Friday, Day 2, instalment 1

As I expected, Tv was not as much fun for me last night. I used a Favourite Channel function on my receiver and programmed only the channels which would be available on basic cable. Complete with commercials. Having carrot sticks and 2 cups of hot milk sweetened with icing sugar DID not adequately replace either a pot of black current tea or a glass of wine with some Boursin and crackers! The milk and icing sugar resulted from a stop at Shoppers on my way home from Pinecrest. Since I shopped for groceries I felt I needed to count my van use as personal and debit myself $1 (I was originally going out only for a meeting and wasn't going to count that.) At Shoppers, as I learned at lunch yesterday, milk is indeed $4.29 for 4 L and even at that my hand shook when I had to pay for it. BUT, for some odd Shoppers reason, they had icing sugar on sale for $1, and cans of salmon for $1. Throw in (figuratively speaking) a dozen eggs for 2.29 and my bill was 9.11. Now that in itself doesn't sound like a very appetizing meal, (milk, icing sugar, salmon and eggs) but it will be the base for several good meals. It's also a huge chunk out of my dwindling funds. Hmmm, it's beginning to sound like a salmon casserole with pasta!

As an aside I did have to use my vehicle yesterday to drive Daniel to school, and stopped at RCWC to get gas. Just for symbolism I stopped the pump at $52 and the tank was still just past half full. Thinking of putting an entire week's grocery and incidental budget into the tank of my car was another glaring example of how many of us take our lifestyle for granted.

One thought that occurred to me today, is that having $52 to spend in a week is only marginally more reasonable than spending it at $7.30 a day...and dangerous in a way: assistance recipients would receive their whole month's 'allowance' at once. This has an upside in that the oatmeal I bought on Wednesday will actually last a month. I would have bought cheese because it would stretch past the week. The dozen eggs would cover two weeks, so I'd have much more latitude in grocery selection, projecting it over a month. The downside is that if the recipient didn't have or didn't utilize money-managing skills , the whole budget could be shot in a week, leaving nothing for daily needs.

I'm finding a lot of little but irritating voids in my supplies...hand lotion, conditioner (apparently I brought home 2 shampoos from the hotel and no conditioner!) kleenex and lypsil! Yes, they're little things, but conspicuous by their absence.

Another Cat Cost that I hadn't considered yesterday was my allergy medication I take every day because I'm allergic to her!! $15/month for Allertin. Fay suggested that I research aid for vet expenses for OW clients and I'll do that today. Or Mocha would have to find a new home and she's way too old for that. And I'm still too fragile to part with her...

I'm off today to complete some pre-scheduled errands for "butterfly supplies" for the summer but even though it was scheduled before the challenge, I am asking for a ride. And someone else is paying for the stuff.

For the record, it takes a lot more than applesauce and icing sugar to make this NN brand oatmeal taste much like Maple and Brown Sugar instant oatmeal packages. When this challenge is over I guess I'll make date squares with the remainder. I do think that I'll certainly have enough groceries to make it through the week, especially with lunches out most days. It's the 'incidentals' that will be the problem. Oh yeah, and my challenge today is "allow a friend to buy you lunch or dinner." Since lunch is at Knox, I'm available for dinner...

A few friends have commented on having difficulty leaving comments. I'll try and sort that out with the other participants and Fay today.