Well, It's Not Exactly EXTREME Couponing...

Some couponing info: Some of my neighbors know me well enough to just hand me their coupons if we meet at the mailbox. I'll also get extras from the post office that people throw on the table or on top of the recycle bin. Yes, these are typically more than I can use, but here are some things I've done lately:

1) My kids like the Dole Aguas Frescas. A 64 oz carton is $2. I cut out about 15 $1 off coupons and buy 3 at a time. They've been drinking them and making popsicles with them.

2) Leave the extras by the product in the store. For example, I cut out some $2 off L'oreal True Match face product coupons. There aren't many people of my complexion on this side of town, ahem, so the foundation and powder colors that match me like cappucino and nut brown were on clearance at HEB for under $6 (regularly $8-12). The pressed powders happened to be packaged with a free blush. So I got 2 liquid foundations, 2 powders, and 2 blushes for about $16 and left the rest of the coupons on the shelf.

3) Rose Art has a coupon for $1 off 3 or more of their products. Right now, you can get their glue and crayons and stuff for under 40 cents. The crayons are a quarter so I'm thinking I can get four packs free. The glue is 34 cents, so I can get 3 of them for 2 cents. Even if you don't have school age children, you can donate the stuff (that's my plan because I've collected SEVERAL of those).

4) Check for stores that are moving or going out of business or having clearance sales--I cleaned up at a Michael's out here last weekend. Lots of stuff deeply discounted, plus they had a 25% off your total purchase coupon. And when they have those 40 or 50% off one item coupons, I give everyone money and we all buy something, even four-year-old Deuce! Also, I got 4 collage picture frames, a butterfly for my wall, 3 potential centerpieces, numerous candles and other odds and ends at Kirkland's last weekend--my regular total would've been about $230. With clearance and a $25 off $75 coupon, I spent $54.17 with tax.

Yes coupons can be time consuming and can make you buy stuff you wouldn't ordinarily (I fall into that trap sometimes, I will admit), but they can also add up to big savings!

**Ooh, two of my biggest finds right now: 50 cents off Suave Deodorant and 50 cents off carefree, stayfree, and ob products. So you can get the small pack of carefree liners and the small container of Suave deodorant for under 50 cents.

Things Seen 14

It may seem that I talk a lot about how products geared for children reinforce and perpetuate ideas instilled by living under the kyriarchy, but, damn, I'm continually astounded.

We were shopping for summer clothes. My son, avowed lover of graphic shirts, thought this was funny:





I told him I didn't like it, then tried to explain why.*

"He's saying his sister is so annoying, he was happy she was kidnapped."

He understood that part, but the back took a little more.

"This is based on a stereotype that girls and women talk a lot, that their talk is annoying, and that what they say isn't important."

A debate ensued, which he began with, "Mama... some girls do talk a lot."

He kept looking at the shirts, then said, "You are really not going to like this one!"






He was, of course, right.**
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*Sorry for the (camera phone) picture quality. The shirt says "The Flying Monkeys Stole My Sister... But They Brought Her Back for TALKING TOO MUCH."

**The front of the shirt features a smiling boy holding duct tape. "I have no idea where my sister is," he says. On the sleeve is his unsmiling sister, restrained with the duct tape.

All Up in My Space!

I need some pants. Some for work, some for play, just some damned pants.

I've been in a quandary for the last year though, every since Lane Bryant rolled out their new "Right Fit" sizing. They were all excited, too, with tape measures tossed stylishly around the associates' necks and color- and shape-coded signs. They had my cynical ass all bubbly. Right Fit doesn't come in the sizes I'm used to, so I walked up to an associate and asked how could I find a pair of these "revolutionary," bubbly-elle-making, change-my-life-forever pants in a size that fit? How did the new sizes correspond with the old?

I thought she'd just tell me.

She didn't.

Therein lay the catch.

Apparently, Right Fit is so damned new and unlike-anything-in-the-history-of-fashion that I can't just try to find the size that corresponds.

I have to be measured. In the store. By another person.

That is too much for me. I'll admit that I haven't thrown off the well-instilled practices of not discussing my size (I tell y'all I'm fat but I don't tell you what size I wear, now do I?) and treating my measurements as if they were the combination to a safe at Ft. Knox or something. After a lifetime of that, I've made a lot of progress but I am NOT about to go in a store, fling my arms open, and say, "Measure me, baby!" I imagine a lot of women are hesitant to do so. And it doesn't matter whether we should or shouldn't be, that's just how it is.

Then there's the fact that I don't like people putting their arms around me, especially strangers. Yeah, we can brush cheeks, exchange pecks, give a quick squeeze to acknowledge each other, but a full out, prolonged hug--not my favorite thing. I'm not a touchy sort of person--again, I know a lot of it's related to body image issues. I remember a long time ago, seeing a weight loss commercial in which the mom was in agony over how she had failed as a mom--the proof? Her (very young) child couldn't get her/his arms around mom!! I have never forgotten that and though I thought it was ridiculous, that lingers in the back of my head when people try to hug me. Sad, but true.

So yeah, pants. I need them. I can find the cute specialty ones, but most of the denim and increasingly the career pants are Right Fit. I know there are other stores, but the stuff at Catherine's is not my style and the pants at Avenue always look as if they go with something specific. I'm going to look more the website to see if they'll reveal the secret that is Right Fit sizing.

I am very hesitant to buy clothes online, so that option is (mostly) out.

If not, I just don't know!

Spoons

ah, spoons. take a deck of cards, a certain number of players. place spoons in the middle of the table-the number of spoons is one less than the number of players. one of the players acts as dealer (changes each hand). she looks at each card, decides if she wants to keep it, if not passes it on. the cards go around the table, face down--each player chooses one to keep. the dealer keeps passing them til someone gets four of a kind. as soon as said player has four of a kind, she grabs a spoon. other players, acting on her cue, grab for the rest. the one pour soul left out has to take a shot. once everyone has had a shot or so, it gets hard to keep your eyes both on the cards--which, ideally, are coming quickly--and the spoons in the middle of the table.

i did okay--four shots of tequila. my poor sister--we lost count--but at least 7, that she chased with either smirnoff ice or this fruity mixed drink called jungle juice, because she hates the taste of tequila. she was fine while we were at the table, but then she moved to the living room and she was through. then our asses got scared because we let her drink that much.

but, oh, was the singing, which included:

1. two heartfelt rounds of Irreplaceable that my cousin T sang and acted out while her sister danced with a patio chair and the rest of us acted as emotional back up singers
2. the Jim Jones song (is it Ballin?) in which his calling out the word "ballin'" during the chorus prompted us to move our hands in a simulation of taking basketball shots (you know, ballin') which amused one of cousins hugely as she was the only one of us who played basketball in high school and thought our form was hideous
3. the Louisiana rapper Li'l Boosie's "Zoom" which is unbelievably popular here--I hadn't heard it in the Lone Star State and now it's in my head

and dancing and laughing and women scrambling their asses all over the table and occasionally on the floor was too much fun.

BTW, My sister recovered sufcciciently enough to make the after Thanksgiving sales of course. We didn't leave the houste till 6 AM, but we found some good stuff here and in the little open strips here and by lollygagging around here. The combination of stores in Pecanland makes it my favorite of all time--yes, moreso than the Galleria--because I haven't found that mix anywhere else.