I am an aisle shopper. It's true. It's horrible and can lead to devastating hits on the checking account. But I mean, sometimes it's good, right? Part of the New Year's resolution list is to have more dinners at home. The side effect of being busy is that we eat on the run a lot. A LOT. It's horrible, and horrible for us. We were a very busy family when I was a kid, but my mom always managed to put good dinners on the table. This was apparently very important to my mother when we were growing up, and she stuck to it. Just another way that the Janet is way more disciplined than I am.
So in an effort to have more dinners/lunches/snacks at home this requires actual food in the house. Friday after work I stopped at the grocery for a couple of items: toilet paper and cranberry juice. A strange combination, yes...but items I felt we needed to get us through the weekend.
Now these grocers are smart people. They hit you with the sale items right up front. This particular grocery pushes so many sale items on you when you first walk in you it makes your head spin. Look! over here! toilet paper on sale! GREAT! And right next to it...CRANBERRY juice. I could have been done right then and there. But then, across the way...canned veggies 10 for $10. Well who can pass that up? And tuna $.50 per can! Hey, the hubby's trying to eat healthy, I should pick that up. And soups! The ad companies are spending a ton of money for me to think that soup will solve all of my weight problems...and the kids LOVE soup. In the cart it goes. And before I can say "paper or plastic" I'm in the produce section and HEY! bag salad is on sale. And I need fruit to make smoothies to choke down that estrogen reducing powder that tastes like ass. And before you know it? I'm in full-fledged grocery shopping mode. Hooray! Food and fresh horses for all my men! I can take on the world! I can prove the theory of relativity!
$229.00 later...yeah, that's right $229. $20 of it was on wine...so that doesn't count, right? So $209. And I didn't even buy any cleaning products, which I desperately need. DESPERATELY. That will require another trip...
But the end result? I made good dinners every night this weekend and good lunches, too. The boys were so excited to see the blueberry waffles they were foaming at the mouth. They hadn't seen them in so long I'm pretty sure they thought that Eggo had stopped making them. We made smoothies every day and had salads for lunch on Sunday. We had snacks for all of the football games and we never had to leave the house. It was BRILLIANT.
It even motivated me to drive the 100 yds to the goodwill store to empty my trunk of the 7 garbage bags overly stuffed with clothes no one wears in my house. They've only been there since November or maybe even longer.
We'll see how long this lasts, but as of right now? I have dinners planned through Saturday, and then a fill in shopping trip planned for Sunday after church. I'm committed. It's a new year, and hopefully, before too long - desperate meals grabbed at Mickey D's will be long gone from my children's minds.
Wish me luck.
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8 comments:
I actually had to go to the grocery store for an item I never thought I'd need in Oregon - an ice scraper. It's unbelievable out here...we never get snow and no one owns a shovel...and it usually doesn't get below 40. Ever.
So while I was there I got about $50 of other stuff we "needed." And it was 5 p.m., and I hadn't had dinner yet, so I was hungry. I broke about every rule of smart shopping known to man.
Yeah, that'll do it. I was hungry on Friday, too - hence the large grocery bill. ;)
Totally worth it though - for my kids it was like a second Christmas.
I've faced a real challange this last couple of weeks with my kitchen being totally ripped out. I decided to make a few meals before the big remodel that I could just heat in the microwave which was taken to the basement. I'm proud to say that we haven't eaten out once this past week.
I know what you mean about sale items. Friday when Rich and I went grocery shopping, they had Microwavable Campbell's Select soups on sale and Rich went crazy. Half our pantry downstairs is filled with soup. Fortunately, both Rich and I usually have soup and sandwiches each day for lunch.
My grocery bill has been huge lately.
Grocery Shopping, what's that? I do all of my grocery shopping at the liquor store. Come to think of it, I haven't grocery shopped in a while. I must do that before 24 tonight.
Rebecca, please never, and I mean NEVER talk about Estrogen Ruducing Powders again.
Thank you!
Oh Jimmer - suck it up. I would listen to you talk about testosterone reducing powders if you had to take such a thing. I would.
So you're on the 24 train? We watched last night - so far, so good - I mean bringing Milo back from Season 1 - brilliant. And Morris - loved his cameos last year - having him on board now is even better. We'll see what they do tonight!
I didn't get to watch last night due to bowling. I did bowl a 518 though. 172 average...
I went to the website and read all about it.
I'm doing a clean slate eating program too. All I can say, is, it's no wonder that obesity strikes the poor in such an incongruous way... I mean, it's way cheaper to eat some wonder bread and bologna (yum!) than to fill one's cart with fresh, whole foods.
$57 for vegetables? I miss my garden.
incongruous? maybe I should have said "disproportionate."
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