$$: Church & the Mall

Posted on | November 2, 2008 |

Total Spent Today: $158.98

Talk about both ends of the spectrum. I spent the morning at church with both kids and the late afternoon at the mall with The Daughter. Sadly, today was a Shopping While Impaired (SWI) day — the first in a very long time. I still can’t tell whether I’m facing a major Fibromyalgia flare-up or if I’m coming down with the flu but, either way, I’m feeling lousy and I’m not at my most frugal and/or prudent when I’m SWI.

Offering — $25.00
I’ve not been very good about writing my weekly check lately so I doubled up on my usual offering amount (usually between $10 and $15).

On a different church note, both The Son and The Daughter were paid for past childcare services rendered. Neither teen feels very comfortable asking the good Reverend for their weekly childcare income so if it’s not offered (and I don’t ask in their stead), they often leave without being paid. Suffice it to say, the good Rev dished out more cash to my kids than he collected from me. As a side note, the job really belongs to The Daughter but when she can’t make it (ie, when she’s attending a swim meet), The Son covers for her.

Dining — $0.00
If you’re a regular reader you’ll be wondering where we stopped for lunch on the way home. Psych! We didn’t. The kids elected to go straight home and I gave no argument since our dining out expenses are purely discretionary and I’d like to see us cut back on that particular category.

Gap Outlet — $27.01
Will this boy ever stop growing? Just when I think I’ve got him settled for a while, he announces that something’s getting tight. Argh!

So we’re back on the hunt for pants, or specifically khakis, that will fit a tall, thin teenager. Not an easy task, I’ll tell you. The two pair of deeply discounted canvas pants I bought last Thursday were rejected because of the cut/styling. So I tried again with a pair of khakis, originally priced $34.99 and now reduced to $24.99.

The Son’s current pants wardrobe consist mostly of Banana Republic Dawson chinos in size 30×32 that we bought on sale and/or found at the thrift store. The Son has been quite fond of them so I’d really been hoping to replace the BR chinos with new BR chinos. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen hide nor hair of a sale on the Dawson chinos and I can’t wait forever. Besides, they don’t make a size 31×34.

In fact, almost no one makes a 31×34 in a traditional khaki (or any other style, for that matter). The one manufacturer that does carry that size is Old Navy which would be great except the Old Navy stores don’t carry that size. That size is available only on-line.

There are plenty of situations in which I have no objections whatsoever to buying on-line. In fact, I love shopping on-line. But shopping on-line for clothes for The Son is usually a losing proposition. To ship a couple of pair of khakis would cost $7.00. Now, I’m not objecting to the $7 and I’m not opposed, necessarily, to paying shipping fees especially if it saves me the time, gas, and headache of having to drive around town. But since I end up returning about 90% of all clothing I purchase for The Son, odds are that the $7 Old Navy shipping fee would be flushed right down the toilet; I’d have to return the pants to a store, taking up time and energy and gas, leaving me $7 in the hole, and still no new pants for The Son. [You know, even if they wanted to just stock one store in the whole metro area with these tall & skinny sizes, I'd gladly drive across town so we could try them on before buying instead of taking a chance on shipping.]

Anyway, after all that, the khakis didn’t fit The Son so I’ll be returning them for a full refund before too long. Glad that little experiement didn’t cost us $7.00.

Aeropostale — $78.79
The Daughter is still shopping to fill out her fall/winter wardrobe. While she was shopping in the girl’s section, I poked around in the boy’s clothes.

Despite my declared moratorium on purchasing from them, I ended up choosing two pair of Aeropostale khakis. I bought a pair in 30×32 and 32×34. The one pair of Aeropostale pants The Son currently wears is a size 29×32; they’re almost too small in the waist and too short in the length. So, explain to me please, how it turns out that the 30×32 is in excellent fit? The 30×32’s are noticably longer than the 29×32’s — almost 2.5 inches longer. Go on, try to explain that to me?! I dare you.

Not that any of that really matters; the only important thing is that The Son declared the 30×32’s a perfect fit/style. So I’ll return the 32×34’s in exchange for a second pair of 30×32’s. The best part of this deal: the Aeropostale khakis are on sale for $19.99 (even lower than the on-line-only Old Navy khakis).

If I end up having to sew on the buttons back on immediately, well I guess I can live with that – especially since this year’s style only has one button. The back pockets close with snaps.

The Daughter found a nice pair of jeans for $19.99 (marked down from $39.50), a solid basic cami for $2.99 (originally $14.99), and a hooded henley sweater for $9.99 (on sale from $29.99). She’s still solidly within her clothing budget so other than assuring her that the jeans were flattering and the sweater cute, I offered no other advice or comments.

Target — $18.18

a replacement watchband for The Son — $7.99 (I bought a plain black Timex webbing band because they didn’t have any of the kind with the red medical symbol on it and anyway, when The Son fell and broke his clavicle in September no one in the initial medical response team nor any of the ER staff noticed the band anyway);
a two-pack of bamboo fiber men’s socks — $4.99 (The Son likes the ones I bought this summer so I picked up another package);
a jar of ground black pepper — $3.99 (we’ve been out for about a week and The Husband hates using the pepper grinder).

Obama for America — $10.00
The Son was reading my email over my shoulder and noticed the email that encouraged me to make one last campaign contribution with the lure of a potential round-trip for two to Chicago on Tuesday night to watch election returns. Naturally, The Son wanted me to make a donation in hopes of winning.

I ended up giving in (he really didn’t have to push very hard) though I elected to donate only a small amount — partly in light of the fact that I made a $15.00 donation on October 27th (I forgot to list that on my daily post that day).

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