Seems like old times

Lately, I've sent out quite a few invitations for people to come check out my blog. So, if you aren't really sure by what I'm talking about, if you start down at the bottom, there is an explaination of the "No Buy" lifestyle I've adopted. It's also a little weird for me to write "publicly" as I am used to journaling on paper and keeping it very much to myself.

Seems like old times....

Every month or so, I try to budget in some sort of family activity. For this month, it was a fairly large amount ($150) to visit the Houston Zoo. I knew the trip would involve two meals away from home and my parents were coming along, so I made the budget a little larger than I would normally. DH really wanted me to budget in some money for Chinese food on the Lunar New Years Day, so I told him if we had money left over from the zoo trip, we would have take out on Thursday. Also, in the budget this month, we added $100 for Valentine's Day gifts. These amounts made me a little nervous.

Monday came and we took a great trip into Houston. We loaded the entire McGee Brothers Traveling Circus (what I call it when there is a lot of us, plus gear) into my mom's SUV and headed off down the road. We made short work of the trip and ate lunch at Pappa's Barbeque. My parent's paid for their own lunch and all was good. I spent $22 there. Then, at the zoo, we spent another $36 between admission, a carousel ride, cotton candy and a coke. Again, not too shabby. For dinner, we stopped at La Madeliene. We bought for everyone and spent $65. So, for the day, we spent $123 out of the $150 budget. This would leave us more than enough for Chinese food on Thursday. It's been a great day, and I'm happy!

Tuesday comes, and the coffeepot is dead. We go out and strike the deal in Target (read about it in the previous post) to call the whole thing Valentine's Day, therefore using that $100 budget.

When my booklight went out on Tuesday night, I discoverd the big red bucket of batteries under the counter was empty! So, Wednesday, I am looking through the CVS flyer and weighing my options. (If you do not know a serious CVSer, you would be shocked by how much they get for ridiculously low prices using the Extra Care Bucks system to it's full advantage.) I see the battery deal, the M&Ms deal, the Excedrin deal, top it all off with a Pull Ups coupon that expires on Saturday and formulate my plan. I spent $51 after my coupons, got 32 AA batteries, 4 AAA batteries, a Mega pack of Pull Ups, 2 big bags of M&Ms, and 2 boxes of Excedrin. I got back $22 in ECBs (Extra Care Bucks) that I hope to use to roll into other CVS deals. I pay the $51 out of the grocery/household budget and there is plenty of room for it, so I haven't gone over here.

Thursday, I am eyeing the grocery ads. I don't normally shop until Sunday or Monday, but they have chicken on sale for 77 cents a pound, limit 2. When I see a great deal like this, I usually split my grocery shopping into two trips so I can maximize. I'll admit that I'm also excited to use my new Seal a Meal to repackage the bulk chicken. So, it's off to HEB, where I spend about $20 out of the grocery/household budget. No big deal, it's all good. Right?

Thursday night, I come home for dinner and find this fantastic meal of Kung Pao Chicken, Sweet and Sour Chicken, dumplings and egg rolls. It was a fantastic dinner! It was budgeted! And yet, I didn't really enjoy it.

It had been days and days since I had a $0 day. I had now had 3 meals from a restuarant, gone shopping every single day, bought two appliances, and spent more to get free money at CVS? What in the world have I been thinking? Whoa! This was way too much like our previous lifestyle to make me comfortable.

I did get in a $0 day, today. So that helps a little, but dang it, I think I am going to feel this one for a while. I seem to be off track, and yet, it was all budgeted! I'll just have to keep sorting it all out in my head and learn my lesson. For now, I'll just take two Excedrin and go to bed.