Wow! I'm Doin' Great!

Here it is the 11th day of the month, a third of the way through, and I have only spent $14.10. I bought some cat food using a free CVS GC. I also bought several packages of cokes with the free CVS GC. Just to let you know that I'm not always so good, I have to admit that I spent some of my free Rite Aid GC on stuff I probably could do without; photo print paper. It was 75% off and the manager made a point to show it to me, so, what could I do, I just bought it. Bad me.

I've mentioned that I've taken quite a bit of my stockpile stuff to the flea market for the past month or so. I can actually see some sunlight through my stockpile and I've made about $400 or so in 5 weeks. It's really helped me to feel more in control of my circumstances (when you're being run out of the house by shampoo and body wash, look out!) and, surprisingly, with less stuff, I've been able to make better meals. I guess just getting rid of much of the clutter has been helpful in seeing what I have that goes together for a meal.

I have once again unleashed the "eternal taco". You know the routine; some ground beef makes a few tacos, so, you make more ground beef to finish off the tacos, you have ground beef left over, so, you open another box of tacos, and the story goes on. I shouldn't make it sound so bad. I really like them and can stand to have them every day or every other day for a while. You're going to laugh at me, but, last night, I made tacos and some Uncle Ben's Spanish rice in the microwave package. Served up my tacos, got full, went back into the kitchen, and there was my Spanish rice, untouched! What a doofus I am. I put it in the fridge. I'll just have to remember to warm it for the next round of tacos.

Has anyone noticed in the past 2-3 weeks that the size of the peanut butter jar has been reduced? It was 18 oz. and now, for the SAME PRICE, is only 13 oz. My math skills are a little rusty, but, that's about a 30% increase in price due to the reduction of the package contents. Of course, it's been years since you could buy a "pound" of coffee. I'll bet most of you still refer to it as a "pound," when it's only 8-12 oz. Thankfully, I have about a year's worth of coffee in the stockpile. That's one thing I refuse to take to the flea market. It's something I use every day and the price sure isn't going to come down anytime soon. I'm also hoarding sugar. I got mine at a great price and I'm not parting with it. As you may know, southerners drink "sweet tea," which is iced tea made almost into a syrup by the amount of sugar we put in it. Before going to the flea market, I had about 85 boxes of tea, the quart sized bags. I think I'm down to about 60. I think that is something I can sell and not miss it. What the heck, I can drink cokes and get the sugar I crave!

Summer is in full bloom, but, that does not keep me from looking toward fall and winter. I have an ample supply of canned soup for the colder weather. I also found a hefty supply of canned chili when poking around in the stockpile a few days ago.

The freezer is full and the pantry is stocked. I'm in good shape for a long time.