I'm a planner. I'm super-organized, most of the time. And I'm also determined to use my precious gas wisely.

So Friday, after getting out of work around 3:15 pm (yippee!), i took the long way home so i could stop at Shop-Rite. They really do have the best prices, though not on EVERYTHING. Hence, the need for my pricebook. On the way there, I filled up the gas tank and made note of the odometer reading. thanks to having cleaned out my glove box a week earlier, i actually was able to use a half dozen of soon-to-expire coupons. (I throw so many expired ones away.)

I had some frozen stuff with me, but had remembered to bring 3 reusable ice gel paks with me to work in the a.m. and stored them in the office fridge. So i put them to use when I left Shop-Rite and raced over to my neighbor's house to check in and feed the kitty on my last day of cat-sitting duty.

Then homeward bound, where i unloaded everything.

This a.m., i had still a few more errands to do but wanted to stick to my self-imposed "1 trip for errands per weekend" rule. So at 6:45 am (yes, crazy, i know, but i get up early for work and can't sleep late) i got on my bicycle and pedaled about a mile and a half to the post office, where i needed stamps to ensure that American Express couldn't bill me for a late payment fee. The lobby was closed but the nice postal guy who gives box holders their mail agreed to sell me a roll of stamps if i had exact change, which i did. He was also very impressed that i biked there, which i told him when he initially said "we're closed." He took pity on me.

Then i pedaled back toward the Big Y supermarket, a high-priced supermarket close to home. Don't normally go there, but i had a coupon to try Kellogg's new oat strawberry squares for free after rebate, and Shop Rite didn't carry the brand. Big Y did, so i'll get reimbursed for it anyway.

Then a stop at the bank ATM, where i rolled my bike right into the lobby with me; i figured by the time anyone saw me to scold me, i'd be done with my transaction.

It was a good time to pedal around; traffic was quite light.

When I got back, i did 3 loads of laundry and the last one is now hanging out on the clothesline to dry. It's quite hot today, so it's like a super-charged dryer out there.

I also made a really good berry crisp, using a recipe my grandmother had given me for apple crisp, but substituting frozen blueberries i'd picked with dad in NJ, frozen raspberries, and fresh raspberries i picked in my yard. (Plus oats, nuts.) Had a small bowl with some ice cream and i was in heaven.

Since i was heating up the big oven, a rare ooccurrence, i also decided to make my mom's granola recipe at the same time and stick that in the oven too. It's super easy, i don't know why i never tried it before. Just mix together 4 cups old-fashioned uncooked oats, raisins, nuts of your choice, chopped dried fruits, such as apricot or dried apple, wheat germ and a 1/2 cup of oil. Then bake at 325 for 20 minutes. I add fresh coconut flakes afterwards as they get a little dry after being baked. So i made about a box full of cereal.

God, let's see what else i've done and it's only 2:45 pm....i vaccuumed the upstairs floor and picked up quite a bit. I ordered a darling wicker basket for my bike, to make it more practical for carrying things, which i hope will encourage me to use it more for simple errands. I also ordered a 2nd box fan from Walmart for $15 using their Ship to Store feature, which i find very convenient. You don't have to run the risk of driving to the store and finding that they're out of what you want; they send you an email after your online order arrives in the store, and then you pick it up. It's painless, and no time wasted standing in line.

I bought the 2nd fan cus i want to make more use of a fan cooling technique i'd read about. AT night, when it's cooler outside, you leave all the downstairs windows open ONLY 1-2 inches. You put fans in the upstairs windows, facing out, and this creates a draft from the downstairs up to the 2nd level and blows all that hot air out. I tried it before and it didn't really work, but that's becus i only had 1 upstairs fan which i don't think was enough.

So i'll have the 2 window box fans and 3 ceiling fans. I hope to avoid using my 1 window a/c for the rest of the season. I used it once, but any AC is going to be an enormous energy hog so i'd rather not use it.


After 5 days of those hives with not much sign of improvement, i finally caved and went to see a doctor, a new one in the town where i work. It was his opinion that the hives weren't caused by bug bites as i would have had some sign of bites on my ankles, and i had none. So he felt the hives were an allergic reaction to my overzealous pill-popping, following the herbal protocol recommended in a book i read (Curing Lyme Disease.

So I stopped taking the herbs. I did restart one of them, reservertrol, becus i'm pretty sure i can rule that one out as being the source of the problem since i had run out of them before getting to my dad's house and hadn't been taking them there when the hives occurred.

But a few days after stopping the herbs, my headaches returned, and i was feeling very upset and frustrated.

I took another look at the recommended dosage and it's my feeling they really were very high doses of the herbs. I would like to restart the other 2 herbs but keep to a much more reasonable dose since they were effective in dealing with my Lyme-induced headaches.

One step at a time. Right now, i'm still wrapping up a 5-day course of Prednisone which was meant to deal with the hives. (It has.)

I should get about $105 from my week of cat-sitting. I always like to equate what some unexpected income will pay for. Like, that $105 will pay for 2 weeks worth of groceries, or my electric AND cable bill combined. Doing that makes it seem that much more worthwhile.

I clocked my mileage for the 3rd consecutive fillup and was disappointed to see it dropped a little, to 36 miles per gallon. Still good, but not as good as 42.

In a few hours, after the heat of the day has passed, i will don my hip boots (fisherman use these), spray myself with Deet, and venture into the mess of brambles in my backyard. You sweat like the dickens, and if a neighbor saw me, they'd shake their head, but they won't, as my backyard is exceedingly private. Berry season lasts just a few weeks, and while i've enjoyed picking a bout a 1/2 cup or so each evening for the following breakfast's bowl of cereal, I WANT MORE, and i can see oodles of red berries beckoning me from further into the thicket. I will bring my clippers with me so i can clip thru the thickets without picking up more ticks. I can freeze the berries (organic) for winter use. Hey, these babies go for $3.99 for a teensy little container at the store.

My neighbor with whom i commute with said they've got acres and acres of brambles loaded with berries but haven't had time to pick. (They have 9 acres.) I've got plenty myself, or i might even invite myself to berry pick up there.

I was reading a story in my local paper about the dilemman homeowners face about when to buy the coming winter season's heating oil. Now, later, or both? Lock into a pre-paid contract or pay as you go and take the risk?

They mentioned that those who lock in now and pre-buy their fuel will be looking at paying about $4.84 a gallon. I see that's considerably higher than the $4.24 i paid to fill my tank in late June. Now luckily, becus i have a small house and i keep the heat way, way down (about 60), i can squeak by each season and only fill my tank up twice. So i may get really burned when i have to fill up that second time sometime in late January, but that's the way it's gonna be.

About 6 years ago, i and several other homeowners in my town and surrounding areas lost a lot of $$ when they prepaid for the winter's heating oil and the company declared bankruptcy. The attorney general's office got involved and it's taken this long for the thing to be resolved. It was never certain whether we'd ever see our money again, as we're all unsecured creditors, but it looks like we will. I should be getting back in the area of $425, so don't when that's happening (my state works at a snail's pace to process things) but it will certainly be much needed to apply to this season's fuel.

I have now and again considered getting a wood stove to supplement the oil, as this house has no fireplace. I believe that it once did, but the house burned down and when it was rebuilt, they didn't add the fireplace. It would help, as i have a great deal of trees on this small property and i've given so much wood away to others, for free. I'm gonna skip that for now, but lately i've been thinking of going up into the attic, removing a section of the carpeting up there, and then i guess the plywood floor under that, to see how much insulation there is under the main middle section of the attic.

One of the first things i did when i bought this place was to add insulation behind the kneewalls, but under the carpeting is not that easily accessible unless you rip it all up. I think this might be the time to do that. For all i know, there's 6 inches of the stuff up there and that's it. I should have R-49 up there and that would be just as much a cost-saver as getting a wood stove, in my opinion. If i had a man around here, it's the kind of thing i'd want to tackle myself. I might still try to do it, though it doesn't take much to trip me up.

Had an enjoyable 3 days on the Jersey shore with my dad and K. It was just too hot to do much of anything, though, so we ditched the kayaking. We did some blueberry picking, and i came back with plenty to snack on plus freeze for the off-season months.

We took Bailey, the dachsund to Island Beach State Park, which reminded me very much of the Cape, not at all what you'd expect for a New Jersey beach...



...A 10 mile long strip of white sandy beaches, very uncrowded on a brutally hot day. Go figure. The dog, however, was frightened by the noise of the surf and pretty much cowered under our beach chairs. When i walked him along the beach, he kept making a beeline for the boardwalk that led back to the car. He's a little bit timid when out of his element.

We visited K.'s favorite jewelry store down there and i brought with me a very nice dark blue gemstone ring my late grandmother gave me when i was very young. I never knew if it was real or not, but the stone is quite large, probably 3 carats. Alas, the jeweler told us that it was mostly likely glass becuase you could see right through it and it was set in sterling. (Apparently good jewelry is always set in gold.) Well, it was good to find out, but i don't think i'll spend any money resetting it so i can wear it on my ring finger. I'll just continue to enjoy it as a pinkie ring.

On Friday morning, i spent several hours weeding my dad's raised vegetable beds in the backyard. It was still shady there and i was a little antsy for something to do since we'd spent so much time indoors. The soil was quite sandy and while i didn't feel anything biting me, an hour or two after i came in, i started getting very itchy, mainly all over my scalp and around my ankles. In fact, it was so bad, i didn't sleep well that night; i kept waking up and scratching. Since that time, I've been breaking out with an ugly rash which we think is some sort of allergic reaction to something that bit me in the garden. My dad did say that sometimes when he walks back there, he feels something biting him but you never see anything. He never had the kind of reaction i did. These rashes are spontaneously breaking out on different parts of my body, mostly my torso, with raised welts. It's a little alarming, but i returned on Saturday when my doctor is closed and i don't want to blow $100 on a walk-in clinic.

I'm monitoring it and hoping the reaction will work its way through my system soon. The only other thing that occurred to me that might be causing this reaction are the herbs i'm taking for my lyme disease. I'm starting my 4th week on these 3 herbs, and each week you gradually ramp up the dosage. I'm not up to the maximum dose yet. When i got home i reread the sections on possible side effects for each of the 3 herbs. For the cat's claw and resveretrol, the side effects are all gastrointestinal, so i don't think it's them. For the andrographus, they say "allergic responses" (withought really defining what that was) were very, very rare, so i still tend to think i'm having a reaction to something that was biting me in the sand.

The dachsund and the cat both go outside, and one night the cat slept in my bed for a few hours, but they both get flea meds and neither was scratching, so i ruled that out as well.

I remember, too, that while weeding, i came upon a small colony of what i think are potato bugs, those brown colored beetles. I know they eat veggie plants, so instead of squashing them underfoot as i would usually do, i squashed about 10 of them between my fingers. It's possible the beetles emitted some noxious chemical and that's what i'm reacting too. To some this maysound far-fetched, but don't forget that many of our modern pharmaceuitcal drugs are derived from natural substances found in plants or animals.

Anyway, i'm reluctant to cut back on the andrographus, since the book indicated that of the 3 herbs, this was the most important one to take and more importantly, my headaches haven't been around for over a week. I'm on no other medication at this time for the Lyme, so....

However, these hives are pretty bad, so i did skip the andrographus dose this morning. (I take the herbs 3 times a day.)

Last night, i didn't have trouble breathing, but i did notice that my breath sounded kind of raspy. I was debating whether to drive myself to the hospital emergency room and incur the costs. Didn't really want to and in fact i'd already takien a sleeping pill and was in bed but i was almost afraid to fall asleep if my breathing did change. I actually got dressed in case i needed to leave (or call 911) quickly. Fortunately, i made it through the night. Good god.

But wait. My adventures aren't over yet. I left the Jersey shore very early on Saturday am, around 7:30 am, as i wanted to avoid driving in the unbelievable heat that even burned my arms with AC on in the car. It was a 3 hour drive, so i got home around 10:30 am and was tired from both the heat and lack of sleep and was just looking forward to laying down and relaxing.

But i couldn't get in the front door, even when i put my shoulder to it. The 1st thing i thought was that H., who was cat-sitting my cat, perhaps without thinking locked the 2nd lock on my front door, the old that i never use and which in fact i don't have a key to.

I was in trouble becus that was the only key i had to the house. I had given H. my garage door opener as she preferred entering the house that way, and thru the garage/basement door since there are handrails on the basement stairs, unlike the stone stairs outside leading to the front door.

I had my cell phone with me and called my mother, but i kept getting a busy signal. I kept trying every 2minutes for about 15 minutes before i realized that mom wouldn't be able to do anything to help me since she, too, has only the front door key.

I called 911 and a very nice young officer came to the house. I pointed out that while everything was locked up tight, i had left 2 2nd story windows open in the back for ventilation, and i was willing to sacrifice a screen to break in. All i needed was a ladder to climb up there, but my ladder was in the garage, which was all locked up.

The cop said maybe he could take the door on the side of my garage off the hinges and we could enter the garage that way. We could see through my garage window that the key to the basement door was in the keyhole, so once in the garage, i'd gain access to the house.

But the cop needed a nail to put out the hinge nails. I ran to my toolshed and there was nothing there, but i pried out a nail i'd banged into the wall to hang stuff on. But it was too big.

Now of course the first thing i'd done was to call H., but i knew that on Saturdays she spends the whole day with another girlfriend for shopping and often the movies. (I left a distraught message for her.)

But i suggested to the cop that maybe if i went over to H.'s house, my garage door opener might be sitting right there on her kitchen table. But i wasn't sure if H.'s 95-year-old mother would recognize me or let me in the house, so the cop agreed to go over there with me becus she would more likely respond to a man in uniform. The mother is Hungarian and doesn't speak much English and is also suffering from dementia. But she did let us in. A quick check of the kitchen revealed no garage door opener, and the cop indicated we could do no more. So he drove me back home.

he told me i could call a locksmith who could drill out the old lock and put a new one in for a "couple hundred dollars." No way was i going to pay that. I said, "Do you think the fire department might be willing to help me with a ladder?" He said, "Maybe."

I was just about ready to dial the fire department when i had one more thought. I told the cop, at this point, i wouldn't mind cutting a hole thru my (very old) screen door to undo the latch. Once inside the porch, the French doors to the family room would still be locked, but there is an old window leading into the bathroom. It's the only remaining original window in the house that wasn't updated, and in fact had recently scheduled with Windowland to put in a viny replacement window in mid-August. So i wouldn't mind it, i told the cop, if you could then help me break that window and i could climb in the bathroom.

The cop, no doubt not having enough adventure in my sleepy little town, was game. He broke out just the bottom half of the double hung window, which was plenty of space for me to crawl through. I thanked the cop profusely for his help, and swept up all the broken glass.

Not too much damage done since i'm replacing that window anyway, and i saved myself a couple hundred dollars for the locksmith.

And, as it turned out, i DON'T think H. inadvertently locked the 2nd lock on the front door. The sun, at 10:30 am, was beating down on it and i think with all the humidity the wood swelled. I've had problems opening it before, not just with the wood apparently swelling but also witwh some viny insulation strips that were put in above the door; it keeps falling out and i think jams in the door.

From now on, i will carry the key to my basement/garage door with me so this doesn't happen again. What a to-do.

Oh! I nearly forgot to mention the gas mileage. In my last post, i talked about how i got 39.4 miles to the gallon with my 99 Honda Civic HX. I clocked the mileage driving down to the Jersey shore. It was all highway driving but i took pains to maintain an average 60 mph. I was curious to see how this would compare to the 39.4 miles per gallon i got with mostly my daily commute.

guess what? I got 42.6 miles to the gallon! Amazing. I chalk it up to doing hardly any braking. Since i left on a Wednesday, there were no traffic jams down there and it was pretty much smooth sailing. Hooray for Honda!!

I'd been wanting to check the fuel efficiency of my '99 Honda Civic for some time now. I'm not sure i ever have checked it, but the EPA rates it for 29 City/35 Highway. (You can check your car's efficiency on www.edmunds.com.)

I suspected it might get quite a bit less than the EPA estimates becus when i bought my kayak 3 years ago, i had a kayak rack mounted on the roof of the car, so there's probably considerable wind drag. And are my car tires properly inflated? I don't really know; it's not something i check regularly.

My Honda model is one most people have never heard of. It's not an EX, DX or LX. It's an HX. What makes it unique is the CVT, or "Continuously Variable Transmission." As explained in the sales literature this transmission works a little differently and is supposed to eke out a little more fuel efficiency. That's the extent of my knowledge on fuel efficiency! I believe it's the only CVT in the whole Honda lineup, but CVT does exist in other vehicles.

The car has an automatic transmission, BTW.

So I made note of the odometer reading when i filled up 13 days prior, and then again this weekend. I drove a total of 390 miles during this interval. Most of that is my RT 47.5 mile commute. I divided 390 by the number of gallons on the 2nd refill.

I was astonished to see that i'm getting a whopping 39.4 miles to the gallon! To what do i attribute beating the EPA estimate by 4 miles to the gallon?

I am a master of fuel-efficient driving techniques. I've driven this way for years. Here's what I do:

First of all, my entire commute is done on back roads. The county i live in is largely affluent residential and there just aren't any major north/south highways; the only alternative to the back roads if you're traveling north/south is one mostly 2-lane highway that is heavily commercial with much traffic as they are widening and adding lanes in certain areas, but it's a patchwork effort. Most commuters i know avoid this highway like the plague becus it is thoroughly congested, and in fact mile-wise, it adds 8 miles to my drive. In any case, the back roads are very scenic and you pass by some lovely reservoirs.

On these back roads, the fastest you can drive is 50 or 55 mph tops. The opportunity to drive that fast only occurs in 2 spots, if you're lucky enough not to be behind a slow driver and you don't mind risking a speeding ticket.

(If i do have to drive on the highway, i try not to exceed 60 mph, but that's not always possible with other impatient drivers, even in the slow lane.)

My average commute speed is 45 mph. Now i had thought that the optimum driving speed was about 50 mph, but maaybe 45 mph is in the sweet spot as well.

I try to drive at a consistent speed and, importantly, leave enough room between me and the car ahead of me so that if the other driver brakes for any reason, it may be possible for me to simply take my foot off the gas; if i do brake, it's gentle and gradual. So no tailgating and no hard braking!

When starting off from a stop sign or traffic light, i accelerate gradually.

Basically, i treat my car as if it were a slow-moving senior who needds extra time to get where they're going, and i don't push it to do spectacular feats. (Actually, its 4 cylinders never really made it s a speed demon, so that's just as well.)

I plan to continue taking odometer readings to make sure this check wasn't a fluke or error, but i'm pretty sure it's not.

I'm heading down to visit dad mid-week this week, and i've been wondering if i can maintain 55 to 60 mph the whole way down. (It's a 3-hour drive.) What usually happens is that i start off driving very well, but in the last hour i get impatient and start increasing my speed. But i would like to see how adding significant highway driving into the mix affects the mileage if i drive at just 55 to 60. Will doing so keep my miles per gallon up or will the higher speeds be a drag on my fuel efficiency? We'll find out!

(I can't tell you how many times, btw, i've regretted the HX doesn't come with cruise control...it would make it so much easier to maintain a consistent speed on the highway.)

This has been a 3-day weekend for me. I haven't done a whole heck of a lot. A fair amount of reading on the porch, lawn mowing, sweeping the patio, weeding the driveway, general tidying up inside and preparing stuff i gotta do before my 3 day trip south. Oh, yes, i did finally make it to the Japanese stroll garden. It was quite small, but a gem.







On the agenda then is a kayak trip with dad, blueberry picking (NJ is one of the biggest blueberry producers in the country) and maybe a trip to the jeweler to appraise a large blue stone in a ring my grandmother gave me years ago.

I've finished my 2nd week on my herbal protocol for the Lyme disease. My neurologist had said, after the spinal tap was normal, let's wait 2 weeks, then let me know how you're doing. The 2 weeks isn't up yet. I've had daily headaches except for a 1-week period just after the spinal tap, and then the past 2 days and so far today i've had no headaches. I'm crossing my fingers becus this has been a long, frustrating thing to deal with and no clearcut answers from the doctors.

Getting back to fuel economy, i'm starting to get into the habit of just clocking my mileage when i go just about anywhere. Becus for example, i was never really sure whether it paid for me to say, stop at the cheapest grocery store on my way home from work, since doing so required me to take that dreaded congested highway home, which i knew added 8 miles to my drive. But when i got around to checking the mileage in going to that supermarket from my home on a weekened, it was quite obvious that even with the extra 8 miles it still was quicker stopping there coming home from work. As i recall, making a separate trip from home was around 16 miles or more, becus of course, it was going there AND coming back. So i'll try not to do that anymore unless i have other errands in that area.

I had a window company out here on Friday to measure and estimate installation of a replacement window in my downstairs bathroom. I put in a nice new light fixture a while back, and now i'm stripping the wallpaper, which was old, curling and even had mold on it. This is the time to replace that window, before i re-wallpaper. The mold problem is something i definitely want to address. The reason for that, i'm sure, is that there's no ventilation in that bathroom. It has no bath, but the window that's in there now is the only one remaining in the house that wasn't replaced with Andersen windows. It's a pain to open, so i usually don't bother, but being able to easily open it would improve the circulation issues. It opens onto my screened porch, so i'm having the lower half of the replacement double-hung window "frosted." Well, that's not the term they use, but i think you know what i mean, the glass is a pebbly texture so you can't see in, for privacy purposes. I asked the guy who was here if the frosting looked nice, and he said "no." However, my plan is not to have curtains on the window so it lets natural light in there, which is needed. I suppose i could save money if i had a curtain, but i'd rather not.

The prices for Andersen + installation were just too much, so i opted for another brand whose name escapes me now. However, what sold me is that the window is Energy Star-rated, plus there's no sales tax, so that saves me 6%. The rebates are no longer in effect.

This, I hope, will be my final home improvement/major expense for the year. Thanks to the added income of my new job, i have done a number of things to the house i'd wanted to do, as well as a few splurges not on the list, but which beautify....the new kitchen faucet, an expanded brick patio out back, repair of the front stoop step.

One really big expense that will need to be addressed at some point is the driveway. It's pretty long, 150 feet, i think, and it widens considerable at the top so there's a whole extra parking space to the left of garage. The asphalt is in rough shape and getting worse each year. Still no potholes per say, but major crevices with weedsd growing in them.

Anything petroleum-based is going to be super-pricey now, and i remember more than 5 years ago i got an estimate and at that time it was around $6,000. My plan to at least partially control costs is as follows: The bottom half of the driveway is on an incline; ;the top half is level. So i would repave the bottom half, then transition with a 3 foot wide Belgian blog apron, then have the level part at the top all gravel, or perhaps something nicer than sharp-edged gravel like round stone. I know a lot of people don't like stone becus it seems to migrate into the lawn, but in my case that wouldn't be a problem becus the gravel would be completely contained by stone walls and the side of my garage wall. I do foresee that keeping falling leaves off it will be a bit of a problem, as will snowblowing with my new snowblower, however, i think if i learn to hold the snowblower at a certain angle, it won't pull up debris at such a low level. And despite the issue with fallen leaves/debris, i still think the gravel is worth it in terms of appearance; i never liked the look of pavement on such a large surface, and i imagine drainage improves as well with gravel.

Although i don't usually hit more than 1 grocery store a week (too much gas spent on driving), there are 4 grocery stores i frequent: Stop & Shop, which used to be my "main" store, Trader Joe's (it's the furthest out of the way, but great food items), Shop Rite (good prices, but also a bit out of the way) and Expect Discounts, a discount supermarket with a large Latino customer base.

Stop & Shop was my primary source partly becus, at 3 miles away, it's the closest. There's also one just a 1/2 mile from my office.

But with grocery prices ever rising, I'm forced to reexamine the prices of everything. About a month ago i started another price book, really just a list, organized by category (dairy, canned veggies, fresh produce, frozen, grains, beverages, etc.) of prices of those items i most regularly buy at all 4 stores.

(In December, i'll be going in on my mother's Costco membership, splitting the $50 membership cost with her, so that'll be yet a 6th store to have to track prices at, but she says there are bargains to be had, and i know that in years past, the savings on a single box of kitty litter alone (40lb box) paid for that annual membership fee.)

So as of late my I shifted allegiance more so to Expect rather than Stop & Shop. Fresh produce, for instance, was ALWAYS cheaper, yet becus not all the bins are refrigerated, a lot of the produce is over-ripe, so you have to be careful. I felt pretty confident Expect had the best prices.

Shop Rite, I knew, also had good prices, but becus it's sort of out of the way, requiring me to plan ahead and bring those refreezable gel paks during the summer, i only did my grocery shopping there a handful of times.

When my mom came over for lunch yesterday, she dropped off the Shop Rite circular, which i pored through. Actually, i already get their circular emailed to me, but becus it comes out on SUNDAYS, by which time i want to have my running around errands done with, i don't often look at it. (Stop & Shop, on the other hand, sends out their circular on Thursdays, and that's when their sales run, from Thursday to Thursday, so it allows me to plan my shopping ahead of the weekend.)

Well i was quite surprised to see that in some cases, Shop Rite prices beat Expect's. Take ketchup. I happened to have just bought ketchup at Xpect, a 1 lb, 8 oz bottle for $1.18. I thought it was higher than before but ASSUMED that since everything was going up, it wasn't out of keeping with anything else. Well, Shop Rite's price was .99 for a much larger qty, 2 lb, 4 oz bottle. Imagine that!

I would not be at all surprised if stores like Expect jack up prices sneakily on certain everyday items and hope it won't be noticed becus they are already the cost leaders on more major stuff.

I thought i was getting a "deal" at Xpect when i found 2 lb boxes of pasta at .80 a pound, but Shop Rite had the usual 1 lb. boxes on sale at .74 a pound.

Not everything at Shop Rite was cheaper. I bought a 2 lb. bag of pre-cooked frozen shrimp at Stop & Shop for $6.99, while the same item cost $9.99 at Shop Rite.

Until food prices stabilize (and that won't happen til oil prices do), keeping an accurate price book will continue to be a challenge.

But it's gotten to the point where with most food items, i won't buy them until they go on sale. Like, i really prefer Pepperidge Farm dark German wheat bread, and when it's offered at one-third off, i stock up and buy 4 loaves, freezing or at least refrigerating those i'm not using. When i run out, i refuse to purchase at the normally much higher prices, so i do without. I've been craving dark German wheat bread but haven't seen it on sale lately. Well, Arnold bread is on sale at Shop Rite for $1.99 so i may get a stand-in loaf there.

I do the same thing with Lean Cuisine entrees. They're handy and easy to bring to the office for lunches, but their normal price is too high, so i wait til they go on sale at $2.50 each. When they don't go on sale, i DON'T eat Lean Cuisine, period.

My spinal tap of 2 weeks ago came back completely normal. It actually irked me that i went through so much pain for nothing. I guess it's good becus it indicates the Lyme bacteria hasn't entered into my central nervous system. But i'm still worried becus my headaches continue, but maybe not daily. I did go a full week with no headaches, i believe that was just after the spinal tap. The doc saw that as a hopeful sign and said let's wait 2 weeks and call me back after that.

I don't know what the "next step" would be if i'm still having headaches so i'm really hoping they abate on their own. I am following an herbal protocol (cat's claw, Japanese knotweed and andrographis) based on a book on curing lyme herbally. I figure it can't hurt and maybe can help. I was even able to contact the author to make sure his protocol was safe for someone with MS, since all 3 herbs are immune boosters (as well as anti-bacterial, anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory) and with MS, the immune system is already working in overdrive. I am into the 2nd week of a 5 week ramp-up in dosage, and then you're supposed to continue for at least another month, preferably 8 to 12 mths total! I doubt i'll do it that long but let's see if there are any improvements.

I carpooled last week 3 days with my neighbor and it worked out well. I was tickled as could be to see my gas guage had moved only slightly due to the decreased driving. Next week he's on vacation, and the week after that i'm out for 3 days, but as he said, any amount we can carpool together is a "bonus." I just don't think i want to continue it after Sept. 1 when my summer hours end, becus it'll mean i'll have an extra half hour to kill in the a.m. AND at day's end. I can deal with an extra half hour (when he drives, i use that extra half hour to walk closer to him, for exercise) but to add a full hour to my own day just seems like something i dont' want to do. But who knows, if prices keep rising i may be forced to think creatively of how to use that time enjoyable and effectively.

I don't know why, but i dragged out my financial paperwork today. It's a murky, damp and humid day, so it's just the kind of thing I like to play around with.

You see, I've been tracking my net worth for 20 years now, and tracking my expenses, down to the penny, for 12 years now. (That is truly amazing, and have never considered stopping because i can cull so much valuable information from these records.)

I started out at age 28 with a net worth in 1987 of $11,314. I was living in the basement of my sister's house and was already saving for my own house (something i would accomplish 8 years later with a 45% down payment). Yes, i did it the old-fashioned way, waiting and saving, not going out to get a sub-prime mortgage with 0% down.

20 years later, I had (excluding my home) a net worth of $437,069 as of 12/07; that number's much lower now due to the major stock market gyrations we've been seeing of late...or should i say, downward spiral?

In 1987, my net salary was $16,843. I was working for a non-profit conservation organization. Aside from a $4,500 savings account, my investable money was tied up in laddered 6-month and 1-year CDs which at the time were earning over 8%.

These days, the bulk of my $$ is in T. Rowe Price mutual funds, about 85% stocks and including low-fee index funds for bonds and international stock. I was shocked to see i took a $23,000 hit for the month of June alone. I tend not to panic in times like these, though I can't help but feel jittery even as i continue to buy stocks through both my 401k and on my own in taxable funds.

Here's a rundown of how my networth has increased over the years. Aside from a bull market for a number of years, i also benefitted from 2 separate inheritances that totaled $65,000 as well as a one-time stock option sale that netted me $40,000 after taxes. With the inheritances from my grandparents, I spent a few thousand on furniture but saved most of it.

My salary never exceeded $75,000 except for the year i sold the stock options, which is taxable income. I was laid off on 3 separate occasions, and each time this happened, it temporarily suspended my savings; even after you get a job, there's usually a 3-month waiting period before you can begin contributing to a 401(k).

So,i had a mix of good fortune balanced by some tough times of unemployment, probably somewhat typical of many people.

All figures are for end-of-year. My best years for increasing my net worht were 1991 and 1999.

2007: $437,069
2006: $398,069
2005: $345,604
2004: $313.769
2003: $276,105
2002: $230,166
2001: $237,553
2000: $228,820
1999: $209,638 ($30K inheritance & stock option sale)
1998: $121,729
1997: $107,829
1996: 85,381
1995: $58,057 (house purchase)
1994: $121,655
1993: $100,574
1992: 61,713
1991: $69,668 ($35K inheritance)
1990: $23,467
1989: $13,676
1988: $14,818
1987: $11,314

So what do you think? Will i make it to a million in another 12 years?

Aside from $ talk, i did see an interesting movie today with H. The Rape of Europa. It's a documentary based on a book by the same name, about how Hitler, who considered himself a great artist, wanted to bring together a vast collection of great artwork, and how he ransacked the finest galleries in Europe to do so as the war raged on. It's one of many lesser known facets of WWII.

Priceless works by Rembrandt, Michaelangelo, Vermeer, Renoir and others were looted by the Nazis and transported to Lintz, Germany, Hitler's boyhood hometown, where he envisioned reshaping the town into a prestigious German city rich in art and culture. After the war, the Americans helped recover much of the stolen art which was hidden away in castles and small country towns, but to this day, much of the art has never been found.