1-7-2011

I was really busy all day. My oldest son had asked me to make his birthday card invitations. I pulled out the Cricut at 6am and got to work on them. I had 25 invites to make and I needed to get them to the school before 1pm. Let me tell you - that was a project! I cannot believe that I actually finished them. I'll post a picture at the bottom of the post.

Since I was so wrapped up in getting the invites made and delivered to the school; I did not go out and do any grocery shopping or peruse around for sales and clearances.

My wonderful husband made dinner tonight. My oldest was invited to stay the night at a friend's house and go sledding up at the mountain. This meant that I needed to locate some warm clothes for him. He has only 2 pair of shoes, Merrells - they were hand me downs and tennis shoes that are for outdoor play. The Merrells are his favorite all time pair of shoes. I knew that neither of those shoes would work for him in the mountain snow. So, it was off to Fred Meyers to look at boots. I was able to get him a pair of rubber boots on sale and combined it with an instore discount. Next it was off to Target to locate snow pants. We were able to find a pair and they will work for next year too. I sent him with a pair of my winter boots just in case the rubber boots with wool sock didn't work out. Yes, he wears the same size shoe that I wear. But, my feet are small and most kids pass me up on foot size when they are in 4th or 5th grade. Sad! However, kids shoes are usually clearanced much lower than adult shoes. So in the end, it all works out just fine for me. I just have to pull off the occasional bow or peel off the Bratz label. I actually have a pair of light up shoes. They were given to me as a joke - but I like to wear them as a joke at times - to embarrass my kids or my husband. : ) lol!

Since the search for snow attire took longer than anticipated; my husband received a call from me requesting that he make dinner for the night. He was not too thrilled. Let me explain. On the 6th, he wanted to have some chips with dinner and I had mentioned that I figured out the costs for the day and chips were not included on the cost breakdown. I asked him if he would consider being okay with bread instead and that I would use chips in our dinner for the 7th. What do you think was the 1st response from him on the phone? Yup! "I thought you were going to use the chips in our dinner for tonight. What happened to that plan?" As the wheel of life continues to turn, we learn that promising things is not always a smart choice to make. Perhaps I should have recalculated totals on the 6th so that he could have eaten the chips with the chili. Sigh. I can't change the past. But, I should not dwell on it either. He was kind enough to accept the task of making dinner.

Here is the breakdown:
Food purchases: $0.00
Coupon savings on food today: $0.00
Dinner: $1.25 (2 boxes of store brand macaroni & cheese plus cost of milk & margarine) water to drink

Running tally for January 2011:
Food costs: $26.35
Coupon savings on food: $32.45
Dinner costs: $5.55