Ninety days!  Wow, who’d a’ thunk it — that I would have the stick-to-it-iveness to bore you all with every minute detail of my daily $$ expenditures for three whole months?

As usual, I’ll list the money I spent today but then I’ll also list the household bills that The Husband himself took care of throughout the month.  Sometime within the next few days, I’ll post a monthly overview for November.

Handyman Jr. — $30.00
Labor expense to come out and fix the various issues with our gutters.  One, in the front of the house, appeared to be in fine condition but whenever it rained, or snowed and then melted, water always gushed over the top and down the sides — everywhere but down the inside of the gutter.  Turns out the whole downspout was full of dirt and gunk and gook — enough to fill a whole grocery sack.  There was even a golf ball jammed in there!  I’m so glad to have all of the gutters functional again.

The Home Depot — $33.05
Gutter supplies including a 10′ length of galvanized gutter downspout, 4 elbows, a bag of screws, etc.  I’ll be able to return two of the elbows for a small refund.

Lowe’s — $4.13
One tube of gutter sealant.  The Home Depot had sealant, too, but only much smaller tubes for nearly the same price or huge caulking tubes of the stuff.

Cash — $2.00
Parking on-campus while both The Son and The Daughter were at practice tonight.

~ o o O o o ~

The Husband made the following payments:

Mortgage — $1,640.10

Car Loan — $904.15

Phone — $128.64 (includes our land-line, 3 cell phones sharing a 750-minute call plan, long distance, Caller ID, and messaging service).

Water & Sanitation — $73.56 (covers 2 months of water & sewer)

Gas & Electric — $103.30

Tuition (The Daughter) — $2,792.00 (this represents the balance of our tuition bill for this school year)

Cello Rental — $35.00

Netflix — $18.28

Allowance (The Daughter) — $30.00

Allowance (The Son) — $7.50

I ran the Grocery Store triathlon today — hit Kroger’s, Wild Oats, and Vitamin Cottage all on the same day.  I’m exhausted and the grocery budget is worn thin.  No, it’s busted.  I went over this month’s grocery budget by $14.27.  On the other hand, we’re almost $25.00 under on our Dining budget.

The grocery-budget killer was an email I received yesterday from The Daughter’s school.  They apologized for the last minute notice (why do they do everything last minute?) but we parents are expected to deliver home-baked goods, all individually packaged, to the school by tomorrow afternoon.  These baked goods will be sold this weekend as a fund-raiser.  The Daughter’s class is responsible, it turns out, for baking breads like Banana, Zucchini, and Pumpkin and muffins.  Nothing like a day and a half to bake up a bunch of bread — good thing I didn’t have anything else to do with my time, right?

I found a great pumpkin bread recipe on line and just happened to have three cans of pumpkin in the basement pantry.  So The Son and I settled in to bake some Pumpkin Bread only to discover that we were low on flour and sugar and cinnamon and oil and — well, you get the picture.  We had just enough flour and sugar for a double batch so we prepared our first two loaves while listening to classical Christmas Carols on Pandora.  Then while the bread baked and filled the house with the most deliciously spiced aromas, we worked on some fractions review at the kitchen table.  It was a beautiful afternoon.

Then The Husband took The Son to his game while I ventured out to gather some groceries and pick up The Daughter from practice.  Not exactly a shattered bubble but I wouldn’t have minded not having to leave the warmth and comfort of the house at all today.

Wild Oats — $7.74
Six packages of house-brand flour tortillas (the only brand of pre-packaged tortillas I can eat — all the others use oils I’m allergic to — and virtually the only bread product I can eat).

Kroger — $96.19

• 2 5-lb. packages King Arthur organic all-purpose flour — $4.89/ea (saved $0.60/package)
• 5-lb. package of sugar — $2.00 (saved $0.99)
• box of baking soda — $0.59
• bottle of organic cinnamon — $5.19
• Breyer’s french vanilla ice cream — $3.34 (saved $2.35)
• Breyer’s Oreo Cookie ice cream — $3.33 (saved $2.36)
• 1/2 gallon Horizon chocolate milk — $2.99 (saved $0.50)
• Amy’s organic frozen Cheese Enchilada dinner — $3.69 (saved $0.50)
• 4 boxes Amy’s organic frozen Cheese Pizza snacks — $2.89/ea (saved $0.70/ea)
• Kashi 5-cheese frozen pizza — $5.99
• Da Vinci extra virgin olive oil — $10.59
• shelled and salted sunflower seeds — $1.79
• Planter’s honey roasted peanuts — $3.99
• Quaker’s granola bits — $2.51
• radishes — $1.29
• 2 red peppers — $3.98
• loose carrots — $0.82
• cucumber — $1.29
• red leaf lettuce — $1.79
• 6 zucchini — $5.79
• 5 bananas — $1.21
• box of clementines — $5.99 (saved $1.00)
• BYOB bag credit ($0.25)

Between the Kroger loyalty card and a few manufacturer’s coupons I saved $15.70 or 14% off the total bill.

I was so totally out of fresh veggies — I’d been jonesing for a good salad for a couple of days.  The Amy’s snacks were on sale so I picked up a few more boxes — they’re a quick and easy snack for The Son before practice or a game.  The bread recipes all call for about 1/2 cup of olive oil (boy, that can add up fast )  and, naturally, The Daughter needed sunflower seeds for on her salads and the peanuts as a snack — though I made her close the jar and put it away in the car, I’m just too allergic to them to have an open container in the small, confined space of the car.

I really wanted to just go home and so did The Daughter but I had a recipe I wanted to try for dinner and it required ricotta cheese.  Kroger’s only had the big commercial brands with weird additives that make my food allergies go nuts so we had to take a detour and stop at Vitamin Cottage on the way home.  I went in just for the ricotta but naturally picked up a few extra things on the way to check out.  I figure we’ll have lasagna for dinner on Saturday so I bought supplies for that while I was there.

Vitamin Cottage — $39.66

• Alta Dena sharp cheddar cheese — $5.29
• 2 boxes lasagna noodles — $2.25/ea
• 2 containers ricotta cheese — $5.39/ea
• Muenster cheese — $4.29
• salsa — $3.45
• 2 cans Muir no-salt-added tomato sauce — $1.55/ea
• 2 cans Muir tomato sauce — $1.55/ea
• a Chico reusable shopping bag — $3.99

I made a Zucchini Ricotta Frittatafor dinner.  It was a fun experiment but it’s not a recipe that will go into the family cookbook.  The Daughter loved it.  The Husband drowned it in salsa and asked for seconds — but The Husband hates quiche and, not knowing what a frittata was, hadn’t realized how close it was to a quiche.  I liked it well enough but honestly, my very least favorite form of eggs is an omelet and the texture and taste of the eggs was just too close to that of an omelet for my tastes.  The Son just downright hated it but then he doesn’t care for zucchini (though he will eat zucchini bread).  He ended up drowning his serving in ranch dressing, of all things.  He did not ask for seconds.

Again, I’ve got a puzzling financial question and I’m turning to my readers for help.

To insure or not to insure, that is the question….

Perhaps you’ve read my Introducing The Cast of Players post or all of my About Me postings and already have a bead on my financial and health situation.  If not, here it is in a nutshell:  I’m 43.  The Husband is 72.  Together we have two children – both teens.  I have some health problems but, with the exception of what might have been a series of TIAs (mini-strokes), they all seem to fall into the chronic category (IBS, food allergies, Fibromyalgia, Hypothyroid, and Sleep Apnea).  The Husband, on the other hand, has “incurable” cancer (inoperable Prostate cancer no longer contained within the prostate).

The Husband has some life insurance (all together about $80,000).  Together with his share of the corporation that he heads, his share of his father’s estate, his personal investments, and various other savings, etc., his net worth is close to $1 mil.  I have two IRAs with a combined worth of about $15,000 and I have a small life insurance policy through work also worth $15,000.  I will inherit nothing but debt from my mother.  I believe my father is worth a sizable chunk of change but due to his lifestyle, our distant relationship, and his current wife’s ways, I’m not counting on inheriting a dime.

My concern is for my children should something happen to me before they are grown and graduated from college.  If The Husband should die, the assumption is that I would take over as President of the corporation (I’m currently VP) and continue to draw his salary.  There would also be his investment income and his life insurance policies.  As long as I continued to live a reasonably frugal lifestyle, I could send the kids to college and live a comfortable life.  But if I should die, things would be a bit more complicated.

This is one of those really difficult conversations that beingfrugal.net talked about last week.  Several months ago, when dealing with our insurance agent about new health insurance, I asked the agent to research life insurance options for me.  He did and gave me several proposals and price schedules.  Last night I brought the subject up again with The Husband.  He just assumes that if something were to happen to me, he would take care of the children until they’re grown :-)  Most of the time his I’m invincable attitude is endearing and inspiring.  But ocassionally, like last night, it’s frightening and frustrating.

Although we’d all like to hope that we’ll live to a ripe old age of 105 and then just die quietly in our sleep one night, that unfortunately is not the most likely scenario for our passing.  Odds are that at some point The Husband will need care.  I have dibs on that job.  I want it and second only to staying healthy for my children, my desire is to stay healthy for him.  But life is not about what we want — most of us do not get to choose the time and circumstances of our death — it’s about dealing with the hand we’re dealt.

If something should happen to me, how would my minor children get through the rest of their growing and schooling?  I’ve been of the thought that I need to carry a life insurance policy — at least for the duration of their youth and schooling.  The Son is the youngest and, at 13, I figure he has about 10 more years of needing “coverage.”

So last night, after our awkward but open, loving, and fruitful conversation, The Husband agreed that I should call the agent and discuss a $100,000 Term Life policy.  His reasoning — it will buy me some peace of mind.  But this morning, I’m having second thoughts.

My main concern — and my main purpose for the insurance policy — is to provide some type of funds that the children or their guardian could access immediately upon my death.  If The Husband had proceeded me in death, this would give the children or their guardian access to living-expense funds assuming that the rest of their estate would be tied up in red-tape for a while.  If I should die before The Husband, the policy would simply be invested and eventually provide a cushion or add to the funds that they would eventually inherit.  It would be my hope that The Husband would make the funds accessible to the children in the event that they need to eventually provide care for their father.

Now I’m wondering if an insurance policy is the best vehicle for meeting this very specific concern — immediate cash for living expenses while the rest of the estate is settled.  Both children already have custodial savings accounts.  Would we be better off funding those accounts or a similar accounts — enough to provide several month’s worth of living/school expenses?  The Husband seems convinced that no one would have access to the insurance policy payout any faster than they would any other estate funds.  The would defeat the whole purpose of the insurance.

Of course, the advantage of an insurance policy is that the benefit amount is immediately worth the payout amount.  It would take us much longer to build up their savings accounts to the same amount.  Another benefit of the policy we’re considering is that it would allow me the right of conversion without proof of insurability.  At this point, I’ll be able to pass a physical to qualify but there’s no guarantee that I’ll be able to do that in the future.

Readers — I’d sure appreciate any informed wisdom you care to share with me on this subject!

Wendy’s — $3.86
The Son dined on two Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers and a medium root beer for dinner in between his lesson and orchestra rehearsal tonight.  Now that we’ve cut back on the amount we (meaning the kids) eat out, The Son really looks forward to his weekly Wendy’s fix.

MacDonald’s Hardwood — $16.21
A gallon refill bottle of their floor cleaning solution.  I love this stuff — it does a beautiful job on my wood floors.  The gallon refill bottle an economical solution since I already have a quart bottle with sprayer.  Based on past use, I expect the gallon to last about a year.

Vitamin Cottage — $11.68
The Daughter had a hot lunch at school today but I have to pack her a lunch for tomorrow.  Luckily I remembered that I used the last of the jelly on her PB&J sandwich on Monday night.  So I made a quick stop at the store for some lunch-making supplies:

• Cascadian Farm raspberry fruit spread — $2.79
• Cascadian Farm concord grape fruit spread — $2.79
• Maranatha peanut butter — $4.69
• a Food Bank donation (which VC is currently matching) — $1.00

I ended up making purchases I hadn’t anticipated but overall it was a very purposeful and productive day.  Yeah, there were one or two unnecessary impulse buys but that’s what comes with a trip to Costco at Christmas time, right?

Costco — $100.99
I went in for juice boxes and those Izze sodas.  OMG!  Do you know what those things cost?!  $11.45 for a case of 12.  That’s a one-time, special-occasion purchase, I can tell you that!  Apparently, The Husband’s granddaughter really likes Izze sodas.  The Daughter assures me that all of the children/grandchildren will like them and they will be a fun and special treat at the Family Christmas party.  Just so long as no one expects me to serve them on a regular basis

Well, the good thing about expensive treats is they make everyday treats like Capri Sun 100% Juice boxes ($8.69 for a case of 40) a little more palatable.  Quite by accident I came across a case of Vitamin Water that The Daughter had asked me to look for ($16.99 for a case of 20).  I’ve looked for these before but thought our Costco didn’t carry them as they are not stocked with the other beverages.  These things aren’t cheap but The Daughter mostly saves them for after games; I have serious doubts as to their nutritional value but somehow I find them easier to take than Gatorade (which I just despise and hate spending money on).

I also picked up a container of Taster’s Choice coffee for The Husband ($9.49), an 18-count carton of Nest Fresh eggs ($2.99), a loaf of Udi’s San Francisco sour dough bread ($4.29), a 2-loaf package of Rudi’s organic honey whole wheat bread ($5.99), and a 3-box package of Kashi Autumn Harvest shredded wheat cereal ($7.99).

The package of 12 mega-muffins ($5.99) was an indulgence but not an impulse buy — The Son had asked if I would buy some on my next trip to Costco.  It’s been probably two years since I bought the last package so I saw no good reason to say no.

I also bought a mega-pack of white tissue paper ($5.19).  This was actually a business expense and I’ll write a reimbursement check to The Husband from my business checking account.  I wrap all of my clothing orders in white tissue — it’s a nice, inexpensive touch that adds a quality of professionalism to my shipments.  Costco only sells these mega-packs at Christmas so if you need some, stock up soon.

The final purchase was definitely an impulse buy but one that I’m just thrilled to have found.  I’m sure you’ve been in this situation — you know you’re looking for a gift but you have no idea of what that gift is.  Then you see it and you know it’s exactly what you’ve been looking for!  I knew I needed one more gift for The Son — something to put under the tree this year.  That mystery gift turned out to be a copy of The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook ($19.99).  The Son has expressed a great deal of interest in cooking over the past few years; he’s been learning to make some of his favorite dinner recipes lately in addition to making a mess of pies last week for Thanksgiving.  Even better, he’s shown a willingness to experiment beyond his normal ingredient comfort zone when he’s doing the cooking.  I loved the layout of this particular cookbook — 3-ring binder style with appetizing photos and a clean, appealing layout.  A quick look-through gave me hope that the recipes run along the lines of standards and classics but with good, clean ingredients.  And there looked to be plenty of recipes that either already comply with my extensive food allergies or could easily be modified to fit my diet.  The Husband thought the book was a great idea; we both think it will be well received.

Costco gas — $38.69
The Tank’s tank was just below the half-way mark and the price of gas was right so I filled up.  I pumped 13.346 gallons at $2.899 per gallon.   The odometer reads 117,091.

~ o o O o o ~

I did the rest of today’s shopping on-line:

REI — $34.27
Two weeks ago while writing my SmartWool sock product review, I noticed that REI’s Outlet had the mini-crew hiking socks on sale.  I also noticed that the SmartWool website doesn’t list those has a current style so I’m a little worried that they’ve been discontinued.  So I figured I should go ahead and get a few more pair while the price was right.  I bought 4 pair at $7.93/pair (that’s about 1/2 off).  I had to pay tax, naturally, but I didn’t pay any shipping because I chose to pick them up from my local store.  This free shipping if you send your on-line purchases to a store is just one of the many reasons that I’m a loyal REI shopper.  REI’s return policy is also among the very best too.  But I digress….

Tower.com — $13.97
I’ve tried twice now to pick up a copy of Quirky Kids – once when I had a B&N coupon and then again yesterday when I had a Borders coupon.  But neither store had a copy in stock.  The coupons were both only good for two days so even though both stores offered to order the book in for me I didn’t accept either offer.  After yesterday’s lack of success, I came home and tried to find a good price on-line again.  I was open to either new or used but I knew I was only willing to make a purchase if the deal were sweet enough.  Just who do those st*pid eBay sellers think they’re fooling when the charge $2.75 for a used book and then want $8.00 for shipping?  Thanks but I think I’ll pass.  Anyway, I ended up finding a new paperback copy at Tower Books and that price includes shipping.  I’m excited to get the book; it promises to be a good read and might help me gain more insight into my own quirky kid (I hope).

~ o o O o o ~

Cash — $2.00
My last purchase of the day was to lay down $2.00 in cash to see The Son’s team get defeated in the last 30 second of the game.  Win or lose — doesn’t matter to me.  The kids are fun to watch.  The Son got some playing time but he didn’t score any points.  Then again, he didn’t make any fouls either.

I know that Thanksgiving is now just a distant, pleasant memory for most but I hope you’ll forgive me for my belated Thanksgiving post.

I’ve just been looking over my YNAB budget* and discovered an unforeseen benefit of the holiday — a lower gasoline bill this month.  With The Daughter being out of school for a whole week and The homeschooled Son not having classes, lessons, or rehearsal, and neither child having games or team practices, I estimate that the holiday saved me somewhere in the neighborhood of $60-75 worth of gas for The Tank.

In the spirit of sticking to YNAB’s Four Rules (specifically, Rule #2:  Give Every Dollar a Job), I’ve moved those $$’s originally budgeted to Auto: Fuel over to my Gifts categories where I’m sure they’ll be put to use (or more honestly, where they’ve already been put to use).

I’m already anticipating what the two-week school and activity vacation at Christmas/New Year’s will do for my gas budget (and, as a result, my gift budget).  Don’t get me wrong, though — I’m not pumping additional $$’s into my gift budget and planning purchases I hadn’t already budgeted for.  My gift list remains the same.  All I’m doing is taking real dollars that won’t be spent on gas and allocating them to gifts; before the gasoline windfall was discovered, the funds for gifts were coming out of other discretionary budget categories such as vacation and savings.

Advance Auto Parts — $3.70
I bought a 2-pack of Sylvania bulbs for The Tanks’ back-up lights (read about my adventure here).

New bulb:  $1.85.

Labor to fix non-functional back-up light:  $0.00

Bonding, learning experience with the son:  Priceless

Best Buy — $38.71
I stopped in to pick up the camera I’d purchased on-line last night.  While there, I learned a few lessons.

One, it’s best not to use a one-time, temporary credit card number for “buy on-line, pickup locally” purchases.  At least not if you’re buying from Best Buy.  Each transaction is tracked by the number on the credit card used to make the purchase and you must show the purchasing credit card along with your ID in order to pick up your purchase.  Since my purchasing credit card number not the number on my actual credit card, it took some deft finagaling of the system by an obviously intelligent cashier to make things work out okay.

Two, I was supposed to add my free 2GB memory card into my cart in order to take advantage of the “free card with purchase” deal.  I don’t know how I missed that one; I’m usually much more on-line shopping cart savvy than that.  But somehow I missed it.  Again, thanks to the abilities of an intelligent cashier and an equally adept supervisor, everything worked out perfectly.  I went to the camera section, found the 2GB PNY SD card, brought it back to the cashier, and she zeroed out the purchase for me.  That was a $39.99 card I got for free!

So if I’d stopped at the camera and the free memory card I could have walked out without spending any money.  But what fun would that have been?  Just kidding.  Truth is that when I picked up the camera, attached to the box was a coupon for 10% off any two or more qualifying accessories.  I knew I wanted an extra battery for the camera and had planned to pick up a camera case as well so I was happy to put the coupon to use.

A helpful Best Buy employee found the right battery without any troubles.  I would have gone for one of the standard camera cases with a shoulder strap, belt loop, zippered compartment, and extra velcroed pocket but I was shopping for The Daughter so I needed to think a little less “practical” and a little more “fashion accessory.”  I picked out a pink quilted case with a drawstring and a cute little round spring clip.  Some time in the next day or two I’ll have to find an opportunity to pull it out from the dark reaches of my closet and see if the pink case will accessorize acceptably with her LL Bean messenger bag

The Women’s Personal Finance Network (of which I am a proud member) is currently highlighting the subject of How to Raise Financially Responsible Children.  I have a lot of thoughts on this issue — some of which I’ve already shared on this blog in my Kids and Money category.  Other thoughts will come out in the coming weeks and months.

I do consider educating my children on the basics of finance to be a moral imperative.  As with all subjects, I approach the subject of finances from three different directions.

First, I do my best to convey the facts in an unbiased and logical manner.  There are many objective facts that children should be acquainted with before they leave the nest — things like compounded interest (interest you earn and interest you pay), balancing a checkbook, taxes, etc.

Second, I share with my children my subjective views on all things money and finance.  When should quality trump quantity and vice versa?  How important is money when considering a career path; how does having money affect people and relationships and how does not having any money affect people and relationships?  I try to be honest with my kids about what I value; on what I will spend money and will not spend my money on; on what I consider to be money well spent and money sorely wasted.

Third, I make an effort to be as frank, objective, and as open as possible regarding conflicting viewpoints.  For example, I choose to not spend any money at all on beauty products but I don’t expect, require, or demand my daughter share those same values.  The point of this angle is evaluate how other people spend their money; to explore and discuss other paradigms of fiscally responsible behavior that differs from the way The Husband and I do things.  I’m sure there are many women with dozens of pairs of shoes and a whole array of make-up who live within their means ;-) 

I was all set to continue with my bathroom theme for today’s Maintenance Monday post, but an incident yesterday inspired me to write about auto maintenance instead.

As I was pulling out of The Home Depot parking lot yesterday, a guy came running up behind us and told me that my left back-up light wasn’t working.  After thanking him and pulling away, I realized how timely this piece of news was.  Yes, it gave me a topic to discuss today but blog topic aside, it happened to drill home something that’s been discussed rather frequently in our home lately.

At 15, The Daughter has a driver’s permit and will be eligible to test for her driver’s license in less than 6 months.  She, and by default The Son because he’s usually also frequently a passenger, has been a captive audience for oft repeated mini-lectures from both The Husband and I regarding the importance of respecting and maintaining a vehicle’s safety equipment.

It’s so easy to take a vehicle’s basic safety equipment for granted.  And it’s downright scary to consider the big price that can be exacted when something very small is overlooked or neglected.

Back in the early 80’s when I was learning to drive, our state required each registered vehicle to have an annual safety inspection and an emissions test.  These inspections and tests were conducted by any state certified auto repair/servicing station.  Nowadays, our state requires a much more comprehensive emissions test every other year and car owners have to have the test done at one of only a handful of testing stations around the state.  The safety inspection requirement is long gone.

Based on the number of cars I’ve seen in the past few years with some or all of their brake lights not working, getting rid of the required safety inspection was not necessarily a good idea.  Not that I’m advocating reinstatement of a state-required annual test.  My point simply is that if you own a car, you should make a point of checking your safety equipment on a regular basis.  I think that it’s impossible to over-estimate the importance of such simple equipment as your brake lights, turn signals, windshield wipers, and the frequently-overlooked wiper fluid.

Today, after picking up a package of two bulbs, The Son and I made a project of replacing the burned-out back-up bulb and completing a safety-equipment checklist on The Tank.  Here’s a list of the equipment we checked:

• parking lights (front and back)
• headlights (regular beams and high beams)
• tail lights
• brake lights (all three)
• back-up lights
• license plate lights
• right blinker (front and back)
• left blinker (front and back)
• horn
• wiper blades (don’t forget your rear blade, if applicable)
• wiper fluid level

A vehicle safety equipment check requires a partner — it’s a great job for ‘tweens and ‘teens.  If you don’t have one at home, enlist your spouse or significant other.

After replacing the burned-out bulb, The Son and I discovered that one of my tail-lights is also out.  It’s a secondary light — part of the wrap-around portion of my rear lights.  Still, I’ll have to go back to the auto parts store to pick up the right bulb for that light so The Son and I can replace it as well.  If you’re the type that likes to learn from others’ mistakes, take a lesson from my experience and make sure you do a complete safety equipment test before buying an necessary parts and taking your car apart for required repairs.

Not everyone is the do-it-yourself type and into replacing their own burned-out bulbs — though it’s a much less expensive alternative to taking your car to a professional.  But even the most technically-challenged car owner can complete their own safety equipment test.

Be sure to put a safety equipment test on your to-do list then come back and leave a comment when you’re done!

Our new retaining wall has been poured and is curing as we speak — complete with handprints of The Daughter, The Son, and myself.  Today’s labor cost me $100 plus a few slices of pie and two glasses of milk ;-)

After all the cement was mixed and the wall poured, we ended up with three extra bags of Quikrete which I’ve already returned — for an $11.65 credit at The Home Depot.

The Daughter went with me on my errand-run.  After the quick return to The Home Depot, we stopped in Old Navy to see if she could exchange her Gap gift cards or use them at Old Navy.  I was surprised and disappointed to hear that Gap gift cards cannot be used at Old Navy.  [We also checked at Gap and they said the same thing.  I told The Daughter that I’d buy the cards from her — either flat out for cash or in the form of an Old Navy gift card.]

I had printed out my 25% coupon for Barnes & Noble that expired today only to find out that my local store didn’t have the book I wanted in stock.  I gave the coupon to The Daughter who bought herself a book using a gift card.  My cost: $0.00.  But I did make a purchase, though.  I bought a $25 gift card to be used for the unwrapping game we play during the family Christmas party.

Our next destination was the Qwest kiosk but we first stopped into a kitchen store where I spent $9.16 on a new slotted metal spatula (our old one completely fell apart a few weeks ago) and a set of two tiny whisks (great for mixing my oil & vinegar salad dressing).  A few stores down we popped into Crabtree & Evelyn for some soap.  I spent $25.95 and bought 6 bars of soap — three each of Aloe and La Source triple milled boxed bars.

We did make our stop at the Qwest kiosk but there was no charge — I had them swap our third cell phone account from a little Kyocera phone we had for the kids to a Motorola flip-phone that I’d gotten from a friend.  The Husband hates the Kyocera and can’t figure out how to use it.  I have a Motorola almost identical to the free one and mine is a work-horse if there ever was one.  I’ve dropped it and sat on it and carried it every day for what must be close to 6 years and it’s still going strong.  I’m hoping that The Husband will adapt better to the Motorola and therefore carry with him.  Our schedules are too busy and complicated to have him running around without a cell phone.  My cost:  $0.00.

Our final stop was Target.  I returned a picture frame for a $19.34 credit.  Then we did a little grocery shopping — a few essentials we needed for tonight’s dinner and breakfast, etc.  We spent $29.39 on:

• a gallon of 2% Horizon milk — $5.99
• 1/2 gallon of Horizon chocolate milk — $3.99
• 2 boxes of Kashi Cinnamon Harvest cereal — $3.39 (this is an excellent non-sale price)
• package of english muffins — $1.87
• Digiorno pizza — $4.99
• Digiorno “ultimate” pizza — $5.99
• Advil “pocket pack” — $1.99 (at The Daughter’s request, perfect size for her backpack, she’ll have to refill it from my über Advil bottle when it’s empty)

My final purchase of the day was a “Cyber Monday” sale item.  Best Buy’s Cyber Monday actually started today.  I found the sale quite by accident — I was curious about what kind of sales I might find on-line tomorrow so I thought I’d look for previews tonight.  I knew that one of the Christmas gifts we’d be giving The Daughter was a digital camera and I knew which model I wanted — a Canon Powershot Digital ELPH SD1000.  For the past few weeks I’ve just been watching prices and waiting.  When I visited Best Buy’s site tonight and saw that camera on sale for $179.99 plus a free 2GB PNY memory card, I showed it to The Husband and we took the plunge.  I made the purchase on-line but will pick the camera up from the store locally tomorrow.  This saves me from having to pay shipping charges.  Until tonight, the best price I’d seen was $199.99.  I paid $179.99 but after I applied $65 worth of gift cards I’d purchased from The Son, my final price was $114.99.