Day 50

Church -- $20.00
Weekly offering.

Einstein Bros. Bagels -- $13.88
A dozen bucket deal (13 plain bagels, 1 plain shmear, 1 pumpkin shmear) plus a frosted cookie for The Daughter. The Son declined saying he was going to going to skip the cookie and try eating healthier.

Sports Authority -- $97.53
Ouch! Boning up on basketball gear. The Son starts basketball tomorrow. He's never played basketball before so he has no gear at all. He had no shorts that he could use -- he's outgrown most of the shorts we purchased this past spring and even then they were all khaki dress and cargo shorts and not really ideal for running up and down the court for the 1.5 hour practices. So I picked up a pair of nylon basketball shorts. I also picked up a pair of sweat pants for him; he didn't have anything like that either and I don't want him getting all sweaty and then coming out into the cold in his shorts for the commute home. We'll forego the basketball shoes at this point and just have him wear his regular tennies.

This will be The Daughter's second basketball season so she already had one pair of basketball shorts plus her uniform shorts. But she's a real clothes-horse so of course she needed two more pair of shorts. Once we got home and I looked at what we'd bought and what she already had, I told her to pick one pair and I'd return the other. She was not happy but, hey, I'm the mom and what mom says goes. I did say we'd keep an eye on the sales and see how she does with three pair of shorts (plus the uniform). We took care of the shoes issue earlier this year -- last year she suffered two major ankle sprains so we decided that basketball shoes were a must for her this year. She'll also use her ankle brace during practice and during games. I've got my fingers crossed that neither will be hobbling around on crutches this year.

Great Outdoor Clothing -- $8.59
Cute black belt that The Daughter just had to have She does wear belts almost daily and did not have a black one so I bought it. Now that we're keeping better track of how much we're spending and on what, I am determined that she will be held to her budget.

Gap Outlet -- ($43.21)
Returned two items purchased for The Son on Day 27 -- a sweater vest (didn't like the color and too big -- also too expense, we thought it was on sale but it wasn't) and a pair of shorts (inseam too long).

Gap Outlet -- $37.81
Bought two pair of khakis size 16 for The Son but will have to return them -- they're great in the inseam length but there's not enough room in the waist to hope that he'll get more than a month or two out of them. We'll stick with size 18, I guess.

Barnes & Noble -- $16.89
Bought a book for my nephew's upcoming birthday and a small clothbound book that closes with an elastic band to keep in my purse. It turned out to be the last day of Teacher's Appreciation week so I was able to get a 25% discount on both books even though neither one was purchased for classroom use. I saved $5.24!

Wild Oats -- $54.09

• bag of Cheese popcorn -- $1.99
• store-brand bag of mixed nuts -- $3.29
• chocolate wafer cookies -- $3.99
• O'Coco's cookies -- $4.59
• dozen Nest Fresh eggs -- $2.99
• hummus -- $3.29
• salsa -- $3.29
• string cheese -- $4.99
• fruit leathers -- $4.99
• ?? -- $1.99
• ?? -- $1.29
• Country Life chewable Adult multi vitamins -- $15.49

Two lessons learned tonight: 1) stop taking hungry children to the grocery store! and 2) just because the bottle says chewable doesn't mean they are chewable. The Husband and The Son hated these. I'm hoping I can return them.

This trip wiped out my $50 grocery card. The balance was put on my 1-2-3 Rewards card. Didn't I say something about trying to make it through the rest of the month on my existing Grocery Cards?

Related posts:

1. Day 188: Tide, Tampax, & Cargo Shorts
2. Day 189: Shopping Frenzy
3. Day 57
4. $$: More Clothes & Gas
5. Day 205: Clothes, Books, Meds, & Milk