Shopping Success!

Until now, I had used some of my own shopping suggestions at one time, but never managed to do all of them at once. But today I did, and what a difference! My itinerary included getting gas, stopping at the thrift store, picking up a few things at the health food store, a lot of shopping at Sam's Club, and gettting several things at Walmart. It was supposed to include a grocery store trip too, but it was late and I was tired.

Now, this trip still took a long time--almost five hours. But considering the number of stops, the amount of shopping being done, and the forty minute drive (each way) to and from the city where Walmart and Sam's Club is, I did pretty well. I actually remembered both Sam's freezer bags, paper and plastic bags, and my clipboard and list. I would have had a calculator, but all of ours are missing in action.

I used my grocery store shopping list, filled it out, and on the back I listed each store I was going to, in order, and the items needed at each store, in order according to the store's layout. I checked off each item as I went. I was organized! It was fabulous! And my buying went so much faster. I avoided the many sections in Walmart which are filled with tempting items to buy, and stuck (mostly) to my list. I didn't have to back track for missing items at all.

The only thing that did go wrong was I forgot the bag with the containers in it that I had planned to use at the health food store. I was bringing them with me to fill from the store's bulk section, where you can buy flour, sugar, grains, etc. by the pound. Next time I'll make a "bring with me" checklist, and check it twice--once in the house, and once in the car, right before I leave. I had my bag of containers ready next to my purse, but forgot it somehow.



I've solved the calculator problem by buying the coolest organization tool: a clipboard with a built-in calculator. I'd seen them before, but this one is better, because it's not just a flat clipboard...it's actually a clipcase. You can put papers inside it (like extra blank shopping lists--how organized!) and there is a carry handle. So cool! It was ten dollars.

Forgive the dim lighting in the picture...I need to add more lightbulbs to that list!

This solves another problem as well--my other clipboard was UG-LY! I was thinking of painting it, then I saw an organizing blog with an altered clipboard. Here are two examples: Decorative Clipboard and
Altered Clipboard

It can fit a paperback book inside, for reading in long Walmart lines. Couldn't figure out how to rotate the picture, but here's the inside:





All in all, it was a very successful trip. And my feet didn't hurt TOO bad...meaning I didn't have to crawl up the stairs once I got home!

Organize Your Grocery Shopping, Part 2: Shopping Lists

If you've ever gone shopping without a list, you know what a bad idea that is. Unless you've got a photographic memory or are buying only two things, you know something will be forgotten.

The most important thing you can do--and I think most of us do this--is to keep a pad of paper attached to the fridge for quick jotting down of needed items. I use a shopping list pad, which is attached by magnets to the fridge. I also like to use a magnetic clip with a pen clipped in it stuck on the fridge next to the pad. Write down anything you need as you use it up, or as you notice your supply is low.

Before you go shopping, make a menu for the coming week. Many people check the grocery store flyers first, and plan their menu around items that are on sale. Go through the fridge and cabinets, and figure out if you are in need of anything on the list. Also check for normal pantry items that you might be running low on. Don't forget things like pet food, infant needs, and household items. Then sit down and transfer the items from your list onto another piece of paper, organized into sections based on the arrangement of your store's aisles. For example, use headings like Pharmacy, Household Items, Baby, Dry Goods, Canned Goods, Ethnic Foods, Condiments, Dairy, Meat, Produce, etc. The headings should be listed in the order that they come in the store, according to your normal shopping path.

When you use your list in the store, be sure to check off or cross off items as you put them in your cart. This is why I always try to have a pencil on hand. When I try to just check the items off "mentally", I inevitably overlook something. Double check your list before you get in the checkout line. Even with a list sometimes I somehow forget something, and you don't want that to happen when half your cart is unloaded on the belt.

I always use a calculator while I am shopping. I am amazed how even going down the last two aisles in the store without adding up the items can put you way over budget. The thing I hate most is when I'm halfway through shopping, only to look down and realize my calculator shut itself off. AAAAARRGH!! I try to remember to push a button on the calculator at least once each aisle, preferably two times or more. If I'm comparing prices on an item for a while and not adding items in the cart, I will add "0" just to keep the calculator running. But a better way is to do a subtotal at the end of each section of the list, and write it down. That way, if your calculator turns off halfway through shopping, all you have to do is add up the subtotals from each section of the list, then add on the items you've picked up since your last subtotal was written down. Most of the time when I enter the prices on the calculator, I round the number up, for ease of calculating and because that way I know for sure I'll stay under budget. So a $4.66 item becomes $4.75. It leaves room for error...and with me, there's always errors!

In the next installment, I'll talk about the Master Grocery List.

Organize Your Grocery Shopping, Part 1: Be Prepared!

Grocery shopping used to be fun for me. No, really, it was! Back when I was single, of course. I would stroll leisurely through Walmart, stopping to check out the new stuff or page through magazines, comparing one item to another, with nary a though to the time. I could spend two to three hours there, and that's a lot for someone who only has one person to shop for. Even when I had only one child, it was fun, because my husband would watch the baby and it was my time away. Sometimes I would stop at a bookstore afterwards and sit for an hour and read.

Fast forward to today's reality. I hate shopping. I have so much to shop for, and inevitably I end up forgetting things, and criss-cross my big behind and aching feet back and forth across the humongous store, pushing the dead weight of a loaded grocery cart before me...and sometimes (a lot of the time) pregnant. And then standing in line...don't even get me started. Is it just me, or does every store in the world decide to hire new, inept cashiers right around the time I hit my eighth month of pregnancy?! Suffice it to say that my once beloved Walmart trips are now nightmares. And since Walmart isn't that close anymore, and there is a grocery store here in town that is pretty cheap on prices (and great on specials), I often choose the closer store. Here is how I have learned to prepare for my grocery trips (if I remember...hey, I'm a work in progress):

I always try to remember to have an insulated freezer bag in my car, preferably two. I bought these at Sam's Club, and they're more convenient than a cooler. This is a must for Sam's Club trips, as it is a half hour away, and otherwise the frozen food would defrost before I got through the mile-long checkout lines! I also have (finally, duh) started remembering that PRICE CLUBS DON'T HAVE GROCERY BAGS, so I carry paper and plastic bags saved from local store trips. I keep these inside the freezer bags. The trick is to put the freezer bags on top of my purse when I head out to Sam's or else I'll leave them in the car. Yes, I will, I'm that bad! I also have to remind myself that after bringing the groceries into the house, I need to bring the freezer bags back out to the car or I'll forget them for the next trip.

Next, I always have my list with me. After about a dozen times of losing my precious list in Walmart (either it fluttered out of the cart or I placed it on a shelf as I inspected some item), I realized that small scraps of paper are too "risky" for me. Now I have a full page printout that I like to take on a clipboard. Hard to lose a whole clipboard, even for me! I bring a pencil for crossing things off. You can clip it to the clipboard, but I suggest tying it with a string so you don't lose it or drop it constantly. It's also important to have a calculator, unless you're rich, or you're just that good with numbers. More on the grocery list and calculator in subsequent posts.

You should bring the weekly circular with you, or pick one up at the store if you don't have one. I didn't check mine often, til I started going to this local store that has incredible deals--both specials and store coupons. I've gotten over $25 worth of groceries free. It never fails that the week I forget to check the ads is when they have a fabulous sale. Although they are good about posting signs for sale items and re-stocking items through the week.

Finally--and you should know this one already--dress comfortably and EAT BEFORE YOU GO! And I don't just mean a snack, eat a meal. Once I ate before going to Walmart--just a small lunch--but I was in Walmart for so long that by the time I drove there, shopped my way through the main part of the store, and then got halfway through the food section, it had been hours, I was starving. Not a good idea! You will buy way more food (and more junk) if you're hungry.

The next installment I will discuss how I make up and use my shopping list, plus other shopping list suggestions.

Kitchen Tip: Dishtowel Trap

How many times has your toddler delighted in pulling the dishtowels off of your oven door? How often does your preschooler race through the kitchen, only to knock them from their spot five seconds after you re-hung them? If you're like me, the answer is "about twenty times an hour." I was soooo frustrated, tired of picking them up and re-folding and hanging them, and tired of going through extra towels because the clean one was knocked on the dirty floor. THEN I came up with a brilliant solution! (Okay, brilliant to me.)

I've seen those dishtowels with the crocheted tops that loop around a handle and button securely. I have a couple. But I don't care for the looks of them, and they are too small and get soggy too quickly. I prefer the microfiber towels I get at Walmart. So here is my solution: place the towel in the proper place (for me, the oven door handle), then take a LARGE safety pin, and pin it from behind. It must be from behind or toddlers will be determined to get it off. If you pin it carefully, so that just the smallest bit of pin catches the front layer, then it will not be easily seen. I was amazed that my younger son only tugged once or twice at it, and never tried again. Guess the game got old real quick!

It's not terribly convenient to have to change the towels if you do so more than once a day. I don't usually need to. I keep one towel for hand-drying and one for dish-drying. Why? My mom did it. The dish towel stays cleaner and drier, so I replace the hand towel more frequently. I tend to leave the front part of the towel hanging longer than the back, so I can lift the dish towel up to dry a dish (most of my dishes are done in the dishwasher). The way I tell them apart, in case you are wondering (you're on the edge of your seat now, I just know it) is that the hand towel is always a solid color, and the darker of the two. The dish towel is the lighter one, or has a print on it, and is always on the right-hand side.

One downside to this idea is that if your husband is tall and dislikes bending over to dry his hands, you'll need to put another towel in another location for him. I have dedicated the ugly crochet-top towel for this task, hanging it on a nail from the cupboard side, over the sink. Who does he think he's kidding...I've seen him use a half-dozen paper towels to dry his hands during the course of making a meal! 8-0 But it's his money, and who am I to complain if he's cooking? ;-)

Anyway, I hope this little tip helps. It works for me!

The Grocery Game?

Many blogging homemakers have mentioned The Grocery Game. It is a website that you pay to join, and somehow helps you with couponing for your local stores. It's supposed to save time and money. Many people have raved about it. Now, I'm not much of a couponer. Coupons have died slow, crumpled, lint-covered, long-past-expiration-date deaths in the depths of my purse. I just am not in the habit of using them, so they are often forgotten. So I question whether the Grocery Game would be worth my while.

Another thought is that in my experience, most coupons are for name-brand convenience items that I don't normally buy for my family. The point of these coupons is to get you to switch brands or try a new product. I am trying to stay away from convenience foods, and when I do buy them, I buy store brands most of the time. Is this the case with the Grocery Game? Is this only for coupon-proficient, brand-buying moms?

Anyone with experience joining the Grocery Game is welcome to comment, and tell us about their experience, good and bad.

T.M.I.

WARNING: This post may fall under the category of "Too Much Information"...discussion of female problems to follow...consider yourself warned! ;-)



I've seen on many websites that many ladies are starting to sew their own reusable sanitary napkins. My first thought upon hearing about this years ago was "yuck". After all, I haven't been a pad kind of woman since I first discovered the convenience of tampons. However, things change. You know I've shown interest in trying to get rid of disposable products from my family's lives in order to not only save money, but be more healthy (I hate the chemicals in disposable diapers). But this is one area I just hadn't investigated yet. I'm thinking about it now because my needs have changed. Here's where a little TMI comes in...

Am I the only one who has an increased "flow" problem after four kids? I'm not sure if it's the number of pregnancies I've had, or the fact that they're so close together, or my age (mid-thirties), or the fact that they were c-sections, or the fact that I am obese. But after this last pregnancy, there's been a lot more flow, and your typical store-bought products aren't doing the job. Part of this I suspect is due to my larger size...most feminine hygiene products just aren't made for larger women. I don't want to have to buy every product on the market each month trying to find something that works.

I was really mad when I bought a box of panty liners this month that turned out to be so small I thought they were for twelve year olds at most! Although I miss the comfort of the products I used to use, I am now thinking of trying to find out where I can buy the giant sanitary pads they give you at the hospitals right after giving birth. It's better than shopping at Walmart, petrified there will be leakage, just like I did when I was in high school!

Okay, end of the TMI. ;-) So now I'm thinking of making my own sanitary napkins. I've seen a variety of styles. The type pictured above was the first style I've seen that is along the lines of what I had in mind. I found them at Homemade Mama's. They are outrageously expensive, although due to the materials and workmanship, and the "reusability factor", I can understand why. But I like the design, and I'm thinking of making some of my own.

So if anyone out there has experience in making their own products, post a comment and let me know how well you thought it worked. I'm particularly interested in the various ways the homesewn pads can be made to stay in place, and what materials can be used to prevent leakage.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled (normal) posts!