I splurged today!

Well, not really.

I went out to Taco BEll for lunch. They were out of beef. (You have got to be kidding me). Settled for a bean burrito (was flustered at first).

Wasn't sure if they took credit cards, but for whatever reason I had a pile of change. (I usually spend it, but didn't have that many quarters, and so the pennies and nickels were mounting. Since they were meatless and VERY slow I had plenty of time to dig out $1.28 in coins.

I also went over to the Dollar store (Was pleased they took the card too). I am on a mission to not carry cash anymore. Just tired of cash! Always have been, but these days it is more and more likely to never need cash.

Anyway, it was over in the vicinity of Taco Bell and I have been wanting to pick up some clothe napkins. Don't ask me why I haven't sooner. Cloth napkins are so "us", and yet something we have never done.

I mean our napkin supply comes from the fast food places. We don't buy napkins. But I figured we could also replace paper towels, with napkins. Well, and stop using so much paper as a whole.

Anyway, it's time we bought some REAL napkins!

I was perusing napkins online last week and they all seemed terrible expensive and fancy. Or just UGLY. OR all of the above. I realized I Am particular about napkins. LOL. Ugly or $5/pop? Is that my only choice?

OF course my favorite color is black, but thinking I don't want black napkins that fade to a dull black or grey. So leaves me rather stumped. I didn't want the bright colors ruining the other stuff in the laundry.

Who knew napkins were so complicated?

I think I Could settle for a nice off white though. Boring, but works. At least it wouldn't be ugly...

Anyway, so I thought I'd run by the dollar store.

Well, this one had crap. They had a few really rough cheapie napkins in ugly colors. Not much. Wasn't going to fly with me.

However the store sucked me in and I walked around for a while looking at stuff.

& then I saw hair supplies and struck gold. I mean I am sure I have never paid much for my hair clips, but they all fall apart anyway. So I figured I'd pick some up. Figured they couldn't be of any cheaper quality than I Was used to. Got 6 hair clips and a slew of hair bands for a buck. (I think BM lost most of the last of my hair bands since he had taken to pony tails in his short hair - don't ask. LOL. So I figured a pile of new ones would be nice. Mine were all lost or broken).

& then on the way out I saw some large plastic tumblers with coke logos. Could do without the coke logo (I am personally a pepsi girl. LOL). But beggars can't be choosers. I used them in the bath and the kids ones were getting kind of grimy and looked like they may fall apart anyway. some had broken as well. These actually looked nice quality for dollar store. We'll see. (I had forbid dh from buying plastic cups from there because he bought some small ones for the kids and they all kept cracking). Sometimes it's just hit or miss there.

Mental note to wash them once in a while. The bath isn't exactly clean. Maybe these will last longer.

But yeah, these looked better. 2 for the bath, 2 for the kitchen.

& so I spent a whopping $4, on all that. $4.30 with tax. Plus I earned another dime in cash rewards.

Plus I got a decent amount of retail therapy. Nothing to complain about!

The sad thing is it took me a while to find the dang Dollar Store because I hadn't been there in so long. I usually hit it for party supplies and Christmas stuff. But I don't think I did this past Christmas. It had just been a while. Took me a while to remember what street it was on. IT was the 3rd one I tried. Doh!

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Well, I am going to revamp my Challenge when I have time.

I was doing the retirement thing, because that has been my focus. IT has been slow going.

But I have all this extra money this month and I wanted to put it to the challenge! (But not to retirement).

I decided besides retirement, I also want to include the following in the challenge:

**Medical expenses that we don't have to pull from the medical fund

BEcause... The extra money we have there will go to retirement eventually. If I don't pull anything out of the medical fund this year? Well then I'll have $250/month to add to retirement next year. IT all depends if we get sick or not. Or injured or whatever. But every money saved here eventually goes to savings/retirement. So I think it should count/is still motivating.

**Mid-Term Savings - this really lacks way more than our retirement, right now. & it's really stressing me out. Likewise, if it grows too big, it will likely get diverted to retirement, with time.

So we will focus more on this too.

The challenge was very motivating for me last year and I want to get back into it more.

Woohoo.

So I'll update my totals with the new ruls later, maybe this weekend...

I have to say we are having a good year and we are finding the extras and everything even without the "reward" of the challenge. We just got used to it after the last 18 months or so. BUT I still think it will be more fun, the more we add to the challenge. So I Want to get back into it a little more.