Weekend Damages (6/26 - 6/27)

• Nada

It's all going on the expense report :)

Thursday & Friday Damages (6/24 - 6/26)

Thursday

• $2.01 - McDonald's (Iced Coffee...surprise, surprise!)

Friday

• $1.25 - Diet Pepsi
• $13.87 - Coldstone (ice cream after dinner at Basho..courtesy of Aaron)

Big news, well not really but I'm telling you anyways...I will be out of town until next Thursday evening at a SWS Conference in Utah, which means that most of what I'll be spending (food) will be reimbursed by work, as was the cost of my hotel and flight. So I'm hoping that the blog will be rather lame for the next week or so...for the sake of my wallet. 

Locavore Wednesday Damages

Locavore: a person who eats only foods grown locally. Locavores grow their own food or buy foodstuffs grown within their regions.

• $0

While I didn't spend a dime today, I didn't come home empty handed. Today is pickup day for my CSA! The kikster was kind enough to pick up the goods solo today because I was out in western Mass playing in wetlands. Here's a run down of this week's goods...

• Boston bib lettuce
• Red leaf lettuce
• Arugala
• Spinach
• Peas
• Turnips (not a clue what to do with a turnip...help!)
• Garlic scapes (last week I made garlic scape hummus, this week...pesto!)
• Basil

Good stuff. Aaron is going to have a lot of veggies to eat before next Wednesday because I'm off to Utah on Saturday for conference for work.  Veg out.

Soon to be Spending Spree

Dear Readers,

As you all know, or some of you know, I am currently working full-time and going to school to get my masters. As you can imagine this leaves me very little free/fun time. SO as a haleigh lula I'm done with school Aaron and I have planned a trip for the end of September to celebrate my freedom (for you see he has suffered quite a bit from my schooling as well...think of having to deal with me horribly stressed out, tired and cranky, although his golf game certainly has benefited). Where are we going you ask? GREECE!

We will be spending a day in Athens, I mean you kind have to see the Parthenon when you're in Greece, and then we're headed off for a tour of the Greek Isles. I am incredibly excited. So far all we have is our tickets over there, which you may have noticed I never claimed on this here blog. Well that's because Aaron bought the tickets and I will be covering the accommodations during our voyage. At least that's the arrangement for now, we'll see if we need to even things up a little more as the planning progresses.  

As you can imagine though, this trip will require some moohlah to change hands. All the more reason for me to stop spending money on crap I don't need.

The ante has been raised my friends, game on.

I think I might put a little post-it in my wallet that just says GREECE as a reminder.

Monday & Tuesday Damages (6/21 - 6/22)

Monday

• $12.53 - CVS (odds and ends)
• $28.71 - Hess

Tuesday

• $43.18 - Target (Random crap)

So amongst the random crap was a new Kong ball for Maggie Mae. I will be slowly acquiring new toys, a bowl stand (so her stomach doesn't flip while eating), a leash, clean-up bags, etc. for this beast...

(Maggie is the pup on the left, her sidekick Snickers is on the right)

Here's a little piece of knowledge for all of you dog owners out there...keep in mind that it is totally unrelated to becoming a more conscious consumer. Fill your dog's Kong with peanut butter and then freeze it. It will keep the nugget entertained for quite some time. A lovely treat for them when you leave for work. :)

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends...

Seriously.

Tonight was a night full of temptations. There was a Sunday night "Styleathon" on the La La. Obviously this is a seriously pot of temptations for me, but I managed to resist. I can't take all the credit though, I don't know that I would have had the strength if I hadn't just read an email from an old friend from the 'Noke, who I haven't talked to in FAR to long. Well she came across my blog and emailed me a pretty amazing story, which I would like to share with all of you (in a slightly paraphrased version)...

She and her fiance recently moved their lives out to CA. You can imagine the scene, their entire lives packed into a UHaul being dragged behind their car. As most of us would do, they took the opportunity to see friend along their journey and after crashing at a friends house they were confronted with a harsh reality when their friend told them...

'hey guys, i hate to say it, but i think your car has been towed.' the car, and the u-haul, were gone from the street. we called the local police dept., towing companies, etc., with no luck. we slowly became aware of what had happened.......... everything we owned was stolen. we had what we were wearing and our cell phones (unfortunately, we had left our wallets in the car, too, as it was basically in our friends' driveway and our guard was totally down).

we immediately concluded that all we needed was each other :) and started putting our material lives back together. and 2 weeks later we moved into our new apt. with two duffels of donated clothes, a 30 rack of budweiser, and a bottle of champagne - easiest move in ever!

there are some moments when i'm like "dammit! i just want my favorite __ back!", but overall, we have replaced very little, and have done some tracking of overall spending, etc., in order to keep a handle on what the theft's cost was to us and our families.


Holy crap. Intense, amazing, inspiring. Love the addition of bud and champagne for your move in, because let's face it...no matter how much stuff needs to be moved, you need a drink to make the move official. It's law.

Thanks for the story Jen, it was a great reminder of why I'm tracking my spending for the year! AND it helped me stave off the drive to purchase any of these items (did you guys really think I could resist sharing my temptations with you? come on now!)...

$25 from $58. Zohba Boutique on the La La. 

$

 $25 from $56. Zohba Boutique on the La La. 

$25 from $64. Zohba on the La La.

$45 from $128. Calvin Klein on the La La.

$45 from $128. Calvin Klein on the La La. 

$

 $35 from $99. Michael Kors on the La La.

Weekend Damages (6/19 - 6/20)

Saturday

•  $0

Sunday

• $57.82 - Planet Dog 

So, I went home to little Rhody for a Father's Day BBQ on Sunday. It was a good time. You know the usual harassment from my father...I need to move back to Rhode Island and live with my parents because I'm going to get murdered in Boston, according to him it's only a matter of time...comforting. And of course the taunts that bacon fat was added to my veggie crumbles and that's why they tasted so good...riiight. Thanks Dad,  but anyways that's not what this blog is about, so let's stay on task, shall we?

I was horrified by the state of my pups Puppia harnesses. I mean they both looked homeless. The front of Megs's harness was half shredded and the clasp on her spare was broken so it's a precarious situation walking her in it for she could break loose at any moment. And then there's Snickers who's harness is duct taped together. So while my parents have totally high-jacked my dogs and I've been told that I can't take them back in October after I will be safely settled in the burbs...I felt the need to buy them new harnesses, because well, they're still my babies. Not to mention if my dad was left to his own devices he'd be fashioning something out of rope and duct tape. So I bought them each a Cozy Hemp Harness from Planet Dog. Hopefully these hold up a little better than Puppia, which I've decided are designed for small dogs who don't play rough (whimps)...not a good fit for my nuggets, not a good fit at all.

And just for fun, I give you... the NUGGETS!