Good Day

Today was a good day financially speaking.  While I did spend money, it wasn't as much as I was expecting.  YAY!  Well, I spent less in one place and a little more in another, but it was all for good.

OK...first I had to bring my boys to the dentist.  This was our first time here because the pediatric dentist they went to before closed his office in our city and now only has his office in the city to the north of us.  Not a long distance, but inconvenient when they have appointments during school time and I don't have time to pick the other up.  Then they both have to be pulled out of school!  Anyway, this was a new pediatric dentist, who like many dentists nowadays does not take insurance.  AT ALL!  Not a big deal because our last one didn't either.  That means I have to pay for everything up front, send in a claim form and wait for reimbursement.  I was expecting to pay hundreds of dollars today on my credit card on two kids for cleanings, x-rays (including an additional panoramic for one), and flouride treatments--to be paid off whenever the insurance company got around to sending me my money.  Nope...no such thing!  As a courtesy, this dental office will take a copay only, send in the claim for you, and bill you for any remainder not paid for by the insurance company.  So instead of hundreds of dollars for this initial visit I paid $50.70 in total--for both of them.  That is great considering the statement with the breakdown said the total for all services rendered was $507.00!  I still have to bring them in to take care of some other issues, but I expected that to be on top of the full bill I would have paid today.

Afterwards we went back to the new SuperTarget because I forgot a few things...mostly groceries plus I wanted to look for some sort of mats to put under the pet's homes (DS1 has a parakeet and DS2 has a betta fish).  Well, I initially needed bread and milk, but the boys had some flouride stuff painted onto their teeth and they were told not to eat anything too sugary because they cannot brush their teeth tonight.  I didn't think I had too many items they could eat so I picked up some bananas and grapes for them to snack on.  Plus it was getting late so I added some deli chicken for lunch and some french bread for dinner.  I also remembered that I forgot DS1's protractor for school when I bought school supplies.  At the register I remembered that DH needed some cash, which we rarely carry.  So I tacked on the minimum allowed--$10.  The total was $36.80--not bad considering $10.00 of it was cash, $8.29 was for items other than grocery, and $18.51 for groceries.  That brings my total groceries to $213.59 for the month.

Outlet Mall and New SuperTarget

We've had a good weekend.

Yesterday we went to both the indoor and outdoor outlet malls in the city next to ours.  At the Disney Store, we found a shirt for our oldest that said, "I Didn't Do It"  for under $8.00 to go with current shirts he owns that say, "Trouble is my MIDDLE name" and "It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time".  At two VF Outlet stores I spent a combined $51.89 for clothes for the boys (4 shirts and 2 denim cargo shorts) and me (1 top).  Not a single item was over $14.00...actually all except 2 items were under $5.99 there.  Across the street at the outdoor mall, I got them some books (3 total) for $9.51 at the Book Warehouse.

Today we went to the new SuperTarget that just opened today in our own city along with a Michael's, PetSmart, and others.  I am so happy I no longer have to drive to the city to the north for a regular Target or the city to the south for a SuperTarget.  And I don't have to go to Walmart if I don't want to!  *sigh* 

Anyway, they had some great sales for their first day open.  I found a bunch of items that would be great for Christmas!  I make little gift baskets for the women in the family--four of them--and I found great containers and stuff to put in them.  Total cost: $18, including 2 extra containers for our office desks to hold little things.  

School supplies were great!  I even stocked up on some items I didn't need any more of because I know they will need them again in the middle of the year or next year.  I got:

• A Hulk lunchkit for $9.00 for my youngest (he is obsessed with the Hulk)
• A 128MB USB for $4.99 for my oldest (he can bring home pics or files, then delete, if needed, without us worrying about losing a more expensive USB
• A dual-sided soft pencil case for $3.99 for my oldest (his old one was too bulky for his desks and backpack)
• 4 packs of 24-count Crayola crayons for $0.22 each or $0.88 total
• 2 packs of 24-count Crayola colored pencils for $2.00 each or $4.00 total
• 6 composition books at $0.50 each or $3.00 total
• 2 1-inch binders at $0.97 each or $1.94 total
• 6 2-pocket folders at $0.10 each or $0.60 total
• 4 packs 5-tab dividers for $0.89 each or $3.56

I think this was even better than my good deals found the last time at the grocery store, though those were pretty good, too.

Next will be some new shoes for them.  I have to wait until next week after the new Payless opens on July 30th.

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.