Earth Day 2008

Today started out like most days...

Get out of bed
Feed the kids breakfast
Do the dishes
Get laundry started
Wake up.

That's right. Wake up is last on that list. I am not a morning person. Never have been. Never will be. If you want me to be up at a certain time you either have to come in and physically wake me or pray that the morning Gods can work their magic because without an alarm clock, Janey does NOT wake up on her own.

Today was Tuesday...Madeline has Mom's Day Out/preschool/gymnastics on Tuesdays. At 9am. No alarm clock (Madeline is FREAKED out by them for some reason - she calls them chicka-boom-boom) + me being super-dee-duper tired from playing tennis Monday night = Mom oversleeping.

Yes, I overslept. I believe the hour hand on my watch said something to the tune of 10 o'clock (give or take 15 or 20 minutes by the time I could actually read it). This is NOT a good start to the day.

But it's Earth Day, right? So, I figure I won't take Madeline to "school" and instead I'll take her and Tandy to do some sort of "earthly" activity and/or field trip. AHA! A light bulb goes off in my head! I'll take them to the dump (landfill...you know, where they take all the trash?) and then to the city recycling center. Great idea, huh? It was just that. An idea. I could not for the life of me find out where the dump is. Now I know there's a landfill waaaaaaaay down south but it's Earth Day and the point I'm trying to make to the kids is how much we waste. Driving 45 miles to the only dump I know of when there's got to be one closer isn't exactly conveying the message of conservation, is it?

Today wasn't a great day for me. I won't bore you with all the details but I did find some Earth Day things for the kids to do and then when I went to the grocery store tonight I caved in and paid for those re-useable bags. I have to admit, getting one for free when you turn in 5 plastic bags was quite an incentive but boy are these bags nice compared to those horrible plastic things! Their smell is rather noxious but I figure a run through the washer can fix that.

So there you have it. For Earth Day I decided to "conserve" by not going to the dump and then buying re-useable bags.

But a day wouldn't be a day without a trip to CVS so I managed to make 2 CVS runs without driving out of the way...

Trip #1, Transaction #1
2 Zooth Hello Kitty Toothbrushes $2.99 each
2 Alavert 12ct $6.99 each
1 Clearance solar powered calculator $.37 (hey, this counts as an Earth Day purchase, right?)
Total $21 something
-$4/$20 CVS
-$8 (2 $4 off 12ct or more Alavert)
-$2.99 Zooth B1G1 free
-$5 ECB
Total OOP $.33 (I happened to have 35 cents in my pocket)
Earned $4 ECB (Zooth) and $8 ECB ($4 for each Alavert)
I gained $7 in ECB's but paid $.33 OOP so net "gain" of $6.67

Transaction #2
1 Freestyle monitor $10
Total $10.83 (they actually tax these things??)
Cashier wouldn't let me use the $2/$10 I had and this is a first for me. I was in a hurry so I basically rolled a $10 ECB I had from something else. Darn!

Trip #2
5 CVS Brand Rapid Release pain reliever $3.99 each
1 Loaf of bread
Total $22 something
-$2/$10
-$3/$10
-$15.97 ECB
Total OOP $.98 (whipped out a gift card) not too bad
Earned $19.95 ECB ($3.99 for each pain reliever)
So I gained $3.98 in ECB's for a net "gain" of $3.00 in ECB's

Last I checked I had over $200 in ECB's for this month. Had I been able to find some Contour monitors last week I could've easily had another $75 or so that would've cost me nothing since I have coupons for the monitors.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Happy Earth Day everyone!