READ. THE FREAKIN. FINE. PRINT.

And no, I'm not talking about my husband's rock awesome book, The Fine Print of Christianity (onsaletodayatonlineretailerseverywhere), though you can read that too, cuz it's rock awesome.  What I'm really talking about at the moment is regular fine print.  Or small fonts.  On, you know, some things you use.

Sorry, let me explain.

I'm not cheap, and I'm not *devastatingly* poor.  I am on a budget, and it's totally different.

I never considered myself a big spender.  At least, I didn't consider myself a big spender until I had to learn to pay close attention to my spending habits.  Because even though I didn't buy tons of clothes or great shoes, if I saw something that appealed to me (especially if it cost under 20 bucks), I bought it.  New eye shadow? Gimme.  Different brand of facial lotion? Why the heck not. Cutesy holiday decorations?  More please!!

But now, I have a budget.  I can't just go buy a new pair of shoes, or an outfit for my daughter, or any dang thing unless I sit down during our monthly budget meeting and explain the need for the purchase (then make sure it gets paid for, which may I say, is difficult when you're paying huge maternity doctor bills and paying down student loans and trying to save a few bucks here and there all at the same time).

So in an effort to change my terrible behaviors, and to straighten up one of the nastiest parts of my home all at the same time, a few months ago I cleaned out my bathroom cupboards.  I found loads of make up, hair product, facial and body lotions that I'd half used and forgot about, or decided I'd like to try something else instead or SQUIRREL!    You get the point.  But now, instead of trying to budget in new lotions and products, I've been working through my old stashes.

One thing I like, nay, NEED to do is lotion up my hands and feet before bed every night.  My feet get hot, I can't sleep.  They need lotion.  So, upon running out of my regular lotion, I found half a bottle of Olay Quench and have been applying that every night.  Until last night, that is.  Because yesterday, I happened to take a looksie at the bottom of my left foot, only to discover, well, this:

That's right.  My feet were orange.  A disturbing, probably have some sort of terrifying medical condition shade of orange.  So after the initial horror wore off, I went back to my lotion, and reread the bottle three times before finding the itsy bitsy words near the bottom:  continually moisturizes and subtly enhances skin tone and color.  I have loads of problems with that list of words, but mostly these:  1-not subtle. Very, VERY not subtle. 2: I don't consider oompa loompa orange to be an enhancement on my personal skin color, but then, maybe that's just me.

Ah well.  On the bright side, it's January and I'm wearing exclusively foot-hiding shoes these days, and had I not just told the 10-15 people likely to read this post, no one besides my mortified husband would know what had happened to my sad, discolored feet.

So there's your weekend PSA folks, hope none of you get sneak-attacked by your consumer products!!