Thursday, July 8, 2010

Going To Town

When I was growing up, Saturday was the day we "went to town".  Which is kind of funny, because for most of my childhood we lived "in town" and my mom stayed home. Any day of the week could have been "go to town" day.  Anyway, Saturday was the day I went with Mom to buy groceries, go to the dime store (in the days before Wal-Mart), and do whatever other errands needed to be done. 

I loved Saturdays as a teen.  I could usually talk Mom into buying me a magazine (Teen, Seventeen, Young Miss or even Cosmo) and a bag of the (then) new nacho-cheese flavored Doritos.  Once back home, I'd devour both while watching American Bandstand on TV.  I kind of miss those days.

Lately, I've set aside Thursdays as the day I "go to town".  On a typical Thursday, I drop Kat at daycare or school, depending on the time of year, then I make the short rounds to our recycling dumpsters to dump glass, plastic and paper items.  Then I meet up with my "egg lady" in the grocery store parking lot to buy free-range eggs, which I put in one of those insulated reusable bags with one of those re-freezable blue ice packs.

After that, if there are errands I need to do in other parts of the city, I head there first and do those.  If I'm in the mood on the way home, I will stop at thrift stores, garage sales and maybe at the "dented can" (freight salvage) store.  Finally, once I'm back near my house, I do my grocery shopping.  Depending on the ads, I will shop at 1 to 5 different stores, getting just the things that are on sale.

If I'm still out at lunchtime, sometimes I will take myself to lunch, usually with a coupon for a fast food place. I'd say I do that about half of my Thursdays. Finally, I come home and get things put away, often just in time to leave again to get Kat.  Once in a while, like today, I'm home early to spend a lazy afternoon at home.

Thursdays are my day out to do my own thing.  I'm thinking that, once winter is here again and there aren't so many tempting garage sales*, they might be a good day for me to do the crafting that I never seem to have time to do.

Does anyone else have a day set-aside just for themselves?



* It's not entirely unusual here to see a garage sale now and then in the middle of winter.



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July Grocery/Pantry Challenge:

Items Purchased Today (store brand unless indicated):  2 dozen eggs from local farm, 1 gal. whole milk, 8 oz. cream cheese, 4 lb. sugar (won't need until next week, but on sale this week), 2 lb. dry pinto beans, 1 small jar sliced pimientos, 1 bell pepper, 2 lbs. green grapes, 2 large tomatoes, 3.25 lbs peaches, 1 lb. radishes and about 1/3 cup each of sliced mushrooms and celery from the salad bar. 

Amount Spent Today (including tax): $23.65

Amount Spent To Date in July (including tax): $58.39






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7 comments:

Frances said...

I grew up "in town", too, but when we went to visit my grandparents who lived in the country, we love to go town to buy penny candy. And it only cost a penny then!

I don't remember what day my mom grocery shopped, but I do it on Saturdays, unless something comes up, then I will go Sunday afternoon. I would love to be able to go on a weekday!

McVal said...

I WISH I had a day to myself! You're so lucky!
I grew up in the country, just a few miles away from "town". I don't recall an actual day that we went, just when Mom needed to get groceries. We weren't on a schedule per say...

Shelli said...

Fridays are just for me, even if I do try to get stuff done. If I want to, I take a nap. If I want to just sit and watch TV or read, I do that.

Sheila said...

I'd love a day to myself too! When we lived with my grandparents, we went to town on Saturdays--but we had to have the house spotless before we could leave. That wasn't hard to do because Ma-Maw kept a pretty much spotless house any way but it sure made us work faster!!
My favorite flavor of Doritos was the taco flavor--I tried the taco flavor they have out now--YUCK--nothing like I remembered it to be. Have a wonderful weekend.

Lisa B. said...

When I was little and we lived in the country, Saturday was "going to town" day. Later we moved to town and Saturday was still shopping day, after the house was cleaned. As I got older, and more stores were available here, my mother quit fighting the crowd on Saturday.

I don't set aside a specific day to do crafts. When I see something I want to do, then I make time to do it. But I dont do crafts regularly enough to have a certain day.

Sonya Ann said...

You are doing great on your monthly spending for groceries.
Honestly, I don't have a me day. It's more about making the time and making that part of the schedule, I think.
Have a great weekend!

Unknown said...

Saturday is our day for going into town too, even though I'm at home all week and we live right in the town and can walk, but even so it's a bit of an event:)

I try and squeeze a little bit of time for me in each day, it doesn't always happen but when it does it's lovely. If I try to plan a day for myself something always goes wrong, just my luck.