Finding Winn-Dixie

Today, J and I went grocery shopping. It was inevitable. We couldn't put it off any longer (I hate grocery shopping -especially with J. That boy likes to look at everything and he can stand in front of an item debating the cost forever.) because our refrigerator looked like this:

FYI: The milk had gone bad, J had drank all the coke (he likes to leave a smidge at the bottom because he hates throwing out the bottle), the big bag of frosted flakes is from J's job, and the other big bag is stuffed with sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies that one of J's accounts had given him yesterday (hence my tweets about sugar headaches resulting from an overindulgence in sugar cookies. Seven sugar cookies to be exact). Everything else? Condiments.

We usually shop at Publix, but my friend A had mentioned that Winn-Dixie was less expensive and had better deals, especially if you had a Winn-Dixie card, which is a little black card that enables you to get -duh, even better deals. We weren't able to get the card because the manager said he ran out of applications. But he kindly kept a card on hand for occasions like this.

So on our way to the store, I issued a challenge. The challenge was to keep our bill at $50. $75 including dog food. I'd read somewhere that for people on a budget, a good number to keep on hand for groceries was $100/person per month. That would be $200 smackaroonies a month.

Okay. So that didn't happen. We spent $119, including the dog food. When I looked at J, he just said,

"Babe, you didn't really think that we could spend $50. Are you crazy? We had nothing. Anyway, just think of it this way, we bought enough stuff to last two weeks! Plus, that includes the dog food, and your champagne and orange juice for your brunch tomorrow. I think we did really well."

And we did get some good deals. Pork chops were two for one -and the BEST deal was a 30 pound bag of dog food that retails for $30, but was on sale for $15! Yowza!

But. But of course, because it's J and me. We did have a little Charlie Brown moment. When I unloaded the groceries, I couldn't find the tuna, Coke, or spaghetti sauce (two for $5 and we eat pasta all the time). Turns out, when I was putting our groceries on the belt, there wasn't enough room, so I put some stuff on the little ledge. And that's where my stuff stayed. Boo. Hoo.

Anyhoodle, here's my fridge:

I still have to go to Publix to get some stuff tomorrow. I didn't like the deli meat at Winn-Dixie so I've got to get some sliced turkey and cheese. Plus the Coke and tuna that I'd left behind.

But the hardest part is over. No need to worry about me, cookies. We're fully loaded!