So on Monday, I had to get groceries. I decided that I’d do my initial grocery-getting at Wal-Mart, since the list wasn’t too terribly long, and then I’d get the things that Wal-Mart doesn’t carry (2% large-curd cottage cheese. Don’t look at me, Fred’s the one who eats it.) at my beloved Publix.
Most of the stuff I was buying at Wal-Mart was in the baking aisle, and I was out of butter, so I needed to get some of that. I absentmindedly jotted down the price of the yeast and bread flour I was buying, just because I was curious how much cheaper Wal-Mart really is than Publix. Then I moseyed down to grab a pound of butter (typing that makes me feel particularly fat.) and when I saw the price, my eyes bugged clean out of my head.
A pound of unsalted Land o’ Lakes butter at Publix: $3+. A pound of unsalted Land o’ Lakes butter at Wal-Mart: 2 for $4.
I bought six pounds of the damn stuff, because you can freeze it ’til you need it.
(KATG listeners, imagine me saying that in Keith’s “fat voice,” please.)
When I got to Publix, I went down the baking aisle first and found that a package of yeast at Publix is fifty cents more than at Wal-Mart. Now granted, it’s only 50 cents, but damn. DAMN. That can add up!
(Newsflash: Stupid Alabama woman is the last person in existence to realize that shit is less expensive at Wal-Mart than the local yuppy grocery store.)
So I grabbed the things I needed to get – frozen fruit, half-price Easter candy (Which conveniently can also be stored in the freezer. OR MY BELLY. Whichever.), something else I don’t recall – and I stood in line and had quite a nice conversation with the cashier as she rang up my purchases. We commiserated over the fact that there were no Reese’s peanut butter eggs in the half-price cart and how damn good those things are, and then I finished paying, we thanked each other, and I went out to the car.
Luckily, I hadn’t actually left the parking lot when I realized that the number one most important thing I’d visited Publix for? You know, the cottage cheese? I’d forgotten to buy any. So I went back in, grabbed eight cartons of the cottage cheese (it was on sale, and they last for weeks. Shaddup. Why am I defending my purchases to you, I highly suspect you don’t care all that much. Do you? Ah, you do, I can see it in your crazy stalker eyes. Nevermind.) and ended up back in line at the exact same cash register.
You know, the one where we’d had a deep, meaningful conversation about the Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs literally three minutes before?
She rang up my cottage cheese, asked why I was buying so many, and asked if I’d ever tried the store brand cottage cheese, and nodded sympathetically when I told her it was for my husband and he’s not picky about many things, but he’s picky about his cottage cheese.
And never once did she indicate in any way that she’d ever seen my face before in her life.
So anyway, much as I hate Wal-Mart, and much as I hate the fact that they are assfaces to their employees, I cannot deny that a penny saved is a penny motherfucking earned. In the face of saving 50 cents on yeast and over a dollar on butter, I will likely be doing the bulk of my grocery shopping at Wal-Mart from here on out.
I AM SINGLEHANDEDLY KILLING THE ECONOMY.
Ooh, but you know what? They have this AISLE now, this brand-new aisle of mostly food items that are priced at $1 or less. I like that aisle. I introduced my mother to this aisle, and she likes it too. Won’t you come to Wal-Mart and meet the $1 or less aisle?
I imagine us all wandering blank-faced into Wal-Mart like zombies, moaning “One dollar! One dollarrrrrrrr!”
To round out this entry, a meme. It’s from the “Sunday Stealing” site and it’s not Sunday, but who cares, right?
Sunday Stealing: The Green Meme
1. What is your current obsession? More ways to save money – and is it cheaper to shop at the Dollar General Market than Wal-Mart or not?
2. What’s a good coffee place? What is this “good coffee” you speak of? I don’t drink coffee, so to me it’s all the same.
3. Who was the last person that you hugged? Fred, I’m sure.
4. Do you nap a lot? I can’t remember the last time I took a nap, so no. Wait, that’s a lie, I do remember – last week on the floor of the foster kitten room, with warm and purring kittens piled atop me. I dared not move lest I wake them up, so I figured I might as well nap, too. (Usually, though, I’m not a napper.)
5. Tonight, what’s for dinner? We’re taking my parents to Logan’s Roadhouse.
6. What was the last thing that you bought? Birthday presents for my littlest nephew’s 4th birthday at Wal-Mart yesterday.
7. What is your favorite weather? 73 and sunny, maybe a gentle breeze.
8. Tell us something about one blogger who you think will play this week? I… do not know.
9. If you were given a free house that was fully furnished, where in the world would you like it to be? Somewhere where it’s 73 and sunny year-round. Oh, and if there were ocean nearby, that would be smashing.
10. Name three things that you could not live without. My heart. My liver (I assume). My brain. HAR. I can’t think of one possession I would die without, so I’m going to say nothing at all. Everything can be replaced. Don’t get me wrong – I’d be sad if my house burned down and I lost all the pictures I’ve taken over the years, but I wouldn’t die without them.
11. What would you like in your hands right now? Um. ::smirk::
12. What’s one of your guilty pleasures? Those damn Real Housewives shows. I don’t actually feel all that guilty about watching them, though.
13. What would you change or eliminate about yourself? My wattle. It drives me nuts.
14. As a child, what type of career did you want? Depended on what moment you asked me. For a while I wanted to be a vet, ’til I realized how much school it involved. When I had the tumor removed from my knee, I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeo. I think I wanted to be a nurse, also a secretary (I would kick ASS at being a secretary, I’m excellent at determining and meeting expectations before the person having the expectations knows they even expect them), Psychologist, and something to do with computers.
15. What are you missing right now? Heat. GODDAMN it’s cold in here right now!
16. What are you currently reading? Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless. Also, the latest Playboy. I haven’t been reading much lately, though.
17. What do you fear the most? Having a stroke or in some way being incapacitated and bedridden permanently.
18. What’s the best movie that you’ve seen recently? I really liked Yes Man. I could watch Jim Carrey read his grocery list out loud for two hours, as long as he made those faces and threw himself around. (On a side note, have Paul Rudd and Bradley Cooper ever been in a movie together? Because I suspect the earth would implode from the impact of having so much pretty in one movie.)
19. What’s your favorite book from the past year? Find Me, by Carol O’Connell. Just thinking about the end makes me teary-eyed.
20. Is there a comfort food from your childhood that you still enjoy? Whoopie pies. Is lobster comfort food? I’ll say lobster, too.
My parents are visiting, and to my dismay Beulah loves my father more than she loves me. In fact, she loves my mother more than she loves me, too. The only thing she wants me for is to give her food that she can gulp down before she goes back to hang out on my father or mother.
JUST STOMP ON MY HEART, BEULAH, YOU HEARTLESS BRAT.
More pics over at L&H.
I’m fairly certain heads would roll if Stinkerbelle got an eyeful of THIS situation.
Previously
2008: And then I will duct-tape the stupid thing to me so that I don’t lose it!
2007: It’s a rough fucking life.
2006: No entry.
2005: The freakin’ notify list.
2004: You could take notes, motherfucker.
2003: Okay, okay! Just please stop asking!
2002: I guess I was a doofus even way back then.
2001: DO NOT, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, EMAIL AND ASK IF I HAVE ANYTHING ON THIS LIST, STILL. I DO NOT
2000: I had to refrain from picking her up and squeezing her to bits.
Robyn,
If you have a Aldi grocery store nearby I strongly recommend shopping there they are cheap,cheap,cheap!Discovered them in FL and they just opened here in CT.
Love your blog you are a bright spot in my day!
So Tommy the Playa likes the younger women, huh?
UGH…Beulah is so damn cute! I wish I lived closer so I could adopt her. Don’t think my husband would let me drive from Arkansas to Alabama for her though. I’ll have to settle for a local kitty. *sigh*
The size difference between Tommy and the kitten is astounding!
Lord, Robyn you’re KILLING me with the Beulah pictures! Please don’t stop. You just have to keep her, that way I can keep seeing pictures of her. I keep showing my husband her pictures, but I don’t think he’ll let me drive down from Minnesota to adopt her. We’re already breaking the lease with 3 cats, my theory is what can one more hurt. Homeless with 3 cats or 4 what’s the difference?
If you have an Aldi’s in your area you’ve gotta try it. Three huge bags of groceries for $40, and that’s no shit. Every time I come out of there I’m completely amazed by how little I pay.
Stop, I’m getting cavities from teh cute!
Beulah has found herself a protector huh? She does not love your folks more, they are just new meat. She is just hedging her bets as the other Anders0n kitties have told her what happens with the fosters. She is planting ‘love me and keep me’ seeds all over. Last night my beautiful in-bred aristocat puked a hair ball that also had plastic strips from the pom pom she found and chewed on. And yes, I said a pom pom. Don’t ask just make up your own stories on why we have this item.
I cannot do Wal Mart. I just cannot stand it. We have Aldi but I have never been there.
I hate grocery shopping. Just hate it. I do, however, love to go into Whole Foods. I can’t afford to by anything there because just one apple would require me to sell a kidney but it’s sooo pretty!
Beulah is just precious! I feel the same way, though, when my Mom comes to visit. All of a sudden, I’m just the person who fixes their food. Dingo Girl and Not a Dingo are all over her as if they’ve been deprived of love for years.
I’m a walmart shopper! When my fiance and I were first dating he once said to me, “you go to walmart more than any other person I know.” I don’t think it was a compliment – but now he really likes going to superwalmart to buy groceries…except it’s like sam’s club where you can’t get out of there under $200. but whatever.
That darn Tommy! Men, they are always after someone smaller and younger. hehe.
Isn’t is amazing how stores can vary so much on prices. Here in southern Wisconsin, we have a “employee-owned” grocery store chain? (how many stores makes a chain?) called Woodman’s. There stores are huge (known for building the largest grocery stores in WI). There prices are cheap compared to other stores in the area – like a $1 cheaper on many things. I go there for my big shop each month (or twice a month). Not only are their prices the best, they carry the “entire” line of products. You’d never guess how many flavors of Paul Neuman Spaghetti Sauce there really is shopping at Publix or Walmart. The only problem with the store – the lines. They have almost all their check out lines open on the weekends (and they have like 20 checkouts), but they are still 4 to 5 people deep. Also – the produce section can be a zoo. Try having to use the motorized cart and people get downright rude. (My foot’s acting up again). I try to go on week nights, but it’s still really busy.
I had to read the fickin’ divider line three times before I got it. I love those things…you are crackin’ me up!
It would be helpful if you could also put the day of the week at the top of your entries too so I can tell at a glance if you’ve updated or not, i.e. Thursday April 16.
Thanks for you consideration.
Check with your local Walmart and see if they match area sale ads from competitors to save even more money. Not just grocery ads, any product ads. Our area stores will match anything except percent off ads or, i think, buy one/get one ads.
I think if Beulah is sharing a bed with Tommy it means that she is staying. Tommy loves her therefore it must be.
Note to Aldi shoppers, check the dates very very carefully!
Awww. Beulah is so adorable!! I’ll bet my little dachshund would adore mothering her. Demi goes crazy over puppies and babies.
Like Lorraine, I also had a hard time reading the divider line–I initially thought this one read “meme-centricentries” in a play on “eccentricities”, instead of “meme centric entries”. I do not know why. Actually, to be completely honest, what I first read was “me eccentricities” and I wondered what eccentricities you were referring to. But then I figured it out.
I bought butter from Sam’s and it really just did not taste as good as the Land O’Lakes. You’ll have to let me know if you know any difference. I used to think that people were silly to pay more for brand names, but I guess that I’m getting more skeptical about where things come from now. Of course, who knows, right?
I shop at Aldi’s also and they are cheaper but the perishable stuff spoils a lot faster. You can’t use part of a block of cheese you must use all of it because the rest will mold in no time. My sister had the same expierence. I double wrapped it in foil and a zip lock bag which works fine for the cheese I buy at the supermarket but not Aldi’s. So use it up or freeze it-but they do have some amazing prices. I do Walmart for snacks, presonal care items , cleaning products, pet foods, vitamins. Only beef-It’s out of my way and they frequently out of the stuff I most wanted.
???? Question or Request ???
Robyn, can you repost the recipe for the mushroom risotto? There’s nothing at the link on your recipe page.
KTHXBAI
Beulah does look like an alien! I love the photos with her next to the other cats, she looks so tiny and precious! That first photo with her and Tommy looks like she is saying “I can has coolness?”
Oh, my question: Have you ever submitted your pictures to Cute Overload? (http://cuteoverload.com/)
Seems everyone but us Californians have an Aldi’s. The only discount grocery store out here (that I know of) is Food 4 Less. The employees glare at you, you bag your own groceries, and they accept food stamps for alcohol and cigarettes. The one in my area is always full of drunken parolees. I only go in there for their awesome lemon meringue pie. Really, it’s even better than Marie Callender’s.
All kittens are cute, but Beulah is abusing the privilege! So, so, so, SOOOOO cute!!!!
Melissa: Pretty sure she said it’s Land o’Lakes that she got at Walmart, not their store brand. Having said that, there’s an “off” brand that my Walmart carries – I don’t know what it’s called but it has pictures of deer on it, I think – that IMO tastes even better than the LoL brand.
(Side note: If you ever see a brand of butter called Plugra give it a try. It’s pronounced “pluu-grah” because it’s from the French for “more fat” (plus gras) because it’s got a higher butterfat content than the butter we are used to. Oh. My. God. It was DIVINE… and naturally, as soon as I decided that I loved it and was only going to use Plugra from now on for ever, they stopped carrying it. Ah well.)
Devil: West Texas here, and I’ve never even *heard* of Aldi’s. You’re not alone!
I also had trouble with the divider line today, and got paranoid thinking it was about me. Because my blog name is “elaynocentricity.” Because everything’s always about me, don’tcha know. You see how quickly this turns into a downward spiral?
I love/hate Walmart. I love the prices and the fact that I can get whatever I need from ONE place, almost without fail, no matter what time it is. I HATE when I have to go in there at 6:30 on a weeknight, or any time over the weekend. I try to go in the middle of the night whenever possible… failing that, I’ve found that 9:30-11 A.M. and 2-3:30 P.M. are pretty quiet times, usually. Seriously, the people, the kids, the screaming, the messes, the Heelies, the seven-people-walking-side-by-side, the standing-in-the-middle-of-the-aisle-talking-on-my-cellphone-ignoring-you people, the rudeness and complete lack of consideration for others, and complete and TOTAL lack of attention to about 3/4 of the kids in there as they run amok… I get very VERY stabby in Walmart sometimes. But I also get stabby when I have to pay 50% more for stuff I don’t like as well. So it’s Walmart in the wee hours for me.
That first picture of Beulah and Tommy made me LOL. She looks all suave, like she’s quirking an eyebrow and saying, “So… come here often?”
Urgh.
s/b: It’s pronounced “ploo-grah” instead of “plug-ra.”
I’m on my soap box, so feel free to throw tomatoes if you want. Walmart pays its employees so poorly that many of them are forced to get public assistance for things like their children’s medical care. So all of us taxpayers are subsidizing their prices. I prefer to pay more for my goods at a store that pays its employees a living wage — like Costco or Krogers.
Okay, I’m off my soap box. And I do recognize how fortunate I am to be able to make the choices I make.
I miss Publix.
I used to shop WalMart exclusively. But then, something happened. It got more crowded, and with ruder people. People who didn’t look where they were going with their carts, who didn’t mind bumping into you while you were standing considerately on the sideline scrutinizing your choices. And then WalMart implied I should ring up and bag my own purchases (which sounded good to me at first) but then sabotaged the experience with the whiny B voice ordering me to bag an item or accusing me of not bagging a light one. Gah.
So now I shop Publix almost exclusively. I stock up on items like LoL butter when they go on sale (and will now pronounce Plugra correctly in my mind when I pass by it!) and do a Costco run once a week for gas and items we buy in bulk. Over the long haul, it’s probably a wash or just a tad more to buy like I’m currently doing. But my blood pressure doesn’t skyrocket and that reduces my health care costs…hee!
Robyn.. I have a 911 Question and can’t think of what to do but ask the kitten expert! A momma cat had her kittens her close to my house outside.. She has been missing for four days, the kittens have been screaming the entire time. I gave up on mom two days ago and started trying to feed them myself. I have the bottles from Wally World and the Cat Milk from Whiskers and cannot for the life of me get them to eat from that bottle. I called the vet and the local shelter and neither will do anything for them. I was told “if they aren’t old enough to eat on their own, they wont make it”. And its breaking my heart. I know you saved Maddie and I was hoping for some advice. Thanks Robyn!
So I’ve got a question for Friday’s entry.
I remember that a while back you used sisal rope on the cat tree in the foster kitty room. Was there a certain way you wrapped it around the poles? Did you glue it into place? I am sick of the little bits of carpet coming off our cat tree from the shredded carpet on the poles, so I’m going to buy some sisal rope and try to get some more life out of that cat tree.
Oooooo, the Beulah cuteness is KILLING me!
My god woman! You must keep that wee beast!
Carol H.; just in case Robyn doesn’t see this. From what I’ve read, kittens need to be fed on their stomach. 50Kittens.com holds them in an almost standing position, iirc. Check out youtube for feeding videos (I saw some when I did a quick yahoo search). You’ll have to help them “eliminate” as well, so you may need to google up on that….Good Luck!
You can’t think of three things you can’t live without??? Uhm…Miz Poo, Sugarbutt, and Beulah ring a bell???
As much as I curse about my cats, I can’t imagine a day without them.
Carol H: I emailed you, but just in case you don’t get it or it gets caught as spam:
Carol, this might be a stupid question, but have you helped them go to the bathroom yet? If not, they’re probably in some pain (using a cloth or paper towel, rub firmly along their back end until they urinate and/ or have a bowel movement).
Are they refusing to eat any of the formula at all, or just a few swallows and then they stop and cry? If they’re sucking and then stopping, double-check the nipple (I’m sure you’ve thought of this, but I just wanted to mention it!) to make sure the formula is coming through. If they aren’t sucking at all, the only thing I can think of is to try using an oral syringe to squirt a little in their mouths and see if they’ll swallow it – if they will, you can carefully try to get half a cc or so into them and see how they do.
I can’t think of anything else, but I’ll keep thinking about it and see if anything else comes to mind. PLEASE let me know if you have any luck!
Oh boy.. yeah.. umm.. I didn’t know that. Part of me is going.. “Oh poor kittens!!” and part of me is going “I have to do WHAT”! I will head in there now to take care of “that”. *cringes*
On the feeding home front, My eleven year old got home from school.. picked up the bottle, walked in and picked up a kitten and promptly fed it. He sat there for an hour and a half and patiently fed each one in turn. I told him he needs to be a vet! I feel so much better now that they are eating. Thank you guys so much. And as usual Robyn.. You rock! Ill send you a picture of them tomorrow.. the runt is absolutely the most pathetically cute thing you have ever seen!
Carol, if it helps any, it’s not as bad as it sounds – kitten pee and poo isn’t nearly as nasty as adult cats’. 🙂 Let us know how it goes!
Beulah is a gorgeous one. No doubt about it.
Nothing wrong with doing the Walmart grocery thing. My only complaint is that their fruit and vegetable produce isn’t as “fresh” as I’d like it to be. Nothing lasts longer than a day or two, so I buy it at another major chain store we have around these parts.
Go to the Land o Lakes website and you can print coupons, to use on top of that Walmart price.
There are some great coupon sites out there telling you how to save.
try
http://www.hip2save.com and check out some of her links to other sites.
There are just 2 of us and since I have been following, I have saved 65% on groceries.
Someone does a Publix update, which I delete, because I don’t have one. I will watch for the next one and send you that site.
And, I want Beulah. I adopted on January 2nd and didn’t get a tiny kitten because everyone wants one. I adopted a totally crazy teenager (7 months old). She is a total spaz and I love her, but I need a baby kitten. My husband says three is enough, but I could sneak her in.
I have a Virgin cell phone and I use the prepaid cards and the $ roll over. When you buy a prepaid card you have to use the minutes up within a certain amount of time ie for a $25 card you have 60 days so in 60 days you’ll have to buy another card (if you haven’t used up all your $ before that of course) and anything left will be rolled over into the next time frame.