My Butterscotch Cookies
So I can do one thing well: bake butterscotch cookies from scratch. I found the recipe on a website a long time ago and baked them up. I thought that they were okay, but my family absolutely loves them. I get remarks from people all the time saying that they never really cared for butterscotch cookies before, but they love mine. This obviously gives me a big head.
Anyway, one of my pals is having a non-traditional Thanksgiving feast on Wednesday evening, where everyone is supposed to bring something that you wouldn’t find on the Thanksgiving table. I’m not a cook so I decided not to try to cook something up and mess it up. Instead, I’m going to bake my cookies (and bake tons of them) and bring them over.
I don’t have the recipe memorized or I’d post it here right now (if I think of it or get requests I’ll do it later), but I do know that it requires just basic ingredients, shortening, and then butterscotch chips, so all I’ll have to buy are the chips (I hope!)…and maybe shortening. In any case, it should be a cheap thing to make AND it’s tasty. I guess that’s what I’ll be doing on Tuesday evening!
Which leads to another thing. I was considering taking Wednesday off from work because Thanksgiving traffic is NUTS in DC from about 10am on Wednesday to late on Thursday…before it begins again for Black Friday. I didn’t want to be stuck in it, but then I found out that B is working until 4pm in DC that day. If I go to work, I’ll be able to pick him up when he gets off the Pentagon City Mall Metro at 4:30. Our friends’ thing is at 6pm in Alexandria, but I don’t know how long it’ll take to get there in the traffic. I’d assume less than an hour and a half, though. If I don’t work, though, I’d still have to drive out somewhere to pick him up, so I won’t avoid any traffic really. Looks like I’m working! Boo.
ETA: My Recipe!!
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
2 cups butterscotch chips
1. Mix shortening, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and eggs together.
2. Add in all other ingredients, butterscotch chips last. Mix well.
3. Spoon the dough onto cookie sheets.
4. Bake at 375 for 9-11 minutes.
Ta da! When I found this, it estimated 60 cookies, but I find that it’s closer to 42 or so. I made a double batch last night and came out with 84. It depends on how big you make them. Once I made them really big and thick and came out closer to 20-something…and they were just as good that way. One thing that bothers me is that they stick like crazy to my non-stick cookie sheet, but I think that’s my low-quality cookie sheet plus the oven. They’re fine on the other cookie sheet that I have…perfect, in fact. I think I’m going to make ANOTHER double batch for Thanksgiving and that time I’ll only use the good cookie sheet.
My Non-Post Post
Later today I might post my current expenses for the month, but right now I’m super tired…even after one Red Bull! Luckily, I have another one in a desk drawer, so maybe I’ll have it, too.
As an update to my last post, R got sick, so the movie was canceled (even though I wan’t going anyway), and she bowed out of the the Friday night dancing (making it easier for me, too). As far as the weekend? I’m at B’s on Saturday and I don’t know the plan for Sunday yet. Maybe we’ll see my family? No idea. We’ll see them on Thursday for Thanksgiving, regardless.
Finances-wise, remember the coat that I ordered from Victoria’s Secret? Well, I had an e-mail saying that the coat was discontinued, but they still sent the lip gloss and the free tote bag. I went on the site and found out that I could still get it in a size 6 (rather than a 6Tall), so I reordered it with the same lip gloss / tote bag deal. I really like the tote bag, too! It only has one inside pocket and one outside pocket, but it’s still pretty cool. Not $75 cool…and probably not something that I would have chosen for myself, but I like it. Unfortunately, I bet my mom wouldn’t like it and I was thinking of giving her the second one at Christmas. Maybe another friend. This also solves something for me: I didn’t have a black bag that I could use for work. I had a small bag that just looks beaten up and gross, and a large bag that I used when I was a teacher (but is far too big for this job where I never bring work home). This new tote bag is bigger than I would have preferred, but it’ll be great on days when I’m bringing more for lunch than usual, or want to carry a couple books around. Yay!
My coat should be arriving in less than two weeks! I no longer have to feel like a bum at Christmas!
My Problem Saying No
As any of you who often read this probably know, I have a problem with being too popular. Haha. Not really that, but I have friends that like to hang out together a lot and always want me there. I don’t quite get this because I can be a big pain, but whatever. I hate saying no to people, but I have to when it involves spending money that I don’t have…or money that should be used for other things. Here’s the situation I’m in:
1. Two of my friends and I have been trying to schedule a triple date; we were tentatively planning on Friday night, but had to wait to find out B’s schedule. He works late so we can’t. This was something I was looking forward to since my one friend suggested a BYOB game night to do things cheaply–my kind of gal!
2. My friend H e-mailed asking R and I if we wanted to go out dancing with some girls on Friday night; R said that we were waiting to find out about this triple date thing, but maybe. Now that we can’t do the triple date that night, this night is open. I hate clubbing AND dancing. It’s only fun if it’s for a bachelorette party or something and even then I don’t like staying long. To me, it’s expensive and not fun. Aside from R, I don’t want to hang out with these girls, either. The thing is, H is moving this weekend. She’s also requested help moving on Sunday. She also wants our Wednesday Night Dinner group to go to the James Bond movie tonight. I nixed that one right away. I don’t give a crap about James Bond or Daniel Craig as James Bond and I’m not paying $10 to stay up late before a big day at work tomorrow.
But how do I say no to everything? DC is freaking cold right now (I finally turned on the heat last night when I came home and my space heater said that my room was 48 degrees) and I’m not terribly excited at the prospect of going out in the cold on Friday night and having to worry about coat checking and all that on top of HATING CLUBBING. I know that this is like her last DC hurrah for a while, but really? She still works in Herndon. She’s going to be around for a little bit longer.
My brothers are coming into town on Friday night and I thought that B and I might go to my parents’ house to see them on Saturday, which I gave as an out for that day (hmm…should probably mention that to B). And now she also wants us to help her load a moving truck on Sunday? Helping wouldn’t be such a big deal if she didn’t live 30+ miles away from me already and didn’t want me to go clubbing on Friday night.
But I can’t keep saying no, can I? I said no to the triple date (regretfully, and not my fault). I said no to James Bond (gladly). At this point, I think that I can say no to ONE of the other things. If it came down to it, I guess I’d help with the truck loading. I don’t know, though. B and I haven’t talked about weekend plans yet, but I’m assuming that we’re going to see each other starting Saturday morning / afternoon. He’s not a big fan of H ever since I told him that she’d implied to me that he was full of crap when he said that he felt great after the Marine Corps Marathon. You may ask why on earth I told him that. Easy answer: beer. Had too much of it. Anyway, he’s definitely not going to want to do anything to help her out because he was VERY annoyed. And he already didn’t like her that much.
Anyway, this makes it hard to say no, when there are four proposed activities. Sucks.
My Expenses, 17 November 2008
Up-to-date Expenses for November:
Student Loan: $174.01
Car Loan: $88.71
Gas x 4: $108
Groceries: $308.84 (This includes buying tons of stuff in bulk to last me for a while)
Clothing: $185.31
EZ Pass x 2: $70
Sunday Newspaper Subscription: $12
Church / Charity: $230
Total Income: $1253.78
Total Expenses: $1176.87
Net Effect: $76.91
Updated weight: 133.5 lbs
Goal weight: 130 lbs
Net Effect: 3.5 lbs
Three and a half pounds might be a little much to try acheive in 2 weeks, especially with the way I’ve been eating ice cream out of the carton. And Thanksgiving. I can’t wait for pumpkin pie and stuffing. Yum!
My To-Do List, 17 November – 7 December 2008
1. Buy a shower curtain liner.
2. Finish cleaning bathroom (Yep. This is the fourth week in row this has been here).
3. Pull weeds / dead leaves off Banana Tree.
4. Clean bedroom…at least get all the dirty clothes up off the floor.
Gah! Didn’t do a darn thing, so this list stays the same. I stink. Clearly.
My Expenses, 14 November 2008
Up-to-date Expenses for November:
Student Loan: $174.01
Car Loan: $88.71
Gas x 4: $108
Groceries: $308.84 (This includes buying tons of stuff in bulk to last me for a while)
Clothing: $185.31
EZ Pass x 2: $70
Sunday Newspaper Subscription: $12
Total Income: $1253.78
Total Expenses: $946.87
Net Effect: $306.91
Ouch. That’s gonna hurt by the end of the month. I really need to see about working for my dad.
My Latest Impulse Purchase
Okay, this isn’t completely impulsive. For a few weeks now I’ve been searching online (and in stores the one day I went to a mall) for a new winter coat. There’s nothing wrong with my black peacoat except that it doesn’t go with any of my brown pants / skirts and it’s not dressy enough for winter parties and things or Christmas, etc. I really wanted an off-white, knee-length coat.
I found one that I liked a lot at J.Crew online, but it was far too expensive for me. Around $280 or so. Everywhere else I searched just didn’t have what I was looking for. Then last night, R told me that I should look at Victoria’s Secret because she’d gotten a coat from there recently for about $100. Well, that sold me enough to look!
Look I did. Finally I found this coat and decided to order it (even though it’s backordered for another couple of weeks):
Cute, huh? It was listed as $99, but Victoria’s Secret is awesome in that they let you type in three coupon codes at checkout. So the first thing I did was go to ebates.com and saw that I could get 4% cashback on whatever I spent. Sweet. The next thing I did was pick out a lip gloss ($7) to make my subtotal $106, so I could qualify for a free shipping code.
I used three codes:
1. FA813573 For $10 off (using the Victoria’s Secret Angel Credit Card)
2. SHPSAVE For free shipping on purchases of $100 or more
3. FA813441For a free tote bag with a purchase of $75 or more (Tote bag value? $75.00, according to them)
This brought my total to $100.80. But since I went through ebates, I should be getting $4.03 back to make this purchase (of coat, lip gloss, and tote bag) $96.77.
R said that she’d buy the lip gloss off of me, but I might wind up giving it to her as part of a Christmas gift. I don’t know what I’ll do with the tote until it gets here. I’ll either keep it, give it as a gift, or sell it.
So I’m pretty happy with the purchase, even if I REALLY shouldn’t be buying anything right now. I’m hoping that this will curtail some of my purchasing for the rest of the month. Last week I bought a black flannel dress from J.Crew that needs to be altered. It’s just a little too big in the bust area. Otherwise, this is a perfect dress for work, church, and winter parties…all for $85 (including taxes and shipping, but not counting what it’ll cost for tailoring). On Monday afternoon I bought a pair of chrome (?) flats from Gap on the $50 gift card I got from Mypoints.com back in August / September. I NEEDED shoes like this, though I could have found them for less than $41. On the other hand, it was still a free gift card, so money didn’t come out of my account for it at least.
Anyway, there you go. I’ve decided that this was a smart purchase because I didn’t have any feelings of buyer’s remorse as soon as I submitted the order like I sometimes do.
My Costco Trip
I was warned. I read countless blogs about having a list when going to Costco, but I couldn’t help myself. I got several things that weren’t on my list, BUT it’s all stuff that I’m going to use / consume.
Things on my original list:
Fabric Softener
Diet Dr. Pepper
Sugar-Free Red Bull
Wheat bread
Paper Towels
Ramen
Peanut Butter
Popcorn
Triple Box of Chex Cereal (for Party Mix eventually)
Milk
Trash bags
Things I got that WEREN’T on the list:
Bud Light
Ponds Face Cleansing Cloths (I’m tired of my make up staining my face towels)
Coffee (needed it, but wasn’t on the list)
Tortillas
Bagel Bites (did not need this)
Chicken Patties
Chicken strips
Liquid Plumber (for my shower drain…needed this)
Clorox Toilet tabs (was going to get those at the grocery store anyway…saved me a trip…for the next year or two)
So, yeah. Impulse shopping. I’m hosting Wednesday night dinner this week, though, so now I have chicken for it! Ooh…unless I do tacos…I have ground venison and a couple taco mix boxes (from my parents). I’d just need cheese and lettuce. Hmm. Either way, I’m going to eat everything that I got, and it will cut down on my grocery shopping for the next couple of months…maybe longer. That Red Bull? With 24 cans, I’ll probably still have some left in January…maybe February.
The best part of getting so much in bulk for low prices is that I’m not going to be crazy about what people eat when they’re at my place. I won’t be thinking in terms of how much their meals cost and I can just relax and enjoy their company…assuming they’re enjoyable…I don’t assume that about the people that I hang out with anymore most of the time. I’m just hoping that R’s friend A has moved up north already like she was planning. Nice girl, but she brings up people / stories in really weird ways…people that no one else has ever heard of. Last week she (out of nowhere) says that “John had a shoplifting problem.” Everyone stared at her because none of us had heard of him, and we were watching something that did not pertain to stealing, people named John, or anything else. Just. Weird. My friend, H, is also moving at the end of the month, about an hour away from us. I don’t really care. I know that I’ll still see her a lot, so I don’t mind if she moves. The more I hang out with her the more she annoys me (not just me, though!) because she seems to think that others should be impressed by her, whether it’s for her clothes, hair, running, foods that she likes, etc. So curtailing hanging out from once a week to once a month is fine. I’m sure that I’ll even be excited to see her when I haven’t for a while because she really is a great person (despite what I whined about above).
So there you go. My Costco trip. It cost me an arm and a leg ($242. 29) but I’m stocked up like crazy, so I’m pretty happy with it.
My Clothing Swap
A couple weeks ago I mentioned that my friend H invited me to a clothes swap; well, yesterday I attended and I’m so glad that I did!
There were only seven of us gals, of assorted shapes and sizes. The general consensus was that we were all nervous that people would reject some article of clothing that we once liked well enough to buy, but it turned out that we had nothing to worry about. Most of what I brought, for example, are clothes that I would still wear if they fit. I brought a bunch of shirts and a couple jackets that would be awesome if they were just a few inches longer–this is my problem because I’m VERY long-waisted. R and I realized this back in college when we stood hip-to-hip and our hipbones matched up, but I was still three inches taller than her. I’m glad that a lot of stores offer tall sizes now, but for years I was unable to get a decent button-down shirt for work.
I digress. Anyway, the swap itself wasn’t terribly organized. We all hung up or placed our clothing folded on a table and mostly just drank wine and snacked on some fun food. We all started just kind of grabbing things at the same time with the understanding that if two people were “fighting” over an item, they’d have to try them on and leave the judgement to the rest of us over who it looked better on. Luckily it never came to that.
I probably brought all total: a jacket, a blazer, one dress, three pairs of shoes, two pairs of jeans, and 10 shirts / sweaters. I came home with a handful of my original things that no one wanted AND a wool work skirt, a never worn pair of jeans, and a never worn party dress!
I’m wearing the wool skirt to work today. I’m so excited because it’s something that I actually needed. My friend R2 ordered the jeans online and thought that she had ordered a petite size but received regular instead. We were amazed that someone six inches shorter than me (with a quite different body type) would have things (the jeans and the dress) that can fit me. The dress is black with tiny pink polka dots and it hits right below my knees, I think. The bust is a little funny on me, but I think that can either be helped by a padded bra or by being tailored.
Anyway, I definitely recommend putting together your own clothing swap. You never know which one of your friends can’t fit into some gorgeous thing that would fit you perfectly. Here are some rules:
1. Any clothing, shoes, or bags are welcome (this was never addressed, but I’d say no lingerie)
2. Everything must be clean and pressed
3. All items should be on a hanger or folded neatly (I folded everything and brought it in a box)
We arranged everything by clothing type, but others might want to arrange it by high end versus low end items or by size. The problem with arranging by size is that different clothing lines have different sizes. I walked off with a couple size 8 items, even though my size 6 New York & Company jeans are falling off of me.
Most of all, look at it as a great way to spend time with some gals and also a great way to give away clothing and maybe get something for yourself at the same time. At the end of the party, all leftover clothes go back to the owner or to charity.
If you have any questions about it, let me know! Also, if you end up doing one of these, I’d love to hear about it.
My Things To Do List, 10-16 November
1. Clean bathroom (Mostly done here…B cleaned for me, but I’ve still got to clean the soapdish in the shower)
2. Go to Costco
3. Buy new make up (mascara and eyeliner…I’m just about out)
4. Pull weeds / dead leaves off of my banana tree
5. Fold / put away all my laundry (Halfway done with this!)
