Brace Yourself

I fully recognize the need to update on life, but I rather enjoy keeping secrets, not exploiting every new fun thing Daniel discovers, and generally failing to process ever-changing life circumstances. Essentially, my baby boy is growing up, Joe is growing busy, I am growing older (though not necessarily wiser) and I could really use some updated make-up. Yes, that sounds strange coming from a self-proclaimed tomboy/ country girl gone city-dweller or urban wannabe gardener, but I feel tired and washed out despite the influx of speckled brownish patches (also called freckles) across my unsuspecting face.

Today, despite an hour of preparation, I had a somewhat crushing blow at my third attempt at grocery shopping with coupons. Harris Teeter was running its triples special, so I came with my 20 coupons, expecting to save about $50-$60 in coupons and even more in in-store specials. My track record with coupons has been foul. Last time I took coupons to Walmart, I was told they didn't accept internet coupons. It made me feel dirty, like they were saying, "Your services aren't needed here," or like I was supposed to show up in a dress suit but forgot and wore overalls. I returned the items I purchased in excess in order to save, and they proceeded to trash them all because they were not allowed to restock them (or was it because my dirty little internet coupons passed through the same hands?).

At the Harris Teeter checkout, much to my dismay, most all my coupons were for $1, so none tripled. I thought the 99 cent limit meant that they would triple it, but only as much as 3 times 99 cents. I was wrong. For the most part, Harris Teeter is upwards a dollar more expensive than most products at Walmart, so without triples, I didn't exactly accomplish anything by changing my store and using the coupons.

I cried in the car and shared my story with Joe coupled with several choice words, and he followed by begging me to either give up coupons entirely or to take a class on it so he didn't continue to get weekly calls from an outraged woman who felt scammed by the coupon system. I still saved $60 total with the in-store specials, but there are now a whole lot of crackers in my pantry that may still be there in 2011 when they expire.

Do you find it a little insane that I would cry over groceries? I do too. However, I have been fixated on slashing our monthly budget, and short of switching to a beans and rice diet, I've been trying to get a hold of the grocery budget as a starting point - that and eating out. How I love eating out, especially at Sushi Blues, El Rodeo, Bojangles, Papa Johns, ... shall I go on? The most frustrating part to me is that whatever time I spend on the budget, I save very little relative to how much I make at my job. So it seems the best option is to just keep working instead of cutting back on work to work on finances. However, coming up with new tasks to do to improve my courses (while still missing half the brain I lost during my first pregnancy) is challenging or uninspiring at best. Also, while Daniel is napping, do I want to work? No. I want to nap. Eat. Pick peas. Pollinate squash... jk. No more squash, I promise.

To all of this, Joe would reply, "Did I hear a Waaah?" I taught him that. I think I picked it up at camp many summers ago.