Well, at least a bit of good news, money-wise

After spending almost $30 yesterday, I still got home with no milk! I was looking over my receipt and found that I had been overcharged for 3 lemons. They are regularly 2/$1 but were on special for .37 ea. I bought 3 and found that I was charged full price. When I went back to get my milk this morning, I talked to the girl at the service desk. She refunded me the full price I paid for 3 lemons, $1.62 including tax. That was unexpected. I also received a $1.98 rebate today. So, if you add those together, I was only out of pocket .91 for my milk. I flipped when I saw how much the milk cost; $4.51 including tax for a 1/2 gallon of Lactaid. Our food tax is set to reduce by another 0.25 the first of the year, so, in my city, it will be 7.5%. There is a base state tax, then, local areas can put another amount on top of that. It's capped, I'm not sure the amount, but, I know that one city has 10.25% on non-food compared to 9.25% here. As I understand it, at some point in the far future, we will not be paying sales tax on food at all. If they are only reducing it a quarter of a percent each year, I may not live long enough to see it! For those of you in states with no sales tax at all, I must tell you that we do not have a state income tax nor an ad valorem tax on vehicles. I personally think that our property tax here in Chattanooga is a modest amount. I'm not sure what the rate is and the kicker is, if you live within the city limits, you pay both city and county taxes. A lot of people through the years have chosen to live in the unincorporated areas of the county to avoid the city tax. Problem is, the city keeps annexing more and more of the unincorporated areas. Add to that the gas those folks have to burn to get to work or shopping, I think being in-town and paying city and county tax is a good trade-off.

I suspect that many of you, being frugal shoppers, may never check out the produce section where pre-cut fruits and veggies are packaged. The cost is frightfully high for letting someone else do the peeling and chopping for you. I have found on several occasions, though, that a 3 lb. bowl of mixed fruit is marked down to .99 when it is about to expire. I have purchased these on several occasions and I've never been disappointed with the quality. So, the next time you are in the produce department, check it out. You may find a great bargain. The cut raw veggies, if marked down, can be a great way to have the ingredients for a stew or stir-fry for singles or couples and not have a lot of veggie left over to go bad before you get a chance to use the rest of it. I have always haunted the meat department for marked down meat cuts; I have only recently found the jewels of the produce department.

I blew it!

I blew it this month. I just spent $29.67 today, for a monthly total of $104.25. On the positive side, I used $67.37 in Qs today. That's a total of $107.98 in Qs this month. As for the purchases, I was looking forward to my needs in December. I bought some frozen shrimp that I will put on the Christmas buffet. It was 1/2 price + a $1 Q. I also bought some condiments that I will need for the buffet. I'm going to brag a bit on what I bought; the Veg-All Steamers were $2.19 and BOGOF, making them $1.09 each and I had a .55 Q which doubles to $1.10. I had 5, so, 5 free bags of frozen veggies. I know, that doesn't make up for blowing my budget.

Had dinner with the parents yesterday. I made 2 "dump" cakes to use up the blueberry and cherry pie filling I had left over from making the mini cheesecakes. They seemed to go over well.

My doctor has put me on a megadose of vitamin D that I take once weekly for 6 months. It seems I scored poorly on some lab tests. And I was always so good in school in taking tests!

I don't think I've been eating well lately.

The doctor has put me on a megadose of Vitamin D for the next 6 months. Apparently, I've been eating so poorly most of the time that my vitamin levels have bottomed out. To be perfectly honest with you, I just can't get excited about food. The upside of that is that I don't go to the grocery store for entertainment! I don't spend any grocery money when I'm not eating. O.K. I tried to make a joke out of it and it fell flat.

I did get around to making the mini cheesecakes Sunday. I made a bit more than 2 dozen and carried them around to my law firm clients until they were all gone. Then it hit me; I didn't even keep one for myself! What a doofus! I used 2 boxes of cheesecake mix out of stockpile and a can of apple pie filling. I did have to buy a can of blueberry filling and one of cherry, but, they were greatly reduced, something like $2 ea. I still have a lot of it left, but, of course, not enough for a full pie. Anybody have any ideas what to do with the blueberry, cherry, and apple pie filling?

A personal note

I told you a couple of weeks ago that the doctor found a lump in my breast. It was really big. He had me feel it and it felt like one of those great big marbles. I had a mammogram a week later and there was NOTHING there. Absolutely nothing. Thanks to everyone who kept me in your thoughts and prayers.

O.K. Gotta start my holiday baking today. I want to have a dozen mini cheesecakes to take to one law firm tomorrow. They're my favorite kids (the lawyers are even kids to me!).

I've just been eating leftovers and breakfast cereal lately. I did go all out and fix breakfast a day or two ago; bacon, eggs, toast, and orange marmalade. That's very unusual for me. Some time back, my store had Hormel bacon B1G1F and I had double Qs. I bought as many as I had Qs for and put them in the freezer. I also did the same with roll sausage. Pretty much the same deal with GG frozen boxed veggies; low, low price, double Qs.

In the past week, I have scored $60 in Rite Aid GC and $25 in CVS GC for prescriptions. I may try to go through January with no oop. I know I can't do it in December. Too much holiday baking and a party. Well, not much of a party. My best friend and her husband come over on Christmas night or the day after and I serve substantial snacks; meat and cheese, crackers, olives, raw veggies and dip. Oh, yeah, the best part; champagne. I already have that so no big expense for the drinks.

Single serve entree, no; cooking, yes

I was going to be lazy last night and just pop something in the microwave. I had a little burst of energy, so, I made some mac&cheese (I think I have 10-15 boxes still), opened a can of pinto beans (I've tried to cook my own beans a few times; I'll take canned ones any day), and made some cornbread. I love Miracle Maize Sweet Cornbread Mix. It's made by Little Crow Foods. If you write or email them, they will send high value Qs that expire 2 years from now. I'm having a bit of a problem with the Miracle Maize, though. In my city, the only store carrying this item is Wal-Mart and I have sworn off WM for life. I think I said that even if they were handing out $100 bills to walk in, I would not go. I guess I will have to sneak into WM to buy Miracle Maize and throw away the logo'd bag! Better yet, take my own Publix bag. That ought to gig them a little. Needless to say, I didn't take anything next door. Oh, yeah, almost forgot the best part; I had some leftover grilled salmon from a lunch outing a couple of days ago.

I'm hoping to feel energetic enough on Sunday to make some mini cheesecakes for my law firms. I have several no bake cheesecake mixes (it was at a really great price, believe me) and I have blueberry, cherry, and apple pie filling to put on top of the minis.

Well, I've let it get into cold weather and I have not painted my baskets for Christmas. I guess the next really sunny day, no matter how cold, I am going to have to drag them all out of the basement and get busy. I make little baskets for all my "people" every year. I put the small packages of coffee, single serve hot chocolate envelopes, Christmas wrapped candies in it and decorate with colored paper, Christmas themed "picks," (you know, a lttle plastic bouquet of Christmas looking flowers or something that you stick in styrofoam), and sprinkle with silver icicles and little metallic candy cane shaped confetti. I think I have enough Christmas candy to finish all of them. Last week, or maybe 2 weeks ago, CVS had it on sale and if you bought $20 worth, you got a $10 ECB. I got $20 exactly, used $18.49 in ECB, used my GC for the $1.65 I owed, and got $10 back. I do not count that in groceries; those things go in office expenses since they are gifts for my clients.

I'm going to have to stop taking food to my neighbor.

I made the chicken breast/instant brown rice/broccoli/cream of chicken recipe yesterday. Took some next door. My neighbor is at least 85 years old and has a grand total of 2 teeth in his whole mouth. When I handed him the container, he grabbed me and tried to kiss me. I turned my head and he caught my cheek. He told me he has feelings for me. I do not know how a man of such advanced years could mistake neighborlyness with romance. I'm not going back over there. About 15 years ago, he suggested something very vulgar and an exchange of money for it. I called a police friend of mine to go over there and talk to him. We didn't speak for almost 10 years. He came over one day and apologized for what he had suggested. I told him that we should put it behind us. I can't believe he's skating on that ice again.

Well, the chicken dish turned out pretty well. Everything that went into it was stockpile items. I did not buy anything to fill in any gaps. I just used what I had.

Since I don't have any meat thawing for tonight, I guess I will just have a frozen single serve entree. I am guilty of stockpiling them since I started the challenge last summer; however, they were such a fantastic buy that I could not pass it up. I was able to purchase a dozen or more of Michael Angelo's at about $1 ea. They are usually $3.75 + tax.

I think I have enough cat food to last at least a couple more weeks (I can only hope!). There's nothing that I need right now. I just found a $2 Food Lion Q on a Fresh Express Salad Blend or Kit. They don't cost much more than $2, do they?

Oops! I got caught stockpiling!

I received a rebate form, buy $5 of Barilla pasta or sauce, get $2 back. This week, my store had the Barilla jars for $2 ea. and the pasta for $1 per box. So, 2 jars and 1 pasta was exactly $5 (plus the dreaded tax) and I had (2) .75 Qs on the Barilla sauce. Now I get $2 for my trouble. Sweet!

Last night's chicken and rice dinner that I planned had to be put on hold. I had to visit the ER for several hours yesterday. Just some unresolved stomach problems. So, maybe tomorrow night I will get to it.

I transfered 2 prescriptions to Rite Aid and scored $60 in GC! And, the best part, my 2 meds were much cheaper there than what I had been paying. In fact, one of them was 50% less and the other about 30% less.