No Shopping! Yippee!
Monday, November 17, 2008
Preschool was fun today. I think my snack went over well. I was drawing a blank with some of the mommies' names the whole time and I was too embarrassed to ask what their names were. I would have, except we are past that whole, "I didn't catch your name" or "Remind me again what your name is" point. I feel like it would be rude to ask now because I should know. Luckily, there's a little message board group dealie online for the co-op, so I can get on and jog my memory. Of course now that I'm home, all the names are coming back to me. I wish I was better with names. I could remember most of the kids' names, so at least I had that going for me. Scout was having a really tough time sharing today. She's usually not like that. And I noticed that she has picked up a bad habit from me. She now says "Mm-m!" (a closed-mouth "Uh-uh"), like I do when I'm telling her not to do something. If someone was playing with one of her toys, she would walk toward them pointing and saying "Mm-m!". (Sigh) She used to be so sweet.
It took me a LONG time to get her down for a nap today. When I tried rubbing her back when I laid her down on the bad, she woke up and started pushing me away and saying "Mm-m!" Oh gees. So we struggled for a while and I gave up. She played for another 2 hours and I finally was able to get her to sleep.
I was supposed to get groceries today, but I didn't want to stay "in town" to grocery shop after our preschool group, for fear that Scout would end up with a crappy 30 minute nap in the car. DH volunteered to do the shopping on the way home from work so I wouldn't have to waste gas driving back into town after Scout's nap. What a trooper. I feel bad, 'cause I know he'll probably be so tired after work and won't want to brave the crowded store. I e-mailed him a list, so I hope that helps. I'm sure shopping will take him half as long as it takes me, since he won't have an impatient/restless toddler with him. When I take Scout shopping, I swear that we end up with 10 packages of open food when we get up to the check-out because I have to keep her happy with crackers, cheese, lunchmeat, and even yogurt. Doesn't matter if we just had lunch. She's still got to snack the entire time. I love trying to feed a toddler yogurt, pushing the cart through a crowded store, all while trying to keep track of how much I'm spending using the calculator on my cell phone. And then Scout sees me playing with the phone and begs for it, so I have to be all stealth about it and hide the phone in the back of the cart when I'm not using it. Thank you, DH, for sparing me the frustration of shopping with Scout today. I really appreciate you.
Labels: dh, doh, food, school, shopping
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 3:44 PM,
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Mrs. Thrifty
Monday, September 01, 2008
I am currently obsessed with buying used things for Scout. I feel so proud of myself when I come home with 2 toys, a grocery sack full of clothes, and a pair of shoes all for $10. No joke. There is a thrift shop a few blocks from my house that periodically has "$2.00 Sack Sales". You can cram whatever you want into a plastic grocery sack to the point of overflowing and only pay $2.00 for it! I have even picked up articles of clothing for Scout that might have a small stain but are in otherwise perfect condition, because most of the time I can get the stains out. The sack sale never includes shoes, but that doesn't really matter. All of their shoes are only $2.00 a pair. What a deal! Sure, there are a lot of beyond-crummy worn out shoes that should have already found their way into the trash years ago, but there are some real jewels too. I found a pair of 7.5 M Stride Rite sneakers that I'm hoping Scout will be able to fit into someday (she's currently in wide width, so she may not) that look almost perfect and came in their original box. Those suckers are $48 brand new. I'm getting a shopper's high just thinking about it. I guess I feel like I'm "sticking it to the man" or something. There's also a sense of pride that comes from saving used items from the landfill and giving them a new home where they can be useful again. But mainly, it's just that "sticking it to the man" feeling I like.I also bought a Fisher Price Incrediblock including 10 Peek-a-Blocks for $15. I have been watching them go on eBay for much more than that and the shipping by itself is usually $20! Scout already had about 20 Peek-a-Blocks (another thrift store find!), so I thought it would be fun for her to combine them all in one big activity cube. Well, I've been having fun playing with it, but Scout only seems mildly interested. Doesn't she know what a fantastic deal I got on it?? Sheesh.
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 8:00 PM,
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"New " Toys
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Like I mentioned in a recent post, Scout has been getting a little bored with her current toy stash. I wish I could put all of her toys away and replace them with new ones, but holy wow! Toys are EXPENSIVE!!! We simply cannot afford to exclusively buy nice simple wooden toys that are not mass-produced. I mean, I like those kind of toys and wish we could buy more of them, but it's just not a top priority for us. (I swear, people - I am getting less and less "crunchy" in my parenting decisions as time goes by. Do you still love me?) So, I've been window-shopping the "mainstream" Made-in-China plastic noisy toys and they're pretty pricey too. What to do!?
We are so spoiled and haven't had to buy her many toys up until this point, but right now we're 2 months past her birthday and Christmas is a long way off. My parents live 900 miles away, or I'm sure they would be picking toys up for her left and right. There would be more opportunities for us to go shopping and run errands with them if they lived closer and you know, that's just how grandparents are. They offer to pay for stuff. DH's parents aren't a huge part of Scout's life. I wish they were, but that's another post for another time (or not).
Oops...got off track a little there. Uhhhh...back to the toys...
Twolinesonastick suggested garage sales because she has had some really great toy finds lately. I think that's an awesome idea! I don't know why I haven't been going to any yard sales this year. Last year, it wasn't an option because Scout was a super-car-seat-hater and driving around with frequent stops would've just been miserable for both of us. But now, she is fine with being in the car (most of the time) so I think it would work fine. I was all excited about hitting some sales this weekend, but with yesterday being the 4th, there weren't very many advertised. However, during our daily walk around the neighborhood I noticed that a local junk shop was open. DH, Scout, and I went there to check out their toy selection.
Score!!! We got all of this for $18.97!!!!
They're all in great working order and cleaned up nicely. Aside from a few scratches on the xylophone cow's nose, they all look as good as new. As you can see, we would've spent a ton more if we would've bought these toys at a retail store:
Leap Frog Learn 'n' Groove Table $39.99
Fisherprice Laugh & Learn Toolbench $20
Vtech Crazy Legs Learning Bugs $19.99
Fisher Price Moo-sical Piano to Xylophone $15.72
The Farmer Says See 'n' Say $11.49
Total: $107.19
Yeehaw. I love good deals. The best part is, Scout seems to be getting a lot of enjoyment out of them. Yay. ("yeehaw" and "yay"? Apparently, I am suddenly a five-year-old cowboy)
Labels: finances, general complaining, great deals, shopping, toys
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 7:00 AM,
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