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This picture doesn't have anything to do with the post, but isn't it funny? It's Ford & Maryn at Ben & Jerry's in Charlotte, and it's a good thing it doesn't have sound or you'd hear two hysterical moms laughing like hyenas from behind the board!
Joseph and I are all about saving money these days. We've always had a budget, but we'd gotten very debit card happy as of late. If the money was gone for the month, we'd just swipe it! So we decided that for the month of September, we'd lock up the debit cards and really focus on sticking to the budget. And we've done a good job. But it's the last week of the month, and inevitably, the grocery envelope was looking a little slim. But I was determined to make it work.
I knew we could eat dinner from the freezer this week, but there were some staples that we had to have. Like milk. And bread. And chocolate chip cookies. And since the "Chip Mates" that I bought last week didn't go over so well with Joseph, I knew I would have to get the real deal, his beloved Chips Ahoy. And since Ford has had a turkey hotdog for dinner going on 3 nights now, I figured he'd probably need a little variety, not to mention nutrition, as well.
So this morning during Ford's nap, I raided Joseph's junk drawer and put all the change I could find in a ziploc. I got Ford up, fed him another delicious hotdog, and set off to Wal-Mart, because I wasn't about to go to Kroger for what I was about to do.
We got our groceries, just the bare essentials, headed to self-checkout, and I set up camp. I gave Ford his sippie cup and some Cheerios, rang up my loot, and proceeded to pay for my groceries with $17.26 in change. It took me 8 minutes to get it all in the slot. There was a family behind me with three kids, who I assumed were home schooled, and they just stared in awe. After the first 3 minutes, the mom went around me, but the kids stayed and watched! When I got to the pennies, they started counting. But I just held my head up high and kept at it! I figured I was helping them learn to count change, a very important life skill.
I could have very easily used the debit card, and saved myself some time and a little bit of dignity, but I walked out of there feeling pretty proud of myself! Now I'm going to go pop a bag of Great Value popcorn and curl up with a good book!!