Fun With Finances!

Okay, ladies and gentlemen. It's time for the best show in the blogosphere! Put your hands together and get ready to play....Did! $he! $ave! Money!!!! Let's get started. Here are the rules.

I've got a list of activities I did today, in efforts to save money. I'll round off some numbers, because I am bad at estimating, and then you'll tell me...Did I Save Money?! Let's find out! Good luck!

Lunch Time
Forgot that I was supposed to go out with some co-workers for lunch this afternoon, and had too much work to do, so I ended up skipping lunch out in favor of a homemade lunch at my desk.
Cost of My Lunch: $2.98 Cost of Lunch Out: $15.00
Amount Saved: $12.02
(Additional Factors: I was still hungry after my dumb little lunch, so I got a snack. Actual Amount Saved: About $10.02.)

Afternoon Break
Tried to get some girlfriends to come out and get a pedicure with me. No one could come, and Kim helpfully pointed out that I am completely capable of doing my own nails, and I do them rather well. With the right tools.
Cost of Professional Pedicure: $33. Cost of My Pedicure: $10
Amount Saved: $23
(Additional Factors: Because I needed to get a few of the "right tools", I ran out to Target to get a few things. Ten dollars is what I spent on nail supplies. But $80 is the actual amount I ended up spending at Target, because no one ever in the history of time has ever walked out of Target with "only what they need". But I DID get a few things I really needed, so that was good. Actual Amount Saved on Pedicure: -$27)

Post-Work Travel
So, it was obvious that I needed to go to Target. The problem is that I still go to my OLD Target. As in "by my old house". Sorry, but it's the best Target ever. So instead of going less than 4 miles away to the Target by my new house, I drove to the other Target almost 8 miles away.
Cost of driving to Old Target: $4.64. Cost of bucking up and driving to the New Target: $2.32.
Amount Saved: -$2.32
(Additional Factors: I also blared the a.c. the whole way, and had my windows down. Based on what my Driver's Ed instructor told me oh so many years ago, Actual Amount Saved: -$12.32)

Dinner
I had every intention of stopping to pick up dinner on my way home from the grocery store. I didn't have the energy to MAKE anything, despite having just been at the grocery store. WHATEVER. Anyway, I had intended to stop and pick up a sushi roll and a salad, but took the wrong way back home from Old Target. I never passed the sushi place, and nothing else sounded good, so I just came home.
Cost of Picking Up Dinner: $12.00 Cost of Dinner I Actually Ate Which Was a Sandwich and a peach: $1.37
Amount Saved: $10.63
(Additional Factors: It was a way healthier choice to eat at home. Actual Amount Saved: $10.63 and approx. 800 calories)

Evening Shopping Binge
Instead of dropping some cash on some plain ol' bed sheets at Target that I wasn't wild about, I decided I needed to save my money so I nixed the whole idea. Then I came home and Claire informed me she was running to IKEA tomorrow over lunch. She and I poked around online and I found a new duvet cover I wanted. I don't NEED a new duvet cover, but I need new sheets. But I figured that I'd get a new duvet cover and no one would be the wiser that it would be covering up a naked mattress.
Cost of sheets I didn't get at Target: $34.99. Cost of duvet cover that I don't need but will be getting anyways: $34.99.
Amount Saved: Total Wash
(Actual Amount Saved: Nothing, because I still need to get sheets.)

So, whaddya think? Did! $he! $ave! Money!? The answer, if you're going by the "math" is that um, no. I didn't save any money. Boo. But! When you get a little creative with the accounting, it would appear that I kind of "won" a new duvet cover and lots of cute manicure supplies, right? Yay! Everyone's a winner!!