Best Coupon EVER

Just yesterday when I was watching Oprah eating Bon-bons (okay there were no bon-bons!), I watched a woman win $25,000.  I was totally phsyched for her because it had DEEP meaning watch it over on Oprah, that’s a whole other story.  I was more jealous of all the audience members who went home with $5o0!!  Each and every one.  Yes, I’ve tried to get Oprah tickets before and never could, so not only do I not get to see her in person, I’ve got ZERO chance of any goodies, until now.

I missed todays episode but luckily I follow several blogs (Momswhosave.com) and they passed along the good news that Oprah and Payless Shoe Source were teaming up for a HEFTY coupon. I printed it so fast your head may have spun, I know mine did.  It’s the kind where you get 50 percent off EVERYTHING you buy.  Not one item, not buy one full price get one half off this was full-fledged, BREAKING NEWS I’M BROKE, certified GOOD news.

We just got back from Payless, and we were not alone.  Thank you Oprah for giving ALL of us a break and Payless, I’ll never forget you giving us a break either.  Good Coupons lead to Good Customers. (insert your best Terminator Voice here) Rest Assured Payless,  I’LL BE BACK.  And might I add, the girls at the New Market Square Payless store in Wichita, KS were absolutely AWESOME.  As busy as they were they couldn’t have been nicer.  When I said, I’m gonna go home and facebook and blog about it, they answered, “Please do.   This is a great deal!!”    Wish I had gotten their names, but Mr. Manager or Ms. Manager please let them know, they done GOOD.

A Little Spending Experiment

If I am on the spending wagon, then I better just admit it, I fell off of it last week.  I fell so hard, I’m lucky I didn’t lose an arm, a leg and half my retirement savings too.  I did a little retail therapy at one of my favorite boutiques, and came home with a sack filled with just two pair of jeans and a shirt, and a debit card transaction that showed more than 400 dollars had been taken out of my account.

Told ya, this was no little bump on the head, this was a fall the size of  Texas, but even new jeans didn’t make me feel like dancing a two-step.  I slunk to my car with the BFF in tow and we sat there, looking at each other.  Then it started, she started going on and on, about how this is so not YOU.  You, Anita Cochran, don’t go spending 400 dollars on stuff you don’t need, much less don’t even really LOVE.  ”What the Hell are you doing???” Melissa asked.  Actually I don’t know what she really said, other than, “Didn’t you see me shaking my head???” At that point, I was hoping her head would spin all the way around and land back in the story to get my money back.  It didn’t, but by the time we got home, we were both so sickened by the overspending that at least she quit talking.  It’s not that she wasn’t right, oh she was right, but I already knew that and was beating myself up the whole time too.  I bet my tongue lashing will leave a mark so deep I won’t buy jeans for a year.  (Ok I won’t buy jeans over 30 dollars a pair for at least a week or so!!)

The end of the story goes something like this, I returned the two pair of jeans and got a good 300 bucks of my money back.  I needed to do that, it’s not fair to my family to make the sacrifices we have these last few months, and spend foolishly on something like that.  Just for a moment I returned to the days of yesteryear, when money was coming in and all too often was going out again on things that needn’t cost as much.  This time however, I noticed, I nearly barfed from the regret, and I righted my wrong, and now I’m ready to hang tight to the tight-wad wagon again.  The one thing that money couldn’t buy me was freedom, and now that I have it, I’m not gonna let a stupid thing like stupid spending drag me back to a time when working was all I knew, when spending was all I wanted to do, and where answering to EVERYONE else became a way of life.  Granted I’d be wearing spectacular jeans when I got there, but frankly, as Melissa would say, “I’ve seen your ass in all your jeans, and it pretty much looks the same  no matter which one you’re wearing.”    So the next time you see me, look me in the eye, because the rear is gonna look just like it did the last time we met and be covered in the same ole denim.

Best job ever!

• Monday was the first day of the rest of my life.   When I left TV News last spring, I was so busy making the transition for my family, and then summer came, and my freelancing jobs kept me at shoots and meetings, and  blah blah blah, Did I mention all the time I spent at the pool, well let’s just say even if I was with the kids, I’ve really had very few “Mom” days.  The days when the kids are at work, and I’m at home.  My first one flew by.

The BFF and I starbucksed, yes, I do get credit for making that a verb….and while I really wanted to go back to bed, we’re moving in two weeks so we did a little gravel shopping, a little tree shopping, and then I had to grocery shop, by the time I got home, got the groceries put up, ran to pick out a light for the new house, stopped by the new house, came home got the chicken on for chicken noodle soup, cleaned the kitchen and sat down to do MY work on the computer I have only an hour left before Lexy gets home.  I MUST be done before she gets here.  The one thing I had always missed out on was that after school blabbering about what they did all day.  By the time I got done with the news at 7, they no longer remembered what they did.  So I’m writing this at the speed of light, and looking forward to tomorrow.  I have found the best job EVER, I love being a Mom now that I actually have some time to do it right, I’m Anita Cochran, and that’s what I really wanted to say.