Day 101: Definitely NOT a No-Spend Day

Posted on | December 11, 2007 |

As predicted, the gloves came off and the credit card came out with a vengeance today. On the way to delivering The Son to his classes this morning, I realized that neither of us had been out of the house for two whole days. What a glorious two days it was! But this household of ours doesn’t run very smoothly when I hibernate for too long.

Actually, I made my first purchase before even leaving the house this morning. I popped into Gap.com to check to see if the pants I’d been eyeing for The Son might be on sale. He loves their wide-wale plain-front dressy corduroys but I couldn’t justify paying full price because, as much as he’d like a pair, he doesn’t need them. Well, you guessed it, they were on sale. And they still had a pair available in the only color he’ll wear (a tan/camel color) in his size (18). I had to pay $6.00 for shipping plus sales tax for a total of $33.19.

It kills me that I can’t go to a Gap store and buy these — how annoying is it that the retail stores don’t carry sizes 16 and 18. It sucks rotten eggs — but that’s just my humble opinion. One thing I can tell you — this pair of cords had better end up having a 34″ inseam like the fine-wale cords I bought from Gap earlier this year or customer service is going to have one red-hot, ticked-off momma on their hands.

[If anyone out there can explain to me why Old Navy's boy's khakis size 18 have a 30" inseam and Gap's boy's khakis have a 34" inseam, I'd sure like to hear from you.]

I started my local retail marathon at REI where I picked up my on-line order for new SmartWool socks. I didn’t spend a single extra penny – just walked back to customer service, handed the clerk my handy-dandy printed receipt, and walked back out with a bag of socks. Have I mentioned how much I love REI’s free-shipping-to-a-local-store policy. I sure wish stores like The Gap and Old Navy offered a program like that!

My second, and most damaging, stop was T.J.Maxx where I managed to drop $98.01. As always, I picked up a few things I was unsure of and will, in all likelihood, have to return. I found:

a new pair of KitchenAid kitchen shears ($5.99) to replace the pair that’s broken to the point that they barely function;
a $2.99 100-sheet magnetized note-pad for Command Central (our fridge);
a 1-lb tin of King Leo soft Peppermint Sticks hand-dipped in Dark Chocolate ($12.99) – to be used as one of our gifts in the Exchange Gift game at our annual Family Christmas party;
two $16.99 wooden shadow boxes (wood frames, hinged doors, magnetic latches, pearlized straight pins) — Christmas presents for The Husband’s daughter #1 and Son #2. I plan to create a simple layout of photos of the kids from the last two or three photo shoots (so photos from the past 6 or so years) inside the boxes.
one $7.99 photo frame – to be perfectly honest I cannot for the life of me remember just now who I bought it for ;-) It’s still in the back of The Tank because the weather was too cold and snowy when I got home and my hands were filled with other goodies (keep reading)….
one $12.99 pair of Nautica men’s flannel pajama pants for The Son. He’s pretty picky about his clothes and growing like a weed on plant food so keeping him in clothes is a full-time, high-stress, high-frustration job. He currently wears one of two pair of Hanna Andersson size 160 sweat pants to bed. But he really needs a third alternative; plus there’s no way he’s going to fit into them much longer so I feel pressure to find a workable alternative now.
one $14.99 pair of tan Lee carpenter-style “dungarees” for The Son. Finding a size 29×32 is really tough; finding anything in that size that The Son will like and wear is even harder. He’s really not a fan of denim and much prefers Silicon-Valley-code khakis but, as mentioned above, Old Navy’s size 18 has a 30″ inseam. I bought his Old Navy khakis in August. They’re not exactly high-waters yet but give it another few weeks and he’ll be showing 3″ of sock. I’m not particularly picky about what my kids wear but I draw the line at 13 year olds in pants that show too much sock, not to mention too much in the crotch area. I’d have bought some from Gap this morning but the only khakis they have in stock are those teflon-coated GapShield things The Son and I both hate. My guess is that he’ll reject the Lee’s but it was worth a try and if they work, hallelujah!

My next stop was Costco. First I filled up The Tank’s tank to the tune of $49.99. I pumped 18.591 gallons @ $2.689 per gallon. Oh, shoot, I forgot to grab the odometer reading. Drat.

Then I ran inside and ended up forgetting the one thing I went in to get :-( — Goldfish crackers for The Son. I did pick up:

a bag of frozen salmon steaks ($16.59);
a box of frozen petite Quiche ($12.99) — a special treat The Daughter’s been looking for since last summer’s trip to visit her grandmother;
two loaves of OroWheat whole grain bread ($4.39) not organic but I like to rotate the type of bread I buy to avoid them getting bored with a particular brand/flavor;
a 3-pack of Photo Stamps from Stamps.com ($34.99 — $47.99 less an instant rebate of $13.00). I’ve been eyeing these as a perfect solution to the people on my Christmas list who are impossible to buy for including my sister’s mother-in-law (long story best told some other time) and my brother. I’m not sure who I’ll use the third pack for. Maybe my dad. But then again, maybe not….

Then, late this afternoon, The Husband shelled out $4.00 cash for admission for the two of us to The Son’s game.

I rounded out my shopping marathon with a stop at the Kroger. We had both kids in the car — both sweaty and tired from a game/practice and both wanting to go straight home — but I desperately needed to pick up my prescription for my thyroid medication ($10.00). I ran out on Monday so I simply could not wait until tomorrow to pick it up.

Then I dashed around the store to pick up a few additional essentials and dropped $48.55 on:

two 24-roll packages of house brand TP — $4.99/ea (saved $2.60 per pack)
a gallon of Horizon 2% milk — $4.88 (saved $0.07)
1/2 gallon of Horizon chocolate milk — $2.99 (saved $0.50)
green onions — $0.69
a cucumber — $1.29
broccoli — $2.43
red cabbage — $1.42
loose carrots — $0.68
Coleman ground round (marked down for quick sale) — $5.40 (made yummy hamburgers for dinner)
two large containers of Meadow Gold sour cream — $3.39/ea
2 bottles of Sunsilk shampoo (for The Daughter) — $3.99/ea
a Santa hat (to be used as part of The Daughter’s Secret Santa gift next week) — $2.00 (saved $1.99)
3 bag credit ($0.15)