Spent Money Today

We did it.  

We spent money today.

We drove to Target so we could get some things and ended up spending just over $200.  *cringes*  But in our defense most of it was for the house to improve other things--some that could save us more money than the initial costs.

This is the second time in a row my 6-year-old has spent almost a week trying to clean up his room after messing it up in one day.  We've about had it with the mess.  His room is so messy he gets overwhelmed by it all and doesn't want to be in there so he ends up bringing toys into the living room and messes that up!  So before I start taking away all his toys, we decided to try a different organizational approach.  Therefore I picked out (and I say I because "the boys" were all looking at toys) a $17 5-drawer cart, a $15 3-drawer cart, and a $7 19-gallon tub.  We (my son and I) went through a bunch of stuff tonight and I labeled the cart drawers as we cleaned.  It's a good start.

My husband got a really good container and camping fork/spoon to start bringing leftovers to work a couple days a week.  I didn't even mention the idea to him!  Work lunches are some of the things I've worked into the budget and expect to always be there, but now he's decided to try to save some money on his own.  Amazing!  I think it's because he feels guilty because of his truck and all the gas it eats up.  Works for me!

We also bought a rechargeable battery system and some additional AA and AAA rechargeable batteries.  They were $10 each with a mail-in $5 rebate!  We thought it was a good idea to get because we have wireless "mice" that regularly eat up batteries.  We end up changing them every couple of weeks.

Then I bought a rod, rings, and curtain for the office so I could take down the closet doors to start working on them for the desks.  But I realize now that I should have bought two curtains.  Figures!

The other thing was allowing our boys to use their available spending money at the store.  They each bought one item and when we got home they gave me what they had plus I subtracted the rest out of their "bank" (I keep track of their allowances with a check register).

So there you have it--all the good and bad of our shopping trip.