The hardest part of this plan has been explaining the whole deal to the hubby and kids, although they’ve all been great sports about me saying no to Taco Bell or shopping trips just to “look,” etc.

Today my 12yo and I went to Dollar Tree.  I thought I’d try purchasing paper towels, trash bags and those sorts of things there, rather than Walmart.  We also had been planning to cheer up some friends who recently had a death in the family.  Our families have been trading a dog skeleton (Halloween decoration) back and forth with various costumes and treats.  His name is “Sticks.”  We bought him a grass skirt and lei, and we got some water toys and candy for the kids.  Sticks will deliver that in a plastic margarita glass this evening.  We do the ding-dong ditch thing.  I also got shampoo, condition, trash bags, papers towels, food storage containers, plastic spray bottles (for homemade cleaners), Oxy bleach and a couple other things.  Total was $33.

After, we hit up Walmart and made a few returns.  I bought milk, hot dogs, generic lunchables ($1 each), gatorade and cookies for daughter’s upcoming week at camp, refilled a five gallon water jug, got sugar, wine (for a recipe), olive oil and a few cans of my beloved Peace Tea.  I would much rather pack her a sandwich or other lunch/snacks for camp, but apparently you’re cool if you bring something terribly processed and prepackaged. 🙂  My walmart trip was $66, to which I applied my $29 gift card plus $37 in cash…all from my returns.  I had about 6 dollars left over as well.  So nothing out of pocket there today.