Here goes...

I'm sitting in my car waiting on the MegaBus carrying my gal pal to arrive. And I thought I would enlighten you to my views on Duck Dynasty.... Nah I'm just kidding I just wanted to brag about a couple things. 

First of all I have discovered the most amazing grocery store: Fresh Market. Perhaps I'm years behind on this, but that's pretty standard for me. It's just such a nice place. You don't feel depressed and overwhelmed as soon as you walk in. 

It feels like a warm little kitchen that's gonna make you healthy and happy. I made friends with the butcher and was able to purchase everything on my list. Minus velveeta. But honestly, does anyone want to do the bulk of their grocing (yep made that up) at a store that sells velveeta??? Didn't think so. 

Also, my Christmas present (to myself) arrived today: 

Ignore the mess and focus on how happy I am. Just in time for the game against the Steelers. Yes I'm a new convert, but this makes it official and bonus: I got it cheaper because I ordered an XL in kids. Also I'll no longer be intimidated by everyone wearing a jersey at Bdubs on Sundays. 

Dinner is in the crockpot at home and I am anxious to get home because the consistency of it when I left was curious. I'll keep you posted. 

A Grocery Tale

Yesterday was one of those imperfectly perfect evenings. Drew and I were both home before 5. We took our little lion man and went for a walk down the middle of our curvy country road and would step into the grass when cars whizzed past.

We talked about the future and turned around when the sunshine ran out. We went to the grocery store in our sweats and I'm embarrassed to say how much we spent.

While we do love fruit, this is a more accurate portrayal of what we buy at the grocery:

We are always pooped by the time we finish at the store (we only shop once a month) so we grabbed some sushi and headed home. On the car-ride home Drew's face lit up "We can eat our sushi in the bathtub." And so sushi in the bathtub it was. Sometimes our life makes me giggle...

We also decided while at the store that we want to become tea drinkers neither of us have had tea before so we bought 2 kinds of tea  After our sushi bath, we fixed our tea and "steeped" it as best we knew how.

We were both feeling fancy and British as we sat down in our jammers to sip tea before bed.

Then as we sipped it, we realized it just tastes like warm water. And we were sad.

Dear tea-drinkers, please tell us what we did wrong because we desperately want to share 'spots of tea' before bed but if it's just gonna be like hot water then I'd rather have a nice stout cup o' joe.

We dumped the tea and went to bed at 9:30. A perfect evening.

I could never have planned this date but it has been my very favorite so far.

A time to scrimp and a time to splurge

My husband and I made one of our bimonthly trips to the grocery store this week. Normally I enjoy going to the store because I plan my meals out for the coming weeks and know exactly what I'm going after. However I must admit now that I'm not working I look at prices a little more and will sometimes not buy those things I would normally splurge on (for example ferrero rocher or the 3 new colors of nail polish I've been wanting). But I also find myself trying to determine if the item in question is something we can go generic with, i.e. buy the Kroger brand.

This particular trip I was out of cereal and it is darn expensive so in the name of saving money I opted for the Kroger brand of Frosted Mini Wheats. I figured it would be pretty hard to screw up shredded wheat and sugar (wrong)! My husband warned me against it but those of you who know me will know I always know best. Well the next morning when I fixed my bowl of supposed "frosted mini wheats" I determined I was wrong (for the first time in my life). They smelled funny when I poured them out of the box and tasted even funnier, it put me in the mind of paste....not a food-like paste either like tomato paste just plain kindergarten paste.

Since Drew has been in college we have compiled a list of some other such items that should NEVER be scrimped on:

1. Garbage Bags-unless you like picking up your garbage off of the sidewalk when your bag inevitably breaks.
2. Ziploc Bags-same problem, smaller package
3. Toothbrushes-our gums have still not recovered form the toothbrushes I bough us out of the $1 bin
4. COFFEE-I pride myself on being able to drink coffee almost anyway. strong, weak, black, sugar, no sugar, cream, whatever but Kroger brand coffee isn't coffee at all. It's simply....bad.
5. And the latest....Cereal.

I'm sure there are other things that you all have found (please share them with me so I do not have to learn all of these lessons on my own).

However in the name of scrimping I have compiled a list of things I always buy generic:

1. Pasta-never have been able to tell a difference
2. Contact Solution-my husband claimed his eyes had to adjust to it but again my eyes could never tell a difference (and any eye doctor that tells you different is full of it).
3. Cream Cheese-The Kroger brand of cream cheese is a whole $1 cheaper and to me that's a lot!
4. Bread Crumbs-I recently watched Rachael Ray make her own but it's less work and they are just as tasty from Kroger.
5. Vegetable Oil-cheaper and again how do you screw that up?

I should point out that I'm no Rachael Ray or Paula Deen but I hold my own in the kitchen. I just try to make things easier on myself and my pocketbook. Any suggestions for future grocery store generic shopping are appreciated.