Do I look like 200 posts later?

I thought today I would just ramble on and see where this takes me. Feel free to join in and leave a comment or 2.

Are you an apron kind of person? I have one that I absolutely love, besides the fact it has a neat wine graphic on the front. It's a study almost canvas like fabric with the bottom turned up forming 3 pockets. I can go through the house, cleaning and stick stuff that belongs in anothe rplace in my pocket and not have to keep backtracking. Backtracking often results in my seeing something new that needs to be done and there I go...off on another tangent!

Plastic shopping bags - how many is too many????? I realize that we need to put our shopping into something but we seem to have reverted away from those handy tote bags and crates from the 80's. Our garbage collection rate just went up and I feel I should max out my trash to get the best value for the money spent. On the other hand, I try to do the 3 r's - reuse, recycle and refuse. I use a bag to scoop the cat box, then the back yard, I line the little trash cans in the bathrooms. But at the end of the week when it's grocery shopping time again...I still have lots left. Maybe I should braid the bags into door mats! Any takers?

Pennies - how many do you have in a jar? I'm trying to spend my pennies as I get them. I'm afraid if I don't, the government machine will decide making them is too expensive and all the retailers will round their prices UP to the nearest nickel!!!! Come on, let's all start carrying a pocketfull of pennies and keep them in circulation. You can always cheat...and drop a handful into those take a penny dishes!

Support your local retailers vs big box shopping. I love a good bargain and having a choice of what to buy when I want to buy it. But, more and more, small towns are losing thier downtown core to big box malls. I try to spend our money in our little town as often as I can. You have to love it when the clerks recognize you! And the service, what can I say? We've gotten more bargains, just because! A prime example...we were a day late returning our videos and went in to pay the fine while it was still fresh on our minds...well they looked up our account, said the fine was forgiven because we don't make a habit of being late! Another time, we wanted to rent a couple of movies, Joe thought I had the money, I thought he had some in his pocket...we had walked, and stopped in as a last minute idea...anyways, they put it on our account! You can't do better than that! Support your local shops & tradespeople as often as you can!