Thanksgiving Organizing

Leaving school on Friday before a holiday:  Relief

Putting things off until next week:  Lazy

Sunday evening with no thought of Monday morning:  PRICELESS!!



I started my Thanksgiving organization with a grocery list.  I always shop with a list.  Here is my routine:

The weekly grocery circulars come in our newspaper on Wednesdays.  I save them.
They are also online at the particular grocery store's website so it's not necessary to save them.  But I do.  Old habits die hard.

I have 3 stores that I frequent for sales:  Kroger, Brookshires and CVS.  Surprisingly, CVS has a lot of grocery sales.   We do have an Albertson's but after months of the manager telling me that particular location wasn't participating in the sale, or the shelves were cleared of sale items, plus the slow checkout lines I quit visiting.  I'm patient.  But not that patient!

Back to my routine:

I have a handy dandy grocery notebook that I bought at The Paper Source.  I label each note by the store name and I go through each circular writing down the deals including price.  

I check my coupons quickly.  It doesn't take as long as you may think.  I've been stopped before in the store and asked about time commitment.  It's just like anything else.  You get out of it what you put into it.

I shop the sales and nothing else.  

Obviously if there is something we absolutely need, I will pay full price.  But that is rare.

Yesterday I took my sales list to Brookshires and saved 40%.

Tomorrow I will go to Kroger for a few sale items.

I will also visit CVS.  The big deal sale I saw today at CVS involved iTunes gift cards.  Buy $75 worth of iTunes gift cards, get $20 CVS money in return to spend on staples such as toilet paper, paper towels, shampoo, nail polish.  Those are the things I usually keep an eye on for sales at CVS.  By the way, they call them "Extra Care Bucks or ECBs"  I call them "CVS Money"  Because really, that's what they are.  They print at the bottom of your receipt.  I wish there were a way to transfer that to your shoppers reward card because I have lost my receipt once or twice.  Sad when that happens.

I have quite a stockpile of things we use regularly.  If it's on sale for a cheap price and I can drop a coupon on top of the sale I buy as many as I think we can use in 3 months.

Today I pulled all our family's favorite recipes.  Checked ingredients already on hand.
Added one or two things to my Kroger list.

I feel better when I'm organized.  Less stressed and more excited to EAT!

Happy Thanksgiving!!