Actually posted on May 4 — still traveling but finally in a location where time and internet access are available at the same time.

I had a no-spend day — in that I didn’t spend any money directly.  My mom and I walked for miles and miles and had a great time, took tons of photos, saw tons of sites, had tons of fun.  And didn’t spend a dime.

However, I did have to make a bank transfer to reimburse The Daughter for two purchases she made:

Old Navy — $19.37
Two shirts for herself.  I’m not sure what type or color because I haven’t seen them yet.  I know that she needs to replace some of her shirts so I have no complaints about this purchase.  Besides, even after this purchase she still has a balance of $221.00 in her clothing allowance.

Borders — $16.16
A book needed for school or a school project.

Actually posted on May 4 — still traveling but finally in a location where time and internet access are available at the same time.

Toll Charges — $12.00
More expressway toll charges.  They’re almost unheard of where I live but here in the East they seem to be a fact of driving life.

McDonald’s — $1.15
Can you believe what they charged me for a single plastic bottle of thoroughly-conventional milk — probably chock full of growth hormones and antibiotics?

Rite-Aid — $15.97

• case of Aqua Fina water bottles — $6.99
• Hagen Daz vanilla ice cream — $3.99
• Pringles potato chips — $1.99 (for my mom)
• 2 Starbucks frappuccino bottles — $1.50/ea. (for my mom)

Sally Beauty Supply — $1.80
A pair of fingernail clippers — and they actually work!  Has anyone else had trouble finding a decent pair of nail clippers since the post-9/11 airline restrictions?

Actually posted on May 4 — still traveling but finally in a location where time and internet access are available at the same time.

Expressway Toll Charges — $8.00
In this part of the country, we made good progress but not without a cost.

Total Spent Today: $3.82

McDonald’s — $3.82
The first day of our drive across the country (me, my mom, and my mom’s dog — aka The Girls).  My mom got a hankering for some Micky D french fries.  I had lunched on a cold leftover buttermilk biscuit with smoked turkey sandwich (quite yummy, actually) and figured I’d have cold cereal for dinner in the hotel.  So I ordered two bottles of milk.

We’re each supposed to be paying for our own food but what kind of woman would begrudge her mother a large order of french fries.  They sure smelled good and I hate the way they remind me of my 100’s of food allergies.

Total Spent Today:  $ 114.77

Net Spent Today: $ 68.70

Advance Auto Parts — ($46.07)
My mom decided that what she liked the best about the Betty Boop floor mats was the dark color — not so much the Betty Boop figure.  At least not $50’s worth.  So we retuned the funky floor mats and $46.07 went back onto my card.

Target — $32.42
A set of four heavy-duty dark grey rubber floor mats to replace the Betty Boop mats.  These are perfect and my mom loves them — eminently more practical and slightly less expensive.  A good solution to the missing floor mat problem.

Kroger — $5.11
A case of Aqua Fina water for our trip across country.

Wild Oats — $77.24

• reading glasses — $17.99 (a less expensive though probably temporary solution to my reading glasses dilemma)
• probiotic — $17.99
• Odwalla Strawberry C Monster — $3.29
• Odwalla B Berrier — $3.29
• 2 Naked Superfood Green drinks — $3.29/ea.
• Applegate Farm organic sliced smoked turkey — $6.69
• Applegate Farm organic sliced roast beef — $6.69
• 1.12 lbs Fuji apples — $2.23
• 1.26 lbs organic bananas — $1.12
• .79 lbs Pink Lady apples — $2.36
• bag of baby carrots — $1.99
• .36 lbs bulk gorp — $.32
• 2 packaged dry soup bowls — $1.59/ea.
• bag credits — ($0.10)

Total Amount Spent: $50.35 

Yesterday’s trip to the car wash, fairly expensive in it’s own right, got a little more expensive today.

This morning, while driving home with my from the closest drive-thru Starbucks window (her coffee habit, she paid), I looked down for some reason and realized that I’d left her passenger-side floor mat at the car wash.  That immediately triggered one of those sick-sinking-stomach feelings.  I took the longer route home in order to swing by the car wash hoping against hope that I’d find that mat sitting right there next to the vacumms where I’d left it.

No such luck.

I made a circle looking around and then pulled back into the bay to write down the contact number for the wash — when from out of the service door comes the car wash owner himself.  I asked if he’d found the mat.  A quick look produced an unhappy, “no.”  Then he helped me check the dumpster.  Not there either.  I was, as they say in the biz, S.O.L.

Naturally, there’s an Advanced Auto Parts right there in the same strip mall.  I was hoping that maybe they stocked replacement OEM floor mats but luck simply was not with me today.  all they had were the generic sets.

Just as a joke I pointed out the Tweety Bird mat sets and said we should get them.  My mom — almost 70 and of European birth and upbringing and violently anti-Disney and anti-animation — laughed and then noticed the Betty Boop mat set.  Can you believe, that’s the set she picked?  I was surprised she even recognized the Betty Boop character!

Naturally on the way to check out, I spied a Betty Boop keychain that was essential to round-out the ridiculousness of the fashion statement we were about to make.

After the deal was done, both my mom and I were surprised at the total — $50.35.  Neither of us had realized that the small backseat mats were sold separately.  The front mat set cost $26.88, each back mat cost $7.97, and the keychain was another $3.98.

We left all of the tags and packaging intact so was can return them if and when sanity makes a comeback.

Total Spent Today: $211.57 

Lavage appointment — $70.00

Kroger — $10.00
I picked up my monthly synthroid prescription at the pharmacy.

Kroger — $32.28

• Ban deoderant — $2.39 (saved $0.60)
• 2 cartons Horizon chocolate milk — $3.19/ea. (saved $0.50/ea.)
• Tostitos “scoops” corn chips — $3.49
• 2.33 lbs. Russet potatoes — $2.31
• .48 lbs. Tomatoes — $1.44
• mini carrots — $1.99
• organic baby romaine lettuce — $3.00 (saved $0.99)
• Breyer’s french vanilla ice cream — $5.19 (saved $0.50)
• Breyer’s chocolate ice cream — $5.19 (saved $0.50)

Safeway gas — $31.42
I took my mom’s car for one last fill-up.  She flies in tonight.  We’ll leave for the east coast in a couple of days.

Car Wash — $10.75
After tanking up, I drove across the street to a self-service car wash and gave it a thorough vacuuming and bath.  It looks all sparkly and clean now — I’m sure my mom will be pleased at my efforts.  It was the least I could do since she let us use it all this time.  Having her car to drive around has saved us quite a bit in gas lately since her car gets about twice the mpg that The Tank gets.  It’s also been nice having a third car.  We’ll definitely miss that luxury.

Kroger — $7.62
Right in the middle of making hamburgers and oven fries for dinner, I had to run back to the grocery to pick up some ground beef.  After getting the fries all prepared and in the oven I discovered that the package of ground beef I bought the other day had a small hole in the package.  I couldn’t see the hole when the meat was frozen but I’d let it defrost in the fridge for a day and today it was quite noticeable — the meat was clearly discolored.  I was seriously bummed and peeved.

• 1.36 lbs Coleman ground beef — $6.79 (saved $1.36)
• 1.4 lbs bananas — $0.97

Airport Parking — $2.00

School Lunch Caterer — $47.50
That’s for 10 hot organic lunches for The Daughter at school — two lunches per week (our agreed upon weekly allotment) for the last 5 weeks of school (May/June).

I spend a lot of time on this blog enumerating the things I spend money on.  In fact, that’s its main intent and purpose of this blog — a daily accounting of my expenditures.

I think you can learn a lot about a person and a family simply by looking at how they spend their money.

In the same vein, I also think a lot can be learned about a person and a family by looking at what they don’t spend money on.  Of course, there’s no way to list everything we don’t buy but I thought it would be fun to list some of the normal, everyday things that the average family buys that our family doesn’t — or at least not very often.

1. Alcohol — This is an item you will not find among my purchases.  I don’t drink.  At all.  I think that makes me a teetotaler.  Whatever.  It’s simply a matter of choice and I don’t sit in judgement of those who do drink (socially).  The husband does drink, every once in a long while.  Every 3 or 4 years, I’ll buy him a bottle of his favorite “hooch”, Wild Turkey, as a birthday gift or for Valentine’s Day, etc.  And once or twice a year The Husband will pick up a 6-pack of designer beer (Sam Adams is a favorite) to serve to his adult kids during a family gathering — a birthday or Father’s Day, etc.  Other than those few exceptions, we’re a non-alcoholic family.
2. Tobacco — Like alcohol, tobacco is a habit I never picked up.  The Husband, on the other hand, was a heavy smoker for years and years.  In fact, The Husband used one form of tobacco or another for 50 years — when working as a wildcatter in the Texas oil fields as youth, he chewed tobacco because he couldn’t smoke.  Not only was he a long time smoker, he was a heavy smoker.  Two to three packs a day.  In the early days of our marriage when The Daughter was a baby and we were really struggling to make ends meet, I really resented how expensive his habit was.  Not the habit itself, because I understand the nature of addiction, but the expense.  Then he quit.  Cold turkey.  He had his last cigarette 12 years ago this March on the morning he went into surgery to remove his cancerous prostate gland.  He’s not had a single cigarette since then — though he does love standing in other people’s clouds of cigarette smoke 
3. Coffee — Just as with alcohol, I don’t drink coffee.  In fact, I’ve never, in my entire life, had a cup of coffee.  I hate the smell.  When I was pregnant, the smell of coffee would literally make me sick.  In my 20’s I drank black tea or Coke for caffeine.  Now, however, I’m allergic to caffeine.  It gives me migraine headaches.  The Husband does drink coffee but, pedestrian that he is, he prefers instant coffee.  You’ll never find my man in a Starbucks, that’s for sure!  :-)  If the “Latte Effect” numbers are to be believed, I believe this particular non-habit saves me at least $1,200/yr and probably $800/yr for The Husband.
4. Fabric Softener — I gave up fabric softener years ago when I realized how bad it was for the environment and how unnecessary it is.  I started by phasing it out — using softener every second or third load.  From there I quickly gave it up altogether.  No one in the family noticed a difference in their clothing so I never looked back.  Part of the key might be that I buy high-quality cotton garments which are naturally soft and pleasing to the touch.
5. Make-Up — Every single female member of my family has to “put on their face” before they can leave the house.  I have never understood this.  I believe that beauty products are a fallacy, a sham, and a stupid tax imposed by a society with perverted ideas of beauty, age, and sex (a word, by the way, that despite everyone’s wishes to the contrary, is not interchangable with gender).  I categorically reject the concept that I have to wear makeup to be considered feminine or attractive.  Besides, I despise the feeling of creams, lotions, powders, etc on my face — they make me feel like a circus clown.
6. Jewelry — Diamonds are not this girls’ best friend.  I have no need to be “adorned” by The Husband or showered with jewels.  Diamonds might be for forever but they can’t compete with the “forever” gift The Husband gave me — the gift of motherhood.  I do have several pieces of jewelry that hold special sentimental value for me.  I wear a $25 gold wedding band — no protruding rocks to get in the way or worry about — but it reminds me of the loving bond between myself and The Husband.  I have a beautiful strand of Mikimoto pearls handed down from my mother who received them as a gift from her father when she was a teenager.  I have a few pair of nice earrings but I haven’t worn earrings in a coon’s age.  And I have a beautiful gold ring my mother gave me when I was a teenager.  The wedding band I wear every day and never take off.  The pearls I wear several times a month — usually to church or to concerts, plays, etc.
7. Soda Pop, Junk Food, and Sweets — Due to my food allergies and sensitivities, I don’t imbibe in these foods myself.  But I don’t technically not buy them.  I do buy them, occassionally, for my family.  I’ve done my best to raise my children to treat their bodies with respect but I decided long ago that I didn’t want to make junk food and sweets a forbidden fruit.  In my younger years I liked sweets as much as the next person (though salty foods are the foods I did, and still do, crave).  I have nothing against sweets but I strongly prefer our sweets to have real sugar and other ingredients rather than artificial sweeteners and loads of unpronouncable chemicals.  The Daughter, for example, is 16 and has never eaten a Twinkie.  If you look over my grocery expenditures, I think you’ll agree that these products are purchased in extreme moderation.
8. Electronic Games — We do not own a game console.  We’ve never owned a game console.  I cannot imagine that we will ever own a game console.  No Wii, no GameBoy, no X-Box.  We also have never purchased a computer game.  The Son has found on-line games he enjoys.  I go through phases of playing Spider Solitare a little too much.  The Husband enjoys trouncing on-line chess opponents and playing against the computer but that’s the limit of our electronic game usage.

~ o o o O o o o ~

Since starting this blog I’ve seen any number of “meme’s” floating around the blogosphere but I don’t know how they get started or who starts them.  Not being an experienced blogger and not having a very large readership, I don’t imagine I have the power to start a new meme.  But I’d love to read the things other people, bloggers and non-bloggers alike, don’t buy.

So, if you’re a blogger, consider yourself tagged.  Be sure to link back to this post or leave a comment so I’ll know you participated.  If you’re a reader without your own blog, please don’t leave without sharing the 8 (or so) things you don’t buy.  I look forward to hearing from you.

The rules are simple: 

• List the 8 (or so) things you don’t buy
• Feel free to explain why you choose not to spend money on those items or just provide a list

Total Spent Today:  $223.60

Costco — $3.87

Lunch for The Son. He dined on a soda and a Chicken Bake thing while I dealt with the cell phone kiosk person and shopped.

Costco — $83.97

• Capri Sun 100% juice boxes — $7.55
• 3 boxes of Kashi organic Cinnamon Harvest cereal — $6.49/ea.
• box of Goldfish crackers — $6.23
• house brand chocolate chip cookies — $6.49
• Taster’s Choice coffee — $10.99
• bonus package of 90 Claritin tablets — $30.86

Theater tickets — $76.00
The Son and I had read about this play in the program for his last orchestra concert and had both thought it looked interesting.  I never wait until the last minute to makes plans for outings like this and I never wait until the last minute to buy tickets but I’ve been so busy lately and in such pain that I just hadn’t gotten around to it.  This morning I knew I couldn’t wait any longer since I’m due to leave town this weekend and will be gone for two weeks.  I don’t get back into town until May 8th and the play’s run ends on May 4th.

So I called finally bit the bullet and called this morning and, although I hate doing it, paid the extra $3.00 per ticket processing fee.

The good news was that since I’d mentioned where we’d heard about the play, the ticket agent gave me a $7.00 per ticket discount.  Rather than take the discount, I was able to upgrade our tickets to the better, more expensive seats for the same price as the “non-premium” seats.

The Son, if I may say so, looked dashing in his new linen trousers and argyle sweater vest. The play was excellent, thought-provoking, and extremely well acted.  Despite the fact that I was in agonizing pain, the experience was worth every single penny.

The very best part of the entire evening?  The fact that I’d added cultural experiences to my monthly budget starting this past January.  My initial reaction to the price of two tickets was the standard one of, “wow” but I thoroughly enjoyed the secondary reaction of seeing that I even after the tickets were purchased, I still had over $100 left in my “cultural experiences” budget.  Woot!

Concessions — $1.00
One large candy bar for The Son during intermission.

Wendy’s — $6.76
You guessed it — a Baconator and a medium root beer (also a container of fries that we hadn’t ordered and therefore received for free).

Recreation Center — $52.00
This payment was actually a reimbursement to The Daughter’s savings account.  When I got home from the Theatre tonight, she provided me with a receipt for her purchase.  She’d paid with her debit card which is attached to her checking account.  As soon as she arrived home, she transferred the funds from her savings into her checking.  As soon as I got home, I transferred the funds from my savings account into her savings account — gotta love that easy-to-use Wamu on-line backing interface.

Anyway, the $52 buys her 15 visits to the rec center.  The next time I go to work out with her I’ll have to buy my own 15-visit pass — that won’t be until the second week of May, though, at the very earliest.  I’ll need to make sure I start budgeting in our Rec Center passes.

The situation: 

It always happens this way — just when I’m ready to throw in the towel and cancel my membership to Costco, they go and add something to their inventory that makes me change my mind.  This time it was Kashi cereal.  Kashi Cinnamon Harvest cereal to be exact.  I love this stuff.  And I’m not allergic to any of the ingredients.  The only thing better than a delicious shredded wheat cereal with just the right amount of sweetness and a yummy dose of cinnamon is finding that cereal for a reasonable price at Costco.

Local Pricing:

The best, non-sale price I’ve found so far for this cereal is at Vitamin Cottage for $3.69.  Super Target’s latest non-sale price was $3.74.  The best sale price I’ve found so far was at Kroger for $3.00/box.  While that’s an excellent price, now that grain prices are going through the roof I don’t expect to see that price again any time soon.

Price Calculations:

Naturally, Costco’s packaging was different from the regular grocery store packaging so some basic math is required to calculate exactly how good the Costco price is.

The Costco box includes two 17.7 oz bags or a total product weight of 34.14 oz.  At a cost of $6.49 per box, that comes to $0.19 per ounce.

The Kroger box includes one 17.5 oz bag at a (best sale) price of $3.00.  That works out to $0.17 per ounce — or $0.02 per ounce lower than the Costco price.  That means that if Kroger should ever run their $3.00/box sale again, I’ll know that I should stockpile boxes of cereal.

But to be fair, we need to compare apples to apples — or everyday non-sale to non-sale prices.  In all honesty, Kashi cereal is a staple in my diet and I’m simply not willing (I could even argue not able) to wait for another good sale before purchasing more boxes once my stockpile is depleted.

So, using Vitamin Cottage’s lowest non-sale price of $3.69 for a 17.5 oz box, that works out to $0.21 per ounce, or in other words, $0.03 more per ounce than at Costco.

Savings Analysis:

But now the question begs, how much of a savings is $0.03 per ounce?

My best estimate is that I go through a maximum of 3 boxes of cereal a week.  Or more precisely, I go through three 17.5-oz boxes per week (I’m used to the slightly smaller retail-sized boxes rather than Costco’s two 17.7 oz bags per box).  That’s a total of 52.5 ounces of cereal per week.  The $0.03 per ounce savings then translates into a $1.575 weekly savings.  Over the course of a year that’s a maximum savings of $81.90.

I have absolutely no intention of calculating this example any further — I’ll leave the savings estimate over the course of 10 years with compounded interest to someone with more time on their hands and more interest in completely hypothetical savings calculations.

Conclusion:

All I need to know is that as long as 1) Costco continues to carry this particular flavor of cereal and 2) I continue to enjoy it and, heaven forbid, I don’t develop an allergy to any of the ingredients, the annual savings on my cereal alone will justify the cost of our Costco membership.

What this analysis also tells me is that the annual savings, though nothing to sneeze at, isn’t large enough to make frequent or special trips to Costco for cereal.  It’s easy to pick up a box or two of Kashi cereal at my regular grocery store and it doesn’t cost me anything extra in time or gasoline.

Therefore, if I happen to be near a Costco when it’s about time to replenish my stock, then Costco is the best pricing option.  Otherwise, I’ll know to only pick up a box or two at the grocery store to tide me over until the next Costco run.