I hate it when I can't connect! What if all you guys are out there doing fascinating things!

Oh well, I'll put this in Word and plop it in later.

Yesterday I went to Joann's Fabric to find the right button for my sweater. I DID, by the way, find my own button collection, but there was nothing in it that would really do. Well, even at Joann's I did not find the perfect match, but I found one that will blend in well and fool the eye. Of course, I had to buy two, and they were $4.50. More than I paid for the sweater, I think! But it's a really pretty sweater and once I get it operational again I'll be glad. Sewing on that button is one of my planned chores today.

Joann's Fabric was in a shopping center that was new to me. It had a discount grocery store called Ultra, which I've heard of but have never tried. So I decided to spend my $20 there. It was a big warehouse-type store with lots of stock and the prices seemed pretty good. For my $20 (actually $18.81) I got a 24-pack of maxi pads, a jar of house-brand peanut butter, a can of Chicken of the Sea tuna, 1 2/3 pound of bananas, a package of shredded cheddar and 11 jumbo chicken drumsticks. I mean, they look like turkey legs! Also 20 pounds of cat litter. I froze the chicken legs in packages of 2 and 3; they will be my mainstay on my low-carb days.

Will I go back there? Doubtful. It's a bit of a drive, and I think I do just as well at Jewel, choosing loss leaders and house brands. It was also pretty intense – very busy and crowded and the shoppers were rather rude – stressed, I guess.

From there I headed to the gas station, but before I got there I swung by Taco Bell. I realized it was after noon and I was really hungry, and since Taco Bell is a little out of the way for me, I don't get it too often. I bought 3 tacos - $3.57.

Gas was $26.47 ($3.47 per gallon). I also went to the library, but with hot food in the car, I just returned some items and didn't look for anything new.

Came home and read on the couch for a while, putting off doing my taxes. (Still putting it off – I'm going to do them today!) I made a yummy supper – the entree was the last of my split pea soup, but the sides were great! I drained the last bit of applesauce out of the jar and added the last bit of cranberry sauce and heated them up on the stovetop. So good! And I sliced and boiled some carrots, and added honey and butter.

Next Friday I'm going to make dinner for my son and his wife in honor of his birthday. He has asked for London Broil. With that, I'm going to serve sour cream mashed potatoes, roasted Brussel sprouts with pecans, maple-glazed carrots and some kind of artisan bread. And I'll buy a chocolate cake from Portillo's. I should get some wine, too. So, obviously, this is not going to come out of my $20 challenge. The whole idea of this is – cheaper than a restaurant meal! I'll shop later in the week.

My pantry and freezer are really starting to clear out. I have a TGIF pasta-meal-in-a-bag in the freezer, as well as two pie crusts, some frozen white sauce, waffles, bread, tortillas and the chicken I just put in there. In the pantry, I have maybe four cans of soup, a couple cans of vegetables, tuna, peanut butter, spaghetti, egg noodles, lasagna, rice, onions, salsa, mayonnaise, walnuts, oil, broth and baking supplies. And lots of tea and coffee, and some hot-chocolate packets. In the fridge there are eggs, cheese, carrots, celery, butter, crescent rolls, and all kinds of condiments. So I still have what I need, but I'm starting to see that I will soon need to spend the whole $20 on food and make the non-food items a separate trip.

Oh, and I didn't report yet that on Friday night I went to McDonald's to get the free chicken bites sample. It was so small that I bought a regular-size portion, too. ($3.81) They were quite good, but I'm sure not very low-carb, as they were heavily breaded.