A Google Spreadsheet!

As some of my friends know I am a sucker for any kind of spreadsheet or document program. So here is the Food, Gas, Treats spreadsheet for this experiment!

Click Here!

This should open in a new window. This is so it's easier for me to track the totals for the month of these items. :)

the daily spend 5 -18 to 5 - 21

First off I'd like to say there is a whole Lowe's Hardware saga that involves 4 receipts and too many explanations so there will just be a total that comprises all of the receipts. Second yay us for the cool "not losing our heads with the car handling crisis of 2007". Seriously, yay. Onto the spending...

5/18/07
Publix:
Potato chips $2
Hamburger buns $1
(2) OJ $4
Heavy Whipping Cream $3 (we're making some ice cream!!!)
Cheddar cheese $2
Ground beef $4
total = $15.44

Lowe's:
total = $27.67
+ untold amounts of gas for 2 trips + blood, sweat & tears for what eventually amounted to nothing. blegh. At least we have 2 ramps for the pickup truck in case we ever actually need them. *sigh

Chevron:
Gas $20.01

5/19/07
Dairy Queen @ the mall:
Smoothie $4.25
Again for the Edemame but damn. If there is one thing this challenge is doing for me it's making "small" purchases extremely difficult for me. And that's a good thing. This was a purchase that could have been avoided if I had been more diligent about making sure that a grandparent outing did not go too long. Eating lunch at 2:30pm is fine for adults but not so nice for toddlers.

5/20/07
Publix: (is it any surprise that Edemame recognizes this logo??)
(2) Seltzer $1
Peanuts $2
Tomatoes $2
Garlic .30
Cucumbers $1
Milk $3.50
(2) Bread $6.60 (Damnit. This bread was supposed to be 2 for $5 and I missed it at the cash register. This is the kind of thing that pisses me off to no end. And the kind of thing I wouldn't have cared about last year because I wouldn't know due to never looking at my receipts. Gah.)
Broccoli $1.25
Zucchini $1.25
Corn $2
Chicken (whole) $5
(4) Publix brand soft drinks $1 (I thought I'd try them out!)
Ground beef $4.25
Eggs $2.25
total = $34.66

5/21/07
Costco:
Blueberries $5
Blackberries $6.50
Diapers $25
total = $38.44

Costco:
Gas $31.12 (only $2.91 per gallon!)

The Neighborhood Coffee Shop:
Steamed milk w/Vanilla $3

Ok, here's an oddity. I got the above drink for E when we stopped in to get espresso for the house. (Sorry Ronin they were out.) The reason this drink is one dollar more than the Caribou drink seen in a previous post? The tip. At an anonymous big chain store I am not likely to plunk down any money for tip. Frankly if they are pleasant to me at ALL I am just counting myself lucky and I don't feel obligated to give them 20% of my $2. Now that is not the case at my neighborhood place. They know me, they know Edemame. They call us by name when we go in there and we know their names too. I hesitated when I added the tip on for our $2 milk today. Not because I don't think they deserve it but because I'm focusing so hard on where every $1 goes. I try hard to patronize the locals because they are fighting so hard for existence but sometimes it is harder to part with that extra $1 or so. It's a tough call but one that I felt ok about today.

the daily spend 5-16 & 5-17

Just a few items but 2 of the same one. We have said before that we are leaving Edemame out of a lot of our restrictions. Budget Ronin works right next door to a *bucks (blegh but that's a post for another day.) There is a parking deck to his building but it costs $8 (!!!! I could buy some freaking GRAPES for gods sake.) to park there. So when we go downtown to see him we usually pop in at the *bucks and grab a coffee and then cross the street to his office. Now of course we are not buying the coffee but Edemame has no real restriction. I do want to change attitudes and habits with this experiment and we have not been visiting any coffee houses since it started, but Edemame asks to go to the "coffee shop" ALL the time, showing you just what a part of our lives it was. SO, all that to say that I am still occasionally buying her the odd "coffee" (steamed milk with vanilla). It's cheaper than paying $8 for a parking space and still a nice treat at roughly $1 for her.
Wow, defensive much?? :) On to the numbers...

5-16-07
Haircut for Edemame
total = $21.55
Coffee for Edemame @ *bucks
total = $1.03

5-17-07
Coffee for Edemame @ *bucks
total = $1.03

been a long time gone! the daily spend 5-10 - 5-15 edition

Hey guys!
I've been absent the past couple of days, lots of family and personal disruption so I'll get right to the bare bones of it and hopefully get back into the swing of things.

I actually haven't spent much the past few days but here it is for the record:
5-10-07
Citgo:
$12.03 fuel

5-11-07
BJs:
$25.01 fuel

Costco:
64oz of Strawberries
16oz of Blackberries
total = $11.31
We ended up there and the fruit was so good I couldn't pass it up. We have really enjoyed it all this weekend.

Thrift Store:
Pillow .50
total .52

I needed stuffing to fill the dolls I was making and I was pretty happy with myself for finding a pillow at the thrift store for less than a $1 when a bag of polyfil would set me back $1.35. I know it doesn't sound like much but when you add in the fact that the thrift store is within walking distance of my house and I'd have to drive 15 miles to the nearest Michael's to buy a bag, I saved some gas money there. And as you can see above, I need to save that gas money!!

5-13-07
.73 for a QT drink that I got to mix myself. (for the record: 1/2 Fanta Strawberry, 1/2 Squirt + 2 shots of Fountain Vanilla = YUM!) For me this is a ton of fun for almost no cash so Ronin and I agreed that it was OK.

I did end up making 2 dolls for birthday presents for Saturday. It was a LOT of work but it was fun making them and the girls really loved them. For Mother's Day it was hand drawn cards by Edemame for each Grandma and we had done some photo books on QOOP from our Flickr stream earlier in the year for this express purpose. So the cost of the books doesn't count against our experiment since I bought them in February. Though frankly they only cost $5.95 each and BOTH Grandma's cried so I guess you could say they were cheap at any price. ;)

the daily spend 5-8-07

I'm running out of cutesy things to call the daily spend...oooh that's what I'll call it! Ok! Only one tiny item today and some might say it was unnecessary but I say, YOU take a toddler to a coffee shop so you can talk to your good friend who just graduated from law school so you haven't seen her in 6 months and try to tell the toddler that she can't have any "coffee" and see how well THAT goes over. whew. It was a nice treat for her since we have cut the weekly coffee binges down to never. All that to say:

Caribou Coffee:
$2.21

How was YOUR day?