Bear here...

Yep, I had good intentions and, an "idea" of a plan, but... Well... Here's what happened.

I wanted fried chicken for dinner. I would to go to the grocery store to "just buy dinner, that's it," even though we were trying an "avoid the grocery store challenge."  We can spend $30 to $60 when we go out to dinner. Even if we go to Subway or another fast food place we will spend at least $20. I figured if I wanted fried chicken it would be cheaper at the grocery store ($12 for 10 - 12 pieces vs. $25 or more at the fast food place). If I buy any extras they would have to fit in one bag. That was the plan. IT WAS A GOOD PLAN! If...I would have stuck to it.

Things started to go wrong with the side dish, chips. A bag of chips goes well with chicken. Theresa likes baked chips and I like regular chips. Yep, two large bags of chips. Oh, did I mention that I knew Theresa prefers a rotisserie chicken and I wasn't giving up on fried chicken? Yep, I bought both types of chicken. Salad would be a good and healthy addition to dinner, lets get some of that too.

About the salads, getting lettuce should be cheaper than buying a salad by the pound at the self serve salad bar. I WAS going to compare and see what was the best buy, but when I'm tired I usually say screw it and buy both. Lets just say I was tired...

I was tired enough to think we needed "a few" items to stock up on, then there were some drinks that would be nice, that led to "I could really use chocolate covered coffee beans and peanut butter," which led to over $100 when they were done adding up what was in the cart. Are you surprised it all didn't fit in one bag? I could say that I was surprised, but I would be lying.

When I got home, imagine my surprise when Theresa didn't buy into my spin: "We didn't cheat that much? We're still not counting this trip, right?" Busted... This phase of the Avoid the Grocery Challenge went five weeks. I roughly spent: $38 on dinner, $42 on stock items, and $25 on gazingas items.  

As she fixes my typos, Theresa has decided that she's not going to let me take all the blame. When I called and asked her what three items she most wanted from the store (she was craving milk and salad, but we were almost out of cheese and butter), she didn't tell me not to go or just stick to the "dinner only plan."  She says that gallon of organic whole milk was real tasty... Bear says it was almost $8.00.

We are still going to keep track of time between trips and costs over the year and let you know what happens. Wish us luck (and me a little more willpower).

​Type at ya later...

Bear here...

Since I have updated the "horns haircut" people have had two questions:

1. What was the bet I lost to get the hair cut?
2. How did I do the hair cut?

I did not lose a freaking bet. I am old enough to be going through my second rebellious teens and I am going to do it right! So there...

The how? You are in luck, I took our camera to my local barber and had her take pictures of what was done. She was a very good sport about this.

First she shaved my hair down to 1/2 inch so it would be of uniform length and easier to work with.  I knew the new horns would be separated in the front so I brought tape and ran it down the center of my head as a guide line. (Her daughter seemed amused by this. Hmm? )

Dry erase markers will wash off easily so, she marked me up then went to work with the electric razor.

Ready for the detail work. Time to wash the head and grab the strait razor.

The electric razor can get close but to get to the skin you need a strait razor. (Interesting note: You can not use a strait razor in Iowa. They have different laws about what tools you can use. Who da thunk?)

See why I don't do selfies?  I'm smooth, perty and ready to roll!

If I try for another "Hair of Anarchy" cut you will be sure to hear about it!

​Type at ya later...

Bear here...

Remember the blog in January about us avoiding our grocery stores? (Here is the short version if you don"t.  We stocked up, we wanted to save money, I didn't realize until too late that it was a last run for a while so I got to plan a little then we would go again, my famous last thought was all I needed was peanut butter and beer.  MAN! Was I incorrect....) That last blog was one of the few with no pictures. This blog has pictures. Cool eh? ...

January 20th we went to our "local" store (Miller's) and our Co-op In Madison (Willy Street). Our Items were in two categories NEEDED/STOCK and GAZINGAS (Gazingus translates to whats not needed but getting it anyway. usually its treats or oddball stuff that's there and I want to experiment with it.) We spent a total of $458 in one night the breakdown:

Miller's :  Needed ($178) : Gazingas ($27)
Willy St. :  Needed ($188) : Gazingas ($75)

Yes... I did get more than peanut butter and beer.  And now for the pictures!
​

Well, Here is our haul, Rue(the cat) is ready to find what he wants to eat. We have also found that the bags serve another purpose, a kitty playground for at least 1/2 an hour.

If you are going to buy gazingus stuff, you might as well enjoy it!

Our Dairy supplies. Not going to be able to use them all before they go bad so over half of the cheeses and butters we bought will be frozen for future use. The extra dry goods went into the pantry. There would be more pictures but it was late & we were cranky(a side effect of a lot of shopping, go figure...)

FULL DISCLOSURE: Bear... REALLY... wants to "cheat".  Am I cheating when,,,

• I shop at a convenient store? (Dudes/Dudets I work there, shouldn't I be able to get some chips, cheese(curds) or snacks from where I work?)
• We go to the neighbor to get fresh eggs?
•  If I go to the grocery store and get only one item? (I got a breakfast (OK..gazingas) drink that can only be found in the grocery store. Theresa didn't know if she should be impressed by that or appalled that I wanted it that bad.)

There's the update. We will keep you informed when things get interesting.

Type at ya later...