Now that I am over the "funny money" and actually have a concept of how much things cost I feel even worse about our pack-out. Several bottles of dish soap and hand soap were left under cupboards and forgotten until we left :( When I spend 12.50 on a gallon of bleach I want to scream having only sent 2 gallons.
Maggie's favorite thing to do is wash her hands now and when I catch her playing in the sink all I see are dollar signs flashing and have to contain my anger and politely demand that she not wash her hands again, for a week! Kidding.
One night I let out a cry when I watched Mike putting shampoo in the kids hair. He couldn't believe I was freaking over soap, it's just soap. Yes, just soap that cost 5x what it did in The States and I want it to last. He just shrugged and now I bite my tongue, because at least he's doing the bathing.
Someone was recently joking about how people keep their consumables secret; sitting in dark corners scarfing pop tarts so no one asks for one. It's true, I hide my good snack foods when other kids come over, mainly because they waste them, but also because I want them :)
Thankfully, even though we sent quite a bit of consumables, we still have a lot of weight left over, so we can do a second shipment; my list keeps getting longer and longer, mostly cleaning supplies and beauty supplies with lots of spray sunscreens and bug spray.
We're also totally lucky to be able to order stuff from the Bangkok commissary (which I have yet to do) although the prices don't quite compare to the States, at least we can get US brands of detergent and if you search hard enough on Amazon, lots of places ship to APO, so the kids still get to eat some of their snackie foods while attempting to broden their food palates.
Target, baby! They ship APO, too. Maybe you can add a wee bit of water to the soap/shampoo bottles when they're half-empty to make them last a little longer?
ReplyDeleteIsn't stocking up across the border in Thailand an option?
ReplyDeleteWTH? Maybe I was too jetlagged, but when I first got here I didn't see the APO option on Target. Not so good to know, Mike might take my credit card away ;)Oh, but for the items I'd like to stock up on, they can't be shipped via APO. No liquids allowed.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Thailand option, yes we can. We've only crossed the border once, and only for hard to find 3x more expensive items like a TV. If you feel like looking, mostly everything is available here in Laos, just at a slightly higher cost. Thai prices aren't as compairable to the US prices. The difference in Thai and US stuff is like shopping at Wal-Mart and Harris Teeter, same stuff it's just smaller protions and more expensive at Harris Teeter.
Thanks for this take on consumables. I hear so much about them as people are buying them in the US but not much once they get to post. It's really helpful!
ReplyDelete