Do you notice anything…different about me? Over there, under the ad. There’s an email subscription thingie. I got it because Sundry’s aunt is having some trouble with her email notification service, and I told her in a know-it-all tone of voice that Blogger didn’t even HAVE such things. Then I was like, “Maybe I’d better check my facts? I’m just saying.” So I did, and I found a way it COULD be done, so then I had to eat my words. And also: had to add an email service thing.
Let’s consider it to be in Test Mode for the time being. This is because whenever I publish a post, I then go back and edit a typo, and then I republish. Then I notice an awkward phrase, and I go back and fix it, and then I republish. And then I see another typo, and so I fix it and republish. And if this is going to lead to everyone receiving four, no five, no SIX emails saying I have the SAME new post, then that is not going to work out for any of us.
Plus, it looks like it might send out updates at a specific time each day, rather than right after the post is posted, and what good is THAT? So I don’t know. I may want to take this one down and put up a new one, and then you’d have to resubscribe, and really it might not be worth the hassle. Why not wait and see if it works out first, is what I would do.
I went to Target yesterday with Rob and William and Henry because—get this—Rob and William ASKED TO GO. My genes are presenting! So while my mom had playtime with the twins, I took the other three kids to the store.
We got this little guy. He’s a trash can, and he was 75% off. I love his little front claws, and his satisfied “just ate some yummy trash” expression. I’m thinking he would make a good compost bin. Right now we’re using big yogurt containers, which are ugly.
I bought ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY POUNDS of cat litter. They had 40-pound bins for $10, and normally the 28-pound bins are $10. You cannot believe how heavy the cart was to push around with these things in there.
I let Rob and William each choose a notebook, and together they chose a package of pens. I’m hoping this will reduce the whining they do when I make them write in their journals each day during summer vacation.
This Dial Mandarin Grapefruit handsoap was on sale for $1. I hope I like it as much as the Softsoap Grapefruit handsoap I bought on sale last week, which I LOVE.
I bought a few more reusable Target bags, which I love so much I want to run off to Vegas with them. They fold up into cute little squares that snap closed, but they expand into flat-bottomed, comfy-handled fabric bags with several times the capacity of a usual plastic Target shopping bag. And they have a darling decoration of birdies and trees on them! And they’re only $1.50 each! Love.
I don’t even know what I’m going to do with these fabric-covered bins. I just knew as soon as I saw them that they were going home with me. They were 75% off, so they were $3.24 each (down from $13 each).
Stack of six aqua plastic cups for a grand total of 48 cents. I can’t remember if that was 50% off or 75% off—they weren’t expensive cups to begin with. We only have two big plastic cups, and Paul is always using one when he comes home from work, putting it in the sink, and then using the other one at dinner, which means I either have to wash a cup or use a small cup. NO MORE.
I thought these earrings were pretty. And you know, every time I see purple stuff now I think of Jess Loolu and wonder whether she’d consider it real purple or not. I couldn’t get a good picture of these, but they have eggplant-colored enamel sunk down into the valleys of a gold design. They were 75% off: $1.74 down from $6.99.
I am a huge big fan of the plastic cup. I am freaky about glass touching my teeth. If my drink is in a glass, I I have to have a straw.
I love the purple earrings.
Sorry to be so ignorant, but with the bags, do you just bring them with you to the store? I am fascinated with this.
do i sense a little countertop compost container one upsmanship ;) That monster is super cute; totally beats a bowl (and quite a step up from yogurt containers). Perhaps you could put a yogurt container IN it to reduce the need to clean?
I thought it was a cookie jar. DUH, Shannon. It sure is cute.
Okay, I want the trash can, the bins and the cat litter. Hopefully my Target will have it NEXT week when I get paid. If not, well, it’s probably a good thing.
Man. I’m so glad there are people like me in the world. It makes me feel less alone.
Shoeaddict- Yes: you just toss the neat little bag-squares into the empty cart, and you do your shopping, and then at the checkout you send the squares down the belt first. The cashier takes the bags, opens them, puts your stuff into them. Then the bags stand upright in the car instead of slumping over. They = awesome! Only problem: REMEMBERING TO TAKE THEM TO THE STORE.
Melissa H- Your bowl totally inspired me! “Self,” I said to myself, “The compost container does not need to be quite so ugly.”
Nice Target purchases! Love the earrings….I’m intrigued by you having your kids write in journals. What kind of stuff do they write about? Is it every day?
I am totally loving on your Target purchases, but I have to know: Did you have to ferret about the story crazily to find these sales?
I cannot handle digging through tons of stuff to find one well-priced item.
Also, Target has become the $100 store for me, so I rarely set foot in there anymore. But if I knew where to find the clearance stuff I might amend that rule.
Nice stuff!
But I have to ask: how do you keep your house from being, well, overwhelmed with STUFF?
It seems like every time I get new stuff, I have nowhere to put it. It is so depressing that now I hardly ever get anything new.
I keep telling myself to get rid of a lot of stuff first. Since that hasn’t happened yet, nothing new for me around here.
on another note, I use the large yogurt containers for compost too. I don’t mind that they are ugly because they tend to get kinda scummy anyway.
:)
I use the Home Depot canvas bags – they have handles that hook on to the sides of your cart and you just load it back up at the end! However, they don’t roll up as compactly as I’d like them to and I may have to check out these Target bags.
My B would be very jealous, she wanted that trash bin when we were in the bathroom aisle picking out a new rug. I didn’t get it because it didn’t go. And knew that it would be like the Dora trash can of days gone by. Cute trash cans cannot be used for actual trash! But only doll beds and storage bins and animals cages (so says my B).
Looks like another great trip – I was thinking you had done a shopping post in quite some time!
You know, a reusable Target bag might be just what I need. We already have a few canvas tote bags from the co-op grocery store and one of those string bags that can be used for lots of things, but I find that I only remember them when I’m going to the grocery store or the farmer’s market. Perhaps a lovely red Target bag that lives in my car between errand running expeditions is the solution to my endlessly expanding Target bag collection under the bathroom sink (I use them for trash bags).
Also, I’m finding myself quite jealous of all of your fantastic Target scores (especially the purple earrings — so cute!). I was just there yesterday, but I just might need to make another trip very soon!
Those earrings look purple to me, though computer screens can be deceiving (as I have learned the hard way). Also, I like the purple of the trash can’s belly. And the purple of the cat litter labels, if I’m being totally honest.
Yay Swistle! We need cat litter SO badly, now I know where to send my husband. I just hope they don’t have a limit on how many you can get.
We keep our Whole Foods bags in each of the cars (they give some sort of rebate for using them, which is nice) and I have a collapsible basket I use at the grocery store for getting small purchases. The only problem is remembering to put them back in the car from the house. Too bad you don’t get points for trying…
I realllyyyyyyy miss Target, not having one in NYC sucks major ass because look at all the fabulous stuff you got!!! And for such great deals!
Have a great weekend :)
I unpack my reusable bags when I get home and then stick them right back in the van. (or have a child run them out). I love Target so much. My hubby doesn’t like me going there!
I think I need some of those bags too. Can you use them somewhere besides Target? It they stood up in my grocery cart my bananas would stop getting squished! You are the Target Queen. I’m going to have to think up a few reasons to go to Target now…
Kathi A- I totally copy the way their teachers do it in school. For my first grader (I mean, that’s the grade he just completed), I expect him to write three or four sentences on a topic I give him or on a topic he chooses. His teacher started them off with a partial sentence such as “Last weekend I…” or “At the park I…” For my third grader (again, that’s the year he just completed), I expect him to write a full (single-side) page on a topic I choose or a topic he chooses. I might give him a nudge if he’s stuck, but if I say, “Write one page, everything you know about turtles,” or “Write one page, everything you remember about 3rd grade,” that’s about his level.
Because I like to save the journals, I try to have them write on topics I think will be interesting to us later (“My siblings,” “What I like about being 8,” “What I want to be when I grow up”), in addition to topics they find interesting now (“My favorite foods,” “Plot of the last movie I saw,” “Plot of the last book I read”).
CardioGirl- I have a route that takes me past the deals, which are on the “endcaps” (the ends of aisles near the walls). It’s as quick as going through the store the regular way, but with the benefit of walking past the clearance stuff rather than walking past the newly-put-out stuff.
Pann- My house IS kind of overwhelmed with stuff! But mostly, the stuff I buy is stuff we have a need for. I have a running mental list, and if we can we go without until I find a deal. So, for example, I’ve been looking for plastic cups for nearly a year, and we have a place to put them because we’re low on the plastic cups we were using before. And the compost dragon replaces the yogurt container. (He has an inner bucket that can be washed.) The cat litter and soap are deals on things we use. The notebooks are not difficult to incorporate. The bags replace disposable plastic bags, and they’ll live in the car. The earrings slide easily into the jewelry box. And the bins make cluttery shelves look tidier.
MzEll- I have some bags just like the Target ones but with our grocery store’s name on them, and I feel shy about bringing those to another store. But the Target ones seem more discreet (a funny thing to say about BRIGHT RED), because the decoration isn’t, like, a huge Target symbol. I’m thinking of taking them when I shop at Walmart! Hee hee!
I was in Target last week and first off let me say everytime I’m in Target I think of how maybe I’ll see you in there, not that you even live near me, I don’t think so anyways. And second off you must be the type of person that always finds the best deals because I didn’t find that many deals, I did find some though, but you always seem to hit it just right or something.
And BTW, love the trashcan and I thought it was a cookie jar too as first. :)
I. Love. Target.
Why haven’t they come to Canada? I am perplexed.
Is it lame that I want to go to Target when I am in SF three weeks from now? I sure hope not. Because I am going, no matter what.
Gotta love Target. The only store that my spawn ask to shop at as well. I don’t know what they pump into the air there, but it’s definitely some special sauce.
And why, if each individual item is so inexpensive, can I NOT leave that store for under $100?
You’re quite the bargain hunter! How come I never find such deeply discounted merchandise at Target? I love Target, but I always walk out of there having spent so much money. I guess that’s what happens when you think you are getting such great deals – you just buy, buy, buy.
Samantha and Kim O.- Do you shop the endcaps? Those are the aisle-ends toward the walls. That’s where they usually put the lowest-marked clearance stuff. I walk that route rather than through the main aisles (which is where they put all the new, full-price stuff). But even so, I don’t find great deals every time. I go there for tp and paper towels and diapers, and sometimes I find good deals too.
I love the little trash monster! I thought he was a cookie jar at first too, but it’s almost cuter that he’s in it for the trash. He looks so satisfied.
I bow to your Target shopping skills because I am terrible at it. In the spirit of Swistle I headed toward the clearance aisle one day and NOTHING WAS LEFT. Clearly I need to hone my approach.
I really like the earrings. They look ancient. Like Cleopatra or something.
Ok, not that I didn’t already want to go to Target tonight, but now I SOOOO need to go.
I need me some more cat litter, and $10 for 40 lbs! Wow! Plus, I could really use those fabric bins….
And you compost? Near my Target is my Costco, which has the compost bin that I want to buy (but keep forgetting to get the big cart when I walk in and I never have enough time to make two full trips through the registers, etc). Anyway… my husband is still very fearful of me starting to compost, but it feels very right to me. Any suggestions for a brand new composter?
Michelle- The composting is Paul’s pet project, and we’re new to it too. So all I’ve got is, “Put food scraps where told by Paul. Wait for Paul to empty it into The Outside Bin. Cover ears when informed excitedly re worms.”
I think it is great that you have them do journals over the summer (um, not that you asked me). There is so much evidence of all the ground kids lose over the summer, and being engaged in just the littlest big of reading/writing/math can really help stave of that backsliding. I think I read a study once that suggested reading even one appropriately leveled book a week was helpful. I don’t think people need to be running summer school every day, but a little bit goes a long, long way!!!
If you ever get stuck, I have a book with at least a journal prompt for every day of the year which I’d be happy to share; although it sounds like you are doing just fine coming up with things on your own.
I was channelling my inner Swistle yesterday and went to Target myself. And I could find NO good deals…so clearly I wasn’t doing so great at the channelling of the inner Swistle after all.
But perhaps I was just not at a good Target — I think that seeing your finds might have inspired me to try again tomorrow…
Kelsey- YES! That’s exactly what motivated me: I saw some study that said kids lose MONTHS of the previous grade over the summer, and that even a LITTLE maintenance helped. So they have to read for awhile each day, and they have to write for awhile each day, and I was thinking of doing the math drill my mom did with us: she called it MM (Mental Math) and gave us one M&M for each one we got right. It was a nice summer treat! But I’m certain I’ll end up eating most of the M&Ms myself.
Maggie- It does vary. Sometimes I go and I find NOTHING. Well, except for boring old toilet paper and boring old dish soap or whatever. But no deals, no steals, no fun things.
You always get such good stuff. And I am in desperate mad love with the garbage can. Also, $1.50 for the target bags?!?! Ahhhh! Must. Go. Buy. Some. NOW!
You should totally give a couple of those away as your pay it forward thingy. You know, :) if you are taking suggestions. For those of us without a Target in a 20 mile radius.
Misty- Hee! You totally guessed one of my things! I bought a couple extra bags to add to my PiF!
You are the QUEEN of Target shopping. I love seeing what you scored!