Blueberry Pancake

On our journey toward financial solvency, Matt and I had to take a serious look at what was causing our money to evaporate.  The biggest offender was eating out.  So we eliminated that for the most part, and started cooking at home and planning our meals. Cha-ching!  But then there was my greatest offense:  buying unnecessary and ridiculous shit.

I've gotten better about that.  Better.  Not perfect.

I still buy kind of stupid and/or unnecessary stuff on occasion.  And I'm pretty good at rationalizing why something is important, or why it will make me $20 happy, etc. 

Sometimes people will ask me why I have a second job.  I have a second job so that I can shop guilt-free.  Basically, five hours of waiting tables each week afford me the opportunity to spend five hours shopping each week.

My go-to purchase on days when I'm feeling sorry for myself is pajama pants.  (I have about 25 pairs of pajama pants.  Now, that's over the course of like eight years, and 4-5 times per year of feeling sorry for myself doesn't seem so bad.  Is it?) 
I'll also buy ridiculous shit for the house.  I try to buy things that are functional (even if that function happens to be "makes Mandy smile"). 

Lately, I've bought curtains for the guest room. . .

. . .and colorful lanterns to add the the Carport Bistro.

I have really made an effort to keep myself from buying stuff that is completely unnecessary or useless.  (Such was not the case in college, when I apparently had some hidden desire to spend ALL of my money on the stupidest things possible.  Roller skates for all my friends?  Every Gap favorite tee that's been made?)  But there's an exception. 

See, my second job is waiting tables.  It can be pretty lucrative, but it can also be pretty shitty.  Nothing has contributed more to my being a misanthrope than my experience working in the restaurant business (which is really saying something because the rest of the time I'm working in a high school).  When I have a shift that's REALLY shitty--and by REALLY shitty I mean the kind of shift that makes you think you'll have to quit in the middle, the kind where you're fantasizing about the customers choking on their overpriced chain food, the kind where you have a massive hangover, the kind where you think you may cry mid-shift--then I have a rule.  That rule is that I am allowed to take all of the money that I made that shift and spend it frivolously.  The more frivolous the better.  (Note: I understand that this is not the smartest of plans.  I know that if I had kids or bills that were going unpaid that this plan would not be an option.  But I understand, too, that it brings me enough happiness to forget about the misery of the day, and it's worth it to me.)

Saturday was pretty horrible.

So I bought myself a pair of jeans (they looked pretty great and were only $20, so even though I'm not supposed to be buying clothes unless I'm buying them in a smaller size because of all of the weight that I've been losing--ha!--I decided that it was a good buy), and a candle:

Quick reminder: this candle smells amazing, but it does not taste nearly as good as it smells.  In fact, it tastes like wax.  Shit.  Also, I burn this candle at all times in my classroom.  It's aromatherapy.  Kids walk in and smell cake, and they're instantly more happy and better behaved.  That's what I've found, at least.

And some nail polish:

(PS--this nail polish is pretty great.  There are lots of colors and the polish itself is even better than the OPI stuff I have.  But this particular color, Thinking of Blue, reminds me of blueberries.)

And some flowers:

And this, the most ridiculous purchase of them all, Pet Head brand (by the makers of Bed Head products, the ones that smelled so good when Paxton and Becky had them that I tried to eat them--note: they do not taste as good as they smell) dry shampoo that smells like blueberry muffins.  Yes, please!

(Also, I'd be a damned withholder if I didn't admit that I immediately went home and tried to use the Pet Head dry shampoo on my own greasy locks, but that it didn't turn out as planned.  Shit.)

But I used this stuff on old Mitchell Pancake, and it was pretty cool.  Now he smells like blueberries.  Blueberry Pancake.

The blueberry-scented dog is much better smelling than the dog who smells like, well, wet dog because we spent half an hour today doing this:

Hope you're enjoying your Monday.  I'm furloughed today, which sucks.  But in my effort to look at the bright side of life (thanks for the tip, Brian!), I'm going to be happy about it.  I'll sleep in, spend the day at the park with the husband, and eat too much. 

What are you up to?  What do you waste your money on?