I'm HOME

I must say, I had a bit of a surprise when I got home from our little trip. My dishwasher...

I
HATE
MY
DISHWASHER!

It made me cry. No joke. I started it up before we left as we had virtually no clean dishes, washed some of the things that couldn't go into the dishwasher by hand, and we left. What do I come home to?

Dirty dishes.

You could tell the dishwasher had run... the soap was used and the dishes looked as though they had been 'blasted', however one dish ruined everything. See, our dishwasher isn't very good. We need to rinse all the dishes before putting them inside, or else we may have problems. I'm usually very good with this. Somehow, one dish must have escaped my attention. That one dish, obviously on the bottom rack, caused all the cups, bowls, and saucers on the top rack to be coated in whatever-it-had-on-it. Gross. I had to soak everything in the sink and give them a good scrub this morning. I was NOT happy. And the milk jug happened to be on the top rack... which my husband filled this morning without looking at it first... and I could SEE junk inside it after some of the milk had been poured onto our breakfasts...

Sigh. Did I mention I hate my dishwasher? And that it's GE? Don't bother with the cheaper models of GE... really... save yourself the hassle.

On a better note, our trip itself was great! I don't normally go for much in a 'shopping' trip, but we spent a LOT of money. No joke. A LOT. It was all for things we either needed or really wanted but couldn't justify the Canadian price tag on. It was great! The highlights?

• I got a LOT of clothes for Baby M for DIRT CHEAP... cute pants (2 pair), sweaters (2), long sleeve shirt, jean jacket (used), dress (used), pant/jacket set (used), and 2 belts, all for about $20!
• I got myself 4 sweaters... 2 of which were maternity, and two would work for pregnancy. One was $25, one $10, one $4 and one $2.
• Baby M got a winter jacket for $4, and hubby finally got a winter 3in1 jacket for $80 (reg $250). He's been without a real winter jacket for over a year now... just using his leather ones with a sweater underneath for those really cold days.
• I actually bought myself some jewelry! A necklace & earrings set, and 3 bracelet set for $5 total.
• I found a 7.5 foot Christmas tree... for $58! And it's nice too (MUCH nicer than our old one was brand new... which was the same price)!
• We already got a Christmas present for Baby M (and our lil unborn baby) for $25... a steel red wagon! Regular price was $50... it was on sale! SO happy!
• I found my milk crates (bought 4) for $3.50 each. Here at home they are usually $7-10... or at least that's the cheapest I've seen them for. Now I can organize my deep freeze!
• We FINALLY found filters for our humidifiers. Here we usually need to search forever for the things, and the ones for the small humidifier cost $10 each, and for our large one $25-30. We found a 2 pack of the smaller ones for $8, and one larger one (at Fleet Farms) was $15. SO happy!
• I got lots of organizers for cheap. Really cheap. On-sale-from-a-deal-already kind of cheap.
• batteries (half the price as at home)... socks... stamps (I couldn't believe how cheap these were here... alphabet stamps and the clear mounting square together were $15... and these were big letters! A set like that would easily run you $40-50 at Michaels)
• I got fabric for making baby blankets! Flannel for $3/yard. Generally they run at close to $5 here at home, and they don't have as nice a selection (I'm talking Walmart... we don't even have fabric at Walmart anymore... so getting from a fabric store easily brings the price to $6-10/yd). I'll have to post pics of the blankets once I've made them. I bought enough for 3-5 blankets (1.5yds square)

Can you tell I had fun? I managed to keep our 'other' costs down to $50 for fuel, under $70/night stay at hotels (which is difficult in the northern states), and $30/day for food. And that is difficult! Really!

That said... one of the reasons we kept the food price down is due to my 'beverage' fasting. I started January 12th, and will continue for one month total... allowing myself to only drink non-sweetened beverages (not allowed juice, pop, milkshakes, etc, only water and milk). It was much harder than I thought it would be. I CRAVED a milkshake... instead I had to satisfy myself with a little bit of ice cream. It is SO HARD. I didn't think it would be... I generally don't drink much in terms of sweetened beverages. Maybe a sip of pop here or there, or orange juice once a week. Perhaps a milkshake once a month (smoothies generally instead... we make them at home). This was not easy. I wanted root beer, and smoothies, and milkshakes... and couldn't have them. I had to turn away every time. Sigh. At least that helped to keep the budget down... right? Right? Hubs stayed away from most of it too, for my sake. When he did get chocolate milk, he had to keep it away from me, as I would eye it from across the table. Poor guy. It's not nearly as hard when we're at home.

I think I'll be treating myself to a milkshake Valentine's day weekend!

Coming soon... our trip in pictures!