$23 Challenge

I have a friend from college who is like Jess Day from "New Girl," but in real life, and named Michelle.  Her life is like an unfilmed sitcom.  Or maybe there are cameras.  I don't know.  But her life is more exciting than yours.  And mine.

Anyway, Michelle contacted me via Facebook earlier last month and proposed a challenge.  For some reason, she thinks of me as being a fun person too (perhaps Michelle is a tad delusional), and we both enjoy the challenge of getting interesting, fashionable buys without spending much money.   We settled on an odd amount of money, and the $23 Challenge was born.

Michelle established some rules:
-We could spend only the assigned amount, no more.
-The items we purchased had to be for ourselves.
-The items had to be things we would really use.

Some of our friends have pointed out that this isn't truly a challenge.  We aren't exactly competing or anything.  It wasn't a who-can-buy-the-most or a who-can-save-the-most-money thing.  It was more about finding things we really love without spending much money.  But isn't anything more fun if you call it a challenge?? :)

Anyway, the rules meant I couldn't buy fun things for my kids.  Seriously, an excuse to go shopping FOR MYSELF without spending enough money to make myself feel guilty?  Yes!  The toughest part was getting some kid-free time to do my shopping.  Our children's minister planned a really neat event for the preschoolers involving cardboard boxes decorated like cars, take-out Happy Meals, and a movie, so that gave me a few hours to myself to browse local clearance racks.

I checked out Maurice's first, since many of my friends get cute clothes there, but to be honest, most of what I saw was still too pricey for my stingy tastes, and as a middle school teacher/youth minister's wife, wearing something with a see-through lacy back isn't exactly appropriate.  So I headed to my trusty stand-by, Kohl's.

Unfortunately, issues like the heart monitor reading below left me feeling less than stellar.

I actually spent part of my shopping trip lying down on the bench in the dressing room.  I felt crummy enough that I even went back to get the boys an hour early.  I know, a night to myself and I went home early.  But at least I found some cute things first :)

 I settled on two tanks from the clearance rack, and my total was just pennies shy of 23 bucks!  Score!

Michelle scored a cute skirt, a candle, some tunes, and GIRL SCOUT COOKIES with her 23 bucks.  Why in the world did I not think of Girl Scout cookies?!  Michelle says she's always thinking of GS cookies ;)

Facebook Land has taken an interest to the $23 Challenge idea.  Wanna join in?  Go for it!  Be sure to share your finds with us!