The Shrimp is next to the Bagels

I went grocery shopping today.  I realize that this sounds like a rather boring event, but for me it is kind of like a jungle adventure.  I have a ten year old daughter and seven year old twins.  I am a single parent, so everywhere I go, 3 restless, snow bound, non-grocery shopping lovers go as well.  We live in a rural area and every store is at least 30-45 minutes away.  On top of that, we are on a quest to find a new grocery store.  We used to shop at stop and shop.  They have wonderful produce and fruit, but when my grocery bill hit $200 a week, we decided to look elsewhere.  (By we, I mean me, my kids have no appreciation for good sales). We tried Price Rite, one of the bag your own grocery stores that have cropped up everywhere.  You save money because they simply open the front of the boxes and stack food anywhere that it will fit.  This results is juice boxes in five different isles.  I picked up a box of capri-sun and then 3 isles later saw another box with a flavor that my kids HAD to have.  So now I am digging through the cart to find the old ones.  I am a bad person, therefore I did not go back and put the old ones where they belong.  We move into the diary isle to discover that the milk is at room temperature inside the cooler.  At this point my twins are dying of thirst, hunger, exhaustion and both need to use the bathroom.  My children view public restrooms with the same enthusiasm as a carnival.  My ten year old is also explaining to me that she is in danger of imminent death should we not abandon the store and find a Dunkin Donuts STAT.  So, we finally navigate through to the cashier to discover that you also save money because they only hire one cashier.  After having all of our groceries thrown back into the cart, bread and eggs first, we proceed to the bagging area.  At this counter, my children and I compete with thirty other families to find space enough to unload the cart, bag everything and place it back into the cart.  At this point I realize that we did not buy cheese, ground beef or celery.  My seven year old son, helps out by saying, "oh yeah, cheese was near the seafood".  I don't remember seeing any seafood or cheese.  "yeah, just past the bagels".  Oh, yes, why didn't I look for shrimp next to the bagels? We also chose not to buy the warm milk.  Out to the car in the freezing cold...and on to the mini-mart to purchase milk.

Total savings: $23.82
Total cost: My sanity and four hours of my life.

Next week we are going to try Market Basket.