Not only did I spend money at drive thru breakfast ($6 & some change) on Saturday because I knew me & the girls would be out for a long day of running errands before heading off to a birthday party (where I very much took advantage of the free food — & the birthday gift was purchased last year before Buy Nothing Year started; on clearance too!) — I dropped $20 & some change at Walgreen’s. Yes. I am sitting here with my head in my hands, still pissed off at myself.
We ran out of cat food that day. It wouldn’t of been so bad if my ShopKick app had worked on the day Best Buy & Sports Authority had 200 bonus walk in kicks. I would of hit the threshold of $10 in a Target gift card to be able to buy the cats food, but it didn’t. So, I didn’t. ShopKick points or not – the cats needed food. Even worse, I had a friend text me before dinner was finished that he needed a ride to the 24 hour pharmacy as his girlfriend was in need of antibiotics for some nasty virus she had been battling for the last 2 weeks. One extra trip I wasn’t expecting to consume gas paired with skipping dinner (after a weak lunch that day)… I also grabbed a soda, some beef jerky & a couple packs of M&Ms. Dinner of champions. All total my “dinner” on the run along with the cat food was a $20 transaction at Walgreen’s. Ouch.
The only thing I can be proud of was that I walked away from the 70% off Christmas decorations & cosmetic gift sets, even the $1 stuff that would of been 30 cents. Still walked away.
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In other news, we also spent the last of the food budget on Monday.
I stopped at Fred Meyer to cash in some coupons I had received from BzzAgent for a campaign (Free bread loaf! Free yogurt! Woo!) but we also needed some additional items — & grabbed lunch as we were on our way to the hospital for Cthulhu’s appointment =( Looking back, I’m still kicking myself. It was an extra $8 out of the budget. $8 that is pretty mourned after having taken a look at our budget & our lack of fresh fruit or vegetables. We’re on the frozen produce diet for the rest of the month until the budget resets.
On top of that, *angry first shake*, Mr. Enders & I had signed up for Krispy Kreme’s email list as they were sending out coupons for free donuts! Unfortunately, two donuts for four people as a post-hospital treat doesn’t work out so well… We received 5 donuts & paid for 3. *sigh*
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So what have we learned in this past week?
Our pets are WAY more expensive than I ever realized. Factoring in their food & litter into our food budget didn’t happen – but needs to next month (No. I don’t believe in getting rid of a pet, no matter how it’ll add to our frugal ventures. We’ve had our oldest for 7 years before kids & our other for 5 years, right before Lego Girl arrived).
Those coupons for free items are because they intend on you buying more.(Well, duh. I already knew this. This wasn’t learned. But I still fell for it because I like donuts & hate the hospital)
I’m trying to let it go because it’s not worth the added stress & reflecting on it negatively… But it’s hard not to when they were stupid mistakes that could have been prevented.
The Omlets Buy Nothing 