Why do we torture ourselves so???

The hubby & I had a realization, a light bulb moment, if you will yesterday. We took BOTH children to Wal-Mart. What were we thinking? Well the Prince has a birthday party today & I wanted him to pick out the gift & The Princess, well she is 3 & I'm pretty sure CPS would frown upon leaving her home alone! The realization - neither one of us EVER wants to do that again! The 4 of us in a store is just too much.

All in all I think we escaped with little damage. It was later in the evening & both kiddos had already had a full day of outdoor fun, so I figured they would be too tired to fuss obnoxiously. Was I wrong or what! We only made 1 unexpected purchase, zoopals utensils. They were a little cheaper than the frosted animal cookies they like, so they had to trade. We'll see if reason works come Wednesday when they want a snack!

Anywho - Total damage $83
$10 gift
$10 pool filter 2 pack
so $63 for food & household stuff

We went out Friday for dinner using Restaurant.com Dining Certificates
for a local restaurant. I bought the $10 certificates during a sale so I paid $6 for $40 in certificates. Regular price would have been $12 (still not bad). You have to use them one at a time, but even with 4 of us our bill was only $28, so we paid $18 + $1.50 (for the certificate). We had enough leftover for a small dinner last night for all 4 of us so that $19.50 fed us twice. Plus the kids were rather well behaved, so bonus!

We have been spending more money than I would care to lately, but we are doing it to finish some much neglected projects. We found windows on clearance, and we bought one to replace the icky leaky window in our living room. It was $60 for a 72"x63" window. I don't remember original sticker exactly but I think it was $198. It was cheaper than the sliding door we originally wanted to put in the space (that was $1500 for the nice door + installation & permits).

We were hoping to pick up a few windows, but that was the only one they had the correct size for. The window in now is a triple with 2 crank outs, one crank out is broken & warped so it doesn't close & the frame cracked so it is unsealed (ant super highway). I've thought about caulking it, but hubby was supposed to replace it the summer we moved in... The new window is a double vinyl double hung with mullions between the panes. It is missing the screens but it WAS on clearance!

We also finally bought the "stuff" to set up the batting cage. Not a very frugal purchase but I was informed about it the day before it arrived via UPS. He picked that up last spring & it has been sitting in the box ever since. Now it will at least be a useful splurge! It came with a golf net too, so maybe I'll be able to practice. I'd love to be able to hit the ball farther than 25 yards a swing before hubby drags me out on the course!

I also went to a bunch of yard sales this weekend (reason there was no Frugal Friday Tip!) A neighboring community had it's attic & sellar days. I scored big time for the Princess. $29 for 3 bags of clothes, most new with tags. In the bags were 5 dance leotards (she'll be taking dance in the fall), a winter coat, lots of t-shirts, 4 skirts, 2 pants, 3 pjs, 3 sweaters, 4 or 5 turtlenecks & a boutique style dress/outfit. I figure she is set for clothes for the next 2 years with minor filling in with some seasonal stuff. Right now she is a 3T/4T so most of what I bought was in the 4/5 range. Lots of good preschool clothes. If it needs a little altering I can handle it, but I figured out that I'd have spent more on the dance outfits than I did for the entire purchase! Sweet!

I also picked up 3 pair of shorts & 2 t-shirts for the Prince, 6 books (including Harry Potter- Sorcerer's Stone), 6 silk ties for hubby, 2 new table cloths & a pair of pillow cases (for either fabric or the Princess's room haven't decided yet).

If anyone here is into sewing/quilting sign up for my Fat Quarter Swap. It's themed Patriotic, sew here comes the red/white/blue!!!

Also if you have faved me in Technorati & I haven't reciprocated please let me know. Last time I went to Technorati I couldn't find the list of people who had faved me so I feel I must be far behind!