Monday, October 18, 2021

Monday, no cooking weekend and the cost of convenience!


 Schmill's tries on Aunt Brittany's wig. His favorite Aunty whom he calls BB has breast cancer and has lost all her hair.  We tried to prepare him so he would not be scared or shocked.  He took it very well and then insisted on wearing a wig.  Well if it helps him cope why not?


 Is it possible to take Kelsa to school as show and tell?  She can fit in his back pack. The things that kids come up with.

Friday evening we had leftover German sausage soup, and Hub's and I stayed up until midnight making my friend applesauce. We both went to bed tired.

Saturday, we did chores around the house.  He hung up one of the kayaks in the garage, and I cleaned house and did laundry.  The kitchen floor was in that thwack, thwack stage from applesauce making.  As soon as I was done cleaning, daughter came by with the grands and I decided to go get a pizza special. I just did not want to mess up my clean kitchen and floors. Kelsa spent the night with us and went to church with us Sunday.

We then hurried up to daughter's after church as she had to work at a school benefit.  We had a nice sausage dinner and spent the afternoon watching the kids.  Then home to leftover pizza, so no cooking this weekend.  But I will be doing a chicken and eggplant parm later today.

It really was a rather lazy weekend. I enjoyed it.  Probably too much.

I must, must sew today. Which is sew nice to really have things that must go out.  I have taken off enough time, plus I need the cash flow. 

Sew today:

1. hem a bridesmaid dress and steam

2. hem a bridesmaid dress and steam

3. hem four pairs of levi's

4. hem three sets of uniform pants and a patch

There is more to do but I will leave some work for tomorrow, as I do want to get the chicken and eggplant done today. I also have a few projects I would like to get done before I leave for Hawaii in a couple of weeks. I can't beleive it is that close.  Yikes! Time moves so fast when you don't want it to.

This weekend I was out and about and I had not eaten and it was getting late in the day.  I needed to take some meds and I want food on my stomach when I take them.  As I was in the middle of something I stopped by Micky D's and got a medium order of fries.  I rarely eat food at Mcd's. I paid $2.89 plus tax for the fries.  It got me to thinking.  You can buy 10 lbs of potatoes easily for $3.00 here, usually $1.50, and on a good sale .99 for 10 lbs. Think of the amount of potatoes I could have made with 10 or 20, or 30 pounds of potatoes.  

We pay so much in this country for convenience.  I am not saying you should never indulge, but that is one huge mark up. I think if we thought about what food we could buy with the money we spend on convenience it would shock us. Time is also an issue.  Do you want to spend the time? DO you want to peel, slice and cook fries in oil?  DO you want the mess?  

I had all the ingredients for the pizza I picked up.  I could have easily made it, yet I paid $18.00 for the convenience of not making it.  I wanted to keep the kitchen clean and spend time with my grandkids.  I think the hours spent doing applesauce and then cleaning up the mess just made me want the convenience. Was the pizza good?  Yes, it was great and worth the money to me at the time.  But I think in order to really save money we always need to look at the cost of the convenience.

DO any of you think this way or am I just a wierdo?

Have a great and productive day staying positive while you are in the negative.


Kim

24 comments:

  1. I go by how many hours of work pay it would take to pay for it. I never made more than 13.00 an hour and that was the last six months of my job which just ended about two months ago. So, that helps me rein it in, sometimes. We all have our weaknesses.
    Love the pictures of the grands! I’d pay for pizza to spend time with mine, too. Money we’ll spent!

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    1. You know having raised my girls with a husband that barely topped $40,00 a year and that was the last couple of years, I think has affected how I see money and time. I would love to hear how you save money.

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  2. I was always like the person above and figured how many hours I had to work to pay for something. But we all have trade offs now and then and that is OK.
    My goodness, your frugalness has paid off this year - it seems like you have taken many trips. That is nice.
    What a cute picture of the kids and the one with the wig. Sure he could take her for show and tell!!! LOL
    Have a nice evening.

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    1. Well my savings has paid off, but I have some big bills to pay by December and I need to think of starting to save again.

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  3. I remember being the Tightwad Gazette, wow factor test, when I'm trying to spend more carefully. While Amy only looked at money, I've broadened my wow quotient. Is it worth the "wow' in exchange for what I've given up. McDonald's fries are rarely worth the trade off to me, as I'd just as soon microwave a potatoe rather than drive cross town to McDonald's. Splurging on coffee out with a friend I haven't seen and getting out of my house on occasion is worth the wow. Getting to play with grandchildren and keep floor clean would in a exchange for an $18 pizza is a good wow exchange.

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    1. You are so right we all have our wow factor. Although I always liked Amy I thought she was a little too frugal.

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  4. Until recently I'd rarely find McDs worth even the convenience. But for the last seven months I've been driving 8 hrs one way, every other week, to help a sister. All that matters now is convenience for food, and wow McDs and other fast foods are expensive! BTW, your grands are adorable! Celie

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    1. HOw nice of you to drive that far to help a sister. Convenience is expensive but sometimes you just have to do it.

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  5. Some days, I am out and cannot make it home to eat anything. It is not a wow for me. It's saving me. Sometimes, a pizza is all. I told Tommy we were no longer getting fries with burgers and if he order with a coupon and got burgers with my meal, I was throwing mine away. He yelled and said I was not throwing them away. I have sneaked and thrown them away before.

    Those are cute pictures. I wish I had a wig like that!

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  6. My goodness you sound so much like me. I have gotten to the point where I will only buy pizza or McD's or A&W if I have a coupon or if we are traveling. The mark up is crazy.

    Your trip is coming up fast. I hope you enjoy your getaway.

    God bless.

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    1. I just can't stand wasting money on something that I can do myself.

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  7. I agree with you on the cost of convenience and seldom buy prepared food. But, you are keeping the employees employed when you purchase convenience food so don't feel too guilty about it:)

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    1. This is true if everyone was like me the economy would fold:)

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  8. We spent more than a year not having any carryout food because I was nervous about Covid. One of my friends did the same thing. This year before the Delta variant started, we started eating carry out food again. I must admit it tasted so good and it was so nice not having to cook every night, but everything seemed so much more expensive, than it had before. Plus three of the several fast food places near us had closed. So that left McD's, and a fish place, and several chicken places which I don't like, open. So if we want carry out we go to McD's, and now Jack in the Box has opened again, so we get that. My husband grumps about how expensive McD's french fries are and he is right. I figure we went with no fast food for a year, we can go ahead and get the McD's or Jack in the box once a week and it will be alright. My friend who had not had fast food in a year went to several different places, a bit further away from home than we went to, and they enjoyed every single meal from all of the different places just like my husband and I did.

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    1. WEll I think the mark up on fries is really ridiculous and probably won't buy them again for a long while. Also popped popcorn, who buys that?

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  9. I can't remember how many years it's been since I had fast food. I just don't like the taste and my stomach doesn't seem to want to digest it. We do order pizza every now and then though. Sometimes the convenience is worth the cost. It's all about balance and moderation.

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    1. I wish my stomach would rebel at fast food. That would be an added excuse.

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  10. Hope Aunty BB will be cancer free soon. Prayers for healing.
    Your grandchildren are precious. Sometimes the convenience is worth it, so don't stress those few extra dollars right now.
    Oh I hope you have a wonderful time in Hawaii. Please post pictures.

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    1. It was devastating news to all of us, but she is doing well and responding to treatment.

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  11. Cute Kid! There are no restaurants in the little bitty town where I live. There is gas station breakfast food, which is surprisingly good but I don't get it because it is so high fat, high quality bacon, sausage, homemade biscuits, etc. and I am up early enough before work to fix breakfast. I pack my lunch because no time to eat out at lunch and there is only one fast food place in the town I work. There are several delicious restaurants. When I am at the weekend (major college town) house, there are restaurants and fast food everywhere but they also have high qualify grocery stores so I get steak, Gulf Coast shrimp, hamburger meat, homemade style buns, good bread, high quality turkey sandwich meat, cheese, grapes, and spinach or dark mixed greens, farm eggs, expensive salad dressing, corn, and ice cream...lol. My grown kid who lives there likes those things. It is still very expensive because I buy the best ingredients. I could make the bread and salad dressing, and buns, but I don't because I am not that great of a cook, and it is hit or miss. So, I pay at grocery store....lol. I think we all do the best we can in the time frame we have, and it is perfectly fine to get fast food when tired, or to buy the best grocery food stuff. Cindy in the South

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    1. I think good quality groceries are important, and I am happy that you do that.

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  12. It's not really a mark up when you add the cost of the building, utilities, workers and their benefits (Mc D's has good benefits for full time), workman's comp etc.

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    1. I know and I am proud that they are now paying their worker's $15.00 and hour here.

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