I spent 50 cents so far; how'd you all do?!

Read on another forum that today was National Buy Nothing Day, in response to the annual Friday after Thanksgiving Mad Shopping Rush, I guess. I remember when I was a kid that Mama and the Aunts would dump us kids on the men and head out to forage the stores on this day; and I may have even done it myself a time or two when I was married to Jessie's Daddy!

My drive home from work in the mornings can take me past a K-Mart, Wal-Mart, Mall, Discount Store and a bunch of little shops if I decide to cruise through town. Don't know what got into me this morning to make me decide to go that way. The K-Mart parking lot was darn near full; the Wally World lot WAS full and they were sitting on the shoulder of the road waiting to get in to the turn lane to get in and traffic was nutso out by the mall as well - that's where I gave it up and deked and dived to take a side road and sneak out of town by the back country roads. The looks on the faces of those drivers!! They sure didn't appear to be having a good time on the road, wonder what it was like in the stores?! Wonder if my Hubby saw that mess this morning when he went in to work? Silly man actually asked me if I wanted to go get a treadmill this weekend!! Umm - NO!!

Think I'll do my shopping on-line or from catalogs this year!! Hubby wants a wine and beer brewing kit and needs some new jeans so those are both easily found in catalogs; already got Sis some new drawers and Pop some books but I'm sure I can find the rest of the stuff they want on line as well. Found SIL a Star Trek version of Monopoly game that I think she'll like - she's a real trekkie. I've been wandering the book section of Half.com; and found a few things that I wouldn't mind having as well (on top of the ones I already ordered last week!).

So, did you all brave the madding crowds, or did you stay home and hide out?! Ali - do you folks up there have a National Psychotic Shoppers Day up there?

Oh, the 50 cents was for a newspaper; and even with all the ads that came out in Thursday's paper, this one still had even more!!

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001

Answers

I beat you Polly. I spent zero........didn't even leave home. Oh stupid me, a couple of years ago I didn't even think of it being a big shopping day. Had some banking to do and some groceries to get and thought I would just run a couple of errands. Took me most of the day to get done and I was completely baffled by the crowds. Came home and told Gary and he just laughed and laughed. Said he just couldn't figure out why I was going but thought I knew what I was doing!!! Never again........I really learned my lesson that day.

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001

I left home, but went in the direction AWAY from the stores. Doggie and I went off for a small outdoor adventure.

I really hate this time of year -- it's ALWAYS crowded on the roads, no matter what day or time of day (unless it's really late or really early). Makes me 'can hardly wait' for New Years. Grinch, Grinch!

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001

I forgot it was spend nothing day and I bought transmission fluid for my leaky power steering, cereal to shut the kids up on the way to day care and a pack of gum. Oh, and 4 ducks.

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001

4 ducks???

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001

oops.....now I remember turkey ducks!!! joy.....two grinches on the same forum??

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001

Hate to admit it, but hubby and I went and spent almost $50.00 today! We had pretty much used up most of our "post-9/11" supply of gas and local prices are down to about a $1.00/gal. now. So we went and topped off our 55 gal. drum and refilled a few 6 gal. cans. Being without a good supply of gas really makes me nervous!!!

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001

Spent zero and was given three dozen homegrown yard eggs by a chicken raising friend.

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001

Worked today and didn't even get out for lunch. Spent zero.

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001

Um, dare I say how much Ruth and I spent today?

We went out and bought some new furniture to replace our cheap, 17 year old falling apart, fake wood grain vinyl covered particle board, early-marriage furniture. It was pretty awful stuff...

We bought a dining room table with six chairs, dining room hutch, coffee table, sofa table - all in mission style design. It's really beautiful stuff.

I won't say what we spent but it was considerably more than $50.00. *Considerably* more. *I* hadn't planned on going out today to do any shopping but I was over-ruled by "The Chief".

Hey, it's all Ruth's fault I tell yah! I was coerced!

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001

Does a bag of dog food count? We went to the feed mill to pick up the mixed grains i ordered and remembered I needed dog food.Thats all we bought cant stand going into crowds anyways so I wont be heading off the farm till spring.

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2001

I know what ya mean about crowds, Renee. If I could get delivery service from the feed store...I'd never leave the house. I'd surely miss the Chinese buffet, tho'! And they DON'T deliver :-( !!

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2001

Love going to the feed mill,so do the kids,the man that runs it has to be a saint or something cause as soon as my troop goes in he gives eash of them a little sack and a scoop and lets them fill a treat bag {for the animals}. Its the only place around where I sit and chat,well the stockyards are a close 2nd,and not get bored in 5 min.HATE wally world,I start to get that insane world feeling real fast and run to the nearest door.

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2001

Well I tried not to. But I went to work with only 4 hours worth of sleep and had to spend 50 cents on a Diet Coke so I would have caffeine on the hour drive home. I usually don't carry any money with me to work so it's easier to avoid the lure of overpriced junk food in the vending machines but I had to give in.

I too drove past Wally World etc and it looked horrible. Our reporter went out to the toy store in the mall at 6 am to get interviews with all those mad shoppers. They were standing in line with their arms full of purchases and said they'd been standing in line an hour to an hour and a half to pay for them. I can't think of ANYTHING at a toy store my son would "need" so badly I would stand in line an hour to buy it.

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2001

Nope, didn't leave home, didn't buy a thing. I have to venture out sometime soon though, because I need new jeans. I hate shopping for clothes. I'm tall and only a few stores carry a long inseam for women. Maybe I'll just order from Lands End or something. But, gee, they're so yuppie and I am definitely not. Maybe I could cut the tags out. Then I wouldn't feel so suburban wearing them.

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2001

I like Lands End too, Vicki, because their clothes fit me better than anyone else's. I don't see how jeans can be considered "Yuppy". Yup, they wear them, but so does everyone else. I don't worry about style or whether stuff is yuppy or what -- comfort is MOST important in my view. Well, durability too, of course. If you don't want your jeans to look so new, follow Dee's lead and fall on barbed wire while wearing them. Or into the mud, or best of all, around your animals. I can't wear a pair of new jeans very long without getting some sort of permanent stain or small rip or whatever when I'm with the animals!

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2001

I probably shouldn't tell you all where my jeans wear out first :-)!!!!

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2001

I had to spend a couple of dollars because I was baking zucchini bread and I ran out of sugar. Since when did a 5-lb bag of sugar become a 4-lb bag? Price is still the same, of course. Normally I get groceries at Meijer because they have the best prices, but you couldn't even get in the parking lot this weekend so I had to go to Kroger instead.

I have a friend who works at a Best Buy in the section of Indianapolis that is infamous as being the Christmas shopping nightmare zone. For those of you who don't have Best Buy in your area, it's one of those electronics superstore places. They were predicting $1 million in sales at that one store on Friday. My friend lives about 5 miles from the store and he was planning on walking to work on Friday and Saturday because the traffic will be gridlocked.

Is it January yet? :)

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2001