I wrote this entry on saturday and then never got around to posting it, so doing it now even though it's kind of dated.

My spending yesterday (Friday):

23.00 – groceries – raisins, flax seeds, rolled oats, grapes, 3 carrots, 1 cucumber, 1 banana, small daikon radish, 1 beet, head of local romaine lettuce and local spinach

5.34 – toilet paper

17.95 – gas – 8.348 gallons @ 2.15 (cash price) at a locally-owned station. Full price was 2.25/gal, so I saved .83. I passed a gas station later with a price of 2.37/gal!

10 – friend’s pre-wedding ceremony contribution

Last evening, 24 women gathered to celebrate our friend, who will get married on Sunday, with a nature-based spiritual ceremony followed by a potluck. It was hosted at one woman’s lake house, which is was gorgeous setting. Sadly, it was too cold and wet to convene outside. We were asked to bring flowers, so I cut some very fragrant late-blooming lilacs from my yard and a large rhubarb flower, which was beautiful and received many compliments as a unique choice! All of the flowers were combined and spread on the floor for the ceremony. The bride-to-be (who is 65!) loved the event. She has cultivated deep friendships with many interesting, intelligent, conscious women, which was reflected in everyone’s words.

As planned, I bought organic green and red grapes to contribute to the potluck. My post-work errands took longer than expected, so I was running late for the ceremony – scurrying around my yard cutting flowers, getting dressed and finding rain gear in case we gathered outside. In my haste, I left the grapes at home! Now I have a LOT of grapes. The potluck food was amazing – a spread of healthy, delicious choices which I thoroughly enjoyed. I skipped dessert and am now on Day 13 of no sugar. The wedding is tomorrow (Sunday) and if the cake/dessert looks really good, I will indulge and then go back to no sugar on Monday. If it’s something that I don’t like, then I will skip it and maintain my sugar free streak.

For the wedding, I’m wearing a dress and shoes that I already own. I’m so glad that the dress fits because I haven’t had any time to go shopping. Tomorrow afternoon’s forecast is chilly and damp, so my long dress will work well. If it was going to be hot, I’d probably have to make another choice. I still need to get a gift, which may be swing dance lessons for the couple or some type of gift certificate. I’m planning to spend $100. I really wish they had a registry, which would make gift choosing easier. They are older, but didn’t specifically say “no gifts”. I’m glad to get them something, I just hate guessing and wasting money. I talked to my bridal friend to get some ideas, but still haven’t chosen the final gift. I found out that they need a new kitchen table and they could have put out the idea for people to make contributions toward a beautiful, locally-crafted table. That would have been a great idea, but it’s too late!

Today is a low-key, no spend day. I got some free old tarps from a friend that I will use to smother grass in front of my house to create a garden bed. I’m eating leftover chili and salad that I prepared earlier this week. I’m trying to get some things done around the house, but my motivation is quite low. There’s an event (free) that I’d love to attend tonight, but it’s not until 8p and it’s at least 45 minutes away. I will most likely stay home and relax. This next week is going to be fairly busy.

Snowflakes – found .16 on the grocery store floor; found .11 about a week ago while taking a walk (very odd – there were a bunch of pennies scattered all over a dirt road). Received $9.10 of free red organic grapes yesterday when I mentioned to the produce clerk that the grapes I had bought last week were not very good. I shop at a small, independent health food store that has excellent customer service!

Here's a photo of Friday evening's beautiful sunset at the lake house: