I absolutely adore my mom, so this is a tongue in cheek sort of thing. I have been antsy about attending DIL's baby shower because I have a hard time with larger groups of people. The kids' college friends have always been great to me, and I have been invited many times to hang around and have enjoyed listening to them all talk and stuff. But this was going to be a bigger crowd. I know that it is all about the baby and mom to be; but for some reason, I was going through a time of anxiety. Guess it has a lot to do with hurricane season getting ready to amp up and the rest of the preparations I need to make. And the fact that Hubby's project had gone south. He hasn't had a failure in 20 years. It has been tough on him, and I've been worried about him.

I was talking with Mom on the phone about the gift she wanted to send. She knew I was struggling a bit about getting ready to travel to the party, so she suggested that I get out and buy something new and summerlike to wear. I had mentioned that many of my clothes definitely need to be retired because they are getting rather worn out. She had a good point. She doesn't advocate spending a lot of money, though. She is frugal and really doesn't like spending a lot of time shopping for clothes for herself. I resisted for a couple of days. I wondered why. I guess it is because I knew I might unleash the clothing buying monster. But then I got out to run some errands and ended up at a couple of my favorite stores. I haven't had much luck yet at thrift stores, and I decided to look at sales and bargains. Boy, did I hit the jackpot. For some reason, one store had plenty of things, most of which were under ten dollars and a bunch under seven dollars. I think I tried on everything in the section. I even got a great couple of jackets for fall for less than ten dollars apiece. I did end up buying a couple of things full price, but I have some gift money to use. And I have some money in the clothing budget that I rarely use. I ended up with a lot of great deals, and except for some underwear, I won't need to buy anything else for another year at least. It was actually quite freeing to know that the budget money was there. The bad thing is that I found out that the clothing buying monster is still hanging around. I overspent a bit and will make it up in the clothing budget for the next couple of months. I haven't been stockpiling that money, I've been putting practically the whole amount each month into the $20 challenge. So I might have to actually keep a little fund for future mad escapades that have a purpose. So, it was Mom's idea and a good one. But I did go a little crazy. She obviously didn't advocate me spending a bunch of money. She was being a very supportive mom. And I love her for that. I now have a bunch of new things that fit and that I will wear. Most will work great for fall and winter. All went with things I already own. So thanks, Mom, I appreciate your suggestion. It will help me out in many ways. It's my fault that I haven't disciplined myself yet in the buying clothes sprees. That is something I am going to work on for the future. Meanwhile, after all the effort and expense, if we do have to evacuate again, the clothes are going with me.....