Just One Cuppa Joe: UPDATE

If I try to count how many times I have given up coffee, I end up somewhere around six. It's not that I can't do without the rush of caffeine coursing through my system - in fact, I adjust to missing that fairly quickly. It's the comforting ritual of it that I am truly addicted to. I make it to anywhere between three weeks and a few months, and my mornings start to feel so... spartan. Like a bedroom without any colour in it. I've tried herbal teas, hot water, juice - and nothing is quite as satisfying as a cup of coffee.

Right now I am nursing, and my son, an adorable little twenty pounder, suffers from Reflux. They tell me it's likely he'll grow out of it, but in the meantime no dairy, wheat or caffeine for me. Can we just all collectively gasp in horror at the self control I am having to exert (before I confess that I've been cheating with wheat. Just a little bit. Okay, I ate three hotdogs in their buns yesterday. [CRINGE]). Anyways, he responds very badly to caffeine. But he seems okay with decaf. So I am now a dairy-free decaf girl.

But no one else wants a cup of decaf at 2 in the afternoon.

I tried making smaller pots of coffee, but if you try to make anything less than six cups of coffee in my coffeemaker, you end up with something that tastes like dishwater with sugar in it. Not good. And then you are tempted to purchase coffee out, which is NOT FRUGAL at all.

But look what I got:

A one cup coffee filter. So I can make just one cup. 

I have NO idea how much money this saves, wether its pennies or quarters, but it certainly does the trick. 

(Well, I tried this. It works in a pinch, but the coffee tastes like dirt. So I tried a french press, which is slightly more palatable, but still not quite the same. So guess what? I bought instant decaf, and would you believe that it's the best tasting option? I was shocked! It costs $6.50 for approximately 80 cups, which works out to $0.08 a cup. Cheap, CHEEP!)

Inappropriate Pageviews

Okay, just a quick post in which I am wearing a wicked little smile. 

My last post got a whopping 22 views in one day (which is quite high for me), predominantly from viewers in north east Europe and the States. 

I couldn't figure out why - it was such a humble little post. 

On further reflection, and re-reading, I have come to the conclusion that I have attracted international perverts unintentionally with my title. I think they came looking for a different kind of sock agony (picture me laughing out loud and blushing right now). 

Just imagine - all this time, they key to high readership was accidentally inappropriate post titles. Ah- this will make me laugh for days to come!

Sock Agony Shpinkter Tightening

Today I went to Walmart to purchase both of my children socks. We are usually given everything we need second hand or as gifts - but I realized last week that my daughter only had about three or four pairs of socks that fit and my son a single mint green pair that were getting small.
Luckily, in the mail yesterday I received a belated birth gift of $20, so I knew exactly what to do with it. Socks. Thank you, O sender of cash. You can buy most anything second hand, but socks are a hard sell because they have no sizes written on them.
To Walmart we went, where I surprised myself by spending a half hour agonizing over which 'value pack' would fit longest-not wear through-be fashionable-and not cost the world. It was only later, as I drove home, that I started contemplating just how much I dislike being in the kind of financial place where the purchase of socks can make me sweat - can I get an AMEN?

So as you purchase your school supplies and lunch supplies and back to school clothes and start lessons and sports and activities and clubs, all under the looming expenses of a nearing Christmas, know that you are not alone. I bet if there was a study about such things, findings would indicate straight across the board that everyone's shpinkter is about 4mm tighter this time of year.