The weekend was--weirdly eventful.

The R.C. and I had breakfast on Saturday. Mmmm. Bacon!

And we chatted about wardrobe needs, frugality*, and the day's shopping plans. Shopping, not buying. We've been having conversations about Work Clothes and decided it's time to change our respective styles. (Or, you know, pick styles.) We're also in the middle of the Great Frugality Plan, so the decision was go to out and try on things we wouldn't normally try on--move out of our comfort zone sort of thing--in order to find some new kind of clothes that might magically make us look young and thin relatively stylish. Just try on. Not buy.

The problem with that sort of plan, of course, is that if you find something new that looks good, you do, in fact, have to buy it. Because it won't be there in three or four months.

$120 later, I have a new purple shirt that will go with two of my purple jackets, a new red shirt with black pinstripes that will go with my red jacket, a black jacket, or alone, a new purple-white-black sweater, and a new pink sleeveless sweater to wear under my new cropped black jacket with the tiny pink spots. Although the color pallet no doubt sounds familiar to anyone who has ever seen me, I promise that at least four of those items are things I would not normally have tried on.

I don't think I've accomplished a new "style" but I have at least expanded my wardrobe to the point that I no longer find myself opening the closet and seeing, "my Monday shirt, my Tuesday shirt, my Wednesday blouse," etc. I can move three of the shirts I've been wearing to work over to the "weekend clothes" side of the closet (where they belong) and, thanks to the chilly temperatures in this office, expand my current wardrobe with all of those jackets I fell in love with a year ago.

And make-up. Yes, I bought more Face Stuff. But not potions and lotions this time. No, this time I spent money on a face "primer" and coordinating base that were supposed to combine to give me "flawless" coverage of exactly the right color. Not. It weighs less on my face than my old stuff, and may even, in its half-hearted attempt at coverage, match my complexion better, but it doesn't cover the ravages* of age the way the other brand does.

So, you know, $35 there.

Saturday was expensive.

I did save $10 a month, but it happened at the expense of my pride. The R.C. needed a new phone and while she was buying it, she signed up for a new 2-year plan. The Wee Child helping her said he could "finagle" her the 65+ discount, even though she didn't qualify (by a long shot) and her phone bill will now be $10 less a month. So, even though I didn't buy a phone, I demanded the same deal and I got it!

Also, less expensively, I voted.

Sunday I cleaned. I cleaned the kitchen reasonably well, including some work on those dingy walls behind the sink and stove. I cleaned the bathroom reasonably well. I did some dusting. I did about half the necessary vacuuming. I would have done all the necessary vacuuming, but at the halfway point, I accidentally sucked up a sock and broke the vacuum.

At that point, I threw up my hands in disgust. I spent the rest of the day playing computer games, reading, or watching mindless television (via DVDs). (Except for later, when I did laundry and ironing.)

I talk a lot about Frugality these days. I'm not sure I ever formally introduced the Six-Month Frugality Plan, but the basic idea was that, starting in April, I'd pay like mad on my bills and see if I could pay off the huge credit card balance I've run up, and do something about the five-digit total on the running list of "money owed to the R.C." **

The SMFP has worked reasonably well. Although I tend to blog more about the money I've spent than the number of things I haven't bought, I have managed to eliminate about 35% of my credit card debt so far. That might not sound like much, but once you start getting the balance down, the less you wind up paying in interest each month, you know. So it's going down faster and faster.

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* Okay, maybe a semi-ravage or two. Don't run away with the idea that I'm cratered and furrowed like a moonscape or anything.

** I used to be very careless about writing regular checks to cover my half of the monthly bills. Also, a time or two when I was unemployed, she loaned me sums of money so I could keep eating and stuff. After a decade or so, that kind of thing starts to add up.