grocery shopping

i could write an entire post on "things my mom was right about." it could also be called: "things i said i would never do when i saw my mom do them but do now and will most likely do them forever, and happily." 

for instance, when i was a teenager i could not believe my mom would wear the same outfit a few times.

"mom you just wore that last weekend." 
"that was with different people, these people haven't seen it yet." 
"but i've seen it. that's so weird. i'm never doing that."

mind you, i made it a goal in my junior year of high school to not repeat an outfit. and i think i might have even done it. i definitely repeated ITEMS, like my fave jeans worn lots and lots, but would wear with a different top or whatever. i don't know what i did, i obviously had too much time to think about what i was wearing.

we all know the quickest way to do something is to say, "i will never ..."  and naturally now i do what my mom did.

i pick an outfit i like and wear it out with lance, to church, to shop, to hang out with these people, then those people. then i have to find a new one - with much less enthusiasm than i apparently had in high school. and without the joy of a clothing allowance from my parents, or hand-me-downs from my stepsister who was always decked in adorable jcrew. but she is still a size zero (and i am not) and she ditched jcrew about the time her clothing allowance ended, so those handouts are long gone.

but i digress.

because the habit i acquired from my mom since being married has to do with grocery shopping.

i never understood when i was younger why my mom would bag her own groceries or make a point of telling the baggers, "i like the least amount of bags possible."

i remember whining when i was carrying the (then) heavy bags and asking why she couldn't just get more bags. "here i'll just carry it, chelsea."

not only did susan's habit help give her the buff arms she still has today that give her the body of a 35-year-old, but it was saving the earth. and preventing a lot of clutter. i hate waste and clutter. when i see how many plastic bags are used at grocery stores it's like, well let's all just go to the beach and beat baby seals to death or set a bunch of trees on fire because clearly we don't give a rip about mother earth.

after a few trips to the grocery store and being totally annoyed at how many bags they used to pack my groceries, i started using a big reusable bag i remembered i had in my trunk. that helped. then i bought another reusable bag at target, and was delighted to find out you get five cents back every time you use that bag at target - awesome!

when i left the commissary last week and again this week with just a heavy reusable bag on each shoulder and jug of orange juice in my hand, i was thrilled. (thanks mom!)

it took me a bit to get the hang of grocery shopping but (oddly enough) i look forward to it now. 

publix, an amazing grocery chain in the south, has a sweet app that organizes your grocery list ahead of time according to what aisle each item is in. i really only stop there for a few sale items each week, but it makes it so nice and easy. i'm starting to catch on to coupon blogs and apps, and if i were lance i would probably be annoyed by me always telling him, "this was such a good deal because ..."

i have yet to find any good farmers markets, which is a bummer. i passed a roadside stand (by "stand" i do mean a truck with a tent, some produce, and some dogs milling around) today when i took a wrong turn and ended up in a pretty ghetto neighborhood, i didn't feel safe getting out of my car so i didn't know that the produce could be trusted either. so i will keep looking.