Goodbye Target!

Over the past two months Derek and I have been on a money diet which meant cutting out some regular favorites: eating out and going and picking up whatever we "needed". Well, as many of you know, Target can be a favorite hotspot for finding those things that you never even knew you "needed". I don't know how they do it. Obviously the way they merchandise and set products out in areas that require you to go through other departments would be my guess. But somehow walking through that store made me feel like they had a vacuum hose attached directly to my wallet. I'd go in there for 3 things and come out with a basketfull of items I could not live without.

Even worse was that they opened a brand new (read: CLEAN) store in Magnolia just a few miles down the road. I don't know about you but a CLEAN Target store makes me find even more of those things I "need."

I learned this weekend that Target has some great little $1 bargain bins near the front doors in which they throw all kinds of scrapbooking items. I usually peek in there but have never noticed the scrapbooking supplies. On my way home on Sunday I thought I'll just stop in there and check it out. I was also on a hunt for a pair of shoes for Katie, but that was not the initial reason I went in. When I walked in, I realized that it had been quite a while since I had been to Target. For one, the Target in The Woodlands was damaged during Hurricane Ike and I'm not even sure if it's reopened or not. But I just checked my bank account and the last time I spent money at Target was the weekend of Hurricane Ike when I went to the store in Magnolia to get some food items. To me, that counts as groceries during a time of need, so I'm not counting that as the last time I strolled through Target. So technically, it's been since the first week of September when I went to buy things for my classroom. Well, when I realized that I had survived the past month or longer without going to Target, I had a breakthrough. I have saved money just by steering clear of that store. Inevitably I would overspend there buying things that I thought I just couldn't live without. Well guess what? I lived without them for over a month!

What is it, you can change a habit in 21 days - well I think I've done it. I ended up putting the two packets of chipboard halloween alphabet stickers back in the bin after I walked over to the shoes and realized that I wasn't going to buy her anything because she's not going to like what I buy her anyway. And I walked back through that door. I didn't spend a dime. Hooray!