I can’t remember the last time I was unemployed for the summer.  For the last seven or eight years I had some sort of regular employment, part time, or at the local summer camp.  But not this year.  Just how it worked out, I guess.  I’m trying to adjust to it, making lists of things to do AROUND THE HOUSE.  All those things that you say all year you want to do.  CHORES AROUND THE HOUSE.  The stuff I hate to do, and all year I had reasons why I couldn’t do it.  Work, getting ready for work, going to work, shopping for clothes for work, visiting relatives on weekends because all week I have work, too tired from working.  Not too many reasons why I can’t vacuum, or clean the refrigerator, clean out the collection of VCR movies now.  VCR movies?  Ha! That should tell you how long I’ve neglected a true house cleaning.  I think our VCR went on the blink in 2003.  Financially, it’s not fun.  I miss how easily I’d whip out my debit card to get a large beverage of something cool and refreshing, a venti/grande iced thing, or a super duper big gulp of a carbonated thing, knowing that in two weeks, more cash would magically appear in the debit account.  Well I can kiss that deposit goodbye until school resumes in September.  So, I’m not getting my daily dose of caffeine, AND my only activity is doing house chores.  Now, I’m now depressed.  And cranky.  Knowing that my fast-food, hamburger-flipping daughter is earning MORE money than I is making me downright ornery.   It’s going to be a l-o-o-n-g-g-g hot summer. But, there is a silver lining.  I’m becoming creative in saving money wherever I can, so I can continue buying that tall, cool summer beverage.  Like the other day, I grabbed my recycle-bags; you know the ones you bring into the supermarket to carry your items home in.  A way to save plastic?  So, I brought in my collection of about 8 bags.  But as it turns out, I only picked up a few items, maybe only using three of the bags.  But, the clerk still deducted a nickel per bag.  Hmmmm.   With that trip to the story, I was refunded .40 cents.  About one-eighth the price of a small latte.  After eight trips to the supermarket, with my eight bags, even if I only spend, say, $5.00, I still get a nickel per bag.  If I take this a little further and bring in 25 bags, my refund would be .75 cents.  What if I bring in 50 bags?  $1.50!  It’s better and easier than clipping coupons.  That brings me to the topic of clipping coupons.  I hate clipping coupons.  For the hour I spend clipping them, I end up with about 10 tiny pieces of paper that total up to about $4.50 of savings.  A good thing if  (1) I actually have the coupons with me when I shop, (2) if  I actually used the products that the coupons are for – do I need 5 boxes of cereal to save .25? and (3) if they haven’t expired.  It’s the worse time spent; the least fun ever.  It’s more fun carrying around oodles of shopping bags.  Here’s another way to save money food shopping.  Stop food shopping altogether.  I could spend $150 on groceries only to have my two daughters exclaim “MOM! There’s no food in the housel”  So, I say:  let me NOT shop for a few weeks and let them see what having NO FOOD really means.  Same thing with their clothes-shopping.  “MOM!  I don’t have any clothes!”  I look in their cramped closet and find tank tops for Abercombie, hoodies from Hollister, jeans from American Eagle, sox from Converse, and on and on.  “But, dear, what are these?”    “MOM!  They’re so old…..I can’t wear them anymore.” Old..what’s wrong with old?  But don’t get me started on that.   But before I complete this little summer tirade, let me discuss a few things that just amused me so much so far this summer.    I read a bit in the local paper about the voice from Star Wars, that little wise-guy…literally wise…named Yoda.  You can download his voice for your GPS!!  Isn’t that the best?  Other voices in this company’s collection include other characters from the movie series, like Darth Vadar (now THERE’S a voice!), and Han Solo who will be added next month.  He’s not so fun.  But, they surely beat the voices that we have on our family’s GPS these days, the original voices, that sound like a diction coach from London.  “In three quarter miles, make a U-turn.”  The way she says, “quarter,” is so rich and clear.  I try to say it like her, but I fail.  The way she says, “make a U-turn” eeks with condescension, though, and I tend to glance at the GPS like a kid who is being corrected by a teacher.  The way my husband listens to the GPS rather than my directions is maddening.  “What makes HER so special,” I say, in disgust.  I throw my Mapquest directions on the floor, and stare at the window, feeling like a third wheel in this travelling relationship. So, now you are getting an idea of what my summer is like..too much time on my hands to read all the papers (where if you read my earlier blog from a few weeks ago, you would’ve heard a different story), or come up with fraudulent schemes to cheat my local supermarket out of some loose change, and my dislike of clipping coupons.  All this, however, is keeping my too busy to clean and vacuum, so there’s something!Enjoy these great weather days while they last, stay cool, drink plenty of water, and watch the stars at night.   August 12 – watch the Perseid Meteor Shower.