We are Broke (Except for Food, Thank Goodness)

May 10th was both a birthday and Mother’s Day in our household. But were able to do it on the cheap.

We were creative with gifts (a painting commissioned by my daughter for my mom, for instance)

We didn’t order a Carlucci’s tart:



But instead my wife made wonderful maple syrup scones with whipped cream and a blueberry compote (which was quite expensive, and so we’ll need to cut back over the next week to make up for it).

We got our free rental from Hollywood Video (always one free birthday rental) and tried to get our free ice cream from Baskin Robbins but found out that we needed to print off a coupon from their website first (and didn’t want to make the trip back to BR by bike).

Though we had been thrifty, our $11 discretionary budget is gone. With $6.99 plus tax for my daughter’s sunscreen and shipping on a Mother’s Day photo (the photos we had taken and printed months ago, before the poverty project idea was conceived, and so we exempted this expense) we are broke outside of our Food Stamp allotment.