The spouse and I arranged to bring up the Thomas & Friends train table our son had for several years to the children's consignment store. He brought up the frame, I carried the table leaves. We were ninety feet from the store when a woman and her mother-in-law asked us if we were planning to sell it to the store they just left.

A conversation ensued. They bought our table, drove my husband to the house, while I walked with the mother-in-law (displaced by the bulk of the table in the vehicle). They bought the trains too. We are $65 richer from our four-block walk. This is great: our basement is gaining space! How serendipitous!

We are soaking beans for bean soup.
We played Depression-era Monopoly (a reprint to celebrate its 65th anniversary): my son, my husband and me. My son is mentally old enough to understand the rules, mentally strong enough to sustain interest in a game for three hours, but not savvy enough to bargain well, and not mature enough to handle not winning.

I finally used a $20 gift certificate at a beloved local bookstore: Although I was hunting for Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim, I got French Women Don't Get Fat, Lee Bailey's City Food, Running with Scissors for me and Fantastic Voyage for the husband.

Reading also Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, and The Pursuit of Alice Thrift. I guess I need very funny novels right now.

$5.90 Lunch w/friend-excoworker
$9.58 gas for scooter
$51.32 Prescription & vitamins (2 for 1 sale at WAG: Whee! $11.32 saved in $20 challenge)
$90.60 CSA pickup boxes starting from beginning of this month
--------------------------------

Received gas bill: $30.12. Much lower gas use from same billing period last year; however, it's been +4F degrees warmer on average. Bad news, as of 10/1 we're paying $0.90/therm for procurement cost, a 16% increase in rates from September. We use a lot of natural gas (940 therms per year, compared with the average Kansas use) because someone stays home during the day, saving us about $100/month on gas and an extra $100 on daycare, and we use gas for our hot water and for our kitchen range, leaving us with an electricity bill of about $22/month. This will get lower when I get a laptop and a new refrigerator and use powerstrips. Inexplicably, I find thermostat-adjustment humour very funny in cartoons (e.g. SpongeBob Squarepants, Aqua Teen Hunger Force). It is very cold in the mornings and at work: my fingers were tingling and pink when I entered the work building, and didn't warm up until I went to my friend's building for lunch.
------------------------------------------
Steeling myself for major squandering: boots, gloves, hat, cabinets. I owe my kid $50 because I challenged him to spell a bad word (seven letters long) and he did it. So $20 he takes with him to the Book Fair, and the rest goes into his plummeting college fund.
---------------------------------------
Delighted to learn that our mortgage is looking more and more reasonable, commensurate with what mortgagees in Ohio cities are paying, and what a single worker with a cushy job is paying for a one-bedroom apt. in Seattle.

Our local credit union is offering a 3.99% APR auto financing event on the final weekend.
I still think, unless miracles happen (and they have in the past), I will move back home next year, and although our car is 12 yrs old and has 138K miles on it, it still works, we have cheap insurance on it, and at the rate of 5000 miles a year, with regular maintenance and without any dimbulbs in Broncos or Trailblazers smashing into us, we should be able to make do with this car for the next three-four years.
_________________________________
Miracle #1: the coin shop coughed up my Yen, a mere four weeks after I paid for it. The staff was apologetic.
Miracle #2: Referral bonus of $250, albeit taxed at 40%. Whee.
Miracle #3: Helpful people this week, plus a reopened job req from earlier this spring.
________________________________

$19.15 saved from $84.81 windfall earlier last week.

$2.38 added to challenge from yesterday evening's piecrust and apple juice foray.

$0.29 added from gas savings: $2.67.

I wonder where my $20 challenge savings should go. Maybe the deserving "pocket" or "envelope" will change quarterly.

It dawned on me today that my family spends more on coffee and hot chocolates out than it does for gasoline. Um. There's a goal to work on.

I'm in for the $20 challenge. Yesterday I looked for some coins to put in a jar. I've counted, with my boy, $5.47. Also have $32.95 interest for the month from savings and checking...

We spent $7.99 on espresso and hot chocolate prior to a leisurely stroll through the Olympic Sculpture Park and Myrtle Edwards park. I saw some high-tech company buildings I might send my resume to. As long as it means commuting in less than an hour.

Also used some electrical outlet sealers on the outlets on the outer walls. Here's hoping my heat bills come down by a dollar.