I decided this weekend that I would only buy items which I truly need at this time. Ordinarily, I would have bought more at the grocery store, because I had a list of items I was out of. But I didn't truly need all of them yet. So I circled only the things I would be using this week: mayonnaise, mustard, celery, onion, cat food, eggs, canola oil.

The celery was a problem -- I only needed a little bit, but my choices were a big head of celery (which would go to waste) or ridiculously-expensive cut-up sticks. Then I spotted the "soup mix" -- a container of fresh celery (two sticks), an onion, a turnip, some carrots and some parsley -- for only $2.99, as opposed to 3.99 for the package of sticks. That was great -- I used all the ingredients this weekend (except the turnip, which will go into soup). I'll look for that more often. Getting fresh veggies for a one-person household is a bit of a challenge.

Then I went home and made zucchini bread, salmon patties and tuna salad -- of of which will be used in lunches this week.

I made a stop at Goodwill to look for shower invitations (which I found -- 25 for .49) -- and I also found some decorations for $1 (white "flower" confetti and some fake pearl garlands). I could not pass up two gift finds -- an elegant angel ornament for a friend ($3) and a pair of canvas stretchers for my son ($4).

I found a dime in the parking lot. I've already found .21 this fiscal year, so I thought I'd start keeping track. See how Chicago stacks up against Seattle! .31 so far.