Feeling a bit bummed on wasting money. The holidays and family medical and my medical and the doggie and, sigh, I've lost track of shopping sales, tracking coupons and rebates, and making sure NOTHING goes to waste.

We are living on stocked up Healthy CHoice ($2 a piece on sale PLUS great coupons doubled) and Campbell's select soups which we got as freebies from the local stores clearance (previous post). That's the good news. Bad news is, well, I've asked MD to thaw meat, ground turkey most recently, twice, and I just haven't "gotten to it". I recognized the SMELL coming from the frig this morning. And fresh veggies like broccoli and asparagus don't last forever.

I was SO careful about using every scrap of everything this summer, cooking and preparing everything first thing in the morning or the night before, having it all ready to eat or throw in the oven after busy days. Now it just seems the last thing on my mind, not only the health, but cleaning house and getting decor up etc. Having a cold and a breast cancer scare and dog sick and Dad dying, normally I would take it in stride, maybe even use "savings" and "no waste" as a distraction from it all.

Of course, this is the TIME of year when spending is high, and we need to save more, tighten things up, and yet it seems the hardest time to do so.

So, I'm going to go through the ads, make a list, cross compare with coupons, refine my list and go shop WISELY. Try to be realistic about whether or not I'm going to cook from scratch, and not commit to cooking or other things that if I *don't* do will mean waste and loss. That free chicken is NOT a savings if I never cook it and it goes to the garbage.