Where Does it All Go?

Have you ever noticed how quickly money can disappear? It disappears even faster when you only have a meager income to begin with. I have a cycle that I tend to follow with the proceeds from the patterns I sell on etsy. I usually ignore it for a while. It starts out small and you can't buy much with just a few dollars. So it sits there and slowly accumulates. Then suddenly I'm surprised that it's more than $10. Yes, for me that's a lot. Add a Michaels' or Joann's coupon for 40-50% off and I'm a happy camper. That happens to be where most of my pattern proceeds go -towards more craft stuff. That way I don't have to justify the expense to my darling husband who happens to do all of our finances. So I spend a little on me and a little on my son (my daughter's too young to feel left out yet) and then we start all over again -ignoring the few cents left over.

So on Wednesday (that's the day that I get the car since we only have one) I loaded up my two kids and we went to Michaels. It wasn't for me this time. We bought t-shirts for my five year old since they were on sale for $2. The catch is that he can't wear them until the fall when he starts school. I picked up a pink one for my daughter, but it's currently way too big for her (they don't carry toddler sizes) so I'll either save it or turn it into a t-shirt dress. We made it through the store with only one major crying spell (my two year old wanted the red shopping cart and my five year old chose the brown one).

On to the next store. Target. We were in search of basil. My aunt gave us a pesto recipe that we are hopelessly addicted to now. We put it in spaghetti sauce and also make a creamy pesto with it. Mmmm, yummy. Since we're running low, we decided to plant basil. But when you live in a second story apartment, you don't just plant basil. You have to buy a pot, dirt, something to keep it away from little fingers, the basil plant, plus seeds for the older child because he hates to be left out of big messy and potentially expensive projects. Back to Target. They didn't have basil.

So we went to K-Mart. This may sound like a lot of wasted gas, but they were all in the same complex. So instead of driving, we walked back and forth. My daughter decided that she was unsure about the experience and needed to cling to me like a koala bear the entire time. She's around 25 pounds so carrying her can wear you out after the first store. I'm getting really good at pushing shopping carts one-handed now thanks to her.

So at K-Mart we found the basil, some hang the pot over the balcony things and some Ipomopsis seeds (a humming bird mix) for my son. Thinking that I wasn't buying much, I didn't grab a cart on the way in. Silly me. So I'm carrying my 25 pound koala bear, an awkward metal hanger thing, and two wet gooey biodegradable pots containing basil. My son carried yet another metal thing and his beloved seeds. So we made it to the check out counter, leaving a trail of water from the dripping pots. Why do I always get behind the lady that has a problem with her purchase? At least my daughter offered me her used tissue so that I could clean the dirt off my hands while we waited. Eventually I got to make my purchase and before I left I noticed a mistake on the receipt. They didn't take the advertised 20% off of my metal things, but of course I have to wait to tell the cashier because someone else had a mistake that needed to be taken care of first. Then she tells me that I have to take it to the customer service desk. I did. It was awkward, but we made it and I got my $3.41 back.

We made it back to the car. That was a feat as well since we didn't park in front of K-Mart, we parked in front of Circuit City. At this point I'm grateful that my kids were fairly good through the entire process even though it's almost lunch time. So home, lunch, and the two year old goes down for a nap. Everyone loves that time of day. So my son and I head out to the balcony to plant his precious seeds. I pull out the left over potting soil that I already had and dump it into the pot that I already had. See, there's a reason we keep things. However, there's not enough soil. Not even close. So I waited until after dinner when I could leave the kids with my husband and pick up dirt while running his errands.

Finally we got to plant my son's seeds. He was very excited. Now let's hope he's patient. The seed envelope said it takes 2-3 weeks for the seeds to sprout. I have no doubt that he'll be checking on them everyday until then. He already checked on them three times today.

If you were keeping track throughout this rambling narrative, you may have caught that I didn't mention planting my basil. That's because I didn't. My two little basil plants are still sitting in their soggy biodegradable pots because I ran out of dirt. I have a nice pot, which won't fit the second metal hanging thing that I bought, but it doesn't matter since I don't have enough dirt anyway. Not only that, but my funds have run dry. Yep, I'm poor again. So that is where my money went this month. Into the ground more or less. At least my son is happy and I'm half a step closer to my pesto.