Ways to Throw Money Into a Huge Hole

Lately, we've really been watching our pennies. We pay the daycare almost twice what we pay for our house, so it really is taking a bite out of those paychecks.

Unfortunately, over the last five days, I've basically been watching those pennies sail out the door.

Today is Sunday. And this means coupon-cutting day for me. I open up all the Val-Pak and Money Mailers I got all week, and I also sift through the Sunday paper looking for sales and coupons.

When I opened my Val-Pak, what should appear but a BOGO (thanks, Sophie... that's "Buy One Get One Free for those not in on the acronym) for the very Irish pub we ate in at the last minute on Thursday night. That would be the same night we bought a jar of baby food because we had not planned to hit a restaurant right after collecting the kids from daycare that day. BAM! Had I just opened my mail when it actually came and perhaps thought to carry the coupon with me, I would have saved $9 on dinner. Crap.

Then, this morning, I found a 20% off entire purchase coupon for Linens N Things. I think that's a localish chain, so if you don't know what it is, it's Bed Bath and Beyond. Anyway, I thought... sweet! I need new pillows for our bed. I'll get those this morning when I run out to Target for groceries. Pillows were $20 for the set, so I paid $16. Yay me!

I went to Target and bought sweet potatoes (or yams... the war between the states still continues... even in food names) and came home to prepare them for my baby boy. This will be the third solid he's tried... after rice cereal and apples.

All was going well, when suddenly my food processor lid got stuck. So, of course, determined to get back into those sweet potatoes I'd so diligently microwaved, I forced the lid, thereby breaking off a piece of it.

Unfortunately, that piece was the piece that informed the mechanisms within said food processor that the lid was closed and it was therefore safe to allow the blade to spin. So the whole machine was rendered useless.

This wouldn't have been so awful had I actually been done pureeing the potatoes. However, I was not done, as I still had to scrape down the sides and puree some more. Now, there was no pureeing to be done.

So I head back out to... guess where... to get the damn lid for the damn processor. No coupon in hand, I know full well that it's possible they don't sell pieces and parts. Now that I'm home and online, I know that the lid, ordered direct from KitchenAid, would have cost me 15 bucks. But I needed to finish the potatoes now, lest they go bad, so I bought a new processor... sans coupon. The good news... it looks really great! It's chrome. And it's much quieter than my old one. I think it also holds more.

The old one was close to ten years old, but it was well taken care of. Damn. Now you know why I'm broke. Most people would have just tossed the potatoes and ordered the replacement. But little Ms. Instant Gratification can't do that. Nope. Gotta waste WAY more money than that.

*sigh*

I suppose "waste" isn't fair. I use my food processor a lot. At least I did before Dream Dinners. Hmmmmmmmm... I'll have to be sure I keep using it a lot. Maybe I need to make my own peanut butter....