I had a pretty good day today and it's really helped my spirits a lot.
After work I stayed up and took Christopher to work at 6am. Our truck's not running so we're down to one vehicle. I didn't get a lot of sleep, but we had to get back to pick him up from work at 4. We ran out and got burgers for Faelyn and Zoe's lunch. Faelyn was babysitting Zoe since this was a Mommy-Rhiannon day.
We went to the bigger town 45 minutes away. First stop was a huge used book store. I found a couple of the novels I was hoping to find. I didn't get Folly Beach, but I got two of her older ones in paperback for $2 a piece. yay! I'll just wait and get Folly Beach used as well. She didn't find her book though. Then to Books A Million. They had a cute sewn-spine composition book with an elephant on it that Faelyn wanted a lot, and her school list says she needs one of that type notebook. But it's $9.99. Just can't see spending that when you can get a plain one for $2, so I passed on it. R still didn't find her book. Then it was on to the mall. Hot Topic had been having a huge clearance sale where it was all 50% off the marked price, but it's changed. Now it's Buy One Get One 50% off. lame! They had a couple of hard bound sketch books with Capt Jack Sparrow on them, but we decided to keep looking. She picked out a cool pair of yellow and blue striped suspenders (aka braces in the UK) with little tweed bows on them! So that was her first gift. Then we headed to Payless shoes to see if they had anything cuter than the ones she saw at Rue. No luck, then on to Belk where she'd seen a dress she liked last week. OMG! If y'all have a Belk nearby and some spending money then GO! Their clearance stuff (and they carry nice stuff) was marked really low and now it's an additional 50% off. The place was packed! But we found her dress, originally $45 and we got it for $7.50 Woohoo! She also found one of those little flimsy sleeveless cardigan things with a pretty lace filigree back. $5. Awesome. One last stop in the mall at Victoria Secret since I had a $10 birthday giftcard they'd sent me for some reason. yay for mailing lists! She picked out two things of sparkly makeup in the 2 for $12 bin so we got them for $2.19 with tax. Nice.
But we were running low on time, so we headed back to the Explorer and then to Barnes and Noble. She wasn't hungry and never wanted to stop for lunch anywhere, so I got a bowl of broccoli cheese soup at the Starbucks counter in the bookstore and we each got a frappuccino. My fave is the Chai frap. Mmmmm. I almost got a Butterbeer one for Harry Potter, but I'd been craving the chai one all day.
She wanted a small black sketchbook she could use for cosplaying, and we did find one there for a reasonable price, and I'd been wanting to get her a set of professional artist pencils and she found an amazing set that even had the sandpaper for sharpening and watercolor markers. So, I got her that too.
Then we were already late leaving town to go get Christopher, so we called to let him know, but he said he's go window shopping in the Commons and would meet us somewhere. So we stopped at Cato when we got back to town cause they always have excellent clearance sales on shoes. And yep she found an awesome pair of black peep-toe high heeled boot things that were marked down to $6. I did splurge a little on me and got a gorgeous necklace and earring set made of paua shell which I love. It was what the first earrings C ever gave me were made from. The set was $3 so I figured whynot.
Then we headed to the Commons and met up with Christopher, then went to Rue. The shoes she'd been wanting were still there and were marked down to $5!! WOOHOO! In fact I got a pair too.
All in all, we did go a tiny bit over the birthday budget, but I know there's room for it cause we have a lot of the school supplies from the stuff we got extra of last year, so we won't spend as much on those as I had budgeted. I don't like justifying, and I do want to stick to the budget, really. But this was her birthday stuff and it was already a week late cause we couldn't do anything last week. I feel good about it.
When we got home, I made a new recipe I got in an email from Campbells Soups. It's called Unstuffed Green Peppers, and it's great! Super easy and cheap too, so it's a new rotating staple on the menu. So glad to have something new to eat hehe.
Later on Rhiannon said she had to have a new white bra to wear under the new dress, and I knew she needed one anyway, and then Faelyn yelled that she also needed one, so we headed to Kmart. They had them Buy One Get One 50% off yay!. I also got some clearance socks for R and F for back-to-school. 6 pairs in a pack for $4 and I got 20% discount off that. Sweet.
Also saw Corina who stopped by, and we talked about budgeting and finances. Their bills come to $650 a month (not including food and gas.) I remember when we lived like that.... Man what I'd give to only have $650 in bills a month!!! Wow But anyway, we are an ongoing lesson in how NOT TO LIVE YOUR LIFE lol. At least our financial woes have taught her what not to do, and to be wary of the mistakes we've made. C and I were never taught ANYTHING. Both sets of parents kept all money stuff private, and that was a bad bad bad thing for us. I don't want my kids being unprepared for how nasty life can be out there in the real world. It can be good, yeah, but you have to jump through a lot of hoops and NEVER be late on a bill ever ever ever to even think of buying into the American Dream anymore.
But anyway, that's another rant post. LOL
Late this evening I cleaned up some and moved the guinea pig cage away from the entry area. I hated how the messy cage and carper was the first thing people saw when they came in. So he's back on the wall near the window again. Much better.
Well, I need to get some sleep. Y'all have a great Sunday and week ahead!!
Patty
After work I stayed up and took Christopher to work at 6am. Our truck's not running so we're down to one vehicle. I didn't get a lot of sleep, but we had to get back to pick him up from work at 4. We ran out and got burgers for Faelyn and Zoe's lunch. Faelyn was babysitting Zoe since this was a Mommy-Rhiannon day.
We went to the bigger town 45 minutes away. First stop was a huge used book store. I found a couple of the novels I was hoping to find. I didn't get Folly Beach, but I got two of her older ones in paperback for $2 a piece. yay! I'll just wait and get Folly Beach used as well. She didn't find her book though. Then to Books A Million. They had a cute sewn-spine composition book with an elephant on it that Faelyn wanted a lot, and her school list says she needs one of that type notebook. But it's $9.99. Just can't see spending that when you can get a plain one for $2, so I passed on it. R still didn't find her book. Then it was on to the mall. Hot Topic had been having a huge clearance sale where it was all 50% off the marked price, but it's changed. Now it's Buy One Get One 50% off. lame! They had a couple of hard bound sketch books with Capt Jack Sparrow on them, but we decided to keep looking. She picked out a cool pair of yellow and blue striped suspenders (aka braces in the UK) with little tweed bows on them! So that was her first gift. Then we headed to Payless shoes to see if they had anything cuter than the ones she saw at Rue. No luck, then on to Belk where she'd seen a dress she liked last week. OMG! If y'all have a Belk nearby and some spending money then GO! Their clearance stuff (and they carry nice stuff) was marked really low and now it's an additional 50% off. The place was packed! But we found her dress, originally $45 and we got it for $7.50 Woohoo! She also found one of those little flimsy sleeveless cardigan things with a pretty lace filigree back. $5. Awesome. One last stop in the mall at Victoria Secret since I had a $10 birthday giftcard they'd sent me for some reason. yay for mailing lists! She picked out two things of sparkly makeup in the 2 for $12 bin so we got them for $2.19 with tax. Nice.
But we were running low on time, so we headed back to the Explorer and then to Barnes and Noble. She wasn't hungry and never wanted to stop for lunch anywhere, so I got a bowl of broccoli cheese soup at the Starbucks counter in the bookstore and we each got a frappuccino. My fave is the Chai frap. Mmmmm. I almost got a Butterbeer one for Harry Potter, but I'd been craving the chai one all day.
She wanted a small black sketchbook she could use for cosplaying, and we did find one there for a reasonable price, and I'd been wanting to get her a set of professional artist pencils and she found an amazing set that even had the sandpaper for sharpening and watercolor markers. So, I got her that too.
Then we were already late leaving town to go get Christopher, so we called to let him know, but he said he's go window shopping in the Commons and would meet us somewhere. So we stopped at Cato when we got back to town cause they always have excellent clearance sales on shoes. And yep she found an awesome pair of black peep-toe high heeled boot things that were marked down to $6. I did splurge a little on me and got a gorgeous necklace and earring set made of paua shell which I love. It was what the first earrings C ever gave me were made from. The set was $3 so I figured whynot.
Then we headed to the Commons and met up with Christopher, then went to Rue. The shoes she'd been wanting were still there and were marked down to $5!! WOOHOO! In fact I got a pair too.
All in all, we did go a tiny bit over the birthday budget, but I know there's room for it cause we have a lot of the school supplies from the stuff we got extra of last year, so we won't spend as much on those as I had budgeted. I don't like justifying, and I do want to stick to the budget, really. But this was her birthday stuff and it was already a week late cause we couldn't do anything last week. I feel good about it.
When we got home, I made a new recipe I got in an email from Campbells Soups. It's called Unstuffed Green Peppers, and it's great! Super easy and cheap too, so it's a new rotating staple on the menu. So glad to have something new to eat hehe.
Later on Rhiannon said she had to have a new white bra to wear under the new dress, and I knew she needed one anyway, and then Faelyn yelled that she also needed one, so we headed to Kmart. They had them Buy One Get One 50% off yay!. I also got some clearance socks for R and F for back-to-school. 6 pairs in a pack for $4 and I got 20% discount off that. Sweet.
Also saw Corina who stopped by, and we talked about budgeting and finances. Their bills come to $650 a month (not including food and gas.) I remember when we lived like that.... Man what I'd give to only have $650 in bills a month!!! Wow But anyway, we are an ongoing lesson in how NOT TO LIVE YOUR LIFE lol. At least our financial woes have taught her what not to do, and to be wary of the mistakes we've made. C and I were never taught ANYTHING. Both sets of parents kept all money stuff private, and that was a bad bad bad thing for us. I don't want my kids being unprepared for how nasty life can be out there in the real world. It can be good, yeah, but you have to jump through a lot of hoops and NEVER be late on a bill ever ever ever to even think of buying into the American Dream anymore.
But anyway, that's another rant post. LOL
Late this evening I cleaned up some and moved the guinea pig cage away from the entry area. I hated how the messy cage and carper was the first thing people saw when they came in. So he's back on the wall near the window again. Much better.
Well, I need to get some sleep. Y'all have a great Sunday and week ahead!!
Patty
That's sounds like a fantastic day with so many bargains to be had!! I'm glad Rhiannon found all the things she wanted. Please don't be so hard on yourself. And I didn't think you were justifying the spending. If you can take it from somewhere else and still be ok in the area, what does it matter? Everyone deserves a treat from time to time. I'm glad you were able to find some things too =) And I'm glad you are feeling better. Looks like you needed a Mommy-Rhiannon day too! You are a good mom Patty. I can tell from your writings. Be gentle on yourself =)
ReplyDeleteKate
It sounds like you all had such a fun day shopping. My girls love it when we have a mommy&daughter day. :) It doesn't matter much what we do- just that we spend that time together. I need to make an effort to do it more often. :)
ReplyDeleteHave a great week!