My dog managed to save us some money today. He cooperated with his cast removal and xrays - no sedation needed. Good boy. ;-) He's doing well, three weeks post-surgery.

I overcame my desire to do take-out, or go out, and just got myself in the kitchen and threw dinner together purely from leftovers (and a little bit of fresh fruit). While we were eating it occured to me that everything we were eating had been given to us. The leftovers were from dinner a couple of nights ago courtesy of the IL's, and the fruit was from my mom and the demonstration garden at which she volunteers.

I find when I'm stressed out and feeling emotionally taxed the last thing I want to think about is food. That was fine when I was single (OK, so it isn't fine to skip meals...) but it most certainly is not OK now that I have a daughter to care for. When I don't want to think about food but have to, the next thing that pops into my head is "let's go out." It's only when we have an abundance of choices in the house that I can easily or somewhat easily overcome that urge.

It's all about planning ahead. If the shopping is done and a few meals are figured out, and there's easy/quick food in the pantry/freezer, then even when I'm wiped out dinner can still happen at home, for a reasonable amount of money.