OK, I've been pretty happy with saving dinner, adapting the meals with vegetarian alternatives and such, but tonight I saw something that bothers me. Out of this week's recipes, not one of them is less than 40% calories form fat, and some are in the 50-60% range! Now, using soy instead of meat has got to be helping in that area, but I'm bothered nonetheless. Eating in is great, it saves money, she raves about how much healthier the meals are. And I guess they are, if you're eating McDonald's every day! 40-60% of calories from fat - that is unreal.

Another spend-no-money day. Love those! Took a picnic lunch to the beach for a playdate and cooked dinner at home tonight. Also had some money come in for advertising at DivaTribe, so all in all today ended in the black. :-)

DH has been buying things over the past few months from work for Christmas gifts, and tonight we're going to go through them and figure out what we have for whom, and what we still want to get. He can get EXCELLENT deals through his work, so we're reaping the benefits of that.

I'm still trying to do the weekly dinner planning thing. Last week was such a bust. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I only made a real dinner one night. Too dang hot.

I've been line drying clothes this week. The only problem is that I don't have enough line to hang out a full load of laundry. And it feels wrong to do smaller loads of laundry if I don't have to.

Dh grouted the tiles today and it's looking good! This is good practice for when we're ready to tackle our kitchen.

So what's been going on lately? First off, it's been really hot here, so cooking has been the last thing I've wanted to do at night. We ate outside one evening and had homemade pesto, and bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and homegrown tomatoes. Went to Jamba Juice one night. Had cereal last night (sandwich for DD). Hopefully it will cool down soon so I can get back to trying to cook most nights.

DH has been burning the candle at both ends with freelance work. After all current work is done he's planning on taking a break from it for a little while. I'm sticking with four students for tutoring for the time being. It's a decent amount of extra money each month.

We still need to do the grouting on the new tiles, and once that's set we can seal it and start finishing up the bathroom. The side of our house is a wreck - toilet, old sink, new sink, pieces of tile. What a mess.

This weekend DH has started tiling our guest bathroom/utility area, and I reseeded the back yard. After the floors are done we're putting in a new sink, retiling the walls around the tub and repainting. The joys of being do-it-yourselfers. We're saving quite a lot of money compared to having someone else come in and do it, but it takes a lot more time. It's going to look nice when we're done.

Our new reward came - woo hoo! I'm glad we finally got around to getting one.

Some friend sof mine bought a used bookstore. The three of us went over to see it yesterday. I'd been there before but haven't seen it since they took over. They've already made some nice improvements, and I'm looking forward to seeing what else they do. Our DDs were happy to see each other again and play in the children's area. It's still going to be a big box of books for $20, so now when I shop there I'll be getting a good deal and helping friends at the same time!

I decided to try a three-month subscription to SavingDinner. We'll see how that works for us. Havng the sample menu planned, and the grocery list prepared, was a huge stress reducer for me, so this subscription may be $9.95 well spent. I know, I know - I could sit down and plan everything out, and I have tried to in the past. the problem isn't that I can't do it, but rather that I don't do it. I resist it, I procrastinate, I feel put out and put upon. I paid out of my PayPal account, which always feels like found money anyway - I never count on that money for anything.

I'm anxious fo rthe new reward credit card to arrive so we can start earning miles. I've got a $500+ emergency room bill and the trash bill waiting, since they both take credit cards. (Anyone reading who hasn't read other entries in my journal - we pay off our credit card each month.)

I received a notice in the mail that we've been approved for the reward card that I applied for a week or so ago. Should get the card in the mail any day now. Free airline tickets, here we come!

I won an eBay auction not too long ago that was a really good deal: 2 leotards (one tank style, the other 3/4 sleeves) plus a dance skirt (for DD) for about $13, including shipping. So unless she has an unusual growth spurt she's all set for the next year or so.

I'm procrastinating on thinking about dinner right now. I think I do better when I get dinner figured out in the morning, or at least early in the afternoon. By the time 5:00 rolls around I'm not in the mood to figure it out. In that way the SavingDinner stuff has been helpful - I don't have to think about it; I just have to choose which recipe to make that evening.

I've been feeling restless and dissatisfied I think. When that happens I start looking at big ticket items: new toys to temporarily distract myself. New sewing machines, new iBooks, new cars. I don't need any of them, and can't afford some of them, but I look nonetheless.

When I was working fulltime and not yet a mother, I had a lot of disposable income (well, it seemed like a lot to me). I shopped as therapy, as a distration. Buying new things made me feel better, but it was always a fleeting feeling.

So while I have those urges now, I also know myself better now and don't act on those impulses but sleep on thm, entertain them, all the while trying to figure out what's prompting them in the first place.

I needed new jeans. I try to buy at the thrift stores or from eBay, but jeans are just something that I need to try on if they're truly going to fit well. I hate jeans that are too long, and I hate when the waist gaps like crazy in the back. I'd seen a pair in the Land's End catalog that sounded promising, and supposedly Sears carries them. So I went to Sears tonight, but no luck. Tried the Gap - terrible fit. I'd probably find a decent fit in the juniors department, but frankly I don't want ultra low rise jeans.

Aswe were heading back to go the car (DH and DD came with me) I saw a Sears brand and thought what the heck, I'll try a pair on. They fit great! And they were two pair for $39, so I spent about what I would have spent on one pair of any other jeans that I'd looked at but got twice as many new pair. :-)

Now I have two brands and styles that I can search for on eBay in the future- the levi's that I already liked but hate paying full price for, and these.

I've made three meals so far from the sample SavingDinner.com weekly menu. I've adapted all of them to be vegetarian, and thus far I've been pretty pleased with the results. They've been easy to prepare, and having the shopping list done for me took the grunt work out of the planning. Will I subscribe to her list for a month or two? I'm not sure yet.

I talked myself out of spending nearly $300 on a pre-packaged curriculum for DD and instead picked out a few books at amazon and Barnes and Noble that will work very well for us. I have plenty of experience writing and planning curriculum, but there was something appealing about buying the whole thing in one fell swoop. Until I got to the checkout screen at the web site, that is. I just couldn't plunk down that much money for something I know I can do myself, given a little bit of time and gethering my resources together.

So instead of $300 I spent about $45.

I spent a little over $13 today on yarn for a poncho for DD. Yarn was on sale at Joanns, so I was able to get some furry yarn for the neck and bottom, too! it is going to be three colors (stripes) and I think it will be cute.

Got to Vons and bought the last few items on my list. Got the world's unfriendliest checker. I've had her twice now and both times she's been grumpy. I'm avoiding her line from now on. I only bought one thing that wasn't on my list - lowfat ice cream sandwches. Yum!

Dinner is cooking as I type, and DH is nowehere to be seen. He normally calls if he's going to be leaving late, so hopefully he is somewhere between there and here.

Tutoring started today. One student paid me for just today's session; the other one had three sessions prepaid from last year. But I do have some fun money now.

Subscribers of FLyLady.net know about Leann and Saving Dinner. I printed out her sample menu for two and am going to try it, with the vegetarian options. We'll see - her menus seem very meat-heavy, and I don't know how well the veggie substitutions will work. But I've done the shopping for the week's menu and am willing to give it a try. Actually, there are a few things I couldn't get at trader joe's so I still need to go to Vons.

Ahhh....Sunday evening. DH and I feel llike we're fighting off the flu, DD is going 100 mph. We took DD to a skating birthday party today, and the three of us wound up skating. It was fun! Not real cheap, however, but fun nonetheless. I'm going to find out what their fall hours and rates are, and I may take DD back a time or two.

I've been putting off going to the grocery store, but I really need to go tomorrow. I don't have any meals planned for dinner this week, and we are even out of bread and running low on cereal. We're having soup tonight.

We were invited to have dinner at some friends' house last night, and it was wonderful. Nothing fancy - spaghetti with homemade sauce, green salad, bread, and we brought some sparkling cider for the kids and homemade blondies - but it tasted wonderful and we had a really great time just sitting around and chatting, and letting our kids play. It was one of those night where everyone says, "We really need to do this more often!" Doesn't cost any more than a regular dinner at home and provides a much needed boost to the spirit.

DH and I were going to start working on fixing up our guest bathroom this weekend, but both of us seem to be lazing around instead. It's nearly noon and DD and I are both still in jammies. I've been messing around with my beads, experimenting with making key fobs. My mom wants me to make some for her gardening friends for Christmas this year. If I can come up with some designs that I like, I may try to make a few extra to sell in the store.

I forgot to mention that we applied for a reward card and should have it within a month or so. It would have been nice to have one last fall, when our dog started racking up these charges, but we didn't.

We're going to see if we can charge our mortgage. If so, we'll be able to earn quite a few miles each year from that alone! But I don't know if we can do that. Right now we have our mortgage automatically deducted from a checking account, and we may have gotten a quarter point reduction in our rate at refi time as a result. Need to check.

Soon we will be earning free airline tickets. Woo hoo!!

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.

Today was a spend no money day. No bills were due, no errands needed to be run. I basically didn't even think about money at all today, and that was nice. My niece and nephew came over for lunch and to hang out with DD (their cousin), and then we all had dinner at my in-laws' house. DH's brother is in town with his girlfriend. Lots of family time today. Families can be weird and awkward and frustrating, but it's nice to have them around, too.

Side note about Google - I checked my adsense stats this evening and so far DivaTribe is bringing in a fair amount of $. :-) At the rate it's going it will more than pay for the hosting costs I currently incur.

Oh, I need to call my insurance company and see if I can get the rate reduced on our second car, now that DH bikes to work and it isn't being used on a daily, or even weekly, basis.

I have had the urge to buy stuff lately - small stuff, stuff we don't really need. I think I'm getting past it though. After going out to buy more milk and toothpaste, DD I went to two other store but walked out without buying anything. So even if the urge to spend money is sometimes there, at least now not only can I sense that it's creeping up out of some other need, but I can talk myself through it. I don't need special under-eye dark circle concealer when regular concealer will do just fine. And that's not even the issue - the real issue is that I'm feeling super ugly these days and need a decent haircut and some time out in the sunshine. No miracle dark circle concealer can make up for those things.

Paid bills today. Visa came today - all of the dog's charges are on it, so it is a biggie. Still, we will pay it all off. Speaking of Visa - DH and I are looking into some sort of mileage/reward credit card. There are two we're considering right now. Since we already charge so many of our purchases anyway, and we pay it off in full each month, we might as well get some rewards if we can. I need to read the fine print on each one before we make a decision.

Today we're going to the fair. We can take the free shuttle there, so no hassles with driving or finding (and paying for) parking. We got two free tickets becuase DD is performing with her dance classes, and 4 more at a reduced rate by buying them ahead of time through DH's work. My in-laws, niece, nephew, former brother-in-law, and my mom are all coming with us, to see DD. We bought some ride tickets ahead of time too, at a reduced rate. Love planning ahead!

The prescription saga continues...I got a reimbursement check in the mail yesterday for the three receipts I had submitted. Only two got reimbursed - the third said I had filled it "too closee to another refill" or some such nonsense. Got on the phone, politely (I swear! I was polite!) explained what I thought had happened (filled in town out of necessity and got my mail order processed, finally). Long story short, I've got a credit coming my way.

Always examine bills and statements for errors, and don't be afraid to get on the phone AND write letters until you get resolution.

For the things we buy, I think Trader Joe's gives us more for our money. I went to Vons today, spent about $90 and don't feel like I got nearly as much for my money as I would have at TJ's. I know milk and cheese are cheaper at Trader Joe's. I ought to save a couple of receipts and do some comparisons. I've read about keeping a price book at various sites, and in The Tightwad Gazette, but so far I've never done that. Funny - I usually love to analyze stuff like that.

My auctions are almost done. Of the four that have ended already I've made about $40; one more ends later this afternoon. People are still getting good deals for these stamps, but I'm making more than I had hoped. Win-win.

The latest sale in the consignment store....looks like the customer didn't hit the final "confirm order" button. Says a check is in the mail. We shall see. I went in and palyed around with the text on the second to last page, hoping to make it OBVIOUS that the order isn't confirmed until you hit the "confirm" button.

Had another former student call yester regarding tutoring. That brings me up to five students, if she is going to come on a regular basis this year. The call was for a couple of review sessions before school starts.

So that's that. A little bit of money coming in right now and I feel good about it.

Edited to add that I made about $43 on my auctions. :-)

Back from a weekend away. DD and I went out of town to visit my parents and had a good time just relaxing, blowing bubbles, walking around town.

I have five auctions going right now and the total is up over $25. That is encouraging.

My daughter is going through a pile of clothes from the little girl across the street. They're both tall and thin, so it works out well to have a neighbor who's about two years older than DD. I think she got 2-3 pairs of pants, about 5-6 shirts and some leggings to sleep in. I think hand-me-downs are great and hope DD feels the same for as long as possible, especially when the neighbors across the street buy good quality items to begin with.

Just one day later, 3 of my 4 auctions have bids and are up over $18 already. yea! I haven't listed my last lot of stamps, but I ought to do it, since these others appear to be successful.

DH gets paid every two weeks, so some months we get an "extra" check now. Between that, and a check received from some freelance work, we have almost enough right there to cover our dog's bill. It appears our savings are preserved for another day.

I got a phone call yesterday from the mom of a former tutoring student. She wants her daughter to come see me again this year, so that brings me up to four students. I think each will come once a week, too. I am going to call all of these families in a couple of weeks and get my schedule put together.

I've spent some time this morning listing 15 rubber stamps at eBay, in four separate lots. I have six more stamps to sell as a group, but I'm holding off on listing them until my other four listings get a bit of traffic. I tried to list the ones that were most likely to sell first. I hope I get some decent bids for these. It is kind of hard to part with a few of them, thinking about how much money I've spent over the years. But I just don't use them anymore, and now they are just taking up space and making me feel guilty whenever I see them and try to remember the last time I even used them. And then there are those that I bought and never even used, or used maybe once. What a waste.

I washed the car today. It was filthy! Now and then DH or I will run it through the automatic car wash at the gas station, but today I just felt like doing it myself. So now it's done and cost pennies to do.

Tried one of the three new recipes two nights ago, and DD and I ate the leftovers last night while DH worked late. It was OK - the recipe sounded better than the final product, but it was still good. Good enough, anyway. I think I'll try another one this evening.

My prescription saga seems to finally worked out, unless it doesn't come today via FedEx. After all of my phone calls and complaining, I finally got a supervisor involved who called my doctor's office personally. That got results. I don't know where the breakdown in communication was, but it seems to be figured out now. Persistence is the key, sometimes.

I got out two cookbooks that I haven't used much and found three new recipes to try. So that will be at least three meals at home this week, plus at least one night of leftovers, most likely. I did all the shopping yesterday, aside from getting self-rising flour. I figure there has to be a substitution for that using regular flour and baking powder, or something.

The concert last night was fun, and we had a great dinner of crackers and cheese, fruit and veggies, pitas and hummus, and juice mixed with Pellegrino (sp?). It was all appetizer food but we had plenty of it and it was quite satisfying. Plus, eating outdoors with good friends is satisfying all by itself.

Right now, I seem to lack enthusiasm for saving. Ironically, I spent much of the morning updating frugal living pages at DivaTribe, immersing myself in the world of saving. I am willing to cut myself a little slack and figure that since we now have our hands full with caring for our dog, and have been stressed and tired, ordering a pizza last night isn't the end of world. We're eating in tonight, once DH finally gets home.

Tomorrow night we're going to an outdoor concert with friends. We're each bringing a picnic dinner to share, so I'll be heading to Trader Joe's tomorrow for some yummy goodies.

Mostly I'm just tired. Last night was a hard night - first night home with our dog and he barely slept at all. Spent the night crying and whimpering, instead (him, not me). ;-) He's been sleeping some today, and if my 4 y/o would actually take a nap I would have loved to grab a little snooze. Alas, that did not happen.

OK, this is just me rambling now and not talking much about saving money. Bear with me - I will get back on the wagon soon enough.