Wax On, Wax Off....

Earlier this week I finally gave up on my feeble attempts to pluck my eyebrows instead of getting them waxed. I guess I used to have a better grip on my personal grooming limitations: I used to joke that if I was asked in a job interview what my weaknesses were I would promptly answer "bowling and eyebrow maintenance." Yes, some of us are just born with bushy or uni-brows and without the inborn coordination to maintain them on our own. My hands, while coordinated enough at fine-motor activities like playing the piano, are pretty much incapable of managing two neatly plucked brows. My right eye isn't a big deal, but my left eye (where I have to reach across my nose to pluck) never ends up looking right. But I didn't think this was actually noticeable to others.

I popped in the beauty salon where I typically would get my brows waxed before I determined that waxing was a silly waste of money that I could easily forgo with a little effort on my part. The lady took me back to the waxing room (which is disturbingly decorated with a picture of mostly-naked Asian lady sitting inside a giant orange --with giant swaths of larger-than-life orange peel covering her in all the necessary places). I laid down and she examined my eyebrows. She immediately pointed to my problematic left eyebrow. She eyed it disapprovingly and said, "What happen dis one?" Embarrassed, I admitted that I had tried plucking it myself. She clicked her tongue at the apparent huge bald spot in my eyebrow and commented, "You no do that. You have problem, come to me; I take care of it."

I guess some things are just worth the $10.

Stock and Save?

Against my better judgment, I just made another attempt at attacking the Albertson's stock up sale with 3 kids in tow. Has anyone ever noticed that one's ability to count the items in one's cart and make sure they add up to multiples of ten is seriously impaired by the number of children with you? I'm not one to think that counting to 10 should be a trying endeavor... but I seem to spend more time at Albertson's counting to 3 (as in "Put that back by the count of 3 or else!").

I'm back and alive, but this trip was much less successful than my last trip to Albertson's (minus two of the kids) where I paid $35 for my $90 of groceries (coupon doubling oh yeah!). Today I either forgot or couldn't find several of the coupons that I was going to use and made about 7 trips back and forth across the store to get items I forgot. During the last 15 minutes of this shopping extravaganza Jackson was balanced on my left hip as I tried to steer the cart with one hand and nagged Camryn to stop hanging on the side of the cart so I could push it straight.

When I finally got out of the store I asked myself, "What am I really going to do with 10 cans of Pillsbury crescent rolls? Sure they are good, but they are not exactly going to help me lose my baby weight. Sure they went from $1.50 to $1.00 a can if you bought 10, plus I had a couple of coupons, but is that really 'saving'? Wouldn't it still be cheaper to eat oatmeal instead of buying 10 boxes of cereal at $1.50 a box? On the other hand, have I ever actually gotten up early enough to make Jared oatmeal before he gets on the bus?" Hmmm, point taken. Besides, in terms of food storage it would be a lot easier and tastier to eat cold cereal than plain oatmeal in an emergency.

So which is it? Are stock and save sales a great chance to save or just a great chance to spend more money?