It's MONDAY. Here's your cut-the-crap post...

We need to save money... especially after this weekend.  What was supposed to be a nice, inexpensive trip to Rock Springs, WY quickly became an expensive one.  We spent nearly $500!  However, I must say that it was all worth it... Next time, we will NOT spend so much on food, I think.

So in the spirit of cutting the crap, I found this article to share with you.  AND BTW... I put some questions up on Yahoo Answers and got some very interesting answers.  I'll share them with you in my next post. 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/8-Painless-Ways-to-Save-usnews-4181079233.html?x=0

Butter or Margarine? Experts Reveal What's in Their Grocery Cart

Butter or Margarine? Experts Reveal What's in Their Grocery Cart

This was an eye-opening article. I was especially intrigued by the frozen veggies vs. fresh veggies bit. Good to know!  I prefer olive oil as opposed to canola oil, and we already drink 1% milk.  Milk... I'd love to go organic but it's literally twice as expensive.  As for the butter, did anyone read that viral email a few years ago that stated margarine is literally 1 MOLECULE away from being plastic?  It made me never want to eat margarine again.  Besides, butter tastes better. 

I'm getting groceries again today for the first time in about 3 weeks.  We wanted to eat as much from the cupboards to get rid of the bad stuff we don't need.  Now we can replace these items with more healthy choices.  I have a feeling our grocery bill will be quite expensive this week...
   
So am I cutting the crap or making my life more simple by making better food choices?  One could argue that if I simply didn't care so much about all of this that I'd reduce my stress and thus become happier.  What could be more simple and unencumbered then that?   

Cut the Crap Day WHATEVER

So here we are a month later. Much has happened. Crap has been cut, but still not to the extent I had hoped.

• Rob got a work from home job as DSL tech support. He just completed training on Friday. We’ve cut the crap a lot with that job:
• He doesn’t have to drive to work, so we’re saving a ton on gas. He has a ’79 K5 Blazer. When I say “a ton”, I mean it.
• He’s eating at home obviously, and he’s already shed 20 lbs. He’s cutting the fat! YAY!
• We finally got our tax incentive for buying a house. I can’t say we cut the crap with that, but we did get new furniture, new carpet, and a new TV. I must say, my house is looking GOOD.
• We rescued some terra cotta planters from the curbside… as well as some patio furniture. Rob is going to sand down the patio furniture and repaint it. So… even though we didn’t cut the crap on that, we cut the amount of crap going to the landfill. AND all it cost us was some water, cleaner, and two cans of spray paint.
• Xander burned his hands on our door threshold on Friday. After an ER visit, much Tylenol and Motrin, bandages, and some sleep, he’s doing fine. We have an appointment with the burn specialists at Children’s hospital tomorrow morning. Part of keeping Xander comfortable means keeping the AC cranked. I want to make sure he doesn’t have any undue swelling. So, that was kind of the opposite of cutting the crap. We’re actually using more energy and will pay for it in our next bill.