Diamond Shamrock — $12.94
It’s a long story but this purchase was for 4.509 gallons of Super Supreme unleaded gas put into a 5-gallon container borrowed from the neighbor. I didn’t file it in Auto: Gas in my YNAB* budget because it wasn’t put into either one of the family vehicles. The gas was used to get The Husband’s grown daughter’s new used Mustang running again. She came over to show us the car, let The Daughter and I drive it, and then when she was set to leave, the silly thing wouldn’t start again. Naturally, I did what any self-respecting woman in my position would do — I asked the guy next door to take a look at it It was determined that, despite the fact that the gas gauge read 1/4 tank, the car was out of gas. We put most of the gas into the tank leaving just a bit which he poured into a hose thing and the car finally started.

Haircut — $0.00
The Son was getting a little shaggy so I gave him a haircut. Not his favorite activity by any means but he’s got a concert coming up so we couldn’t put it off any longer. I figure my home haircuts save us about $18 - 20/cut.

Kroger — $28.39
This is the kind of shopping trip I hate. Not that I spent a bunch of money on stuff that I otherwise wouldn’t have but we had stuff in the house for dinner and instead went to the store to buy different ingredients and ended up paying a little more, perhaps, for some items because they weren’t on sale. But the car saga pushed back the haircut so then the haircut ran right up to when The Son and I were planning to start dinner. He needed a break to recover from the trauma of the haircut so we changed our planned menu to one that didn’t require as much effort and preparation time. The Son likes cooking and wants to learn to make some of his favorite meals so we’d planned to make Tuna Under Biscuits tonight. We switched to meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and broccoli instead — for which I had none of the needed ingredients in the house.

• 1-gallon Horizon Organic 2% milk — $4.95
• 2 boxes Ghirardelli Double Chocolate brownie mix — $3.00 ea. (saved $0.38) [one box will be made and delivered to the neighbor who helped with the car]
• 4 Idaho potatoes — $2.79
• 2.10 lbs Coleman ground beef — $10.43
• 1 bag Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips — $2.00 (saved $0.99) [I’ll make cookies for the kids soon, or even better, maybe teach The Son how to make cookies]
• broccoli — $1.29 (saved $1.02)
• onion — $0.38

Dinner for 5 (us plus The Husband’s youngest son, our regular Saturday night dinner guest) with 3 slices of meat loaf leftover to tomorrow’s sandwiches cost a total of $14.89 (not including the cost of the two eggs, some oatmeal, and 2/3 can of V-8 used in the meatloaf).