Scotland, Girl scouts and Pen pals

Yesterday I joined my cousin Catherine and my mother for a fundraiser tea sponsored by the Daughters of Scotia.  We were first served pumpkin scones from a Starbucks copycat recipe, then finger sandwiches and three different teas.  We also enjoyed a silent auction where my cousin and I were bumping up the bids.  Luckily I was outbid on all my items, but she had to take home 4.  At the least a chunk of her Christmas shopping is done.  Cathy had tried to pay for our entire table but we all slipped checks into her purse when she was over at the silent auction bidding for her items.

Today I have plans with my old girl scout troop.  We still get together 4 or 5 times a year, usually to socialize during a meal, but sometimes we creative art or do something outdoors.  This time we are visiting Patty C. who lives two towns over.  Patty M is picking me up since my tires are almost bald.  I just need them to last a little while longer until I can park it at my Dad´s ranch.  It could be years before I return for the car, at which time I will need 4 new tires and a new battery so I do not want to waste money now.  I have already had to purchase two used tires in the past month and they were cheap for $35 each but I have been back to the shop 4 times because one of them was faulty.  In this blog, if I told you everything I did all day, you would see that there is a lot of time wasted trying to save money.  See next post for how to save money at the post office.  For instance, the post office sent out a coupon to received $2 off a $25 gift card purchased at USPS, but come to find out, there is a $5.95 activation charge. Why in the world do the post office marketers think that $2 off of $28.95 is a good deal for a $25 gift card when gift cards are sold everywhere else for the face value with no activation fee.  Luckily, I had to go to the post office anyway so did not waste a trip.  I was there because I had found a stack of letters from an old pen pal (A pen pal is a person with whom you exchange letters through the mail.  There are no guidelines, you just tell each other about your life.)   We became pen pals because we were both in girl scouts earning our pen pal badge.  I thought she might  get a kick out of reading them.  They were mostly about her cats.  By the way, you can save money by using MEDIAL MAIL, rather than first class, to send books and papers.