Sharebuilder — $200.00
I bought another $196 worth or 6.7377 shares of GE stock through my Sharebuilder account (that’s my $200 less the $4.00 fee).

Over the past 8 years I’ve made a number of small ($100 - $200) purchases of GE stock and now have a grand total of 25.2054 shares.  Since GE is close to being at a 5 year low, my investments are currently at a net loss.  But I’m in it for the long run (one of the reasons I’ve stuck with a single stock) so I’m not too worried.  Besides sticking to a single stock and investing with only the long run in mind, I’ve also been sure to only invest money that I can afford to lose if that’s the way the cards play out.

Ulta — $15.06
I spent most of the day today driving people here and there.  Between one of those “here’s” and “there’s”, I stopped at the library.  While there I ran across the street and picked up a much needed bottle of Matrix Biolage shampoo for myself.

Safeway — $49.39
Knowing I had a long drive later in the day, I stopped to fill up The Tank’s tank.  Amazingly, the price per gallon was actually lower today than it was yesterday when I stopped to fill up the little car.

I pumped 12.766 gallons at $3.869/gallon.  The Tank’s odometer read 125,168.

Wendy’s — $9.22
The Son had an 8pm baseball game tonight — at a ballpark 45 minutes away from home.  And it started late.  So at 15 minutes ’til midnight, we pulled into a Wendy’s drive-thru window and ordered some dinner.  We had carpooled with another family (well, mom and son) to the game so I bought burgers and Frosty’s for the boys.

Vitamin Cottage — $20.86

• gallon of Horizon 2% milk — $5.39
• 2 #s Horizon salted butter — $4.99/ea.
• 2 cans Crown Prince albacore tuna — $2.49/ea.

Safeway — $40.46

I filled up the Impreza’s gas tank:  I pumped 10.378 gallons at $3.899/gal.  The odometer on this car reads 26,255.

Chipotle — $4.41

A large quesadilla with extra chicken for dinner for The Daughter tonight.

Total Spent Today: $184.09 

I spent nearly the entire day driving.  Ugh.  For as much driving as I did, I actually did very little shopping.  With 4 people with busy schedules, three drivers, and two cars, our coordination of vehicles and schedules is sometimes quite complicated.

Safeway — $70.06
After dropping The Husband off at his office so I could have a car for the day’s events, my first stop was the gas station.  The Tank’s tank was nearly dry.  I pumped 19.36 gallons at $3.619/gallon.  [The Husband gave me his Safeway loyalty card on which he’d recently made a purchase over $50 which earned him a $0.10/gal discount.  Even with just my regular everyday membership discount of $0.03/gal. discount, this station always has the best per-gallon price around.]  My odometer read 123,574.

Costco — $3.87
A chicken bake thing and a soda for The Son.

Costco — $42.96

• a large container of Costco’s chocolate chunk cookies — $6.49
• a 2-loaf bag of Orowheat 7-grain bread — $4.99
• a 2-pack of Cetaphil hand lotion — $15.49
• a box of Goldfish crackers — $7.99
• my guilty indulgence — the latest Alexander McCall Smith paperback The Good Husband of Zebra Drive* – $7.99

REI — $32.35
I still had a merchandise credit of $39.87 (a result of returning my old BPA-containing Nalgene bottles) and The Son wanted his own pair of Crocs so The Husband and I agreed it was best to go ahead and redeem the credit before I had a chance to lose it.  The Son’s been wearing my Crocs for a couple of years now; when I received my Crocs as a gift, they fit him.  Now, however his size 11’s won’t even fit down into the toe box which leaves several inches of heel hanging over the back.  He finds them very practical for wearing to and from baseball — before and after wearing his metal cleats.

Silly boy and creature of habit that he is, he picked out the same sh*t brown color that I have.  Of all the colors he could have chosen (I thought he’d go for the black), he had to choose the one he was familiar with.

I’m sure I could have gotten the Crocs cheaper somewhere else but we had the merchandise credit with no other immediate REI-available purchases in mind so we felt it best to just do it this way.  BTW, the clerk offered to give me the remainder of my merchandise credit, $7.52, in cash which made me very happy.

Kroger — $34.85
I purchased one hundred dollar’s worth of Santa Cruz organic lemonade for $34.85.  The lemonade is an indulgence, I know, but one I find easy to make.  This lemonade is hands-down the very best lemonade on the market.  And I love that it’s organic.  It wasn’t actually all lemonade; I bought one bottle of Limeade (The Husband likes that flavor); 13 bottles of regular Lemonade; and the remainder were split about evenly between Raspberry Lemonade (my personal favorite) and Strawberry Lemonade (The Son’s favorite).

At $1.00 a jar, this stuff is cheaper than bottled water.  Cheaper than’s Dole’s non-organic juice.  Plus it comes in glass bottles which can be reused or recycled and won’t leech any chemicals.

I’ll continue stocking up on these products as long as the sale lasts — I think it will go all week — and store it in our basement.  I would have bought more today if I could have but I bought every single Lemonade, Raspberry, and Strawberry bottle they had in stock.

Total Spent Today: $298.31
Net Spent Today: $243.33 

REI — ($50.13)
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I collected all of our old Nalgene bottles (well, all the ones the kids could find — one of The Daughter’s is still missing) to return for a refund/store credit.  The return process took a couple of minutes but overall went very smoothly.  Ironically, the computer showed a record of my 2001 purchase of two older, smaller bottles I returned but had no record at all of the large bottles I purchased last October.  The clerk still issued store credit on the larger bottles — partly, I think, due to the fact that all of the bottles had the name REI stamped on them as bold as you please (they must have been a special-issue Nalgene manufacturered specifically for REI stores).

The only downside to this whole transaction is that, for whatever reason, the clerk wouldn’t put my store credit on a REI gift card.  My credit comes in the form of a paper receipt that I can use in any REI store or on-line but I must have the receipt.  If I lose it, I’m S.O.L.

REI — $10.26
Spent in the form of store credit (my paper receipt now states I have a credit of $39.87).  I bought myself a red wide-mouth Nalgene bottle.

Auto Stereo Store — $277.57
I’ve been shopping for car stereos for the past month or so and just last week finally decided on the model I wanted.  So today we did a little car juggling so I could have The Husband’s Impreza.  The stereo is The Husband’s Father’s Day gift.  But it’s not for him at all.  It’s for The Daughter.  Here’s what happened:

The Impreza came with a very bare-bones stereo.  Two FM bands, one AM band, and a single disc CD player.  Nice and functional but nothing special.  What it’s really missing is an iPod/aux input capability.

I’m a realist.  I know how important music is to 16yo girls and I know what a distraction music and CD’s and radios and iPods can be for a new driver (well, any driver but especially new drivers).  So I presented my argument to The Husband several weeks ago — we should install an iPod interface stereo in the name of safety.  The criteria was very specific:  the 16yo had to be able to control the iPod through the stereo itself leaving her hands and attention free for driving and the buttons and layout had to be simple enough for a 73-yo radio-listening dad.

Finding a stereo that met both criteria was harder than I’d expected it to be.  I ended up going with an Alpine CDA-9884.  Happy early Father’s Day, sweetie 

Target — $10.48
I found a Michael Graves tie/belt hanger  ($3.99) that I like better than the one I bought the other day.  I also bought two 3-packs of skirt hangers ($2.99/ea.) for The Daughter’s closet.  Each hanger has a metal center hook so you can actually hang another hanger from the first hanger instead of having each individual hanger hang from the closet rod.  Helps save closet space which is at a premium in The Daughter’s closet (yeah, she has more clothes that she probably needs but mostly it’s just a tiny closet).

Once Upon a Child — ($5.85)
I took my bag of rejects from yesterday’s Plato’s Closet run to see what OUAC would do with the contents.  I had slightly more sucess (in # of items accepted) but their value was lower.  They rejected several things because they were too large (those in-between sizes of 16 and 18 don’t have much resale value, apparently) but they did accept 4 pair of Old Navy shorts.  Anyway, it’s another $5.85 I didn’t have this morning.

Since all of the items sold were The Son’s, I’ve added $5.85 back into his clothing budget category in my YNAB program*.

Actually posted on May 16 — catching up with daily expenditures.

Doctor co-pay — $25.00
I decided to not wait my usual three months before going in to see why I’m feeling so yucky.

Safeway — $49.53
My mom is gone.  Her car is gone.  I’m back to driving The Tank again.  At a whopping 15 mpg, it’s not the most fuel-efficient vehicle on the road

I pumped 12.995 gallons at $3.539 per gallon.  My odometer read 123,025.

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

Uni Qlo — $15.50
A cool t-shirt with a cobra graphic — for The Grandson #1 whose birthday is later this month.

Uni Qlo — $39.75
A fabulous light-weight down jacket for — myself!

Parking — $72.00
Can you believe the cost for parking a car for 48 hours?!

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).

Total Spent Today:  $1,065.03 

Costco Gas — $65.03
I tanked up The Tank today.  I haven’t had to do that for over a month because I’ve been driving my mom’s car.  Sure, I’ve been filling up her tank but her car gets nearly twice the gas mileage that The Tank does.  I pumped 20.202 gallons @ $3.219/gallon.  My odometer reads 121,884 miles.

Urgent Care Center — $75.00
Weeks ago The Daughter suffered yet another sports-related injury.  She asked me to take her to have it x-rayed and I said no.  What kind of mother am I?  I wouldn’t be surprised if Child Services showed up on my doorstep next week.  Yes, I told her to take Arnica and ice it.  She didn’t.  She kept playing and reinjuring it and expecting me to listen to her whining — which I did, though not will a full dose of compassion.  Anyway, as you can guess, the injury hasn’t healed.  It still hurts.  Well, duh.

But you know what, the only other time she’s suffered an injury that I didn’t have checked out?  Her arm was actually broken.  And it took me three days to take her to the doctor.  She was only 6.  I’m still feel guilty about that one.

So I took her to the clinic this afternoon.  It wasn’t broken.  Just badly sprained.  But they put a splint on it, closer to a cast than not, and told her no volleyball for at least a week.  So what I really spent $75 on today was the privilge of having an authority figure give The Daughter the same advice I gave her weeks ago — and for free.

Deck Contractor — $925.00
The contractor showed up today and finished repairing and refinishing our back deck.  It looks great.  The project cost me $200 more than originally expected because we ran into a problem with the railing that had been removed by the handyman who tore down my shed.  It was a legitimate change order, and as much as I would have rather not pay any more than the original contract amount, I knew it was necessary.