$150

This week we spent $72 on food,

bringing our average weekly grocery spending since March to $150.

The first $70 we spent for the week is boring:  my husband bought oil, peanut butter, tuna, apples, and hamburger buns.  The last $2 of the weekly spending, that deserves a bit more comment.  Because it represents the tip of the temptation of the iceberg of summer spending.

Not food, but for food.  Some canning jars and a corn tool.

Technically, that last $2 wasn't money we spent on food.  It was money I spent at yard sales.  I got 7 canning jars and and a corn cutter, and on this treasure trove, I spent $1.75 (okay, so I rounded up to $2).  But that small amount of money is a hint at what's to come.  Because I have Lust in my Heart -- tool lust.  Here are some things I am e-drooling over.

Lust #1:  A Corn Zipper.

In a small way, I am drooling over the "Corn Zipper", touted online as a quick way of stripping the corn from its cob.  The cute little tool I bought at a yard sale this Saturday gets somewhat inferior reviews form the online critics, but at 25¢, I figure I can afford the experiment myself at home.  The pricier corn zipper may or may not breach my walls of temptation.

Lust #2:  A Cherry Pitter.

More likely to win success at drawing my credit card from my wallet is a Cherry Pitter.  We love cherries, but I grumble at the work involved at saving fresh cherries for winter months.  If I can convince myself that this dozen-dollar attraction is likely to save me effort, and in particular if it's likely to get me to purchase even more cherries we can can or dry, well then, I might get it.  I wish there were a way to test-drive a pitter.

But the contraption that's really, truly singing the siren song that lures me onto the rocks is this odd-looking creature below:  a strawberry stem remover.

Because strawberries -- those first fruits of the year -- they call to me.   For the past several years, we've driven a half-hour to the strawberry fields, and we've picked strawberries together.  By "we", I mean, my friend and I.  My kids pretend to pick berries but mostly get distracted.  I stoop for several hours under the warm sun.  It is a lot of work.  The picking work is followed by a lot of work washing and de-stemming.  And this is followed by a lot of work canning.

Two years ago, I spent hours and hours on strawberries, and I put up a dozen jars of strawberry jam.  The first time I opened a jar, my husband ate half of the jar at once, and then asked for more.  When I suggested we might want to save some for later, he said, "Well, I thought you made this so we would EAT it!".  There is clearly a disconnect between the effort involved in preparing strawberry jam and the effort to eat it.  I'd love to reduce the former.  The contraption above gives me high hopes.  I lust.