Making Change

The last few days have been a real success:

- Returned the margarita glasses +$8
- Cashed in a scratch ticket +$4
- Brought all my change to CoinStar +$30

But, I can't take it too lightly because just when I think "Oh, this is getting too easy!" I realize that yes, it's easy to program myself to ignore the deals at work, and yes it's easy to avoid buying clothes when I stay out of the mall, but the shopping extends farther than that. I went to Home Depot yesterday to buy a hanging planter for the mint plants I got at the bridal shower. Did I need a hanging planter? Of course not. It's not that easy to just avoid buying things!

Even at the grocery store, I tend to over-buy: "Oh, maybe we'll have pizza next week and the crust is only $3 today! and what a great deal on these big bags of broccoli/chocolate milk/crackers/cookies/other thing not on my grocery list". Today I was able to keep my groceries under $20, but I didn't buy any fresh produce or protein...and I did dig through some of the back-corner-of-the-grocery-store deals (Luna Bar for $0.66!).

I guess the plus side is that I completely guilt-trip myself with every purchase and end up returning it -- I just have to get to the point where I don't buy it in the first place!

And God only knows what will happen when I do get myself into a mall/outlet store... dun dun DUN...