Efficient spender

So since my boss is out of town I have discovered an abundance of free time and realized how boring the Internet can get. So I am trying to take this extra time to write a few blogs. I should probably be doing more productive things but there are still 2 days left in the week for me to tackle those tasks. Today on my trip to Walmart I realized that grocery shopping and going to Walmart are my forms of retail therapy. Many women shop for clothes or accessories but I can't bring myself to spend money on these things. When I actually buy a new clothing item I proudly display it for John to prove what a good shopper I am and to show that I am not the cheapest person on Earth. I prefer to think of myself as a saver but John would probably call me cheap or some other less flattering name. I am pretty sure I was born this way. I remember when I was little, I would take all my Halloween candy and save it so that it would last a long time. I didn't want to eat to much at one time because I felt the need to ration it out. Eventually I would forget about it and it would go to waste. I remember in H.S. John got me some perfume and I was scared of wasting it so I pretty much never wore it and still had a full bottle 2 years later. So it is not some much that I am cheap more that I can't stand to waste anything. If we have food that is going to go bad in a day or two then we will plan our next meal to eat it because there is no way we are throwing it out. I am especially hung up on not wasting small amounts of money. I will stare at soup or any small item at the grocery store for 10 minutes to make sure I am getting the maximum value. Hence why it takes me hours at the grocery store and John hates going with me. I can talk myself out of buying pretty much anything and have a bad habit of talking other people out of buying stuff. Unfortunately John has realized how much I hate wasting money on little things and gets stressed when he wastes money because he thinks I will be annoyed. This could be true. The funny thing is that I don't have this anxiety over large purchases or large sums of money. When we bought a car I made the decision in a day, house buying not that stressful, but picking out a new pair of running shoes requires driving to 15 different stores and hours looking online to make sure I get the best deal. This could be a mental illness but since it saves us money I guess it is not that bad to have. I have been trying to improve on the saving obsession. I no longer have to go to the cheapest gas station, even though I prefer it. I bought a new tank top on a whim last week. I do have my setbacks, but I am trying to see $20 as just $20 instead of acting like it is our whole savings account. I hope John doesn't read this blog because he might disagree but I think he has also seen improvement. For example, our bike situation, no big deal, I just wrote the check and moved on. I am still definitely a saver and what I prefer to call an efficient spender but I think if I can conquer the anxiety that comes with spending $2 at the redbox because we didn't get the movie back the next day I will be in better shape. To prove how laid back I am we are taking a camping trip this weekend and I am disregarding the fact that gas is $4 a gallon. I also went and bought some fun new camping gear and I finally got a pair of really hiking shoes (on sale of course). If you need further proof you can see the fresh flowers I bought at the farmers market for no reason, I am a wild woman!
The second random picture is to let you all know that on 3/10 the episode of The Price is Right will be airing that Carol, Nanny, and I attended the taping of. Due to the location of our seats you will never see us but we were there, promise.