Man, I’m completely pooped. I got up at 8 this morning, showered, ate breakfast, and went to the bank before I went shopping with my mom. I got quite a few items at Kohl’s. I was really happy to find some jeans because I have the hardest time finding ones that fit like they’re supposed to. I also got a couple of shirts and two necklaces there too. We stopped for lunch at Panera Bread before we hit the mall. I found a shirt at Sears. I was sad not find anything I liked at Maurice’s. Usually when I’m broke, they have all kinds of stuff that I like. No luck today. Naturally.

I pretty well spent my check, but I really needed the new clothes. When I got home, I went through my closet and dresser and I got rid of quite a few things. I threw away some stuff that was really old and ratty, and put the rest of the stuff that either didn’t fit or I just knew I wouldn’t wear into a bag to take to a local secondhand store.

My next check is going into savings. Part of me wants to save up get to my own place while the other part of me wants to save up for something like a new car. I like my car. It’s nice enough, but it’s really not my ideal. And I’m not a car person by any means, so it’s not like I want something flashy. I’d just like something a little bigger. A four door car that sits more than half a foot off the ground. The only time I really dislike my car is in the winter time just because it’s terrible to drive in the snow. But at the same time, I’d hate to get a newer car because my car insurance would go up, and it’s so low right now that it would be hard to beat. I wish there was a way to get auto insurance quotes on cars without ending up with the hassle of insurance companies calling to talk to you about it later. But it seems like you can’t inquire about much online without someone calling you. Very annoying.

Today was my grandma’s birthday, and we had a dinner for her. My mom made potato soup, and it was really good - and that’s really saying something since I typically don’t care for it. And we also had chips and lunch meat for sandwiches. My mom made a caramel apple cake. Cakes seem to be her specialty. She likes to experiment with them. Most of the time they turn out pretty good, but there have been a few botched efforts, such as the Kool Aid cake.

After we ate and the presents were opened, my mom, Allyson and I went to Goodwill, TJ Maxx and Kohls. I found a cute shirt at TJ Maxx, and a couple of pairs of shoes at Kohls. I also went shopping yesterday and got a shirt at Maurice’s before I stopped by Sears to pick up a gift card for my grandma’s birthday.

I really need to buy some new make-up. I’ve been trying to take care of my skin, washing it at night - especially when I’ve been wearing make-up, and then moisturizing with some facial lotion. I almost bought a blackhead remover while I was at Target yesterday. I know that Clean and Clear has a product for that, but sometimes that brand dries out my skin, so I was kind of reluctant to get it. I might go to Wal-Mart tomorrow and see if I can find some other brand for the same thing, and see about buying some new foundation while I’m at it. I’ve almost spent all of my birthday money, which is just kind of depressing.

On a completely random note, I burnt my tongue eating the potato soup today and it hurts.

I went shopping with my mom this past weekend. That seems to be her favorite pasttime because she goes about every weekend. I find it odd because she’s always complaining about not having money for this or that, but whatever. Anyway, we went to this new outdoor mall that’s out of town. It’s really new. They’re still putting in stores, so there really wasn’t a whole lot of places to go, but we did go to JC Penny. The one there was significantly larger than the one closer to us.

I didn’t find a whole lot of stuff, but I think that’s mostly because I’m picky about how much I’ll pay for stuff. I did manage to find a pair of capris for about $12, which was cool because I don’t know have but a couple of pairs.

Aside of JC Penny, we went into Stein Mart, Payless Shoe Source, and some other shoe store that my mom wanted to look at. They had some serious ugly going on in there. Ugh.

We wanted to go to Old Navy, but it wasn’t in yet. Kind of annoying since they had signs up in random places. The only other huge store they had there was Dick’s Sporting Goods. Naturally, we aren’t that interested in golf bags and baseball mitts. My mom even said, “Who wants to go in there?” And, of course, when we got back to my mom’s place, Bart was there and we mentioned it to him and he said, “Oh, I’d like to go in there and look around sometime.”

Go figure.