Huh?

I realized that my accounting was off in the last two posts. I did not subtract the $20.00 that I spent at Alcantara. I edited the posts to show the correct amount. That said, I still have $5.00 unaccounted for. I was completely out of Fun Dollars after I went to Taco Tuesday. So somewhere between grandpa's visit and Taco Tuesday, I either spent or misplaced $5.00.


That's the trouble with cash, there's no name on it, so you have to keep track of what's yours. It becomes trickier than you might think when there are tiny little hands that like to break into everything. Lily will pull out my purse in public and start throwing credit cards on the ground. I put a stop to it immediately, but you'd be surprised at how quickly she can play thief while I'm grocery shopping. The instant my back is turned to put broccoli in a produce bag, there she is, making it rain credit cards.

I don't think Lily is the reason I'm missing $5.00. I think there was some tiny little purchase somewhere in the pay cycle that I'm forgetting about. I did save my receipt for $6.00 at Whole Foods for pretzels, fruit bars and Fiji Water. I also still have the receipt from Target for $13.00 when I bought pressed powder (I finally got some) and a glittery purple notebook.



I also set aside $20.00 as promised for the Fun Dollars New Year's Giveaway. The total in the pot is now at $40.00. I am right on schedule to have $100.00 saved up to give to a lucky reader the first week of January. In the next pay cycle, I will be announcing the criteria for winning the $100.00, so stay tuned.


In the mean time, I have added a new wallet to my Fun Dollars wish list. I had been using a clutch purse up until last week when I bought my "Brand New Bag". When I switched purses, all of a sudden, my card stash seemed to spread out all over the inside of my new handbag. I had no means of containment. In the clutch, all the cards were compacted together because there just wasn't that much room in the purse. Now, there's all sort of room. So, for security reasons, I think a wallet is a smart use of Fun Dollars, especially to keep track of them. A wallet will also put an extra barrier between my pick pocket daughter and my money.

Snacks at Whole Foods- $6.00
Makeup and Notebook at Target- $13.00
Money saved for the Fun Dollars New Years Giveaway- $20.00
Balance this pay cycle- $5.00 (Except it's missing)
Happy Spending!

Taco Tuesday

Yeah, baby! That's what I'm talking about! A happy-hour-style lunch date with my sweetheart!

There's really not much to say here.  If you sit at the bar and order a drink on Tuesday at Javelina Cantina, you can order unlimited $1.00 tacos. The tacos were schmamazing to say the least. You can choose from shredded beef, ground beef, shredded chicken, refried beans or black beans in your tacos. I ordered a ground beef taco and a shredded chicken taco. Both were way tastier than anything on a dollar menu from some fast food joint.


I ordered a Negro Modelo Draft beer as my drink in order to score the delicious delicacies. I had $8.00 left at this point in the pay cycle. The beer was $5.50, and the tacos were each $1.00. Corey was with me for lunch, so he pretty much picked up the tip with his Fun Dollars.

Oh yeah, and the whole reason I went in there in the first place was to eat their salsa. They seriously have the best salsa in town (sorry, Elote, yours is just too spicy for me.) I ate a cup and a half of the salsa, which is why I was satisfied with only two tacos. (Well, I guess the beer was a filling too.)

Corey and I were able to relax and talk over my lunch break. These days, it feels more like a secret rendez vous because the kids were both at school. We are still working on carving out more time to spend with each other, and lunch dates seem to be the winning trend. He also brought me some of his yummy slow-cooker roast to work yesterday. We were able to hang out on the back patio and talk some more.

I look forward to more Taco Tuesdays. Lunch Dates, Girl's Day Out, or just by myself, it doesn't matter, the tacos will taste wonderful no matter who is with me.

Lunch at Javelina Cantina- $8.00
Balance this pay cycle- $46.00
Happy Spending!

Alcantara

Now that Corey's dad is safely back at home, and I have successfully caught the laundry up from ignoring it all weekend long, I can finally sit down and share with you one of the best Fun Dollars experiences to date.

Corey and I have enjoyed living in the burgeoning wine country of Northern Arizona. When we first moved here seven years ago, there were only three or four vineyards in the area. Now, there are vineyards and tasting rooms dotting the area, with growth happening on a yearly basis. Existing vineyards have expanded their acreage. Tasting room employees have spawned their own lines of wine. Local blends and varietals are more available than ever with the help of local bars and bistros that have cropped up in the wake. Suffice it to say, if you want to feel like you're spending the weekend in Tuscany, you can, by just driving down the road.

And that's exactly what we did on Saturday afternoon. We packed up the kids (yes, we even took the kids), we packed some snacks, and we headed out to a vineyard that I had yet to visit: Alcantara. Normally, I am a Page Springs Cellars girl, but Corey had helped to host several events at this newer vineyard, and I was curious to try their wines and see their estate. Since Grandpa Tim was visiting, we figured it would be a great chance to experience this place together.

After driving to Cottonwood, and turning east on 260, we drove a few miles out of town before turning north on a dirt road. The bumpy gravel lead us down toward the Verde River. As we passed over a second cattle guard, the facade of a Tuscan-style villa came into view. (The owner of the vineyard used to live in the house.) With the front door open, and the sound of laughter coming from inside, I immediately felt a sense of welcome.

The inside tasting room was situated around the kitchen. Warm wooden cabinets and granite counter tops looked as if a little Italian grandmother would come out with a rolling pin and start making pasta. Several dining tables and a few bistro tables were situated in the generously proportioned dining room and kitchenette area. We walked out the back door to the multi-leveled deck, where the live-entertainer was strumming his guitar. We chose a secluded patio table overlooking the back yard and made camp.

The grassy back yard was dotted with cafe tables, each with its own umbrella. The kids ran around, playing with the cats who live on the premises. Corey, Grandpa Tim and I each took turns corralling the kids if they ran too far, but for the most part, we were able to just sit, relax and sip wine while keeping an eye on them.

After enjoying the Merlot and their estate blend, "Confluence", we took our party down to the creek. The menfolk brought fishing poles and tackle to while away the hours outside. The kids ran around in the tall grasses by the creek, collecting rocks, playing with the night crawlers, and digging in the dirt. I sat on the rocky ground and continued my relaxing existence without a care in the world. Overhead, the steely gray clouds promised to bring cooler weather, if not rain later on, but for the time being, we were blessed with nothing more than a chilly autumn wind.

At the confluence of Oak Creek and the Verde River, the Sheridans enjoyed an intimate setting for some quality family time. Playing outside, sipping delicious, local wine, and feeling the change of seasons with people I love was the best use of Fun Dollars I have experienced in many moons.

My Donation to the afternoon at Alcantara- $20.00
Balance this pay cycle- $54.00
Happy Spending!

Mama's Got a Brand New Bag

I heard the James Brown song, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" in my head Wednesday evening as I pranced through the parking lot of the Basha's Plaza. I replaced the word "papa" with "mama" and jived my way back to my car. Mama indeed found a brand new (to me) bag.

I went out for a bit of speed shopping on Wednesday evening after cleaning the house all day in preparation for my father-in-law's Halloween visit. We had been living in a vacation rental for the previous three weeks, and after returning home, there was a mountain of mess to deal with. The contents of our bathroom cabinets had been emptied onto our bed. The reconstruction crew had to tear out the vanity to get to the mold behind it. So, we have a new master bathroom vanity, but there was a pile of stuff everywhere that needed to be sorted and relocated.

In addition to that, all of our laundry had to be sorted and redistributed to it's proper place. Towels, kids clothes, underwear, it was all mixed up in the same jumble. The only thing sorted was clean and dirty. I knew which bags were which, so that would at least save me from washing clean clothes. I had been chipping away at the laundry since we moved back in, but the reality is that we continue to use laundry on a daily basis. I felt like I was drowning under the heap of clean clothes that was piling up. Wednesday was the day that everything was either put away, or just dumped into a storage bin and dealt with at a later date.

Suffice it to say that by the time 4;00 rolled around, I was ready for a break. (Sewing up Carrick's dinosaur costume earlier that day didn't count as a break.) So that's part 1 of the story.

Part 2:
Ever since we return from our three week stay at the vacation rental, I have focused on organizing all of our closets and drawers. The kids have plenty of fall-weather outfits. Corey is stocked with dress shirts, but needs some casual wear. I have plenty of tops, but my stock of bottoms is laughable. My solution? Host a clothing swap, of course! Several of my friends are in the same zone of "needing new clothes". One just lost a couple sizes from working out. Another is pregnant and is growing in size. It's been since May that we have all got together for a clothing swap, so I figured now was as good of a time as any.

This always happens to me. I know that a clothing swap is coming up, and then I find something that I just can't live without. Not like I go shopping and I see something, more like I find a gap in my wardrobe that is so huge that I can't possibly wait for it to be filled. I'm not even talking about clothes this time. Nope. It was a purse. After scheduling the clothing swap, knowing that my friends might being purses or handbags to the swap to get rid of, I just could not wait that long to get a new purse.

I have been carrying around a sliver, beaded clutch since the Oscars in late February. The local theater that shows indie films hosts the "Oscars" each year during the film festival. They show the live broadcast on the big screen, and you feel like you're in the front row with Meryl Streep. It's supposed to be this "red carpet" event, so every one dresses up. After attending the event, I never switch my clutch back to the tote bag I was using as a purse. I just kept my essentials in the clutch and pulled it out of the tote bag whenever I needed it.

But I'm tired of clutching the clutch, or tucking it under my armpit to go shopping. I also don't like carrying around the heavy tote bag when I go into a store. I don't need my notebook and water bottle with me everywhere I go. The time had come for me to get a real purse.

So, back to my whirlwind of cleaning:

I needed to get out of the house, recharge my batteries, and do some speed shopping. Corey consented to watch the kids, and I drove around the corner to the Basha's Plaza. First I hit up the newly remodeled Beall's Oulet. Nada. Then Goodwill...still nothing. Then I walked across the parking lot to a cluster of stores in an "island" in the plaza. A semi-new consignment store called Kaelyn's Kloset sells higher-end women's clothes and accessories. Nine West, Dolce and Gabana, and Calvin Klein can be found in this location, albeit secondhand.

I whizzed through the store and picked up five bags that looked like my style. I took them all to the mirror and tried them all on. I narrowed it down to three. Then I looked at the price tags. $20.00, $22.0 and $40.00. The $40.00 was a little out of my comfort zone for budget. The $22.00 one was just a good at the others, but slightly less comfortable on my shoulders. The $20.00 was the sweet spot. With tax is was $22.00 Fun Dollars. Yay!!!! Now I can put the rest of my Fun Dollars in my new bag and enjoy my weekend with family in comfort and style.

New to me Purse at Kaelyn's Kloset- $22.00
Balance this pay cycle- $74.00
Happy Spending!

Infrequent Indulgence

Even before I ate (80%) gluten free, even before I started watching my sugar intake, even before I cared too much about food in general, I stopped eating doughnuts. It was very easy for me to  look at a pastery and see the sugar and wheat for what they were: nutritionally void. My children have had maybe the equivalent of three doughnuts their entire lives. They are just something we don't spend our money on.

When I was a kid, my mother worked Saturdays, only Saturdays, which meant that dad got to spend all day with his girls. My sister and I would wake up and stampede down into the basement to watch Saturday morning cartoons. Still in our jammies, we would laugh at Looney Toons, giggle at Garfield and snicker at Smurfs. Eventually, our dad would come down the stairs and announce that we would be going to Bent's Red Fox, the local grocery store. (I use the singular form of the word because there was only one grocery store in the town I grew up in.)

A trip to Bent's meant only one thing: doughnuts. My dad would let my sister and me pick out three of four doughnuts each. He would add to it to make it a round dozen. Then we'd head home to finish our cartoon binge-watching and gorge ourselves on sugar.

I don't hold it against my dad for our weekly treats, either. Our Saturday morning doughnuts were the few sugary things that came into our house when I was a kid. It was more of a bonding experience between a father and his daughters more than anything. I'm sure that if we were living in today's world (and somewhere other than a town with a population of 1200) we would have been eating gluten free scones or something.

Even though I don't take my kids out for doughnuts, I still allow for a doughnut every so often, like twice a year (and only for myself, not for the kids). One of those instances happened yesterday.

I had just dropped the kids off at school and was heading to work when my boss sent me a text to come in half an hour later than usual (and that she would still pay me for my regular hours.) I took the opportunity to  have some morning time to myself. I decided to stop at New York Deli and Bagel on the way to work. I rarely go into this establishment because I just don't eat much of what they serve: wheat and sugar. But this momentous day of going into work late merited some sort of celebration...like getting a doughnut!!!!!

A Boston Creme, fist-sized, covered in chocolate icing and filled with vanilla pudding became my sweet indulgence for the morning. I am still buzzing from the sugar high as I write this 24 hours later. I also bought a small coffee to cut through the sugar as I ate it. I sat in the car listening to NPR, thinking back to my childhood days of delighting in doughnuts. Thanks, dad, you taught me how to enjoy this infrequent indulgence.

Boston Creme and small Coffee and NYDB- $4.00
Balance this pay cycle- $96.00
Happy Spending!

Wildcat Carnival

Almost every year since Carrick was born, I have taken him to the public school on the last Saturday in October for the Wildcat Carnival. This annual event draws a crowd of hundreds of parents and children from all over the Sedona and Verde Valley area. It's the school's biggest fund raiser of the year. They don't use the proceeds for sport team uniforms or new desks, they use all the money raised to buy curricular materials. The Wildcat Carnival literally funds our children's education.

The currency for the carnival is tickets. They are $.50 each, but if you buy them ahead of time, you get bonus tickets. Carrick spent his $10.00 Fun Dollars this pay cycle to buy 20 tickets, and he received 5 bonus tickets with this purchase. I also spent the last $10.00 of my Fun Dollars on the same purchase. All together, we had 50 tickets. Tickets are used to buy food, drinks, activities, games or a chance at winning a gift basket at the raffle area.  Every class is assigned a theme and the students all donate one new item that goes with that theme. The items are then assembled into gift baskets. I took a look in the office the day before the carnival and there were some pretty awesome gift baskets. Carrick's class's theme was dinosaurs. Some others included gardening, movie night, baking, games, hiking and children's books. 

When we arrived at the carnival, we started out paying 9 tickets for three slices of pizza. The kids were so excited about the games, that they had a hard time concentrating on lunch. Carrick requested a bag of popcorn while waiting in line for the bungee jump. Under normal circumstances, I would have explained to him that he should have had more at "lunch", but since the day was just a fun and relaxing time for us, I saved my motherly speech and just spent 2 tickets on a bag of popcorn. 

At the bungee jump, they put Carrick in a harness and he climbed up on the giant trampoline. Then one of the workers hooked both sides of his harness to clips suspended from two poles on either side of his trampoline. Then the worker raised up the clips and Carrick rose slightly into the air, dangling from the bungee cords, and then the worker gave him a tug downward toward the trampoline. He soared up into the air, with giggles flying out of his mouth. "More!!!" he shouted, so the worker gave him a harder tug, and Carrick shot up light a rock from a slingshot and he burst into fits of laughter. I couldn't even keep from laughing my self as I watched him shooting up and down. 

He also scaled the rock wall...all the way to to top. He marched right up to the guy working the ride and announced, "I'm 40 lbs!" (he remembered almost not making the weight requirement last year.) He fearlessly put one hand over the other and climbed all the way to the top. After pressing the siren, he let go and slowly descended on his harness with a huge smile on his face. 

In addition to the rock wall and the bungee jump, the kids played the duck pond, ring toss, bean bag toss,and mini golf. The bouncy house, and bouncy slide also kept the kids entertained. Lily tried her hand at the bouncy house, but was quickly overwhelmed by the motion. She's still only 22 months old, and much smaller than the other kids in there. She did, however, thoroughly enjoy the bouncy slide (as did I.) After Carrick went down three times, I decided to pay a ticket to take Lily down it. Hearing her bust up into laughter as we slid down was priceless. 

We took our paw prints (the tokens the kids won at the games) to the prize booth before we left. Lily picked out a purple snake and a bead necklace. Carrick chose a yellow bulldozer to add to his car collection as well as a pair of binoculars. Carrick requested some extra time on the playground before leaving. I saw that there were seats in the shade next to the playground, so I let him and Lily run around for a solid hour. I hung out with some mama friends of mine, taking a breather in the shade. We were all exhausted from being out in the sun (even though it was cool and there was a breeze, the sun was still intense) and walking around with our children for several hours. 

Spending $10.00 Fun Dollars on Wildcat Carnival tickets was the best choice I've made with my money in a while. Carrick and Lily enjoyed themselves tremendously. I was more than happy to share this experience with them, as well as support the school Carrick attends now. It was great way to close this pay cycle.

Tickets to the Wildcat Carnival- $10.00

Balance this pay cycle- $0.00       Happy Spending!

Regrets

Some people say that regrets are a waste of time. I would tend to agree, but only about dwelling on them. I believe that regrets serve a valuable purpose with our learning experience. If we simply discard the feeling of regret (or in this case, buyer's remorse), we loose the opportunity to learn from what happened. We obviously feel badly about something. Our job is to discover the root of the regret and to find a way to not repeat whatever gave us that feeling in the first place.

In my case, I failed to communicate with Corey about the spending expectations of our Pumpkin Train Excursion. If I had talked to him, I would not have made a snack run to Natural Grocers. I also would have planned for packing my lunch last Tuesday, and not relied to Fun Dollars to buy my work day meal at Wildflower Bread Co.

My regrets are not for the entire purchase at these establishments, mind you. There were parts of these purchases that I just did not enjoy. On my snack run at Natural Grocers I bought yogurt covered pretzels, 2 Pecan Pie Cliff Bars, 2 Spiced Pumpkin Cliff Bars, and a one quart carton of Good Belly Probiotic Coconut Water.  Yes, go ahead and scrunch your nose up. That last one tasted as good as it sounds. It was more like liquid coconut yogurt....I had to spit out the mother. You know, that live, fungus thingy they put in drinks to make them "healthy". (Sorry, kambucha lovers, I have never hopped on that wagon.) It was actually that last part of the purchase that I regret. Spending $3.00 on fermented live culture coconut water was not something I plan on repeating.

Similarly, I felt desperately hungry at Wildflower Bread Co. and failed to check the price on their yogurt parfait. I ordered a grilled cheese, and probably would have been better off getting a cup of soup to go with it. However, I picked up the parfait thinking it would make a good "later" snack in my work day. I could keep it cold in the refrigerator and eat it before picking up the kids from school. I would have fallen out of my seat if I had been sitting down when the cashier said my total was $11.57 for my grilled cheese sandwich and yogurt. Seriously??? $12.00 for two pieces of bread with cheese toasted in the middle and some yogurt??? Like I said, I had some regrets this pay cycle. Next time, I'll just get the soup and microwave it later.

I did make one purchase that seemed like a regret at the time, but looking back, I'm glad I made it. Last week, after seeing our family therapist, Corey and I scheduled "talk time". She could not believe that we didn't have any time to talk to each other without the kids around. I told her that was easier said than done. But since talking time was our "homework" for these next two weeks, we have made it a priority. One way that we managed to sneak in some talking time was by waking up at 6:15 every morning and talking before the kids woke up. Well, on Saturday, we slept in, so we made up for it by driving to Cottonwood for breakfast. kids occupied in the back seat, adults talking in the front seat. I was actually craving a skillet (potatoes and veggies sauteed with eggs on top), so when Corey pulled in to Denny's I was thrilled. I love their veggie skillet with eggs over medium. I poke the yolks and use it like a sauce over the veggies....mmmmm.....skillet......anyway....what was I saying???Oh Yeah.

Initially, I did not want to pay for this meal with my Fun Dollars. (Lines were still fuzzy about what was covered at this point due to our relocation.) But in the end, I ended up not regretting this transaction. It was worth $16.00 Fun Dollars (I also helped to pay for the kid's meals as well as half the tip) to talk to Corey and discuss important things going on in life right now.

Regrets are most definitely there to remind us of how we felt when things are not quite right. They are feelings laid down for us to learn from. Don't ignore them, or else you might find yourself drinking fermented coconut water.

Snacks at Natural Grocers- $9.00
Lunch at Wildflower Bread Co.- $12.00
Breakfast at Denny's -$15.00
Balance this pay cycle- $$10.00
Happy Spending!