What I've learned

It’s been an interesting month, trying to spend all our money in Blue Island. It’s not often easy and sometimes it’s impossible, so let me start with our failures. My sister invited us over one night (she doesn’t live in Blue Island) and we ended up ordering pizza $22.00. There was an errand with our grandson and we bought ice cream on the way back $5.00. Now here’s the part that disturbs me. We needed a video game our grandson wanted for his birthday and I called around. No one had it, and even a national chain electronics company right here in Blue Island that had it on their website did not offer to order it for us. Chalk up $29.35 for Amazon.com. The end of the month got a little sketchy as we were called out of town for a funeral for two days. So Indiana got two tanks of gas out of us, and uncounted stops for food.
On the positive side, I found out that the Family Dollar Store on Vermont sells Hanes-Her-Way, Rodarte’s does excellent jewelry repair, and we had a great experience at Spice of Life on Western. I must say that Spice of Life surprised me. I had heard a lot of terrible things about them when they first opened. Steve needed a pair gym shoes, and other than George Allen Shoes, there’s not a shoe store in Blue Island, until now that is.
Early on a Sunday morning, I was driving past Spice of Life and decided to stop and peek in their windows. Much to my surprise it is no longer a hodge-podge of general merchandise. One side is clothes for the younger crowd, and the other side has SHOES! So later that day, we returned, and Steve bought his gym shoes. The owners were quite friendly and helpful, and they assured me that soon they would have stylish clothes for the (ahem) older working woman.
So here are the big winners for August. Jewel $325.00 Thornton’s $189.00 Tenochtitlán $89.00 Stefanelli’s $89.00 Korbakes $62.00 Spice of Life $55.00. Once again most of our money was spent on food, gas, and alcohol, and I imagine that is true for most people. We spent a total of $1042.00 in Blue Island.
Let me share with you some of the great finds: Shoes at Spice of Life. The best tilapia in town at Joe’s Fruit Market (he also has the best peaches and tomatoes). For avocados I have to recommend Imelda’s. They always have perfectly ripe ones right by the checkout. The best shrimp is at El Ranchito, and let me mention again the jewelry repair at Rodarte’s.

Candace Carr
CARR home-garden-holiday