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Home > Starting to feel JINXED!! (& Groceries...)

Starting to feel JINXED!! (& Groceries...)

July 1st, 2008 at 02:08 am

On the plus side, I got my car back at noon - really nothing wrong with it.

Mechanic called me at 11:45 to say the EGR valve(?) had been stuck, but seems fine now. Plus is usually covered for warranty an extraordinarily long time.

Charged $100, but that's okay. I was holding my breath to more car repairs on both cars. Now they both have a clean bill of health for $100. So not bad. Feeling very relieved. (Likewise, my co-worker just said the Ford dealership quoted her $160 just to diagnose her "check engine" light. What a rip! So though I thought $100 was a bit much, I guess I shouldn't complain. (Family friend mechanic though not as awesome as the one we had back home. But trustworthy at least).

I called dh and asked if he wanted to meet me for lunch and get the car, but he had just heated up spaghetti. I was trying to talk him into it, when I remembered that the fancy Indian place was rather near the car shop (downtown). I didn't have to ask twice. HE said, "I'll be right there to pick you up!"

We decided to go to lunch first and then I could drop him off at the mechanic and let him deal with the time to pick it up.

So we parked a couple of blocks down and realized lunch downtown maybe wasn't the smartest idea. Nowhere to park! We found an empty spot and paid $1.25 in the meter.

We walk to the place and the door is LOCKED. Frown Of course there was a sign, under new management and starting TODAY, closed Mondays. Boy, we felt great about that (not).

So then I just feel jinxed! we were trying to go over there when dh's car died. LOL. I get the feeling that for some reason we are NOT supposed to eat there. Hehe.

But I am super bummed that we didn't make it one last time under old management. Before we had the old chef from the San Francisco location (where we got hooked). Sounds like he had moved on. Frown

So yes, we are crazy and we will try again. Big Grin

I just don't know when.

Anyway, we walked over to a MExican restaurant and had a so-so meal for $16. What a let down. $16 less for our gourmet Indian meal next month.

We should have cut our losses and left. I had lunch at work and dh had his spaghetti at home. Oh well! It was nice to have a quiet lunch - but we wasted most of our July lunch budget (we usually aim for 2-for-1 coupons and spend $10 on our date lunches.

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I didn't think much about it (since the paper sUnday showed what seemed like a million out of control fires still burning) but when I got out of work today I suddenly realized the sky was BLUE! We had been holed up indoors for almost a week, so I am thrilled.

I don't think the fire situation is grand (not sure) but the wind has blown the smoke elsewhere, for now.

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As promised, our grocery bill. Dh spent $55 picking up some stuff. Got stuff for spaghetti, taco salad, refried bean enchiladas, and some chicken dinner.

We got the husked corn for our spaghetti dinner as well. LOVING the stuff. Our luxury for now.

We needed some bread and cat food, and stocked up on chicken.

I am trying to put a finger on why our grocery bill seems rather unchanged. I think our particular store is slow to change prices.

So I just had to share for opinions. I think for one, prices are usually higher here. So that we are used to. But on the other hand, they don't seem to be rising much.

I don't know how much is regional, store, or if dh is just getting better at meal planning (maybe all of the above).

I did notice we mostly had a lot on hand already for most of the meals we made this week. Which means are regular bills seem to be getting lower, but there is still the occasional monster bill when we stock up on things.



Anything strike you as a good deal? Anything strike you as insanely expensive? Just curious on regional perspectives...

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One more thing. Dh is driving me nuts because he drained all of our wallet cash to buy some more games. They are up on ebay and will be sold by Thursday. So this is okay. But he still has 2 unsold Wiis.

I told him I needed ALL the profits back (he owes $400 to the checking account) plus the proceeds from his projector to pay some one-time bills (like private swimming lessons for BM, etc.).

I am thinking once I get all that back and I will just pull $500 cash from savings and give it to him to wheel and deal. He is driving me nuts. Just messing up my system. Plus I have like 20 cents in my wallet now. I don't use cash, but I like to at least carry a $20.

Anyway, he worried about interest. I told him the 3% interest on $500 amounts to $15 annually. HE can pay me a $1/month fee (profits) and I will be fine.

I of course want the $500 back eventually, as well. But will give him some seed money.

I think we may clear $400 this month, though a lot of that is in credit at the "used" store and a lot of that is just in more crap. LOL. But I told dh if he could make $400/month and max out his IRA, it will be a long time before I bug him to get a job.

I think he wants to do more than buy and sell stuff - it does take a lot of time. But in the interim, every little bit helps.

(I do remember July being a slow sell time last year on Craigslist. So we are sort of feeling it. But he sold that Wii last week in a FLASH - so there is hope). For now still holding out for $100 profit/each.

6 Responses to “Starting to feel JINXED!! (& Groceries...)”

  1. sillyoleme Says:
    1214875291

    "Just messing up my system."

    Lol! That sounds like what I told BF today. He didn't put the receipt for his gas in the basket on the kitchen counter. He put it NEXT to the basket. He didn't see the big deal, until I used the "close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades" line. If I'm straining to give us a fresh start and keep it all together, the least he can do it put his receipt in the right freakin' basket! Hehe. Smile

  2. scfr Says:
    1214880344

    The seed money sounds like a good idea.

    Your price for bananas seems high (we're paying 49-cents per lb now) but the price for red onions seems good (not sure what our price is here now since Texas sweets are in season so we're not buying reds, but I think they're around $1.50).

    We can get fresh-cooked tortillas at our grocery store: $2.19 for 10 small to medium size whole wheat ones that are literally steaming up the bag (yum).

  3. monkeymama Says:
    1214919292

    WOW on the bananas!!!! (I think I remember someone mentioning $1/lb seems high. So not sure what is up with that). We don't usually buy bananas and not much so probably why we haven't noticed much difference.

    We usually buy a lot of onions. Big Grin
    Which grocery store scfr?? Just curious - sounds yummy.

  4. frugaltexan75 Says:
    1214934557

    The banana price stood out to me as well. I haven't seen bananas for $.49/lb recently, but on my last shopping trip I got them for $.59/lb.

    I think giving your DH $500 as seed money is a good idea. Kind of similar to the $20 challenge here. Smile

  5. monkeymama Says:
    1214947617

    Well, that was from last week, so I will have more today.

    They stopped doing $50 groceries for 10 cents off gas at Raleys. BAh! So dh made a $100 trip today. For 25 cents off on the van.

    I will have him price bananas at Safeway next time. I think your imput will help. (Well at least I will know if it's just the store, or the region...)

    Thanks! I will post more groceries tomorrow. LOL.

  6. scfr Says:
    1214951881

    HEB ... It's big here in Texas. Sorry to hear they stopped doing the 10-cents off gas for $50 of groceries ... That was a great deal (and I was a bit envious tho I know I shouldn't be since we're still under $4/gall and I know you guys are insanely high).

    If you guys eat a lot of bananas, you may want to have your folks pick some up for you at Costco. We don't buy bananas at Costco because they come in 3-lb bags (too big for a 2-person family), but for a family of 4 w/ 2 little ones, that might be a reasonable quantity. I think at our Costco it's something like $1.25 for 3-lbs.

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