Friday, September 30, 2011

September Round Up

I really slacked with my blogging this month!! I'll be better in October!

Well, I did reign in on my spending. Rather, I think I did; I haven't looked at my checkbook yet. So far, I'm pretty much on budget, which is great! I do have a wedding to go to tomorrow and it is somewhat unexpected. Since I only had like a week and a half notice, I did not budget for the gift. I might minus that from my savings for this month, although I really want to get back on track with that!

I did receive a small bonus yesterday. So, that will definitely help with the savings. I'll add everything up this weekend and post exactly how much I have in liquid savings.

On the cooking front, we did .... decent. I did cook a bunch and kept our eating out at a minimum, but we did still eat out. All this week, I cooked and even planned ahead for breakfast! I made two batches of buttermilk biscuits and ate them in the mornings with jam and some with turkey bacon. Delicious and really easy to make. This weekend, I'll be making fruit and oats bars for the mornings.

I also had a bit of frustration towards B. I go through my phases and this month I had reached my limit. Sometimes I get so tired of doing it all on my own. He's doing a bunch of stuff now, so I understand he doesn't always have time to help. But when I'm baking, cooking, and cleaning after a long workday and he can't do even a little to help drives me insane!

Last week, he changed his diet again. I planned for it and then BAM! yesterday, he changed it again! He doesn't seem to understand I don't just plan a menu for the week.

My weekly menu plan has to have all of these components:
1. Ease
2. Fits in budget
3. Transports well
4. Heats well
5. Enjoyable
6. Reflect weekly store sales and ads
7. Some ingredients already on hand or have something in fridge/pantry to use up

And to top it off, he'll change his diet and then change it back lickity split! Anyway, I'll post how it all goes down as it progresses.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

To Buy Generic or Not to Buy Generic

I don't mind buying generic things. I always compare the labels and often times, they are exactly the same to their more pricier name brand competitors. B does not like generic at all! He has fallen for all the marketing ploys into brainwashing you into thinking that their brand name is different. I've done the switcheroo and he never knows, but if he sees a generic label of a product he's been enjoying all along, he'll all of a sudden not want it. When I call him on it, he'll say how he knew something was "off". Uh huh, not buying it.

As I've mentioned before, I was sick last week. In my medicine cabinet, I had a bunch of medication (generic). B went to get me some "Nyquil" and he threw a fit over how generic my medicine cabinet was. Seriously, he wanted me to throw it away because "why save a few pennies for something that isn't going to do the job"?

Now he is sick. He asked that I bring him some stuff from the store. I got him all name brand (he wouldn't use it if it wasn't and I am still recovering so there was in no way, I was going to hear him bitch about it all night only for me to turn around and return the stuff). I bought Puffs tissue, Motrin PM, Thera-flu, Tropicana Orange Juice, Arrowhead Water, and super glue (I broke a nail while shopping for his shit). The total? A whopping $52! I did buy one generic item. Yup, the super glue. If I did buy only generic, I would have saved almost $20!

I'm not a cheapskate. I'm far from that, but I do not see the point of paying more for a brand when they have the EXACT same ingredients.