Plaid, Pencils, Post-Its, and Pantyhose

Perhaps a less vague title for this post would be "How I Spent Over $50 at Target on Frivolous Necessities," but I liked the poetic fun of the alliteration better than the apparent contradiction. I am baffled by how my seemingly minimal purchases brought me up to a grand $52.86-- so much so that I dug my receipt out of the wastebasket last night almost immediately after putting it there in order to add the prices and calculate the sales tax. How did this happen?! I'm not a cheapskate (although my sister frequently jokes that when I open my wallet moths fly out). I'm just practical. This is my justification for these apparently expensive items I deemed necessary.

Tartan Love

Plaid Scarf for $14.99: Okay, this was NOT a necessity. I have scarves. I own a few of the fancy ones women wear with cardigans or dresses (and occasionally with jeans), and I knit my own for the winter. This, however, was navy blue and hunter green plaid tartan, which is my absolute favorite plaid. It was sort of an impulse buy-- I wasn't looking for it, but there it was in all its loveliness. Oh well. It's not like I won't wear it.

Note the jet-packy thing.

Pencils for $2.29: In my defense, it was a two-pack. These are not any pencils. These are awesome Velocity mechanical pencils with a cushioned grip, the claim that the tip won't break off if you press too hard, and a little cap for the erasers. Plus they came with this nifty jet-pack looking container with spare erasers in one side and spare lead in the other. I borrowed one the other night and deemed them worthy of adding to my heart-printed mug of writing utensils. Not enough people appreciate the value of a good pen or pencil nowadays. Well, I do.

See? They stick ANYWHERE.

Post-Its for $6.09: Admittedly, this is a little steep for some paper. But! They come in a variety of neon colors with a BONUS! notepad, they're twice the size of regular lame old post-its, and they're lined. Try and say that isn't cool as far as paper products go. I'm a little bit of a nerd (I like school supplies, the smell of crayons, reading, and grammar (okay, a lot a bit of a nerd)) but these were necessary. I use them when I'm sending something to somebody's mailbox at school, to take notes on a chapter or scholarly journal as a reminder of what it's about, etc.

Fun tights!

Pantyhose for $28.90: Sounds ridiculous. How about if I say I got five pair? I still think it's absurd, but they were on CLEARANCE and the cheapest regular price I saw was $12.00 and the most expensive around $25 a pair. I feel like a 1950s housewife who washes and saves her pantyhose because they're just too expensive to wear once and throw out. I got some nice ones: cute design-y ones in grey and black, purple ones, navy ones, and hunter green ones (to match the scarf?). This happened because I don't wear dress pants when I get dressed up. If I'm teaching I can't be freezing to death in the middle of winter because I'm wearing a dress. However, they don't make pants for women who are 5'1". I always end up tripping over them because they're too long (I don't do heels either) or they're weird and short when I sit down so I give up and do strictly dresses. Hence the frivolous necessity of my tights-- why would I be cold if I don't have to?

Want!

So there it is. I saw a Crayola notebook with a pen that changes color on the page, but I draw the line at $5 for a tiny notepad-- no matter how intriguing that color-changing pen is.