Layout:
Home > Final Christmas Shopping

Final Christmas Shopping

December 6th, 2014 at 07:20 pm

I think I am DONE, but still have to help the kids pick up a birthday gift for dh. At least we have some time for that.

Note to self: shopping the first Saturday in December is okay as long as you wrap it up by 10am.

So yeah, I lied. I did go out shopping. I did do as I said I would - avoided crowds and traffic. I guess my sole goal was to get a Christmas present for work gift exchange. I drew the new girl and decided I'd just pick up a nice Christmas decoration. (Recalling a really pretty one someone picked out last year). I printed out some Michael's coupons. I thought Target would be try #2 if need be, but Target opened earlier. I also noticed my wallet is falling apart, so figured I'd look at wallets while I was out.

So stop #1 was Target around 8:30am. Pretty empty and calm and nice so I took my sweet time. Could not find a wallet like the one I had. Could not find almond roca for my dad (the other thing I decided to get while I was out).

I did find a GIANT snickers bar. Dh had told me he wasn't going to do any stocking stuffers but then he was. I figured the kids would love that!

Defeated on the wallet and gift front, I decided to go to Marshalls later, which would be on the way home. When I got to Michaels a little after they opened I realized that there was a Ross next door. I popped in and failed on the wallet and the gift front but I found a good deal on almond roca! I will have to remember that for the future. No one was there and there was no line.

(I ended up getting some almond roca for the kids too and dh was happy with that for the stockings. Phew! I was actually just going to give it to them, but waiting is fine too).

It was probably closer to 9:30 by the time I got to Michaels - they opened at 9. Huge sale there and it was a bit crazy. Waited in line for a bit but at least it was early and they had a lot of registers open.

I found a second gift for my mom - so she is all covered for birthday and Christmas. (I wasn't necessarily going to get her anything but found a $8 gift she would love - the only thing I paid full price for).

Spent about $15 on a cute basket and some ornaments for work gift exchange. I also have a Starbucks gift card left over for last year, to round out that gift.

Saw the perfect gift for Japan friend, though I almost didn't get it! Then I had my "doh" moment that BM plans to be traveling to Japan in April. That's taken care of.

Found the cutest gift for a friend I am meeting up with on Monday. We just have that relationship where we don't necessarily exchange gifts but buy each other cute things here and there. Just, no pressure or commitments, which I love with buying gifts. I spent a whole $2.40 and the gift was perfect!

I also picked up some really cute ribbon which didn't make it into my bag or onto my receipt. Frown I don't know what happened with that. But I will survive.

Hoping that I am now officially done with stores and shopping for the rest of the year!

--------------------------------------------------

Other Doings:

Today dh is taking the kids to stock up on free Scholastic books. Has like $300 in vouchers, in exchange for volunteering. (Much much more than that will go to teachers and school).

Dh also did some de-cluttering and sold a pile of books and video games for $100+ credit at the used store. So, he has close to $150 to spend there now. That will keep him rich in movies and video games for a while.

I closed two credit cards opened for one-time bonuses, and applied for another one. The card I applied for - the website just flashed a "thank you" real quick and went back to the home page. I will wait a couple of weeks and then call and see if my application went through or not. I don't see why I wouldn't be approved, but maybe the website glitched. So the new card is in limbo but I think everything else is officially closed and done with. Just waiting to hear if my $99 Chase Southwest fee is refunded.

2 Responses to “Final Christmas Shopping”

  1. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1417922371

    How many hours of volunteering does your DH do to earn that much in Sch$?

  2. MonkeyMama Says:
    1417924863

    This year was 32 hours? Which I think is more than usual. (The warehouse sale has been weeks longer than usual and so he took a bunch of 4-hour shifts. Usually he does a couple of short set up days and a couple of full weekend days; warehouse sales are only usually 10-14 days? So maybe 8 hours for each teacher and 8 hours for himself).

    They reimburse him $20 per hour in vouchers. So $640 this month? - for 32 hours. I think it's technically $10/hour but everything is so discounted they at some point said it was same difference as earning $20/hour.

    I think if he wanted to volunteer full-time (for 1-3 weeks) they would happily let him. There's only so many books you can donate (and buy) and he has a few other things going on.

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]