What Goes In...

This pay cycle has witnessed a record amount of food and beverage purchases. So far, I have spent every single Fun Dollar on something that goes into my mouth. The six-pack of wine kicked off my pay cycle, and day by day, nibbles and sips have been my arena of spending.

This week, I took Lily grocery shopping while Carrick was at school, and bought a box of a dozen pastries while at the store. I saw my boss eating a turnover from Starbucks the week before, and the sound of the sugary crunch stayed with me all weekend. Feeling a sense of, "whatever", I picked up the $5.00 box of strawberry and cheese flaky yummies, and kept them hidden. Neither Corey nor the kids knew I had them in the house until Friday evening. I think I used them as a crutch to get me through the kids being sick. They were quite effective "pick-me-ups", but I think if I had allowed myself to have an afternoon coca-cola, I would not have bought them (it's sugar, any way you slice it). I won't lie, though, I did enjoy having a pastry with my morning coffee all week long. Like the doughnuts of last fall, having a pastry is a rare treat for me.

Along with the kids being sick, this week found us wearing coats and hats here in Arizona. The temperatures dropped and the wind picked up. So at work, I dropped some Fun Dollars at Starbucks, twice. The first day of work was before we went grocery shopping, and we were out of coffee *gasp*. So I Spent $3.00 on the largest brewed coffee they had. I also bought an afternoon chai latte later in the week (also from Starbucks).

On Friday, I worked in the store (instead of at the studio, making jewelry). I love working at the store, creating jewelry displays, talking to the customers, and hanging out with the woman who holds down the fort full-time. She had to leave in the middle of the work day for an appointment, and I got to experience my first time alone in the store. She asked me before she left if I wanted her to pick up lunch from anywhere in town while she was out. All I wanted was a warm soup from Wildflower Bread Co. and a hot tea. I gave her $6.00 to cover it all, and she handed me back a $1.00. I'm not sure what my total was, but I only gave her $5.00 Fun Dollars for my soup and tea. (She brought me back a chai latte, so it might have been more than the $5.00.) The creamy potato soup warmed me all the way down to my tummy, so yummy! Not to mention I was starting to feel the icky-sick that day, so the soup was welcome and comforting.

I also made an impulse buy this week with my Fun Dollars. I was at Circle K filling up with gas, and one of the locals had a cooler full of warm tamales, freshly made. Normally, I just ignore them when they confront me with a sales pitch. But on that particular evening, I knew we hadn't gone grocery shopping yet, and Carrick was a home sick, so I didn't really feel like making a meal. Instead, I spent $5.00 on  several tamales and took them home to my hungry little ones. (I had made soup earlier that day, but we had been eating it all day, and I just wanted something different.) They ate the tamales so fast I couldn't believe it.  I even had one in my lunch at work the next day.So, we might make more regular runs to the gas station for (incredibly local) tamales.

And lastly, to bookend my week of food and beverage spending, I picked up Chinese food on the way home from work on Friday. Carrick was finally well enough to go to school, but Lily had stayed at home with Corey all day recovering from her fever. He called me at the store at 2:30 frantically hungry. "Can you pick up some food on the way home?" It didn't matter what we had in the fridge, he had been so consumed with his work phone and emails (and Lily) that he had not fed himself almost all day long. I agreed to pick up some take-out after retrieving Carrick from school. I split that order with him and put in $20.00.

So now that our family is all done being sick, the kids can go back to school like normal, I can go to work as scheduled, and we can have a regular routine of eating. It's so hard to keep a sense of normal when there are Kleenexes littering the house, toys are scattered everywhere from the extra hours of play while school is being missed, and nothing is where it should be. But thanks to Fun Dollars, and some help from the hubby, the weird week of sick wasn't as bad as it could have been. Next week, it's almost back to normal... It's Carrick's birthday and the Super Bowl, so we'll see how "normal" things are.

Pastries from Safeway- $5.00
Starbucks coffee and Chai Latte- $8.00
Lunch from Wildflower Bread Co.- $5.00
Take-out from Sczechuan- $20.00
Tamales from "Circle K"- $5.00

Balance this pay cycle- $5.00
Happy Spending!