no going away anytime soon

There seems to be lots of sales going on right now which is rather unusual for this time of year. It’s very tempting for a shopaholic like me. But then again, like many folks out there, I’m choosing to spend wisely since I have three school-going kids.

We haven’t gone away on vacation for quite a long time now. Much as we’d love to be taking a break from it all at some fancy New York City hotel, we just have to make an impression on the kids that there’s a time to be thrifty and there’s a time to splurge.

So yeah, I don’t mind spending on the sales around town but we definitely can’t be taking a vacation till the economic situation improves.

anyone at the store during Earth Hour?

I wish I’d gone to the mall last night… during Earth Hour, that is. During the day, I saw signs posted up at a downtown mall saying it’ll still be business as usual though they will be observing Earth Hour by switching off the lights.

I was out all of yesterday so when I got home in the evening, I was too tired to go out again. Well, thing is I should’ve. I’d love to have seen how the mall carries on with business without lighting!

As it is, jewelry stores are a favorite target of robberies even in broad daylight. I wonder if they were smart enough to close during Earth Hour just to be on the safe side, ya know.

I wonder if shoppers were given a candle each so they could continue shopping. Or if indeed the stores stopped using plastic bags and restaurants stopped serving takeouts in plastic containers.

It would’ve been interesting to see! Really. Was anyone out there at the mall last night and do you have a story to share?

holed up and nowhere to go

After over three whole weeks, the drilling and knocking over at our neighbor’s house show no signs of stopping. Since it’s the school break and we’re home a lot this time due to the recession, the noise is really getting to us.

You won’t find out sitting out on our patio furniture because there’s just too much noise and dust. In fact, I’ve been keeping my kitchen windows closed too except when I’m cooking. Most of the time, we’re holed up in the kid’s bedroom during the day with the air-conditioning on full blast as a muffler.

the sales are tempting

I was taking the girls shopping for new sports shoes the other day. I want them to go to the gym more often but they’ve outgrown their sports shoes. That just goes to show how long it’s been since they’ve done any exercise !

Of course, when I’m in the sports store, I can never resist looking at the other sports wear. Do I need a new pair of gym shorts? Or maybe a new pair of gloves? It’s hard not to be tempted when there are such good sales going on.

But then again, let’s face it, I’m not taking up yoga or Kettlebell training at this point in time. I’ve heard about their benefits but I just couldn’t fit a bathroom run into my crazy schedule as it is. So the girls got their shoes and we left the store.

neighbors and remodeling

Every day for the past three weeks, we’ve been shaken awake in the mornings and spent the usually quiet afternoons listening to the incessant drilling and knocking come from my neighbor’s house.

Okay, so we thought we’re smack in the middle of the recession here but it looks like some folks can still afford to buy a new house and get it renovated.

It looks like they’re not only getting the kitchen and living room completely redone, they’re also having their bathrooms upgraded. If you ask me, that makes complete sense because that’s the one room in the house you really want to start fresh with.

And quite honestly, if you go to a site like Better Bathrooms, you can get all your bathroom accessories very affordably. So yeah, why not? I mean, who wants to inherit an old bathroom anyhow?

Looking at the extent of the remodeling, I fully expect the persistent hammering and drilling to go on for at least a few more weeks. Duh! Which means there won’t be any peace for quite a while longer and I’m going to have to start going shopping more often. Er, maybe window shopping as we’re trying to tighten our belts here.

finally books we thought, not!

We went to the MP*H book warehouse sale against our better judgement. Their sales are never very cheap and every time we go, we seem to come back with hardly any books. It’s been like that the past few times so we’ve given up.

We eventually went because the kids are so starved of new books to read and we haven’t been to a single book sale since I don’t know when. So finally I agreed to take them. But the checkout lines were so long and the place was so stuffy we decided to dump the books and leave without buying. We won’t be going again.