Spending today: $60 for a massage and some cranial sacral work from a therapist I have been going to for at least two years now. She's fantastic and as long as there is stress in my life, I will find the money to see her.

That was the high point of the day. The session sort of put me out of commission (sp?) but I am taking that as a sign to slow down and (twist my arm) that is just what I did today.

Dinner tonight was tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches - both very good and from items on hand. I always try to add leftover rice and some Italian seasoning to the soup, which makes it taste like something from a fancy cookbook. The grilled cheese were your run of the mill. DH broke out the Polish Dill Pickles which rounded out the culinary experience. It was all from the fridge or cupboards.

We sat down last night and had a quick chat about money. DH is a bit stressed about it right now, but is williing to cut back on some of the things we do like going out to dinner at the slightest prompting. I told him that all I need is his help planning the menu every three or four days and I will take care of the rest. He grumbled a little, but agrees it is a pretty good system and is willing to be more helpful from this point forward. I only plan four or five days out at the most; to allow for change in plans and the chance to incorporate leftovers should we have any. It also allows me the flexibility to use up things I randomly find on sale or at the farmer's market, changes in moods and tastes, etc. I dont like to be locked into anything. That really takes the fun out of it.

I've spent the better part of the last two days entering data into my price book spreadsheet. Thank you baselle for the links (again) I checked them out and see that there is a Pocket PC version. DH will read over the details and install for me. Then, I hope to be able to import the data and "massage" it a bit to make it work with the software. An electronic version certainly would be nice as I have 9 pages of prices at this point. I was going to print it out and carry it with me, but its huge. I will work with the electronic version and see how that works.

The most impressive thing about entering all this data into one big spreadsheet was cross comparing the unit prices. The frozen taquitos that we get once in a while when they are on sale are way more expensive than even frozen pizza. And just the massive gaps in prices between the same items was enough to get me re-motivated to compare and not settle for a mediocre deal. It was an eye opener and I am going to have fun finding the best deals for my money in the new year. I dont consider my tactics hard core at this point, but I know I've already saved us a lot of money by comparing prices. I am looking forward to seeing how much we save when I do get hard core!

No other major money events to report today. So I will end before I start to ramble. Tomorrow we are going to the big city down the road to do some furniture pricing. DH needs to get some shelves. We know what we want, but arent finding anything locally. I am foregoing the clothing stores. Not really in the mood and dont need anything at this point.