Jan 10 2008
I apologize but due to a busy schedule and the stresses of parenting teens today, I did not meet my goal of posting an Art of Shopping article today.
Stay tuned though — I should be able crank out this weeks edition of Carnivals and Link Love.
Dec 01 2007
Aeropostale [www.aeropostale.com]
Dover Books [www.doverpublications.com]
REI Outlet [http://www.rei.com/outlet/]
Old Navy
Nov 25 2007
Our new retaining wall has been poured and is curing as we speak — complete with handprints of The Daughter, The Son, and myself. Today’s labor cost me $100 plus a few slices of pie and two glasses of milk ;-)
After all the cement was mixed and the wall poured, we ended up with three extra bags of Quikrete which I’ve already returned — for an $11.65 credit at The Home Depot.
The Daughter went with me on my errand-run. After the quick return to The Home Depot, we stopped in Old Navy to see if she could exchange her Gap gift cards or use them at Old Navy. I was surprised and disappointed to hear that Gap gift cards cannot be used at Old Navy. [We also checked at Gap and they said the same thing. I told The Daughter that I’d buy the cards from her — either flat out for cash or in the form of an Old Navy gift card.]
I had printed out my 25% coupon for Barnes & Noble that expired today only to find out that my local store didn’t have the book I wanted in stock. I gave the coupon to The Daughter who bought herself a book using a gift card. My cost: $0.00. But I did make a purchase, though. I bought a $25 gift card to be used for the unwrapping game we play during the family Christmas party.
Our next destination was the Qwest kiosk but we first stopped into a kitchen store where I spent $9.16 on a new slotted metal spatula (our old one completely fell apart a few weeks ago) and a set of two tiny whisks (great for mixing my oil & vinegar salad dressing). A few stores down we popped into Crabtree & Evelyn for some soap. I spent $25.95 and bought 6 bars of soap — three each of Aloe and La Source triple milled boxed bars.
We did make our stop at the Qwest kiosk but there was no charge — I had them swap our third cell phone account from a little Kyocera phone we had for the kids to a Motorola flip-phone that I’d gotten from a friend. The Husband hates the Kyocera and can’t figure out how to use it. I have a Motorola almost identical to the free one and mine is a work-horse if there ever was one. I’ve dropped it and sat on it and carried it every day for what must be close to 6 years and it’s still going strong. I’m hoping that The Husband will adapt better to the Motorola and therefore carry with him. Our schedules are too busy and complicated to have him running around without a cell phone. My cost: $0.00.
Our final stop was Target. I returned a picture frame for a $19.34 credit. Then we did a little grocery shopping — a few essentials we needed for tonight’s dinner and breakfast, etc. We spent $29.39 on:
My final purchase of the day was a “Cyber Monday” sale item. Best Buy’s Cyber Monday actually started today. I found the sale quite by accident — I was curious about what kind of sales I might find on-line tomorrow so I thought I’d look for previews tonight. I knew that one of the Christmas gifts we’d be giving The Daughter was a digital camera and I knew which model I wanted — a Canon Powershot Digital ELPH SD1000. For the past few weeks I’ve just been watching prices and waiting. When I visited Best Buy’s site tonight and saw that camera on sale for $179.99 plus a free 2GB PNY memory card, I showed it to The Husband and we took the plunge. I made the purchase on-line but will pick the camera up from the store locally tomorrow. This saves me from having to pay shipping charges. Until tonight, the best price I’d seen was $199.99. I paid $179.99 but after I applied $65 worth of gift cards I’d purchased from The Son, my final price was $114.99.
Nov 25 2007
In the past two months that I’ve been blogging, I’ve also been reading a lot of PF blogs. I’ve noticed that the grocery bill is almost universally the first budget category targeted by people wanting to tighten the budget belt. The Husband and I have discussed this observation and his take is that in situations of deep consumer debt, the grocery bill is one of the very few monthly bills that has any wiggle room at all. This has lead to more than one conversation about our own food consumption and grocery bill. The consensus is that we’re both very happy with our current food consumption and see no need to make any significant changes although we agreed that I could be a little more conscious of sales and/or coupons — I have definitely gotten a bit lax in those areas.
So, we’re comfortable with how much we spend and satisfied with the types and quantities of food that comes into the house. The one area, however, in which I see room for significant improvement is the number of home-cooked, from-scratch meals I prepare in the course of the week. As much as I hate to admit it, I only cook one or two meals a week. We always eat dinner together as a family but more often than not than not those meals are “smorgashboard” affairs — each person finds and prepares their own individual meal choices.
There are two main reasons behind our lack of home-cooked meals. First, my health. Whatever the reasons — whether the lingering results of the TIAs or a side-effect of the Fibromyalgia or the hypothyroidism — I still struggle with a low energy level. By the time evening rolls around, it’s often everything I can do just to sit at the table with my family and feed myself. And second, we represent a modern twist on the Jack Sprat tale-of-two-conflicting-diets idea. Except in our case there are two conflicting diets plus a third restricted diet to consider.
I have extensive food allergies. I’m allergic to all legumes (all beans & peas). I’m also allergic to most oils (I can eat canola and olive oil only). I’m allergic to corn; most nuts; most seeds. I can’t have any form of soy. I’m allergic to all yeast (baker’s and brewer’s). And I’m allergic to mustard. And mushrooms (actually, everything fermented or containing fungi). And those are just the things I can think of off the top of my head. And we’re not talking about not being able to have a full serving of something; I can’t ingest even the tiniest amount of any of these items.
This means that I can’t have sushi rolled in sesame seeds nor any wasabi nor anything that has come in contact with soy sauce or wasabi; I can’t eat any solidified chocolate products; I can’t eat anything containing soup stock nor anything labeled as containing “spices.” Almost without exception, I cannot eat anything packaged or pre-prepared. I once ate one bite of a cookie from Whole Foods. I’d carefully checked the ingredients and confirmed that the oil used was canola and the rest of the ingredients were okay. I got unbearably sick. It turned out that the oil used to grease the pans so the cookies wouldn’t stick was something other than canola.
Eating out is simply not possible. Traveling is very difficult. At home, in a fully-stocked kitchen, there’s actually quite a bit that I can eat. But all of my protein has to come from meat. And here’s where the Jack Sprat thing comes in — The Daughter is a vegetarian. Her diet is almost directly in conflict with mine. Add to this diet issue the fact that The Husband is supposed to restrict his salt, cholesterol, and sugar intake.
Cooking is often just more hassle than it’s worth.
But we’re learning how to compensate. Sometimes I prepare meals that the kids and The Husband can eat. Sometimes I prepare a meal that everyone but The Daughter can eat. I’d really like to put more thought and effort into building a collection of recipes that will meet the needs and tastes of three out of four. But, for now, most of our meals are smorgasboard affairs with each person fixing a sandwich or some eggs or a bowl of cereal or a quesadilla or a salad to meet the desires of their own taste buds.
I’m just grateful that our budget is such that tightening our grocery bill belt isn’t necessary.
Nov 16 2007
In the process of cleaning up broken links and consolidating categories, I discovered that I got off track in numbering my daily $$ posts. Turns out I have two different Day 67’s. I’m not going to go in and renumber everything — that might end up breaking more links or causing unforseen confusion down the road. I’ll simply make the correction and move on — so tomorrow’s post will be Day 77 and Day 76 will forever be missing 
Nov 16 2007
Hi everyone! Sorry for the hassles I might have caused today. Moving a blog is rather complicated and stressful!
So Suburban Wife’s Daily Dollar Diary has a new home! What do you think?
Oh, and before I forget — don’t forget to bookmark my new address
[http://dailydollardiary.starrspun.com]
I’m still reorganizing and editing my new theme — expect to see small changes here and there over the course of the next week or so. And please be patient with me if (or I should say, when) things go wonky — I’ll get things back to working again as soon as possible.
I debated the move for about two weeks and it wasn’t an easy decision — and one I hope I don’t come to regret. But as I’ve read more about blogging and Blogger in general, I decided that a move was inevitable and that maybe the best time to take the plunge was when the blog was relatively new.
The worst part of the heavy lifting work is done but I still have to:
I sure would welcome any feedback you’d be willing to offer about the move in general, the theme, my blog, my writing style, my spending habits, my children’s names, etc.
Nov 08 2007
Like a lot of people, I’ve got Christmas on my mind. Well, to be honest, I’ve got Christmas shopping on my mind because otherwise I have to think about all the prep work (read: housework) I need to get done before the holidays and given how I feel about housework I’d much rather think about shopping
Actually, it’s not just Christmas shopping on my brain these days but gift shopping in general. Between the husband and I, we have no less than 8 family birthdays between late October and early January. Add to that Christmas for our family of four, The Husband’s four children and five grandchildren, his sister and her family, and my three siblings each with a family plus my parents, and you end up with a whole lotta shopping to do.
The only way to survive this concentration of gift-giving occasions with any semblence of sanity intact, a bruised but not busted budget, and no hurt feelings is to create lists and start shopping early.
Here are my tips for staying organized, prioritizing, and maximizing one’s budget.
Make a List.
Even if you’re a world-class list-loser like I am, making a list can help you see things in better perspective and help you collect your thoughts. Of course, it’s better in the long run if you can keep track of your list throughout the gift-purchasing process so it can be updated and revised as you shop. Your list should include all pertinent data such as sizes, colors, brands, titles, model numbers, etc. Be sure to keep your list current to help avoid duplication and other errors which can end up costing you a great deal of time and energy required to return unnecessary gifts.
Don’t Over-buy.
This is a trap that I’m guilty of falling into over and over again. Don’t buy something unless it has a specifically intended recipient. Don’t buy two options with the intention of narrowing it down to one and returning the other later. Don’t buy something you think is the right thing but can’t remember for sure. If you’re not positive, make a phone call (after all, that’s why cell phones were invented, right?). Or ask the clerk to put it on hold.
Ask!
Personally, I think the surprise factor is a bit over-rated. Don’t get me wrong, I love surprising my loved ones and I love being surprised. But the surprise factor is not the end-all, be-all element of gift-giving.
Don’t be afraid to ask parents what’s on their children’s wish-lists or, in the case of older children, ask them directly what they want. I know that my children, at ages 15 and 13, would much rather receive gifts they want but are less than surprising than surprises that they don’t want or need — and not for selfish reasons. They realize that gifts come at the expense of hard-earned cash and they feel guilty when they receive something that doesn’t fit or won’t be used.
Buy it on paper first.
Once you’ve got your list, do some virtual shopping before hitting the stores. If you’re in the market for electronics, check out the reviews at CNet. If you don’t have a subscription to Consumer Reports, schedule a trip to the library and use their copies for more product research (and don’t forget your list when you go). Then do a Google Products search to research pricing. And keep an eye on the Sunday paper inserts. I like to check eBay for pricing info as well. Once you’re sure of what you’re going to buy and have a good idea of a fair and reasonable price, that’s when it’s time to lay down some cash.
The Earlier The Better
There are many advantages to starting your shopping early — and by shopping, I mean the whole process of creating your list and completing your research, not the actual act of purchasing items.
First, the sooner you know what you’re going to buy, the more time you can afford to spend waiting for a great price to come along. Second, and I love this one, if you’re the first one to ask what the kids want, then you get first pick at the wish list. Those who come late in the game get stuck with the difficult-to-find or more expensive items Third, I know that some people thrive on the thrill (read: stress) of last-minute shopping but for the sane among us, the peace and satisfaction that comes from having your shopping done early is immeasurable. That plus the fact that you can sit back and blow holier-than-thou raspberries at those around you scrambling for last-minute gifts — priceless.
Avoid Last Minute Shopping
Last-minute shopping is real budget-buster for me for several different reasons.
Most of The Husband’s family lives near us or will be in town for the holidays so their gifts don’t require shipping. My family, on the other hand, is spread across the country. Normal shipping costs already add to the costs of gifts; expedited shipping will break the budget for sure.
For me, last minute shopping also translates into unncessary impulse purchases. I get caught up in the shopping frenzy or start worrying about whether I have enough or the right things. Or a sale will catch my eye. A bargain on an unnecessary purchase is NOT a bargain, it’s wasted money.
Learn from your mistakes and past experiences.
As the 72-yo love of my life likes to say, “The second thing to go is the memory.” The kids race each other to be the straight man and ask, “what’s the first thing?” The answer, naturally, is, “I can’t remember.” 
Seriously, though, between the strokes a few years ago and some aging-related memory loss, my memory — or more accurately, my lack of memory — is notorious.
I don’t know about you, but I get tired of learning the same lessons year after year. As you shop, make another list — this one will detail the lessons you learn and the mistakes you resolve to not repeat. I’ve got lists of the steps I need to take in order to prepare my house for our annual family Christmas party and notes on what food was popular and what wasn’t eaten. I try to be disciplined about taking notes throughout the year as gift ideas pop up or to jot down bits of information I hear about where to get a good deal or where the customer service stinks.
Do you have a tip? Share it in the comments.
Oct 11 2007
A Borders coupon for 30% off any purchase of $10 or more. expires 10/14/07
Barnes & Noble is offering 15% off any one item — just enter the code B8J7E9C at checkout. expires 10/21/07
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