I’m almost out of the lotion I use in the winter to keep my skin from cracking (Eucerin), face moisturizer, and Brian’s leave-in conditioner. The Eucerin I bought last fall/winter at Costco for $15 for two 14 oz bottles. That’s a steal since most stores carry the 14 oz bottles for around $12. Brian’s leave-in conditioner I can only get at Target and when that brand (Garnier) is on sale, it is usually for $2.99 for all styling products but that is the normal price!

My meltdown was caused by a certain store *coughmeijercough* no longer carrying the kind of face moisturizer I’ve used for years. It really didn’t warrent an all out moody fit but it happened. I’m proud to say I didn’t get upset with the store employees, just myself. It was enough to keep me home that night even though I had plans to go out.

Lesson Learned: Sometimes planning ahead doesn’t work. We’re still really close to our goal of spending only $25 on groceries this month!

I know, I know. Hold the applause. It was one if the easier new recipes I’ve tried. I had to figure out if any of the skillets I have are oven safe. Turns out that both my 10″ skillets are, one to 350• and my bright orange Rachael Ray one to 400•. Since the recipe called for the frittta to be baked at 400•, I used the orange one.

The recipe went really smoothly. The potatoes and onions browned nicely, I didn’t spill any of the egg mix while transfering the pan to the oven. And then, I took it out. It was beautiful (as beautiful as food can be). Stupidly, or just not thinking at the moment, I grabbed the handle of the pan to keep it from sliding on the stove. It was HOT! I burned a lovely circle in the palm of my left hand. Through the pain and then the icy stabs of really cold water, I realized that it could be worse. I could have burned my right hand and then really been up a creek.

I will be repeating this recipe, all except the burning part.

The most interesting thing we’ve had to do so far is to dip into our supply of dry milk that I bought long ago for “emergencies.” Normally, I wouldn’t think anything of stopping at the store after work to pick of a gallon of milk if we had ran out but this week, we’ve already spent as much money as we’re allowed. So far, we made mac and cheese and tomato soup with the dry milk. The soup was just as good as normal. The mac and cheese was so-so. I don’t know if it was the milk or the slightly overcooked noodles.

For groceries this week, I spent $5.92 on (4) cans of tomato soup, (1) can of Select harvest soup, (1) box of Mrs. Grass’s soup, 1 lb of romaine for a dinner with friends on Tuesday, conditioner for a curly haired someone and a CHEAP bottle of flavored coffee creamer. Not too shabby. Next week we need milk, block cheese and bread. That might be all we have money to spend on.

Happy weekend!

Five!

Tonight we ate chicken nuggets and french fries for dinner. It’s healthy because the nuggets are breaded in whole wheat. That’s healthy, right?

This challenge couldn’t have come at a better time. We had yet another car expense to pay today that wasn’t planned for and after the mortgage check cleared, we were down to the smallest amount of money I think we’ve ever had in our bank account since we got married.

I keep reminding myself of the verse Ed Dobson spoke about in church on Sunday: “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

I spend too much time thinking about how things will work out tomorrow, what else will cost us more money that we were trying to save. Sometimes it feels like we’ll never reach our long term goals because we keep getting kicked while we’re already down. All I can do is try to thank God we have enough to get us by today and remember that today is enough for me. He’ll take care of my tomorrows.