Even though I have been trying to stay away from all places that sell stuff in order to keep my spending down, I HAD to go to Wal-Mart today. The cats were out of food and I needed some kind of carpet cleaner with odor remover in it. When I was at home on Monday I noticed an odd smell coming from Zach’s room. After crawling around on my hands and knees for a while, I was able to pinpoint it to a small area on the carpet. The only thing I can figure out is that he must have either spit up or spilled some milk on the carpet that I didn’t know about and now it is rotten and smelly.
So, I set out at lunch with a $25 gift card that hubby had won at a meeting at work a few weeks ago. I figured if I was only buying those two items the $25 would cover it with no problem. When I walked in the store I was determined not to buy anything else. Then my mom stopped to look at a pair of pants that she liked. Warning signals were going off in my head, but I paid no attention to them.
We ended up spending about 20 minutes browsing through the clothing section before I spotted the clearance racks. I found a rack with jeans that were marked down to $7. I started digging through them to see if I could find something my size because I desperately need some jeans that fit. Losing weight begins to suck when your clothes are all too big and you can’t afford to buy stuff that fits! I didn’t find any jeans that I liked, so I moved on. Then I spotted a pair of dark brown corduroy pants that were just my size. I have almost bought these pants so many times over the last year (not this specific pair, but some very similar to them). When I looked at the price tag, I discovered they were only $5. Did you see that? FIVE DOLLARS! I had to buy them. I quickly vowed to myself that I would not pick up anything else that was not on the mental list.
We moved on from the clothing section and I quickly found some carpet cleaner and the cat food. As we headed to the checkout, we passed by the Health & Beauty section where they had a big display of my favorite shampoo packaged with a free bottle of conditioner. When you have dry, frizzy, curly hair like mine (even as short as mine is) it is absolutely a must that you buy good shampoo and conditioner. Since I would probably have to buy this anyway in another week or two, I figured I might as well buy it and get the free conditioner with it. Buying it today would save me money later. See how I rationalize my spending?
I picked up a Coke Zero at the checkout to go with my lunch, and the grand total came up to $27 and some change. I did go slightly over the $25 gift card, but compared to my usual Wal-Mart trips that always cost at least $100, this is an improvement. Really, when you think about it, I spent less than $3 because the gift card was free. I don’t think that’s too bad. Hubby will be so proud of me!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
wiccachicky 04.27.06 at 8:27 am
This is good progress! If you keep telling yourself only to buy things you NEED it starts to get better.
Alicia 04.27.06 at 11:19 am
I feel the same way, every time I go to walmart I spend at least $100. It’s all stuff I need to, no clothes, movies, DVDs, nothing, especially now that I have no job. My last Walmart trip with out any of those aforementioned items. $89. lol. But you just cannot pass on $5 pants, even I could not do that!!!
island Jen 04.27.06 at 4:16 pm
I’d say that was a super shopping trip- you got what you needed and a pair of pants for 5$!?!?!?! Wow, super shopping skillz.
I seriously never leave wal-mart with a bill under 80$, it’s rediculous.