Work was so-so today. Only 69 school days left.

Today while I was walking around in my shoes, it became painfully apparent that I NEEDED to replace them. It also didn't help that the buckle on one of them which had been hanging by a thread for a month finally broke. Doh! So after school I went to Payless. My feet are funny - they can wear anything between an 8 and an 9 - and sometimes they have to be Wides, sometimes not. Anyway, I spent about an hour looking through their selection of black shoes with closed toes and heels. I found this one pair that I REALLY liked, but it had something like two inch flat heels (maybe more) and as much standing and running around as I do all day - not very practical. I found some moccasin type shoes that I really liked too, except that they didn't have a closed heel and they weren't black. I ended up getting a pair of shoes that look kind of like ballet slippers - only in a street shoe style (on sale!) and another pair that basically was ONLY a closed heel and a closed toe, with the rest of the foot wide open. Both pairs in black of course (although I REALLY liked the second pair in brown - but I just don't have enough that would go with them to make it practical).

On the way back home from Payless I stopped at Tom Thumb to drop off the bag of donations. I'd found this Tom Thumb bag attached to my door on Saturday talking about some donation program the Scout's and Tom Thumb were doing. Of couse I found it AFTER the pick up date, so I had to take it to the store. Anyway, I couldn't find the place to put it inside the store and had to ask a number of different people who didn't know what I was talking about. Finally the guy at Customer Service told me to just leave it with him and he'd take care of it. Well, while I was walking out I saw the displays of Valentine's candy. They had the boxes of Sweetheart candies on sale 4/$1 - so I decided to go ahead and get those. (Ugh - I don't remember them tasting so bad - I bought an extra box for me).

When I got home I checked the mail and found this letter from a car insurance company. Usually I ignore junk mail like this, but one thing caught my eye. It said that if they couldn't match or beat my current car insurance, that they would send me a $20 gas card. So . . . I got out my information (curious mainly about if there were any lower prices out there) and called. Let's just say that their quote was over $400 MORE than my current insurance (Geico, thank you very much!) So, guess who's gonna be getting some free gas (my gas for March is paid for - woo hoo!)

I called Dawn, the lady who hosts the Coupon Club. She was asking me if I could bring something for tomorrow night. Her husband apparentally got into her stash of snacks during the Superbowl. Hee hee! The problem is, I've really cut down on buying snacky type foods, so don't have very much at home that I"m willing to part with. If I was someone who ate a bunch of stuff whenever I was at her house, I'd definately be right there contributing, but I hardly ever eat anything when I'm there - Dawn even mentioned that. I do have one roll of Ritz crackers left (from when the Kraft 3/$5 coupons were out - SO much stuff FREE!) I don't know if that would really count as bringing a snack or not. I'll have to check if my dip is still good from the Christmas party - that might qualify it better.

All I can say for tomorrow night is that my darn VCR better work! Only 4 more NYPD Blue's left!!! Andy's a Sarge. Ahhhh. Well, at least after NYPD is finished, I won't have anything left to watch on Tuesday nights. I should mention that I used to be a TV AHOLIC. Then about three years ago I sat down and made a list of all the shows that I REALLY loved. I then made a pact with myself that I would only watch THOSE shows and not add ANY new ones. Then as the shows died out, my tv list would slim into nothingness. So far Fraiser and Friend's were the first to leave my list, and now NYPD. I've been pretty good about not adding any more shows, but this season I did add two new ones - one because I had the tv on in the background while I was grading papers and was totally gobsmocked by how much I loved it (Desperate Housewives) and the other because, well, I just Lurve Sci-Fi and HAD to watch the first episode to see if it would be worth it - and it SO WAS (Lost) !!! I'm so glad I don't have Cable or I'd probably have an even harder time keeping my resolve (I cancelled Cable about the same time I made my resolution).

Ok -way past bedtime.

My Spending Log:
Today:
Payless Shoe Source: $27.99 (2 pairs of shoes)
Tom Thumb: $03.89 (12 Sweethearts, 1 Snickers)

Total: $31.88

Groceries so far: $46.59

No Spend Days: 6/12 (Actual/Goal)

Keeping It Frugal in Texas,
Laura