The Test

The day I've been putting off for quite some time finally arrived. Today I finally made my first post-compact trip to Target. We needed some toiletries, paper products, footwear, and winter gear. Where else am I going to find all of that in one place? Try as I might, I couldn't put off my inevitable trip to Target any longer. I compiled a list and my goal was to stick to it.

Since some of the items on my list are technically not consumable and I've declared that I won't buy any non-consumable items for the rest of 2008, allow me to explain. Recently as the weather has been getting colder I've noticed that we do need some winter clothing items. Some of them I can make (e.g. Una's scarf), others must be purchased. There's no getting around it. So I will be purchasing some essential winter gear in the coming weeks. Let me be clear though. I'm not getting a second pair of mittens simply because I think they're cuter than the ones I already own. I will only be buying a pair of mittens because my current pair has a giant hole in the thumb, thus rendering them ineffective in shielding me from the elements. So when it comes to clothing I'm not getting more of what we already have, I'm only getting the minimum of whatever item it is that we need. And even then I'm only buying it if I can't make it myself. With that introduction, I will explain the presence of the following items on the shopping list.
Mittens for Duet: We currently don't own any in her size. I contemplated trying to make some with the left-over pink fleece from the blanket I cut up yesterday, but I can't figure out how to do it since they need to be so tiny. I may still make an attempt at that. Even if that's successful, she'll need some water-proof mittens so she can play out in the snow.
Black tights and white tights for Una: Now that it's cold, she needs tights to cover her legs when she wears dresses and skirts. She outgrew all of the tights she's been wearing for the last 2 winters.
Black socks: Right now Bert is doing a lot of interviews and doesn't have enough black socks to go with his suit. He definitely needs black socks. I won't have him interviewing wearing brown socks with a black suit. Unacceptable. Black socks make the cut.
Shoes for Duet: She's in need of some nice shoes she can wear with dresses and skirts since her current shoes are getting too small. I've decided that I'm going to use the money my parents sent to spend on Christmas presents for the girls to buy some shoes for Duet. She loves shoes and spends a good part of the day taking them on and off. Duet will be happy to have some new shoes to play with, and I'll be happy to be getting something useful with the Christmas present money.

My list looked like this:
mittens for Duet
black tights and white tights for Una
black socks for Bert
shoes for Duet
2 travel mouth wash
1 travel shaving cream
1 travel toothpaste
napkins

Miracle of miracles, my receipt looks like this:
ski mitten
girls tights (black with silver sparkles--Una wanted them and since they'll go with her dresses, I said yes)
girls tights (white with pink and silver stripes--I got these in lieu of plain white because they were cheaper and they'll go with most of her skirts)
socks
socks
shoes
listerine
shaving cream
crest
napkins
paper towels
bread

Now I realize the paper towels and bread weren't on the original list. My neighbor broke her foot yesterday and while I was at Target I called her to see if she needed me to pick up anything for her. Those were her items. Did you notice that the lists are exactly the same? I'm ashamed to admit this, but I don't think I've ever left Target with only the items I intended to buy. I always manage to get one or two (or ten) extra items before I checkout. I was quite proud of myself. Were there tough moments? Absolutely. I almost got tripped up at the dollar spot, but I stayed the course and left empty handed. There's something about Target's smooth floor, the over-sized shopping carts, and the giant red signs overhead that make me want to buy more than I need. But I overcame all of that today and left a there a happy woman. One with considerably more money left in her wallet upon exiting the store.

My 10+ minutes de-cluttering today were spent in the basement. I shall not bore you with the details.