Day 260: Bagels and BPA-Free Nalgene Bottles

Ein­stein Bros. Bagels — $17.29
It’s been sev­eral weeks since we made an after-church bagel run so when The Son requested one this morn­ing I said sure.  The kids had got­ten hot and sweaty play­ing ball in the church park­ing lot so I also let them each have a drink — The Son chose a Sprite and The Daugh­ter had a Nan­tucket Nec­tar.  For bagels, we pur­chased a dozen bucket deal (a baker’s dozen of bagels and two tubs of schmear).

REI — $58.17

• 2 large blue Every­day large-mouth bot­tles for The Daugh­ter — $9.50/ea.
• 1 blue Every­day OTG Tri­tan water bot­tle for The Daugh­ter — $9.95/ea.
• 2 large spring green Every­day large-mouth bot­tles for The Son — $9.50/ea.
• 1 “smile” Guyot Designs Splash­guard — $2.95
• 1 “skull & cross­bones” splash­guard — $2.95 (for The Son — they make drink­ing from a wide-mouth bot­tle easier)

What’s a mom to do?  I’d always been under the impres­sion that the hard plas­tic bot­tles didn’t leech chem­i­cals the way the soft bot­tles do.  They cer­tainly don’t leech that awful plas­tic taste.  When I started read­ing about the poten­tial BPA issues in our old bot­tles, I knew I had to bite the bul­let and replace them — even though I bought new ones not so very long ago.  As a very unex­pected bonus, it turns out I’ll be able to return the old bot­tles for a refund (see my ear­lier post).

Plato’s Closet — ($9.30)
I’ve seen these stores (warn­ing: loud, obnox­ious music on web­site) around but never really knew what they sold or how they worked.  Today, The Daugh­ter took me to one.  I guess she’d heard about them from a friend.  They seem to be very sim­i­lar to Buf­falo Exchange.  Any­way, The Daugh­ter had a cou­ple of pair of Amer­i­can Eagle jeans that she says are too short (trans­la­tion: they aren’t two inches too long and drag on the floor) and she’s look­ing for shorts for this sum­mer.  I was happy to tag along because I had a bag of clothes The Son had outgrown.The trip was a lit­tle dis­ap­point­ing.  They only wanted one pair of her jeans.  And of all the sum­mer items I had from The Son, they only took one pair of Old Navy shorts.  At least half of The Son’s clothes are actu­ally kid’s sizes which Plato’s Closet doesn’t accept.  They sug­gested I try their sis­ter store:  Once Upon A Child (warn­ing: more obnox­ious music).I was shocked and dis­mayed, how­ever, that they rejected his beau­ti­ful J.Crew “bro­ken in” t-shirts.  They’re all from last year, worn only one sea­son, and com­pletely flawless.  Their sin, it seems, is that they are plain.  The Son refuses to wear logos (says he should be paid to adver­tise for com­pa­nies) and doesn’t like smart-aleck logos or slo­gans.  It just hap­pens that Plato’s Closet recently stopped buy­ing plain t-shirts because they don’t sell.  Which is why I walked away empty-handed — no plain t-shirts in The Son’s size.  The Daugh­ter walked away empty-handed too.  Well, almost.  We did get $9.30 for the shorts and the jeans — noth­ing com­pared to what we paid but more than we would have had if we’d donated the items.I don’t see a promis­ing rela­tion­ship with Plato’s Closet in my future — although maybe they’ll be inter­ested in The Son’s pants as he starts out­grow­ing them.  I’m hop­ing I have bet­ter luck at OUAC tomorrow.

Related posts:

1. Day 261: Car Stereo, Nal­gene Bot­tle, & Skirt Hang­ers (plus incoming $)
2. Day 110: Brush­ing Up, Dress­ing Up, and Bagels
3. Day 50
4. $$: Bagels on Sunday
5. Bagels & Shmear