Well tomorrow it is back to the real world! All the Christmas hoopla, vacation days, and sleeping in are over!

Let me know somw topics you want to explore. I want to get back into some money saving tips. I need to cut my budget a little more and I am looking at drastic measures!!

Update on the food challenge I gave myself: As some of you know I was attempting to cut my total food expenditure for the year 2001. Well I ran the numbers yesterday and for the year my weekly average was $65.09 per week for a family of 6. This included all food expenditures, including going out to eat, chicken feed, and money spent on seeds and at the store for groceries. I had a goal of limiting this to $50.

Anyone want to set a goal of decreasing their spending this year? I am going to re-adjust my goal to $55 per week. What I do is everytime I spend any money on the above mentioned items I write the amount on my calendar. Then at the end of the month I total them and write them down. Then I can find my average per month and per week. I use Fridays to determine how many weeks we are up to so far. At the end of the year I just divide the total by 52 to get my weekly average. I am sure with a few minor changes I can reach my new goal.

We can do this at the beginning of each month and see if we are reaching our goals.

I am fighting a cold today. I woke up in the middle of the night with my nose stuffed up, and my throat sore. So today I have not done much, but I am feeling better.

Hope you have all had a good day, see you tomorrow.

-- Melissa (me@home.net), January 01, 2002

Answers

Melissa, I use zicam at the first sign of a cold, Its pretty new, It sure works great. But got to catch cold at first sign of scrachy feeling. It costs about 10.00 dollars, but well worth it. I stops the cold in its tracts.You sniff it. Also about saveing money, Please with all that is going on in the world, Pakistan and India, possibly nuclear attack, You may have to hole up for a while, Radiation and all that, Please stock up, Don"t let your cubboards get bare to save money right now. Maybe nothing will happen, But we didn"t think the twin towers would get hit ether. But if I was to save money, Do as we did in the depression, Cook every thing from scratch.Mom made rice dishes 100 differant ways, Lots of soups, Buy in large quanities, I bet you do all ready. To tell the truth I don"t try to hard to save on food. I get hungrey for something I buy it. To old I quess. God bless Irene

-- Irene texas (tkorsborn@cs.com), January 01, 2002.

Wish I was getting back in the groove tomorrow! Thursday I'll head to Miss., to visit my mother-in-law. Her mother is terminally ill, just any time now, so I'm going to stand in for my wife, who won't be able to come to the funeral when it happens, or so it now appears. Since I'm in the U.S. just now. Vicki and I are talking every day by Internet, but just ain't the same.

I lasted until 11:45 last night and gave up. Listened to my folks' clock chime at midnight from a sleepy pillow. Said a prayer and dropped off to sleep.

Trying to get my head back into place to start writing again. Today finally I sent out notices on my umpteen email lists that my grandfather had passed away and that I was out of the country. Other than that, haven't written a thing in a week. Now that's a stretch!

Perhaps tomorrow Dad and I, at his suggestion, will go out for a drive and see some of the places where I grew up. The last time I was out there so much had changed, and I not all that old! Most of the houses we had lived in are gone. (My parents averaged moving about every two years.)

Hope your first day of the year was a wonderful harbinger of good things to come for 2002.

-- Randal (randal@onebox.com), January 01, 2002.

Melissa-I'm game to go along with that, except that I want to cut down to $50 a week-I believe I'm feeding a couple folks less than you. My plan is to on alternate Fridays, (when my husband gets paid) I plan to withdraw $100 in cash and thats what I spend! If I spend less, I get to keep the extra for sales and such. If I take a checkbook, I tend to spend more.

Some of you may worry about nutrition and such-please know that I WILL NOT skimp on portions or nutrition-if I have to spend $500 a week I would do that (Lord knows where THAT would come from!)I want to do this now that I don't have to, if that makes sense-if I need to spend more one week, I can. I don't want to wait until things might get terrible before I learn to shop this way.

Irene-you addressed the stocking-up issue. My pantry is in good shape now-I'm dont plan to decrease that, plus I plan to do HUGE gardening this spring. My goal is looking at doing as much as I can myself and not depending on grocery stores so much. Yes, I DO have a very good idea how hard this is, thats why I want to get started now. We want to get our debt erased-thats our primary goal, while getting as self sufficent as possible-we're looking at decreasing our power usage as much as possible and gradually going off-grid. No way am I going to let the pantry get low.

-- Kelly (homearts2002@yahoo.com), January 01, 2002.

I hate to admit this, but I'll be very happy to get back to a normal schedule soon. For me it'll really be next week to get fully back in the groove again. I've been fighting sinus problems again and have been using a steamer/humidifier next to my bed at night. I'm seriously considering getting a larger unit for the living area if I can find one reasonably priced at Meijer's.

I just put together my 'to do' list for tomorrow and then set the alarm an hour after looking at it. ;o) I'm not one for making New Year's resolutions, but I am going to try to work a bit more diligently and not procrastinate quite as much. Mind you, I'm not hoping to stop completely, but rather trim back a bit. ;o)

I've found that spending money on buying my new used tractor has only led to wanting to spend more money on various implements for it. I certainly need a brush hog for spring at the very minimum. Of course, being a 'guy,' I've already had visions of a box blade, back blade, rotary tiller and maybe even an auger for fence posts. Even though I've not seen enough snow to even warrant brooming off the sidewalk yet this year, I've even thought a snow blower would be a cool toy to have, too. Of course, if I'm going to do much snowblowing I'd certainly need a cab. And then, with the cab I'd have to have a heater and defroster to be able to see. Since the defroster portion is in an overhead console already wired for one, I probably ought to put in the stereo sound system, too. ;o)

Truth be told, I'll look for a used 5' brush hog and be done. It's fun to dream, though.

-- Gary in Indiana (gk6854@aol.com), January 01, 2002.

Good points Irene about the pantry. I do keep a pretty large amount of food on hand, and I don't think that will cahnge. We live just far enough from the stores to amke it awfully inconvenient to run in for little odds and ends, so when I shop I buy large quanities. I also can a lot of vegetables, pickles and sauces each year. I have a big freezer that is full, still have about 400 jars of home-canned food, and a 4 x 8 foot cupboard that is so full right now, opening it is dangerous!! We also still have plenty of potatoes and apples in the fruit cellar, and a bushel basket of oranges and grapefruit that was given to us at Christmas. So keeping stocked is important to us here too!

Good idea Kelly, about the cash. I find I spend more with the checkbook too. I usually go to aldi's and they don't take checks, so that helps.

Gary, you made me laugh, but I imagine you will eventually find all of those implements you want. It seems like you are able to find the good deals! I have found that if you get in a hurry it costs you more money, so being patient is the key!!!!

-- Melissa (me@home.net), January 02, 2002.

Randal, I did get your e-mail from the couplets list. I must admit I will be glad to start getting your poems again, I have missed them. I hope your wife and kids are doing OK, without you. I'm sure they miss you.

-- Melissa (me@home.net), January 02, 2002.

Thanks, Melissa. Seems like the muse took flight this past week. I don't know which is more difficult, staying home or travelling. Vicki was gone two weeks a few years back when her stepfather died. I was dad, mom, and chief cook for the period. Truth be told, neither is much fun when you're away from family. But reunion is always a delight!

-- Randal (randal@onebox.com), January 02, 2002.

I spend a total of $75 dollars a month on grocery's $15 on diapers and $25 dollars on other household items. I am sure it will go up as the kids get older. We aren't home alot and only fix one meal a day (except weekends). Bus fare is $60 a month school is $260 plus I have rent and phone bill. I don't think I can get any less expensive than that. We always seem to have everything we need.

-- melinda (speciallady104@hotmail.com), January 02, 2002.