We’re having a big party over here later today — part Father’s Day celebration that didn’t happen last week because our whole family was sick and part birthday celebration for the granddaughter and the grandson having birthdays in the next few weeks.  So this morning while The Son folded laundry and vacuumed, The Daughter and I headed out to the grocery store for supplies.

Kroger — $129.79

• Kashi Cinnamon Harvest cereal — $3.79
• Cascadian Farm Purely O’s cereal — $3.50 (saved $0.79)
• 2 pkgs Roman Meal hot dog buns — $3.19/ea.
• 2 pkgs Coleman hot dogs — $5.49/ea.
• Tostitos corn chips — $2.50 (saved $1.11)
• Ruffles potato chips — $3.79
• 2 bags french rolls — $1.89/ea.
• French’s mustard — $1.00 (saved $1.39)
• green bell pepper — $1.00 (saved $0.59)
• red bell pepper — $1.00 (saved $0.59)
• yellow bell pepper — $1.00 (saved $0.59)
• green onions — $0.99
• cucumber — $1.50
• celery — $1.59
• red cabbage — $1.71
• 1.33# loose carrots — $0.78
• 1.98# red grapes — $7.90
• 2 boxes Driscoll blackberries — $3.00/ea. (saved $2.99/ea.)
• 2 boxes Driscoll raspberries — $3.00/ea. (saved $2.99/ea.)
• 2 boxes Driscoll strawberries — $3.00/ea. (saved $1.99/ea.)
• watermelon — $6.99
• .5# deli sliced colby jack cheese — $3.00 (saved $0.75)
• .48# deli sliced mild cheddar — $2.88 (saved $0.72)
• .54# deli sliced turkey breast — $3.23 (saved $1.08)
• deli sliced virginia baked ham — $6.55
• 1.05# deli sliced roast beef — $7.34 (saved $2.10)
• Breyer’s chocolate ice cream — $4.90 (saved $0.72)
• 12-pk Sprite — $3.67 (saved $0.72)
• 6-pk Propel — $3.99 (saved $1.00)
• 9″ double layer personalized chocolate/chocolate cake – $12.99

Kroger — $4.09
A tub of prewashed organic baby Romaine lettuce — that I forgot to pick up during the first trip to the store.  I didn’t mind the second run, however, because it gave me a welcome respite from cleaning house and an excellent excuse to stop by and catch a few minutes of The Son’s baseball game.

Whole Foods — $23.36

• bag of organic pastry flour — $2.49
• 2 whole chicken legs — $2.00
• 1 large whole boneless, skinless chicken breast — $8.46
• Applegate Farm sliced smoked turkey — $5.69
• Bluesky soda — $.89
• Odwalla B Berrier — $3.29

Indoor Skate Park — $25.00
A $25 gift card for The Husband’s grandson whose birthday is later this month.

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

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.

The only out-of-the-house shopping I did today was a quick trip to the grocery store because we were all out of milk.  The Husband paid a couple of utility bills today and gave me the receipts so I’ve included them as well.  My final spending of the day was in the form of a late-night iTunes shopping spree — but all of that was covered by my gift card balance so I had no out-of-pocket cost for the music.

Vitamin Cottage — $35.78

• gallon of Horizon 2% milk — $5.39
• Applegate Farm sliced roast beef — $4.75
• Applegate Farm sliced organic smoked turkey — $5.15
• bottle of probiotic capsules – $18.69

Home Phone — $32.07
One month’s worth of home phone (land line) service:  includes Caller ID and voice mail.  Also includes long distance service charge but no fees for long distance calls.  I’ll have to look into whether I can have that service removed from our service.

Verizon Wireless — $131.41
One month’s worth of cell phone service:  includes three phones sharing 700 minutes (321 minutes used) plus unlimited text messaging.

Water & Sanitation — $70.60
Two month’s worth of water and sewer service plus “operations fees” (we’re billed every other month).  Our water usage is down from the last bill but up from the same period a year ago.  Apparently we average 164 gallons per day.

iTunes — $10.61

• Good Thing by Fine Young Cannibals
• She Drives Me Crazy by Fine Young Cannibals
• Short Skirt/Long Jacket by Cake
• Never There by Cake
• Dreams by The Cranberries
• Linger by The Cranberries
• Love Shack by B-52’s
• Roam by B-52’s
• Lady Marmalade by Patti LaBelle
• The Trouble With Love is by Kelly Clarkson

The Container Store — ($35.31)
I returned four items from my shopping spree last week:

First, the plastic lid to storage box on coasters.  Come on, let’s be realistic here — it will be a miracle if I can get The Son to actually contain his socks and misc stuff in these containers to begin with; asking him to use a lid is beyond unrealistic.

Second, the small concealed book shelf.  I really like the concept of these but I’m more of a book-stack-on-a-chair-I-can move kind of person (see photo).

Third was the large concealed book shelf (returned for the same reason as above).

And fourth, I returned tie rack because I found a cheaper one I liked better at Target.

Waldenbooks — ($16.79)
I returned the book The Daughter bought here because we ended up having to re-purchase it an independent book store so we could also buy a ticket to the author’s book signing.

J.Crew — $21.52
It has become clear over the past few weeks that The Son simply does not have enough t-shirts.  He’s running out of clean t-shirts way before the next laundry cycle happens.

Sur La Table — $21.54
I bought a 24-cartridge box of iSi N20 cream charger cartridges.  Earlier this year when my mom sold her house and nearly all of her possessions, the number one item I asked for was her iSi whip cream whipper.  She only had two cartridges left and I used one of them at The Husband’s birthday party earlier this month.  Now we’re flush with Nitrous Oxide

BTW, I also learned why I got sick the other night after eating strawberries and whipped cream with The Son.  Turns out that commercial powdered sugar contains cornstarch.  [heavy sarcasm] Silly me, I forgot to read the sugar bag for ingredients. [/heavy sarcasm]

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:  $107.73 

Wild Oats — $9.29
The Son needed to go sandal shopping (see below) but after a full, hot morning of running around and playing games on the last day of school, he needed a little refreshment before braving the shoe store. 

• tray of avocado roll sushi — $4.75
• can of house soda pop — $.79
• an Odwalla Strawberry C Monster (for me) — $3.29

Off-Broadway Shoe Warehouse — $59.34
The Son picked a pair of Teva Spoiler Classic sandals — no big surprise there since he’s been wearing that brand and style for years and years — probably since they first came out with that model, way back in the day when we shopped at the children’s shoe store and couldn’t imagine having to shop in a big people’s shoe store for children’s feet.  BTW, that price beats the heck out of the $80 retail being charged by REI and the like.

Kroger — $39.10
The Husband, The Son, and I stopped at the grocery store for some supplies and some quick, frozen dinners since the hour was late and I was exhausted from having watched a nail-biter of a baseball game (The Son’s team lost but they put up a good fight).

• 2 cartons of Horizon chocolate milk — $3.19/ea. (saved $0.50/ea.)
• Santa Cruz lemonade — $1.00 (saved $1.89)
• Santa Cruz limeade — $1.00 (saved $1.89)
• Dole Orange/Peach/Mango juice — $2.19 (saved $1.50)
• M&M’s (for the penny candy jar) — $2.50 (saved $0.89)
• Kroger medium cheddar — $2.50 (saved $0.19)
• Kroger sharp cheddar — $2.50 (saved $0.19)
• Stouffer’s frozen fish dinner — $2.00 (saved $1.28)
• Stouffer’s frozen shrimp scampi — $2.00 (saved $0.94)
• Hungry Man frozen dinner — $2.61
• Oberto beef jerkey — $5.49 (saved $0.50)
• G&W sugar — $2.99
• Morton salt — $0.59 (saved $0.10)
• 1.6# organic navel oranges — $2.54
• 4 gala apples — $2.00
• bag credits — ($0.15)

[I take no responsiblity for the junky frozen meals purchased.  When The Husband is shopping, he gets to buy what he wants to buy.  When I leave town, the first thing he does is buy a loaf of Wonder bread and some type of unidentifiable packaged meat.  What can I say; we come from very different backgrounds.]

Einstein Bros. Bagels — $17.29
It’s been several weeks since we made an after-church bagel run so when The Son requested one this morning I said sure.  The kids had gotten hot and sweaty playing ball in the church parking lot so I also let them each have a drink — The Son chose a Sprite and The Daughter had a Nantucket Nectar.  For bagels, we purchased a dozen bucket deal (a baker’s dozen of bagels and two tubs of schmear).

REI — $58.17

• 2 large blue Everyday large-mouth bottles for The Daughter — $9.50/ea.
• 1 blue Everyday OTG Tritan water bottle for The Daughter — $9.95/ea.
• 2 large spring green Everyday large-mouth bottles for The Son — $9.50/ea.
• 1 “smile” Guyot Designs Splashguard — $2.95
• 1 “skull & crossbones” splashguard — $2.95 (for The Son — they make drinking from a wide-mouth bottle easier)

What’s a mom to do?  I’d always been under the impression that the hard plastic bottles didn’t leech chemicals the way the soft bottles do.  They certainly don’t leech that awful plastic taste.  When I started reading about the potential BPA issues in our old bottles, I knew I had to bite the bullet and replace them — even though I bought new ones not so very long ago.  As a very unexpected bonus, it turns out I’ll be able to return the old bottles for a refund (see my earlier post).

Plato’s Closet — ($9.30)
I’ve seen these stores (warning: loud, obnoxious music on website) around but never really knew what they sold or how they worked.  Today, The Daughter took me to one.  I guess she’d heard about them from a friend.  They seem to be very similar to Buffalo Exchange.  Anyway, The Daughter had a couple of pair of American Eagle jeans that she says are too short (translation: they aren’t two inches too long and drag on the floor) and she’s looking for shorts for this summer.  I was happy to tag along because I had a bag of clothes The Son had outgrown.

The trip was a little disappointing.  They only wanted one pair of her jeans.  And of all the summer items I had from The Son, they only took one pair of Old Navy shorts.  At least half of The Son’s clothes are actually kid’s sizes which Plato’s Closet doesn’t accept.  They suggested I try their sister store:  Once Upon A Child (warning: more obnoxious music).

I was shocked and dismayed, however, that they rejected his beautiful J.Crew “broken in” t-shirts.  They’re all from last year, worn only one season, and completely flawless.  Their sin, it seems, is that they are plain.  The Son refuses to wear logos (says he should be paid to advertise for companies) and doesn’t like smart-aleck logos or slogans.  It just happens that Plato’s Closet recently stopped buying plain t-shirts because they don’t sell.  Which is why I walked away empty-handed — no plain t-shirts in The Son’s size.  The Daughter walked away empty-handed too.  Well, almost.  We did get $9.30 for the shorts and the jeans — nothing compared to what we paid but more than we would have had if we’d donated the items.

I don’t see a promising relationship with Plato’s Closet in my future — although maybe they’ll be interested in The Son’s pants as he starts outgrowing them.  I’m hoping I have better luck at OUAC tomorrow.