Almost anticlimactic

Well, I went shopping yesterday. Apart from my 99 Cents Only spasm, it was the first time I had taken out my wallet in two weeks.

We were out of margarine, and ran out of milk over breakfast, so Shopping Day arrived just in time.

I had a list of all the things I’d thought of that we needed – with an awful lot of those things crossed out. Having time to reflect, even if it was just overnight, saw a lot of nifty ideas nixed.

The night before, I made up a menu for the next two weeks and went over my pantry to make sure I had anything I lacked on the list.

It wasn’t as long as list as I expected. And I certainly didn’t think that I would do two whole week’s worth of shopping in less than three hours.

But I did. One hour online, a little less than two hours around town, done.

It was almost anticlimactic.

The longest errand was down to the city to pay for the second half of the summer camp the girls are attending…and to just add a heapin’ helpin’ of ludicrous to the whole thing, the reason I appeared in person was so I could get the sibling discount, which was not available online because their programmers suck the system doesn’t support the discount online. You have to appear in person, and wait in person, and go over each line in person, and discuss the heritage around your children’s names in person, and be witness to approximately thirty-seven impromptu staff meetings around how, precisely, one is supposed to enter these things into the computer, at which point you will be told, in person, that they can’t get the discount into the system either.

You’ll have to call Accounting on Monday and ask them to make the adjustment.

So glad I could learn all this in person.

ANYWAY. Apart from that little exercise in futility, everything ran smooth as melted butter. I’ve got a bunch of things being delivered (Treo accessories, clothing labels [don’t start me], replacement brushes for the Roomba [we’re trying to kill that little robot, I swear we are]). I hit up Costco and replenished the basic supplies – including a case of copier paper for $10 less than the same basic thing at Office Depot. Sweet.

A long dally at the city offices (grrrr!) followed by a swift dart through Longs Drugs and an even faster swoop through the supermarket and…that was that.

Done, until July 16th-ish.

It was suspiciously easy, this switch to bi-weekly shopping. I’m not quite sure I believe it, just yet. Thanks to my cheat last week, I got a one hour head-start on the whole thing, sure…but it still just went…smoothly.

Too smoothly.

Of course, one trial does not a program make. The real test comes as the weeks continue to pass, and Life does that thing it likes to do, throwing curve balls at every opportunity.

Not to mention those times when there is simply more that is needed. Nobody needed socks, or a new swimsuit, or had demands from their teacher for 144 cupcakes by Friday. No birthday party invitations came home in backpacks, nobody had to build a mission out of sugar cubes.

Just some groceries and household sundries, a few electronic gadgets and a trip to the city zoo offices.

I got a lot more done around the Den thanks to the increased time on my hands, we burned practically no gasoline, and by my rough guesstimate based on the items crossed off the list, we saved around $300 simply by having a cooling off period between thinking we needed something, and actually going out to buy it.

Which is good, because there is a pretty major lag going between getting back to work and getting paid right now. It’s a good time to hold onto the money I have, rather than spending it on things I {nudge-nudge-wink-wink} Neeeeeeeeeeed.