What a week

It has been a very muddled week here in the Armstrong household. I had a very busy week planned with lots of work to be done and appointments to be kept on top of the usual things that go on around here. I didn't need a visit from my old friend Murphy but he called in anyway.

I woke up on Sunday night with a shocker of a toothache and ended up having some major dental work done at 6.15pm on Tuesday night. That threw a spanner in the works let me tell you. I was booked on 9am with David & Kim on Wednesday morning so all I can say is thank goodness for excellent dentists, strong painkillers and incredibly talented hair and make-up artists at Channel 10. Mum assures me that no one could tell that my face was lopsided, with the right side twice it's normal size :).

It's great to be able to get the Cheapskates message out. Living the Cheapskates way is something to be proud of and wherever I go I love to hear the stories of how ordinary Australians have turned their life around with the Bill Paying System or the monthly menu plans or any of the tips and ideas in the Tip Store. They really do make a difference.

I did manage to get Thomas some new long pants. He has grown about 10cm in the last couple of months and all his pants are now stunning Capri length. Which would be fine for me but he's a 14 year old boy and he just refuses to believe me when I tell him he could be setting a new teenage trend. For $13 he's now the much happier owner of a pair of black jeans and navy blue cargo pants and yes, they are long enough.

Coles have been advertising Arnotts Shapes for 99 cents a box this week so I called in this afternoon and picked up half a dozen boxes and promptly hid them in the Christmas hamper. Between now and Christmas we have four birthdays and of course Christmas and they will be very handy to have on hand for snacks. Hiding them in the hamper means that the food fairies won't find them until I bring them out of hiding and I'll still have my bargain snacks to serve when I want them.

It's time to start adding to the hamper each week now so that come December I won't need to shop for groceries. I love avoiding the supermarket during December and January and by adding one or two of my regular staples to the hamper each week the cost is absorbed by that week's grocery money. When December finally arrives I won't need to go grocery shopping and so I will have the whole month's grocery money to put towards savings. Yay! I could do this with the meat budget too and have that money left to add to the savings stash if I try. All I will need to buy will be fruit, vegetables and dairy products.

I may be calling this a hamper but it's nothing flash. Just a large cardboard box in the bottom of my wardrobe. Out of sight, out of mind, especially with hollow legged teenagers in the house.