Tax Free

I don't have any updates on the job front for today - I did hear from my friend's principal... and the district has asked that they wait until the last minute to make any more hiring decisions because they want to make sure that they don't end up with too many teachers, but she said that if she gets to do anymore hiring - she'll give me a call.

So on to the rest of my day. For the last 10 years, Texas sponsors what they call the tax-free weekend right before school starts where they suspend the sales tax (8.25%) on all clothing items, and a few other things. (diapers are included which cracks me up) We don't have a state income tax here - so the sales tax is where our state generates its revenues... but for this one weekend they suspend it for all clothing items under $100. The stores run some great sales this weekend too on top of the tax savings.

I avoid shopping during this weekend of the year like the plague because of all the craziness that ensues when everyone takes their kids out shopping. It's worse than the day before school starts! DO NOT GO TO WALMART the Sunday before school starts for any reason!! Take my word for it! We made the mistake last year, and waited in the checkout line for over an hour before we even were able to unload our cart.

This year however, I need clothes... so I thought that I'd brave the stores today before the mass chaos that will happen tomorrow and Sunday. In all honesty - it really wasn't that bad until I got to Walmart, but before we get to that...

I started out at Lane Bryant because I am in desperate need of tops, and they were having a buy one get one half off sale... along with their clearance sale where everything is $9.99. I ended up with 5 tops today, and they really are cute... only one more size before I'm out of that store forever!!

After that - I had the presence of mind to make my way through Starbucks before hitting the pandemonium at Walmart. With my new drug of choice in hand... I made my way to crazy town, and it did not disappoint.

What genious decided that the best idea would be to put all of the school supplies on 1 aisle of the store?! Doesn't Target have like an entire section of the store devoted to this?!

I obviously don't have any kids yet, so no real reason to be in the school supply section... but our local YMCA's are holding an event called Operation Backpack this weekend where people drop off school supplies and backpacks for the needy children in the area.

Our church meets in a YMCA close to our house, and our pastor asked that we all consider helping out with the Operation Backpack efforts... so John and I decided to do what we can, on our limited extra funds right now - and give what we can... so I loaded up on the cheaper supplies to bring with us to church on Sunday.

While in that section of the store - it was an amazing lesson in patience... one woman actually stopped me to praise my brilliance of bringing a Starbucks with me to help ease the pain.

Interestingly enough - once I got to the other side of the store to the grocery section... it was rather empty! I fully enjoyed being able to read labels and take my time to make healthier choices.

I ended up with one more shirt from Walmart just for casual wear, and I'm pretty happy with all my purchases. I'm making myself eat more fruit as I continue on my healthy eating plan. I loaded up on strawberries, cantalope, and bananas for this week. Next week, I'll add in some other items like nectarines and apples.

I am not a big fan of fruit - so this is an effort, and baby steps are being taken. I can say that a banana a day has VASTLY improved the pain I was having in my legs earlier in the week due to my workouts.

Speaking of workouts - I sort of took the day off - I plugged my shopping in to myplate.com along with the vacuuming and other things I did today and let that be my workout. I was having some pain in my feet this morning probably due to the running - so I decided to lay off for today. I'll be back to it tomorrow morning bright and early!