Happy Easter, Everyone! 

After a dinner of leftover Easter lasagna, I had a powerful hankering for ice cream but we were all out and the last thing I wanted to do was go to the grocery store.  So I did what any self-respecting mother of a new licensed driver would do.  I sent The Daughter to the grocery store for ice cream.  Her brother elected to accompany her.  I sent them with my school-fund-raiser grocery gift cards to pay for their purchases — so, technically, I didn’t spend any money today.

Kroger — $0.00 cash / $23.72 against the gift card

• Breyer’s french vanilla ice cream — $5.19 (saved $0.50)
• Breyer’s chocolate ice cream — $5.19 (saved $0.50)
• mini ice cream bars — $2.99 (saved $0.31)
• Horizon chocolate milk — $3.19 (saved $0.50)
• tomatoes — $3.99
• Mariani dried mango slices — $2.59

Today was just another day in the life of a Suburban Wife.  My sister decided at 9:30 in the morning that her son (The Nephew) simply had to fly home today because she simply couldn’t bear to not have him home for Easter.  And she’s not even a Christian.  [Grow up!]  The kids and I were due to leave the house at 10:30 and had the better part of the day planned out in a fairly tight and precision schedule.  So The Nephew had to get packed up and everyone had to get dressed and ready in go in less than an hour.  It was not a stress-less morning.

Safeway — $37.03
Filled up my mom’s car (which we’re making full use of while it’s in town) — pumped 12.066 gallons @ $3.069/gallon.

Ace Hardware — $8.60
A roll of duct tape that we needed to tape the treasure hunt clues to signs and fire hydrants, etc in preparation of tomorrow’s big Easter Treasure Hunt at church.

Wild Oats — $
The Husband came and fetched The Son from our church/treasure hunt activities so he could take the boy to practice.  The Daughter, The Nephew, and I stopped in for a quick lunch on the way to dropping The Daughter at the site of a friend’s recital.

We consumed:

• two slices of pizza
• one sushi tray
• two Odwalla juices

Airport Parking — $4.00
This last-minute unplanned airport errand ate up a full 3-1/2 hours of my day and cut The Nephew’s visit short and let my kids and I all feeling abandoned and bummed.  Did I mention that my sister should grow up?

Best Buy — ($12.36)
Best Buy — ($21.51)
Best Buy — ($22.68)
I returned all three cables that I’d bought that ended up either being the wrong type of cable or the wrong length.  They should have constitued two return transactions but somehow the clerk managed to require four transactions (he had to completely redo one because the original store had a different tax percentage than the store I returned to).  I should receive my Amazon order with the correct cables/lengths tomorrow.

Best Buy — $30.00
Two $15 iTunes gift cards that the Easter Bunny intends to give to The Son and The Daughter in their Easter baskets.  The Daughter’s been talking about experimenting with buying a movie through iTunes — this will give her some money to play with.

Target — $28.21
More candy, some cello gift bags, and a few party favors for the Treasure Bags for the kids at church tomorrow.  I got a call last night saying that we’d probably end up with almost twice as many children as we’d originally estimated.  The Daughter came through with her promise and did a great job of filling the bags.

Old Navy — $44.63
A baseball jersey, a long sleeved black t-shirt, and a ripstop hoodie jacket for The Son.  He rejected the baseball shirt ($3.49) because he doesn’t like the feel of the raglan sleeves.  He liked the jacket okay but not enough to justify the cost ($34.50) so it, too, will be returned.  He approves of the long sleeve tee ($3.49) even though it’s a size Large and he’s really just moving into a size Medium.  This will give him a long-sleeved baseball uniform option for cooler weather.  We still don’t have a black turtleneck which is sure to prove a disaster at some point this spring but no one still has t-necks in stock.

Wild Oats — $27.75
My final stop of the day — to pick up the ingredients necessary to make a lasagna to take to tomorrow’s Easter potluck.

• 2 cans tomato sauce — $1.69/ea.
• 1 small can tomato sauce — $0.99
• package of 1.5 lbs ground beef — $5.95 (to be frozen for later use)
• package of 1.5 lbs ground beef — $5.91 (for immediate use)
• mozzarella cheese — $7.99
• ricotta cheese — $2.99
• bag credit — ($0.10)

The Home Depot — $72.20
This “little” shed removal project has turned into a huge out-of-control monster set on devouring my entire checkbook.  We took out the shed.  That left the foundation sticking out like a sore thumb.  So we poured a new retaining wall.  Now we’re removing the foundation and the old cement walkway beside the shed/foundation.  The project has taken on a life of it’s own.  I’m paying for the equipment rentals and paying the handyman an hourly wage.  Eventually it will all be good because the shed will be gone, the side yard will be re-landscaped (though I really have no solid plans for what will be done, who will do it, or how I’ll pay for it), and I will have learned a very valuable lesson about home-improvement projects — don’t start them until you’ve looked at every aspect of what will be involved, always work with a professional, and always have them provide a flat bid for the entire project at once.

Handyman — $140.00
This covers today’s work plus last Friday’s efforts.  Today I realized that this project is an excellent opportunity to apply the concept of “sweat equity” so all three teenagers and I went out and busted our humps shoveling and hauling cement debris away from the demolition site.  It was hard work but made a huge difference as to the amount of work the handyman was able to achieve with the rented jackhammer.  I figure if the kids and I can do a little more debris removal before next Friday and then be around to help again like we did today, I’ll only have to pay for one more jackhammer rental session.  I might have to pay for two days of handyman labor but that’s okay — it’s really the equipment rentals that have really inflated the overall cost of the project.

Subway — $23.41
I sent the newly licensed Daughter to Subway for sandwiches to feed the Handyman, The Daughter, The Son, and The Nephew.

Target — $54.72
All but $2.58 (plus tax) of this amount was spent on a ridiculous amount of Easter candy and party favors for the goody bags that will be handed out to children at church this Sunday.  This will by my children’s first Easter at the church in an assisting and/or supervisory capacity rather than as participants.  We’ll have to run back tomorrow for a few extra colored bags because I learned tonight that we’re expecting 12-16 children instead of the 9 or so I’d estimated.  The non-Easter portion of the purchase covered a school portfolio and a sheet of stick-on letters The Daughter claimed to need for a school project.

Gap – ($55.09) 
Returned the three pair of shorts I bought last week for The Son.  He ended up liking the Old Navy khaki shorts the best.

Shoe Store — $48.63
Shoes for The Daughter.  They are silly and ridiculous red and black open-toes high-heeled shoes and she loves them.  They do, admittedly, look pretty cute with a strapless dress her Grannie bought for her last year.  She wants to wear the dress to the high school dance coming up later this Spring.  The Daughter’s done fairly well the past two months with her clothing allowance — actually building up a $223.29 credit.  Intially she sent me a text (I was in line at Gap) with a photo and a note saying she’d found what she wanted for Easter.  I told her to ask the Easter bunny.  She replied that she was.  I said, no, the real Easter bunny — the one with long ears.  She was thinking about whether to be indignant or disappointed when I reminded her of her monthly clothing allowance at which point she perked right up.  When she got home from the store the first thing she did was put on the dress with the shoes and parade around the house.  I gave her a hard time but her dad said they looked cute.  I know when to give in 

Banana Republic — $9.72
First, it’s an outlet.  Second, everything in the store is currently on sale for 40% off — even clearance.  I’d like to drag The Son down there before the sale ends on Sunday but it probably won’t happen.  Nevertheless, I did manage to find him a classic (boxy) fit plain black t-shirt that he needs as part of his baseball uniform.  Each player receives a jersey but they are vests and the boys each need to provide their own black undershirts.  The Son really needs a black long sleeve tee and, ideally, a black turtleneck since the games will start in April and the weather will be very unpredictable for at least the first month, if not longer.  I can’t find any long-sleeved tees much less turtlenecks.  And since The Son is so picky about his clothes and since I insist on cotton, we may have to consider ourselves lucky to have found the short sleeve tee and call it good.  The only thing better than finding exactly what you’re looking for is finding it on sale for 40% off.

DMV — $21.00
The Nephew and I accompanied The Daughter to the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) today so she could test for her driver’s license.  Today was exactly one year after the date on which her driver’s permit was issued.  She was so excited to be going in for her driving test — but equally nervous as well.

I’m not sure how I feel about being the mother of a licensed teenage driver.  Not the age aspect, naturally, because I’m not in the least ashamed of being 43.  But the thought of her driving around, alone, outside of my control — that terrifies me.

Whole Foods — $22.29
Boycotts are usually most effective when you actually stick to them but, darn it all, Whole Foods is really the only source of ground turkey thigh in my area.  I console myself when I fall off the boycott-Whole-Foods-and-Wild-Oats wagon by reassuring myself that I didn’t buy anything other those items most desperately needed.  Pretty pathetic, huh?

• Horizon 2% milk — $3.29
• ground turkey — $8.78
• block of sharp cheddar cheese — $4.47
• russet potatoes — $4.98
• bag credit — ($0.10)

Auto Body Shop — $500.00
We picked up The Tank from the body shop today.  The bumper repair was a 2-day affair made so much easier by the fact that I had my mom’s car to use while my car was in the shop.  The $500 is the amount of our deductible; the insurance company will pay the additional @$175 that it cost to repair a minor rumpling of my rear bumper.  I don’t even want to think about how much my rates are going to go up because of the two exceedingly minor fender benders I had this winter (my only consolation is that the second one occured before I got the bumper fixed).  I went over 20, maybe even 25, years without getting a single ticket or being in any type of accident and then, within the space of one year I get two speeding tickets and have two fender bumpers.  I’ve been joking about how it might be getting to be time to take away the 72-yo husband’s driver’s license but the truth is that lately I’ve proven to be the riskier driver.  Ouch.

Speech — $60.00
Another speech therapy session.  So far, there’s definitely progress being made.  Next week is Spring Break for most of the local schools so no lesson next Thursday.  One of our combined assignments this week is to discuss how we think things are going and decide if there’s any additional areas or directions we want to take things.

The Daughter invited some classmates over for a movie/pizza/sleepover.  They arrived starving and fell on the small amount of lasagna leftovers like a plague of locusts.  At the same time, they called Dominos and ordered their 5 for $5 deal.  The Husband went to pick up the pizzas (he never orders for delivery) and I made a quick run to the grocery store for meal “supplements”.  Neither The Husband nor I had pizza but between the five girls, The Son, and The Nephew, they managed to devour all but two or three slices.  Since The Husband did the pizza pick-up I don’t know exactly what he spent ($25 and change, I’d assume).  In my YNAB budget*, it will be reflected in his monthly cash allowance/withdrawals.

Kroger — $43.49

• bartlett pears — $3.78
• gala apples — $4.02
• navel oranges — $2.40
• organic green pepper — $2.99
• red pepper — $1.99
• loose carrots — $0.86
• green onions — $1.00
• organic spinach — $3.99
• organic baby greens — $3.99
• organic cherry tomatoes — $2.50
• Breyer’s Snickers ice cream — $5.19 (saved $0.50)
• 2 cartons Horizon chocolate milk — $3.19/ea. (saved $0.50/ea.)
• Dole orange/peach/mango juice — $3.34 (saved $0.35)

Why is nothing ever simple?  And why are there times in my life when I seem to leak money from every pore?

The problem with being a gadget-hound is that new gadgets open the wallet floodgates.  It’s never a simple matter of buying a new gadget.  No.  There are always new wires, new cables, new adapters, and new accessories that the new gadget requires to work properly.

I inadvertently opened those floodgates last week when I visited the Apple Store with my mom.  I’ve been dreaming of a printer server for about 5 years and of a central remote hard-drive for at least 3 years.  When I heard about the Time Capsule I simply could not resist.  And I’ve not had a single second of regret since making the purchase.  But I had forgotten about the new gadgets floodgate phenomena.  And I’m bumming a little bit about it.

Of course, the Time Capsule in no way caused or created the need for a new monitor for The Daughter’s computer — other than the fact that without the Time Capsule I might have gone another year or two without using her computer and therefore would have remained blissfully ignorant of the fact that her old CRT monitor is on it’s last legs.  The picture would have continued to degrade until one day it would have died completely.  I shudder to think of what additional hours of watching that shimmering, shimmying screen would have done to her eyes, her brain, and her equilibrium.  But the fact remains that the addition of the Time Capsule to our home network lead to my decision to scrap her CRT and buy a new LCD monitor.

So after all three teens finally crawled out of bed and got showered and dressed this morning (The Son was the last one up — I dragged his sorry rear end out of bed at 11am), we all headed out for a little monitor comparison shopping trip.  We started at Best Buy.  I needed to buy a longer audio Y cable anyway and Best Buy is typically a dependable source of decent computer equipment.  I looked at monitors but didn’t see any sales that I simply couldn’t resist.  So I found a sales guy, described the type and length of audio cable I needed, gratefully accepted the offered cable as the solution to my problem (why, oh why do I do this), and proceeded to checkout ($22.68).

I needed an audio Y cable (RCA to mini-stereo jack) long enough to reach from my stereo to my new Airport Express plugged in close to but not right under the stereo.  With the short cable I bought yesterday, the only outlet I could use for the Airport Express is underneath the bookshelf holding the stereo.  Can we say major interference and lousy sound quality?  But when I move the Airport Express over one outlet on the wall, everything is golden — the sound quality on a little ancient boombox of  The Husband’s (circa 1988) is fabulous.  I can’t wait to hear what my airtunes sound like coming from my Onkyo component stereo and my Baby Advent speakers.  But that’s what I’ll have to do — wait.  The helpful guy at Best Buy sold me a set of RCA to RCA cables.  Yeah, like that’s what I asked for?!?

So now I have two cables to return, well, make that three cables to return to Best Buy.  The first being the correct type but woefully too-short audio Y cable.  The second being the incredibly wrong type but temptingly long-enough double-ended RCA cables.  And the third being the VGA extension cable I bought yesterday when what I really wanted was a VGA replacement cable.

After striking out three different times at Best Buy and coming up empty at Radio Shack and Staples, I gave up and simply ordered the necessary cables on-line from Amazon.  In cases such as these, I want instant gratification and having to place a mail order is highly aggravating.

After our ill-fated trip to Best Buy, the teens and I headed over to Costco.  I’d seen a ViewSonic on the Costco.com website that I wanted to take a look at.  The gods were definitely conspiring against me today — turns out that most of their on-line offerings are not available in their stores.  Bummer.  Well, I still managed to feed all three hungry teens for $9.86 — two had pizza and one had a chicken bake thing.  Two had sodas; one a berry smoothie.  Being able to feed a hungry daughter, son, and nephew on less than $10 is truly an amazing experience.

Upon our arrival home from our ill-fated shopping excursion, I did a little more on-line shopping and finally decided to go with the 20″ ViewSonic Optiquest LCD monitor from Costco.com.  The price was $199 plus shipping and tax brought it to $218.59.  But there’s a $20 mail-in rebate (if I can remember to file the rebate) so that will bring the final price down to $198.59.  The 20″ monitor will give The Daughter the biggest screen in the house — lucky kid.  I can’t see how I could manage to wrangle it unless I’d be willing to give up my laptop — something I’m simply not willing to do.

The Amazon order was placed this evening.  The two cables weren’t expensive enough to qualify for free shipping so I asked around to see if anyone wanted anything else.  The Daughter asked me to order the next book in a series she’s reading in her spare time — Eclipse from the “Twilight Saga”.  The Son didn’t need anything but The Husband told me about two Reginald Hill books that are in print but aren’t available through our library system — A Pinch of Snuff and Dialogues With The Dead.  So we ordered those as well.  Those three books along with our two cables brought our total to $45.29 — well above the $25 level necessary to qualify for free shipping.  Free shipping is great — but not quite as wonderful as having enough gift certificate money to not have to pay a single penny out-of-pocket.  Actually, not only did this order not cost me a cent, we still have about $30 worth of gift certificate left 

The upside to losing out on the instant gratification of cables and a new monitor is that I’ll be getting a couple of packages in the mail.  I love getting mail — even when I know exactly what I’m getting and I’m the one who paid.

As much as I’m looking forward to my new goodies and gadgets, I’m also really looking forward to the end of this particular flood of gear and gadgets.  I love new toys but I hate leaking money at this rate.

Shall I start out this post by telling you what I didn’t spend money on today?  A computer monitor.  Yup, I didn’t buy one today.  But I’ll probably have to buy one tomorrow.  During the process of setting up my new Apple Time Capsule-driven wireless network, networked printer, and remote 1TB hard-drive (how cool is that?), I spent about 10 minutes on The Daughter’s computer.  Her ancient CRT monitor is starting to give out.  Normally I wouldn’t worry about anything that’s just starting to give out.  I don’t generally replace things until they’ve really given up the ghost.  But after a few minutes of looking at a monitor with wavy, squiggly text, I felt seriously nauseous.  There’s no way that it can be healthy — and this is the machine that The Daughter uses every single day for her homework.  So, I’ve started the research and will need to pick up a new monitor as soon as possible.  In the meantime, she’s using The Husband’s monitor — and he’s less than thrilled and he wants his monitor back ASAP.

I did spend money today:

Cash — $4.00
The Son had baseball practice this afternoon.  The weather was yucky so they met at the local indoor pitching tunnel/batting cage place and each boy needed to take $4.00 in cash to help pay the fee for their time.

Best Buy — $33.87
Cables.  I needed a pin-to-RCA cable ($19.99) to hook my new Airport Express up to my stereo.  When it’s all said and done, I’ll be able to broadcast music from iTunes from any computer in the house through my stereo in the living room.  I also needed a 6′ VGA monitor extension cord ($11.49).  The VGA cable on The Daughter’s old CRT monitor was barely long enough to reach the tower where it’s stored in her computer desk.  The VGA on The Husband’s monitor is even shorter than the cable on the old monitor.  I assume that all of these newer LCD monitors will have shorter cables so we’ll need an extension cord to make things work.

Wild Oats — $70.81

• 2 boxes lasagna pasta — $2.49/ea.
• white onion — $0.77
• grated parmesean cheese — $3.49
• ricotta cheese — $3.99
• 2+ lbs lean ground beef — $10.48
• jar of Italian Seasoning spices — $3.99
• Muir Glen tomato sauce (small can) — $0.99
• Muir Glen no-salt tomato sauce — $1.69
• mozzarella cheese — $7.99
• package of flour tortillas — $1.99
• sliced smoked turkey — $4.99
• sliced roast beef — $4.99
• organic chocolate sandwich cookies — $2.99
• 1/2 gallon Horizon 2% milk — $3.29
• salsa — $3.29
• albacore tuna (large can) — $5.49
• mild cheddar — $3.98
• bag credits — ($0.20)

Life is just too weird to even describe right now.  The only money I spent today was a $150 check I wrote to my church this morning.

A very good friend from church lost his daughter last summer.  She was the victim of a violent, senseless random attack by a convicted murderer.  Through generous donations from friends, congregants, my friends employers, etc the church is building a memorial garden/patio including a wind sculpture and water feature.  I wish I’d been able to write a bigger donation check but it was all I could swing right now.

I was supposed to buy new baseball cleats for The Son but he was feeling most uncooperative this afternoon at the sporting goods store.  As far as I’m concerned, he can play the whole season in last year’s outgrown cleats.  I’ll buy him new cleats but not until he comes to me and asks me to take him shopping.  I’m completely sick of forcing him to buy replacements for clothes he’s outgrown.  I’m renewing my resolution to leave it all in his hands — if he wants to wear pants that are 6 inches too short or long pants in the middle of the summer, then so be it.  I won’t buy him anything unless he specifically asks me to.

My mom and I visited the Apple store today.  Man, that was an expensive outing!  ;-)

The reason for the visit — my mom decided that she wouldn’t have room for her 2-yo PC (tower, keyboard, and 15″ LCD monitor) now that she’s moving from her own house into a bedroom in my sister’s house.  She’s been playing with the idea of buying herself a laptop.  I’d been trying to talk her into waiting a few weeks before making any decisions — you know, settle into her new digs, get a feel for how much time she’d have, what it was like to share a computer with my sister’s family or if she’d really need her own.  My mom, being my mom, listened to all of my advice and then proceeded to buy herself a new Apple laptop anyway.

Oh well.

The total bill was $2,056.78. My portion of it was $561.44.  I bought a 1TB Time Capsule, an Airport Express Base Station, and a pair of In-Ear headphones.  The Time Capsule itself has a retail value of $499 but the clerk helping me, who also happened to be the store manager, mis-quoted the price.  I bought the only one in stock.  When he realized his error in quoting the price, he said he’d honor his quote.  So I got it for $399 instead.  Naturally, I was pleased as punch.

My mom bought a white Apple MacBook, an AppleCare package, an Apple One to One membership, and an HP Photosmart C4280 (which will end up costing her $0.00 if she remembers to submit her rebate info on time).

I am truly envious of the laptop (which I’m using right now — just to try it out for her) but I’m tickled pink about the toys I bought for myself and can’t wait until I get a few spare minutes to play with them.  The Time Capsule is a wireless router, a print server, and a remote 1TB hard drive that will play nice with both my Macs and my PCs at the same time.

Being Wednesday, I also stopped at Wendy’s for some dinner for The Son.  Tonight he went with a Baconator and a medium vanilla Frosty — all for $6.54.

This evening I also spent $10 in cash – $6.00 for event parking, $2.00 for a bottle water, and $2.00 for a massive brownie for The Son.  We attended an comedy performance and had a spectacularly wonderful time together.

The Husband took The Daughter, The Nephew, and my mom out for dinner while The Son and I were out for the evening.  I have no idea how much he spent.  What I do know is that I just spent the last 45 minutes cleaning up The Daughter and the bathroom after she “blew chunks.”  She thinks her stomach was off-color before she went out to eat but the big meal didn’t help matters at all.  Maybe she’ll be able to sleep now that her stomach is empty.  It’s definitely time for me to head to bed and see if I can’t catch a couple hours of shut-eye too.

I got home late last night to bare cupboards.  I definitely felt like Old Mother Hubbard especially when I had to scrape together a sack lunch for The Daughter and The Son this morning and had the prospect of two hungry teenaged boys to provide for.

My mom and I spent a great deal of time today running children to and from class and activities.  We spent the rest of the day at the bank setting up checking and savings accounts and CDs with the proceeds of yesterday’s house sale.  The buyer had shown up with a cashier’s check so the money was wired into my checking account yesterday afternoon.  For a few short hours there, I had some serious cash in my checking account  :-)

It’s all been distributed now into 8-month CDs earning 4.0% APY.  We wanted to stick it somewhere very safe but earning as much interest as possible for now.  As usual, the people at my local Washington Mutual provided excellent service.  My mom had really been dreading this part of the process and was dragging her feet this morning when I said it was time to head to the bank.  I’m so very glad it turned out to be an overwhelmingly positive experience.

Kroger — $91.13

• 5 boxes of Kashi Cinnamon Harvest cereal — $3.00/ea (saved $0.69/ea.)
• 2 boxes of Kashi Autumn Wheat cereal — $3.00/ea. (saved $0.69/ea.)
• 2 boxes of Annie’s cereal — $2.50/ea. (saved $1.29/ea.)
• Purely O’s cereal — $3.00 (saved $1.29)
• Health Valley cereal — $4.29
• bag of pre-washed organic lettuce — $3.99
• Dove shampoo — $3.99
• Dove conditioner — $3.99
• Claritin — $17.99 (saved $1.00)
• english muffins — $3.29
• Hillshire Farm lunch meat — $3.99
• red cabbage — $2.05
• carrots — $0.49
• 3 Digiorno pizzas — $4.99/ea. (saved $1.70/ea.)
• Horizon chocolate milk — $3.19 (saved $0.50)
• Horizon whole milk — $2.88 (saved $0.41)