Our Saturday, and the Mall (again :)

Yesterday we had several ideas about what to do:

1. Go apple picking so that I could make applesauce this week.

2. Scrub the bathrooms, touch up paint and wash the trim around the house.

3. Go shopping for a coat for Ruby, shoes for Noah, and birthday presents for Isaac and Noah.  

#1 didn’t work out because I called around, and the only place we could go picking had sprayed their trees.  The only places to get organic apples had a “light season” (I wonder if it’s related to the bee shortage?). We could buy already picked organic apples for $1.50 per lb (vs. picking them for .60!)....At $1.50 per lb I think it is cheaper to just buy jars of organic unsweetened applesauce this year....Bummer!

#2 The bathrooms look clean, I can just see detail work that needs to be done...The paint can wait...And who (besides me) looks at the trim?? :)

#3 We ended up going to Costo, and the mall.

At Costco--

Amazing samples that day, most gluten free!!  

At the mall--re: coat & shoes--

I had a goal of finding a coat for Ruby & shoes for Noah for under $50. That should be do-able, right? Note that I haven’t had good luck finding either of those items at a thrift store...

Oh--and when we got to the mall, Ruby’s pants were wet. Her diaper wasn’t super wet, so we *think* it’s that she spilled her drink on herself in the car...But her pants were pretty wet....So I picked up a $5 pair at Sears and changed her....So my coat/shoe budget went down to $45...

We went to all of “cheap” stores--Sears, JC Penny...Then Macy’s (not cheap), avoiding all of those “expensive” stores like GAP kids and Gymboree. I could not find a coat for Ruby for under $35, even after the Columbus Day discounts (and none of them were very cute, either!). That would leave $10 for Noah’s shoes--but I couldn’t find any shoes under $29.  

I was about to give up, and then we decided to stop in at those “expensive” shops, just to check.  In Gymboree, I found an adorable pair of converse-looking shoes for $19! Awesome! And then I found the cutest coat I’d seen all day....Oh, but it was $47.....Bummer.....So I was just going to buy the shoes, hopeful I’d find another coat for $25 instead of $35, somewhere. The lady asked me if I had any Gymbucks.  I did! I had them at home though--from a September Gymboree trip when I got the boys matching long sleeved polos (on clearance) and Ruby a pink cardigan (on sale). I had $25 in Gymbucks. Which meant, I could get both the shoes AND the coat for $41! PERFECT!  It would mean another trip to the mall (on Sunday--before the sale ended), but oh well, right??

Right. We couldn’t find my Gymbucks at home. Any. Where.  I was dreaming about those Gymbucks.  Finally, this morning, we were in the den, looking through the bill box, the receipts and the coupons again, and I said “the last place I remember seeing it was on this couch right here” (we have a little loveseat in our den), and I asked Karry if he could help me move the couch just to make sure it didn’t go underneath. An guess what???? There it was--my $25 Gymbucks coupon stapled to my receipt. ROCK ON!

We decided to bite the bullet and order online & pay for shipping--which made our total (with the pants from Sears) $52--a little over our goal, but that is ok....Still, at minimum, at the “cheap stores,” we would have paid $64 for an ugly coat and shoes that were just ok.  And with shipping, our total was $47--that’s $17 less--and a super nice coat (2 layers that unzip from each other, ruffles, pink--so cute), and very cute shoes.....

I think a lot of people think of Gymboree as being very expensive, compared to the other stores in the mall. But after all of my searching, it ended up being the cheapest!  And I know that’s *with* my Gymbucks coupon, so I had to buy something there before. But even if you just compare the total before the coupons--$64 for the ugly coat & ok shoes at Sears--or $64 for an awesome coat & nice shes at Gymboree. What would you pick??

Getting presents--

I love it that our kids are at the age (still) where we can take them shopping, buy their birthday presents, and they have *no clue* that we are doing that!  They would point at something that they liked, and Karry would distract them, and I’d buy it and shove it under the stroller, or sneak it out to the car....And they had no clue. I love it!

The economy--

I keep hearing that retailers are preparing for 50% less sales this Christmas season, etc. In our experience out there yesterday, the economy doesn’t appear as bad as “they” say it is. Costco was jam-packed just like every other Saturday. There were a ga-zillion (ok, maybe 25 or 30) people watching the Vitamix demonstration at Costco, drooling over the $350 blender.  We stopped at Burgerville, and the drive through was INSANE!  It was SO busy! Every restaurant we drove past had people waiting outside.  The mall was BUSY!  We went in the Lego store, and Noah got a little $3.50 kit with his money, and Karry felt like we must be the stingiest parents in the store because lots of kids were walking out with huge lego kits.  There were kids getting lots of $12 Build-a-Bear outfits for their plush toys.  It was very, very busy there, and it is not even Christmas yet....What do you all think? Do you think it’s as bad as “they” say it is?