April 23rd, 2009

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Lots of Thank You Notes to Write

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

My mom sent me this list of everyone’s gifts from the baby shower we had back in IL over Easter.  All the gifts got mixed up trying to pile everything into the car for the trip back here.  I have the list now, on pretty paper so I can put it in the baby’s scrapbook too, and can begin working on thank you notes.  We really got some awesome gifts from people.  I’m tremendously blessed with lots of loving aunts, great aunts, cousins, sisters-in-laws and friends who might as well be sisters.

And my mom has already made some beautifully sewn items for the baby such as bibs, receiving blankets & a few clothing items.  Not to mention the baby equipment my parents have already purchased.  I think the baby “travel system” (car seat & stroller) they bought has got to be the absolute “Cadillac” of traveling systems.  Those things have every bell & whistle I could have imagined.

So this evening I might work on that project so that we can buy stamps and pop them off in the mail tomorrow.

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Big Errand Running Day

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

I had 10 places on my list of places to go today and made it to 8.  I missed Bible Study and didn’t drop off my already late library books.  But I made it to Walgreens, CVS, the butcher, Shop n Shop (grocery store), Big Y (another grocery store), Target, Family Dollar and lunch with my dear hubbie.  I had this long list of stuff I needed so I scoured the ads and found everything we needed, but it just required some running.  Thankfully, everything was kind of centrally located so the gas expense of hitting up 8 different places wasn’t too bad.

You know what really burns me is fine print in advertising.  Today there was a sale on cat litter at one of the above listed places…a really good sale.  And it said that if I purchased cat littler I could earn a $5 gift card too.  Well, AFTER I was completely rung up at the cashier, I asked about the card and found out you have to buy TWO boxes of cat litter at one time in order to qualify for the $5 gift card.  Good grief, did they really have to put that in fine print?  I totally would have purchased 2 boxes.  The deal was good and who doesn’t like getting free money to spend.  So instead of the sign saying in big print that you can get $5 gift card if you buy this $11 35lb box of name brand cat litter, why couldn’t it have said earn a $5 gift card if you purchase 2 boxes for $22?  Easy peasy…but NO they have to put the detail in fine print.  GRRR!  I was too tired to return the box I had, go get 2 more boxes and go through the line again so the fine print won.

I’m working on a “price book” for myself.  I’m tracking the unit price of items we commonly purchase so that I can tell if a sale is actually good or if I’m just being suckered.  For example, today I purchased a big bottle of Pantene shampoo and a conditioner for $5.49 each and had a $3 coupon.  I’ll work out the cost per ounce so that from now on I can figure out if a Pantene sale is good or not using the price I got on it this time.  I’m just doing this with commonly purchased items for our household.  It will be interesting if I can eventually track sale cycles and know when to stock up on items.  I’m not overly anal-retentive or anything, I just sometimes really wonder if certain sales like “buy one get one” are legitimately a good deal or an advertising scam.

Posted in Homemaking & Recipes, News | No Responses »