Well, I think I’ve finally recovered from the virus that so violently attacked my body a few weeks ago.  But, Dear Readers, I feel so awful and my finances reflect that fact.  I’m not quite sure of the reason(s) behind my current state of ill-health but I suspect it has to do with the quadruple-whammy of chronic medical conditions I live with on a daily basis:  Fibromyalgia, a very diseased thyroid gland, sleep issues including insomnia and sleep apnea, and IBS or Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Folks, have you ever been so thoroughly fatigued that you literally hurt.  That’s where I am these days.  I’m so tired that my body hurts and any type of activity, even the most basic everyday activities, requires a monumental act of will to accomplish.  On top of that, my sleep is completely out of whack.  I’m so sleepy (a symptom distinctly different from the fatigue) that it’s everything I can do to stay awake during the day.  But if I lie down to nap or to sleep, I simply can’t fall asleep.

I desperately needed to do some grocery shopping today and woke up with every intention of getting that chore accomplished.  But it didn’t happen.  Instead, The Husband came home this evening and he, The Son, and I went to the store together where I bought milk we didn’t need plus a few essentials while the “boys” stocked up on frozen dinners to help them get through until I feel well enough to start feeding my family again.

Movies — $11.00
The Daughter and The Son ventured to the movies together today to see Kung Fu Panda.  The Daughter rather liked it; The Son not so much.  I loved the nearly 3 hours of home-alone time 

I paid for admission; each child paid for his or her own refreshments (The Son was the only one to imbibe; The Daughter munched on M&M’s smuggled in in her purse).

Amazon — $30.00
A gift certificate emailed to my older brother as a belated birthday present.  Hm … after counting on my fingers I calculate that he just turned 46.  I can’t remember the last time I bought him a birthday present; it just seemed like the right thing to do this year.

Kroger — $44.43

• gallon of Horizon 2% milk — $5.39
• 1/2 gallon of Horizon chocolate milk — $3.19 (saved $0.50)
• Breyer’s French Vanilla ice cream — $4.99 (saved $0.70)
• Breyer’s Chocolate ice cream — $4.99 (saved $0.70)
• Kroger cherry ice cream — $2.99 (saved $0.50)
• Kroger sharp cheddar cheese — $1.77 (saved $1.22)
• Kroger medium cheddar cheese — $1.77 (saved $1.22)
• Marie Callendar’s frozen dinner — $2.50 (saved $0.34)
• 2 Marie Callendar’s frozen pot pies — $2.50/ea. (saved $0.16/ea.)
• 2 Marie Callendar’s fish dinners — $2.50/ea. (saved $0.34/ea.)
• Swanson Hungry Man dinner — $1.77 (saved $0.84)
• cherry tomatoes — $3.99

Total Spent Today:  $220.86 

Audition — $15.00
The Son’s teacher and I convinced him to audition in hopes of being moved to the next level in his community orchestra.  I fear he won’t be advanced but I’m glad he had this experience — the work of preparing a piece and the agony of auditioning.  In other news, I managed to convince him to particpate in the music camp that directly preceeds the beginning of orchestra in the fall.  If, by some miracle, he is advanced to the next level, the camp will give him a chance to meet, play with, and socialize with the other kids in his group.  If he remains in his current orchestra level, the camp will hopefully give him a leg-up and improve his chances of sucess in chair auditions.  Moving up in his chair position is really his main goal.

Musical Tickets — $62.00
I finally found a performance that I think The Daughter will enjoy (let’s face it, she’s simply more pedestrian in her tastes than The Son is).  I’ve been bugging her for two weeks to pick a performance date because a good many of the performance dates are completely sold out.  I pinned her down this morning and made her pick a date because I had to be at the performing arts center today for The Son’s audition — I absolutely hate paying extra fees for buying tickets on-line or over the phone.  Despite waiting until half of all the performances were sold out, I still managed to get two excellent seats.  I hope the show is worth it.

The Container Store — $79.61
Isn’t it depressing how quickly plastic storage containers and the like can add up?  I bought:

• a white oval trash can for our master bathroom — $5.99
• 2 small stacking storage bins — $9.99/ea.
• 2 sets of casters for above bins — $4.99/ea.
• 1 lid for above bin — $4.99 (these bins will be used in The Son’s closet to hold socks and misc stuff that gets dumped on the floor on a regular basis; putting them in bins will allow me to roll the bins out and swiffer the closet floor more easily)
• tie hanger/rack for The Son — $4.99
• lingerie drying rack — $4.99 (we simply have too many wool socks to dry on our lone lingerie rack)
• a small concealed book shelf — $9.99
• a large concealed book shelf — $12.99 (I’ve been curious to try these out — they look fun and practical)

Orchestra Tickets — $50.25
Just last Sunday during The Husband’s birthday party I brought out my CD of Carl Orff’s Carmina burana.  Then last Friday, The Son asked me about that same piece and I mentioned that some day I’d love to go hear it in person.  The very next day I opened the paper to find an ad for our local symphony — performing that very piece.  So this afternoon I bought the tickets and this evening The Son and I got all gussied up in our cultural experience clothes.  It was A-Maze-ing!  My whole body is still vibrating.

In retrospect I think my decision to go with cheaper “nosebleed” seats was a good one.  Although the visual aspect of any live performance shouldn’t be underrated, the auditory experience of a piece like this one is clearly what really counts.  By buying lower-priced seats, I was able to stretch our recreation:entertainment dollars leaving money in the budget for the next experience (or, more accurately, allowing me to see the symphony tonight with The Son and a musical next month with The Daughter without going over budget).

Parking — $8.00
It occured to me on the drive home tonight that maybe parking and concession expenses during our cultural experiences should be put into the recreation:entertainment budget category because they are “necessary” additional expenses.  But for now I’ve decided simply to increase my auto:other budget slightly to allow for parking and make sure to adjust our dining out so that concession expenses fit within our food:dining budget.

Concessions — $6.00
The prices of these things are simply outrageous.  I’m really going to have to get better about packing in our own water and snacks when we attend events.  Anyway, I spent $3.00 on a mega-sized chocolate chip cookie for The Son and $3.00 on a bottled water for the two of us to share.

Baseball Coach — $67.00
This check covers two baseball-related activities.  First is The Son’s share of a tournament fee.  I can’t remember exactly what the date of the tournament is but it should be a little more fun than the last one because they don’t allow any “ringer” tournament-only teams to come in a make themselves look good by playing against teams of a much lower skill level.

The second part of the check covers two tickets to go see a big league game next month.  The Son’s team will get to join lots of other local Little League teams in a parade around the diamond before the game starts.  I volunteered to carpool some of the team since it’s a mid-week afternoon game and likely that several parents will not be able to attend.

Daughter’s School — $25.00
A donation to the school’s drama department.  The Son and I went to watch the Senior Class play in which The Daughter (a Junior) had a small supporting role.  They did an excellent job.  There was no admission fee but there was a collections hat afterward in which I placed my $25 check.

~ o o o O o o o ~

The check to the school will be classified as a “recreation: entertainment” expense.  I’m so glad I decided to add that category to my budget as part of my New Year’s resolutions.  If all goes well, I’ll have another expense in that category to report tomorrow — a concert I’m really excited at the prospect of being able to attend.  Stay tuned….

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.

Well, The Son’s youth orchestra is over for the season.  While The Son is ready for the break, he’s bummed because it also means a break in his Wednesday trips to Wendy’s.  Yup, that’s right.  No more weekly Baconators and vanilla Frosties 

I’m sure we’ll find opportunities to eat out now and again but I think this will be a good opportunity to show the kids how those fast-food meals add up over the course of a year.

One expense that will be increasing rather than going down will be The Son’s cello lessons.  No, the teacher didn’t raise his rates (though I suppose that will happen at some point) — we’ve decided to move from 3/4-hour lessons up to 1-hour lessons.

I just crunched some numbers and estimate that we can expect to spend ~$2,200 - 2,500 throughout the year on activity fees — that’s between the kids’ sports fees, private lessons, etc.  I’m currently allotting $150 per month to our YNAB Kids: Lessons & Activities budget category but I’m going to increase that to $180 a month starting in May.  I’ll push it up even further, if and when necessary.

Cello Teacher — $131.25
I need to check my records because I’m not quite sure whether I’m paying in advance or in arrears with this check but I felt it was time to give him another check.  I’ll get it figured out and write another check, if necessary, to pay us up through the end of the month.

Another big spending day.  How long has it been since I had an honest to goodness “no spend” day?  Too long.

The day started out poorly because the contractor I hired to repair and refinish our deck – one, didn’t show to start the job on Saturday as he’d said he would (in his defense, the weather was questionable) and, two, showed up over an hour later than he’d estimated.  I wanted to be here when he showed up so I sent The Husband off to take the kids to church hoping that I’d get away in time to attend the service.  It didn’t work out that way and, in fact, I barely got away in time to pick the children up before everyone else had gone home.

I could have had The Husband stay with the children or pick them up instead of me but I’d promised them bagels afterward and a trip to the mall for stage two of The Son’s shaving equipment procurement.

So here’s the day’s expenses:

Einstein Bros. Bagels — $15.14
We purchased a Dozen Bucket Deal (a baker’s dozen of bagels and two tubs of schmear).

I let The Son have a bottled soda because he asked and, well, why not?  He drinks more soda than I’d like (but then, is the absense of all soda really reasonable in this day and age?) but if you’ve followed my grocery purchases for the past 224 days you’ll see that I rarely buy pop for household consumption.  For the most part, the kids’ soda consumption is limited to dining-out occasions.  The Daughter passed on a drink of any type; not thirsty, I guess.  I was thirsty and would have jumped at an Odwalla or some such but Einstein’s alternative-drink selection is pathetic.

The Art of Shaving — $79.71 (and $12.93)
Last week I ordered shaving equipment (razor, brush, and blades) for The Son — a beginning shaver.  Today, The Daughter and I accompanied him to The Art of Shaving to choose his products.  The Daughter and I had visited this store Friday a week ago to research the various products available locally and we’d decided on the scent that we thought The Son should choose — Sandalwood.  We thought to today’s visit would be more ceremonial than anything.  But those 13-yos, with minds of their own….  Naturally, he didn’t agree with us that Sandalwood was a manly scent.  He didn’t like it.  He liked the Lemon instead.  Actually, in retrospect, I’m not all that surprised that he chose Lemon.  The Husband is a Lemon-Lime scent guy.  The Son probably associates with the scent — even if just subconsciously.

The second, smaller purchase was for a styptic pen — because there’s no harm in hedging our bets.  He is, after all, brand new to the world of razor blades.  

ImageTek — $26.00
Small package of baseball photos of The Son and his team.

In the past, I’ve always ordered a small package and every year the photos are, well, okay.  At best.  Last year, I didn’t pay for any extra photos so we only received a team photo and a small individual photo given to each player as part of their team participation. And, naturally, last year’s photo was adorable.  This year I’ve decided that I prefer the risk of getting several less than spectacular photos to getting only one really good photo.

Baseball Coach — $37.50
The Son’s portion of an upcoming weekend tournament.

Deck Contractor — $500.00
Our deck hasn’t been refinished since we bought the house 5 years ago — and it probably needed it even back then.  For me, the biggest hurdle to having work like this done is finding someone reputable to do it.  I don’t have a huge circle of friends living the same lifestyle in the same area so I can’t call on them for references.  Not many of my neighbors have a deck so I can’t look there — besides, most of the families around here have DIY dads in residence.  I found this particular fellow on Craigslist.  I have faith that everything will go well.

This payment was the required amount to finalize the contract bid and get the work started.

Friday.  A crazy-busy day topped off with crazy-expensive activities and a major grocery stock-up-the-fridge event.

Eye Doctor — $99.00
Today it was The Daughter’s turn for an eye exam.  She, too, will best be served with bifocals.  That’s three pair of bifocals to order and three eye exams to pay for.  We have vision insurance but it’s barely better than nothing at all.  I got itemized receipts from the doctor’s office and will submit them to the insurance company on Monday.

Of the three pair of needed glasses, The Son’s are the only ones paid for and ordered.  We should have them in a week or so.

My glasses order is on hold because I have yet to decide on a pair of frames and because I’d like to string the order out onto a different credit card billing cycle — besides, now that I know what prescription I need for reading, I think I’ll try to limp along with a cheap pair from the drugstore; it won’t help with the computer work but it might be better than nothing and a whole lot cheaper than bifocals.

The Daughter’s glasses order is on hold, too, because she couldn’t decide on a pair of frames.  The glasses woman (what a stupid term but I don’t know what else to call her) is ordering in a pair of frames, no obligation on our part, for The Daughter to try.  They’re the same as a pair that looked quite good on her but in a different, possibly better, color.  She and I decided that it might be best to wait until her grandmother, my mom, comes into town and can be consulted.  I don’t carry much credibility as a fashion consultant.

Personal Training sessions — $150.00
The Daughter and I had our second of three private “personal training with a friend” session today.  I debated for some time signing us up for this and incurring this type of expense.

The thing is, since my TIAs (mini-strokes) and my Fibromyalgia and hypothyroidism diagnoses three years ago, my activity has slowed down to about that of a three-toed sloth.  I won’t say that I’ve packed on the weight because I haven’t, but I have put on a few pounds.  A few pounds that I’d really rather not carry much further into middle-agedness with me.  I’ve made a few attempts at getting back into an exercise routine but invariably I experience a Fibro flare-up and I go back to being a couch potato.

In The Daughter’s case, she gave up year-round competitive swimming two years ago in favor of having a life.  Since then she’s played on her high school’s volleyball and basketball teams but the activity and exercise level of those sports cannot even begin to compare with the workouts she got while swimming.  She misses swimming terribly and is seriously considering joining a high school team for her Junior and Senior years (since she has hopes of swimming in college too).  She and I have taken trips to the gym before where we’ve done cardio work (ie, treadmill, ellipticals, stair climbers, etc) but she’s felt intimidated by the weights and other machines.

When the idea of a personal trainer first came up, The Daughter was very reluctant to sign up for sessions with me.  By doing the “training with a friend” deal, we saved a considerable amount of money over what we each would have paid for private sessions.  Plus we have the added advantage of her remembering what my exercises are and how to do them.  When she realized it was either get sessions together or no sessions at all, she made the right call and said okay.  No one’s ever accused her of being dumb 

So tonight we both survived our second session.  We’ll wait a couple of weeks now before setting an appointment for our final session.  I hope that The Daughter will keep on track with an weekly exercise routine and not be pissy about finding days and times when we can go together.  The good thing is that we’ve learned several core exercises that we can do at home with our own exercise balls and hand weights so we can still get in a partial workout even if we can’t get to the gym for our cardio workouts.

The $150 charge covers two people — three sessions each (or $75/person for three sessions).  Not pocket change but doable.  And hopefully worth it.

Kroger — $81.59
Our cupboards were literally bare.  Neither The Daughter nor I felt like shopping after our workout (me because I had on workout pants and I felt very self-conscious and her because she was tired and wanted a shower — she gets worked out much harder than I do).  But our desire for food won out.

• pears — $3.32
• apples — $1.60
• oranges — $2.10
• bananas — $0.83
• red cabbage — $1.90
• loose carrots — $0.61
• mini carrots — $1.99
• green onions — $0.89
• broccoli — $1.83
• red bell pepper — $1.00 (saved $0.99)
• yellow bell pepper — $1.00 (saved $0.99)
• green bell pepper — $1.00 (saved $0.99)
• 2 Digiorno pizzas — $4.99/ea (saved $2.00/ea)
• Celestial Seasoning tea (fruit tea sampler) – $2.79
• Orville Reddenbacher popping corn — $5.89
• whole grain waffles — $3.39
• 2 Amy’s cheese pizza snacks — $3.29/ea.
• Health Valley cereal — $4.29
• Nabisco wheat thins — $2.99
• 2 cartons Horizon chocolate milk — $3.19/ea (saved $0.50/ea.)
• Kroger medium cheddar cheese — $2.50 (saved $0.19)
• GE 3-way light bulb — $3.00 (saved $0.79)
• 1# Coleman ground beef — $5.81
• ??? — $3.99
• 4 bag credits — ($0.20)

Starting the day off with an airline ticket has never been my favorite way to begin the day.  Nevertheless, it needed to be done.

Southwest — $139.50
I bought a one-way ticket back home from my sister’s.  [I also purchased a one-way ticket for my mom but we put it on her credit card since she’s paying her own way and it’s so much easier with security and such when the passenger buys their own ticket.]

Earlier this year my mom sold her house, sold off most of her possessions, packed up everything else, and moved across the country to live with my youngest sister, her husband, and their three children.  I made my final trip down to my mom’s last month arriving just in time to help with the final cleaning and packing.  The next day we closed on my mom’s house and made the 8-hour drive back home to my place.  A few days later, my mom left her car here and flew out to my sister’s where she’s since been helping out and settling in.

Here in the ‘burbs, we’ve been enjoying the use of my mom’s car – especially now that The Daughter is a licensed and insured driver.  We’ve become pretty spoiled having three drivers and three cars.  But all of that’s about to change.

Now it’s time to move on the final stage of the my mom’s major life-transition — she needs her car back!

This morning we finally picked some dates and bought the tickets.  We’re committed now.  My mom will fly out here in two weeks and then a couple days later we’ll pack up her car and she and I will drive out east to my sister’s.  Two weeks later, I have a ticket to fly back home.  Two weeks will give us plenty of wiggle room — we’ll have a flexible departure date in case we want to stay and catch on of The Son’s baseball games, our drive across the country will take 4 good days but we can stretch it to 5 if we need to, and I’ll have a few days to spend visiting with my sister and her family before flying home just in time for The Husband’s 73rd birthday!

The Daughter’s going to be in 7th heaven when she finds out I’ll be gone for a full two weeks — with me gone that leaves The Husband here with the kids and lots of driving to be done.  The Daughter will get lots of opportunities to drive herself to school plus run other sundry errands.

I’m looking forward to the trip because other than my ticket home and my own food and miscellaneous expenses, my mom (or sister) will be footing the bill for the trip.  This will be the first trip I’ve ever taken with my mom in which The Husband and I haven’t covered all of the lodging, gas, and food expenses – including my mom’s.

Level 8 Technology — $68.89
The battery on my laptop’s been worthless for months now.  I get, maybe, 20 minutes usage out of it before it dies.  Most of the time that’s a nuisance but not a major inconvenience because most of the time it’s easy enough to be plugged in somewhere.  The flexibility of having a laptop that I use most is that of using the computer in any location in or around my house that I wish.  Upstairs, my bedroom, the storage room, side by side one of the desktops, etc.  So as long as the wireless connection is working, being hooked to an outlet isn’t a huge issue.  Still, to have to be next to an outlet does become a hassle every once in a while.  I finally got tired of it, and in anticipation of my upcoming cross-country drive (see above), I decided it was time to bite the bullet and buy a new battery.

After doing some on-line research, I decided to go with Level 8 Technology.  I’ve never made a purchase with them before so, if nothing else, I’ll have an interesting review to provide in a couple of weeks.  I used the HP website to determine what kind of battery I needed then used Google’s shopping link to find suppliers.  Level 8 had a good user rating (4.8 out of 5), they offered a very competitive price, and, to top it all off, offered free ground shipping.  Here’s hoping everything goes smoothly….

Vitamin Cottage — $6.48
The Son and I were running early this evening and had time to kill before he had to show up for his pre-concert warm-up so we stopped in the nearby VC for a quick snack.  I bought an Odwalla Strawberry C Monster for myself for dinner and let The Son pick out a candy bar and a Knudsen soda.

Concert Tickets — $16.00
I purchased two concert tickets — one for me and the other for The Husband.  The Daughter did not accompany us as she’s busy finishing a major school project due tomorrow.  It was a great concert, the last one of the season, and we stayed to the very end (we usually leave when The Son’s group is done).  It’s always a tad bittersweet but I, for one, am glad the season is over.

Youth Symphony organization — $25.00
Since this was the last concert of the year and it is yet determined as to whether it will be the last year The Son participates, I decided to spring for a DVD of the concert.  They put on three concerts every year but I typically only buy a DVD of the final concert.  In retrospect I’m really glad I got my order done tonight — it was a fabulous concert with a guest artist and I’m sure The Son will one day be glad that we have a copy of it.

Ugh.  I had a busy, expensive day today.

School Fees — $75.00
The Son and I finally got around to driving up to the main campus of the county-supported homeschool co-op program that he’ll be attending next year.  We had to turn in his registration materials, his class requests for next year, and some fees.  The breakdown of the fees I paid is as follows:  $15 for next year’s yearbook (discounted price for early sign-up); $35 book deposit (enrollment entitles parents to check out curriculum materials from the program’s library — this fee will be returned when The Son withdraws or graduates as long as we’ve returned any books we check out); $20 for the first semester’s activity fees (a second $20 will be due in the second part of the next school year); and $5 “teacher appreciation” donation to the program.

Eye Doctor — $508.00
I knew that the kids and I all needed to have eye exams.  And I knew I needed new glasses since I lost my pair of reading glasses during our move about 5 years ago.

I’d already made today’s appointments for The Son and I when I received a letter from the school district informing me that The Son’s vision test results were concerning (30/40 — isn’t that almost legally blind?).  The Son’s not very communicative but you’d think the silly boy would have informed me that everything was fuzzy, wouldn’t you?  Well, he didn’t.

The Son has worn reading glasses for years and, believe it or not, I walked in today expecting The Son to get a clean bill of health and sent on his merry way.  After all, I’d paid an out-of-pocket fortune for his glasses and titanium frames just a few years ago.  Imagine my surprise and dismay, then, this afternoon when they informed me that he not only needed a new prescription, but he needed bifocals.  I could have gone the cheap route and gotten standard two-prescription bifocals with a line across the lens.  But that would have left him without the needed mid-range prescription.  So, I signed up for a pair of progressive bifocal lenses.  The good news is that the new lenses can be made to fit into the old titanium frames.  Sometimes it’s really handy that The Son isn’t a fan of change.

There’s still an expensive unknown hanging over my head — it might turn out that The Son’s baseball performance might be greatly improved by his distance prescription.  Once we get the new glasses (lenses) back and he’s had a chance to get used to them and try them while playing, we’ll know whether we need to decide to get him a special pair of glasses for sports wear.  If so, we’d probably opt to get a pair of special protective lenses in goggle frames.  That would end up costing another separate small fortune.  C’est la vie — just another potential expense of having kids.  Thank goodness neither of our kids needed braces.

The other part of today’s bad news is that not only I need new glasses (I was prepared for that) but I, too, need bifocals.  I need reading glasses but I also need mid-range computer lenses.  As much as I’d like to pretend that I can live without the glasses — after all, things aren’t actually fuzzy — the amount of eye strain and headaches I experience tells me that I should just bite the bullet and get the darned things.  But this time I can’t lose them.  That’s something you’d expect a kid to do, isn’t it?

That awful total above does not include the cost for my glasses.  Why?  Because, as the mother of a 16yo daughter, I knew better than to pick out frames without her advice.

And now we come to the worst part of the news — The Daughter has her eye exam scheduled for Friday.  All of my naivete has been stripped away and I know, without a doubt, that she too will need new glasses.  And I know that there’s no way she’ll duplicate The Son’s situation and spare me the expense of new frames and require only new lenses.  Why?  Because she hates her current frames.  And the vanity factor in this particular 16yo female is way too high to even consider wearing frames she hates for the sake of saving me some dough.  Sure, I could put my foot down but I won’t.  What’s the point in spending money on glasses I know she won’t wear?  I’ll buy her new frames and then I’ll expect 100% compliance as far as wearing them.

Vitamin Cottage — $22.95

• gallon of Horizon 2% milk — $5.15
• bag of Bob’s Red Mill flour — $3.15
• sliced roast beef — $4.75
• sliced roast turkey — $5.15
• loaf of Rudi’s organic honey whole wheat bread — $4.19

Wendy’s — $6.54
Dinner for The Son — he ate a Baconator and a medium vanilla Frosty.

Apria Healthcare — $98.49
I had to pay the full price of my recent order of CPAP equipment(new mask, hose, and filters) because we haven’t satisfied our deductible yet.  Within the space of a few days we received two invoices from Apria — the first for $24.24.  The second invoice was for $97.32.  Both invoices itemized exactly the same items.  When I called to inquire as the discrepancy between the two bills, I was told that my actual bill was yet a third amount, $98.49.

The customer service representative was not unfriendly.  But she was certainly not the most impressive customer service rep I’ve ever spent time talking with either.  After waiting on hold for over 10 minutes before being connected to a real person, it only took us another 5 or 6 minutes to come to a mutual understanding of the basic difference between the first and second invoices.  Apparently the first (smaller) invoice is what I would have paid if my insurance had been kicking in their 80%.  The second invoice represents what I actually have to pay (100% of the charges — though the math doesn’t actually work out right).

But that’s about as far as we got.  We spent another 5 minutes or so trying to clarify the difference between the second invoice and the amount her computer showed me as owing.  In all honesty, I finally just gave up.  The bill was due, I had to leave the house to pick up The Son, and I was clearly not going to get an intelligible explanation of the additional $1.17 charge.  You and I know full well that the whole system — the interminable wait times, the horrid Muzak, the oft-repeated message about how important our business is and appreciation of our patience, the barely understandable strongly-accented phone rep, the complaints of computer issues (have you ever noticed that they’re always experiencing computer troubles?), and the perfectly reasonable “explanations” in faux technical terms that mean nothing to normal citizens — all of this is designed to subjugate, humiliate, bamboozle, and confuse us into submission.  Well, in this case it worked.  I paid with a credit card over the phone and hoped the whole thing would just go away.

One thing I can tell you about this experience — tomorrow I’m going to start researching alternative sources for my CPAP supplies so that I never, ever have to deal with Apria again.

[What I cannot explain, and didn’t bother asking about, is 1) why the original quote for the supplies was approximately $200 and 2) why the charge wasn’t applied to my card immediately, as I’d been lead to believe it would be.  Maybe I should be feeling grateful — at the price difference if nothing else, but the experience was so outrageous that I feel strongly motivated to seek out a new equipment supplier.]

Costco Gas — $36.81
I’m still using my mom’s Ford for about 90% of my driving, leaving The Tank sitting idle in our driveway.  I’ll tell you what — my gas budget is definitely benefitting.  Still, the difference between our monthly gas expenditure for my mom’s car and The Tank isn’t nearly large enough to justify getting rid of The Tank and buying a car with better gas mileage.  The Tank is paid off — we’re talking pink slip, baby.  It has over 120,000 miles on it but there’s no reason to believe it won’t keep going for another several years without requiring major mechanical work (I have heard a nasty rumor that V-8’s only tend to average 150,000 miles before needing significant engine work but I have no proof of the rumor’s legitimacy).

It’s my strong hope that we don’t even have to think about replacing The Tank until June of ‘09 — which is when we’ll be done paying off the two-year, 1.9% loan we took on the new Subaru.

Son’s Teacher — $20.00
Two minutes before we walked out the door this morning, The Son handed me a permission slip for a field trip to see a Shakespeare production (the same one that The Daughter will be going to see with her high school class later this month).  I grabbed the household checkbook, wrote the check, signed the permission slip, and still got The Son to class on time.  I’d been hoping to see this one myself but I guess I’ll have to settle for having the kids tell me all about it.

Subway — $13.97
On the way home from a baseball game (The Son’s team lost), The Son and stopped and picked up sandwiches for him, The Daughter, and The Husband for dinner.  At The Son’s request I upgraded his sandwich to a meal including a soda and two chocolate chip cookies — one of which he very generously offered to his sister.  I made do with two leftover biscuits and a carrot.  We’re all out of milk and I didn’t feel inspired enough to cook anything for just myself.  I fear I might wake up in the middle of the night hungry but if I do, it’s my own darned fault.