up, he was to stay till friday 1 pm, so just 14 hr early, now i have a ton of clothes to wash, i can't tell what is clean or dirty, so washing i go!

 but i will say i loved my 41/2 days of quite and rest, we needed it  bad!

 got to cut the yard today and hopefully weedeat the bushes

 dinner will be ham and turkey wraps, simple and quick

Agenda:

• call in and get prescriptions (debating on delivery or drive myself) ... will have co-pays out (~$10)
  
• clean house as much as I can
• going to run my other errands on Saturday before going down to the festival (decided I should go for the day and watch the fireworks and come home, despite the craziness of traffic then)
• eat food that is in house... will probably use the microwave meals

We'll see what I will accomplish.

I grabbed a late lunch from Wendy's. Big mistake ! It was too greasy & I felt yucky after I got back home.

I went to Harris Teeter and I had an expensive bagger.....Asst. Mgr. Joanne. She was so glad to see me. I bought mostly meats today. I spent over $200.00 including a $7.99 a pound whole beef tenderloin which I had sliced into steaks. The cashier announced that with my store card that I'd saved over $100.00 plus over $15.00 with coupons. The Asst. Mgr. looked at me and said "Wow ! Can you really shop wisely. You got some great bargains." The cashier wanted to know how I did it. The Asst. Mgr. answered for me "She reads the flyers. She uses coupons. And she shops here. She always gets fabulous food on sale."

I bought 2 packages of cubed steaks, 2 packages of bacon,3 boxes of Bubba Burgers,  4 bags of frozen meatballs, and a rack of ribs from the Deli plus 4/$10 Stouffer's in addition to Buy 2 Get 3 Free 12 cans of Coke plus other stuff. I hadn't been to Harris Teeter in a month.

I paid $2.48 a gallon for gas when I filled up the car.

I ate supperr at home.

Friday I am eating a special lunch with Mom at the nursing home. Friday night I'm having supper at Red Lobster with my friend. Then we're going to The Fresh Market. I'll be buying flavored coffees there.

Well, it is raining hard here so we are getting a slow start to packing up and heading for the lake. As dh said, "i don't relish unloading and slipping down a wet hill in the rain." Our parking area is up hill from the cottage and it can be slick even if we use the steps dh built a few summers ago. So...we are relaxing at home, enjoying the medium cool air breezing through. Yesterday I told the one family I still work for that I am available other days too, if the mom wants me or needs me extra time. She seemed excited about that and said, "oooh, let me think what I have coming up." Even just a few extra days a month would help enormously as we are finding that we make enough for monthly expenses but not for extras like ds's grad present, or home repairs or saving for a new vehicle we'll need in the next year or so (by new I mean new to us, lol). We have one more week of furlough for dh in August and it really hit us hard, the first one did. But, I don't want to look for some place new to work since I won't get the pay anywhere else that I get with this famliy, PLUS they are sooo nice to me, which is a huge. peace.

going to curves this morning, then gas in the Tahoe as I didn't do that last night. Had a great shopping experience with internet coupons last night!! Had 2 - Senseo coupons for $3 off each $4 bag of coffee pods and $3.50 off a $5 bag of Dog Chow, a coupon for a Free (reg$3.99) Burts Bees lip balm, and a Free (reg$2.99) DiGiorno flatbread melt.

Spent $23 at amazon on the Centennial series on DVD.

Dinner tonight is tacos with ground goat and garden lettuce and homemade salsa.

Going shopping in Saratoga today with a friend. Hoping to use my Bj's coupons with manufacturer coupons for a couple items and find some deals at Target and wally world. Should be a low cost day but you never know with BJ's!

Today is going to be hetic and not too stretchy again. In a little while we're going to do a trimmed down version of our regular shopping plus stopping by a couple damaged freight type stores in my area (sorry Toni) to get snacks and meals for vacation. Around 1 we're heading up to get ds#3 from camp taking the longer way (by 15 minuets) so I can stop by a cheese store I haven't been able to check out yet. We're taking ds#2 with us cause one of his old camp counselors is in the cabin next to ds#3. This counselor is an old car buff who fully rebuilt a 28 Ford Pick Up when ds#2 was in his camp well this year he's got a 32 Roadster cherry red with a few modifications (no handles but a remote door opener and a not so orgial carborator system). Ds#2 wants to see both the car and the counselor.

Supper will be on the road on the way home taking the shorter route possibly stopping at one of our favorite resturants in a small resort town 1/2 an hour from here. Lastweek 3 of us (me, dh &dd#2) ate there for $17 inc tip trying very hard to stay on budget so hopefully we can eat for a fairly reasonable price and grab some ice cream for the way home. The routes we're taking to/from camp will save us paying tolls so there's money saved but probably spent along the way.

Just got through paying the bills for this pay period.  I love that feeling, even if I hate the bills!  I love knowing that I'm all paid up on everything for a little while and just have to watch my regular spending-which I am doing big time this pay period!

This morning, I'm going to pick up some consignment items from a new client.  Happy to have the new client but I have to say that I feel overwhelmed by the amount of work I have and how little time I have before the baby to get it done.  My clients all know that I am expecting a baby but I still feel overwhelmed.  I have so much to get done in the next few weeks!  This consignment business has taken off more than I planned, for which I am grateful, after all, we can use every single dollar I can earn.  But sometimes, I fantasize about not doing it anymore.  Believe me, when we don't have debt anymore, I will quit!  I hate to complain about it because I am lucky to have something I can do to earn money from home, sometimes the money is pretty decent too.  It's way better than getting a job out of the house and being locked in that way and ultimately, it helps speed up our debt payment and savings plans, which we really need.  These days though, it isn't as fun as it was in the beginning and it has started to feel like a job.  I guess that makes sense-it is a job!  I just get overwhelmed!

Good news though is that it's time to figure out my income for June and that always makes me see the value in continuing to do it.  And I'm looking forward to some time off when the baby comes to take a break from it!

Thanks for  letting me vent.  Wasn't planning to say all that, it just came out once I started typing!

Anyway, back to today.  Going to pick up the new items, try to get some other stuff listed.  Have packages to ship too.  I also need to talk to my mom about bbq plans for tomorrow as I may need to pick up some groceries for my part.  Not sure yet.  So, money out potentially for some July 4th groceries, but that should be it besides the bills I paid this morning.

Dear All, Wrap your heads around this concerning my In-Home SUpportive Services aides & our CA famous IOU's that started to be issued yesterday.  Certain banks are accepting them until 7/10 only.  They come payaable/due on 10/2, & the interest rate is slightly above 3%.

Now, here's the relevaant deal:

In-Home Supportive Services has to get paaid cash, no IOU's, according to law.

HOWEVER, teh State is paying municipalities, predominanatly their Social SErvices agencies is what the State owes the municipalities, in IOU's.

SO, in practice, IHSS will get IOU's.  That spells demise in teh not-very-distant future.  But, praised be the L-rd who brought me not just help from my many friends, including so many of you Forumites,, but also serenity, I do not mind.  Indeed, I am looking forward to having my tiiime freed up, so that I can do things like goign with my best friend Ruan to noooon-time concerts at Old First (Roooman Catholic) Church's noon-time concerts, right after Mass (ie, at 12:30PM) on Tuesdays.

Two of my 3 aides have lost 1/2 of their clientele already.  Many aides ahve beeen laid off already anyway.

As for my activities today, I did not want a substittue aide.  (Substittues onllly wash the dishes & finish cleaning the kitchen, which is silly for a 4-hour shift.  They can't help with my meds or misc things, as they don't know how.)  A Jewish Family & Children's Sservcies volunteer, Judah, is coomoign over for tea & Mornign Glory muffins @ 11AM. 

Yesterday, Ruan hung the curtains in the kitchen back up.  My Darling brother had been worried that hisi hard work installing the screws had gnoe to naught; he feared that the exterminator had knocked the screws out of the wall.  Not to worry, the screws were solidly there, the bracket just had to be put up on them again.  Just to be on the safe side, we used Gorilla Glue &, for clamping, added transparent strapping tape.  My brother had indeed done a fine job, as I  had been trying to tell him.

I need to start using my sewing machine again.  I had been stymied by the sheeeeeer volume of "stuff" that has been moved to my Great Room.  But, since we have discarded all of   the paper goods that had been in teh closet (pllus purged some other things), there is a lot of room in that walk-in closet, & I think that I am going to transfer some of the overage into the closet.  In that way, I can rearrange teh sewing center & get cracking.  ACTUALLY, I have a PAPER collage I have to make for my personal physician's, Peter's, "unbirthday" -- since I don't know his actual birthday, I have been celebrating July 16th since 2001,when I first started seeing him.  I think that is my 1st priority, so maybe I will have to wait on sewing.  I'm typing a letter to hiim, & then picking out the letters of his name & the acronym for Distinguished Fellow, American Psychiatric Association.  I'll arrange those letters in large cut-out letters in teh midst of ssentences that include the relevant letter, each letter on one line if you can follow me.  I'll end up with a prose-poem with large letters cut-out in different places on each line.  I'll print in large letters the rest of each line.  The lines will be of different lengths because it willl be almost randooom where the initial in question will show up in the line, if you can follow me.  These things are haard to describe!

Enjoy your Fourth!  Yours in Him, Deb