Saturday was Rain, Rain and more Rain. I ran some errands in the morning to take advantage of sales at 2 grocery stores. Both are not stores I normally shop, but I do peruse their flyers for their sales. The first had top round London Broil for $1.99 lb which is a very good price (at least in this area). I bought several pounds for the freezer and will probably hit them again later this week for a few more. I would rather buy it on sale and freeze it than pay full price. The second had bone-in chicken breast for $1.00 lb (also a great price in this area). I bought 3 packs, each about 3 lbs. I will de-bone it, freeze the meat as boneless breasts and use the remaining bones to make chicken stock. My normal grocery store has whole chickens on sale this week so I will probably buy a few and freeze them also. I love having a big freezer. It allows me to take advantage of sales on meat and then have a stock purchased at sale prices, rather than having to buy it full price. I often wonder if the sales clerks think I am nuts when all I am buying is several pounds of meat or if they realize I am taking advantage of the sale. Not that it really matters to me anyway, sometimes I just wonder.

Sunday the weather was absolutely beautiful. My youngest DD(9) had her first field hockey game of the season. She played her best friends team and they tied 1-1. I love the league she is in for field hockey. It is a small local rec league and they do not charge a fee to play. It is a great program. They try as much as possible to make it accessible for all income levels. They do a small bit of fund raising, ask for donations if you want when you sign up, and do go around with a donation basket at games. This bothers some people, but it doesn't bother me. If I have a dollar, I will donate at the game, if not, no big deal. All in all, it costs me way less to do this sport than any other. I usually donate $20 when I sign her up, then a dollar or so at each game. Since she only has 7 or 8 games a season, no big deal. Finally, they do ask each family to sell 4 raffle tickets of $5.00 each but we usually buy 2 and sell 2 so not a huge expense. When compared to other leagues like softball that charge close to $100 for registration and still ask you to fund raise/buy raffle tickets, I much prefer the low cost/low key field hockey league.

I also opt out of the snack option offered to team members. For $2.00 a game they can get a soda/water and hot dog/pretzel from the snack bar. I personally would rather bring a bottle of water from home and keep it cold in the car. If my daughter wants a snack, we will bring something, or occasionally buy something from the snack bar. I would just rather see what she wants each time than pre-order and end up having her waste food/eat food I don't really want her having anyway. It amazes me that usually I am the only one to choose this option. Most other moms act like a snack is an absolute necessity and wouldn't dream of not signing up for it. Seriously, if she ate dinner before a game, I wouldn't want her (nor would she want to) eating a hot dog when the game is over at 8:00 or drinking soda. Sure, she could have water and pretzel, but I could also just as easily (and more inexpensively) bring things from home. I guess it is more about peoples willingness to pre-plan rather than just paying for convenience. Personally, I will opt for the conveniece of having emergency savings, (no matter how small at the moment).

This makes me think of my friend/neighbor who always seems to be disorganized and in debt. She will tell me how she has to buy convenience foods some nights because she doesn't have time to cook. Honestly, she doesn't really want to spend any time planning so everything ends up being last minute and thus, the time crunch. For example, if her kids have a birthday party to go to, it is not unusual for her to be shopping for the present the day of the party. By that time, she is pressed for time and just wants to get something, never mind the cost. Plus, this often involves a separate, extra trip to the store, the same store that she told me she was already in earlier in the week. Yet, she is always complaining about gas prices. I just don't get it.

She just told me the other week that she has started reading more because she would rather wait at things like her kids sports practices than spend the gas money dropping them off and driving back less than a hour later. This makes perfect sense to me until you throw in the part where she buys the books that she is reading. Hello, library! Any gas savings is more than lost if she is buying new books to read!

Actually, what I do to most of this is just bite my tongue and change the subject or move on. She obviously does not want my advice so I try not to obnoxiously offer more than what she really wants. She is actually a very nice person and has some wonderful qualities so I don't want to lose the friendship, it just makes me crazy to see the inconsistencies that she herself cannot.