M is on vacation this week, and we finally drove up to the IKEA that opened last year in Cincinnati. If you didn’t know, my husband moved here from Sweden almost nine years ago, and since IKEA is an intensely Swedish sort of store, we have both been looking forward to going. It is also located very near Jungle Jim’s, which is an international grocery store.  We like to go there upon occasion to stock up on some of the weird specialty foods that he misses from his life before moving here.  It takes about two hours to drive up there from here, which is why we have put it off so long. Evelyn isn’t a huge fan of the long car rides, and we already make her do it every three weeks when we go visit family.  If you live near Jungle Jim’s and haven’t gone, you probably should. It’s an experience even if you don’t need specific international specialty groceries.

We were not frugal in the slightest, and it was really, really a fantastic day of shopping.

101_0104 This is only a small part of the stuff we bought.  Some of it came from Jungle Jim’s and the rest from IKEA.  I don’t even know how much we spent on everything we bought. How unlike me!  I was actually sort of proud of myself for convincing him to just buy whatever he wanted.  No, it wasn’t cheap, and no, I didn’t have any coupons, but whatever it cost–it was a small price to pay for making my husband happy. He’s worth an occasional splurge! (No, dearest, that does not mean I am buying you a Corvette.)  Actually, I sort of have a mental budget category for this sort of shopping.  He moved 5,000 miles across an ocean for me, away from his family and friends and even switched his primary language for me.  I will buy him all the Julmust (top right–it’s a special soft drink usually served at Christmas) he wants when we go to Jungle Jim’s.  :)

The whole day was wonderful.  It was good for the three of us to go do something special together, and Evelyn was mostly well-behaved. She was completely exhausted, which led to a few bad moments in IKEA but after we got her into the shopping card instead of letting her walk around, she was much better.  She was so tired that she actually fell asleep in the car between the two places (a ten-minute drive) and then let us transfer her from the car seat to the bottom of the buggy at Jungle Jim’s. That might not sound like much to you, because perhaps you have normal children in your life, that actually fall asleep. We do not.  ;)

101_0103 She slept the whole time we were there–about an hour and a half.  She did wake up once and looked around for a second. M asked her if she’d had a good nap. She said, “No.”, and then rolled over and fell asleep again. This is also unprecedented!  Apparently, she just could not handle all that excitement in one day.

Anyway, we did pretty well there and spent just $42, and most of that was on a rug for Evie’s room (in pink).  (Also purchased: two large corkboards, four cutting boards,  two kids dish sets, one set of kids plates, and a silverware organizer.)  I did get to use a coupon, though! I bought the set of kids plates for $0.87! I noticed at the registers that there was a sign up about getting 3% back for using a debit card.  So, I paid using my Chase debit card (need to use it to get my $100 bonus anyway!), and it printed a little voucher for $1.24 off my next purchase.  We then started looking around at the Swedish food store beyond the registers, and it occured to me that I could just go spend that voucher. I bought the set of colorful plates that I had been wavering over for $1.99, and that they had conveniently sitting near the registers.  Coupons make me happy. They also make Evie happy–she was thrilled with her new plates. :)

You just have to know when to save and when to spend, don’t you?