Three day weekend!

It's the first day of the three day weekend, and not a moment too soon - my back is KILLING me this morning.

In honor of the holiday, I splurged and spent the extra dollar on Folger's coffee instead of opting for the bargain brand colombian.  Can y'all believe the price of coffee these days???  The price of everything, for that matter.  It has come down to this - we have to give something up in order to compensate for the extra money we're spending on items that are sky-rocketing.  Think about it.  If you have to run uptown for a gallon of milk, that gallon of milk will cost you approximately 10 dollars - 5 for gas to get there, and then more than 3 dollars for the actual milk.

Is anyone out there old enough to remember when hamburger was the meat of choice for those of us on a tight budget?  Not so anymore...at 2.79 a lb, you still get mileage out of it, but that pot of spaghetti/cookout will hit your pocket like ribeyes USED to.

Let's not talk about ribeyes (drooling over here).  Between gas prices and mad cow, beef is a thing of the past for some.

Tea is still affordable - and you all KNOW i havetea.  But I have to give up cigarettes (should have a long time ago), but the state of NC is making it much easier for those of us on a budget - forcing us to quit, actually.  As soon as the senate closes its budget session, we'll find out exactly what the new cigarette tax is.  It's somewhere between 45 and 75 cents per pack.  That hurts, when, as a state employee, we've only had a 2% slap in the face raise in four years.  But it's better than nothing.

SO here's the plan - I give up cigarettes.  That should save enough for a considerable retirement account somewhere in the future.  If I run out of milk, tough.  It'll have to wait until grocery day, when I make a mass buy-out in walmart's supermarket section.  I've switched to turkey instead of beef, and have cut my coffee consumption down to one pot a day.

Lord help us all if they raise the price of toilet paper.