Challenge accepted!

Something needs to be done. Seriously. It shouldn't cause me this much stress, but it does. And I have to subject myself to this 4-5 times a month, every month, forever and ever. What is it? Grocery shopping.

Funny thing is, I used to L.O.V.E. grocery shopping. I used to go multiple times a week. But that was back when I worked, and for the most part, DH & I each got our own groceries with our own money, and made our own meals. Once we started living off of only one income, we consolidated our lists and money into one, and I began shopping once a week, and cooking most meals. And then once we started Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, the whole ballgame changed. I now H.A.T.E. grocery shopping. It stresses me the F out.

Our budget for groceries is a strict $400 a month, which seems quite high for only 2 people. In our defense though, we eat very little packaged, processed food, which is usually pretty cheap. Most meals are made by scratch, and we spend a little more to get better cuts/quality items. So that accounts for most of our $400 a month. The thing is, some months, that $400 is gone super fast. I try to keep each week's groceries to $100 or less, but sometimes I fail to realize that there are occasionally five Sundays in a month instead of four (I shop on Sundays), or special events take place which requires me to spend a little more in a trip. Groceries are also getting more and more expensive. So by the time the last Sunday of the month rolls around and I look in the grocery envelope, I often find only $50 or so. DH's sandwich stuff alone takes up about $25. Like I said, it stresses me the F out.

So one day a few weeks ago, I watched an episode of TLC's Extreme Couponing on Netflix, and it got me thinking that perhaps I should start couponing a little more to help even out my weekly stress levels. I have to point out, that at this time in my life, I don't have the time to dedicate to full-on couponing like you see in those episodes. But I do have time to look through circulars and clip the coupons I want, and I also have time to look at online coupon offerings. I wouldn't get huge stockpiles, just one or two of an item, and since no store in my town doubles coupons, the chances of me getting anything for free is slim to none. Perhaps later on down the line, it'll be worth the trip to Fargo every 2 weeks so I can shop in a store that does double. But for now, I'll stay in town. Anyway, I just want to cut $10 off my weekly trip. More would be nice obviously, but let's start small, shall we?

To keep track, I'll post weekly shopping updates. This week's trip is a little different, in that DH is going to try a mostly fruits and veggie diet. So the produce is about double of what I normally get, and there are no sandwich ingredients. And I didn't go full-on couponing. I did get a few things though. I spent $93.18, and I saved 4.30 through coupons. A nice trial run.

Non-produce purchases: Gummy cola bottles, 2 pounds of extra lean ground beef, 2 packages of shredded cheddar, a bottle of Italian soda, a gallon of orange juice, a half gallon of milk, 4 things of baby food, 3 cans of peaches, a bottle of hot sauce, a package of fish sticks, a bag of rice, a container of puppy chow, a microwave meal, and a Sunday paper (I want to see if it'd be worth buying every Sunday just for the circulars).

Produce purchases: a cantaloupe, a container of strawberries, a zucchini, a cucumber, an avocado, 2 bunches of celery, a bag of spinach, a bag of sugar snap peas, 2 pounds of carrots, 5 pounds of potatoes, 2 green peppers, a spaghetti squash, a head of green leaf lettuce, 6 ears of corn, a bag of organic lemons, a head of cauliflower, 3 roma tomatoes, 7 bananas, 3 oranges, 8 gala apples, and 8 kiwi.

Woulda coulda shoulda

Every once in a while, I get brief flashbacks of random things that have happened in my life. I think this happens for everyone to some extent. Anyway, I had one of those occasions tonight while washing dishes. I was thinking of one of my high school friends who is about to report to Army boot camp at the age of 31, and it got me thinking of all the times I was thisclose to joining one branch of the armed forces or another. And college. And both. So this post will be about both.

As the final quarter of my public school education was starting, I had the sudden jolt of panic when I realized that I'd been completely ignoring the fact that colleges have application deadlines, and depending on which college, essays to write. I still had a little time, so I wasn't screwed, but I think that it made me narrow my focus to colleges that had easier application processes. So I poured over the multitudes of college brochures that'd been showing up in my mailbox, and I was so excited. I was most excited by George Washington University in St. Louis, but the price tag per year was (and most likely still is) appalling. At the time, I believe it was somewhere around the $50,000 mark. Per year. Um. No. If I were going to spend that much, I would go to Notre Dame (my absolute dream school at that point). Then I came across University of Central Florida. But while I wanted to leave Montana, I wasn't quite ready to go all the way down to Florida, even if the school sounded amazing.

Being more realistic, I only looked at colleges that were in Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota. So application #1 went to Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, application #2 went to University of Montana, and application #3 went to Jamestown College in Jamestown, ND. I was accepted to all three, mostly because I'm awesome. Unfortunately, I had to turn down Concordia because I'd missed the scholarship application deadlines, and it's quite pricey per year. U of M and JC were comparable in price, and while I loved visiting U of M, JC was offering a lot more in terms of scholarships and there was a great chance that I'd graduate in 4 years, as where if I went to U of M, the average was 5 years, so I ultimately chose JC.

But throwing a monkey wrench into my plans was my interest in becoming a Marine. There is just something about serving in the military that draws me in. I don't want to romanticize it, because I know it's a buttload of work, peril and the life isn't for everyone. But something deep inside has always told me that I would be good at it and that I would love it. However, I was never man enough to take that leap. It's one of my regrets/non-regrets in life. What I mean by that is that I regret that I never took that chance, but at the same time, I can't really regret the choices I did make, because then I wouldn't be where I am now. And I kinda like where I am now. Does this make sense?

And why the Marines? I don't remember exactly why. It could have been that I had a friend who was one, or that they have the best bands (would have been my MOS), or maybe that I liked their uniforms better. It's all pretty hazy now. Anyway.....a friend of mine, who had graduated 2 years ahead of me, was a Marine, and she was stationed in Billings as a recruiter. She knew of my interest, and really worked at me to get me to enlist, but even though she assured me it (BTW, if I'd had easy access to the internet back then, I'm pretty sure I would have worked out my fears of boot camp and enlisted. So I'm not sure whether to thank my parents for not having internet, or curse them :/ )
wasn't all that horrible, the mere thought of boot camp scared the crap out of me. So I turned her down and packed my bags for North Dakota.

As my freshman year was drawing to a close, I was seriously unhappy at JC. I yearned for a larger school/community setting, so on the encouragement of an internet friend, I applied to Montana State University in Bozeman. Of course I was accepted. And while I was figuring out what to do once there, I was playing with the idea of joining the Air Force ROTC they have on campus. But the whole MSU thing fizzled pretty quickly... maybe because I am an optimist and thought "just give JC one more semester". I don't know. All I do know is that if hadn't gone back to JC the next semester, I wouldn't have became friends with the guy I would later marry, and is the father of my adorable baby.

And finally, my last brush with the military came after I graduated from college. I was struggling to find a decent job, and by some chance, I saw a brochure for becoming an officer in the Army... which being a college graduate is one of the very few ways one can be commissioned. And this was the one time in which I was probably the most serious about joining the military... because with the Army, I could have joined the National Guard and stayed here. There would be no moving around, and I could have a regular civilian life, too. It was all doable, and going though boot camp no longer scared the crap outta me, thanks to tons of research and message boards.

But throwing the monkey wrench this time was my BF... now DH. He'd grown up an Army brat, and knew what it would all entail... and he wanted no part of it. He didn't tell me I couldn't join, but that if I did, there was no way he could support me, which in my mind meant that we would have to break up. Because there's no way I could NOT have his support in something I did, and be at peace about it. So I chose him over the military. I don' regret it one bit. Yeah, every once in a while, I'll think, "what if?", and dream up some scenario. But I'm happy with how things turned out, so these are always short-lived.