Made in America - Here I Come!

Friday night, I went to Chillicothe, as planned, and saw Confessions of a Shopaholic. It cost me nothing to see the movie, though I admit that I splurged and bought some popcorn at the theater. I won't be doing that again. Four dollars and twenty-five cents for a small bag of popcorn! Outrageous! The movie was really good, thought I thought they would stick to the book better. It turns out that they combined a couple of Kinsilla's books into one movie.

Before going to the movie, I went to Walmart to get some lotion and some groceries. When I got there, I recalled something one of my friends and I discovered in college, that Walmart sells their leftover chicken for $1.00 a pound at the end of the day. Since it was nearly 8:45, I decided to ask and see if they did this at this particular store. They did! I bought about 6 lbs of chicken for only $6. That just made my night. It was cold enough that I could keep the chicken in the car while I went to the theater, so I did.

Yesterday, I bought some frozen French fries at Hy-Vee for $2.00. I baked the entire bag, coating them with seasoned salt as they baked. I also made two batches of white rice. After I was done cooking, I let my stuff cool for a bit then put together my meals. I have enough chicken strip and French fries meals to last for a good, long time. My freezer is full of my own homemade freezer meals, and it cost me less than $10. I think I have 30 meals in all (and I still have more chicken in the fridge, I'm having to re-arrange the deep freeze to get everything to fit). That's less than 30 cents a meal, not too shabby.

I also went over to the local Amish store yesterday. I'm not sure why I went, something told me I needed to go. I get frozen fruit there to make smoothies with (every morning I make my own smoothie to take to work, it is a fairly inexpensive way to make sure I get all of my fruit servings in a day). It is a good thing I did, because I got the last two pounds of blueberries they had. At Walmart, blueberries are selling for $5.65 a pound, and I got mine for $2.55, a significant savings. In order to save time in the mornings, I mix up my frozen fruits ahead of time then all I have to do is empty a bag into my blender (Sunbeam's version of a Magic Bullet), add juice and go.

Today, I am starting my month of only buying American made goods. This shouldn't be a problem since I really don't need anything at the moment. Sure, there are some things I would like to have, but I really don't need anything, so I'm not going to go shopping and buy anything anytime soon. One thing I've done when I go to the grocery store here lately is leave my debit card at home. I've been carrying cash more often, and I decided that if I don't have enough cash on hand, I probably need to put something back. I'm going to try and limit myself to spending $20 in groceries a week, now that I have plenty of frozen dinners, this shouldn't be a big deal. The only things I really need to buy any given week are milk and juice. It seems that every day I hear about someone else who is feeling the effects of the state of the economy. People around me are losing their jobs, their house, and their retirements. It just reminds me of how truly lucky I am and reminds me that I have to save for a rainy day. It is my goal, that at the end of this year, I will have enough money in the bank to support me for 3-4 months should something happen. I've never really worried about saving for a rainy day before, but all around me I see people who are in the middle of a thunderstorm, and it makes me realize how quickly everything I have could disappear.

Well, I'm off to clean house...I have laundry piled up that needs to be done. I'm not sure how I always manage to have so many dirty clothes...I live alone...maybe the neighbors are bringing their laundry.