Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Yesterday I was able to leave for St. George around 8, which was really good timing.  It was Ryan’s turn to go grocery shopping with me.  He really wanted to go over to Colton’s house, but I argued with him Sunday that that was not going to happen.  Then I mentioned that my mom was coming, and I think it made us both feel like this wasn’t going to be a mother son day.  I gave in and let him go to Colton’s.  I love my mother, but I also LOVE shopping alone!  I know if she wouldn’t have been there Ryan would have been and I know, sometimes, my mom is way more helpful than Ryan.  But it was like having a little puppy following me around, every turn I went around, there she was.  I couldn’t make any movement without her following right behind me.  It really wasn’t too bad though.  Okay so this shopping trip was supposed to be a half shopping trip, you know I’m trying to go twice a month now instead of once.  I did REALLY well at Walmart.  I ended up going to the Bloomington Walmart.  I’ve always wanted to shop at that one, but I usually go to the Washington Walmart since its right by Costco.  I loved it!  It wasn’t near as crowded, the shelves were mostly stocked, and they had almost everything I needed!  It was a good experience, one I will probably do again.  I did well with my spending there, only $140, with a $500-$600 limit that wasn’t too bad!  Then I went to Costco. If I would have stuck to my list I don’t know that I would have even spent $100, but unfortunately there were a lot of things on coupon that I use!  Like dish washing tablets and Jet Dry and Lysol wipes, and Swiffer wet and dry refills (I haven’t tried those yet but I’ve been debating on buying a Swiffer, so I thought what the heck), Pizza pockets, apples, paper towels, garlic spread.  Right now I can’t think of anything else, but that doesn’t mean that was all.  Anyways with all those things I bought that weren’t on the list that I would eventually need, made my Costco total over $300, very disappointing.  That means I don’t have a ton left for my second shopping trip, but we’ll have to manage.  I absolutely HATE that we were on food stamps!  I knew it would be hard getting off, when they give you $800 a month just for FOOD!  My budget before food stamps was $400 for EVERYTHING!  Now I’m trying not to spend more than $600, it’s hard!

Anyways, I wanted to be home by noon, but was able to get home and unpacked and ready for Stacie to come over by 2.  We tackled the underneath of the stairs.  I really didn’t think we would even get close to getting that done!  I was shocked when we got it all cleaned out and Brenden even came down to the living room to help us go through everything so see what we needed to keep and what we needed to get rid of!  It was a success!  Brenden even said that he might be able to get the underneath of the stairs done soon.  See I want him to build a wall and block off the narrow parts that is useless, and build shelves so we can actually use the area for organizing stuff, Stacie says for my cleaning stuff, which is just great!  Hopefully this week sometime, cross your fingers.