For lengthy excursions up and down (I can't go too far west: four miles drops me into the Puget Sound!) and sometimes east, I bring the colossal Complete Tightwad Gazette to see how I can save $200-$400 a month.

I went to Costco for the first time since May. We ate down our pantry staples during our fiscal crisis and now I have to replenish the distilled water for our emergency kits and peanut butter. I will say that it feels really good to once again have a full freezer, and to be able to have enough meat for the next three weeks.

Did I learn how to save $200-$400 a month? No, but I learned how to save $100 a year. Baking one batch of bread a year and drying clothes without a dryer. I also learned that with some creative deprivation we could save close to $1000 a month, which I would apportion to paying down the home equity line of credit and buying silver, eventually upgrading to buying one half-ounce of gold. I have some gold already, and it is a comfort to me to see my net worth rise while I make lists on what to subsist on in the pantry. I have sold only a mangled mess of a gold chain my mom bequeathed me, and I didn't have that appraised, but it netted me $740 so that was nifty.

We have auto insurance plus a serpentine belt issue to pay for this month, so debt repayment is slow-going. The silver lining is that everyone in my debt group has gone backward: I'm the only one in my group who's maintaining some accountability and preparation right now. I bought a roof for the house, as the roof was probably put on during the Carter administration if not the Truman, and rougher windstorms had blown the shingles off.

Yesterday was our seventeenth wedding anniversary. We celebrated on Friday with a nice dinner out and some improv theater with a theme near and dear to my spouse's heart: sci-fi B-movies where aerosol-haloed women and crewcut Anglo-Saxon men battle monstrosities that would make Orkin men demand danger pay. On our actual anniversary my boy and man went to play Pokèmon, the joy of that being formal introduction to another Pokèmon dad who is a National Book Award winner. We shook hands and he said he'd seen me a few times inside the store, and I said my book club was reading one of his books (truth). "Oh really?" he smiled. Then my family went to the

http://www.skagitriverranch.com to buy some organic meat and excellent eggs. I will eventually buy bulk orders when the refund cheque arrives. Although Skagit River Ranch sells at local farmers' markets, I rarely have a meal plan for meats, and my bags fill fast with vegetables, and you know, those meats are not cheap! I will be eating more lamb and less pork. I have some recommendations for preparation of organ meats as well.

Anyway, even as the emergency fund is whittled down by home and auto repairs, we are reminded in now our eighteenth year of marriage that our simplest pleasures: New York Times Friday and Saturday crosswords, reading library books in bed, local walks, regional hikes, podcasts and massages are indeed some of the best.

We bought a Turkish coffee set and bakeware to replace our Mulroney-era baking pans and sheets. Planned spending today include replacement watch battery, and wardrobe adjustment/renewal for the young'un, and some sweaters/skirts to accommodate my new size.

Another thing we did was drop Sprint's family plan in favour of Virgin Mobile's $25/month for 300 minutes. we used two hours this past month, and we get unlimited web, which is cool when one's looking for fee-free ATMs in an unfamiliar area.