Today the boys had dentist appointments, our first dentist trips without dental insurance. I used to always feel like I wasn’t getting much out of my dental insurance, but man I wished I had it today. My oldest turned out to have a baby tooth that needed to be extracted. Grand total for two cleanings, one set of x-rays and the extraction: $570. This on the heels of my $230 eye doctor appointment last week. If we are going to continue not having these types of insurance, I’m going to have to space these appointments out better.

The Fang!

Yesterday, I had to buy a new carseat for my daughter and new childproofing supplies — the foam protecting the kids from the sharp edges of the TV table and the radiators has peeled off. I tried to think of a homemade version of the foam, but didn’t come up with anything.

In better news, I stopped in this new home furnishings store, Kirkland’s, next to Babies R Us, and resisted buying a few things that caught my eye. I’ve noticed that I find myself subconsciously looking for reasons not to buy, as I walk around stores. As if the default setting is to buy everything, and so I have to come up with a reason not to buy it. That is rather alarming.

From Kirkland’s to Kohl’s, where I returned some Christmas presents from my husband that were the wrong size, not my style, or both. That resulted in a $150 credit, which I used to try to get clothes that were along the lines of what he bought me, to honor his gift intention. That was overwhelming but fun. Kohl’s had quite a few 80% and 70% clearance racks set up, and usually rummaging through those type of racks makes my brain overload pretty quickly, but this time I got some good deals. I also sprang for a new bathing suit, since mine are six years old. Not going to lie… new clothes are fun.

Tuesday’s dinner was thrifty, crowd-pleasing bacon and eggs. Tonight was a mish-mash, since my son could only eat certain foods because of his pulled tooth: “pasta n soup,” the ditalini in chicken broth; quesadillas; and salad.

Finally, I found this book while clearing out my bookshelves and am rereading it — it was a gift from my mom a while back. Definitely has some good tips.