Category: General (Page 6 of 11)

I’ve got a little self imposed ban on shopping this month. No Target, No Kohls’, no big expensive trips to Costco (I went today but only spent $64 on groceries), no large grocery store trips stocking up on cereal or whatever is on sale. We need to use what we have and not purchase any little extras this month. I’m a bargain shopper, but I find that sometimes I shop simply because it’s on sale, not because it’s something I need. I can relate a little bit too much to Becky Bloomwood, if you know what I mean.

That said, I have to show you the darling dishes I bought the day after Christmas on a MAJOR SALE! (I know you’re saying to yourself, “What, girl? OhNOYouDi’ent! Didn’t she just say she wasn’t shopping anymore?” Yes, I did, and that’s probably why I forgot to tell you about these dishes that were bought BEFORE the shopping embargo. Bought on sale with a gift card from my MIL no less.) I was at Kohl’s perusing the after Christmas sales, and I found the cutest dishes on the “discontinued” shelf in housewares.

Oh, those dishes are so cute, I thought to myself, and remembering how I had to borrow dishes from a friend to host a recent party, I noticed some cute as pie plates that looked like they would match the tablecloths I bought a few months back in this pattern here.
So I picked up one of the plates to see how much they were. And I felt just about like one of my favorite bloggers and silently said to myself, “it’s a Christmas miracle!” because those lovely little plates were marked down 90%. Yes, 90% off! Each plate was $1.19. I decided to get them all. There were 14 of the dinner plates, and yes, I put them all into my little fabric covered Kohl’s stroller/shopping cart. I was a little afraid it was going to break, but it held true for me. The sad thing was that there were only four salad plates (for 99 cents each).

While I was there looking at the loveliness of the plates and placing them carefully in the cart, a cute lady with a Spanish accent came up and started looking at the plates. She was truly impressed with my Christmas miracle, and started trying to find one of her own. She looked at the price tags on some of the other cute plates on the shelf, but they were only marked down to $4 or $5 per plate. “Do you think these others are 90% off, too?” she asked me. I didn’t really know, but told her she should try using one of the store’s magic scanners to see what the price was. I left her there to deliberate over her plate choice and went skipping off to the check-out line (and boy, was it a line) to buy my plates. A Christmas present from my mother-in-law, who gave us a Kohl’s gift card instead of trying to pick something out for us for Christmas. And yes, this present is for both Ryan and me. He’ll eat off of them, won’t he?

When I finally reached the check out counter and started unloading my cart, that same lady came up, with red plate in hand, and we asked the check out girl (who strangely enough is the same girl who is ALWAYS working whenever I go to Kohl’s. I think she’s checked me out three times in a row. Is that weird, or what?) if she could scan the plate, and shouldn’t it also be 90% off, since it was right next to the striped plate on the shelf. Young Kohl’s checkout girl was unfortunately less than helpful. She scanned it, and said, “Nope, this one’s $5. It must not be on clearance.” Darn. I felt bad for the lady with the Spanish accent; I wished we could have gotten her a killer deal, too.

I couldn’t wait to tell Ryan about my killer deal. Not that he really cares, but he knew I was excited, so he pretended to listen when I called him from the parking lot. When I got home and showed him, he said it was too bad they didn’t have more of the salad plates. There’s a supportive hubby, for you. So, I went online to Kohl’s.com and found that they had salad plates. They weren’t the killer deal that I found in the store ($1.99 EACH online) and I have to pay shipping, but I think it’s worth it to round out the set.

But now the plates are bought, and there’s no more shopping. For the whole month. Oh, Target, how I will miss you. I even have some returns to make at Target, but those will just have to wait until next month. Because these feet aren’t going there.

I ordered some snacks from Amazon the other day when they were on a major sale (some of these and some of these). Cases of those, actually.  And for a screaming deal, of course.  With free shipping.  So, today there were two Large boxes from Amazon on the porch for me.  Don’t you just love getting packages in the mail?  It’s so exciting!  There’s a knock on the door, and the kids RUSH feverishly to see who it is that would want to come and visit us at OUR house, and then when there’s nobody there and you think perhaps some little kid is just out doorbell ditching; you look down and see a box there.  Oh the Joy of the brown box!

And the fun doesn’t end there.  You then get to Open the box, and see what wonderful thing you have ordered.  Or maybe, just maybe, someone has sent you something.  A surprise from a loved one far away.  Oh, the anticipation!

After you open the box to find your purchase, or your present or what have you, there’s still more fun to be had with the box it’s-self.  There may be packaging material to rifle through.  Sometimes there’s even bubble wrap, which is actually a gift by within a gift.  Hours of fun and enjoyment can come from stomping on the bubble wrap.

And the BOX!  What can you do with the box?  It could be an airplane, a car, a bus, or any number of transportation themed ideas for a little boy.  You could use it for magic tricks, disappearing acts,  or a much loved game of “what’s in the box?”.  Tonight I think John may have played all those games with those two boxes.  He was in the box, under the box, on top of the box, he put things in the box, around the box, etc.  Oh the joy of boxes.  And if mommy doesn’t get sick of them and throw them out, we’ll get to do it all again tomorrow.  And when we get hungry, don’t forget–
we have those tasty snacks.