Thursday, August 11, 2011

Lesson Learned

I love my husband, but...
I hate it when he goes with me to the grocery store.
& he's probably the only man in the world that likes to go grocery shopping.

Every week I make a meal plan. I write a grocery list & it contains ONLY things that we need for THAT week. This is how I save us money. It generally has things for breakfast, lunch, dinner, & snacks.
Most of the time, if I buy breakfast items one week, it will last for two. Same goes with lunch. But dinner & snacks need to be bought every week.
When I walk in, I grab a cart & am armed with my list, coupons, & have planned everything out mentally. As I am shopping I will keep a running tab in my head so I know I'm not spending too much.
When Aaron comes with me? He grabs things. Things that are NOT on my list. Things that we do not need. This bothers me because a] we end up spending more money than I have planned. b] we have limited storage so there will probably not be any room to put these extra items.
We've talked about this a few times in the past, but it never 'stuck' with him, I guess. But today...I almost lost it in the store.
When I saw him reach for cottage cheese, knowing it wasn't on my list I snapped my fingers at him & said 'get back here'....I didn't even realize what I did until after it happened. & I laughed about it. I was calling him back to me like a dog. OOPS.
I explained to him that we could only get things I put on the list. So from now on, if he wanted anything from the grocery store, he has to write it on the list. [I can't tell you how many times we've had this convo] He agreed, & on we went. Where he promptly picked up bagels...that weren't on the list. I just stared at him with an 'are you freaking kidding me right now' look on my face. I asked him if he had just heard what I said and he replied 'Yes Jamie, but these are the items that are on the list in my head.'
HAHA

6 comments:

asj said...

too funny, I do stuff like this all the time without realizing it!

also, I've come to realize men just don't get the budget/grocery store thing...

MeredithDuck said...

I know all too well what you're talking about. My husband 'claims' that I spend too much when I go grocery shopping, but I have a method to my madness. And I know exactly what I want and where to get it. The few times that he comes with me we end up with foods I would never buy - frozen pizza, frozen burritos, ramen noodles. We're adults here - We are both now in our 30's (yikes!) and we will not have frozen burritos in our house. I now leave him at home so I can buy my kale and greek yogurt in peace. :)

Shirley said...

Chris is the same way! It makes me crazy. I ave started telling him that he has to stay home.

Ashley said...

This made me lol! I love the way you tell stories! Unfortunately, I'm the grabber! I wish J would do our shopping because he'd only buy what was on the list!

Sara Strand said...

Oh hells no- Matt doesn't get to come for that reason alone. And I love how you called him away from the cheese- you're such a mom now. :) Just think- in another year or two, you'll be explaining why you aren't going to pay almost $4 for yogurt with cartoon characters on the cup!

Lin said...

Haha...my husbands exactly the same! I'm not as organized with my meal planning but I know what we need & dont need and most of the time we definitely dont need Oreos, Doritos or a bucket of ice cream.

Hopefully he'll remember to put his item on your list next time :)