Ice Cream Excitement!

This is my grocery shopping week.  On the refridgerator there is a note pad that we jot down things I need to pick up on the next round.   They are either things about to run out or things that are completely gone.  Right now on the list are pancake syrup and Ivory Soap.  The syrup is gone, the soap is dangerously close.  This certainly makes the list writing easier but best of all it helps avoid a conspiracy.  You see when the girls were much younger we ran out of ketchup.  Now for a lot of people that would not be a problem but, the ketchup did not make the list and we didn't buy any that grocery shopping round.  Dinner came along and we were having something that ketchup would go with, alas there was no ketchup.  Drama insued, E was not happy and asked in a very serious voice "Is this a ketchup consipiracy?".  I don't think I will ever forget her asking that question and even today when we run out of something it pops in my mind.  I have tried to explain it to my husband (he was not even a blip on my radar at that time in my life) but I think it is one of those you have to be there moments!

So back to grocery shopping preperation!  Tomorrow morning I will take the ads that come in the paper and start strategizing.  I shop at usually 3 grocery stores and a wonderful small place called The Vegetable Bin.  We are blessed to live in a place that gives you many "fooding"options.  I know not all are as fortunate as we are and many have to drive a long distance to even get a gallon of milk. 

To be honest, I pretty much buy the same things week in and week out so that part of the list is easy.  Chicken, eggs and milk are always on the list and whom ever has the best deal on them gets my hard earned dollar.  Sometimes I will not buy something if it is more than I planned on paying for it,  unless it is a necessity. Where the list gets exciting is the deals the stores have. Many stores have the buy one get one free deals.  I refuse to shop at a store that makes me buy two of something, I just can't do it if it is something I don't need two of.  We have very limited storage space and do I really need two boxes of Ritz Crackers?   The planning gets exciting with the Harris Teeter ad, they offer buy two get three free deals.  At first I thought "what's the catch?", now I know there is none.  My first get 3 free special was bacon.  I think I paid $8 for 5 pounds of a snazzy brand name bacon.  Imagine the husbands surprise when he opened the freezer and found all that bacon.  He no longer asks why we have so much of something...he knows it was on some smoking deal!

I recently hired a wonderful young lady as a part time cashier who is a Customer Service Supervisor at my local Harris Teeter.  She is one of those people you interview and you think to yourself, what is she doing here and how quickly can I hire her?  So she now works for us a few days a week and is a joy to work with.  I saw her yesterday and she told me my all time favorite deal starts tomorrow, it is the buy 2 get 3 free HT Premium Ice Cream deal.  I know I said I have limited storage space but I can somehow make room in my overcrowded freezer for 5 containers of ice cream. We get enough of an assortment of flavors that the two of us are happy! You need to be careful here when you open the freezer door though as something could fall out and break your toe.  When Michael and I were first dating that almost happened to him when a frozen duck came careening out of the freezer and onto the floor next to his foot.  For some reason he has been very cautious since then.