Shopping

Acting on the blogvice (which is just regular advice, conveyed through a blog) of my college friend Lindsay, I decided to try out a new tactic with my grocery shopping. Generally, I shop on Friday evenings after I get paid, and I delight in wandering literally every single aisle of the grocery store, looking at this, poking that, sniffing the cheeses and inspecting the produce. I chat with the people in the bakery. I consider a new and exotic variety of dry goods and, when I see that it is good, I buy it.

But, I tend to spend about $50/week on groceries, and I just feel like that's silly for only two people. So, last week I sat down with a notebook and planned out every dinner we'll eat for the next five weeks. Yep, that's right. Every one. We tend to eat no more than toast or a banana for breakfast, and we both eat lunch at work, so dinner is the main meal we spend money on.

After I planned the meals, I wrote out exactly what I would need to buy each Friday in order to cook all those meals from that Friday night to the next Saturday. The lists were surprisingly short to me, which I felt was promising.

Now, I grant that this is a basic shopping list--dinner ingredients, plus bread, milk, eggs, and similar staples. If we run out of something like coffee or flour that we only buy once every few months, it's an extra expense, of course.

But, that being said, I've spent enough time at the grocery store to know within a dollar or so exactly what things are going to cost me if prices stay the same, and I was pretty confident I'd be able to pick most of them up for less than $40 and, several weeks, less than $30.

We put it to the test last Friday, sticking strictly (with one exception) to the shopping list. We did get coffee, too, which was $10. Counting that, our grocery bill was $38 and we have enough food to last us until this coming Friday.

And I feel good about that.

I feel less good about NaNoWriMo, because as soon as I said I'd start, our computer broke and wouldn't turn on for nearly two days, and then Dave and I both got sick, so of course I'm wildly behind and that saps my motivtion like woah. But I have started writing and I write a few pages by hand at work each day, which is a habit that's easy to get into--I speak from experience--and will be easy to continue, even if I don't make the end of November deadline. At least I'm writing.

Ha

Because apparently I don't have enough to do in my life already, I've started a new blog! I'll still write in this one, because this one is for personal stuff. The other one is meant to be public, and is about things that are easier to spread outward in an online sense--cooking, crafting, saving money, etc.

Of course, I'd love for you all who read this blog to read that one too.

Scrimpalicious

A nod of the head

I did, indeed, go back to Whole Foods today after church. Not only did I buy chrysanthemums and apples (macintosh, local-ish, in a paper bag, just like when I was a kid)--I bought a pumpkin! It's tall and skinny, although I ogled several short, squat ones too. Ultimately this one won me over due to its twisty stalk and the curlicue of dried pumpkin vine clinging stubbornly to it.

The pumpkin, along with two pots of yellow 'mums, is now sitting on our front steps. The third pot (they were three for $12) is purple, and has taken up residence on the dining room table.

But I'm not here to write a blog entry about that, or about the delicious faux-Indian dinner that we had last night and tonight (we love leftovers). Instead, I'm going to write some more about blogs I read. The blog I'd like to point you all to today is called Dollar Store Crafts.

If you like to craft and you like to not spend money, this is worth taking a gander at. Essentially the idea is that the author posts crafts that can be done for $5 or less in materials, most of which come from the dollar store.

But, I hear you saying to your computer screen, surely dollar store crafts are ugly. After all, have you been to the dollar store? Things only cost a dollar there for a reason.

Well, yes, the dollar store is not the typical location for buying exquisite crafting supplies, but the thing I love about this blog is that pretty much everything on it is something that 1) I can afford and 2) I would actually be willing, nay, happy to make and lay claim to.

So, check it out. Even if you aren't a crafter, you might enjoy seeing the creative things that people are doing on a thin budget.

Dollar Store Crafts

A few things

So, I've slacked off a little bit with the journal writing. There are a few reasons for this, mainly that I was busy getting wedding invitations addressed and mailed out. There will be a post on that soon, with pictures of them in progress, etcetera.

In the meantime, while I study for finals, I suggest you amuse yourselves with two of my favorite wedding-related humor blogs. I warn you, you may spend a huge number of hours looking at these, aghast.

They make me feel good about myself. I'm not entirely proud of it.

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com - The most awful cakes you will ever see

http://tackyweddings.com - Like Cake Wrecks, but for all the other awful things that can happen at weddings

Other things coming up:

1. Finals start on Friday. I'm almost done with college!

2. We are now officially able to say that we're getting married next month. Woah.

3. Next time Dave is in Pennsylvania, we're picking up our marriage license. That's right. The wedding is close enough for things like that now. (blog post to follow)

4. We picked out wedding rings (blog post to follow)

5. Meeting this week with the catering people (blog post to follow)

6. Photography - not formally officially decided, but we might be changing photographers. A month and a half before the wedding! Am I crazy? You'll have to wait and judge for yourself.