Chobani is in Toronto!!!! Yes this is post worthy material people.
While it is more expensive that all the other Greek yogurts in the store. I restrained myself and only bought 2. 
It can be found at Fortino’s and The Great Canadian Superstore.
Please don’t feel sad for me, that this is the type of thing that makes my day!! LOL
Let me start this by saying while away I did not track my spending. I went to Target, groceries stores, drug stores and I ate. I couldn’t be bothered. I was on vacation after all!!!
So I am going to start with my first day back.
Mar 19
$157.90 groceries
$5.62 broom
Mar 20
No Spend Day
Mar 21
No Spend Day
Mar 22
$6 bus fare for kids
Mar 23
$8.13 Popeye’s for lunch
$30 dinner with my daughters
Mar 24
$63 gymnastics for Diva
Grand Total: $270.65
2 No Spend Days
Going to try to increase my no spend days.
All and all not a bad week. Only thing is that I have fallen off the wagon in regards to this month’s challenges. I would like to say that I will be giving it the good old college try but that would just be an out-and-out lie.
Gymnastics was an unexpected expense. In Toronto we have a Parks and Rec program that offers various activities at a significantly discounted price. The only catch is that there are a limited number of spots available.
In order to register you need to get up at the crack of dawn on a Sunday morning and either go online or apply by phone. A long and tedious process. Well on registration day, I forgot and slept in.
Even though I got up an hour after the start time all the spots in the gymnastics class that Diva wanted to do were filled. So I put her on the waiting list and was pleasantly surprised when I got the call Saturday informing me that she was in. Money I will gladly pay as she gets so much joy out of it.
I had a great post roughly written out in my head to recap my vacation but I have yet to get around to putting it together. 
Basically the most important part is I was UNDER budget!!! WHOO HOOOO!!!!
First. Time. EVER!!!
I left Toronto with $648 US and an empty credit card, just in case. I returned home with … $67 US and an empty credit card!!!
It is so nice to know there will not be a bill coming in the mail next month from this trip.
Because the minivan we drove in was already full on the way down I restrained myself a lot. 
Last week work was kicking my behind. I am no longer built to lounge for a week on vacation then get 5 hours sleep the night before coming home and function at work for the entire week after that. It was brutal.
I think I am back on track, life-wise, for this week. Spending recap to come later tonight.
I’m so behind on my blog reading it’s sad. I hope all is well with all of you.
Today I went to Home Goods & Marshall’s with my cousin. I love going shopping with her as she has great design sense. She can look at a comforter and build a whole room around it with ease. I am not that creative.
Things in the States are so much cheaper than they are in Canada. It’s insane. I think if I lived here I could definitely get sucked into the consumer lifestyle. There are a lot of pretty things at very affordable prices.
Being around my cousin does inspire me to try to make my place a little more personal. Too bad for me the feeling only lasts while I’m with her. But that’s good for my bank account.
I am chilling at my Aunt’s house, up way too late. Tomorrow is our journey back. Hopefully it will be an easy ride.
We got up early. We left 1/2 hour before the desired time.
We spent the day driving to MD. Nothing exciting at all.
I decided to sleep at my cousin’s house tonight as it will be a tight fight at my Aunt’s.
My cousin & I enjoyed a grown up girls’ night out at a local seafood restaurant. We only had appetizers as it was almost 9 when we got to the restaurant. It was nice to catch up.
My girls are in heaven playing with their cousin. Since they all have an iTouch, they are sitting in her room face timing each other. Ahhh to be young.
I have yet to see my watch. But my cousin did tell me that when she received it she forgot all about me and since it was recently her birthday she spent some time wondering who would send her such an expensive gift without a card. LOL
We got a wake up call at 8 AM this morning. Too bad no one moved!!
It was another lazy day. We didn’t leave the unit until after noon. To go to another pool in the complex. A couple of hours were spent horsing around in the pool.
We came back had a late lunch and relaxed some more. It’s a hard life but someone has to do it!!!
In the late afternoon, we went back to the Outlet mall so my Dad could exchange some sandals he purchased. We spent over 1 hour there. Princess and Diva picked up some gifts for their friends.
We went back to the burger place for dinner, then a stop at a souvenir shop, of which there are plenty.
Then we came home to pack up as tomorrow is going to be very early for us.
Strangest thing, earlier this week I bought the Whitney Houston’s greatest hits CD, so we could have something to listen to on the drive back. I can not find it anywhere. Most annoying. I’m pretty sure I brought it to the unit but it is nowhere to be found.
Yesterday’s wake up call was at 10 again.
After breakfast, everyone picked up an electronic gadget and that was that.
Eventually we wound up at the beach. We took a short walk along the beach.
It would have been a long walk except Princess was on a seashell finding mission. There were lots of colourful shells.
She had a whole collection of them which I think were left by the poolside. I don’t want to ask just in case they were. We also saw what I can only assume is a dead jellyfish.
After the walk on the beach we went to the infinity pool so the kids could swim. I can hear my Dad saying in his head “These Canadian children … a perfectly good ocean available to swim in and they choose the pool”. Mind you the water in the ocean was refreshingly cold.
The kids were in the pool for a good long while. Only when hunger called were they willing to get out.
Lunch was had around 5 PM. This vacation is so off-schedule. Monday morning is going to be ugly.
After lunch we all got back on our electronics until the promise of a trip to Target got our attention.
I went to Target!
I went to Target!
Yes I know I’m a 5-year-old child!
At Target I restrained myself and only picked up a few things. I did manage to find a microplane zester/grater for $1.03, considering I was looking at one on sale for $4.99 I thought that was a great deal!
On the way home from Target, it was decided that we should stop for pizza.
Dinner was had after 10. My body is not liking me very much.
When I tried to log on last night, the internet was not working. So there were 3 young ladies (not including myself ) who were not happy.
I almost forgot it’s Wednesday. Being on holidays just messes with your mind sometimes.
I can’t think of anything I really want right now.
I know you are shocked. Maybe it’s all the late nights and lazy mornings.
An update on this want. I ordered it. It is currently waiting at my cousin’s house for me to pick it up. I will post pictures once it’s in my hot little hands!
My Dad’s 8 AM turned into 10 AM. He didn’t think we would have liked it if he really woke us up at 10.
We did not end up leaving the unit until after noon. So much for that plan. When it will really hurt us is Friday as we have to be packed up and out of this unit by 10 AM.
Anyhoo.
Only in America can you have this.
On the left side of the street.
On the right side of the street.
We went to an outlet mall today. It was after 1:30 PM by the time we got there as we took a couple of wrong turns that took us down highways surrounded by nothing but grass and trees.
The plan was my Dad & brother would go find Best Buy and return to pick us up around 4 pm.
At minutes to 4 we had barely gone up the one side. My sister is a shopper. And she likes pretty things. Only difference is she has my Dad bankrolling her lifestyle!!! She is taking modelling classes and needed 2 pairs of high-heeled pumps, black & nude.
Check them out.
When my Dad & brother found us, it was just after 4. We spent another 2 hours at the outlet mall while my Dad & bro went shopping.
My belly was talking to me by that time.
We had dinner at a burger joint named Steak & Shake.
After dinner we found this place that had a boardwalk/pier/bridge and started on a walk.
First wildlife we encountered.
There were signs along the way.
I’m not sure how well you can see the following pictures as I took them with my cell phone as my camera had died. In the water were turtles, little fish and big fish. We bought food that was in a dispenser to feed the animals. The little fish were the hungriest and stole the food from the bigger fish and the turtles. It was crazy to watch.
We would have stayed and fed them more but the temperature had dropped and it was time to be indoors!
We still can’t seem to get up and out before noon. Which is fine by me as I have no plans. But it seems to bother my Dad.
We went to Ripley’s Moving Theatre and Ripley’s Haunted Adventure today.
The moving theatre was fun. We sat in chairs that moved us around and had air & water blown at us. There were 2 “movies”. In the first one we were skateboarding on rocket skateboards. The second movie had us snowboarding. At one point “snow” was falling in the theatre. We had a great time.
The haunted house … well let’s just say I felt my age in this one. It was a great house. There was interaction from the undead. There was a lot of walking around in the dark. I didn’t like those parts. There was a part where you walked across a bridge but because of the lights in the room it felt like you were going to turn upside down. Awesome!!
Afterwards we went on SkyWheel, this giant Ferris wheel. I am not a fan of heights but the ride was slow and smooth so I forgot about being up high.
The view from up high.
We were going to walk on the pier after that, but they were charging $1 per person to do that and my Dad didn’t think it was worth that. So Princess & my sister got souvenir pennies instead. This is their third. I must keep $0.51 on me at all times as this is the going rate and a collection has been started.
After this we went to dinner and Wal-Mart. I think this is the first time I have been in a Wal-Mart in the US in several years. I am a Target girl.
Tomorrow, my Dad promised to take us shopping IF we could ALL get up and ready by 10 AM, this includes having breakfast. My sleep til noon little sister thinks this is possible. My Dad is going to give us a wake up call at 8 AM. I can hardly wait!!
