Ben and I broke up at the end of March. We're still good friends. I wish I'd blogged here more about life together, but... it was mostly frugal.

In September, I lost my job. I'm still unemployed. And frustrated.

Right now, I'm getting unemployment and (reduced) food stamps. But that's not much. The unemployment is just enough to cover phone, reduced rent (because my roommates are nice), and a bus pass, with a little bit left over for food and such. And I get less than...

As it turns out, Ben is frugal. Perhaps more so than me. And he's very vigilant at the checkstand... he caught when the cheese that was supposed to be $2 came up to $3.99 and insisted they lower the price. (The guy didn't even check... I usually go through his line and I've told him before that I prefer going through his line because he's always in a good mood. He told me that it doesn't help his customers if he's in a bad mood and it certainly doesn't help him to be grumpy all day long. Why can't...

For the first time in who knows how long, I've got a buttload of groceries in my apartment. I stopped getting weekly groceries months ago, although I have done the "shop for two or three days at a time" deal.

It's strange having all this food around. It has been much cheaper though. I think, all told, we've spent about $140 on food for the two of us for two weeks, but that includes several condiments and other things we'll have to purchase less often. In a normal week, before,...

My boyfriend is living in a fairly intolerable situation out in the middle of nowhere. Things have gotten to the breaking point, so I asked my roommates if he could stay with us. They said yes. This is a good thing.

So, it looks like he'll be staying with us "for a while". I'm going to be half of the rent now, instead of a third, until he finds a job here in the city.

This means I'm going to have to be way more frugal.

I can do this. I know...

I've got MRSA.

I'm ready for 2009 to be over. It's been a craptastic year for me. I feel like this: has been me this year.