Stuff & Nonsense

This shirt would sum up my mood lately.  January Spending Diet?
Yah....not so much!lol
I am truly sick of spending already.

Yesterday since Hubs had the day off, we took a ride down to the Food Outlet to see what goodies we could find.
You never know what cheap finds await you at the Food Outlet.  Last time I got burritos for the teens.  Odd children here...they don't like my healthier, cheaper, homemade burritos.  They want the store bought kind. Humph!

I don't get down to the Food Outlet much as it's a long ride(see uses alot of gas!)so we look to combine that trip with other necessary shopping and we load up on the goodies we find at the FO.
Hubs wanted to get some sweaters to wear to work.  Seems they are keeping the thermostat at work lower and Hubs is getting chilled now.  He gave away or wore out all his sweaters a few years back so we hit the winter clothing clearance sale at KMart near the Food Outlet.
We found 4 nice, heavy cotton sweaters for under $35 total.
The Food Outlet was a less than thrilling outcome.  Picked up single serve applesauce for .59¢ per 6 pack(for Hubs lunch), tubes of ground chicken or turkey for $1, Blue Corn Taco Shells for $1, and some other bits and pieces.  Then Hubs snuck in a box of garbage bags for $7.99(eek!)so we dropped $32.80 in there without any real stocking up.

I dropped by a couple Rite-Aids down there as well and got a few goodies.  I'll post that separately after I get the photo taken.

Some blog business.....I've added to the right sidebar a new feature, my Monthly To-Do List.  Hopefully this will keep me from going an entire year without considering the Sewing chores I need to do.  At least now I'll have to ignore doing things IN SPITE OF it Staring me in the Face!lolz

I'll also be taking down the 2010 Grocery Spending Totals and the Savings Challenge Totals shortly.
Time to start fresh for 2011, right? ;-)

I have a hypothetical question for you all....
If  'someone' was to give away a Gift Card as a blog contest prize, for which store would YOU want to win a gift card?
Any kind of store, movie theatre chain, gas station, whatever.
Just leave a comment with your top 3 choices.

Ok, I'm off to the garage to whip my stockpile into better organizational shape.  Since I have the good fortune....cough, cough.....and pleasure of my children's company for a 4th day in a row(thank you snow day from school!), I am getting some work out of them today.

Sluggy

Just a NOTE from Your Friendly Neighborhood Blogger

I just wanted to tell ya'll that I have added to my right side bar layout. Besides keeping a running total on the $60K Saving$ Challenge I am doing this year, I have added another running total for what I have Spent and Saved in the Grocery Budget for 2009. I think visitors to the blog might have seen the Savings Challenge and thought it was me keeping track of my Savings on Food/HBA Shopping for the year.
Nope.

So I added a keeping track of money saved/spent on Food/HBA for the year too, as a lot of frugal mom/couponing/financial accountability blogs I see have them.
Not that this is JUST a couponing/frugal blog but it's a facet of me and my blog so I'm trying on the appropriate bells & whistles.
And speaking of grocery savings for the year, I am FLOORED that by shopping sales & using coupons I've saved my family over SIXTEEN THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS so far this year!
Incroyable!
Incredible too.... ;-)

And while I have your attention.....I DO have your attention, yes?!.....I'd love to hear some feedback or comments or suggestions or constructive criticism you might have about my blog. Keep in mind that I am NOT about the 'prettiness' thing here-no fancy designs or colors. Layout and readability is more what I am striving for here. Is is easy to read?

Do I go on too long and ramble too much....or do you like a personal rambling blog?

Are the financial type posts with all the numbers and figures too dry and drive you away or do you just skip over that so you don't fall asleep with your face on the keyboard?

Do you want to see something different? More photos? More cooking/recipes? More coupon stuff?

Or is there something I do here that drives you crazy that you want a lot less of?

Be frank but be kind and tell me!

Do you prefer one big Looooong post where I mash everything in together like the way it rattles around in my head or would you like to see more smaller entries....maybe even lots of entries a day if lots of stuff is going on?

Are there any regular features you'd like to see me host? Charity Challenges? Contests?

How about giveaways? This is an idea I've been toying with in my head lately. If I did those, what would you want to win?
I've got some dogs and kids I'd gladly donate to that cause.....**BEG**<-that's a Big Evil Grin

As always, thanks for the opportunity to share my day & life with ya'll. Now back to your regularly scheduled day....


Sluggy