I used to love junk mail. I used to go through the catelogues and get the specials of things I needed and ignore the rest. I was pretty “shopping savvy”. Things have changed. I’m much busier now than I was and don’t take the time to go to as many different shops as I used to, to get bargains. Also, I have older children now……… Now when we get the junk mail in the mail box, the kids pounce on it. They study it from front to back and then go on to inform me what great bargains there are and can I please take them to Kmart. It is probably also worse because we’ve been away for two years and didn’t have all this junk mail bombarding us while we were over there.

I try to sneak the junk mail in and put it straight into the recycle bin. It doesn’t work very often. Usually Daniel has already gone out before me and is busy sorting the catelogues out into piles: supermarkets, toy shops, playstation games…. He tries to be helpful and tells me that chocolate is on sale, again, this week. Just what I didn’t want to know.

When we move out to the farm I am hoping we will be too far out for junk mail delivery.

Now not only does the junk mail drive me nuts, but so does shopping. Since Elizabeth and I went yesterday to get her clothes, I told the boys we would go today. They needed some t-shirts and shorts for summer. Little did I know that today was the grand opening for the mall where Kmart is. They extended it and added some shops or something like that. In any case, there were people everywhere and SPECIALS everywhere - buy one, get 50% off the second one. Buy two, get one free. All nice and fine if you actually need the stuff, but very tempting to overspend if you don’t need it. So much for a quick shop…. I mentioned to one lady that I picked the wrong day to come in, and she was surprised that I hadn’t heard about it on tv or in the newspaper. I told her that I don’t watch tv or read the newspaper, and that my life was complicated enough without those two things!

There were people everywhere with full trolleys…. we almost spent more time in lines than in the shops. Imagine what it will be like at Christmas time! We managed to find some tops for the boys, but the shorts were disappointing. They were a very strange style with no elastic and so were either too tight or too loose. I might have to try Big W where I had success with Elizabeth’s clothes, or else I’ll have to make them myself.

I always breathe a sigh of relief when I come home from shopping. I really don’t enjoy the experience very much. Bring on the farm and the quiet country life! Only 4 more sleeps….!