Today we got our first glimpse of the kitten we figured was being hidden somewhere around here. The mom cat was pregnant, then she wasn't, now, a few weeks later, we saw her come by for breakfast with one kitten in tow. Not sure if she only had one kitten or more but the one she had with her today was so cute!
In other cat news, it was 92 degrees here yesterday so the cats were spread out over the concrete deck to keep cool!
The state of shopping continues to be...uh...challenging.
I was surprised when I went to Dollar Tree yesterday and saw that everything in the store is no longer $1.25. Apparently, it was a quiet rollout of higher prices, but seeing things that were $5 was shocking to my frugal brain. I guess they are just trying to survive in an inflationary market but Dollar Tree no longer being a dollar and the 99 Cent Stores closing completely is just sad. I'm sure this is how my grandmother felt as she watched five and dime stores close up in her day.
In other shopping news, I received the expensive backpack and while I was impressed with the quality and organizational features of the bag, I stuffed a bunch of clothes in it and wore it around the house and felt there was no way I could carry this bag for any length of time. It was big and unwieldy, so it is back to my hiking backpack I go for my future travels (it has a great hip belt and narrower profile so I can wear it for hours). I packed the bag up and sent it back to the store for a refund.
Hubby was shaking his head over the cost of the pack (it's just a bag you put stuff in! you can do that with a pillowcase!) but he doesn't understand the value of a good backpack (I tried to explain this but he loves his el cheapo Walmart backpack that he has been using for years so he thinks any backpack over $25 is unreasonable!). Then the next day I came thisclose to buying a Tumi backpack I saw at Ross (it was $315 which is a steep drop from its usual $500+ price...I could hardly believe that Ross had such a high-end bag for sale as the backpacks they sell are usually lower end) but I didn't get it because it really is just a bag you put stuff in and I could not really justify paying so much for it. Bummer.
On the house shopping front--not that we are actually shopping for a house, but we have been talking about selling our current house because it is two stories and some of our guests (and ourselves) are getting old so we want a single story house without stairs--prices are equally dismal. There is a house in our neighborhood that just came up for sale and it is a 4 bed/2 bath single story house. It is listed for $500k which, again, to my frugal brain is a ridiculous price to pay for a basic house but I guess the housing market is still all kinds of crazy so it is actually considered a good deal in a nice neighborhood. Add on top of that the increase we would pay in property tax (our tax base is super low since we bought our house at such a low price many years ago and the tax cap keeps taxes from increasing very much year over year), then add on top of that about $75k to repaint and put in all new flooring plus make any other fixes needed and...I am not so sure that buying a new house would be a good financial move. I told hubby we should just install a chairlift and be done with it!
tldr; prices on everything, everywhere are just insanely expensive :(
Hubby and I went out shopping yesterday and saw the following things...
Our local 99 Cent Store is pretty bare. They are supposed to close in June but I think they will be completely out of inventory much sooner than that.
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And as we were checking out of said store, we noticed a lady that had apparently changed shoes and walked out of the store without paying for her new shoes (notice the tag still on the side of the shoe. Also notice hubby's big finger in the way when he took the picture!). As the 99 Cent Store CEO noted, one of the reasons they are going out of business is because of unprecedented levels of theft! smh
Then hubby wanted KFC so we stopped by to pick up a 2-piece meal for him and noticed the other two specials and noted one was probably for people who couldn't do math!
Then we headed to Best Buy and I picked up a couple of sale items as I want to revamp my computer/monitor/entire work-from-home set up. I am buying all sale items since I hate to pay full price for anything and while I used to buy a lot of stuff from Amazon, these days buying things on Amazon is very much hit or miss. Some prices are good, many prices are now higher than regular retail stores, and you ever know when you will get used/broken/counterfeit items.
Finally, hubby gave me $500 and said 'buy whatever you want' since my birthday is coming up this week. I always spend my money carefully, buy what is needed (especially if it is on sale), pay bills, or just put it in savings. This time, however, I splurged and bought a stupid expensive backpack for our trip later this year. When we travel, I always pack everything in one backpack so I, #1 felt like splurging on myself for once, #2 figured that even if the bag was expensive I would still save a lot of money not paying for baggage fees for our trip, and #3, get to experience the "Holy Grail" of backpacks. I'm still waiting for its arrival and I hope I like it (if not, back it goes!).
I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!
In no particular order...
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I hope you all are having a wonderful Easter! In other news...
