Wow...the Democrats certainly reinserted themselves back into our current history.  The wins were simply overwhelming...not only big wins like governors and mayors but also smaller like state judges  and legislatures and even local administrators.  Wonder if that's going to affect the current government shut-down?

It's 57 degrees out right now...a tiny bit cooler than yesterday.  We do have a high wind advisory which should loosen lots of leaves from their branches.  My hope is that it doesn't also down trees and electrical wires...that could present a problem.  Rain is forecast but only for 10pm this evening!

Not sure how folks felt about yesterdays inexpensive gifts for children but there sure were a lot of readers.  When our children were very young, I remember shopping for toys at thrift stores.  Teachers were so poorly paid back then that they qualified for food stamps!  

But you know what, we were able to fix, paint, make clothes, or do whatever was needed to fix the toys and give our children really nice gifts at bargain basement prices which was all we could afford.  And to be honest, we also shopped for clothes at thrift stores and tag sales.

A lot of folks feel uncomfortable shopping bargains including thrift stores.  And we really shouldn't feel that way.  First of all, it saves things from going to the dump.  And second, it shows that we are honest about our financial status rather than go into debt and live above our means.

Another area that's important to look at bargains is food.  No, I am not suggesting shopping at thrift stores, but shopping at discount grocery stores and also purchasing the store brand will save money.  

Let's consider breakfast...and who says we can't serve breakfast for dinner?  Let's look at a meal of pancakes, eggs, and sausage for instance.  A box of complete pancake mix (all you add is water) still runs under $2 per box (store brand) which makes 45 pancakes.  For a family of four, each eating three pancakes, that's almost four meals.  When I eat pancakes, I like syrup and you can get a typical bottle for around $2.50 and that bottle will last even longer than the box of pancake mix.

Eggs!  They used to be very expensive but you can now get them for around $2.25/dozen which is about 19 cents per protein packed egg.  And if you limit it to one egg, you can get three meals.  Finally, sausage.  House brand brown and serve sausage links run around $1.80 for ten.  Two a piece with two left over.

So that's around $8.50 for the total outlay of money for breakfast BUT you will get three meals out of that with the exception of the sausage.  So the meal of pancakes, syrup and eggs actually cost around$2.25 plus $1.80 for the sausage for a family of four.  That's really inexpensive but good.  And to be honest, we eat that meal a lot both for breakfast and for dinner!

Well, it's late today...I stayed up late watching the returns last night!  Have a wonderful day...

Talk with you tomorrow...