Compare, Contrast, Consume.

After all that wonderful freedom and Me Time I was just talking about, the universe decided to balance out my life. This weekend (and so far this week) at least one of my children has been at home, sick. Thankfully, Corey can work from home, so he stayed home with Carrick on Tuesday (Monday being a holiday, so there was no school.) But as soon as I got off work, I was on Kleenex Duty. The school even sent him home yesterday, in spite of having no fever and no other symptoms besides a raspy-sounding cough. He has a tendency to cough over dramatically anyway, so he probably sounded more ill than he actually was. At any rate, we are keeping him home one more day to get rid of the cough, because why bother sending him to school if they are just going to turn right around and send him home? To add to the layer of sick we already have, Lily contributed her own fever as of last night. So all my new-found freedom will have to be put on pause while I do the mom thing and snuggle these wee ones.

It will also give me a moment to catch up on my Fun Dollars reporting (sick kids= less time to write). This past Monday began a new pay cycle. I started making a new wish list over Christmas Break, and I am slowly checking things off. One such item that I have been looking forward to spending Fun Dollars on is a six-pack of vino at Safeway. A trend in liquor sales is selling mix-and-match six-packs and offering a discount of some sort. Since I am not buying beer or soda, I am curious about trying various wines, sort of like a home wine tasting.  I know which wines I really like, so I usually just buy the same ones over and over. With this "experiment" I am wanting to branch out and try some new wines that I have been intimidated to try thus far.

My mix included Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc, Robert Mondavi Chardonnay, Bogle Chardonnay, Rex-Goliath Cabernet Sauvignon, Gnarly Head Old Vine Zinfandel, and Purple Cowboy Tenacious Red (Blend).

We opened the Rex-Goliath first. I bought this one to see if a 4-buck chuck would be worth buying again. At $4.65, if we liked it, we could buy it when we don't want to spend a too much on wine, but still want something to go with dinner. It turned out to be a decent red. I don't think I would buy it very frequently, but if I only have $5.00 Fun Dollars left, it certainly is a "passable" choice. Some cheap wines are exactly that...cheap, but Rex-Goliath is inexpensive and somewhat tasty.


The next night, we opened up the Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc. I have had Noblio before, and I knew I liked it, but it's been over a year (I think ) since I have actually tasted a glass. Last week, Corey bought two bottles of Kim Crawford (my favortite Sauvignon Blanc...actually, my favorite white wine period) so I wanted to taste the Nobilo against the Kim Crawford while it was fresh in my mind. As it turns out, the Noblio is a perfectly acceptable substitute which costs $10.00 less than Kim Crawford (regularly priced).

Corey opened up the Robert Mondavi last night, but I haven't tried it yet. I bought this with the intention of trying an inexpensive white to add to our "dinner collection". I know that I already like the Bogle Chardonnay, and the Robert Mondavi is a few dollars cheaper than Bogle, so I wanted to taste them side-by-side as well.





As for the last two red wines, I have had both of the before. I fell in love with the Gnarly Head last week, while Corey was on a spree of spending Fun Dollars on wine. (This also was a prompt to act on the six-bottle discount. He bought several bottles individually last week, and I kept thinking, "If he bought them all at once, he could have saved enough for an extra bottle!") I tried it next to Bogle Old Vine Blend, and prefer the Gnarly Head. Normally, Bogle is my go-to brand for tasty-yet-inexpensive wine, but in this case, the Gnarly Head won, hands down.

 
         
I plan on saving The Purple Cowboy for later. A friend of mine brought over a bottle once for a BBQ several months ago and I was blown away. Mostly, I just want to have a bottle for myself saved away for a good steak dinner and wanted to capitalize on the six-dollar discount when I bought it. This was the most expensive bottle in the bunch at $11.00.


                                                                                         
All said and done, with my Safeway coupon app and the six-pack discount, I spent $48.00 on 6 bottles of wine. I am enjoying my little wine tasting experiment and, so far, am pleased with the results.

6 bottles of wine at Safeway- $48.00
Balance this pay cycle- $52.00
Happy Spending!