The Princess Goes Grocery Shopping

This is what happened when I sent the Princess to do the grocery shopping while I was at work. She wasn't sure where to put all the fruit I had her pick up, so she left it in the bag on the floor of the kitchen (instead of picking up the phone and calling to ask. Thing 2 apparently thought my pineapple smelled really good. So she helped herself to a little snack. Sigh.

And the Princess didn't take a picture so the chewed up pineapple will have to do. This is what she picked up for me at Aldi (plus a couple things that weren't on my list):

2 Pineapples
1 Cantaloupe
1 Honeydew Melon
Bananas
Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice (NOT on my list)
Light Sour Cream
Kiwi Fruit
Raspberry Lemonade (also NOT on my list)
Chicken Breasts

Spent: $20.09

(I think I am going to have to give a little reminder about sticking to the list -- AND putting all of the groceries up!)

Really Need To Grocery Shop

Its been over two weeks since I did a real grocery shopping. Granted, the Princess was gone for week of that time, and I was gone for three days, but the pickings are getting slim. Especially since the Princess has completely changed the way she wants to eat. She is making a concerted effort to stay away from wheat and corn products. That means no pasta, which tends to be a dietary staple around here.

We are still in the process of getting the house back in order from the bedroom re-do. Lots of regular chores like laundry, straightening up, grocery shopping etc, got pushed to the back burner. The house looks like crap. The pantry is bare, except for crap. I need to get caught up in a huge way!

I'm sending her to the store today. A simple shopping. At Aldi, with a list. I'm hoping she won't deviate too far from it. Maybe I'll get her to take a picture too! I'm just hoping this won't be too bad on the grocery budget. Turning a teen loose in a grocery store can be dangerous I think!

Before & After.... The Under $300 Makeover

When we moved into this house, the Princess was 12. She liked funky colors. Bright colors. Sparkle and Bling. She's 18 now, and her tastes have changed. So, we decided to update her decor and give her a whole new look.

This is her room before --- the pic was taken at night, so its kind of dark, but you get the idea....

While I wish I had an unlimited budget, I just don't so I had to figure out how to redo her room without killing my  bottom line. So, we started on Pinterest to get ideas for the look we wanted. We sent stuff back and forth to each other and finally decided on a color scheme and a general "feel".

Then we had to get to shopping..... back in December, while Christmas Shopping, I went into Z Gallerie and found THE PERFECT comforter and dust ruffle, etc. Only problem? The comforter itself was $350 --- never mind shams, dust ruffles etc. Sadly, I had to pass. A few days later I found a similar look comforter at Steinmart. Woo hoo! It was only $50 for Comforter, Dustruffle, Shams and Throw Pillows. Much more in my comfort zone. I picked it up and brought it home.

I found curtains at Kohl's that would work well (she insists on super dark curtains for sleeping -- and since it helps my power bill, I'm good with that)

Our "Plan" was to redo the room in January. But then my my Mom had her car accident and the plan got bumped back. Then I was going to take my birthday off and the day after and bump it up to the three day weekend --- but a work trip got thrown in there and the Princess had an opportunity for a vaycay... so I finally just bit the bullet and planned to do it over the span of two weekends.

I was able to ease up the pressure on the budget a bit by asking for Lowe's gift cards for my birthday (for the paint and related supplies). Yeah, that's totally NOT for me, but it made ME happy. I also was able to reuse all of her furniture, and repurpose some things from other areas of the house.

So, anyway, it broke down like this....

Comforter - $50
Curtains - $50
Organizational Items and Misc - $100
Paint and Supplies - $99.17 (had to paint some furniture too -- not just the walls)

After the gift card was applied, I actually only spent $200 to get from the Before to the After:

 

 

And now.... I'm worn slap out! Going to be an early bedtime for sure! (

Beyond Busy.....

Wow! I've been super busy this past week. Last weekend was spent getting the Princess ready to go to Tampa to visit my brother and his wife for a week (she's traveling with my Mom). We also cleared everything out of her room to get it ready to paint. And I mean everything. My living room is completely filled with her furniture and all of her "stuff".

Then I had to get ready to go out of town for work. We aren't back to normal, but we did get an opportunity to go and do some of the work we normally do, and it was fantastic! Since the Princess was gone too, though, I had to board the pups. Two pups, both on meds.... well that was expensive!
I managed to reduce my travel costs some though. Our hotel serves dinner in the evenings --- nothing fancy, but good enough that you can eat for free and not incur that expense, as well as breakfast in the mornings. We got off of work kind of late on Thursday evening, but my boss picked up my tab since it was my birthday!

I'm back home now, and will spend today painting the Princess's room. Hopefully tomorrow getting her stuff moved back in. And Monday will likely be spent getting my house and yard in order. Right now though, the Princess is enjoying Disney World with her Grandmother, Aunt, Uncle and cousin... and I'm about to pick up a paintbrush. Something is wrong with this picture.....

Where Are My Painting Supplies?

The Princess is heading to Tampa with my Mom this weekend and will be gone a week. During that time, I'm planning to repaint her room --- we are changing it up to a more grown up scheme. Most of that can be handled with a new coat of paint. I've already purchased the bedding and curtains --- shopped around for good deals on exactly what we wanted over the past couple of months. Once I get the walls and ceiling painted -- all we really need is an area rug. And that's not necessarily a "must have".

Anyway, my Dad gave me a gift certificate to Lowe's for my upcoming birthday to cover my paint and supply costs. I was hoping to have enough room left on that to put towards a new weedeater as mine has now officially died.

I went down into the basement last night to gather up the supplies I'd need and to see what I would need to purchase. Unfortunately my paint rollers and trays are nowhere to be found. So dang frustrating. The last time I used them was when I repainted my bathroom about four years ago. I assumed I had put those things right back where they went, but I can't find them to save my life. I am so dang irritated.

I'm going to put in some calls to some friends today to see if they have some I can borrow. I'd like to skip that expense for now if I can. Wish me luck.

Yawn!!!!!

Its going to be a really long day. I tend to be an early to bed and early to rise type. I used to be a late to bed and early to rise type. I used to do just "fine" on 5 or 6 hours sleep. Since I've scrolled back to an earlier bedtime though, I'm generally getting 7-8 hours and it has made a big difference in my functionality.

I went to bed a bit later than normal last night though. So, I was only on track to MAYBE get 7 hours of sleep. Then as I was sinking into sleep, the Princess came in to tell me that her BFF was having boyfried problems and was coming by. Sigh.

Okay, fine... no problem. But by the time we finished talking.... I was awake. Wide awake. Not wanting to go back to sleep awake. Ugh. I think after all was said and done I managed about 5 hours sleep last night. And I have a meeting today. A two hour meeting. A two hour likelyveryboring meeting.

Sigh. Yawn. Need more coffee.

My Little Old Man

Thing 1 is now 13 years old. Wow. 13. I got him as a 6th birthday present to The Princess. As an older gentleman, he is now starting to have some personality and health issues that he just didn't have as a pup. Personality wise, he's still a happy pup, loving his treats and trying to steal pizza off your plate. But he had completely run out of patience for things like getting his hair brushed and at home baths. Since he will not sit still for a real brushing anymore, I have to sometimes go and have him clipped all the way down. Personally I think he likes his hair shorter with no muss and no fuss.

Health wise, well, he's 91 in pup years. He's had some bladder issues, some skin issues, and after this latest grooming, we noticed some lumps on his neck Friday night. I took him back into the vet Saturday morning. So, several tests and exams and $173 later, we know that he now has hypothyroidism....which fortunately can be controlled with meds. And the meds weren't as pricey as I thought. $39 for six months supply. I can deal with that. We still don't know what the lumps are exactly. We are going to likely have to do a procedure to aspirate them and see what it really is. I'd like to know what we are dealing with in the long run.

I know at some point we will have to make the decision between quantity and quality of life for him. I don't think that time is now. And I hope that time is a long way off in the future. For now though, I think I'm going to have to do some budget adjustments to allow for more money in the pup care category. Time to get to crunching those numbers.