Monday, February 23, 2009

here's this for being budget savvy

I really needed to go and get a couple of new bras. A few of mine have seen better days, and one just doesn’t plain fit anymore. Now I don’t really budget for new clothes. Normally I’d take some overtime money, birthday, holiday, or even money that’s leftover from the month from utility bills, gasoline, etc, and I’d use that for a mini shopping spree… well since overtime is few and far between these days and all that “extra” leftover money will be heading to my Roth IRA account this year… I decided to get more creative.

I naturally clean my apartment and do laundry (or at least tidy up my bedroom) on my days off. Well, as I was going through some paper work that needed to be shredded, I stumbled upon the presents I bought my half sister and her kids for Christmas… still wrapped. She was supposed to come see me in January after she cancelled in December… In a nut shell, she hasn’t called, come by, and probably won’t.

Needless to say, due to some fun family circumstances, I hadn’t seen her kids since they were born… so I went a little over kill and bought them a few presents to make up for being an absentee auntie... and I made my half sister her present since we weren’t exchanging gifts this year (I made her a blanket… took me DAYS to finish so I’m a bit ticked off that its still wrapped in my closet). Since the odds of me actually seeing them are about 1% of a million, I decide to unwrap the presents I bought at target and keep just a board game for the family and the present I made my sister.

I took the gifts back to target and used my two “I don’t have a receipt” for the year and got a combined gift card of $39.00. I then proceeded to buy three cute bras on clearance, 5 cans of tuna, and some margarine (which were cheaper there then at the grocery store). And I still have $5.00 left to play with when the dollar isle gets nifty and I have a hankering to buy something dumb.

Now I have lunches for the week at work, three new bras that fit good (me minus 7 lbs made some of them fit funny)… and I have margarine for my toast in the morning… now that’s budget savvy since it cost me zip.

---------------
In other news, I went to CPK with a friend of mine to chat about life and ministry stuff… kind of mentor mentee relationship. When I go there, I normally order one of three things: Bowl of tortilla soup (the best on the universe), the California chicken club pizza thing, or the chicken Caesar grilled sandwich that comes with a side salad or soup (and I’d go with the soup because as I mentioned, it’s the best there is.) Sometimes I’ll even order the soup with the pizza, have a cup of it and two slices of pizza and roll out with a doggie bag. =)

Now, I had soup since it was cold out and my friend ordered the Chicken Caesar sandwich. I noticed that as we waited, bread never came to the table (which I normally enjoy with my soup… but I didn’t mind since I ordered extra crunchy strips with my soup). When our food came, I was happy with my big bowl of soup but my friend and I noticed the change to her meal. Normally, the food is overflowing on the plate. Today, the salad was a mere handful of lettuce on the plate, and the sandwich was way smaller and didn’t really fill the plate. It looked like a dainty top chef portion if you know what I mean. If you don’t, in lame man’s terms it looked as if she had ordered a lunch portion of a meal at the dinner price.
It was really pathetic looking… and a turn off.

I mean, it’s probably closer to what a serving should be, since most restaurants gorge out on the calories and portions… but it just doesn’t sit right with me... I kind of feel cheated and I didn’t even order the thing (or pay for lunch for that matter).

While I know I’ll still occasionally frequent the place because they donated to the charity foster care walk I put on last year for Child Share (childshare.org) that’s probably the only reason… well that and the soup and that one pizza dish. Yum.

--------------
In other news, every where I look I see empty places at business centers. Yesterday my friend’s mom and dad treated us all to lunch at Rubinos, the place next to it—vacant.

The “new target” still has a lot that’s completely empty next to it… just waiting for someone to buy it and put something there…

The car dealership is still vacant in the city I live in…

There are about 5 stores that are closed that I pass on my way home everyday…

And more and more short sale listings keep popping up like wild flowers on redfin.com

No comments:

Post a Comment