**I haven' given up sales tax tracking. It got a little crazy last weekend and I am sure I missed some things (I was not sure of tax rate where we were - though can look up - and dining out receipts never seem to have any details but the total).

For the week, there was about $100 spent on groceries, and $0 taxes paid. This means $100 spent on food; no alcohol or soda.

I have been advised to track my household spending separate from groceries, but have never bothered because we just don't spend that much on misc. Not worth the hassle. We have one budget for all of the above, and we have no problems sticking to it. In January I believe the only thing non-food we bought was cat food and cat litter. The pet stuff may be worth separating out. But again, we have one budget and stick to it, so is all that really matters. I certainly don't have to manage my toiletry budget since it is generally pennies. Looking at all the $0-tax receipts reaffirms this. You see why don't bother to comb through the receipts and classify the groceries from the non-groceries.

I'd do it if I found it useful at all.

**Onto the gloves. With my newfound "cold weather" knowledge, I experimented with wearing gloves around the house yesterday. I do not have appropriate gloves for wearing around the house (preferably fingerless) but was experimenting and very pleased with the results. I could see using for driving, work (the heat in my office is currently busted), veggy reading/computing/TV watching at home. If I am up and about I don't have any trouble keeping warm - so not like I Will be wearing gloves to cook and clean and to do anything active.

The results?? I left the heat off all day. I generally turn it on in the morning to warm up the house a bit and then turn it off when I leave for work. It's not like I get much benefit in the morning, but I get some, and I know if I warm up the house first no one will touch it while I am at work. So I did do that. I don't remember when or why I turned it off - maybe out of habit. Dh and BM were out of the house all day. I experimented and felt quite comfortable. Left the house around 3pm, and when we got home closer to 7pm the first thing I did was eat some ice cream. I did not put on gloves. Dh went over to turn on the heat.

I said, "Did you turn on the heat!?! OMG!!" To which I think I startled him quite a bit. LOL. I said, "Don't get me wrong - turn on the heat all you want. But seriously, YOU just turned on the heat before *I* did!"

I wouldn't have turned it on last night.

So, that is that. I will no longer be the cold weather whimp in this house. & I will chide dh a bit because trust me, he has chided me for using a lot of heat.

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After a long day, the kids and I spent $11 eating out last night (Burger King). I used to like their shakes, but have taken to just getting their sundaes because they cost about 25% as much. Maybe not as big, but I don't need a big shake anyway. Dh did not want to partake, so saved us. I was very much in an "Eating out" mood, combined with a "We have no money to spend on any real eating out." So when dh said he didn't want to eat out, made it easy. A compromise might have been to pick up something hot at the grocery store (is lazy and all that, but FAR cheaper than feeding 4 of us out).

I also did some Amazon shopping yesterday. I had a $25 gift card so only spent $13 of my own money.

I did buy gloves. Will consider them a free gift (gift card was a Christmas gift), and I added a cute hat to my wish list for next Christmas/birthday season. One I could wear around the house.

I have had some nice peelers on my wish list for a while, and MIL commented just last weekend how sucky our peelers are. I Said, "That's why they are on my wish list." Anyway, since I needed to spend a little more for the free shipping, I just bought the peelers. About $10. I am sure they would have shown up as a gift next year, but was the perfect useful "rather not pay as much in shipping" purchase.

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The other thing I bought on Amazon was a mop.

Firstly, I had bookmarked this article because was interesting:

http://thehappiestmom.com/10-upgrades-to-make-cleaning-house...

I can't say I felt the need to buy most these products. BUT I am stuck on mops, and appreciated the mop recommendation:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003NYFDWK/ref=as_li_qf_sp_...

I'd been meaning to get around to using my Amazon credit to just buy the thing. But once I got down to it I found something that I think will work better for me:

http://www.amazon.com/MopAway-MOPAWAYFLAT-Chenille-Microfibe...

& I know, I should have asked for suggestions here before I bought anything.

My general feeling is to not use disposable products while cleaning. I am not much of a neat freak (in fact, I am the anti neat-freak). This means that the only way I clean my floors is on my hands and knees. Seriously. Which runs totally counter to my non-neat-freak stand, sounds like. Anyway, scrubbing floors on my hands and knees is totally fine for the bathrooms, and will still continue to do, because they are small squares. BUT I seriously need a better solution for our kitchen.

The mop I bought is a non-disposable solution that does not even use any chemicals. Only water needed. Considering I don't remember the last time I scrubbed the entire kitchen floor (just been spot cleaning), this will be a huge improvement. It sounds too good to be true, but am willing to give it a try.

I'll clean more with better tools. Is long past time I figured out a GOOD mop solution.

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We ended robot season yesterday with the Northern California Championship. We lucked out as it was right down the street from our house. !! So I drove back and forth a bit yesterday to catch the highlights, but also had plenty of time to veg at home. The kids did totally awesome for their first season.

I am honestly surprised they achieved anything - a group of VERY high-energy children that get easily distracted. LOL. My own child is a high energy NERD. & this is what this group was heavily compromised of. This means they had the brains and focus to do quite well (many of these kids could sit quietly and read or study all day if they were alone), but they also would have been just as happy to go outside and play tackle football. Which is about what they did most of yesterday. Just with the energy and makeup of that group. But anyway, it is nice to see that they were able to focus and achieve something, somewhere along the line.

Aren't the lego trophies cute?