EVENING TEA WITH JODY B., Friday, January 9, 2015: Yesterday my attempts to cut our food budget passed the five days mark at $144.77. That now averages out to $28.95 a day, and divide that by 8 people and I’m still pretty close to the mark I’ve been maintaining with $3.82 a day apiece for five days of meals. Today was a different sort of day though. I confess, I had a leftover chocolate brownie and a cup of coffee and a glass of milk for breakfast. Hunter had a bowl of Fruit Loops Cereal. Mike had two pieces of toast with peanut butter, and Mark and Teonia had fried eggs and coffee. Orion had dry Fruit Loops on his high chair tray with a glass of juice on the side. Im going to claim this smorgasboard of choices as checking at around $2.00, although Im not sure of anything. Lunch was fried egg sandwiches, omelets with onions in them on toast with Miracle Whip, juice and coffee. Again Im going to say we came in at around $ 3.00 although Im a little wishy washy about what exactly the bottom line was. Supper tonight was blueberry pancakes with fresh blueberries in them that were free (the blueberries, not the Bisquick), and eggs over easy. Blueberry pancakes were a big hit with Orion. He managed to make his way through two. Again, Im going to say that supper checked in at about $2.00. That totals $7.82 today. I havent counted the Pizza Rolls Mark and Teonia couldnt live without. Lets give them a $4.98 price tag. That gives me a $12.86 total. If I figure it another way, $2.00 for a loaf of bread, $2.00 for half a bottle of milk, $1.50 for a dozen eggs, $1.00 for juice and $4.98 for Pizza Rolls, this way it comes in at $11.48. Lets say the $12.86 is pretty close to reliable with peanut butter and Bisquick tossed in there. Add that to the $144.77 and were at $157.63. And if I divide that by 6 days it comes in at $26.37 cent, and divide that by 8 people were at $3.28 per person. Doing the math every day is as much hassle as planning and cooking the meals...lol. I liked the easy supper tonight though. I believe I may have mentioned to everybody that Steve Cunningham convinced me I should at least put a little effort into seeing if I have a sequel to XANTHEA in me. All I can say is Im trying. In nine days Ive written ten pages. I like what I have typed, but its been a while since Ive attempted this kind of writing and the discipline is a serious challenge. I believe Im truly trying to think of all of the elements of a plot that catch a persons attention this time. Most of that ten pages is editing the first six pages that I wrote and rewriting them in more depth to develop the characters into believable human beings with stature, personalities of some sort, and some identifiable appearances...lol. Ive spent several hours today adding one page to my brief but descriptive manuscript. The sad part of my story for the day is that the F150 is going to cost me in the neighborhood of $600.00 plus tax to get out of the garage the first of next week. If it wasnt paid for, Id be hard pressed to justify the expenditure, but it is. So Im telling myself if we can spend $600.00 and get another good year out of it, thats what? Fifty dollars a month for a set of wheels? Im not always sure my thinking is rational, but give me A for effort. Im trying. If you have a vehicle, you have to maintain it, right? Im not even sure its worth $600.00 altogether, but Im hoping that it is. Wish me luck on that. Orion is making really loud noises that hes ready for bed, so whether Im ready or not, a smart grammie tends to listen to a cranky almost seventeen month old who is cutting teeth. Im not willing to press my luck while hes still being civil. Sweet dreams Ioway. Hope you had a great day. Then again, tomorrows always another day to make a serious stab at if if you didnt. Whatever you do, bundle up and keep warm cause Baby its cold outside. *Orion with a fork, not sure what he was eating here, but hes now in love with a fork and spoon. One day he will hate me for this picture of him still trying to crawl into his baby swing that he used to swing in before he could crawl. The amazing thing is he can still get in it, the little shrimpo. And this last one is simply little mister Orion being his flirty little self.
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 03:33:45 +0000