That Went Well…Not

So, remember the race? Yeah, okay, that didn’t go so well. Actually, it went great–right up till the shopping.

See, we’re not in emergency mode over here at Casa de KD, but we’re cutting it close every month. Bills, in their sneaky nasty way, go up. And sometimes paychecks, in an especially sneaky nasty way, go down. What was comfortable–everything paid with $20 here or there to play with–has become tight.

Short version: my budget is on a diet. In an attempt to make that go over without inflicting undue distress on the humans in the house, I did some research and planned out some meals. Normally when hungry we wander into the kitchen and eat, but often when we can’t find anything we want to eat, we tell ourselves we have $20 to spare when we do not, and go out to eat.

We no longer have $20 to spare.

Anyway. Research. Menu plan. Research some more, checking out the specials. Normally we shop in one place because grocery shopping is not high on my list of Things To Do With My Limited Free Time. This time I planned out our journey for maximum groceries for minimum money.

Yeah, that’s not how it went.

Anyway. For the curious, problems with multiple stores–

1) Everyone wants treats. It’s normal. The problem is that when you go through five different stores, odds are good that if you’re not an iron-fisted meanie (hint: I’m not) everyone will GET treats. Possibly five different treats.

2) Without everything in one place at one time, it is harder to weed out the unnecessary.

Yeah, I’m now bored with this list. Sorry.

Anyway, we went through three stores on Saturday and came home exhausted and in pain. I don’t even freaking know–I work way harder than that at work, for way longer. How could that have hurt? But it did. So three stores on Saturday and nothing else done, and then two stores on Sunday because at that point I was stuck–there were things I needed for my plan that I hadn’t gotten, because we hadn’t gone to the stores where they were on sale.

In the end, spent way more than I’d budgeted (not more than I had, fortunately–I’ve been known to do that, too.) I’ll try it again, but less ambitiously. And I’ll go alone. I don’t feel like I have to feed ME in the middle of a major expedition, and if I must decide between eating out or buying every grocery in the store (never shop hungry, ZOMG!), it’ll be cheaper.

Bleh. So much for a blog post about things I don’t really care much about today. That’s another difficulty with shopping–my feelings change day by day, sometimes by the hour. How the hell am I supposed to shop for WEEKS?

Urgh. I will not fall into a black pit of despair because it’s been a three-day weekend where I got nothing done. That’s my life lately. And it’s only 9 a.m. on the third day, so THERE’S STILL TIME.

Onwards!