And then I go back to being superficial.

Since buying the house, we have curbed our spending big time. No CDs (Dave loves that rule). No clothes (I love that rule, let me tell you). No renting movies, no eating out at restaurants, no no no no. Nothing.

It's really, really hard for Dave not to buy records, especially when he still works occasionally at the record store. It's really, really hard for me not to buy anything anywhere, especially when I was just getting used to having that extra $20 a month left over after paying bills and living to pick up a book or a magazine.

But now it's free or nothin'. We are the library's most faithful patrons now. We shop while the sample ladies are out. We head straight for the bins marked "FREE."

It's hard, but it's nothing I didn't have to do growing up. Look, we're building character.

And then I found a gift certificate in my bag. All rules were suddenly broken.

It was like gold in my pocket. Hello, Dave, I have to spend it. It's not even like money. It's a gift certificate. It's supposed to be spent on frivolous things, right?

So I went to Target, all pumped about FINALLY getting something cute. But ... I ended up buying items for the house, anyhow.

Thus proving the point that, given the choice to run free and buy clothes, I still aim for the domestic aisles and grab photo frames, pencil erasers and kitchen stuff.

I am so lame.