This was my shopping list for last week. It is fairly similar each week. 2 gals. milk pound butter 2 cans orange juice 2 loaves ww bread 3 dozen eggs bag each pretzels, corn chips olive oil 2 cans tuna fish 2 pound box spaghetti 2 jars spaghetti sauce bag rice corn tortillas 2 lb. bag dried beans 2 cans refried beans string cheese block cheddar 32oz container yogurt box 10 granola bars pound bag of coffee two pounds ground turkey 2.5 pound bag frozen chicken tenderloins bag frozen salmon filets fresh broccoli 5 lb. bag potatoes bag assorted apples bag baby carrots tomatoes romaine 2 lbs. bananas avocado 2 lb. bag onions frozen peas, green beans bag shortbread cookies four rolls t.paper toothpaste shampoo paper napkins roll paper towels dish soap This came to right around $82, and will feed the four of us all week. I did have such things as condiments and spices, etc. on hand, and did not need laundry supplies this week, but I also don't buy toiletries every week, so it balances out pretty well. I shop at Aldi's, so it is quite inexpensive. I know I would spend much more at our regular local grocery stores.

Is this a Gerry Butler thing again? ;)

Think you answered your own question when you said his parents let him get away with murder. He's obviously allowed to be rude and disrespectful. You handled it very well. I have a boy and a girl. I don't think gender has much to do with it; I expect both of my kids to be polite and respectful, and they are.

Sounds to me like more people are saying "sell the camper, forget the debt-reduction for now." Yes, many, many people could get out of the debt they've incurred if the govt. would "take over" their bills for a little while. Unfortunately, we still have to provide shelter, food, and other necessities while we are paying off our debt. Why should a family be supported by the govt. because they have a debt-reduction plan they want to stick to, when thousands of other families across the nation are paying their way out of debt *and* supporting their families? AND why would someone keep something unnecessary for which they could get perhaps a few thousand dollars to support their children? Sorry, it just goes back to Tanya's dh being obstinate and unreasonable. If it were me, I would sell the d*mn camper myself.

She can't. But she can throw that ball back into his court. "This is how much you make. This is how much we need. We are this much short. What are your plans for this shortfall?" He will come to realize that he is being unreasonable about keeping a camper when his family may go hungry, or he will find a way to earn extra money, or he will go to WIC and ask for help. If he's the one being obstinate, then he should be the one to figure out how to make it work. I seem to remember a similar thread on these boards awhile back when I was a lurker, when a regular on these boards had a similar problem. Her dh was also being obstinate about their financial situation. The majority of advice was "give it to him to solve. he is the provider, you are the mom." She did, and he figured it out. I'll bet Tanya's dh would, too.

Agreeing with Lisa and shell. I think your dh is being unreasonable. If *he* is not willing to sell the camper, then *he* should be willing to work an extra job to provide the extra money needed to support *his* family. I'm sorry this sounds harsh, but there are many people truly struggling to make ends meet who *don't* have valuable assets to sell.

Agreeing with Battlemaiden that tv should be used as a tool. If it is used to inform, rather than hypnotize, it can be a useful and educational tool. We watch tv quite a lot by most standards here. I'd say we watch about two hours per day. But, that is almost ALL what I call edtv - pbs, national geographic, history channel, discovery, animal planet, etc. We do not watch reality shows, sitcoms, or game shows which, imo, are dumb, dumber, and dumbest. My kids pick up extraordinary amounts of info from the shows they watch. I plan ahead for each week what we will watch at the same time I plan their schoolwork, so there is no mindless channel-flipping ending up in simply watching something dumb for the sake of watching something. On the flip side, my brother in TN believes in NO tv. When I called him last month when the tornados were hitting his state to make sure they were ok, he wasn't even *aware* there were tornados. So, I do think there is something to be said for being somewhat connected to the rest of the world through tv, radio or internet news! :001_huh:

Gotcha. :)

She obviously needs a pill and a job where she doesn't deal with the public. You were much nicer than I would have been!

Gotta say I agree, Wendy. Nothing against New Englanders (I love CT), but I find them a bit staid. NY'ers let it all hang out! I lived in NY for almost 25 years, then Florida for 15, now CT for the last 10. Where in CT did you live? I am in the Litchfield area, aka the snowy corner. :)

What? No Gerry Butler in "Dracula 2000"? Take my neck, please!

Agreeing with the above about eating on the run. We don't eat consciously and take the time to allow our bodies to know when we're full, so we eat more than we need to. Studies have shown that when people eat more slowly, they eat less. (Ever see a fat monk?) In Europe, meals are an event; folks take the time to linger and visit with family, have a glass of wine. Here they are just another thing to be rushed through so we can get on to the next thing. I also believe the whole diet mega-business we've created in this country has hurt overweight people more than it has helped. People think they have to either starve or limit the types of food they eat, when in reality this often does them more harm than good. You have to eat when you're hungry to keep your metabolism revved up; starving makes the body store fat. It's surprising to me that there are still people out there who don't know this.

Oh no, now we will *never* see our daughter! :001_rolleyes:

Agree wholeheartedly with the above about outsourcing. Personally, while I do think high school can be the toughest time to put a child back into school, I also know that this is when kids start wanting independence, and being teacher/mom can be tough on a relationship and not always conducive to great learning! This is why I began 'farming out' my dd her freshman year. She started taking college classes, which she absolutely *loves*. She feels she gets so much out of being in a group setting where ideas are discussed and points of view are shared. (Not that we didn't do that here, but I'm only ONE pov, kwim?) I have seen her blossom so much in just a year. I also made sure her homeschooled subjects were ones she could do as independently as possible. Now she comes to me for very little. And about learning along with them... this is just how we did Latin, and I can say I don't think they suffered much. In fact, it was fun for them to figure things out ahead of mom sometimes (ok, a lot of times!) I think it was one of the more enjoyable subjects we have done together. I have never felt the need to be an "expert" at any subject. I just present the curriculum I have thoughtfully chosen to the best of my ability. Most of the time it works out fine. If it did not, I would look for outside help.

If she has a lot of congestion, I would give her something to break it up, like Mucinex or guafasin. Her throat is probably sore from the drip. Keep her throat moist. Some honey and lemon might help that, too, or something to suck on like a lollipop. My kids have never had strep, but I'm always told to keep an eye out for that. Maybe some of our nurses will pipe in with better advice!

We may help, but we do not believe it is our obligation to pay for the whole thing. Dh and I both paid for our own educations, and we took it much more seriously as a result. I know too many parents who completely stress out over, and plan their whole financial lives around, paying for their kids' college ed. It never made sense to me.

I would think the tons of meds these older folks usually take might have something to do with it also. Agree with the above, too.

No. I had one really good friend in hs, and we have kept in touch these thirty years. The only other person I would have cared about seeing would have been my high school sweetheart, but he recently commited suicide. Now I can't imagine going knowing I would never see him there.

I know it's after the fact; hope it went well! I once had that many girls, and let me tell you... boys at least exhaust themselves and fall asleep eventually. These girls were up *all* might talking and giggling. :glare:

A ballet dancer and an actor. So much for my latin-reading intellectuals...

Try this website: busyteacherscafe.com/units/fluency. It has lots of ideas for improving fluency. I used several of them including parroting, rereading, and reading with audio with my son, and it helped his speed a lot.

Jmho, but I hate the whole idea of such little kids in a wedding. I just think it puts waaaay too much pressure on them. I think the bride and groom are thinking about how *precious* it will look, but not about the reality of it, which is that what happened with you happens a lot! When my sil "offered" her five year old to be our ring-bearer, I said no, thanks. I didn't want any tantrums at my wedding, and I didn't want to traumatize the poor kid. I've been to too many weddings where that has happened. Again, jmho...

Boy, that's the truth! Back when I went to college, between the cheaters, the partiers, and the jock-straps who slid by on their scholarships, I remember wondering who was actually learning anything.

This is so true. At my dd's cc, the fall course listings include about twenty remedial english classes and three actual freshman english classes. It's the same for the math classes. That's a *lot* of remediation. I've also noticed that students are allowed to pass classes and attain degrees with a "D" average now instead of a "C", which you needed when I attended college twenty years ago. Makes one wonder what the actual value of that degree is when one got it by being a "D" or "poor" student.

This is an excellent post (and I am pro-choice). I love the above quote!