Another bad retail day

When I told her that I was going to a meeting today, she asked if there were any shopping malls near where I was going. There is a big one -- too big to turn her loose in and then hope to find her again, so I suggested that I drop her off at Borders Books & Music where she could read in their coffee shop until I came back to get her. On the way there, I brought up a topic I had been avoiding--that we couldn't be putting a hundred dollars on her credit card every time she wanted to get out of the house. I gave her $40 in cash and told her not to use her credit card. 

I was gone three-and-a-half hours. I hurried back to the Borders store hoping (1) that she would be there, and (2) she would be okay. What a relief to find her with a smile on her face. She said she'd had a great time. Then she showed me her purchases: a little stack of magazines and art supplies. I asked if she had paid for them and she said yes. "Where's the bag," I asked. She looked around and couldn't produce one. "How about a receipt?" She dug in her purse and came up with one for $2.75 for a cup of tea. "How much cash do you have?" She looked in her wallet and found $17. That would be the change from the cup of tea. I looked for the other $20 bill and found another $17 -- probably change from an earlier cup of tea. 

She could have paid with her credit card though. I said we needed to see if they remembered her at the cash register. When we got there, there was a large stack of books and other art supplies on the counter. "That's mine," she shouted, and grabbed it. I said, "no, this is yours," and held up the stack I had found her with. That confused her, and I had to admit that the stack on the counter was the kind of stuff she always bought in a book store. Apparently, she had made it as far as the purchase counter before I got there, and maybe abandoned stuff to get down to her $40 limit, which was now $34. 

If that were the case, was I about to pay for it twice? Trying to sort it all out was hugely upsetting to her, undoing all the good feeling from the afternoon she had spent there. The ride home was miserable. She hates being cooped up in the house, but I don't think I can take her anywhere now unless I stay with her the whole time.