The Best Deal EVER!

I'm cheap. I know this and am not ashamed of it. I shop for bargains, I use coupons, I love a good sale.

And today I stumbled upon an AMAZING sale!

I was at the mall to pick up a last minute item (that I'm still kicking myself for not getting yesterday when I was there because it was gone today.) I thought it was odd that people were walking around the store putting items into shopping bags, but I thought maybe they were just using them instead of baskets. Then a lady came up and said "you DO know about the deal going on don't you?" Am I ever glad she told me!

Turns out that you could go up to the cash, ask for a bag and then fill it with any of their items that had 50% off stickers. The whole bag then cost you $5.00. Yup, you read right, FIVE DOLLARS!!!

Well!! When I went up to get my bag I asked if it was limited to just one. NOPE! As many as you want. So I took 4. I figured I could blow $20 on Christmas eve!!

I walked out of there with more then $300 worth of stuff. I think I now have NEXT years Christmas shopping done!

Merry Christmas Eve to me.

Shoes

If you were to ask Hilary she would tell you that I have a shoe obsession. Nothing that rivals Imelda Marcos she would say, but too many shoes for one person. After all, Hilary likes to argue, you only have 2 feet and can only wear one pair of shoes at a time.

I don't believe that I have a shoe obsession. I have 1 pair of running shoes, 1 pair of flats for the office, 1 pair of outdoor Crocs, 1 pair of indoor Crocs (worn as slippers), 1 pair of actual slippers, 1 pair of winter boots, 2 pairs of sandals. This is only 8 pairs of shoes, hardly an obsession.

But I digress.

My 1 pair of running shoes (cheap $19.99 ones from a big box store) had a crack in them and I was getting wet feet any time I walked in even the slightest of misty conditions. And since I live in Halifax, that is pretty much our everyday weather. So it was decided that I should buy a new pair. Off I went to another big box store, because overall I'm pretty cheap, and will not pay much more then $20 for any pair of shoes. I might concede to $40 for winter boots, but I'm not going over that. Even my Crocs are not brand name Crocs and only cost $9.

At my current age I have had many opportunities over the years to purchase new shoes. And ever since I stopped growing at the age of 12 I've worn a size 8. On the odd occasion an 8.5. That is until last year. Last fall I bought my first pair of size 9 running shoe. I figured that the sizing was wrong, or that particular brand ran small. Then last winter the boots I got were a size 9 too. And this years sandals? You guessed it a 9. I was now starting to think that it was maybe my feet that had changed and not that the entire shoe industry had secretly changed their sizing methods. Maybe my foot was suffering from the same middle age spread that the rest of me has been experiencing. And really? a 9 is not that far from an 8, so no big deal.

Well! Want to guess at what size my brand spanking new running shoes are?

11

Yup, 11! My socks still fit, all my other shoes still fit and yet I found myself buying size 11 runners yesterday. Hilary took one look at them on me and started making clown and boat references. Nice, supportive even one might say. I tried on the 8s, the 9s, and the 10s before committing to the boat like 11s.

So why did I buy these huge clunkers?

They were on sale of course! only $17.99 - regularly $49.99. Who could pass them up? And they really are quite comfortable too.

Gimme, Gimme

NEVER gets.

No matter how often the 6 year old whines, pleads, begs or bargains.

Liam has entered what I hope is a short phase of feeling that he is entitled to getting whatever his heart desires. NOW!!!

Um, really not happening! He has now reached the point today that if he asks me one more time to buy him something that I will impose another toy moratorium, this one going till Christmas!

Good times.

My new friend

A couple of weeks ago I bid good-bye to an old friend.

Of course, that friend had to be replaced. And trust me, picking out a new friend like this isn't easy, the choices are dizzying!

After much discussion, soul searching and research, I would like to introduce you all to my new friend:Yes, I am going to move over to a manual push mower. I'm not sure yet how I feel about this. I guess I'll find out on Saturday when it arrives and I have to cut the grass!



There were many reasons for going this route:


1) we don't own a car so getting gas home is difficult

2) gas is expensive

3) burning gas is bad for the environment

4) electric mowers cost $$ in electricity to run

5) using unneccessary electricity is bad for the environment

6) I hate hauling the electric cord around with me, getting tangled in and tripping over it

7) our lawn isn't that big

8) I could use the extra excercise



Anyone else out there a fellow push-mower user? Any advice before I begin? The good thing is that I am not lawn-obsessed. I would be quite happy to let it grow wild, but I think the neighbours would disapprove. So I diligently cut each week and keep it respectible looking.

March 2 , 2008 – Today’s the day

That I engage in some retail therapy!

I don’t often get a chance to go shopping, between work and weekend commitments there just never seems to be time. It’s much easier for Hilary to drop Liam off at school and then go on her own whenever one of us needs new un-mentionables or assorted sundries. It is even less often that I get to go shopping without Liam in tow, who is usually barraging me with requests for toys, food or the ever popular “Are your ALMOST DONE???? Are we going home soon????” Shopping with Liam is as far from retail therapy as you can get.

So when Liam’s friend’s parents offered to take him on a full day play date and THEN called and asked if he could stay for dinner, Hilary and I immediately started making plans for being Liam-free for 8 hours while the sun was still up! The list of possibilities was endless: Paint the kitchen, finish painting the spare room, re-wire Liam’s ceiling fan, clean the house. Yeah right! Like we were going to do any of that stuff!

Instead we watched a movie, whole and complete without a single interruption or pause. And then we went shopping!!!

3 full hours of meandering through the mall at our own pace. Looking in the stores of our choice and never once venturing down an aisle that contained brightly lit items that beeped or buzzed at you as you walked by them.

We spent too much money, ate too much ice cream and had a wonderful time! It was also a great time for Hilary and I to just be together, talk about life and enjoy each other’s company.


I highly recommend that everyone try a little retail shopping every now and then.