My Sons birthday is coming up in a little over a month.

I wonder if I should have his first not just family/family friends birthday at a resturant or at the house.

First the choices are limited in our town, the bowling alley is off the list because we had a huge storm recently and they had MILLIONs of dollars worth of damage to their roof. Maybe by the time of the party they would be fixed. So maybe that is not totally ruled out. There is a pizza place with some childrens climbing things (like McDonalds but you have to pay to get in). It is NOT Chucky Cheese (sadly not even close). There is also a theme resturant in town with a token room (but I think that is more a family idea because I am not sure I would want to just have parents drop off their kids). Then finally McDonalds. McDonalds has a play area but it is open to the public and the store that had a separate party area remodeled with no more playarea, the party would be either Friday night or Saturday afternoon both times the play area would be extremely busy with kids.

My son is wanting the not chucky cheese pizza place. Last year when he was invited to a party there I called to get prices since I feel that the gift for the child should atleast be the cost of the meal (I do this with Weddings also). If I remember correctly it ended up being between $5-$8 a head depending on if they ate hotdogs or pizza. I think you also supply the cake.

Now why do I NOT want to have it at our home.
#1 My house is a MESS!!! I am talking call social Services! Just Joking!! There is not decaying food, and we do not have pets. But we have been in a state of major construction for about two years now. So I dont want to have to use my personal injury protection insurance followinf a childs birthday party if you know what I mean.

#2 My furnature is trash!! Also there is a major lack of furnature. Since we were remodeling we have old hand me down furnature, it is covered in spills and every so often I vaccum the sheetrock or wood shavings off and wash the sheet I have covering it. We figured no point in buying new furnature until the construction is done. The down side is they are hand me downs and are structurally falling apart since we were not planning on keeping them this long. I dont want to buy new stuff until the construction is done, and technically we need the furnature money right now to finish the construction.

#3. Post party cleanup...Need I say more.

#4. Lingering guests, when my son was four his sister was up to visit her family for the summer; she wanted to be at his party so we planned an early one so she could be here. Two days before the party she desides she wants to have her grandmother drive her home early and leaves, we still have the party since it is too late to cancel and it is just my husbands friends children. Well one of the friends wife and 5 children including infant stayed 4 and a half hours after everyone else left. I finally had enough and told my husband to entertain her & watch her children while I took a nap at 7 pm since I had been up super early getting everything ready for the 1pm party.

I know it seems crazy to pay $8+ a person for a birthday party but it is way cheaper than hiring a cleaning crew, storage unit, and new furnature.

What would you do?? My Son wants to invite atleast three boys from his class and I want his two cousins.

I signed up today for the all you grocery challenge. The $25 per person per week is not going to be a problem at all!

What I am looking forward to is the fact that they aalso judge healthy choices. I sometimes feel that my meals lack that, I will post my daily meal spending once I start the challenge on July 13.

If you want to join me check out allyou.com/grocerychallenge PS you have to register by July 12th.

I doubt I will win the $1000 prize but it will help me focus on what we are eatting and what we are spending. I plan to spend like normal and see where it takes me!

I won my bid, and saved $13.00.

Sadly Mypoints was doing an offer that if you linked through there site to ebay to bid they would also award you mypoints points....But of course I forgot untill it was too late.

Oh well!!

$13.00 saved makes me happy, even IF I have to us the CC to buy it. I will pay it off as soon as the item gets to my home.

The last six days I have spent 76.95 on regular food purchases. I spent 72.22 that was special for a total of $149.17 spent in six days.

The 76.95 was for regular food, a few stockpile items and away from home food ect, divided by six 12.82 a day and times by 30 that is $384.15 a month for two. Yes my exhaustion at home is manifesting in my food spending ie away from home food. I dont think that is too bad; but let see how the rest of the month goes as I have a feeling it will not be that high

The 72.22 was BBQ food items for DH to grill he wants to have friends and family over and it should be enough meat, chips, salad making to last two weeks plus; all I have left to buy is the buns. This money also included soda and chips which I do not buy for DS & I, so it is special food.

I do not want to include this food purchase into our try to come up with food spending budget because the meat is for a total of 13 people he wants to have over 3 times so it is like Christmas/Thanksgiving meal planning it is above and beyond the norm. But I think I will so I just have to remember that I spent heavy early on in the tracking to save on the overall cost.

I guess this is not really that bad that I had to shop for a huge event because every month there is always a big food something or other.
Jan (New Years)
Feb (Valentines)
Mar (Anniversery, Easter)
Apr (Easter)
May (Graduation partys, Mothers Day)
June (Fathers Day)
July (4th)
August (DS Birthday)
Sept (DH Birthday)
Oct (halloween)
Nov (My BD, Thanksgiving)
Dec (Christmas)

If we are ever going to finish our basement, we need to declutter. A long while back we started this process and it seems the thing to do is move stuff from one spot that we are working in to another and then another and another.

Currently our storage room is messy, it does not help that I trashed it last night looking for my high school year books.

I found shredded candy wrappers, and plastic bags, etc. Yep in the last 3 years we have caught a total of three mice in our basement. I guess in the mad dash to pack things up my DH packed foil wrapped chocolates in atleast one box.

I need to declutter, but I also have a hard time getting rid of stuff thinking in the future I might need it then since I throw it out, or donated it I will have to buy it all over again.

Sadly the buying all over would probubly happen anyway as the storage area is such a mess right now you cant find what you are looking for so you end up assuming it was tossed or used up.

One box at a time, I need to buy some clear plastic totes so we can see what is in the boxes and repack. My DH is not here to go through his stuff so I dont think I can toss anything of his without hearing his rath.

Well I was on my way to CVS to buy the $.99 after coupon and ECB razors. I get a half block from my house when one I realize I forgot my coupons and two my fuel light comes on.

This reminds me I must go to the gas station. I fill up the two gas cans for the lawnmower with 2 gallons each and then fill my tank....$50. I can hardly believe it. Ouch that hurt the checkbook.

I then head over to CVS I end up buying the razor deal, and the excedrain deal.

After CVS I hit the childrens resale store, I got five pair of size seven shorts for next summer and paid a little over $10.

This morning before we left the house I finally went looking for the shorts that I had packed away for DS, he is now a size six. About two years ago one of the consignment shops in town went out of business and they had there stuff on super clearance I bought a bunch of shorts and a few pants in size six. This is nice because I forgot about the pants and DS is in a size six, a size seven is way too big but six are perfect. Well he has small holes or the start of small holes in almost all of his size six pants and I was able to find three pairs of pants for him without holes.

My NEW 2009 goal is by the time Dec 31, 2009 rolls around I want to have stock piled clothing for DS in sizes seven, eight, and nine. Shorts, Long Sleeve T shirts, PJ's, jeans, and swim trunks. Note I did not say short sleeve tops because if you are not picky about what is on it you can always find them on clearance.

I can buy new for $35. But I cant remember how much the company charged me for shipping the last time. That might include shipping or it might not.

I NEED atleast two more pairs of pants so I am keeping my eye on ebay. There are two pairs listed in my size with a buy now or bid listing. I will wait because with the buy now and how much they want for shipping it is a very TINY savings since these are used and not new. So I would have to bid and get for a song. The good thing is with used I can use the tops I already have that without the NEW pants sticking out like a sore thumb.

Funny how I have to pay for my uniforms but my husband gets his from his employer for free. Too bad he is super tall and skinny (Large XXtall) and I am short and Average (Medium Short)or on a good day Small Regular - it is all about the rise! If we were the same size you better believe I would have raided his closet for a pair already.

I am also in need of new work shoes but to buy them without trying on is just plain silly since I have noticed work shoes are like womens jeans, you have to try on like twelve pairs of the exact same jeans in the same size to find ones that are perfect as they all are slightly different.

Today I bought myself NEW socks. I love the feeling of new socks. Actually socks are not that expensive either. But I bought them for me so it was a treat for me.

Had to buy trash bags for the lawn trimmings, I was using kitchen trash bags which is more expensive and because they are smaller; harder to use.

I also bought a new black ink cartridge. I figure it is worth it since I save so much money with internet printable coupons.

Finally I was going to to fill gas in tha car and the cans for the mower, but when I pulled up the tanker was filling up the station; so have to wait until tomorrow. There may not be any fact in this but I was told if you fill up while the tanker is filling the tanker mixes up the slugg on the bottom of the gas station tank and then you get more slugg in your car. I do notice in the past that when I have had to fill up when the tanker was there my car does not run as well. So I skipped it tonight.

It was a NSD today.

I mowed the lawn and we are now out of gas, so both mower gas cans went in the trunk and tomorrow I will have to stop at the gas station and get gas for the car and for the mower. I actually was only able to top of the mower so I used that as a excuse to only mow the front yard.

The backyard is all weeds anyway so I really dont see the point in mowing it.

Frugal thing of the day, received a NEW color ink cartridge from a friend. It is the number I use and it had a best install by date of Oct 2008. She found it when she was going through boxes for her Rummage Sale this weekend. But FREE is free.