THE BIG SHOP...

Dun, dun, ..dun!!!! Here it is, the biggest grocery shop ever!!

I decide to conduct the affair on Saturday instead of today as I just wouldn't have enough time after Dwight was done milking tonight. SO, I asked my friend Jen to be my cart pusher/list scratcher/other brain so that Dwight could stay home and watch the younginns.

Off we went. I had scribbled out a two page grocery list and sectioned it off to 'dairy, bakery, meat...etc' to try to prevent chaos. First off was 'Food Basics'. It is the cheapest grocery store round these parts, and I figured I would get all the dry stuff and canned food there.

We ended up buying a majority of the list there, even some things I thought I would buy bulk. ( I decided not to buy a membership at Sam's Club as it just didn't seem to be much of a savings, after Jen and I went through and calculated. She was kind enough though to let me use her membership to buy a few items there.) While we were at Food Basics, we were getting some looks and two people asked us if we loved juice ( I had filled a flat with frozen juice)

....Jen just said, 'ya I really do.' They weren't sure if we were kidding or not.

The cashier was wide eyed when we came to her till. She was a little teenager who finally said...'This is a lot of cans..hee hee!' (Mmm-hmm) "So...like why are you buying so many cans..hee hee?" (I'm buying all of my groceries for the month) "Oh WOW really..hee hee'.

Once we were heading out to load up the truck, I felt around for my keys and realized I had left them in the car. Lucky for us the doors weren't locked either..(I blame the scarfing of Taco Bell in the truck prior to shopping) We loaded up and were off to the next store.

'No frills' is also a fairly cheap grocery store, but has somewhat of a better selection of some items. I buy the diapers from there, they are able to withstand anything miss Ashy poo can throw at them, and they're still cheaper than Pampers. This is where Jen and I were finally getting googly-eyed from the list and all the shelves. We were headed for a melt-down.

I reached for 2 cases of pop from a high shelf and they came down too quickly nearly hitting me in the nose, I yelled for Jen and she was embarrassed so she hid herself in a freezer, gee thanks. So I walked over to her after getting the cases in the cart and she was laughing at me, I started laughing too and eventually my pants button popped off...oh shoot...that was even funnier...well I was bending down to pick up the button and SMACK, I plowed my forehead into the cart handle. Jen desperately had to pee, so she was crossing her legs holding it in and I didn't have to pee but was still trying to hold it in. We were both bent over silently shaking, WHEW!! the two guys behind us thought we were mental, but it was a much needed break.

Next was Sams Club for a few frozen dinners (pastas, wings and soup) and then we were done. Yee haw!!!

It took about 3.5 hours, a budget of $600 and 4 carts. Here are the receipts, and I came in at $599.04!!!!! Can't get much closer than that. I put a pen in the picture so you get an idea of how long the 'Food Basics receipt is.

My meal plans are all made up for the next 4 weeks and today we're having pork chops for dinner :)

I'll keep you posted on how things are going, and if my writing becomes strange near the end of the month.......please,

SEND FOOD!!!!