If You Got the Money Honey I've Got the Time

If You Got the Money Honey I've Got the Time 

(performed by Merle Haggard, originally by Lefty Frizzell)

Sorry to disappoint, but this post isn't about Honky Tonkin' (it'd be a lot cooler if it was.)
It's on the process on grocery shopping.  I'm not sure which form of hell I prefer more: grocery shopping, or laundry.  Regardless, I feel like Sisyphus ( the greek mythology character that has to roll the boulder up the hill everyday)..

As a SAHM, I feel an obligation to be a smart shopper.  For me, this includes the dreaded process of menu planning, couponing, as well as matching up the coupons with the store specials.  No, I'm not one of those obnoxious Extreme Couponing.  I don't feel the need to stock an entire room of shampoos, ramen noodles, and Cover Girl makeup.  Personally, I think extreme couponers are just an organized version of Hoarders.

For a non ADHD person, this process is probably easy.  I've stated before, I am excellent at over-complicating an easy process.  Grocery shopping is not excluded.

The process should go something like this:

Sunday: Get the paper, clip the coupons, purge the expired coupons, make your menu and list, and pull out the coupons you're going to use.
Monday: Do the grocery shopping using the ready made list with the coupons.
Tuesday: done and finished..

My sorted coupons & tattered coupon wallet:

Now, here's how it plays out for me
Sunday: Get the paper, maybe pull the coupons out, definitely pull the comics for the boys, recycle the rest of the paper.
Monday: Spend the day trying to remember where I left my coupon wallet**.  Find the coupons I pulled from last Sunday's paper.  Go around the house, collecting the coupons I've collected from mailers, receipts, etc.
Tuesday: Purge expired coupons, clip coupons, maybe organize and make a menu and list.
Wednesday: Start a new menu & list, because the specials have changed, and the store coupons have expired. Maybe make it to the grocery store. Put away most groceries.
Thursday: If I've made it to the grocery store; there's probably still some large things in the car I need to put up, as well as some cans on the counter/or dining room table.
Then I need to clean out the expired left overs from the fridge, clean up any spills I wasn't informed of.
Take trash out, because I've just dumped stinky leftovers; I don't want the house to stink.
Turn on the Scentsy.  Remember that I've used up all the scent from the wax, let the wax melt.
While the wax is melting, do the dishes, (I need to get the stinky containers in the dishwasher, so it doesn't stink up the house, but first I have to unload the dishwasher.
Reload dishwasher, and start
Spend approximately 10 minutes deciding which new scent to put in the scentsy. 
Clean up the mess from the counters.
Clean and cut veggies for snacking
Make the buttermilk ranch for veggies. (unnecessary additional work, but SO worth it)

 Unload the cokes in the fridge.
Break down the coke boxes
Take out Recycling
Arrange overflow pantry items in garage

I failed to mention how the grocery store sends me on sensory overload.  The smells, the music, the elderly (inevitibly, I manage to go on the days the retirement communities take the buses out.) Then I'm stuck maneurving my cart among the slow sweet, indecisive, ladies, and their bored out of their minds husbands wandering following behind.

If it were just groceries, I probably wouldn't mind, but it's all these additional tasks intertwined.  BUT, like I said, it's my obligation to use the finances as wisely as possible, so like Sisyphus, I continue pushing the boulder up hill every day.  (I still don't think I want it any other way, either!)

**I prefer the coupon wallet to a binder - mostly due to size.  I can put the coupon wallet in my purse, and it has room for a lot of credit cards/gift cards.  Most times, I always have this in my purse.

Confession: In high school, I had to go the grocery store for some (ahem) femenine items.  Wouldn't you know it, a guy I went to high school with, (totally cute, had a crush on since the 6th grade), was re-stocking that aisle.  I spent an hour an a half waiting on him to restock the aisle before I would grab my items. ha!