Pretty for under $5

So you know when you have to make a run to Target to get toilet paper, diapers, dog food, and deodorant and as you're walking down those beautiful clean aisles full of all of that new stuff—not your ratty old stuff—and you really want to buy pretty much everything you walk by (those dishes are adorable! Such a cute top! Maybe I should try that laundry detergent! Surely this is the shampoo that will finally make my hair shiny and beautiful and straight and thicker on the top and thinner in the back and six inches longer!), and you've been stuck inside the house with your two little ones for three days straight, and darn it you should buy something because you deserve it. After all, you've bribed your toddler with finger paints if she stays in the cart and makes it through the store without crying, shouldn't you get yourself a little something, too? You could get a book—that's a relatively guilt-free purchase in my opinion—but you've already got eight books at home waiting to be read and two more books shipping out from Barnes and Noble online tomorrow. Then you remember fondly watching old episodes of Veronica Mars over the weekend (LOVE that show) and admiring her shiny berry-colored lips and decide to drop a few dollars on a new lip gloss. You haven't opened a fashion magazine since before the elastic-waist pants of your first pregnancy and, frankly, you just don't have time and energy to pay attention to beauty ads, so you blindly pick a lip gloss based on color alone. Color and price. $7.99 is not okay, but $4.44 is certainly reasonable. You grab Maybelline's Shine Sensational in Cranberry Crave and you are not disappointed. It's shiny, it's sheerish with just enough color, it's not sticky, it smells nice and tastes nice, it lasts a long time, and you just made yourself feel a little pretty.  For $4.44 I would say that's a steal.

Yes, I get the irony in buying myself a reward for not spending loads of money on a bunch of other unnecessary stuff. And yes, I'm perfectly okay with that. What about you? What do you like to reward yourself with on your Target/Wal-Mart/grocery store trips?

This is not a paid advertisement, and unfortunately no one gave me any free stuff.  I just got lucky and found something I liked and wanted to tell you about it.