We are broke, and it ain’t no joke. Ralph gets paid on Monday (direct deposit, yay!) and until then, we have no cash. Guess what I mean by “no cash”? Zero. Yesterday we stole over to my parents’ house and scored $19 for their quarter jars (we Hogatrash secretly love this kind of scavenging). So I fed the family with $6 last night (black bean burritos with garlic and jalapeno, steamed broccoli, carrot sticks). It would have been less than $6 but we are also out of gas – hee hee! – so we shopped at the mom ‘n’ pop which is a bit expensive. Tonight’s fare:
Calzones with spinach and homemade ricotta*
Dipping sauce (red sauce w/garlic and basil – yay canned tomato products!)
Sweet and sour asparagus salad
Today I ventured to the somewhat ghetto, rather hilarious, and always thrifty Canned Food Outlet today for our groceries (side note – this was after biking the kids up to my daughter’s last-day-of-school picnic at Sam Benn in Aberdeen – up hills!). My aim: the produce section. A bit scary: “Fresh lemons”! the sign reads (needed for my ricotta) and well, a good 15% of the lemons are moldy. But here’s a life lesson for you: amongst moldy lemons are very ripe, juicy lemons. Then spinach – a huge bag of it reduced to 49 cents. w00t! Asparagus, young and fresh-looking with decent savings of $1.29 for a large bunch.
All told these groceries came to just a little over $3. Yes, I’m awesome.
After Ralph got home (biking the cool seven miles that is his commute, addendum: sometimes getting yelled at for being on a bike: “Jackass! Fucker! Faggot!”), he cleaned up and took Nels to their shift at the 7th Street Theatre working concessions for the movie (which had, I believe, the highest attendance for the film program yet). Sophie helped me fashion calzones and we had a mellow dinner together before our boys got home. I was so, so pleased to see that my produce was fine – no slimy spots, no wilty brownness. Saving pennies is fun but eating partially-spoiled food is not really an option.
Yesterday was also my daughter’s preschool “graduation”; she received a diploma and a special award for “Knowing the Names of Lots of Dinosaurs”. At our picnic I ended up talking to moms I hadn’t previously spent time getting to know (Chris, Kim, and with me being a Kelly we have an oddly unisex parental nomenclature). It was a happy occasion but as these moms are sending their children to different kindergartens (they live outside HQX) I also felt the tinge of “goodbye” which is something that speeds up and hurries along more and more as you raise children. Sophie’s teacher, after seven or eight years at this school, will be moving on to a new position. Both of my children gave her a tender hug before we left. This teacher was a very inspirational and amazing presence in our lives, all the more appreciated as acclimation to our new township.
Summer break has officially begun!
*A friend brought me some raw milk from the creamery in Sequim; sadly, as I thaw out each half gallon they seem on the verge of spoilage.