No drive, no life: Second-semester seniors go to Target on a $15 budget April 25, 2023 — by Christina Chang and Carolyn Wang Photo by Christina ChangCarolyn (left) and Christina (right) in their newly-purchased Target T-shirts. Our Life Editors forced us to have some semblance of a social life. As the anti-social butterflies we are, we do not hang out with people. That is, until our Life Editors pitched the story idea of “ballin’ on a budget.” Still, our lack of social interaction shows: We had no idea what to do, and ended up choosing a $15 budget for a trip to the grocery store of all places. Since neither of us can drive nor have our permits (even though we are both second-semester seniors), we decided the best bet was to go to the nearest Target, as to not inconvenience our parents too much with our aimless social lives. But this is how we made the most of our $15. Target: Adding a new piece to our wardrobe Upon entering the bustling store in Westgate Mall, we instantly defaulted to exploring the second floor in the kids’ clothing section to honor our last year of being minors. After rejecting a cherry T-Shirt and ruining multiple neatly stacked piles of vividly colored apparel with cheesy designs, Carolyn latched onto a teal blue long-sleeve featuring two narwhals using their horns to knit. Adorned with pretty patterns and just the right amount of glitter, the shirt — from the kids’ clothing brand Cat & Jack — was happily inducted into her already Target-filled wardrobe of long-sleeve shirts, which features a concerning amount of Cat & Jack clothing stemming from a fifth grade Target shopping spree. With a nice discount, the shirt cost a grand total of $6.83 with tax — a beautiful price considering how a bag of chips nowadays can cost anywhere from $3 to $6. After settling on the narwhal shirt, the rest of her search in Target was for naught. Unable to find any other clothes (or general accessories) that satisfied her thirst for reviving her childhood fashion senses, all she ended up doing was ruining a few more piles of shirts — which, in her defense — were folded differently than the method she was used to at home. Upon realizing Carolyn had no idea how to refold the clothes in the manner the store had presented them, Christina jumped in to give a mini tutorial on how to fold shirts to display the designs on the front. After resolving the whole Carolyn-doesn’t-know-how-to-fold-clothes debacle, Christina sought to find a clothing item of her own. Unlike Carolyn, Christina decided she’d outgrown the loud childish designs that the majority of the kids’ apparel featured (duh), but she was set on finding something from the kids’ section as it seemed to be the more inexpensive option. After a bit of rummaging, she came across a table with some more plain basics. Sticking to her comfort zone of muted neutrals, she settled on an $8.75 light blue henley top with lettuce edge hemming on the sleeves and bottom. Frozen Yogurt: Spending the rest of our money on a worthy cause With the remaining $7 of our $15 budget, there was really only one way to spend it — invade the nearby Yogurtland and grab the perfectly cold snack for an unseasonably cold day. For this special occasion, Carolyn “conveniently forgot” the $15 limit and went all out — hounding multiple flavors of frozen yogurt including mango, plain tart, strawberry, strawberry shortcake and vanilla. To top off the overflowing yogurt cup, she stashed on mango slices, popping boba, oreos, peanuts and chopped almonds. Her monstrous creation — albeit still under-budget — totaled to approximately $8, overtaking the $6 price of the Target T-shirt. Christina, on the other hand, opted for more conservative ube and cookies and cream flavors. Having been previously traumatized at not being able to finish her frozen yogurt, she only filled her cup halfway and topped it off with a minimal amount of popping boba and mochi, landing the bill at $7.11 — a slightly suboptimal total of $15.86, just a tad bit over the original budget. By the end of our miniature adventure, both of us surprisingly stayed approximately below our budget. While it was daunting to know a number loomed over our heads, by the end of our shopping experience, that limit felt irrelevant; we only wanted to get a T-shirt, and our budget was more than enough to meet our needs — and hey, we got ourselves cold icy treats too. Although our initial incentive to go out was purely for the purpose of writing this story, perhaps for the sake of our mental sanity, we’ll raid our local Target and Yogurtland yet again in the near future. 8 views this weekAbout the contributorsChristina ChangChristina Chang, Class of 2023, is an Editor-In-Chief of the '22-'23 Falcon staff. Previously, she served as a Sports Editor and local events beat writer for the '21-'22 staff and a Reporter and Layout Artist for the '20-'21 staff. During her time with The Falcon, she covered community news like the breakdown of city budget allocations and the first Blossom Festival post-COVID; wrote a series addressing mental health; profiled teacher friendships amid the pandemic; reported on the return of in-person learning and sports after shelter-in-place; and authored a narrative reflecting on her own basketball journey of eight years. Christina was named one of four finalists for Youth Journalism International's 2023 Student Journalist of the Year and one of seven finalists for the National Scholastic Press Association's 2022 Writer of the Year. She has received 23 journalism awards at the international, national and regional levels; her works have been recognized by Youth Journalism International, National Scholastic Press Association, Journalism Education Association of Northern California, Scholastic Art & Writing Awards and Santa Clara University. To further her journalism experience, she attended workshops during summer 2022 hosted by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, California Scholastic Press Association and Stanford Daily. She will fondly remember The Falcon as a highlight of her high school years, and will forever cherish the memories created during monthly deadline nights, enjoying catered food and chatting with fellow staff members while rushing to finish each print edition. Outside of the J-room, she enjoys getting involved in the community through volunteering with local nonprofits and school clubs as well as exploring her interests and creativity through art.Carolyn WangCarolyn Wang, Class of ‘23, is an Editor-in-Chief of the Saratoga Falcon for the 2022-23 school year. Previously, she was the School Scope Editor between 2021-22 and an Assistant Graphics Editor, Layout Artist and Reporter between 2020-21. Over her three years on staff, she has covered stories ranging from inflation's effects on senior citizens to the current state of the journalism industry, anti-vaccine protests, the history of Saratoga's principals, Cross Country and Track & Field beats, and other local and schoolwide news. She's been recognized for her journalism work by the Journalism Education Association of Northern California and Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Outside of the J-Room, Carolyn enjoys all-things music, running and Disney-related.