Shopping Annonymous

I might need help.

I was itching to write but had no inspiration. I tweeted about it and Amanda sent me over to Kay’s blog and her 32 blogging ideas (Thanks Kay!). One of the ones on the list was to pull out your last Target receipt and talk about what you purchased. I knew I had to go with that prompt.

These days most couples are living on their own and so when they get married and/or move in together they have household items. Thomas and I both lived with our parents before moving in together. Which meant we had NOTHING to bring to our new home so we had to buy EVERYTHING.

Which means I have A LOT of receipts. Luckily we were given a lot of gift cards and cash for our wedding, so a lot of this was subsidized by those gifts.

So… let’s go through them:

/ / Bed Bath & Beyond

Okay, this receipt has a couple of items that aren’t mine (DripStik!), but what I did buy was:

• Flexible spatula for my egg and cookie making (not at the same time). I did receive some kitchen utensils, however they were plastic and I needed something that wouldn’t melt.
• I needed to reach $15 so I also bought a little friend that will help me pull pans out of the oven when they are hot – I am known to burn myself with the oven.
• Finally I bought lamps! We’ve been living in the dark – dark living room, dark bedroom, dark office… so now we have night stand lamps and a tall lamp for the living room.

On a different trip (of many) I went with Thomas to get one item (because I only had one coupon!)

• A super-duper expensive kitchen trash can. The one I had was too low to the ground for Thomas (he’s 6’3”) so we got a taller one that opens up with a wave of your hand!

/ / Target

Many trips have been taken to Target, one always forget something.

Receipt #1:

• Okay! Okay! This one wasn’t totally home related. I got peeps! LOTS of peeps! I also got some Reese’s and milk. The milk WAS for Thomas, that counts, right?

Receipt #2:

• Food. I got lots of food for Thomas. At the top you’ll notice steak marinades. I bought one at Wal*Mart (see Wal*Mart receipt) and I really like the flavor it gave our steaks, so I’m hoping these will be delicious, too!
• Lunch for me! I was running low on TV dinners which I take to work daily, so lots of Smart Ones on the receipt.
• While I use the same towel twice (it’s clean!) Thomas refuses to, so I had to buy more towels. I purchased a couple on a different trip to Target, but they were on sale this day so I bought some more (and made them give me the whole $1.50 more that I paid on my previous trip).

Receipt #3:

• More food, mostly for Thomas.
• I bought a Finish brand bottle to clean our dish washer. The people who were living in our place before were dirty and I wanted to make sure it was sparkling.
• Here are those other, more expensive towels, that I bought.
• I also picked up a dish drain thingie to put next to our sink.

/ / Ross

• T-Shirts. I admit, I browsed and found two shirts – both on clearance! That I really liked!
• I bought a welcome mat with cute owls on it.
• I bought a present (perfume) for my aunt in Argentina who has been helping us out in planning our reception there.
• I got a neat clock for the kitchen! I had been eyeing it for a while!
• I also got some ear buds because Thomas doesn’t like to hear what I listen to sometimes.
• I also got a colander scoop! I’m excited about this one!

/ / JC Penney

• I had been looking for a hamper EVERYWHERE and no one had the shape I needed, until JC Penney. Never thought I’d find it there!! Plus from $36 I got it for less than $20 PLUS I had a gift card and there is still $7.44 left on it!

/ / Anna’s Linens

• Curtains! This is definitely for the house! I got these for the dining room, and then found some at Kohl’s (receipt is with my mom) for the bedroom. I love them both! Now I need a set for the office.

/ / Macy’s

• Sheets! I had purchased sheets in Queen size but had to exchange them for Cal King. Luckily the sale associate hooked us up and we got 2 sets for $63.60! If you look closely you’ll notice that I paid $46.95 for the sheets but she returned $60.21. Yea. Exactly. Love it!

/ / Wal & Mart

I have 2 Wal*Mart Receipts and they are LONG!

• A lot of food was purchased to stock up the house.
• Garbage cans for the bathrooms as well as the laundry room were purchased.
• I got some painting supplies
• Toothpaste!
• I got a dish for our butter
• I got a spoon rest!
• Hangers! Thomas has more clothes than I do!!
• Trash bags! 

This may not be SUPER interesting post – but it’s near for me to reflect on all the items I purchased. I avoided adding up all the money we spent, but at the receipts you can see that a lot of it was paid with gift cards – and I still have some left!

Homeowners!!!!

Finally! FINALLY! We finally got the keys to our very own condo! The excitement is incredible, I wasn’t really expecting to be as excited as I am. Okay, maybe I was. I don’t know. I’m too excited to remember.

BUT with that excitement comes the stress of everything that we have to get taken care of now. While the house is in move in condition, there are things that we need to do to have it the way we want it. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Install new double or triple paned windows. All the windows in the home (except a tiny one in the bathroom and hallway) face the south. This means the HOT Southern California sun will be hitting us ALL day. Since in the summer many days surpass 100 degrees, this is probably going to be the first thing we take care of. It might cost a pretty penny, but it will save us in electricity bills.

• Replace the bathtub/update bathrooms. The condo has 2 bathrooms, the one in the master bedroom has a shower and the hallway one has a bathtub. The tub’s fiberglass is cracked and to prevent future leaks it needs to be replaced (the location of the crack prevents the fiberglass from being fixed). Since we will be changing the bathtub we might just re do the entire bathroom, BUT that hasn’t been decided yet. We might also do the shower…. But that may be a project for down the road.

• Paint! I am very excited about this! I thinking painting makes a home your own. It gives it your personality. Right now the walls are what I would consider “blah” (I’m so sorry if you like these colors). Thomas and I had a difficult time deciding on colors we both liked. He wanted light light light color (just about white), while I wanted pastel type colors that are springy. We were able to come to what seems to be a good compromise, but as of this writing we haven’t decided completely. We went to Lowe’s and bought 4 different colors in sample canisters ($3 each) and we will try them out and see what we think. The master bedroom has molding a quarter of the way up from the floor, so I think we might be doing a darker color (sky blue) below the molding and then a lighter color above it. The only real issue with painting is that we have vaulted 15 foot ceilings! I’m sure I’ll have blog posts about this!

• Cabinets. The kitchen, as well as bathrooms, have granite countertops, however the kitchen cabinets are white. They were painted white and look like the original ones (1980). Thomas greatly dislikes (read: hates) the cabinets. I am fine with them. There is a TON of storage now, but I suppose that remodeling it would be nice. We would be able to get a garbage compactor (which I can live without but apparently Thomas wants because he is used to having one at his parents’ house – mine don’t). This might be something we do fairly soon. After all if we are going to fix the house up we might as well do it now so that we can take advantage of it.

• Appliances. I wanted a fridge. Even though the condo comes with a fridge, oven, microwave. Washer and dryer – I wanted a new fridge. I’ve ALWAYS, since they came out, wanted a French Door fridge. Actually I remember a friend from when I was 7 who’s grandparents live a few doors down from me. They had a top fridge, bottom freezer back in the early to mid-90’s. I LOVED it then. The fridge in the condo is acceptable but I do not like it. It is side by side and is missing a shelf and…. I just wanted a new one. My mom gave me about $4k in savings bonds to cash to buy the fridge and anything else we might need. So far we’ve only purchased the fridge and I’m super excited about it.

• Miscellaneous. There are a lot of smaller fixes that have to get taken care of, some more serious than others. The carpet was professionally washed but there are a few stains we want to try to removed. The fireplace (I have a real wood burning fireplace, guys!!!)  has to be cleaned and chimney inspected. The toilet is loose and needs to be tightened, the sink is stained and should be worked on, there is an old leak that needs to be checked on in the 2^nd bathroom…things like that. Thomas’ parents have a trusty handyman whom we will be asking to look at the place and give us a quote on most of the things we can’t take care of easily ourselves. Oh! And we’re going to change the locks ASAP!

What have I already taken care of?

• Electricity. The realtors suggested we call the LADWP (Los Angeles Department of Water & Power) right away because they take a long time. I called Friday right after getting the keys and scheduled an appointment for Monday – pretty fast, I think.

• Gas. The gas was already turned on, but I got the account changed to my name.

• Fridge. The fridge was purchased weeks ago and I’ll have it delivered on Saturday (which is probably before I post this).

• Bed. We knew right away that Thomas and I would need a sleep number bed because he likes firm as cement beds and I like comfy, soft mattresses. The only way to resolve this (that was feasible, because we won’t have separate beds) was to buy a sleep-number bed. He can have his side as hard as he want, and I’ll have mine at a comfortable setting. This is also being delivered Saturday.

I am sure there is a TON of more things I have to get taken care (HOA stuff of course), but this is all I can think of for now.