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.

The Son and I did some serious grocery shopping today!  Usually getting The Son to accompany me to the store is a bit like pulling teeth but he gave me no arguments at all today — came along right willingly, actually.  I suspect that two weeks of dining with his dad while I was gone had a little something to do with this behavioral anomaly.

Vitamin Cottage — $96.54

• non-flavored whey protein powder — $6.99
• Annie’s penne pasta & cheese — $2.45
• Annie’s pasta & cheese — $2.45
• 2 boxes Cascadian Farm Purely O’s cereal — $4.35/ea.
• Cascadian Farm frozen strawberries — $3.65
• Hain Canola mayonnaise — $3.65
• Applegate Farm sliced roast beef — $4.75
• Applegate Farm sliced roast turkey — $5.15
• Bob’s unbleached white flour — $3.15
• Amy’s frozen pasta bowl — $4.39
• Yaya cheese popcorn — $1.75
• Pie Oh My frozen pie — $1.99
• Barbara’s cheese puffs — $1.40 (saved $0.70)
• Barbara’s baked cheese puffs — $1.40 (saved $0.70)
• 2 tins Crown Prince smoked oysters — $2.35/ea.
• Lund organic white basmati rice — $4.15
• 2 boxes DeBoles elbow pasta — $2.19/ea.
• 2 boxes DeBoles spaghetti pasta — $1.65/ea.
• Organic Valley whipping cream — $2.89
• Organic Valley buttermilk — $2.79
• Organic Valley muenster cheese — $3.85 (saved $0.64)
• organic strawberry kefir — $3.85
• Horizon 2% milk — $5.15
• Bionaturae pasta — $2.39
• Mother’s Graham Bumpers cereal — $3.75

Kroger — $47.58

• Horizon chocolate milk — $3.19 (saved $0.50)
• Kroger raisin bran cereal — $1.89
• Hidden Valley creamy ranch dressing — $3.30 (saved $0.39)
• Breyer’s chocolate ice cream — $5.19 (saved $0.50)
• Breyer’s specialty flavor ice cream — $5.19 (saved $0.50)
• Smokey Robinson frozen seafood gumbo — $4.19
• Amy’s frozen broccoli pocket — $2.29
• Keebler chocolate chip cookies — $3.00 (saved $0.59)
• Dole Orange/strawberry juice — $2.19 (saved $1.50)
• Lay’s wavy BBQ chips — $1.77 (saved $1.21)
• 2.06# Coleman ground beef — $10.28 (saved $2.06)
• Hillshire Farm ham — $3.99
• bag credit — ($0.05) — should have been $0.10 but the clerk shorted me one bag credit

According to the receipt, I saved $7.25 or 13% off my total order with my loyalty card.

Wild Oats — $8.42
I spent nearly 2 hours sitting and waiting for the kids I was supposed to transport from the off-site theater where they’re performing their school play back to school.  On the way back to school, we stopped at Wild Oats for snacks (and next-class avoidance).  I bought myself an avocado sushi tray and an Odwalla Strawberry C Monster.

Wendy’s — $2.36
For the most part, now that The Son no longer goes from Wednesday’s cello lesson straight to orchestral rehearsal, we’ve given up our usual Wednesday’s Wendy’s dinner stop.  But tonight was a exception because we couldn’t go straight home for dinner together.  So we stopped for a “snack” of a Bacon Cheeseburger and a small vanilla Frosty.

Bookstore — $27.99
We duplicated yesterday’s book purchase, this time over the phone to an independent book seller in town.  Here’s why — the author is coming to town for a reading, discussion, and book signing.  The Daughter and several friends from school are big fans and want to go to the event.  The only way to get a ticket to the event is to buy a book from the sponsoring store.

When The Daughter bought yesterday’s book at the wrong store, she asked about the tickets but the clerk knew nothing about them.  I encouraged The Daughter to wait on the purchase until we had all the right info but, naturally, being a 16-yo know-it-all with a specific goal in mind, there was no dissuading her.

The plan is to return the first book for a full refund and have The Daughter pay me back for the entire (book & ticket) purchase.

Actually posted on May 15 — catching up with daily expenditures.

I didn’t get to attend church today (The Son had an early baseball game) so here’s another week in which no check has been written for my weekly offering.  I’ll catch up next week.

The Husband turned 73 on the 9th and we had a little family celebration with a pan of brownies and a new shirt on Friday.  But today is the big day — the day on which all of his older children and his granchildren come over for a proper birthday party.  And the cupboards were literally bare!

Kroger — $131.30

• Cascade dishwashing gel — $3.99 (I usually buy Ecover tablets but they’re eating up the plastic piece in my dishwasher. The scent of the Cascade powders trigger asthma attacks in me so I didn’t want to go back to that.  I figure I’ll give this stuff a try.)
• 12-pack Sprite — $3.67 (saved $0.72)
• Kroger wheat hot dog buns — $1.69
• Orowheat bread — $4.29
• other bread — $3.19
• 2 bags Kettle potato chips — $2.50/ea. (saved $0.49/ea.)
• Kroger T.P. — $3.39 (saved $0.50) [this was a smaller package of mega rolls; they didn’t have the mega packs of regular rolls that I prefer — hope that package hasn’t been discountinued]
• 1.75# carrots — $1.03
• 10.2# yellow seedless watermelon — $10.10 (whoever heard of yellow watermelon? — I cut into this and freaked out thinking it was bad or defective; made The Son taste it and make sure it was good)
• Driscol blackberries — $4.99
• Driscol blueberries — $0.00 (saved $4.99 with BOGO offer)
• 2 containers Driscol raspberries — $4.99 (saved $4.99 with BOGO offer)
• 2 containers Driscol strawberries — $3.99 (saved $3.99 with BOGO offer)
• cubed pineapple — $3.15
• Gala apples — $1.60
• 1.53# bananas — $1.06
• radishes — $1.29
• leaf lettuce — $1.49
• green onions — $0.89
• 1.91# celery — $2.65
• 1.35# navel oranges — $2.15
• yellow bell pepper — $1.99
• green bell pepper — $1.49
• 1.60# red cabbage — $1.26
• Horizon 2% milk — $5.15
• 2 cartons Horizon chocolate milk — $3.19/ea. (saved $0.50/ea.)
• Organic Valley whipping cream — $2.99
• Kroger cheddar cheese — $2.50 (saved $0.19)
• Nest Fresh eggs — $3.69
• Heinz ketchup — $1.99
• 1.04# deli sliced roast beef — $7.27 (saved $2.08)
• 0.7# deli sliced ham — $4.19 (saved $1.40)
• 0.46# deli sliced colby jack cheese — $2.76 (saved $0.69)
• 2 packages Coleman hot dogs — $5.49/ea.

According to the receipt, I saved a total of $16.54 or 11% off my total grocery bill with my loyalty card.  I didn’t have my reusable Chicobags with me so I had to ask for paper bags instead.  That worked out to be just fine, however, because apparently we were all out of paper bags and needed some more — The Son puts newspapers to be recycled at the curb in paper bags.

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?

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 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:  $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.

Total Spent Today:  $ 244.62

This garage door opener is eating my lunch!  The issue isn’t completely resolved and put to bed, plus I’m beyond exhausted and in a great deal of pain, so I’m not going to go into all the hairy details right now.  Suffice it to say that my $227 garage door opener just cost me another $167 for the services of a master electrician. 

In other news, Happy Earth Day!  I celebrated Earth Day by turning down a free reusable bag from the grocery store (see below).  As much as I appreciated the offer (a one-day Earth Day special offer), I informed the clerk that I’ve got the recycling part down with my handy ChicoBags and by turning down the bag I’m doing my part to reduce.  The last thing I need is another reusable bag to stick in my coat closet to gather dust; it could hang there with the dozen or more canvas bags I’ve acquired over the years and never remember to use.

Electrician — $167.30
Two hours’ labor, a GFI outlet, and a new 20 amp circuit breaker fuse.

Vitamin Cottage — $77.32

• salted and roasted sunflower seeds (The Daughter loves these on her salads) — $2.17
• Cascadian Farm Purely O’s cereal — $4.35
• Applegate sliced roast beef — $4.75
• Applegate sliced smoked turkey — $5.15
• Barbara’s cheese puffs (The Daughter’s favorite kind) — $1.49 (saved $0.50)
• Barbara’s cheese puffs (The Son’s favorite kind) — $1.49 (saved $0.50)
• Kettle potato chips (The Husband’s favorites) — $4.55
• 2 cans Crown Prince albacore tuna — $2.49/ea.
• 2 cans Crown Prince smoked oysters — $2.35/ea.
• 4 boxes De Boles spaghetti pasta — $1.95/ea.
• De Boles elbow macaroni pasta — $2.19
• Organic Valley buttermilk — $2.79
• Organic Valley string cheese — $4.45
• Organic Valley muenster cheese — $4.49
• 2 cans Muir Glen tomato sauce — $1.65/ea.
• 18 ct Nest Fresh large white eggs — $3.99
• organic ground beef — $3.99 (saved $0.76)
• colby longhorn cheese — $3.65
• gallon Horizon 2% milk — $5.15