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.]

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*.

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. 

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….

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.

Dear Readers (if indeed I have any readers),

I do most humbly and sincerely apologize for taking such a long and unannounced leave of absence from my daily $$ posts.  As you know, I spent two weeks driving my mom across country and, while there, visiting with my brother and his family in New York City and my sister and her family in the greater Boston area.

I flew home on Thursday, May 8th, and hit the ground running.  The Husband turned 73 on Friday.  On Saturday, The Daughter and I worked all morning and into the afternoon at a school function; Saturday afternoon I watched The Son’s team get skunked in a Mother’s Day tournament; and Saturday evening I chaperoned at The Daughter’s semi-formal school dance until after midnight.  Sunday found me at a very, very early baseball game and then came a mad and stressful dash to get prepared for The Husband’s birthday party Sunday evening with all of his children and grandchildren.

Mom’s Taxi Service duties certainly didn’t ease once the week started.  The Daughter’s got a role in the Senior Class Play this weekend, as do several of her classmates.  So far this week I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time driving and waiting on people who need to be driven here, there, and everywhere.

On top of it all, I caught some kind of stomach bug from my mom during our trip.  Most of that is gone now but I can still feel some of the lingering effects.  And I think I might have strep throat — or some other bug making me feel less than great.

As for blogging, I hope to be able to go back and reconstruct my missing $$ days as well as get back to daily postings.

I’ve learned a few valuable lessons during this chaotic time.  Though they’re not new lessons, they have served to strengthen my resolve to find better ways to deal with future chaotic times.

One, it is absolutely vital that I log all expenses into my YNAB program every single day.  The activity only takes 5 minutes total — including firing up the computer, starting the program, and entering the data.  No matter how busy I am, I would think that I could manage to find a measly 5 minutes each day.  If I don’t log my expenses daily, it’s just too easy to make mistakes and forget transactions.  Particularly cash transactions.  I so very rarely make cash purchases — and the vast majority of those times are when I’m traveling.  Therefore it’s particularly important for me to log my expenditures on a daily basis when I’m traveling.

Two, daily expenditure tracking helps keep me honest.  Traveling and/or vacationing is a time when it’s particularly easy to let spending get out of hand.  Likewise stressful times, busy events such as holidays and visiting family are times when my grip on expenses loosens.  In situations like these, it’s easy to overspend and easy to hide the effects of my spending on my overall budget.  But if I take the time each day (see above) to log my expenses into my YNAB program, I can’t fool myself.  A simple mouse click takes me from the program’s register to the budget overview — and the budget overview is so simple and clearly laid-out that there’s simply no hiding from how the day’s expenses have impacted my monthly cash flow.

Taking a break from blogging has made me realize how much I’ve gained from the daily activity of accounting for expenses.  Also, I miss it and look forward to getting back into the routine of my daily posts — and irregular additional posts.  So if you’re a reader, thanks so much for sticking with me during my absence.  If you’re a new reader, welcome and I hope you’ll find my material interesting, insightful, or helpful.

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 16 — catching up with daily expenditures.

REI — $9.22
When I got home late on the 8th, The Husband announced that he wanted a new pair of sunglasses for his birthday.  Since we had some many other things going on and since The Husband’s not particular about getting his gifts on his actual birthday, I waited until I had another errand in the right part of town.  The glasses were $15 plus tax but I applied my member’s dividend to the purchase which took care about 1/2 of the cost.

Waldenbooks — $16.79
The Daughter and I stopped on the way home from school to pick up a new fiction book she’s really been looking forward to.