Suburban Wife's Daily Dollar Diary

Wool Wash: Purchase and Product Reviews

Suburban Wife — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:52:05 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, I ran out of wool wash. Now for some people that would be no big deal. But in my household, running out of wool wash is akin to running out of toilet paper. Okay, well maybe that’s not a good analogy. It’s like running out of toothpaste or shampoo or some other daily-use product.

No, I don’t really use wool wash every single day but I use it on a regular basis and running out was not good — though I didn’t realize at the time exactly how “not good” it would turn out to be.

A day or two after I used the last of the wool wash, I picked up the phone and called my local yarn store. The same store where I’ve been purchasing wool and wool wash for the past 17+ years. I wanted to confirm that they had wool wash in stock because the plan was to purchase a bottle over the phone and then send The Husband, whose office is just a few blocks away from said wool store, over to for an in-and-out no-complications pick-up. [Yes, I'd called The Husband beforehand and made sure he was okay running the errand.]

I cannot tell you how utterly disappointed I was, how flummoxed I was, how shaken to the roots I was, how devasted I was to hear that my wool store no longer carried the same brand of wool wash. What!?! I really, really liked the Eucalan wool wash I’d been using. Really, really liked it. Loved the smell. Loved how soft it made my woolens. Loved the fact that I suffered not a single moth hole while using Eucalan.

I had no desire to change brands. But I needed wool wash. So I went online and looked for local sources. Came up empty. Then I looked into ordering a bottle but shipping costs scared me off.

Eventually (Thursday, 01/22/09) I gave in and stopped by the yarn store and picked up a bottle of their current wool wash brand, Kookaburra, for $12.86. The store owner spoke very highly of the product (Kookaburra Wash with Tea Tree oil and Lanolin) and I was desperate so I took a leap of faith. And fell off the cliff.

Look, I don’t particularly like writing negative reviews — especially about products offered by small, family-run companies. I had every expectation of liking the product, after all it came highly recommended from a trusted source. But honestly, I hate this stuff. I hate the smell. Hate with a capital H. And the feel of my woolens isn’t awful, but it’s certainly not the soft, snuggly feel produced by the Eucalan.

Did I mention I hate the smell? Kind of a sour, sweaty body odor. Who wants their woolens to start off smelling bad? To be honest, the smell has dissipated now — after three days of hanging on the drying rack in the basement.

I’m not sure what I’ll do with the rest of the bottle but I won’t be using it myself. Maybe I’ll take it back to the wool store and donate it for their use. I’ll also be ordering a bottle of Eucalan. A big bottle. Or maybe even two. And I’ll make sure I never run out again.

Boring Groceries & Exciting Woot! Find

Suburban Wife — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:38:49 +0000

Let’s start with the boring and mundane:

Yesterday I made two separate stops at two different grocery stores. After a morning appointment with a roofing guy I made a quick run to Vitamin Cottage — $28.54. The Son has finished off the milk the night before (he did ask first) so I bought a gallon of Horizon 2% for $5.19 (why is the cost of milk so gosh darned high?). I also picked up a large bottle of fiber caps ($19.39). I know the capsules are more expensive than the powder and the powder really isn’t all that bad but the caps are way more convenient. I also indulged in an Odwalla Strawberry C Monster ($2.49) — I’ve cut way back on these treats but they were on sale and it sounded good.

Later in the day, after picking up The Son from art class, we stopped for a few “essentials” at Krogers — $15.08. We were down to our last bit of chocolate milk so I bought two half gallons ($3.79/ea.). We were also out of Breyer’s chocolate ice cream ($4.99). The Son chose a Hungry Man frozen dinner ($1.99). In the checkout line we grabbed an commemorative Inaugural issue of the daily paper ($0.50).

Now on to the more exciting:

I don’t remember to check Woot! every day but, to my delight, I did check it yesterday. I scored a brand new (not refurbished) Polaroid DVC-00725F High Def 720p Digital Camcorder for $134.99 (including the $5 shipping charge).

The Daughter had listed a camcorder high on her birthday wish list (just under the “own car” wish) but after the cost of her Jonas Brothers movie/pizza party/sleepover, I wasn’t thinking a camcorder was very likely.

The interesting thing is that I did almost no research on the product before buying it. This is very unlike me — to buy anything, much less an electronic device, without thorough consumer research is just not my style. I did check to confirm the video output format (.avi) and I did confirm that I can play that format on our new Macs (I actually have some camera movies in .avi format already on my iMac). And I did cast about quickly for reviews on CNet and Amazon (none existed). I called The Husband to get his opinion/okay. But mostly it was a seat-of-the-pants impulse buy based on a few facts — she wants a camcorder, we don’t have a camcorder, I’ve thought about buying one for at least the past year, it was $100 less than the next best price, and it uses SD card for memory which is the same format as all of our digital cameras.

I figured at that price, even if the camera doesn’t last very long, it would still be worth the purchase. As long as the footage that it captures is passable, the benefit of adding to our collection of home video footage in a format that won’t require any additional equipment will justify the cost.

I’ve missed not having a camcorder and was disappointed to come home from last summer’s family reunion with only still photos of the action. In the past, the kids had a barrel of fun with our old Sony camcorder before it gave up the ghost about two years ago. I’m counting on them having fun with this one too. Also, The Son’s being confirmed this spring and his Grannie, an aunt, and several cousins will be coming in for the event. If we’re really lucky and the camera holds up, there will be The Daughter’s senior play and her graduation in 2010 to capture for prosperity.

Most of all, The Husband and I are happy because we feel like we stayed within a reasonable budget while making all of The Daughter’s 17th-birthday dreams come true (well, okay, everything but that her-own-car dream which simply isn’t going to happen).

One Purchase, One Expense - Both Huge

Suburban Wife — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:53:34 +0000

I hope everyone took some time yesterday to watch history being made. I kept the TV on practically all day watching, and then just listening, to the day’s events unfold.

The Son decided to miss part of his Spanish class in order to be able to watch Barack Obama take the oath of office, live, as it happened rather than watch a rerun on TV later in the day. To understand the significance of that decision one has to understand the mind of an Aspie; missing a class as fast-paced and challenging as high school Spanish and potentially getting behind in his studies is no laughing matter. Going late to anything, no matter socially-insignificant and no matter how much he doesn’t even want to go, is a major-stress-inducing experience.

Apparently everything worked out okay. In fact, he received a few kudos and mewls of envy from various teachers yesterday who woulda’ if they coulda’.

Thank goodness that the historical significance of the day was so incredibly monumental. An event any smaller would have been overshadowed by the huge expense and the huge purchase I had to shell out for yesterday.

The Husband’s Impreza has been leaving very small but worrying (and annoying) drips of oil on the garage floor. Also, when I had new tires put on the car in November, I noticed wear patterns that indicated the car was out of alignment. I’d meant to take the car in for service over the holidays figuring that surviving with only one vehicle between the three of us might be easier when The Daughter wasn’t in school. I never made the appointment. Then, last week while buying the new Outback I was ashamed to admit to the salesman, the same guy from whom we had purchased the Impreza, that even though it already had over 40,000 miles, we hadn’t had it in for any servicing other than regular oil changes.

Since we temporarily have three vehicles at our disposal, I buckled down and made a servicing appointment. I chose the 30,000 servicing package as it’s more comprehensive than the 45,000 package and I asked them to do an all-wheel alignment. [One of the facts of life when you buy a Subaru is that you always buy 4 tires at once and have to pay for all-wheel alignments instead of just front-wheel alignments.]

Luckily the oil leaks were due simply to the poorly installed or cheaply made oil filter. They fixed the problem and steam cleaned the oil off the engine. They also changed the car’s air filter (not to be confused with the engine’s air filter). This one filter’s the air in the vehicle itself and, as luck and poor design will have it, the labor to change it is astronomical because one has to disassemble the glove box in order to access the filter. It was disgusting and filthy and I’m glad we had it done.

The printout results from the all-wheel alignment showed the the car was definintely out of alignment. Fixing that will definitely help improve the life expectancy of the new tires.

Anyway, the final bill was $653.55 but when I dropped it off on Monday night I asked if anyone had a coupon sitting around that we could apply. The tech I talked to said he didn’t but maybe the guy I’d booked the appointment did. Next day when I was checking out I asked again about a coupon but the new tech, the one with whom I’d made the appointment, said he didn’t have one either. Then we looked at the bill and noticed that $61.04 had been deducted on the “coupon/discount” line. I didn’t know who to thank but I took it anyway. So my final total, put on my American Express Blue car which will net me an additional 1.5% cash back this February, was $609.94.

The day’s huge purchase is a lot harder to justify. The Daughter’s 17th birthday is approaching. I won’t go into the emotions I experience at the thought of having a 17yo daughter; suffice it to say that my emotions are varied and, I think, fairly typical

It just so happens that she has a huge crush on Joe Jonas [I have to admit, he's pretty cute] and is a huge fan of the Jonas Brothers in general [yeah, I don't so much understand that one but then she's 17 and I'm 44]. And, coincidence of all coincidences, their new 3D movie is coming out soon. It’s not just coming out in the same month of her birth but it premieres on her birthday! Like any young girl caught up in pop culture with a crush on a cute celebrity she’s interpreted that as some kind of sign from the heavens.

She’s decided that what she wants for her birthday is to take all of her friends (many of whom have no real interest in the Jonas Brothers and would otherwise not be caught dead at a Jonas Brother’s movie) to see the movie then back to our house for a pizza party/sleepover moviefest. I have to tell you I was much more open to the idea before I learned that the ticket price to this particular 3D concert movie is twice the price of a regular movie ticket. That’s just nuts!

Honestly, I wasn’t all that in favor of granting this particular birthday wish. After all, we recently shelled out a phenomenal amount of money for a surprise very-very-belated-hurry-celebrate-her-16th-before-she-turns-17 birthday pizza party. But The Husband, a huge softie especially when it comes to his baby girl, said we should go ahead and do it. The Daughter did offer to forfeit both her February cash allowance ($6 per week) and her February $100 non-cash-budget-category-only clothing and cosmetics allowance to help pay for the party/tickets.

I was clear that I required firm commitments from her friends before I’d shell out $15 per ticket; I don’t want any no-shows. Last night she gave me a final headcount of 11 girls including herself. I’m not so cold-hearted as to agree to giving her this party and then risk disappointing her by waiting too long to obtain tickets so as soon as she had confirmed who could attend, I went online and bought the tickets through Fandango. After it was all said and done each ticket cost $16.50 (because of the $1.50 per ticket “convenience” fee). I could only buy 10 tickets at a time so I had to buy in two different blocks. Total applied to my American Express Blue card: $181.50.

MLK Day: Stocked up on Shampoo & Conditioner

Suburban Wife — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:29:53 +0000

The Daughter was indeed too sick to go anywhere yesterday. The Son and I participated in the march walking the parade route twice — once in the parade and then back again to where we’d parked the car. The weather was gorgeous and our fellow marchers were a jolly group; althogether it was a memorable and positive experience.

On the way home The Son and I had offered to stop at the library for The Daughter only to realize, of course, that it was closed in honor of the holiday. Duh! But on the positive side, it put us right across the street from an Ulta store where I picked up some desperately needed Biolage shampoo and conditioning balm for an amazingly low price. The large shampoo and conditioner containers were on sale for $14.99/ea (normally priced $21 and $22 respectively).

Minor mundane expenses

Suburban Wife — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 07:15:44 +0000

Tired. Worn out. Demoralized.

That’s the state of my existence lately. I’m under quite a bit of stress related to my efforts to revive my online children’s clothing business. I’m sleeping very poorly, due, I assume, to the stress.

My expenses this week, with the exception of the new car, have been sparse and mundane.

I put gas in the new car for the first time today at Safeway — $10.05. I pumped 6.405 gallons @ $1.569 per gallon. My odometer already reads 168.

I’ve made a few quick grocery runs but not big grocery shopping. Whole Foods — $24.57 on 01/15/09; Kroger — $9.23 on 01/15/09; and, again, Whole Foods — $22.36 on 01/17/09.

On the 15th I bought The Son a Cinnabon cinnamon roll ($3.80) as a treat after our early morning One-to-One lesson at the Apple store. And at the Apple Store I spent ~$25.00 on a complete iKlean kit for cleaning the screens and bodies of my 24″ iMac and my refurbished Mac Book Pro laptop.

There were also two new-car-related purchases. At the Subaru dealership I spent $48.47 on a set of 4 deep-groved rubber floor mats (a must in this weather). I got a 10% discount off the mats because I bought them at the same time as purchasing my new car. I knew that this set was about $10.00 more than I’d pay at Target but I also new that the dealership mats were specifically designed to fit the Subaru and would not need to be cut or trimmed to fit perfectly.

The Daughter, freaking out and jumping up and down at having arrived home from a basketball game to find a brand new Subaru parked in her spot in the garage (we hadn’t told her that we might end up buying a car that day so it was a total surprise), jumped at the chance to take it for a spin. I grabbed my purse and we headed to the closest Best Buy were I spent $11.83 on a 3′ auxillary cable to connect our iPods to the stereo in the new car.

Tonight we enjoyed a family dinner of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and broccoli. Tomorrow, bright and early, The Son and I head into the city to participate in a MLK “marade” (march/parade) that is expected to be bigger than ever. The Daughter, feeling like she’s coming down with a cold and having a game to play tomorrow night, will most likely not join us.

~ ~ o o O o o ~ ~

Oh, and before I sign off and head to bed, one last potentially financial bit of news. I fear that our TV is about to die.

It’s a rather large (24″ ?) Zenith CRT TV that we inherited in ‘95 when my father-in-law passed away. It was in his Florida condo. One year we took our old smaller TV down to Florida with us and brought the newer, bigger one home.

Thirteen years is an awfully short life span for a TV, isn’t it?

The TV is hooked up via a coaxial cable to our cable service as has a VCR and a DVD player hooked up to it. We keep it on a little wheeled wooden cart in the corner of the living room and it can easily be moved and repositioned for viewing from the kitchen, the couch, or the dinner table (we don’t do a lot of eating with the TV on but it does happen on occasion).

We do have a spare — a little 13″ unit with a built-in VHS deck that’s been in storage in the basement for a couple of years. The thought of trying to watch the news on that little TV from the kitchen while I’m cooking makes me very depressed.

The problem started today. Last night the TV worked just fine. This evening I turned it on and got just snow. After surfing a bit I realized that I wasn’t receiving any cable channels. At first I thought the cable was out but both kids were surfing so I knew the Internet was up. So I checked the TV downstairs. It worked just fine. So I fiddled with the cables and played with the buttons — all to no avail. I went into troubleshooting mode and dug the little TV out of storage and hooked it up. It worked just fine. That meant it wasn’t the cable. But why would I get some stations just fine but all the higher “cable” channels be nothing but snow?

After The Husband got home we took another look at it together. I finally figured out that somehow the settings had been changed and it was set to “broadcast” programming. I switched it back to “cable” and suddenly I was getting our regular basic cable channels again. At first we wrote it off to a “butt button-pushing” accident assuming that someone had sat on or otherwise pushed buttons that should not have otherwise been pushed. That didn’t really make sense though — that remote has been sat on, played with, chewed on, dropped, and otherwise abused for 13 years and it has never reprogrammed itself like that.

Then we realized that every time we changed the channel the signal would go wonky three times sending out three annoying bursts of static before settling down and showing the program. Each time you change the channel — three burst of static and snow. This is not good. It does not bode well for the health and life-expectancy of our TV.

I certainly wouldn’t mind having a flat-panel TV. I certainly wouldn’t mind having a TV on which the reds don’t bleed into everything else. I certainly wouldn’t mind having a TV with a semi-clear picture — clear enough to read the subtitles that The Husband and I both depend on when watching movies these days. But a new TV is not in the plan. A new TV isn’t even close to being on The Husband’s priority list.

TV, please don’t fail me now.

Interesting Car-Buying Side Note: Our Credit Score

Suburban Wife — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 07:47:49 +0000

Ever since taking on the task of becoming a little more financially savvy — starting this blog was part of that effort as well as doing a whole lot of reading and research — I’ve been curious about our credit score. Sure, I’ve done the three free annual credit reports and they always come out very clean.

As curious as I was, I’ve always been way too cheap to pay good money to learn that mysterious and magical credit score number.

Instead, I’ve tried dreaming up ways of finding access to the score without paying. Yesterday, bored to tears while waiting in the auto dealership (good night! buying a car sure is a long and mind-numbingly boring experience), it suddenly occurred to me that this was just the moment I’d been waiting for.

After going through the first round of paperwork with the fleet sales guy (aka Dan the Subaru man) — you know, where you have to fill out all the details of where you’ve lived and where you’ve worked for the past five years (same house now for six years; same employment for 13 years; The Husband’s been with the same company for 31 years) plus you have to list your income, your mortgage payment, and any other debts (ours was a short list as our only debt is the remaining 6 months on our Subaru Impreza loan) — anyway, after that round of paperwork, Dan the Subaru man handed us off to the finance guy.

So now I’m bored to tears in a different office and suddenly I think to ask about our credit score. If anyone has access to it, this guy will, right?

Of course both Dan and the finance guy have both mentioned the fact that we have excellent credit. We know that already. But can he tell me my score?

Sure. But he quickly goes on to explain that they use a slightly different score; it’s a credit score specific to car dealers and though very close to the FICO score everyone knows about, it’s not exactly the same. I wasn’t listening really hard, I just wanted to know the number. Then the finance guy goes on about how it’s not just a high score, it’s an excellent score. It’s one of the highest he’s ever seen. He proceeds to tell us how he’s been working to get his own score up — his apparently is good but not excellent — and then he pulls up our credit record and goes on about how much credit we have, how low a percentage of that available credit is in use, how we don’t have a lot of closed accounts, etc. At this point I’m ready to slap the finance guy because not only am I bored to distraction but he’s not giving me the one piece of info that interests me.

Finally he switches to another screen and show me that my score is actually a little lower than The Husband’s. Mine is 822. The Husband’s is 860.

The numbers didn’t mean much to me right then and there because I only have room in my head for a limited number of numbers and the FICO credit score scale isn’t one of them. But I did a Google search today. Since I didn’t pay attention to the name of the scale the finance guy said he was using, I couldn’t find any specific info about what it is and how, exactly, it differs from the FICO score. But I did learn that The Husband’s score is above the top FICO number (850 appears to the the top FICO score available).

The particulars don’t really matter to me. I’ve always known that we have excellent credit (mine was good on it’s own merit but being married to The Husband certainly didn’t hurt) and I assumed that our credit score would be fairly high. Now I know it is.

What I want to know now is, if we have such excellent credit, why did the process of buying the car take so gosh darned long?!

Just Had to Share This Purchase

Suburban Wife — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 06:23:28 +0000

Hi everyone.

Yes, I know I’ve pulled yet another extended absence. Sorry ’bout that. I’ve actually been busy with a few interesting projects that I intend to share here with you all. But not right now. Right now it’s late and I’m tired and I have to get up really early tomorrow morning.

But I made a purchase today that I simply had to share.

Subaru — $26,685.61

We drove off the lot (well, technically I drove off the lot in it; The Husband took off a few minutes earlier in The Tank) in a 2009 Subaru Outback 2.5i Special Edition wagon. It’s silver. When we took it out for the test drive it had 17 miles on it. When I drove it off the lot it had 31 miles on it.

The MSRP of the vehicle as outfitted (4-speed automatic transmission w/sportshift and Special Edition package which includes alloy wheels, all-weather package, Harman Kardon audio system, power driver’s seat, fog lights, limited slip rear differential, & “more” which includes, get this, heated front seats) was $25,590.00.

The price we paid for the vehicle was $22,300. Add in the Datadot security feature (not optional; already installed), the 100,000 mile/7-year extended warranty (we always get one), and the 7.1% taxes and you get the figure mentioned above. We chose the 2-year 3.9% financing option (yes, we could have paid cash but chose this option instead).

The purchase was not made spur-of-the-moment. The Husband and I have been discussing the possibility of replacing The Tank for some time now.

We’ve known for years exactly which car we’d buy as our next family vehicle. There was never again question that we’d replace The Tank (an ‘01 Toyota Sequoia SUV) with a Subaru wagon. When our kids were but babes in arms we bought a ‘95 Subaru Legacy wagon. We finally sold that vehicle in ‘07 when we bought our ‘07 Subaru Impreza wagon. We’d purchased it new, owned it for 13 years, and put somewhere in the neighborhood of 250,000 miles on it. It was still in very good shape when we sold it.

We very nearly bought an Outback last summer — late July, if I remember correctly. The model-closeout offers on the ’08s were attractive but we’d just come off some large expenses (vacation, activites, etc) and were facing a school tuition bill (The Daughter’s private high school tuition) so The Husband didn’t feel the timing was right. We thought we’d just wait 4, maybe 6 weeks before buying but in the interim Subaru decreased their cash-back incentive from $1,500 to $1,000. We weren’t in a hurry; we decided to keep an eye on the incentives and see if it would go back up again. Then the bottom fell out of the economy. We put all thought of a new car on an indefinite hold.

Still, every once in a while we’d talk about a new wagon. Every so often I’d check the Subaru incentives. But my heart wasn’t in it. As you know, the Son broke his clavicle (major medical expenses), I had my thyroid surgery (more expenses) and then followed that up with a sleep study test (even more medical expenses). The Daughter started swimming again and those pool fees aren’t cheap. Then came Christmas. And there were those expensive all-season tires we put on The Tank in November since we’d decided to keep it through the winter.

For whatever reason, I surfed over to Subaru’s website this past Sunday and checked out their current incentives. I noticed that they were still offering 0% financing and had bumped the cash back incentives back up to $1,500. But were there any ‘08 Outbacks still to be had?

As Costco members, we’ve become accustomed to buying cars through the dealership’s fleet sales division (I will never, ever again buy a car from a regular salesperson again). On Monday I gave my buddy Dan a call and said that, were the right deal to present itself, The Husband and I were ready to buy a car. Today. Then he went online and checked inventory in our state and all the surrounding states. He found the same info I had when I checked inventory through Subaru.com the day before — a few straggling Outbacks in surrounding states.

At this point I was quite serious about the possibility of bringing in an ‘08 from out of state. He said he could do it but he was quite frank about the fact that he was much more motivated to sell me an ‘09 from off his lot. I asked how motivated? He said $22,300 — only $100 more than the ‘08 (of which the only colors left were my least favorite options).

I took down all the pertinent numbers and said I’d either call back soon — or not. No promises. Just after we’d hung up I called back with a final question — would they be willing to throw in a third key fob as part of the deal. We only got two keys and fobs (plus a vallet key) with the Impreza and it’s caused no shortage of headaches trying to coordinate two functional keys between three drivers. He whined just a tad about how expensive the keys are and the one-hour labor the service department bills to reprogram the keys. I made it clear that as silly as it sounded, lack of a third key could very well be a deal-breaker. He said he’d call me back.

In the meantime he’d given me a VIN with which I was able to request a specific insurance rate quote from my insurance agent. [Surprisingly, as it turns out, it would be more expensive to transfer The Daughter to the '07 Impreza than to insure her on a brand new '09 Outback. Go figure.]

Dan called me back and said he’d gotten the okay on throwing in an extra key fob and the time to reprogram them.

Next I took all of the info to The Husband and dropped it in his lap. After pondering for a day, he came home from work yesterday and suggested I call my buddy “Dan the Subaru man” and make an appointment for a test drive. And that’s how we ended up at the Subaru dealership this afternoon for our 1pm appointment.

I’d driven the ‘08 Outback a couple of times so I thought the test drive was for The Husband. I was wrong. He didn’t want to drive it. He wanted me to drive it. Did I like it? Sure. Did I think we should buy it? No way, I’m not weighing in on that decision at all. I’m freaked out about the economy. About his decision to retire this year. About his health. About my health. About how we’ll afford health insurance on our own. About The Daughter going off to college in just over a year. About the expensive, not-covered testing The Son needs for an official Asperger’s diagosis. No way I’m going to make a decision about whether or not this is the right time to buy a car. I’m perfectly happy with The Tank. I went into this very determined not to have any expectations and anticipation of a new car; I did not want to influence The Husband in his decision as to whether we bought now or waited.

He was fine with that. What he wanted from me was whether or not I liked the car; whether or not this was the car I wanted when I got a new car. That was easy; it’s a beautiful car. I love the heated seats; it drives like a dream; I love the height of the car — it’s easy to get in and out of. And I love the fact that the backseat is way more comfortable for a full-sized adult than his little Impreza (naturally it can’t compare to the luxury of the Sequoia but that’s the trade-off of buying a smaller car). He’s the one who wants a new car; he’s the one who hates driving the Sequoia and now that there are three of us sharing two cars he’s gone from very, very rarely driving the Sequoia to being it’s main driver.

We have a very symbiotic relationship, The Husband and I. I knew the Outback was the right car, he knew we could afford it, and we both felt that the deal being offered was worth accepting.

I know that there are many pundits who say you should never buy a new car. I don’t agree. Buying new isn’t ideal for everyone and all situations. In this case, however, I intend to drive this car for the next 15 years. By the time I need a replacement vehicle, I’ll be close to 60 years old. I’ll know it’s never been smoked in, never carried an animal, and never been red-lined. I’ll know that it’s been serviced and well-cared-for. Under those conditions and based on my past experience with Subaru vehicles, I have every reason to expect to get no less than 250,000 miles out of it. If I can drive it for that long, it will have been worth every cent I paid.

$$: Christmas Shipping & Shopping

Suburban Wife — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 05:53:01 +0000

I had the car today and had to take The Son into the city for a school activity so I took the opportunity to get some Christmas errands done. It was a very productive day.

Apple — $48.42
During my last One-to-One session, I mentioned my database woes (currently using Access but want to move everything to my Mac so need a Mac alternative). The Apple rep gave me a trial disc of a program called Bento. I played around with it and initially dismissed it as a glorified spreadsheet program and not a true database program. I was wrong. I tried again the next day and got things figured out and ended up completely falling in love with the program. So today I bought a boxed Bento program (technically, my business bought the program).

Sur La Table — $59.25

A true indulgence. Earlier this year my mom gave me her old iSi cream whipper but it turned out that the whipper doesn’t work properly. I’ve always wanted one of these things so today I decided to splurge — after all, the holidays coming up and I have a whole box of Nitro cartridges in my kitchen drawer.

Claire’s — $1.35
A Joe Jonas pin [don't ask] for The Daughter’s stocking

Day by Day Calendar Company — $19.38
Jonas Brothers calendar [don't ask] — a Christmas present for The Daughter.

Cost Plus World Market — $9.38

2 tree ornaments — $2.50/ea. [one each for The Daughter and The Son -- Santa always leaves the children new ornaments in the tree complete with the year written on a tag so they'll always know which year they got which ornament]
bag of mint chocolate cookies for The Daughter’s stocking — $2.50

Office Depot — $9.68

3-pack of flesh toned drawing pencils — $3.00
5-pack of sketch pencils plus eraser & pencil sharpener — $5.99

Both will be stockings stuffers for The Son.

Postmaster — $18.62
The line looked horrendous but the wait wasn’t too bad. And don’t you just love those flat-rate Priority Mail boxes?

I shipped 13 pounds of American Girl world books (7 in total) plus the custom hardbound photo book I made and had printed through Apple for my mom this summer — all for $9.80. That box shipped out to my brother and niece #1. I’m not technically doing Christmas presents for any of my siblings/nieces/nephews but …. Technically the AG books are a birthday gift — an August event for which I never sent anything (bad Auntie). And why not send the Grannie photo book as a Christmas gift because 1) my brother really can’t afford to pay me his share of the printing cost and 2) even if he could afford it he’d never get around to actually sending a check.

I also mailed out the birthday card and accompanying gift card to Nephew #2 — $0.42 (I was afraid it would need extra postage).

And I shipped back the Emu Australia boots I bought The Daughter for Christmas but was pretty sure she wouldn’t like. No charge on the return shipping, of course, because free return shipping was an important criteria when making my purchase — no charge.

I also bought a book of Nutcracker holiday stamps — $8.40. I should get The Son’s school photos tomorrow and I’ve had The Daughter’s for a couple of weeks. It will probably take me weeks to get around to it, but I’d like to send out some Christmas cards to family including the kids’ school photos. The kids will also use the stamps when they send out their Thank You letters. Maybe the Nutcracker theme will inspire The Son to work on his Thank Yous but I’m not going to count on it. The exercise will probably be as difficult and drawn-out as always.

~ o o o O o o o ~

I’m too tired to do it tonight but tomorrow I need to take a look at what all I’ve found for each child’s stocking and get a sense of what else I’ll need to fill them out.

I also need to send The Husband in search of $1 coins for our unwrapping game. On that subject, I need to get to a TJ Maxx or Ross and pick up half a dozen dish towels — I use them in the game too.

And I need to sit down and plan out the party menu and figure out where I need to go shopping and on which days I can start buying the ingredients I need. The shrimp trays from Costco are always very popular but can’t get them too early and a trip to Costco that close to Christmas is a real time-killer. The logistics of party shopping and party preparations is a complicated dance and one that I’m not at all good at.

I still have to get gift suggestions from both of The Husband’s sons or daughters-in-law for their respective children (Niece #2 & #3 and Nephew #2). It’s coming down the wire and I have to get that shopping done. The stress levels starting to rise a little.

Luckily tomorrow is the last day of class for both children and I intend to put them to work right away with holiday and holiday party prep.

$$: Dec 17 — A No-Spend Day!

Suburban Wife — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 05:06:34 +0000

‘Nuff said.

$$: Dec 16 - Groceries & Supplement

Suburban Wife — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 05:05:23 +0000

Whole Foods — $52.26

Whole Foods organic Farfalle pasta — $1.99
Whole Foods organic Fusilli pasta — $1.99
365 Lasagna pasta — $2.99
1/2-gallon Horizon chocolate milk — $3.99
1/2-gallon Horizon 2% milk — $3.19
91% lean ground beef — $5.35
fresh mozzarella log — $7.99
Organic Valley ricotta cheese — $7.49
Whole Foods grated Parmesan cheese — $3.99
fresh fruit cup — $3.74
2.08# navel oranges — $2.08
1.11# tomato cluster — $5.54
bag refunds — ($0.10)

Vitality Works — $25.70
I ordered a 2oz bottle of Digest-Aid tincture that works wonders if I accidentally eat something that my stomach is sensitive to (for whatever reason). My stomach’s been a bit sensitive lately so I’ve been using the tincture more than usual and the thought of running out strikes fear in my heart. This stuff is shipped from New Mexico so the price I paid included $6.50 for shipping.

Suburban Wife's Daily Dollar Diary

Wool Wash: Purchase and Product Reviews

Related Posts for Further Reading

Boring Groceries & Exciting Woot! Find

Related Posts for Further Reading

One Purchase, One Expense - Both Huge

Related Posts for Further Reading

MLK Day: Stocked up on Shampoo & Conditioner

Related Posts for Further Reading

Minor mundane expenses

Related Posts for Further Reading

Interesting Car-Buying Side Note: Our Credit Score

Related Posts for Further Reading

Just Had to Share This Purchase

Related Posts for Further Reading

$$: Christmas Shipping & Shopping

Related Posts for Further Reading

$$: Dec 17 — A No-Spend Day!

Related Posts for Further Reading

$$: Dec 16 - Groceries & Supplement

Related Posts for Further Reading