holiday spirit went down the toilet, and a Costco hot dog shall lead the way

The weather forecast for today through Friday is not good for our state. It will start with rain, then freezing rain (affectionately called “ice pellets” by the weather people), and progressing into a doozie of a snowstorm. We’re looking at possibly another foot of snow on the ground by Friday.

With that nugget of news on everyone’s minds, all of those people that waited until this week to do their shopping for gifts and groceries? Yeah, they all lost two full days of shopping time. Today and tomorrow. This means that they were forced to be out and about Monday and Tuesday night, which did NOT bode well for me and my “quick” errand running.

It seems like while I bragged to all of you about being done with all of my Christmas shopping, that I am truly never “DONE” until its time to open gifts. Theres always one (or ten) more things that manage to pop up, resulting in more trips out in public. ACK. And did I mention I haven’t grocery shopped yet? Or baked ANY Christmas goodies?

I only needed to get a few things (the grocery shopping was going to wait until Tuesday night– I’m a martyr that way), and my oldest daughter was going to go with me. One thing needed to be purchased at Costco, and the other things could easily be purchased at Wal-Mart or Target.

Yes, you read that right. I was going to attempt to shop at a big-box retail store the week of Christmas.

Shoot me now.

Our trip to Costco went smoothly, with our only problem being a crabby driver in the parking lot. People, the vehicle I normally drive now is a Ford F-150 SuperCrew truck. It sits up high, and it’s big. Because of this, I have not quite mastered the art of parking in parking spaces, unless they are angled. Coscto, unfortunately, does not have angled spaces.

I pulled in, realized I was crooked, and attempted to back out a bit and get straightened up. Upon seeing my backup lights, Mr. Scrooge in the Chevy Silverado thought I was leaving and sat and waited for my space. After I shut the truck off and climbed out, he realized we were in fact, just parking, and not leaving. He proceeded to flip me off before peeling out to look for another spot.

I kid you not.

We got in, picked out the item we needed, and headed out. Realizing we were both starving, we decided to go the cheap and easy route and opted for Costco’s snack bar. I mean, where else can two people eat dinner for less than $4? Daughter had a big slice of pepperoni pizza, and I opted for the HUGE hot dog. We shared a pop, and the meal cost us $3.70.

Costco food FTW!

After leaving Costco, we decided we would go to Wal-Mart. It’s closer, and the things we needed were probably cheaper.

Biggest mistake EVER.

I have never seen anything like it. Wal-Mart was packed to the gills. There were no parking spaces (seriously, the lot was FULL), and there were no carts. We managed to find a parking spot way out in the next county, and scored a cart by sneaking in through the Garden Center. People were scrambling to get their shopping done, buy groceries, and get the heck out of Dodge – er, I mean Wal-Mart.

I have never in my life witnessed the sheer GRINCH in people as I did that night. People were completey oblivious to other shoppers around them, and didn’t care who they ran over with their carts. I was bumped into and shoved on more than one occasion, and I couldn’t wait to get out of there. It could possibly be because that darn Costco hot dog was making the decision to come out of me in gaseous form. (Seriously, have you ever eaten one of those things? I’m sure people could smell my burps from a mile away!)

Something else I noticed? I mean, besides the smell of my burps?

People in general. They just all looked unhappy. There was no smiling, I don’t think I heard any “Please” and “Thank You”‘s anywhere. Is this what we’ve become? That we get so bogged down with a “to-do” list that we become unbearable human beings? Cashiers roll their eyes and heavy a loud drawn-out SIGH when one more customer gets in their line. People race to find the shortest check-out line, and grumble under their breath (or louder) when even that line takes a while to get through.

And lady in front of me in the Wal-Mart checkout line? No ma’am. You certainly do NOT have less than 20 items. But because its Christmas time, I only threw *SILENT* daggers at you with my eyes, rather than loud scary ones.

When we finally got back to the truck after our 100-mile trek through the parking lot, I sat for a few quiet moments. Repeating over and over in my head was this:

“Remember the reason for the season.”

It was about that time that I received a text message from my husband. And even though we are DONE. DONE. DONE. (did I mention DONE?) shopping for my children, he sends this message:

Go buy Courtney a pink Red Ryder BB gun.

What the hell? Off to Scheels we went. They were out of stock. End of story. My nine year old daughter will not be getting a pink BB gun for Christmas. Thank God for small miracles.

Heading home, I once again exclaimed to my daughter: “I am now OFFICIALLY DONE WITH SHOPPING.”

Out of the entire night, I can say my biggest mistake (besides setting foot in a Wal-Mart store) was the Costco hot dog, because I’ll be darned if that baby didn’t stick around for a while, making itself at home in the put of my stomach.

It is really possible to do your shopping without ever setting foot inside a store

I am a list-maker. Compulsive to the point of overdoing it. I have a spreadsheet I use to keep track of our Christmas budget. I put in the dollar amount for each child, and as I enter in the gifts and prices, I see the balance at the bottom getting smaller, showing me what I have left to spend. It’s also a good way to keep track of HOW MANY gifts each kid is getting. That’s not such a big deal now, but back when they were younger, it was A CHORE to try and make sure they all got the same number of gifts, and that our spending was even as well.

Did I mention I use a spreadsheet? To some of you that know me, that will come as no surprise.

A couple years ago, it was with great GLEE that I discovered the world of online shopping.

Specifically, online CHRISTMAS SHOPPING.

Even more specifically, BLACK FRIDAY shopping. While there are a handful of stores that will NOT make their “DoorBusters” available online (scrooges!), most do. So why in the world would we stand in line and fight the crowds for something we can get with the click of a mouse, while wearing our pajamas and sipping hot chocolate?

Now that my Christmas shopping is done, and the gifts are all wrapped (go me! Jealous much?) I present to you a rundown of the stores I purchased things from online, problems I had, as well as jump-for-joy moments I had…

Sincerely, Jenni’s
Online Christmas Shopping Extravaganza

Abercrombie & Hollister - Essentially, these stores are one and the same, with just a different logo. My kids like their hoodies and their shirts. Mommy doesn’t like the pricetags. So Mommy does the smart thing, and goes to their website and visits the clearance section. The clearance varies so much from store to store, and its hard to pick out different sizes and colors for 4 kids. THANK YOU ONLINE SHOPPING, because I can sift through the different colors with the click of a mouse, find the size I need and pay my bill. I do, however, have 2 gripes with these companies. Abercrombie has their juniors/adults sizes separate from their kids section, so TWO separate orders for me, and TWO separate shipping charges. My other gripe is that they never offer free shipping. EVER. But, when I can get hoodies and sweaters for less than half the ticket price in stores, I am willing to overlook the downside. Shipping was very fast though, so I have to give them credit for that.

Aeropostale – Of all the stores my kids like to shop at, this one has the best prices and the best sales. They always have free shipping (with a minumum order amount that varies) and the day I shopped there, nearly everything on their website was half-price. Adding in my 20% coupon I found online, this mommy was one happy shopper. Plus, Aeropostale has also added a kids line to their website, called P.S. (P.S. stores will be coming soon, only in a few select areas right now). Shipping was fast, and I was very pleased with what I got for the money.

American Eagle – I had two separate purchases from this store. One before Thanksgiving, and one after. I had free shipping on both orders, and a 20% off coupon both times. The first order I placed before Turkey Day came very quickly, within 2 days, even though I only paid for regular shipping. The second order, placed on November 30th, had a bit of a glitch. They charged my debit card, but when I went to check the status of the order, it kept telling me to “Wait 24 hours for tracking information.” Finally, on December 7th, I called their Customer Service # and they immediately corrected the problem. They upgraded me to 2-Day shipping, AND told me some of the items I had purchased were cheaper now. My order ended up being $25 cheaper than the first time. Now THAT’S good customer service! My only gripe with them was it took them a long time to remove the first charge from my debit card, so I had two charges pending at the same time.

Cabelas – Another store with GREAT customer service, from start to finish. I saw their Black Friday ad several days in advance and knew there were a couple things in there that I wanted to get. I also knew there was no way we’d have time to get to Cabela’s on Black Friday for their specials. I called their Customer Service # the day before Thanksgiving, and asked if I bought that items that day, if they would refund the different when they went on sale on Black Friday. The rep said they would, and sure enough I called their 800# on Black Friday with my order # in hand, they refunded the money straight back to my debit card. Cabelas also offered free shipping. We have never been disappointed with any purchase made at their stores or their website. Excellent products, excellent customer service.

Wal-Mart – I would rather be strung up by my pubic hairs than shop in a Wal-Mart store anytime between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s just not worth it. So when they had a digital camera I needed to buy for someone, I decided to check out their website. Of the many things I do not like about Wal-Mart, there are two that stand out specifically. One, they are stingy with their shipping. They never offer free shipping, and with the huge conglomerate that Wal-Mart is, they should pony up the perks and offer free shipping more than once a decade. My other complaint is that the products Wal-mart offers on their website, And the PRICES of those items, many times will vary greatly from what they have in their store. THAT BOTHERS ME. Sometimes the website is cheaper, and sometimes the store is cheaper. I am always very careful shopping from Wal-Mart’s website, but if the price difference is small enough, it keeps me from shopping there on a weekend in December, and thats mostly worth it. Sidenote: Don’t be fooled by Wal-Mart’s free “Ship To Store” option. I have tried that twice– you order online, and they ship it to the store for free. All you have to do (supposedly) is go to their Customer Service Desk and pick it up. WRONG. Two different Wal-Mart stores, two different ship-to-store experiences from hell. Just say no.

Younkers – For those of you not in the midwest, Younkers is a store in the chain of Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. (Bergner’s, Carson Pirie Scott, Herberger’s). When you buy something from any of their store websites, you never know which store will actually send you the items. I ordered a set of Fiesta Ware dishes from Younkers.com 2 years ago, and got the dishes from Bergner’s, Carson Pirie Scott, and one from Younkers. So it just busts my chops when I get online on Black Friday to score their door buster deals, only to find they were completely wiped out of every single one of the 8 items I wanted to purchase. This year I wanted to get my mom a set of dishes. She was dying to have a set of Fiesta Ware dishes just like mine, so at $48 a place setting, I had to find a good deal. Younkers offered them at $19.97 each, over 1/2 price, but of course they were out of stock. (Wonder if they were ever actually IN STOCK to begin with??) So they got none of my money this year. Sorry Younkers!

Macy’s & Kohls – I put these two together because I ordered the same items from both places. See the above Younkers story?
I found the same Fiesta Ware 5-piece place settings at Kohls’ on sale for $26.99 each. Add in the coupon I had brought them down to $21.95 each. Problem is, I needed 8 different colors, and they only had 5. So I ordered 5 from Kohls, with FREE SHIPPING. Macy’s matched Kohl’s price, and I got two more sets from them for $26.99 with FREE SHIPPING. The 8th and final set I ordered from the company below.

Now, the best for last…

Amazon.com – I pink puffy heart Amazon. I wanna hump Amazon’s leg with glee, because they offer FREE SHIPPING all year round with only a $25 minimum purchase. I have bought so many things from them, from books to clothes, to Harley Davidson t-shirts for my dog. They have everything, and they offer great deals on Cyber Monday, baby. My youngest has been wanting a Wii game called “My Sims: Agents” with an average price tag of about $47. I had looked everywhere– WalMart, Target, Toys R Us, the price was pretty much the same at every store. BUT, I checked Amazon.com the other day, and discovered it was one of there Daily Deals… for $19.99!!! (and FREE SHIPPING, dude!) Go Amazon!

Many people are wary of online shopping, but it has been a great experience for me. I can get a lot of shopping done in a very short amount of time, and I don’t have to spend all day shopping at 10 different places. I don’t have to worry about shopping with my kids in tow, or finding time in between basketball practice and gymnastics. I just buy it, and its delivered to my door. Plus, it insures I won’t be on the 10:00 news as the woman that got trampled in the Wal-Mart store fighting over a video game. Because, me staying away from that store is really more for YOUR protection than mine. I’m just sayin’…

Disclosure: I got nothing from any of these businesses for pimpin’ out their websites. Period.

Money Sucker and her Little Sister, Time Waster: Can Alice Save the Day?

I have a problem.

I can walk into any Wal-Mart or Target with a list in hand, and come out with at least twice that. Maybe sometimes even more. Send me to Wal-Mart to get toilet paper, and I will come home with a new movie, People magazine, Little Debbie snacks, some apples, 8 10 12 things from the clearance aisle (they were only a quarter each!), a new razor for shaving my stubbly legs, and maybe the toilet paper I needed in the first place. As you can see, Wal-Mart stores are a time-sucker for me. How many times have you gone to Wal-Mart or Target and spent way too much time looking through the clearance aisles, throwing items into your cart you don’t need, and probably will later regret buying anyways?

*waving hand wildly* ME! I do that!

My typical Wal-Mart expedition is for every one item on my list, I have to stop and gawk at probably 2 or 3 additional items, one or two—or three—(GOD, I’m addicted) – of which will probably end up coming home with me on that 12 mile journey.

Surely there is a 12-step program for this, right?

One of the other problems we have is that we don’t live “in town” anymore. We have to get on the interstate and TRAVEL to Wal-Mart – which is about 12-13 miles. And Target is even farther. It’s not a jaunt down the road anymore, so we always feel the need to stock up when we go. A trip to Wal-Mart on any given weeknight or weekend requires at least 90 minutes to drive there, shop, and drive home.

And I am being conservative on the 90 minutes. With us, it’s usually more like 2 hours.

About a month ago, someone recommended Alice.com to me. If you have read anything about my obsession of having an Alice in my house, you can understand why just hearing her name perks my ears up a bit. I decided the other day to see what this Alice chick was all about, and like Janet Jackson croons, ask ol’ Alice “What have you done for me lately?”

ooo, ooo, ooooooooh, yeah…

So Alice. You’re FREE to sign-up and open an account with. You offer FREE shipping. As a first-time customer, I don’t even have to order the 6-item minimum (but I SO did anyway), and your prices are OK. What’s your catch?

I looked around on her website, and I decided to give Alice.com a try. First I tried looking for the shampoo I use (Garnier 2-in-1 Shampoo/Conditioner) and found they didn’t carry it. BUT, they do have a pop-up box you can click to suggest an item to them.

Which, of course I did.

Because I like telling people what to do.

Looking through their site, I noticed there are several ways you can do your shopping. You can shop by room (bathroom, kitchen, pantry, laundry room, etc), shop for only Green/Organiz products, By Brand, By Coupons, or you can just simply type in what items you are looking for in the Search box. I chose the minimum 6 items, all of which are items I regularly use. I picked a variation of liquid items, heavy items, and bulky items to test out their packaging and shipping process. Here are the items I chose:

Garnier Volume Injecting Mousse: $3.40

Skintimate Shaving Gel: $2.51

Angel Soft Double Rolls, 12 rolls: $7.47 – $0.50 coupon = $6.97

Arm & Hammer Laundry Detergent, 2x Concentrated 50oz. (32 loads): $4.92

Bounce Dryer Sheets, 160 count: $7.45

Jet Dry Dishwasher Additive, 4.22 oz. : $3.05

When checking out, it gives you suggestions of other items which have coupons available. (For example, it suggested Dove deodorant with a $1.oo off coupon) in case I stink. Also, Duracell batteries with a $0.75 coupon, in case I need batteries for um, something. Adding in a “Tailored Just for You” idea of Cover Girl mascara ($1 off!) made me question just what the hell type of person I am?

Deodorant, batteries, and mascara?

Apparently, someone is thinking I am a stinky downtown street corner hooker that uses the heck out of her sex toys?

Ahem. Anyways…

I got to the billing/shipping page, plugged in my address and moved on the final page. The payment.

Alice.com currently only accepts credit cards (or debit cards, as long as they have Visa or MasterCard logo on them.) I input my debit card information and my order was sent. Depending on where you are located in the country, it indicates order can take anywhere from 1-6 business days to arrive. Because Alice.com is located in the Midwest, I was given a 2-3 day timeframe for my shipment to arrive.

To be continued… in 2-3 business days!

Disclosure: Alice.com was recommended to me by some fellow bloggers at the recent I_Blog Conference. I am not being paid or rewarded in any way for my opinions. I just wanted to share my online shopping experience.

Paper or Plastic? Pets, Career & Retirement… oh, and Black Friday

Today’s interview questions come from Noelle of Elastic Waistbands and Comfortable Shoes and Mae Rae of In & Out of the Bubble.

Noelle wants to know:

1. Paper or plastic? Or are you green?
I am a bad person. I do not use reusable grocery bags. I always opt for plastic, and I almost always try to reuse them. They are great for using as garbage bags in my bathroom wastebaskets. They are great for doubling up to use for scooping out the cat litter box. They are wonderful for transporting wet swimsuits, too! We currently have three bags FULL of plastic grocery bags in our kitchen closet, and they only get thrown away if they are ripped or have a hole in them. I have made it a goal of mine, though, to switch to reusable bags for grocery shopping. Eventually. I swear.

2. If you could have any animal in the world as a pet, what would it be and why?
I’m going to be lame and just say a dog. There is no animal I would rather have for companionship than my two dogs. They are lovable, loyal and they get excited when I come home everyday. They follow me everywhere in the house, which may or may not be because i am the keeper of the treats. But I really do love the little stinkers.

3. What would be your dream career?
If you read me “About Me” page, you will see that as a child, there were things I wanted to be when I grew up.

A teacher. And a trapeze girl.

I think the trapeze girl idea came from some show that used to be on. Some Circus of the Stars thing? Does anyone remember something like that coming in the late 70s/early 80s?

Seriously, though– I have always wanted to be a teacher, and it has nothing to do with the summers off thing. Although, that would be great, right? I was always very specific with what type of teacher I wanted to be. I wanted to teach first grade, and I wanted to be a math teacher. I have no idea why, other than my favorite teacher in elementary school was my 1st grade teacher, and I can still to this day remember her teaching me math. I am a math nerd now, so she must have done something right!

4. What would you like to do when you retire?
I hope to be able to travel with my husband, shop with my daughters, and spoil my grandchildren rotten!

And Mae Rae’s questions:

What makes you get up at the crack of dawn to go shopping?
Now that almost all of my kids are teenagers, I don’t have to buy any more toys. There are no Barbies, Bratz dolls, or Elmo toys to fight the crowds for on Black Friday. Funny thing is, for the last several years, there has not been one single thing that we HAD to go out and look for on Black Friday. My mom, sister and I and spend Thanksgiving night poring over the ads (while eating pie!), deciding where we want to go first, and what we want to look at in each store. To us, its more the fact that we are doing something together than the actual shopping. We enjoy the occasional good deal, we relish the people-watching, and we laugh about the crazies that come out of the woodwork for this one day of the year. It’s a bonding thing we have as a family. It’s just fun for us.

This year, we started our shopping on Thanksgiving Day. We managed to shop at Bass Pro Shop, K-Mart, and Michaels on Thanksgiving night. We attemped to head over to Toys R Us for their midnight opening, but ended up leaving because the line to get in the door stretched at least 3 city blocks. Were we upset? NO! We got to go home and sleep for a couple hours, because there wasn’t anything we were dying to have. We just wanted to go to be able to say we did it!

I got back up at 3am Friday morning, and drug my 14-year old daughter with me. We were at Kohls by 4am when the doors opened, and we lasted about 10 minutes in the store before running away screaming deciding to try someplace else. We ended up heading to the mall, where we shopped at Younkers, JC Penney, Justice, American Eagle, and even TradeHome Shoes. We had pizza and garlic bread in the food court at 5am, and were back home for a nap by 8am.

And it was probably some of the best bonding time my daughter and I ever had. WE laughed over the people shopping in pajamas and slippers. We rolled our eyes at the crabby people fighting for bargains and DoorBuster deals. Bottom line, we had FUN.

After a fews hours of sleep, I was ready to head back out with my mom and sister. We hit Costco, Target, WalMart, and Cabelas. All in all, a successful Thanksgiving shopping weekend.

Was it worth it?
Considering I spent an incredible time with my mom, my sister, and my oldest daughter AND that I got almost all of my Christmas shopping done– it was SO WORTH IT.

Would you like to interview me? Just leave me your interview questions in the comments of this post!

Make sure you enter the Get Organized! Contest– ending soon.

I could have gotten a crocheted doll head for $1.99

It has been a long time since I have gone shopping at a thrift store. I used to enjoy spending a couple hours on many a Saturday morning in the area Salvation Army or Goodwill stores.  I could walk out of either store on any given day with some great finds. I would put up with the musty basement smell that accompanies all visits to a thrift store. I would ignore the dirty people and snot-nosed kids climbing in and out of rickety shopping carts. I would ignore the crocheted doll heads and the smelly old shoes (like someone will really BUY THOSE!), and the Commodore 64 game systems.  I would climb over the smelly stained furniture and the 70s pea green sets of dishes.  

I knew how to find the good stuff.

I was on a mission. I am proud to say that I have scored some great deals over my years of shopping thrift stores. Name-brand clothing (sometimes with the tags still on them!) for a fraction of the retail cost. Funky household items that would get rave reviews from visitors to my home, always in awe of where I found such a neat item.  If you came to my house, you would probably be surprised at all the things I could point out in my home that came from a thrift store (and many from garage sales).  I am proud of my bargain shopping abilities.

But last weekend, something changed.   I decided since I had a few hours with nothing to do, I would head over to one of my favorite Goodwill stores and see what I could find.  I had recently purchased a new curio cabinet, and was looking for some neat colorful glass pieces to put in it.  I have a secret Goodwill store I like to go to, because it is just on the outskirts of a pretty swanky area.    It seems to be the one store that all the rich people take their stuff to, so the treasures are usually in good supply.

I walked into the store last Saturday afternoon, and headed straight back to the housewares section.  Last time I was in this store, I scored not one– but TWO– Longaberger baskets, both priced at $1.99. 

Seriously.  If you live in the Des Moines metro area, this is the Goodwill store you need to check out.

Or, at least it WAS.

While expecting to see lots of fun tihngs to buy, my eyes pored over piles of crap.  A framed Backstreet Boys mirror that someone probably won playing a game at the fair.  A crocheted doll face that was probably also a Kleenex box cover.  (sidenote:  those crocheted doll faces scare the crap out of me).

The baskets?  they were broken and stained, and just plain ugly.  The glass items were all chipped, covered in stickers, or full of a pile of gunk at the bottom of them.

I was disappointed, and I blame the economy.   A few years ago, when things were going well… Most all of us had money to spend.  We had disposable income.  We had jobs.   We had good health insurance, and we were content.

Today, people rely on these stores for stuff.  More people shopping there = more people stealing my treasures.

Mr. President, please fix this economic mess we are in, and get those people outta mah Goodwill store.  It’s been a long time since I’ve scored big at the store, and I am going through withdrawal.