I have been feeling so stressed and crappy about the cost of things and my current lack of money. I am so nervous that we won't be able to afford to go on the family trip that I've had planned out and set up for since the winter. It will be our first real vacation that doesn't involve visiting or going somewhere with grandparents. I am proud to have pulled it off, but damn I hope we can go.

Anyhow, I have been super conscious of cost and waste but I'm still not willing to compromise with quality. Yes, even with the credit card companies calling me from private numbers on Sundays...

So, just to make myself feel better (if I can...), these are some of things that I have been doing this week and how much money I have spent (or not spent):

- Clothes line! I am loving my clothes line and it feels so good to hang up all of my clothes on it and watch them dry. I will tackle the cloth diapers soon this way and get away from the disposable ones that cost money and FILL the trash can. It makes me sick, but ds gets rashes with cloth when he is teething or when it's really hot. I'm thinking if I wash them really well and hang them on the line to sterilize then maybe he won't get rashes. I don't know how much energy dryers use, but I'm sure I'm saving somehow.
- Free food! I have been the queen of free food at work. It is a great perk to my job, but I am tapping into it hardcore right now. The other day I scored a ton of things out of date just that day: organic chocolate milk, bread, 2 doz eggs, seitan, amasake, southwest tofu burgers, lots of organic yogurts, roast beef sandwich for SO, organic chicken salad, potato salad, bagels, cheese ciabattas, scones... no joke ladies, I am so lucky to work at a co-op that cares about the quality of the food on the shelves.
- Strawberry picking! We went to a local organic strawberry farm on Sunday and picked organic strawberries for $2.99/lb. The fridge is stocked as well as the freezer and we only paid $13 (however, if that check bounces than it will be more than that).
- SO cleaned his studio out and found $8 when we had $0 and very little gas. We put it in the car and it was less than 2 gallons - how depressing. Anyway, it got us to the strawberry field and back - 54 miles. Then I found out that I could get reimbursed for my mileage so I did and got $24 (the strawberry trip was actually a farm tour organized by my co-op that I work at and I took the photos)! I put $14 in our toyota camry and $10 in the pilot. We only drive the camry unless we have to take kids out and about because it has the best gas mileage.
- Nature! It's free and when it's hot there are 2 lakes with beaches within 5 miles from our home. It has been so nice to just take the kids to the beaches when I not at work.
- The sales at my co-op last for the entirety of one month, so when my tab went to zero on Sunday (we get $150 to tab every 2 weeks then it come out of our paychecks - this is good and bad, depending) I went through the store and grabbed lots of the sale items to refill my close to bare pantry. With my 20% discount, we can eat well without spending as much as most people do.

Ok, I think I feel a little better. Thanks for reading mamas! I'm gonna do better financially, I swear it!