This past Saturday I worked at Buckhead Thriftique, and of course I came home with some great finds! I’m spoiled by my employee discount, but the prices are great for these items regardless. (I’ve listed the original prices here.) Check out the Facebook page every week to see what items are on sale! Last week it was designer clothes. There’s also a sale word that can get you 20% off of one item. OR, best yet, you can join the ranks of our fabulous volunteers and earn a discount just like mine!

 Mossimo cotton dress: $8.00

 Ann Taylor Loft Jeans: $6.00 

Style & Co. Short Boots: $5.00

These are not something I would normally pick up, but at thrift store prices I tend to branch out of my style comfort zone, and I love them! I wore them to work the other day and also to the grocery store, and they are remarkably comfortable.

 Coffee Cozy: $1.00

I’ve had a similar item “pinned” on my Pinterest Crafts and Projects board to try and knit. I started one, but got about halfway done and decided I wasn’t satisfied with it, so I ripped it out and hadn’t gotten around to starting it over yet. So when I saw this in the thrift store at such a great price, I decided to bite! Plus I wouldn’t have been able to knit such a cute little flower. :-)

And finally, I left these there in the back corner, just for you:

 You’re welcome.

I’m (hopefully) on the getting-over-it side of what I officially dub The Crud. I woke up last Tuesday with a scratchy throat, which lingered the rest of the work week. I took Mucinex religiously, in an attempt to break up The Crud. By Friday, I thought I was on the upswing…until I hardly got any sleep due to not being able to breathe throughmy nose. Ruh roh.

Saturday I was working at the thrift store, so I had to buck up! I blew my nose about 8000 times an hour and kept slathering on the hand sanitizer in an attempt to not gross out the customers. I had that scratchy, allergic feeling in my eyes, so I took an antihistamine before A. and I went to a community event and out to a late dinner that night. After another restless night of little sleep, I decided I needed to Just Stop.

So Sunday I set up residence on our couch and hardly moved. I didn’t even pretend to try and take a shower or put on real clothes. I never even put in my contacts! I watched 4 episodes of Say Yes to the Dress and the movie Gosford Park on Netflix and felt no shame. I did blog a little, organize my coupons, and plan my meals and grocery trips, but all from my cocoon of blankets on the couch.

I even slept on the couch Sunday night, since my restless sleeping had been disturbing A. as well. And miraculously, I slept! I woke up at 8 Monday morning (the absolute latest I can sleep and still make it to work, oops!) feeling moderately rested! I’m still on the Mucinex–out of Zyrtec and DayQuil I feel like its the winner, and the skin on my poor nose is cracked and dry like a desert, but I am rejoining the world! Hopefully I’ll keep coughing and it’ll pass on through.

So that’s my Tuesday tip for ya: take a break when your body tells you to. Ain’t no shame in it! And take Mucinex. The End.

Saturday night, A. and I went to an immigration panel discussion at The Friends School of Atlanta. The Friends School is a Quaker organization, and they host a yearly Beloved Community Dialogue. The “beloved community” was a phrase used often by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to describe his ideal of a completely integrated society, or, as defined by The King Center, “ a society of justice, peace and harmony which can be achieved through nonviolence.” The dialogue at The Friends School is “intended to help us move closer to the ideal of Beloved Community through education and heightened understanding of all aspects of the most challenging civil and human rights issues of our day.”

The issue of immigration is particularly relevant here because Georgia recently passed HB 87, an Arizona-esque anti-illegal immigration act. Senator Jason Carter, son of Jimmy Carter, was on the panel, and he described the law as largely economic. As it was passed (which was gutted from its original, even harsher format), it dictates the employers must verify the status of their employees and allows law enforcement officials to check the papers of any suspected illegal immigrant, with the potential for the individual to be jailed until he or she can produce them.

Also recently, the University System of Georgia Board of Regents passed an act banning any undocumented individual from entering a university with a waitlist–basically the 5 large state universities. Their main justification was that illegal immigrant students are taking away seats from qualified Georgians. Many schools have interpreted this policy to include checking the status of their students, even if they aren’t mandated to. There is an upcoming hearing on HB59 which would, at the state level, ban undocumented students from all state universities and technical schools.

Those are just the facts.

But here are some other facts. There are around 5000 children who have had to enter the foster system because their parents have been detained or deported. Detention facilities make $200 a day per detainee. Undocumented students only account for 501 students out of 310,000 in the Georgia University System. Undocumented college students must pay out of state tuition and cannot apply for any federal aid, so they are not leaching scholarship money from other qualified candidates. Social workers have toiled for years in immigrant communities to help build a trusting relationship with police officers, especially in cases of domestic violence, and that trust has now been broken again because of a fear of being deported. Produce is rotting on farms because there are no laborers available to pick it.

I don’t normally get political on here. In fact, I don’t often get political at all. I used to do Youth Legislature, and I suppose I debated things then, but I have an unfortunate tendency of being afraid to stick my neck out unless I am 100% confident in my position on something. Honestly, I’ve been scared to even learn about the immigration issues facing our country right now, because I knew they would just make me sad. And whenever humans are involved in an issue, human nature impacts it, and it becomes a far cry from a black and white issue, meaning I knew I would be conflicted about taking a stance. But this panel discussion seemed like a “safe” opportunity for me to learn more, and I’d say it was.

Immigration is an interesting issue because pretty much everyone, on both sides of the political fence, agrees that our current system is broken. The differences arise, then, when it comes to discussions on how to fix it. The conclusion I drew from last night’s panel is that it definitely won’t happen overnight, and there’s honestly not too much individuals, or even states, can do. It’s ultimately a federal issue, at least according to Senator Carter. But we can ask ourselves how we personally define community, and if we decide our view involves us all being in it together, we can love our neighbor. It’s as simple and as complicated as that.

I’ll be honest and admit I have zero idea about the scope of the economic issues surrounding illegal immigration. I have no idea what effect certain policy changes would have, and I certainly don’t have any suggestions. But what I do see is people, including and especially children, being hurt. I see people who are afraid and who are often treated as less than human. I don’t magically now know where I stand on this issue….and I may never know. But as that saying goes, “I am only one, but I am one.” Whatever that may look like for me, I am one, and I can sure try to love my neighbor.

I managed to keep my Kroger trip to $48 this week! It helped that we are pretty well stocked, especially on snacks and frozen goods, but I also made good use of this week’s mega event (buy 10 participating items and save $5). I had coupon match-ups for 8 items and was beginning to despair of making it to 10 without buying things I didn’t really need or that weren’t that great of a deal. But we needed bleach, and as I walked down the cleaning supplies aisle I noticed the small bottles of Clorox were included! They were a teensy but cheaper than the Kroger brand, so I bought 2, rounding out my 10 items and allowing me to get great prices on my other purchases. There are likely Clorox coupons out there somewhere, so I probably could have saved even more, but in this case I found it worth it to just buy without them.

Here’s my haul from last week’s Publix ad:

(This is why we’re so stocked on snacks!)

Total Spent: $10.85, including tax Total Saved: $23.98, or  around 70%

The rolls were being given out as a free sample. Apparently it’s a new type of bread that they’re selling. I’ll take it!

I also picked up a package of cartridges for my razor at CVS. I was planning to use a $2 coupon AND $2 ECBs, but we only had A’s CVS card with us and apparently it has a different number from mine, even though it’s for the same account. So, I couldn’t use the ECBs but made the purchase anyway because it was still a great price on a necessary item. The transaction yielded me $3 ECBs, so now I have $5 to spend!

It was a good week–I’m feeling back on top of my coupon stash and on track to do well budget-wise. Plus I have another packet of expired coupons ready to go to the base in Japan!

A couple of Fridays ago, we had our staff Christmas party (belated, because Christmas is the busiest season for a non-profit!) at a paint-your-own pottery place called Wired and Fired. I’ve always wanted to do one of those, and it was really fun! It was interesting to see everyone’s personality come out through the piece they chose, how they chose to approach decorating it, and their attitude while doing so.

Here’s the “individual chip and dip bowl” that I painted, though the proprietor encouraged us to be open minded in thinking about how to use it. I think this could also be a great catch-all for a dresser top!

  The final result is food, microwave, and dishwasher safe…can’t ask for much more!