The Year in Review....Part IV

No, I am not celebrating the New Year yet!
Mimi over at LIVING IN FRANCE is doing a Linky Thingy...don't ya like my use of technical terms?

Anyway, you are suppose to post your life's highlights from 2010.  This installment is covering October, November and December.

Check out the other blogs taking part by clicking on the button....






OCTOBER

The garden winds down.  I have winter veggies like Butternut Squash still hanging on.  I also attempt to get a couple more weeks of growing time for the stunted Eggplant plants, by constructing a 'frugal hothouse' using tomato cages and large clear contractor's plastic bags.  For all my efforts I get one tiny eggplant.


I share my thoughts on food security/insecurity in this country.  It's not a pretty picture...

I score an awesome grocery store Catalina Deal for bacon, just when my 2 yr. supply is about to run out.  I "heart" bacon....and I especially "heart" bacon when it's pennies on the dollar!

I take a blogging break.
It doesn't even last a week.

I spend a lot of money on food this month, despite the bacon cat deal.  My food budget explodes but I don't seem to care much as long as I have a BLT(with almost free bacon)to placate me.

Daughter hears back from the 1st two colleges she applied to for next fall.

I spend a fair amount of time sourcing free Candy for Halloween distributing at Rite-Aid.  And then I wonder why our house is quite popular on the evening of Oct. 31st.

I start my "Simplifying the Holidays" Series of posts.  Talking and thinking about Christmas before Halloween leads to stressing me out even more.

Daughter + College=Parents + Poor House.

NOVEMBER

#2 son's  Marching Band wins 1st place at a major competition.  A nice way to finish the season.

I report on my visit to the local farm and my subsequent pumpkin puree making adventure.  Making a pie from scratch turns out to be a little more work(cheaper but definitely more time consuming)than I had anticipated.  I'll never complain about paying for those cans of pumpkin again!

We harvest the last of the garden veggies and top out at growing almost 94 lbs. of food this year.  I am very pleasantly surprised by the number!

The neighbor's RV mysteriously disappears from the driveway and does not return all month.
No, I do NOT have relatives with the last name of SOPRANO but I have many relatives by marriage named TONY....and most of them live in New Jersey.
Suddenly I develop a craving for cannoli....

2 of our 3 cars are "clam chowdered" in the dead of night.  No sightings of large white RVs in the vicinity when this incident occurs however.

I open my eBay store finally!  I'm only a month late doing so and I miss a big chunk of the prime selling season.  From the healthy amount of sales I deduce that either the economy IS picking up a bit or people are putting their economic woes aside until after the Holidays.

I get a good rant on about consumerism in this country and rail against people living beyond their means.

In my next breath, I get 'my nerd on' and talk about Budgeting for Christmas.

I explore a bit of little known Thanksgiving history.

I complain about the Rite-Aid GIFT OF SAVINGS program this year.  A couple weeks later they change the program so it's easier to earn the gift certificate.
Coincidence?  I think not! lol

I do a lot of  'shops' at Rite-Aid.  So what's new, right?!?

It is the end of November and there is no snow yet this fall/winter.  For here, that is highly unusual.

My computer's hard drive goes on life support......then quickly followed by flat lining and we are forced to pull the plug on the serge protector of life.


DECEMBER

I break down and buy a new hard drive after I lose many many files and photos.
Hubs breaks down and buys me an automatic file backup system.

I post an old entry about frugal gift wrapping.  It's worth a reread.

I try to get back into Meal Planning and posting them.  I fail miserably and resolve to get back to it in January.

I spend way too much time and effort trying to track down cheap Pistachio Nuts at Rite-Aid stores in Northeastern PA.  But I rationalize it by saying everybody needs a hobby, right?lol

I make a real good bonehead goof shipping the wrong item to the wrong buyer on eBay.  And it can't be a domestic shipping package, no!....it has to involve the Czech Republic and Spain!  Luckily I avert an international incident of epic proportions!  But I still inadvertently piss-off a Spaniard.  Oh well.....at least his name is not inigo montoya and he didn't kill my father.....

I share my favorite and my not-so-favorite Christmas songs and give away a surprise gift.

I finally earn and receive an ad revenue check for my blog from Google.  I do my Sally Field impersonation while clutching it like an Oscar and gush, "You love me!  You really love me!!".

I transform into Suzy "F-ing" Homemaker(Suzy if she has little sleep from doing eBay all month, that is)and bake cookies and pies day after day.  The family is thrilled and happily eats themselves into sugar shock.

I share Christmas pictures as well as favorite Ornaments on the Tree pictures with my dear readers.  I leave out the photo of me passed out from exhaustion on the couch with a bottle laying on the floor next to me.

Since this was the Chinese Year of the Rite-Aid(who needs an animal, right?), I make more trips to Rite-Aid than Carter has liver pills in December.   At this point, I should just call in a list of what I want and then back my car up to the door and honk, and they should bring it out and fill my vehicle.  And then they should give me cash from the register for taking it off their hands.  Ok....so they do do 'some' of that, but I am still forced to actually go into the store and pick it out.
Oy!  What I put up with, huh?!

I shared my 2010 totals of how much spent(or NOT spent!lol)and how much I got from Rite-Aid.
Rite-Aid stock drops dramatically after this is posted.  Stockholders start a massive sell-off.  Chaos ensues......ok, not really!lolol

Sluggy