Monday Musings: Week 12

I finally feel like life has settled down some. We safely made the trip to Austin and back on Tuesday. My sister, Claire, and her family were here on Thursday, and Nathan and Amanda were with us from Friday until Sunday afternoon. We celebrated Miriam's 19th birthday with a family dinner including Grammy and Papa, and then nine of us went to the family Fun Center for an afternoon of skating, while Syd, a.k.a. Mr. Fix-It, stayed home and repaired one of the cars. 

Here is my breakdown of spending for the past two weeks.

Food                   $338.41

Gifts                  $9.07

Clothing              $30.39

Toiletries           $22.14

School (Essie)    $26.24

Skating              $64.00

Entertainment   $1.30

Piano Lessons     $10.00

Toilet Seat        $10.59      

Total (2 weeks)  $512.14

My grocery total seems high, but the cupboard was worse than bare after I returned home. We also bought travel-friendly food for the trip to Austin so we didn’t have to stop at any restaurants. Having the birthday dinner and company for the weekend upped the grocery bill since we’d rather grill ribs and chicken than make Nate and Amanda eat Hearts of Palm Casserole. J

It’s been a really long time since I bought beef at the store, and I was shocked at the price of ground chuck. I think it’s time to head to the sale barn to pick up a calf to feed out for next year when the freezers have been emptied.

Skating was $8 per skater rather than the $5 each I was expecting, so that was a bit of a budget buster.

I’m happy to announce that everyone is well this week. I wish I could say the same for our vehicles. Our commuter car has a cracked transmission housing, so we must determine if the value of the car warrants the cost of the repair. With that car out of commission, Syd will be taking the van to work, so I’ll be without wheels. It’s a good thing our calendar is blessedly blank this week. I’m hoping we can get back in our home school routine, and get a lot accomplished here at the Boxed N Ranch.