Weekend Spending Hodge Podge

I have spend money on a few items so far since Friday.  I have a good excuse for not reporting them here yet, though - I have had a good friend come to town and stay with me since Thursday night (he just left for home a little while ago).  In fact, a couple of these expenses are a direct result of him being here. 

I spent $19.05 at Home Depot for a new double cylinder deadbolt lock.  When my house was built I had a "service door" put in the garage, so you would get into the garage without having to open the garage door or go through the house.  The door the builder used has 9 window panes in it, and a single cylinder deadbolt (this is the kind with a key on the outside and a turn-latch on the inside).  This is not a very safe door from a security standpoint.  I have thought about changing it to a solid metal door, but I really liked having the natural light coming into the garage.  My other thought has always been to switch out the deadbolt so it required a key on either side of the door to unlock it (this is called a double cylinder deadbolt).  This was, even if some hypothetical bad guy broke the glass he still couldn't reach in and unlock the door without a key.  My wonderful friend offered to help me do this, hence the unplanned purchase from Home Depot on Sunday.  I now have a new double cylinder deadbolt that is keyed to my original house key (for free, thanks to the nice locksmith at Home Depot). 

I also spent $6.33 at Walmart on some black automotive paint.  Awhile back I had an unfortunate incident when a rabid cement support pole in a parking garage attacked my car.  Here is a picture of the result.  I will say the damage wasn't quite as bad as the picture would make it seem, but it was still bad enough I knew I couldn't just leave it for fear it would eventually rust.  

I had some rubbing compound on hand and my friend offered to work on the car for me and using the rubbing compound got many of the less major scratches to go away completely!  He offered to touch up the other spots with automotive paint for me.  I am really impressed to say that after his paint job, it is basically impossible to see where the damage had occurred.  I don't have an "after picture" but I should take one just to show you how well it came out.  I am so grateful that my friend saved me a VERY expensive paint bill. He is so talented!

I spent $9.48 at Giant Eagle (grocery store) on two items - a rotisserie chicken for dinner last night and a jar of my favorite salad dressing.  As you know, I love Aldi so most of the food I purchase is generic.  There are a few items I don't go generic on, though... one is peanut butter (love Skippy) and the other is T. Marzetti's Honey French salad dressing.  :)  We ate the rotisserie chicken last night for dinner along with mashed potatoes and peas, and I still have enough chicken left for a couple more meals (I love to use the extra meat in chicken wraps for lunches!) and I will use the bones to try to make homemade chicken stock.  I have never done this before... does anyone have any tips on making this process successful?  

Interestingly enough, only a week into this experiment I can see how extra money gets spent without you even realizing where it goes.  The paint and the deadbolt were both unplanned expenses.  Neither was very expensive and both were valid expenses all things considered, but as projects like these add up they do take a chunk out of the overall budget.