I thought today would be uber spendy.

Probably will be. But, we got enough produce that dh said he would get gas/groceries tomorrow. When I mentioned I was still going to pick up salmon, he decided to go gas up, get the groceries, and pick up the salmon for me. So if not for my salmon splurge, today probably would have been a low-spend day of sorts.

Anyway, I went to the bread store this a.m., since we decided just to do sandwiches for Monday.

For just over $7, I got 2 loaves of bread, a loaf of sliced sourdough bread, english muffins, tortillas, oatmeal cookies, generic oreos, and some cinnamon donut pop 'ems. The pop 'ems are my staple work treat (that way I can eat one or two but don't end up eating the whole box). Oatmeal cookies would have been plenty, but we recently got turned on to "Minute to Win IT" and I had told the kids I would get some so that we could try the oreo trick (you move them from your eye to your mouth using only your facial muscles).

Which reminds me, I was craving Oreos last weekend (can't remember the last time I had them), so I was looking at Walgreens when I went to pick up some milk. There was an enlarged price thing that said something about what a great deal they were at $4.57 (something like that - well over $4). *choke choke* I grabbed the generics for $2. They were actually pretty good. I asked dh how much Oreos were at the grocery store - he didn't know. I asked him if $5 sounded a little steep. HE certainly agreed.

These Walgreens generics were fat oreo cookies with lots of filling. At the bread store, they were more like little oreos, but I figured they would do the trick. They were $1.50.

Anyway, since I spent $7, I got the english muffins for free. I also earned 2 free loaves of bread with my punch card.

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After aerobics/bread store, I came home and showered/changed so we could try out the farmers market by the library. I have to preface this by saying we have had a lot of expensive farmers market around in the area (all organic and all that - we aren't much into the organic). So we didn't really have high expectations. This is the kind of neighborhood definitely where you slap an organic label and everyone would pay twice as much.

So, we were very pleasantly surprised. A wide variety of really well priced produce. Most of it was sold as organic, too. I had pressed dh to get there early because I heard they had sold out quickly in recent weeks. As I walked past a few people lowering prices mid way through the morning, I told dh maybe later was better. We aren't that picky.

Definitely will become a weekend trip for us. Even better, they are putting lights on the freeway overpass so it may be safe enough to ride bikes over there, by next year. I am so excited about that!

We spent about $13 on pistachios (most of it!), corn, green onions, carrots, cilantro, grapes and strawberries. Everything was about $1 per pound of per bunch, but for the pistachios and strawberries - which were our splurges.

We saw "all natural beef" at $5/pound. We decided to look into it. Dh was wary of buying beef in the hot sun. I said I just wanted to look up how natural it really is. Which is why I am not head first into the organic movement - I am pretty skeptical if everything labeled "organic" is really worth the higher cost. But at $5/pound, you might be able to get me to switch to organic beef. I just need to do more research on that one.

Overall, a success!

Having to pay cash would REALLY throw me off, but dh had a $50 in his pocket. His Grandma had given it to him at some point. I told him that I could have really used it for bills (or in savings), but that could be our Farmer's market/skating rink budget for the month. Both cash only. Just throws off my whole bookkeeping system! So, yeah, I was annoyed to know he had $50 sitting in his pocket - for many weeks apparently. Guess it works out.

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No time to cook breakfast this morning, so scrambled eggs and fresh fruit for lunch. BM is becoming the master chef of scrambled eggs in our house.