Grocery day.

Yesterday was a great day. It started out like any other of my days start out. I was achy and tired and did not feel real good physically. I laid about for a few minutes and snuggled with my cat bitty. She rarely leaves my side.Her purr is constant as her devotion to me. I got up and shuffled to the kitchen to feed her and her brother their treats, and put on the coffee. No walk today, it was grocery day. Always a tough day for me.
Rarely do I look and feel like this when the two week mark of pay day rolls around, well maybe at one time I did...LOL...now it is more like this..... It is so hard to plan healthy meals on a budget and not have it get boring. The tedious task of making the menu, taking stock of what we have left over and what we can get by without. Clipping coupons and planning out the ways to save a few dollars here and there. Twenty plus years of doing this, well it gets old and the last year or so has just become frustrating. So you may ask how can that be a great day?? I shall tell you. I flipped the switch and played the glad game, you know what I blogged about just a couple of days ago? Instead of being upset that it was grocery day, I wanted to embrace it.It was windy out, but the wind had blown the clouds away so it was beautiful! The Robins were singing... The paycheck this time was a bit more than expected, certainly something to be glad about. It need not be so tight, so nip and tuck as always. That to me was exciting! Oh and it was as it always is on grocery day ( as I can not physically do it on my own) my hubbies day off, so time together!  Ok so yes, at this point it is the little things that make me glad and joy filled. So with this in mind we departed.

First stop the local WinCo across the street. We walk here, blue wheeled cart in tow and start the shopping day. I get overwhelmed in such places, my anxiety raises, but I am learning to just breathe...very important of course. Coupons and list in hand, I start to go down my list and knowing what is priced better than other places, I fill up our cart. We were to later have our youngest join us for supper, another thing that would add to the glad list in creating a great day! Knowing we had just a bit extra to spare, it would be steak tonight! We found a lovely piece and it would be amazing cooked on the grill, served with potatoes and vegies...for under 10.00 we were able to put together an awesome meal for three ( oh and there would be enough for had leftovers !!Do I hear steak sandwiches??) .
Recently the meal served would be 2.00 spaghetti and sauce, with garlic bread made from day old rolls....not this time. My mood was improving with each isle! We found wonderful sales and discounts and headed home to put our finds away. After a bite to eat it was off to the next store. We drove to the Big Lots. Here we found just a few items, but every cent saved....so we scratched them off our list and drove down the street to the Dollar Tree.....a half hour later and half 90% of our list was checked off and the budget was hardly dented! Definitely adding to the great day! Then it was off to a store by the name of Trader Joes. We could go nuts in this store, but behave and stick to the list, getting what we need and even affording a couple bottles of wine to have with our meals over the next couple of weeks....budget still had a healthy heart beat! Off to the last place....Oh I know this seems like a lot of work and time to save a few dollars, but it has been very worth it! Next stop was Wal Mart. NOT my favorite place, too loud, too many people and well even though I find good prices, I just do not enjoy going. But I turned my frown upside down and we headed in.

 Isle after isle we put our purchase in the cart, keeping track of them on the calculator. In the first few moments I spot a purple, ribbed turtleneck sweater....marked down to 5.00, we look at the list, our coupon totals and the dollars we still have left in the budget, and in it went. My first new piece of clothing all winter!!!  This really was a great day! It would look great with my red hair ( oh an I was able to afford color for the gray roots!) . We continued on and check mark by check mark we finished gathering our needs. Doing the math , I was able to toss in a nail polish, a beautiful shade of pink by the name of "Bubble" ....screams SPRING!  I can just see that on my finger tips now ! Oh and it will go wonderfully with the new sweater! I was feeling as if I was bouncing through the grocery store with a big grin on my face! Oh and to top it off I was able to pop in a Woman's World magazine as well! This was really turning around to be a fun day considering how it started out!Oh and here is the best part.....we had money left over! YES, coffee money and a small buffer for things we may need between shopping days...this was unexpected to be sure! Shopping around, clipping the coupons and making the menu/list had paid off. Time to celebrate....so we ended the day out with a stop at Sonic, it was happy hour ( half price between 2-4 pm! So diet cherry limeaides!!  Oh and a grape slushy for the hubby..... Only bad thing was they forgot my cherries...but flipping that switch and playing the good old glad game, it saved me some calories and I still enjoyed it!!!

Another grocery day come and gone, normally I would say "Thank God", but mean it in a manner of it being over. This time however I was thanking HIM for the abundance we were able to buy and experience and the really great day it had been.