Thursday, October 21, 2010

Day 248- Shopping and Junk Food

First I was good, and I thought about what I wanted and needed, and what would round out what I've got and make for tasty nummies.

Then I went to Save a Lot and picked up flour, rice (pleh), and two cans of tomato paste for about $3.80.

I want to go to the Asian market and pick up soy sauce and (maybe) the ginormous vat of tofu. If I don't get the tofu, I'll probably spend that $5 on more potatoes and beans.

Anyway, that was the whole of my "lets be good" for the day. On the way home, to avoid the traffic (it's a strange merge and my car has no get up and *anything*), I went past the publix. And by past, I actually mean in.

And they had chips on sale, buy one get one free, so of course I got two. Which I then nommed. Instead of real food or veggies, or anything that contains ingredients recognizable to people who don't have chemistry degrees.

Also, I got to see a pack of wild coupon ladies. They had matching (huge) binders, and used something like 4 coupons each for 2 items. Which makes the line stop dead. I didn't know they were allowed to travel in packs, though. One thing I did finally notice- there doesn't seem to be much diversity among coupon ladies. They're almost all middle aged white ladies here.

I don't know if it's because they have more time, or the stores that do good coupon deals seem more expensive, or if it's some kinda racial/ cultural/ gender thing. It's also possible that I just don't shop at the "right" time to see them all.

Other thing I noticed today? People in Charleston walk really slowly. Like "I'm drunk, and have a headache, and a fever, and a broken leg" slowly. Drives me nuts.

Oh well.

So, real food today?

7 comments:

  1. Hehe. I have seen a different type of coupon people. That is to say, good and bad. I myself try to use coupons, but I am mortified if I have to use them during busy times. So I usually shop in the odd hours of the day when there arent too many people in the store.

    I feel just like you; I bought my first pack of chips in two months (well, flavored pretzel pieces) and instead of eating rice or something I had planned, I just ate half a bag of it. Oops. Real food did sound like a REALLY good idea after that, though.

    Figured out what to do with your giant eggplant? Hopefully you will share the recipe. I saw eggplants on sale at my local store, but me and eggplants are not friends.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm a coupon lady and I'm only 25. haha. I try to make it as quick as possible, though, and apologize to the people behind me. Whatever I save goes in my piggy bank and when that's full, my savings account. It really adds up.

    We're quite savvy, we coupon ladies.

    ReplyDelete
  3. TJ- These aren't *normal* coupon users. I'm pretty sure "coupon ladies" have spreadsheets with sales and coupon doubling worked out to the penny. I have no problems with normal coupon use, but the people who stack coupons ('cause you can) cause problems- most stores' registers aren't set up to process more coupons then purchases... You're right that after gorging on chips "real" food sounds pretty good.

    Alyse- Do you have the big binder with tabbed dividers and baseball card sheets, too? I don't believe there's anyone under 40 who does all that.

    Do I need to do a series with, like, 10 things to do with eggplant, and 8 was to make carrots tasty, and whatnot? It won't have photos (drat that washing machine!), but I can do ideas/ recipes...

    ReplyDelete
  4. You're right, I'm not that bad.


    I think your little series would be interesting. I know what I would do with an eggplant or a carrot, but I don't know what you would do with it. I'd also like to know how it would vary given your current budget or a previous one.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I used to use coupons and match sales to coupons. But now I eat almost zero processed food. You can save a lot of money by using coupons, and you can pay people to do most of the work too (there are websites, I hear).

    Now, I'm that lady who complains if something doesn't ring up right. Like, the tea that was supposed to be $2.50 a box, and was $3.14. That's 64 cents. Occasionally I forget to check until I get home, and am too lazy to go back. I have actually stopped shopping at certain stores (I'm talking to you Ralphs).

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sadly, when you stay away from processed foods the coupons lose their validity. What the industry won't do to make a person buy unhealthy overprocessed foods for cheap, we've stayed away from most of it as of late. I clip coupons for things like bathroom tissue or Kleenex. Since I do most of the cooking, I want to keep things as natural as possible so I I rejoice when I see a coupon that is actually useful, like finding a coupons on spices, butter, oil, flour or sugar. Otherwise, the rest of the coupons go in the recycling bin.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Marcia- I stopped shopping at safeway (which is bundled with Ralph's) when I moved from wyoming, but I would have stopped at the end of january, anyway, when they stopped giving united miles for groceries. Not sure how useful it would be to pay people to save you money on food, but who knows...

    MrsQ- I've used flour coupons before, that was nice. Last year I even saw coupons for bananas- It was like, up to $1 of free bananas with nilla wafers, or something. So you had to buy the wafers, but yum, plenty of stuff to make with those... Like Rum Balls.

    But I only eat bananas when I'm actively starving to death, or they're really well hidden, so I didn't buy any. The 55 cent coupons for Silk are pretty much useless, but I print them out or pick them up anyway. Every bit helps...

    ReplyDelete