Confessions of a Shopaholic

Look in my fridge and you will laugh at me. I generally have control at the grocery store, but something went haywire yesterday.  I came home feeling like a shopaholic  - or at least an Albertson's sales shopaholic.

Here's how the story begins: Last weekend, I asked my sister-in-laws to teach me about shopping grocery store sales and using coupons, because they are both very good at getting awesome deals. I had no idea coupon shopping was a whole other world. They showed me this great web site - pinchingyourpennies.com - and passed on some great handouts. 

So this week, I clipped a few coupons and got online to find good deals. 

Here are a few guidelines I knew in advance:

1. Plan before you go shopping and know exactly how much you will be spending/saving.

2. Don't use a coupon just because it's a coupon

3. Buy items for how often you would use them in 3 months (or a year, whatever you prefer)

4. See Rule number one AND  two AND three again. 

Yesterday, I had my list all ready. I felt like such a pro, because I had my good deal coupons from the internet and the newspaper. Plus, I knew if I spent $10 on a certain brand I would get a coupon to save $10 next time. I decided the items I would buy from this brand would be soup and cake mix.

At first, all was well. I stuck to my list. I got my groceries. I got my $1o items to save $10. I headed to the cash register. Then it all fell apart. 

The woman ahead of me was buying her cake mix and soup by the case. And then I turned my head to the entrance I had not come in and saw tons and TONS of cake mix and soup. It was piled up like a mountain, and surrounded by signs saying how much you would save buying all this. Slowly, a little worry started tickling my brain. Maybe I needed more? Maybe this is such an awesome deal and it will never happen again? I like soup, right? Don't I want to build up my food storage?

I ignored it at first. The supershopper in front of me was taking forever. I just stared at her boxes of food and couldn't believe how much she was getting. She must really know what a great deal this was, right? And I'm a beginner coupon clipper who just must not get it. 

So what did I do? I left my stuff in line and got more cake mix and soup. I didn't even count - I just grabbed. When I got back in line, supershopper was gone and it was my turn to check out. I had an odd number of cake mix, so the cashier let me go back for more. Then I was short a soup can, so I went back for a few more of those. 

THe cashier and I talked about what a good deal this is, if you are going to actually use the products. "And especially the biscuits, their a great deal," she added. 

"What biscuits?" I had no idea the BISCUITS were on sale, too. And you always need biscuits, right? (NOTE: we never eat biscuits. What was I thinking!?)What did I do next? Oh yes, I ran over to the biscuit section. I didn't grab just a few biscuits, but followed super shopper's example. This time I grabbed the whole case. That is 12 containers, or 96 biscuits, for my rare-biscuit-eating family to eat before they expire on April 9.

While I packed everything into my trunk - thank goodness it fit- my logic slowly started to return. And by the time I had stacked the 20 cake mix boxes in the pantry and saw how the biscuits take up my entire top shelf in the fridge, I had complete buyers remorse.

Then Scott, who had not seen me unload groceries, came into the kitchen. I showed him the fridge and we just laughed. I told him we have to eat one containers of biscuits twice a week for the next 2 months. And not only that, but he will need to eat most of them by himself because each biscuit contains 9 grams of fat, and I'm trying to loose weight.

Which really explains why I bought 20 boxes of cake mix and extra buttery biscuits, right?

Here are my updated guidelines:

1. Don't be peer pressured into a sale.

2. Take a friend with you in case you go crazy

3. Always check the expiration date. (My cake mixes are only good until October. i'm never going to eat that much cake).

4. Stick to the game plan and come back later if you think you should buy more.

5. Still follow rules 1-4 from the beginning. 

Anyone want to come over for a dinner of biscuits, followed up with a delicious cake?