My day in credit card receipts, 2007
Dec. 14th, 2007 11:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mellificentI did this a couple of years ago, and people seemed interested, so I'll try it again. And the other version was on diary-x, so it's gone, anyway.
The thing is, I like to go on a full-fledged holiday shopping trip, at some point. It makes it feel like Christmas, somehow. So I had the afternoon off today, and I decided today was the day. The shops aren't exactly deserted on Fridays, but it's better than it would be tomorrow, I figure.
I have a whole little stack of credit card receipts, and it's probably the only way I can remember exactly where I went, so here you go:
Barnes and Noble, $30 gift card
For my dad. I still feel like I ought to buy him something else, though. I usually pick out books for him rather than give him a gift card, but I am fresh out of ideas and I thought the gift card would be a nice change.
Angelo's Pizza and Pasta - $12.28, including tip
I made the waiter laugh by telling him I was there for my calzone fix. Their calzone is just plain better than everybody else's. (I really meant to go eat before Barnes and Noble, not after, because it was already about 2:00, but it was on the way.)
Those two are in Clear Lake. Then I proceeded to go up into Houston proper, to go to...
Franklin Covey - hmm, that invoice is missing. It may be in the bag in the trunk of my car, because I get reimbursed for most or all of this one. It was only like $40. It was a set of 2008 refills for my boss and some extra pages for me. I say "most or all" because although I could actually get reimbursed for all of it, I sort of like to keep custody of things like my monthly calendar pages and the address pages - if, say, there should be another round of layoffs this year or something, I would like to be able to say truthfully that those were my personal property. (I have no reason to think there are more layoffs coming this year, except that funding is always tight and you never can really be sure. Really, I developed this habit sometime in past years when things were dicier.)
After that, I headed over to Highland Village, which has all the good chain-type shops.
Williams-Sonoma, $68.92
A couple of food things - spices and so on - for my male cousin who likes to cook, a lemon-scented kitchen candle for his wife, a lime-green kitchen timer - that one is for me, I needed one - and a bottle of pomegranite martini mix, which is for immediate use, I wanted to try it. It's pretty good, too.
Crate and Barrel - $27.77
This was just gift wrap and a handful of ornaments. Pretty damn expensive gift wrap, but it's really pretty green Marimekko stuff, and ribbon and so on, and I did have a few gifts that will probably need wrapping, even though I mostly use bags, so I thought I'd splurge. The ornaments are pretty little mini-mercury glass ones in various shapes. (I also went in a couple more places at the shopping center - Coldwater Creek and Pottery Barn, most notably. Didn't buy anything either place.)
I was gonna go home after I finished at Highland Village, but I decided to swing by Sam's on the way home - there's one that's more or less right on the way home, anyway. This way I don't have to go tomorrow!)
Sam's Club, $85.57
A mix of grocery-type things and gifts. By grocery-type things, I mean a box of clementines - I get to craving them this time of year - also Irish Spring, a big bag of pecans, toothpaste, cereal, & toilet bowl cleaner. Plus a Domino magazine, which was like $2 and change - I didn't know the discount on magazines were quite that good - a pair of pink knit pants and a Weight Watchers cookbook. I figured I'd give the cookbook to my friend (and co-worker) who has been faithfully going to meetings with me all fall, even though she hasn't lost a bit of weight. (She's a lot skinnier than I am; it's a lot harder for her than it is for me.) And the pink pants are for a hospitalized teenager - I don't even know what teenager, just that it will go to a teenager who's in the hospital over Christmas. Our department decided to buy gifts for them, rather than exchange gifts like we usually do - our gift exchange has devolved into an exchange of gift cards anyway, so it's not much of a loss, there. I'm happy to spend the money on a teenager. (I wouldn't've thought of getting "lounge pants" for a teenager, but it does make sense, and they were on the list we got, so I went with it.) Oh, also another $29.05 for gas, a little over 10 gallons of it. $2.72 a gallon on my Sam's Credit Card, which is pretty cheap as gas runs these days!
And that's the 2007 version of the shopping trip. It was still 9:00 when I got home.
(The icon is because I am watching Firefly on the Sci-Fi channel, which I only knew was on because somebody mentioned it in GW chat. Should I have known they were showing it? - Maybe I did and I've just forgotten, that's entirely possible!)
holidailies
The thing is, I like to go on a full-fledged holiday shopping trip, at some point. It makes it feel like Christmas, somehow. So I had the afternoon off today, and I decided today was the day. The shops aren't exactly deserted on Fridays, but it's better than it would be tomorrow, I figure.
I have a whole little stack of credit card receipts, and it's probably the only way I can remember exactly where I went, so here you go:
Barnes and Noble, $30 gift card
For my dad. I still feel like I ought to buy him something else, though. I usually pick out books for him rather than give him a gift card, but I am fresh out of ideas and I thought the gift card would be a nice change.
Angelo's Pizza and Pasta - $12.28, including tip
I made the waiter laugh by telling him I was there for my calzone fix. Their calzone is just plain better than everybody else's. (I really meant to go eat before Barnes and Noble, not after, because it was already about 2:00, but it was on the way.)
Those two are in Clear Lake. Then I proceeded to go up into Houston proper, to go to...
Franklin Covey - hmm, that invoice is missing. It may be in the bag in the trunk of my car, because I get reimbursed for most or all of this one. It was only like $40. It was a set of 2008 refills for my boss and some extra pages for me. I say "most or all" because although I could actually get reimbursed for all of it, I sort of like to keep custody of things like my monthly calendar pages and the address pages - if, say, there should be another round of layoffs this year or something, I would like to be able to say truthfully that those were my personal property. (I have no reason to think there are more layoffs coming this year, except that funding is always tight and you never can really be sure. Really, I developed this habit sometime in past years when things were dicier.)
After that, I headed over to Highland Village, which has all the good chain-type shops.
Williams-Sonoma, $68.92
A couple of food things - spices and so on - for my male cousin who likes to cook, a lemon-scented kitchen candle for his wife, a lime-green kitchen timer - that one is for me, I needed one - and a bottle of pomegranite martini mix, which is for immediate use, I wanted to try it. It's pretty good, too.
Crate and Barrel - $27.77
This was just gift wrap and a handful of ornaments. Pretty damn expensive gift wrap, but it's really pretty green Marimekko stuff, and ribbon and so on, and I did have a few gifts that will probably need wrapping, even though I mostly use bags, so I thought I'd splurge. The ornaments are pretty little mini-mercury glass ones in various shapes. (I also went in a couple more places at the shopping center - Coldwater Creek and Pottery Barn, most notably. Didn't buy anything either place.)
I was gonna go home after I finished at Highland Village, but I decided to swing by Sam's on the way home - there's one that's more or less right on the way home, anyway. This way I don't have to go tomorrow!)
Sam's Club, $85.57
A mix of grocery-type things and gifts. By grocery-type things, I mean a box of clementines - I get to craving them this time of year - also Irish Spring, a big bag of pecans, toothpaste, cereal, & toilet bowl cleaner. Plus a Domino magazine, which was like $2 and change - I didn't know the discount on magazines were quite that good - a pair of pink knit pants and a Weight Watchers cookbook. I figured I'd give the cookbook to my friend (and co-worker) who has been faithfully going to meetings with me all fall, even though she hasn't lost a bit of weight. (She's a lot skinnier than I am; it's a lot harder for her than it is for me.) And the pink pants are for a hospitalized teenager - I don't even know what teenager, just that it will go to a teenager who's in the hospital over Christmas. Our department decided to buy gifts for them, rather than exchange gifts like we usually do - our gift exchange has devolved into an exchange of gift cards anyway, so it's not much of a loss, there. I'm happy to spend the money on a teenager. (I wouldn't've thought of getting "lounge pants" for a teenager, but it does make sense, and they were on the list we got, so I went with it.) Oh, also another $29.05 for gas, a little over 10 gallons of it. $2.72 a gallon on my Sam's Credit Card, which is pretty cheap as gas runs these days!
And that's the 2007 version of the shopping trip. It was still 9:00 when I got home.
(The icon is because I am watching Firefly on the Sci-Fi channel, which I only knew was on because somebody mentioned it in GW chat. Should I have known they were showing it? - Maybe I did and I've just forgotten, that's entirely possible!)
holidailies
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-15 08:56 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-15 06:27 pm (UTC)This year I started buying gifts for all the cousins, which is not something I normally do. It's getting pretty expensive at $25 or so a head, since I have a good many cousins who will be there at Christmas. I told my aunt I'm not swearing I will do this every year!
I recorded it again...
Date: 2007-12-18 10:07 pm (UTC)I havent started shopping yet... =(
Oh and the choir battle was not very good.
My wife comes from a big family so we cant buy for everyone without going into the poor house. She is the youngest of nine and we have 20some-odd nieces and nephews... I love the holidays and all but not that much...