Frugal F&$!-up

It's been awhile, both since I've posted at all, but especially since I've shared any assinine financial mistakes with you. Well, this isn't a huge one, but it seems that I've surpassed my grocery budget every single week of June. What's up with that? Well, a few things:

• Trying to hit that sweet Neutrogena rebate vortex that recently occured at both Rite-Aid and Neutrogena
• A bunch of personal crap conspired and left me with a little attitude -- "eff the grocery budget! Just eff it!"
• The hubster got a grill. So we've been getting stuff to cook on said grill, which is awesome. However, it does mean that he is eating less Clif bars (purchased at Whole Foods with stacked coupons, baby) over the sink for dinner and more pricey flesh o' the cow.
• My kiddo is eating more. I know, blame it on the baby.

It's not the end of the world, and those are mostly legitimate reasons. But it doesn't feel great to this perfectionist. So July, you sweet blank slate, I'm going to try to stick to the budget...

Frugal F&*!up

Welcome back to the Frugal F&*!up!

This week, a triumvirate of events collided to sabotage my budget:

1. I went for the gold. I got my Rite Aid total up to $100 (counted before coupons-- will give you the actual totals later) so I could get the $35 Visa card back before the promotion ends this weekend.

2. That temptress, cheap laundry detergent, lured me in like the saucy vixen she is. While still cheap, I ended up with seven bottles, which put me out just over $14.

3. My son's first birthday party. While we're keeping it pretty chill, yo, the event inevitably adds extras to the grocery list.

Now, probably a normal person would say "okay, so you're going to be over budget this week. Relax, you have the money and it's not the end of the world."

However, I am not a normal person. I vascillate wildly between perfectionism and complete slackerdom. I struggle to live within the murky grey and stay away from the black and white, extreme, all or nothing thinking. Much like when I used to go from diet to diet, swearing to be all pure and then the next thing I know I wake up next to a credit card slip from Pizza Hut and find frosting smeared on my eyebrow.

So I'm obsessing over my Frutal F-up. I feel like the principal found out and he's coming to take me to his office for a paddling. (When I was in elementary school, our principal actually was allowed, for a time, to paddle kids! Shocking, no?) My husband, who does not necessarily view frugality as a positive thing (which could be a whole blog in and of itself-- Cheapskate and Not-so-much Mate? In fact, in the early days of our relationship, I kept finding pennies outside on the driveway. I finally mentioned it to him. Turns out he was THROWING THEM AWAY. That was thisclose to being a dealbreaker!) told me to lighten up. Actually, he said "you need to loosen up the hold on your Scrooge Purse."

I think he might be on to something. So I'm going to toss the proverbial pizza box in the recycling bin, scrub the frosting off my eyebrow, and enjoy the fact that our sweet little boy is turning one. I'll start the frugal thing again on Monday.

Frugal F&*@up

I'd like to introduce you to a new feature on my blog-- the Frugal F&*!up. In this feature I will be sharing with you frugal attempts that have gone horribly awry.

In this episode I'd like to share with you my recent experience with almond butter.

Long story short, almond butter has become a diet staple for me because when I eat peanut butter it seems to bother the nursling. All good and dandy except the generic Whole Foods brand runs about $6.99 a pop. And I go through about a pop a week. So, I decided to try making my own.

I purchased about $5 worth of almonds, and we used a gift card to Bed Bath and Beyond (plus coupon! plus mail in rebate!) upgrade our leaky blender to a shiny new blender-slash-food processor. We were in business.

Per online recommendations I roasted the almonds in the oven at 350 for about 10 minutes. Then I called in the hubby to fire up the new Cuisinart. (Ever since my child was born I seem to have acquired this helpless thing. I think a integral part of my brain slipped out with the placenta. And how come I don't remember the first time I tried to nurse my baby, but I do remember the midwife asking "are you sure you don't want to see the placenta? Most people do!" The little glimpse of it I got was enough-- it's cool that it was inside of me, bringing sweet life to little one but gross!) Anyways, hubby ground up the almonds until they had "released their own oil" (isn't that what skunks do?), added a dash of olive oil, and we had instant almond butter! It was tasty, too. So where does teh F@*!up come in? Well, though it wasn't terribly labor intensive, it turns out that $5 worth of almonds (even bought at the bulk bin) doesn't go too far. I had enough to spread on maybe two rice cakes. And we were left with a sticky Cuisinart mess that looked like the cat had hurled on it.

On the bright side however, I have the satisfaction of knowing that if I was ever in a survivalist situation with a working Cuisinart and a sack o' almonds, I could totally make my own almond butter. For now however, think I'll stick to the Whole Foods brand. Or maybe start looking for cheaper snacks.