What I Buy Wednesday

Well, I bought quite a bit last week---and not exactly what I/we wanted to buy!! 

It's kind of a long story, so let's just say it's a good thing that Butch came home from the beach early. Our garage was a sauna. I noticed it, but just figured it's because it was so hot outside and the weather stripping on the door to the house needed replacing. What else could cause the door handle to be sopping wet and the door dripping water? He tracked it down to our hot water heater in the garage. It was pouring water. What a mess. 

I cannot even mention the cost because Butch prefers NOT to know these things. What can I say? This kind of stuff just happens. I didn't feel so bad when Connie told me that their "tankless" hot water heater cost $5000!! Holy smokes! Luckily ours wasn't that high. On the other hand, Nancy shared the cost of hers which is about half the size of ours and it was right in line. Can't really say because that would be letting the cat out of the bag---so to speak--for Butch! 

Oh, and the water caused Butch to lose some boxes. He likes to keep his stuff in the original boxes. He said, "Well, the ice cream maker box is destroyed!" I replied, "What, we have an ice cream maker?" I swear, that thing has to be 40 years old. I forgot all about it! 

And then, I don't even want to talk about the pool, but there it is--one thing after another. Every year some things need replacing. This year it was several. Butch needed to buy a new pool cleaner. He got the one our pool guy recommended called a Nautilus. It was expensive and turns out to be a huge hassle. I thought it was sort of like a Rumba--except for the pool. You know, a re-chargeable thing that roams the pool and then houses itself. This thing 

we--and by "we" I mean he--has to be put in the pool and then taken out. There's no re-charging going on. 

We have to have this ugly orange extension cord running across the patio up and in to the pool! What an absolute pain. I hate it for Butch. He's the one who has to mess with it. And then he has me complaining about that cord. I want it put away immediately after he's done. Had we known the trouble it would be, we would not have gotten this type. We'd have gone with our "old-fashioned" Polaris that just stayed in the pool and ran on a timer. 

I picked up this needlepoint piece that Stephanie stitched. It looks kind of like a gravestone. 

It's really nice--and the finish work was expensive--as all needlework is. I have a deal with the girls, if they finish a project, I'll pay for the finish work. Just another expense this week.

This falls into the category of what I didn't buy. I really can't believe it. The movie theater is selling blankets now since it's so cold in there. I ALWAYS bring my own. In fact, I carry three in my car.

These are $15.00. When we went this past Monday, we noticed the display was gone. I asked one of the attendants about it. He said they sold out!! I'm not surprised. For $15.00 you can forego your popcorn and drink to be warm!! That's my "ticket taker" buddy, Noah in the background.

Now, for the single thing I bought this week that I actually wanted to buy:

Butch and I were sitting on the patio earlier in the week. I was thumbing through this special magazine. Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE Taylor Swift? Yeah, I know--many times. He made a comment about me spending $5.00 on it. I said, "What? When was the last time you bought a magazine?" He then asked if it was $8.00. I finally told him it was $18.00!! Yeah, it sounds like a lot, but, hey! It's Taylor Swift! Plus ANY of the specialty magazines cost this much. It's not like I buy them all the time. In fact the last one I bought was one of the Royals. Hmmm. That makes sense--Taylor is royalty in my book! And totally worth the 18 bucks. Butch ended up limiting me on the number of TS facts I could share with him! This one is too good not to share with you. After her first 24 shows in the US, she spent $55 million dollars in bonuses to her crew--from back-up dancers to truck drivers! Okay a few more facts. In addition to that $55 million, she donates huge amounts to the food pantries of each city she performs in. 2.4 million tickets were sold in a single day--the most of any concert ever. You remember the Ticketmaster debacle. The average ticket cost was $950 in the US. Each person who went to the concert spent an average of $214 on merchandise. TS has a net worth of 1.3 Billion! It's mind-boggling!

All of these numbers have my head spinning. In fact, they make all of our "un-fun" purchases this week fall in to the category of "chump change!"

Alrighty then. That wraps another week of purchases.