Last night Leah, my ten-year-old, and I went to Costco to buy her a new bathing suit for our trip to Manning Park Resort this weekend. Of course, I picked up a few other things while we were there, to the tune of $133. I was shocked. I know how this happens, but I was still so surprised—it was just a few things!—that I checked the receipt several times before we left the store.

The trip to Costco was the first trip since before my ankle surgery on December 20. For seven weeks after that, I couldn’t drive because of a splint, a cast, and then a boot cast, in that order, encasing my right foot (I did try left-footed driving once, but I was altogether too klutzy).

Here’s what I know about those seven weeks: we saved a lot of money. I mean hundreds of dollars (good thing because now the medical bills are rolling in). Wow. I had no idea I was the shopper in the family. I sort of knew—I am the primary grocery shopper, kids’ clothes shopper, home improvement shopper, dentist appointment chauffer, etc. But I didn’t realize I shopped that much.

During that seven weeks, Curt stopped at the store on the way home from work to pick up whatever I told him we needed. And those few things were all he picked up. Where I spent $133, he spent $33. You get the picture.

During that seven weeks, the kids came home from school and we went nowhere. Not only could I not drive, I couldn’t ride a bike or walk any distance. So they could only go as far as a nearby friend’s house on their own. No impromptu trips to the toy store, the consignment store, or any other store. We were hunkered.

And you know, yes, it drove me a bit batty to be so housebound (the Internet was truly my friend and luckily I didn’t develop an online shopping habit) but it was also kind of nice. Simple. No requests from kids to go places. No extra errands. No errands at all.

Well, I’m back to driving and groceries and errands now (and yes, I like being out and about), and we are spending more money, but I spend with new awareness. It’s me. I’m it. The money drain. If we want to save money, we’ll simply take away my car key.