Well, today was not a no-spend day, but that was by design. After 3pm on Halloween, the candy starts getting marked down, so that's when I stock up.

But I did some additionally shopping while I was out. I broke the handle on my laundry hamper this morning, and decided it was time to replace it. Well, I actually replaced it with two laundry baskets - a standard one for my sons' room (which is just across the hall from the laundry room) and a hip-hugger model for the upstairs bedrooms. I figured that if I'm going to be lugging laundry up and down the stairs, I may as well do it comfort.

So I spend about $15 for both, which got me thinking about cost effectiveness. The broken hamper was a Rubbermaid (shades of a recent forum thread) that was over 15 years old. I think I got my money's worth!

If I get the same wear out of my new (Rubbermaid, naturally) laundry baskets, they will cost me about $1 per year. Sure, I could have saved a couple of dollars by going with a cheaper brand, but I figured I'd splurge on reliability.

... but no complaints, as it was also a nospend day. Tomorrow is my day to play the landlord and collect the rent from my tenant. We got lucky and bought the house right next door, which makes being a landlord much, much easier.

It was also a cool and damp day, so I made a big pot of beef Madras curry. Beef - $8.50, onions $.75, celery $.60, garlic $.35, pepper strips $1.00, curry paste $1.00, tomato paste $.45, tinned tomatoes $3.00 - total $15.55. Sounds pricey, but it makes enough for two full meals for the six of us. Add about $1.00 for the brown rice each time and it's about $1.50 per serving.

Tomorrow night is pasta, which is much more cost efficient - I can feed the six of us for less than $.50 each. But the rest of the curry is safely in the freezer and will probably reappear next Saturday, but this time with Nan bread instead of rice.

I'm not a big fan of fall or winter weather, but I do like the cooker weather for cooking those "stick to your ribs" meals.

I've been thinking of starting this for some time, but just had to tonight - you can blame Imasaver (laugh). I just had to start a blog so that I could comment and save her striploin...