Now I just said last week that I am trying not to buy any more deodorant and toothpaste. So what do I buy when I went to CVS this week, yep both of them. And I had to because some of my extra care bucks were about to expire, and since I don't have that many left, I had to get some things that had extra care buck deals. Unfortunately those were deodorant and toothpaste. I hope CVS rotates in some good deals on things other than those two type of items soon.

I was glad to get the body wash as part of a deal. While I am not in danger or running out of any right now, my supply of it is lower than other things. So any one I can add to it, is good.

Face moisturizer. The only time I did get face moisturizer as a deal, was back when they had the L'Oreal RevitaLift. I got two boxes of that. They were so cool that I put them in Christmas gift baskets for my mom and sister-in-law. Bad move. In the last week I saw that my face moisturizer was down to its last drops. All I had was a sample of the RevitaLift that I got in the mail. And guess what, I loved it. But it hasn't been in a good deal lately and I am so sorry I gave away those boxes I had of it. So I had to get new moisturizer. I needed one that was oil free and Biore was the only one of a reasonable price. So I had to pay full price, but I did have my ECB's to use for it.

2 Dry Idea deodorants $2.99 each = $5.98
1 Irish Spring $4.99
1 Colgate Max White $2.99
1 Biore face lotion $7.99

Coupons
(2) $2.00 off any Dry Idea roll on deodorant
(1) .50 off any Colgate toothpaste
(1) .50 off any Irish Spring

Total ECB's used $14.97
Total oop $2.47
Total ECB's earned $11.98

I did all my shopping today, so I actually got to put it all in one picture for a change.

First I hit Vercchio's, our local produce market. The man needed more fruit and I like the carrots for my lunches.

Vercchio's
2 bags of oranges
2 bags of apples
1 bag of grapes
2 bags of carrots

Total $10.00

Over to ShopRite, they were having a good sale on London Broil, so I stocked up there. If you buy 3 Kellogg's cereals you get a coupon for a free gallon of milk too, so I did that deal. Free milk on my next trip.

ShopRite
3 Superpretzels $1.84 - .75q's = .84 each
3 Totino's pizza rolls $1.49 - .35 q's = .79 each
2 Light N Fluffy noodles $1.29 - .50 off 2 q's = .79 each
1 Rotisserie chicken breast $2.99
1 Edy's ice cream $2.74
3 Kellogg's Rice Krispies $1.99 - .70 q's = .99 each (got free milk coupon)
1 pk of chicken breasts $4.37
2 twin packs of London broil $13.30 total

Total $31.93 + my free milk coupon


Total shopping $41.93

I was then supposed to get get chicken and beef broth at the dollar store to finish up my $50 budget. But they were all out. So for now we are under budget!

Gayle, who has a great website call The Grocery Cart Challenge, was the original inspiration to me to try a budget with my grocery shopping. Please check out her site, to see how she does it and how some others who also have decided to try her challenge.

In reading frugal blogs, I see alot of people taking a day to do a whole bunch of baking and then freezing everything. And then you have lots of good things to eat for weeks. I was always envious when I saw this because trying to find the time to do this was the hard part.

You see I used to have my own baking blog a few years ago and I absolutely loved it. But the reason I stopped doing it is because it just took too much time and too much money. I work 5 days a week and spending an entire weekend baking something was getting less and less practical.

Since I already know how to bake, if I just take a few hours one Saturday out of whole month, I could knock out a few things to keep on hand. I used only ingredients I had on hand.

The Menu

Chocolate chip muffins
Lemon yogurt muffins
Almond bran muffins
Corn bread
Homemade biscuits

There was a plan to also make lots and lots of pancakes. But I didn't take out enough milk to defrost in time and ran out of it before getting to the pancake mix. So we skipped them today. I am hoping to get to all the pancakes tomorrow sometime when the milk is defrosted. I kept the menu simple the first time, as I didn't have a ton of ingredients on hand. I can't wait until blueberries and strawberries really come into season at the produce market. I want to make tons and tons of things with them.

Thankfully we had a nice tax return that went directly to card #4. I usually get a nice fiscal bonus from work in April/May every year. That would have made a real nice dent in one of the cards. I now say "would have". With the economy, the fiscal bonus' are good as dead. All pay increases and annual bonus's are on hold too. My review is not until October, so maybe if I cross my fingers real hard, the economy will get better by then (yeah right).

The lovely, and I say that with utmost sarcasm, Governor of NJ has made his suggestions for the state budget and one thing that will affect us is the elimination of a rebate we get every fall for our homes. Since we make above a certain amount (and believe me it ain't high), we will lose out on that check this year.

So there are a few extra's that are now gone for now. I should have known this would happen when I decide to pay off my debt. But we still have jobs, so thankful for that. I persevere, whatever I got I am putting towards out debt and one day, oh one day, we will be credit card debt free.

This is a topic that hits close to home and today one where I wanted to pull my hair out. My husband and I are childless by choice, or as I call it "I just don't want kids". We are 36 and 37 and yes we know for sure we will never want kids. I have wanted pets since I was 5 years old and that is what I have and it makes me very happy.

Today I read an article in our local paper about a group of local couples that get together to do interesting activities and they all are childless by choice. They started this group because they saw all their other friends slowly disappear as they had children. My husband and I are thinking about looking into it as we have found more and more of our friends disappearing from our lives as they have children, no matter how hard we try with them. I still do have one or two friends left with kids, but I see them only every few months.

The comments in my local paper started with a woman calling us childless people selfish. Saying that people were put on this earth to create other people. I really wasn't aware that my only purpose on this earth was to be a baby making machine. What if I physically couldn't have children, does that make me useless on earth according to her? Needless to say after I calmed down, I realized she feels this way because this is all she chooses to have in her life. There are plenty of people on this earth with kids who have lives outside of them. Isn't it selfish to think that your way is the only way that is right?

I'm deliriously happy with the decisions I have made in my life. And I respect others for the decisions they have made. How's that for selfish?

There, my short vent for the day.