I have been trying to be more frugal with grocery shopping and not just buying the product because it's what I'm familiar with (p.s. I'm mainly having to do this because I overshot my budget with the last trip to the States!!). I was a very frugal shopper in Elko, but moving to another country has undone every restraint that I had taught myself when grocery shopping. Today I had my first success. I stopped a shopper in the aisle and asked what chocolate powder is "dominican" to use to make chocolate milk. She pointed out the cocoa that was only $40ish pesos (under $1.50US). Next to this product was cocoa powder you use for baking. I had already put the $160RD ($4US) Hershey's cocoa powder in my basket. The dominican product was only $45RD (under$1.50US). So you can do the math and figure out which one is the smarter buy. We'll see if the quality decreases with the price. Pat on the back.
But the frugal shopping went downhill fast when I saw the promo with buying Presidente (the national beer). On the promo table were three gifts with purchases (bottle opener, bottle koozie, pack of 2 Presidente glasses). I called Scott and he wanted 4 glasses. I wanted a koozie. So our "wants" lead to me buying the max purchase of 3 6packs. From what I had gathered from the promo lady, all I needed to do was buy a six pack and then recieve a gift. Buy 3 6packs, Get 3 gifts. All right! I even called Rosalyn to let her in on the deal since she had just said this past wkend that she wanted some Presidente glasses. made my purchases and then took the receipt back to the promo lady who then preceeded to hand me a scratch off card!!! Buy a 6 pack, Get a scratch off card...I left with 2 bottle openers. Slap in the face!
On a side note: I had a conversation with Ana a few weeks ago about the reasons I buy food that I might not eat for more than a month later. My two reasons were that I have the money to live beyond today and that I don't enjoy going to the market every day. That conversation has made me better about eating what I've bought before buying more...which helps the monthly budget more than I expected.
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What a great way to live. Here in the land of "food storage importance", which is an LDS teaching some people have shelves and cupboards and even whole rooms of canned goods. They say it is important to be prepared. While being prepared is good on some levels, when I see that much excess I wonder what we are preparing for? If the answer is Armegedon, food storage will not help...only reliance on God's power. Good for you, shop for what you need now.
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