Grocery shopping seasons

 Ahhhh, grocery shopping.

 For literal YEARS I was ordering a Metro Market pick up order very single Sunday-- before the panny, even. I liked the app, enjoyed the money off on gas, and had a pretty routine grocery order. Over the years, we also shopped at a variety of other places-- Costco, Whole Foods, Aldi, Trader Joes-- it all depended on our schedule and menu, etc. We usually ended up with a Metro Market order to pick up, a Target order to pick up, and a visit to another store as well every Sunday.

 It has been hard for us to be one-store shoppers-- but that is, sort of, the dream.

Metro Market has been getting SO expensive, though, since January 2025. The app still gives access to good coupons, but the everyday prices are increasingly bad. I would run in the store midweek and spend over $100 no matter what I was buying. Ben and I even started grocery shopping in person because our usual $300 grocery order was getting smaller and smaller every week, and we wanted to see what the heck was going on in there.

We realized that right now, when we have a teeny bit of schedule margin on the weekends, we like grocery shopping together. It's fun to go on a run and then go to the store.

For a couple of weeks, we went to Aldi then Costco right after-- but this was inconvenient because we needed to go to another store to get name brand stuff, so we either added it onto a Target pick up or still found ourselves at Metro Market.

This was not only super expensive, but it was also just kind of a bummer. Our Metro Market store is old and small and dim and ... not fun to shop.

So, we've (temporarily?) switched our loyalty to Hy-Vee, which is big and bright, and airy and pleasant. And sooooooo expensive. But! Sometimes, we can only shop there with no need for Costco at all, so maybe, eventually it will be more convenient AND more pleasant?

We have fun exercising early and going straight to the store. Our store has a dietician, and there is a rack of recipe cards at the front of the store, which is clutch when I have holes on my weekly menu calendar. When Ben was out of town with Cooper, I did online shopping from HyVee and was charmed by the meal suggestions on the website, too (I decided I did want pork chops, potatoes, and green beans and rigatoni with peppers and lean ground beef in a jar of premade sauce, plus broccoli and crusty bread).

A money saver? No. But I can pay with Apple Pay and get 2% back! More fun? YES. And! Minnie found the style of cake she's like for her bday party (in 11 days **gulp**)

Money Wednesday-- not as catchy

 When I bought Jack's MacBook Neo for school last week, Apple was Very Insistent that instead of just BUYING the computer, I open an Apple Card and pay for it over the course of a year with zero interest. I asked my BFF Chat if this was a good idea, and, because he is a very neoliberal bro at his titanium core, he was like yeah bruh and if you buy your groceries on your apple card, you'll end up getting that computer mostly for free. 

Normally, I am anti more monthly payments, but the idea of barely actually paying cash money for a computer was tempting. With an Apple card, you get 2% back on purchases made with that card via Apple Pay and 3% back at certain stores-- meaning the amount I spend in gas and groceries (Mobil is a 3%  place) will give me enough daily cash every month to pay for the computer without changing my spending habits. The biggest catch is that you can't pay the balance of the computer off early, but since you can save your daily cash and apply it to the monthly balance in increments, you are essentially doing the same thing but with more clicks. **shrug**

Giving it a shot-- hopefully I won't forget when I charge things because the only thing worse than spending $600 a week on groceries is paying 27% apr on those groceries.

College Move-In Essentials

The pic above is me with some CLEARLY ESSENTIAL purchases, which totally fits the theme of this post because we have boiled the daunting college move in experience down to a perfectly reasonable shopping list.

Shower caddy

Shower shoes

Two of every toiletry or grooming product your kid uses

At least 2 charging cords and cubes for your kid's phone

An extra laptop charger

A couple of power strips

Small vacuum: a mom can dream, ok?

Laundry detergent sheets

Blue bags for move in-- seriously, these are great. When Harry came back and forth on the bus his freshman year, he'd even use them to travel, and he still brings laundry home in them from time to time (even though laundry is FREE in his dorm...)

Mattress topper: this is a MUST

Two sets of sheets: Probably these sheets will never get changed, but what the heck-- might as well have a spare pair.

Blanket for the bed: the cheaper the better! I actually really like these and have 2 for every kid bed at home (one to wash and one to wear), but you probably only need to send 1 to school because is your college kid really going to change the sheets?

Towels: I really think 6 is the perfect number.

Comforter: Duh. Any bed in a bag is fine-- you definitely want something small enough to fit in a washing machine.

Throw blanket: Harry REALLY appreciated having a cooling blanket, and you want to buy something light and small enough to be thrown in the wash but soft and big enough to be cozy. Harry also has a heavier throw that he trades out at the semester when he trades of his jackets for extreme down coats, but dorm rooms are tiny so there's no need to have too many.

Fan: Even a dorm room with a/c gets stuffy

Bedside shelf: Or, maybe a caddy.

Organizing cube shelves: We definitely bought these in Eau Claire post move-in for Harry and might do a Peoria Target run for Jack after he figures out the layout of his room a little better

Shoe storage- honestly, Harry just used a giant tupperware.

Hangers

Laptop: LOVE this computer! Harry went with a MacBook Air, but Jack is excited to try the Neo, especially since his university gives everyone a 5G iPad.

Oh my gosh, you guys. THAT'S SO MANY THINGS. And I swear this is a PARED DOWN LIST.

We have been buying our college kids a fridge and a microwave the Christmas before they move to college, which has worked out really well, and all of our older kids have their own TVs and Alexas, and everyone even Minnie had their own gaming system, so no need to worry about those (lol/sob/we're the worst).

We got our life partner big kids a Costco membership to split, so we know they can keep themselves in cheap gas, $2 lunches and junk food, and everything feels pretty done and dusted, you know?

A friend of mine with kids a few years older than ours said to always bring an extra thousand bucks to college move in weekend, because there are lots of last minutes things, t-shirts for sale, and kids to take out for one last dinner-- and this is really good advice.

I did buy Minnie's dance pics, and I have zero regrets.

Saving successes!!

 First of all, go read the comments on my last post because Melissa has THE BEST summer these day ideas!

Second, YOU GUYS YOU GUYS YOU GUYS. When we started this very spendy month of ALL OF THE THINGS, I despaired about saving any money or even staying with our means-- so we embarked on a bit of a spending freeze (LOL-- we still had to buy so many "essentials" that a freeze seems like a misnomer. A spending cool down?) and we came out ahead, kid trips and sign ups and Father's Day and a 20th bday and all.

THE SECRET IS TO JUST STOP BEING STUPID, apparently.

Even Dorothy and Cooper got in on the act and started making their beloved matchas at home.

less than $20 for all the supplies and lasts for weeeeeeeeks, instead of $6 each every time

I wore a dress to Jack's graduation that is SO OLD it could be graduating

And! I wore an old dress to the girls' dance recital, too

(also to dress rehearsal-- that dress predates 3/5 of my kids) (crappy backstage selfie is all I got)

Other things we have done to trim spending:

stop buying random garbage (I cannot tell you how huge this one is) (judge away, you guys, but I was feeling so resentful and put upon toward the end of the semester that I was buying myself a lot of junk -- anything I wanted the second I wanted it-- just, like, not doing that has been huge. Also talking about my feelings and asking the other people who live with me to share the burden has really really helped, as has slowing down for the summer. I need to think about this before we find ourselves in another crazy season).

only eat out sometimes (again, this one has been SO SO SO easy)

coffee at home

meal planning-- including looking in the fridge/freezer, and cabinets before we shop (shut up-- I know this is a thing most adults do automatically, but I was so spent in all the ways by the end of the semester that I just bought whatever whenever and then threw most of it away because we got takeout anyway).

the above ingredients for salad and grain bowls get freshly prepped and take up prime fridge space every week, and I love it

I have also had really good luck with having 2 ZERO SPEND days a week. Not only has this made me think twice before I buy something, but it has also imposed some extra structure on food shopping and meal planning that has been so, so, so helpful and has taken away some of the stress. Like, if we run out of something on a day I have decided is not for spending, then we probably aren't going to get it and people should just, like, eat their second favorite cracker, you know?

Last week, I only had one single no-spend day because I had to buy Built Puff brownie bars and instant ice packs (for diving and dance respectively), but a $14 spend day is still pretty excellent when you are keeping a household of 7 people afloat. But then! My spending sort of steam rolled into the weekend, with a pricey dance bag re-stock for nationals (eyelashes and makeup remover and spray gel and garbage snacks add up), $65 in takeout sandwiches and then another $10 in concession snacks at a dive meet, $30 in Saturday night snack shack food and another $30 for pizza and cheese curds because people were still hungry, plus a Whole Foods detour for wine ($40). Suddenly, I spent $300 without even noticing it. When I did notice it, I realized just how drastically my habits have changed since a day like that is the exception not the rule. 

I absolutely could have made a picnic for the dive meet and fed everyone at home before we went to the pool, but I didn't WANT to because I had tons of work to do on Friday (a summer work day for me and the dive meet day) but so did Ben, and Minnie needed to have Fun Fun, and truthfully? I felt resentful and put upon and just did not even want to deal with food. Ditto Saturday when I was on my own while Ben went to O'Hare to pick up a car load of returning speech kids and I didn't WANT to be on my own. 

I have also noticed that when we slide into a food rut, we end up abandoning our meals and ingredients and buying trash instead. This week, the leftover burgers and chicken breasts did not fly off the fridge shelves-- we need to stop repeating these two for a couple of weeks, I guess...

(Someone asked in my comments about retirement savings, and I should note that when I talk about spending, I am just talking about the money we use for all of the things that aren't automatically deducted (retirement accounts, FSA money, etc) or already spoken for (bills bills bills dance tuition more bills)-- the variable monthly spending, groceries included. SO while I am clearly kind of let-them-eat-cake-y, I am not as dumb as I perhaps come off in these posts.) 

I painted my own toes and more silly saver things

Turns out when you are an irresponsible spender who is looking to clean things up a bit for a spendy month, there is much fat to trim. WHO KNEW.

 I usually get a pedicure every 3-5 weeks, depending on how things are looking, so my feet were in pretty good shape, but I gave myself a polish change for free at home instead of paying someone $50 to do it for me. Will this happen on the regular? Not during sandal season. Did I hate it? Not at all!

I have also been challenging myself to have several buy nothing days a week, which when you spend about a thousand dollars a week on GROCERIES MY GOODNESS is not actually hard. WHAT ELSE DO I NEED? Turn out, not a whole lot. A water filter for the fridge. A bottle of Draino. Hamburger buns. It has been VERY EASY to just stop buying random stupid crap (I did buy a carton of gum balls from Amazon the other day, so it's not like I am a new person or anything).

You know what I  for sure do not need? MOAR books. I cleaned out my Kindle library and discovered I have-- wait for it-- FOURTEEN BOOKS in there that I have not read through the Amazon First Reads program-- dating back to 2023! WHAT. I am going to read these BEFORE I buy more books. (Obviously if they are terrible, I will abandon them-- what a great time to practice DNFing!-- but I think they will be FINE FINE FINE for the pool.) (Now cross your fingers that I randomly find Whistler on the walk in shelf at my library).

(Also, organizing my Kindle and adding all the unread books to my Storygraph pile was so fun. But it made me think of the productivity company in Annie Knows Everything. The characters work for a planner app and there is a bunch of funny, snarky commentary about how the app just makes people think they are getting work done when really it's just another digital time suck, and I was like OMG this is meeeeeeee).

But really! The biggest thing we have done to stop spending like drunken sailors is to STOP EATING OUT.  This, too, feels like a seasonal saver thing because when activity season hits, I will absolutely need to rely on food not made by me. But for now? It is a healthy and delicious perk of a slower pace.

Did I still buy Minnie fast fashion to wear for rainbow day at school? I MEAN. I AM WHO I AM YOU GUYS KNOW ME.

Speaking of fashion. Ok. I have a dance recital and a graduation to attend in the next couple of weeks, and I think I am going to... re-wear a couple of dresses. Usually, I buy a new dress to wear backstage and after the girls dance, but this is dumb you guys. I AM NOT ONSTAGE. Graduation? Not sure about this one. Part of me wants a new dress just because. But the other part of me me knows I have a TON of summer dresses in my closet and should probably just, um, pull one off the hanger.

I am also thinking about wearing the dress above (that I bought for Dorothy's dance nats team dinner cruise last summer) to Dorothy's dance nats team dinner cruise this summer. Last summer was a flapper theme, and this dress was a gentle nod toward it. This summer the theme is "Chicago shimmer," and, again, this dress works enough. Probably will wear the flat sandals again, too. 

OH! One more thing! I stopped getting coffee out cold turkey. This habit is a creeper for me. It starts with an espresso before class. Then it's that plus also maybe a coffee before my Wednesday class and also a "Friday coffee" with Dorothy and Cooper. Then the Friday coffee happens also on Tuesdays and includes breakfast sandwiches and suddenly we are talking about $100 a week that I don't even really notice as money spent. SLIPPERY SLOPE you guys.

So there you have it-- some simple ways we are spending less in a month of trips and sign ups. What about you?

Money Monday: ALDI is my new BFF (again)

 ALDI IS A REVELATION.

We have had our moments shopping there-- here's Jack long, long ago when eggs were less that a buck a dozen

And here is toddler Minnie, sleeping sitting up in the cart

But we also have long stretches were we never ever go there even though it is the closest store to our house. I went the other day on a whim because I am tried of spending all my money on food, and WOW YOU GUYS WOW.

There are certain things I hate at Aldi-- bread, peanut butter, granola bars, knock off crackers and cookies, most ultra processed foods, most cheese, milk, off-brand yogurt-- and sometimes I forget to go there because I hate those things. Aldi will never be the only place we shop, but it definitely should always be A PLACE we shop. My goodness, I did not know that you could spend $100 and get two huge bags of groceries ANYWHERE in America anymore. But! That is exactly what happened on Thursday when I spent a mere $105 on a capsule grocery trip to get me and 4 kids through a holiday weekend. 

I got accessories for baked French toast (already had frozen bread cubes, eggs, and bacon but needed some berries and milk) for Friday night dinner, stuff for chicken quesadillas with chips and salsa and guac on Saturday night, and bake-at-home sourdough and veggies for avocado BLTS on Sunday. I also got a bottle of wine (that Wine Spectator says is good?), candy for Coop to eat on the plane to FL, candy for a pool snackle box, stuff to make chocolate chip cookies (trying the choc chips but do not have high hopes), nectarines, apples, and salad greens (a refill because we already ate all of ours, which makes me feel very virtuous), lunchbox cheese for Minnie, and coffee. That's a ton of stuff for $100. 

I also went to Aldi last week (along with Costco and Metro Market), so our cabinets were pretty stocked. I plan to go again tomorrow, once Ben gets home and we touch base about the upcoming week-- will also hit Costco and Metro, too. And probably Whole Food for take and bake pizzas and my favorite lemon parm bagged salad and something sparking to drink by a fire.

Metro Market: I mainly get 5 gallons of Fairlife milk (lol-- it is sold in half gallons, so this whole buying process is ludicrous and my cart must look nuts when the online shopping people are assembling it), my fave peanut butter, name-brand junk and lunch box staples that we just can't quit, chocolate chip ZBars (included in that former category, honestly, but I always trick myself into thinking they're healthy-ish), cooking accessories/spices, and some of our yogurt there, plus anything I couldn't find at Costco or Aldi. 

Costco: This is where we get certain things that we can only find there, as well as staples that we go through in massive quantities (think Chobani protein yogurt, lox, cereal, and chocolate-covered frozen strawberries, plus packs of Goldfish crackers, a couple varieties of pretzels and wine-- you know, the health foods).

Things on my permanent Aldi list:

organic produce and salad greens

eggs ($1.40 for 12!)

almonds

freeze dried strawberries

Colby jack cheese sticks for Minnie's lunch

whipped cream cheese

single origin coffee beans for cold brew

organic chicken

organic grass-fed 93% lean ground beef

salsa from the refrigerated section

frozen bagel pizzas (def an UPF but the kids like them better than Annie's and they are only like $6 for one million pizzas)

quinoa

organic tortilla chips

Random stuff I have found there lately:

name-brand candy for my snackle box

organic grass-fed sirloin steak for tacos

Chobani flips yogurts for WAY LESS than the grocery store

Built Puff protein bars for a little less than the grocery store

Things I haven't needed yet but will buy there when I do:

organic rice

frozen sweet potatoes

organic frozen berries for smoothies (these might actually be cheaper at Costco, so we'll see...)

organic plain greek yogurt-- will try this once before pledging forever loyalty back to Costco

baking staples (probably not chocolate chips, maybe not flour but sugars for sure!)

ice cream

frozen novelties (I saw Drumstick knock-offs and name-brand Snickers ice cream bars today)

Do you have any Aldi must-haves that I should throw in my cart?? We are generally not fans of stuff in the aisles themselves (except the random "Aldi finds" aisle which is a GEM and has everything from housewares to viral items of clothing), but the perimeter of the store is a gold mine.

Get excited because (complaining about) money Monday is on the way back to the blogggggg

Kindergarten is doing an alphabet-themed farewell to school and counting down the last 26 days with alphabet-themed days. K was kindness day, and they all walked out of school in adorable crowns. I LOVE KINDERGARTEN SO MUCH.

In fact! As you read this, I am getting ready to chaperone my 5th and final kindergarten zoo field trip! Expect pictures with sappy captions next week. Hopefully I can chaperone a grandkid's class or something.

Coop made it to the ALL CITY 8TH GRADE TRACK MEET, which is a thing I did not know existed. He qualified in shot put (lol) and the 4X100 relay.

His relay team took 3rd, and they were, like, SO FAST and fun to watch

(Shot put might not be Coop's sport)

Talking strategy

Ready for the hand-off

I hope he decides to run track in high school-- it was very fun to watch. And between events, I sat on the bleachers and read an entire book

Speaking of Cooper's sport, he and Ben are taking their second trip to FL this May right now.

Which reminds me! We are not spending ANY MONEY EVER AGAIN. So, you can expect more complaining about that soon! (June is the month I don't get paid and plus also, Harry's bday, dance nationals, another out-of-state dive trip-- maybe TWO MORE AS WELL depending on how qualifiers go-- and Jack's HS graduation, plus dance recital weekend. YOU GUYS).

Luckily for me, walking around the neighborhood in my weighted vest is freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

And! The pool opens tomorrow, so as long as I can keep the kids from charging one million dollars on our food account and keep myself from ordering toooooo many Titos and lemonades, we should be golden.
 

Weekending, tracking my dollars again

 Harry came home for the weekend, and we thought he was going to bring a carload of stuff home since neither of us can come to move-out day, and he has way more stuff than he can fit in his car. But he brought home the attache he carries to speech tournaments, a floor lamp, and his winter coats. **whomp whomp**. He was also like WTH guys? You're not coming to move me out? And we were like erm no. That's why we bought you a car. But then we thought about it, and it really did seem kind of crappy. But! Ben will be out of town for diving and then commencement at his college, and Dorothy has dance, so, we are all accounted for. And! Really! It's things like this that help make Harry so awesome, I think. He is managing the pool this summer! Got a raise at work! Has a local political internship in Eau Claire that he asked for/created for himself, and is a delegate to the WI dem convention this summer. And! He has good grades this semester and is taking on leadership roles as rising sophomore in his school clubs. All because of our disinterest/inability to be actively involved in his life!  LOL. But actually, probably that's right. One thing he brought home for the weekend: his adorable girlfriend, so that was fun!!

No photos of Harry, but I did take a photo of this cookie he left in a glass

We took Dorothy and Coop to a high school pool-- Coop to practice for red, white, blue nats and also regional qualifiers for USA diving nats and Dorothy to get ready for summer dive season. Thanks to My Fitness Pal, I managed to cram my rings on my fingers for the first time in forever (I can wear one band, but all 3 has been a no-go). But then the humidity of the pool room made me swell, and I had to stick my hand in the (ailing) freezer to be able to wrench them off.

We furniture shopped all day Saturday and bought NOTHING. We are looking for a new storage ottoman for the living room, but they are inexplicably SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS, so we might just get ours reupholstered? We also looked at coffee tables instead of ottomans, but we like having blankets in there for couch sitting purposes. Then we looked at couches since we need a new one downstairs (one of them has a broken frame from kid hijinks), but then we thought maybe we should move our 14 year-old living room couch down and get something new up-- it was very if you give a mouse a cookie. PLUS ALSO we really want a new kitchen table and chairs or maybe a bench and chairs. We need to have a glass of wine tonight and figure out exactly what we want to buy and in what order. AND! Let's not forget, our fridge (the last OG appliance standing besides our water softener which is missing a part and soon to be repaired) is on its last legs because the freezer only sort of works (we have another fridge/freezer downstairs, so we're fine). So maybe other major purchases will have to get in line?

We did buy a fun lunch out with Dorothy and Cooper (Minnie was at a play date; Jack was at lunch with Harry's gf; Harry was at life guard re-certification (the actual reason he came home)) and then also Kona Ice because it was at the school across the street when we got home from or 4th and final furniture store.

SO. ANYWAY. Easing back into tracking spending because I basically want to buy a whole new house of furniture, speaking of manifesting shit. We had an unexpected expense when Ben accidentally got a bleach-soaked rag all over Dorothy's favorite Scuba, and then children needed shoes (big sale in the Nike app, FYI), but so far, so good. Back on the wagon, homemade coffees and all.

Low grocery week! Can I keep this up! Also: AMAZING KID RESULTS

 Before I rest on my grocery saving laurels, I should note that we also did a Target run for cleaning supplies and a trip to the local grocery for wine, cheese, and salads-in-a-bag, and I don't know how much that cost because Ben went, and I hate checking my account balances. #badatadulting. ALSO, we spent all of the money eating all of our meals at restaurants last weekend because SO MANY KID THINGS. (Srsly we had lunch and dinner out Friday-Sunday, which is very much not like us, but was necessary.)

BUT! I only spent $308 at the grocery store! That;'s unheard of around here! 

Menu:

Sunday (yesterday LOL): Burgers, chips and veggies and dips, green beans, peanut butter cookies (I had a Costco chipotle black bean burger wrapped in lettuce, and it was SO DELISH).

M-W: SO MANY options! Sandwiches and crudite, breakfast sandwiches, eggs, pancakes, and fruit, pizza, spaghetti, deli fried chicken-- I will fully commit to being a short order cook as we get through another week full of kid things. Also there is a very good chance that takeout is in the cards tonight because Minnie and Cooper have to come to campus with me for a 4-6 thing.

Thurs: Grilled chicken breasts, baked potatoes, broccoli, salad. 

Friday: No clue! Maybe tacos; maybe spaghetti. We'll see where the wind takes us.

Weekend: Dorothy has a Chicago dance convention/competition, but Ben might take her because she has only one dance (it's only for the company dances, and most of hers compete at the club level), and she wears her hair down for it. Soooooo, I could be home alone with everyone else-- meaning I will probably throw money at my feelings.

KID STUFF (aka THE GOOD PART)

Jack had his state speech competition on Saturday. He competes in a category called special occasion speaking, and in WI, this (funny-- think mini stand-up routine built around a specific topic to a fake audience) category has 3 prompts that the students can choose from. The prompts are determined at the state coaches' meeting in July, so kids theoretically have from July-December to work on their speeches, but Jack? Decided to write his 6-minute speech the week of the year's first tournament, where he placed 4th and then took off like a (non spaceX) rocket! 

He has won so many competitions this year, and he was so happy heading into state (hosted at his very own school no less!) This year, students could choose from a motivational speech by a coach, a villain monologue, or a welcome-to-camp speech. Jack did the camp speech, and it was HILARIOUS and BANANAS. SO much physical humor! SO many dark jokes about middle schoolers! He did a cartwheel In a suit! And did a Russian jump that was always higher than classroom desks! 

He was elated to make semi finals (he has never broken into out-rounds at state before). Coop and I went to the high school when the semis were over to wait and see if he made finals because we planned to watch. Well! Jack's coach could not contain his delight and told Jack he was the top speaker going into finals before the postings had even dropped. Jack was SO EXCITED. To make things even sweeter, 2 of his teammates also made the final (it's unusual for schools to have HALF of the final round, so the whole team was thrilled, and anyone not in their own round came to watch.) 

Jack was AWESOME in the final round, and the whole round was just ridiculously funny. Kids! They're so smart and talented. Jack got to speak in his AP history classroom, and the room was stuffed to the gills with people sitting in the aisles and standing in the back. Jack got the most laughs for sure, and he was clearly so happy and proud of himself.

The whole fam came to school for awards, and JACK TOOK SECOND PLACE IN THE WHOLE STATE OF WI! His teammate got third, and his other teammate won. It was SO COOL!

Also happening this weekend! The AAU Red-White-Blue national dive qualifier! PHEW! Okay. SO. AAU has a national tournament that you qualify for with a certain score at regular season meets. Coop has already hit that mark, meaning there's a CA summer tourney he can attend where the top 2 in each event get to go to London to compete. But then! AAU has a more prestigious tourney that you have to qualify for where the top 3 in each event go to Croatia and also become part of the AAU national team. That's the one Coop qualified for this weekend (yay!!!), and he will compete at nats in Charlotte, NC, over Memorial Day weekend. He has ONE MORE national qualifier series coming up for a chance to compete at the USA Diving junior nationals (this is the big kahuna of national tourneys) also in CA this summer. I don't think he will go to both AAU national meets, but we will have to see where the USA Diving chips fall.

He had platform on Friday (3rd!!), 1-meter on Saturday (8th-- a real bummer, and he hopes a qual for that event bumps down to him by kids who finished in the top 6 deciding not to go to the tourney-- this is a thing that happens because some kids are USA Diving-only competitors, so we will see), and 3-meter on Sunday (6th! A qual!). His age group was STACKED with USA Diving national finalists, so these finishes were a BATTLE. And even though he dove poorly on Saturday (it was baaaaaaaad-- he got 3.5's on a dive or 2), he was able to come back strong on Sunday-- a very big thing for him. Also, he has a poorly timed dive birthday because he will be 14 at the end of 2025, but he has to dive with the 14-15 boys all year, even though he is a teeny little 13 y/o 7th grader, and some of these kids are full MEN and already 15 years old.

Here I am watching the meet with a state runner up

Coop was WINNING THE MEET for 2 rounds on Saturday before the wheels fell off (he got EIGHTS):

Listen to me at the end of this dive

But! This was awesome from Friday:

And here is where he punched his nationals ticket

Look how happy!!

Money Monday and Staycay Day 5

 Listen. This day was just errands with a couple pf fun things thrown in. What can I say? Solo parenting for 3 days just hits differently when no one goes to school.

Minnie has enough hair for just one braid again-- she was excited.

We drove to a nearby teeny town to hit up a truly bananas shoe store (parrots just flying around!) because Dorothy and Cooper needed new tennis shoes (Minnie needed no shoes, but she got some anyway because she could not resist the pink "birGenstocks" as she calls them.

But then! We added Culvers and a super fun park to make the day seem less errand-y

We park hopped when we got home and walked Annabel to the school playground

I listened to the news on my way to the grocery store and shopped accordingly.

And! I lucked into this at the library (the tl;dr is that it;'s not very good , but I was so excited to sang it**whomp whomp**)

I tracked my spending last week to see if I could put a price tag on fun, AND I CAN.

 

All in, I spent $684, which is solidly cheap, IMO, since it counts 3 pairs of shoes! But does NOT count the 400 other dollars of random spending last week (all that wine, some finishing touches for the girls' rooms, a water filter for the fridge that will probably die before the filter runs out, etc) and of course doesn't count the groceries I bought for the week, etc.

Even buying $6.35 movie tickets, we spent over $100 to see Dog Man and gorge on junk food-- not sure if that was a good spend or not.

We also spent another $160 for food (mostly pizza and ice cream LOL) out and over $250 on stuff (stuffies, 5 below novelties, sweats, shoes).

Definitely worth it, though, because the week was almost entirely stress free.

Money Monday: Things I am Cheap About

 When we built our house one million years ago, we both clammed up during our meeting with the electrician. He told us that we had a few places in the house that needed more recessed lighting, and he thought we could have more outdoor outlets. In 2011, we both made about half of what we make right now, and we had just GUTTED our savings account to build a house, were expecting our third baby, and could not sell our condo that we purchased at the height of the housing bubble, so we were preparing to pay a new mortgage, plus most of an old mortgage offset by a renter. We absolutely WOULD NOT spend one more cent on the house, WHICH IS WHY WE HAVE DIMMER SWITCHES THAT TURN NOTHING ON, GIANT HOLIDAY LIGHT EXTENSION CORDS, and TWO REALLY REALLY DARK CORNERS that are not actually conducive to lamps, it turn out.

But this a common spending habit with us-- we will be extravagant about some things and then completely cheap about other things-- usually things that are inexpensive to begin AND ALSO would be great additions to our lives. What a terrible combo! Like, all those lights and outlets would have cost less than a thousand dollars and are WAY MORE EXPENSIVE NOW.

I was thinking about this today when I got an ad for a really cool magnetic bobby pin holder that would solve SO MANY dance bag problems and thought immediately I will not spend eleven more dollars on dance. Even though I will spend MORE THAN THAT replacing lost hair pins every week of the season, probably. And dance is so pricey, WHO EVEN CARE about $11? It makes no sense.

I asked Ben if he could think of an example of this habit, and he said OUTLETS, but we do it all the time with vacation planning (that one more stop that breaks the camel's back),  grocery shopping ($600 for the cart but ABSOLUTELY NOT on that $7 bottle of salad dressing). 

Am I alone on this? Do you ever cheap out on the silly details?

SPEAKING OF HAIRPINS!

Dorothy has to have a mid ballet bun (mid like height, not mid like result because as you can see, this bun is AWESOME) for her lyrical dance this year, and we are not supposed to use a donut, which is the only way I have ever done a ballet bun. But I watched a video and NAILED IT (with the use of 10000 hairpins now scattered everywhere with no magnet dish to contain them).

Money Monday: It's all just complaining at this point.

Look! I am so strong I can hold $200 worth of groceries IN ONE HAND

 

Dinners last week:

Sunday 2/9:  Tacos and brownies for the super bowl. Only I rushed to get the brownies out of the oven so I could have time to finish my book AND take a nap while Ben had the kids at The Wonders of Physics on campus, and the brownies were not actually cooked. I ate one for a sundae base anyway, but Coop had a friend over, and I did not want to poison someone else's kid, so the children had ice cream cookie sandwiches with THESE cookies (I made a double batch on Saturday when I was forecasting our day to Minnie, and she said "DO WE HAVE TIME TO ALSO BAKE A YUMMY TREAT?" and we always do. 

Leftovers: Salad greens and cut up taco veggies, beef taco meat, shredded chicken. I ate some for lunch on Monday, and so did Ben.

Monday 2/10: Pasta casserole with WF store-brand kale caesar salad and crusty bread.

Leftovers: ALL OF IT especially since Ben forgot to serve the slad or bread. We had tons of lunches, plus leftover bread for Sunday morning french toast

Tuesday 2/11: Instead of going out, I made sandwiches for me and Dorothy and Minnie in an afternoon lull and made sure we had cut up veggies and fresh fruit ready to go on the side. We ate fast (and pretty neatly!) before dance.

Wednesday 2/12: We had our very own snow day because I was shocked at how terrible the roads were at preschool pick up time, so I picked everyone up early because yikes. I also swung by Target and spent $80 on... I don't really know. Candy, ice cream, birthday cake stuff. We had frozen pizza and garbage-- it was pretty great. (I also spent $70 on annabel's food at Pet Smart).

Thursday 2/13: Chicken, baked potatoes, and kale caesar salad (that we forgot to eat on Monday -- winner!)

Friday 2/14: Snow again. Papa Murphy's pizza and cookie (in a heart, natch) for the kids for $30 and sushi and champs for us for $175. I also took Dorothy and Coop out for a SIXTY FIVE DOLLAR breakfast. $20/head for breakfast seems high to me?

Saturday 2/15: Enchiladas, chips and salsa. Jack was at the closing night of his show, and the little kids don't like enchiladas (eye roll), so they had breakfast for dinner (scrambled eggs, pancakes, turkey sausage, fruit), and Ben and I ate ours after they went to bed, with Veuve. 

Soooooo, that's $550 for Sunday groceries, plus $50 at Target (a bit of the total was for Vday presents for Min because the dance stuff I ordered said it wouldn't be here in time but then it WAS, so that became a 1/2 bday gift LOL), plus $270 for vday. UM YOU GUYS. THAT IS EIGHT HUNDRED SEVENTY FOOD DOLLARS. Um. (plus the Veuve).

We have a lot of spinach and bananas to eat in the next like 36 hours before they liquify as well. **yikes face**

Also I ordered groceries for this coming week in bed trying to stay up to make sure Jack got home OK, so I have NO IDEA WHAT I GOT. Should be fine. LOL LOL LOL.

Money Monday: save some/waste some

tell me you forgot baking powder or soda without telling me

 

Gah.

This past week was SPENDY, and I was in a funk, so I thought buying stuff would make me feel better, but actually? I just felt worse because I also felt guilty about buying so much trash. (MOAR Sol de Janeiro for D -- twice in one week-- two different scents--and a Touchland for M for no reason, plus one of those heatless curler things, expensive shampoo, hair ties-- basically we just stopped at Ulta randomly twice last week because we were grumpy. Also new leotards and a ballet sweater. A random $40 water bottle for D (will save for V-day, I think), Nike Tech pants for Coop because I got tired of seeing him in the same 2 pairs and thought another one would make me feel better... the list goes on and on. Also! Dinner out for me because I was too lazy to pack, dinner out for the girls for a similar reason-- just crap upon crap. I even went out for coffee twice, something I haven't been doing at all. 2 new pairs of pretty pointless (but also pretty, pointy) high heels. And Ben and Coop were gone for the weekend. And groceries flirted with $600 this week because I just bought weird pricey stuff from 3 different stores. But not new leggings for myself or anything, like, worthwhile, you know???? GAH.

In terms of food waste, I made a few positive strides. We had spaghetti and meatballs and used the leftovers for both meatball sandwiches and pizza bread. We made a bunch of grilled chicken and baked potatoes and ate them for many lunches. I ate a giant 16 oz clamshell of spinach basically BY MYSELF last week.

But then! When I cleaned out the fridge in advance of Kroger and Costco deliveries, I tossed out 2 expired Two Good yogurts and 2 Yoplaits, 1/3 of a bag of desiccated baby carrots, some elderly sour cream, apple cider that was clearly alcoholic by now, jalapeno hummus that had barely been dipped in, blueberry bagels and strawberry cream cheese leftover from when Harry was home, some chicken broth just past its prime.

This week, we are going to me even more strategic about how we eat our fresh food, I swear.

Also!! This is the second week in a row that I have been unable to get a Whole Foods delivery or pick up slot all weekend and have had to GO TO THE FREAKING STORE and buy my groceries. And! My online cart was only $115, but when I went to the store? TWO TWENTY-FIVE because impulse buy is my middle name.