I'm in love with a grocery store AKA my best friend is back

I think my love of Publix supermarkets has been well documented in this blog.

Basically, it's the best grocery store ever. You walk into a Publix and just feel happy. It's bright and cheery and clean. All the employees greet you with a smile. The produce is fresh and so is the meat. Prices can be high, but they have Buy-on-get-one-free specials every week on really good stuff, and their coupon policy is amazing -- like they will literally take any old coupon you scrape off the sidewalk, even if it's for a lesser grocery store like Piggly Wiggly or Winn-Dixie. Yes, I live in the South.

For instance, let's say there is BOGO on Cheetos, and you have two coupons for 50 cents off one bag of Cheetos. You get to use BOTH coupons. And then Winn-Dixie put out a coupon for $1 off your next salty snack purchase. And Cheetos are $3 per bag. So then you walk your happy butt up to the register and say, "I'd like these Cheetos, good sir, and here are my coupons." You proudly hand them over and watch the savings.

Cheetos	$3
Cheetos	$3
- Promotion: Cheetos BOGO	- $3
Vendor Coupon	- .50
Vendor Coupon	- .50
Competitor Coupon	- $1
Total
	$1

Who doesn't want a receipt  that looks like that? A crazy person with more money than sense, that's who.

And the very best part about Publix? It's the Publix Promise, which means if it rings up wrong, well my friend, you get that bad boy for free. AND it applies to BOGOs -- if they ring up wrong, you get them BOTH free.

Publix is basically the most magical place on earth.

So you can see why we'd be devastated when our local Publix, not a half-mile from our house, closed for renovations. It was like our best friend told us they were going to Europe for 9 months. We were bummed, but knew it was the best. For personal growth. I mean, we had other friends...friends located not even 2 miles from our house that were perfectly nice, clean and friendly, but we know our BEST friend like the back of our hand. This metaphor is quickly getting *wonky*. THIS IS WHAT PUBLIX MAKES ME DO.

Last Thursday was the grand opening for our Publix and it lived up to every expectation I had. Except that there was a line to get in. People were greeting each other, getting teary, definitely smiling a lot.

My coworkers and I showed up bright and early at 8 am - they all live close-by and it's "their" Publix, too - and it was life changing. Spectacular. You walk in and there is a whole display of apples and colorful fruit; a full-service bakery with delights such as freshly filled cannoli and pizza dough; a deli where you can buy subs and meat and cheese; a sushi stand, I mean it goes on and on.

This is what it looks like..magnificent , huh?

We had a feast that morning fit for a king: cinnamon roll samples, donuts, orange juice, steak, pumpkin ice cream. And I don't think I need to tell you that I had some major heartburn for the rest of the day. WORTH IT.

And then I got my picture taken with the Publix mascot. His name is Plato....THE PUBLIXSAURS. Guys, I can't even make that up.

Um, excuse my double chin and HUGE belly, it's my baby's fault.

I had such a great time that I went with Hubby that evening and it was almost a beautiful disaster. Brand new grocery store + fully stocked shelves X two hungry people with no list = bad news

Do you have a Publix nearby? Does the name of this store make you slightly uncomfortable? Where do you shop? Have you ever had a shopping experience quite like this one?

Getting my word on! Check it out and play along!

Pantry, you're dead to me

Listen, pantry, we need to have a heart-to-heart.

There's a big problem right now in my home, and, well, it's not me, it's you.

 

Evil.

You just hang out in the kitchen all day with your delicious food. Mocking my and my desire to just lose a couple pounds. OK, cookie mix, I hear you. I know it's your goal in life to make me some cookies. You just want to provide a little extra cushion and I get that. "But you love sweets," you say. "And look, I only need to be mixed with one stick of butter and an egg and you have BOTH of those! It's not like you're going to use that stick of butter for anything else, anyway."

Well, cookie mix, I'm sure there are lots more HEALTHY things I can make with that stick of butter, so just screw off, ok?

The same goes for you, too, box of sugary chocolate cereal. Don't you dare hide  back behind the healthy cereal; I know this game far too well. You're trying to get me to forget about you until I'm having a late night moment of weakness, aren't you? Well guess what, I AIN'T FALLING FOR IT.

"Come on, I'm only 100 calories per serving! I'm basically a 100-calorie pack!" But your serving is 3/4 a cup. Know who can be satisfied with 3/4 cup of cereal? PEOPLE WITH WILLPOWER. That's not me, OBVIOUSLY. I pour out 3/4 a cup and next thing you know, BAM a half box of cereal is gone. I will throw you out before you can say "I'm Coocoo for Cocoa puffs!" and don't think I won't.

Who am I kidding, I will not throw anything out.

No, instead I'll fall for your old tricks, brownie mix. "Oh man, I'm almost expired! You might have to throw me away even though you bought me on Publix BOGO a year ago! You probably need to go ahead and bake me so as to not waste food, because that's a punishable offense in this house!" Although logically I realize that it's powdered food. How does powdered food spoil? Who is going to punish me?

You know what will expire? This peach. And it will expire quickly while I'm busy eating my weight in Ritz Peanut Butter Crackers and the fruit flies will get to it. GREAT. Not only have I wasted a perfectly good peach, I also have fruit flies. CURSES ON YOU, RITZ CRACKERS!

Oh, potato chips, you know just when I'm craving something salty. "Woops! Sorry, must have lost my balance from this precarious position stacked on top of all these boxes of dumpling and gravy mixes. I didn't mean to fall right into your hands. But since I'm here...." Since you're here, WHAT, potato chips? Huh? Tell me. Just test my patience because I have had nothing but salads for lunch for weeks and I'm in no mood.

And you can shut your whore mouth, Chips Deluxe Cookies, over there in the cabinet. You might not live in the pantry but this applies as much to you as it does that Warm Delights cake on the second shelf.

And peanut butter, I think you might be the worst. You and your delicious creamy taste and 170 calories for 2 tablespoons. You're ridiculous and I don't have to take this. I will punch you in the throat, peanut butter.

Why is there so much delicious food in the world?

Case of the Missing Peanut Butter

I just realized that I left y'all hanging on my last post. I promised to tell the story of the Missing Peanut Butter. Without further adieu..

 My love of Publix has been documented many times, here and here. I am obsessed with BOGOs, so when I was able to buy two jars of Peter Pan peanut butter on BOGO with a coupon, I felt like I'd won the jackpot. We go through peanut butter quickly at our house, and that's without children to feed it to. Hubby prefers peanut butter and jelly over "meat sandwiches" any day (and as an aside, I really love when he calls them meat sandwiches for some reason, although that's what they are).

Wednesday night I was packing my own lunch and discovered that there was only one jar of peanut butter on the shelf. I remarked that we had a missing jar and he responded, "Yeah! I know! I had to open the other one! So now we have two open jars of peanut butter! Crazy!"

So I asked where the jar was. 

"I have no clue! Can you believe that?" hubby said incredulously.

Ok you guys, I hadn't touched the peanut butter since I brought it home from the store. He was the only person who had picked the jar up and done anything with it. Which means he lost the peanut butter. AN ENTIRE JAR OF PEANUT BUTTER.

I searched our entire house for it. I looked in every lunch bag, every drawer, every shelf we have. I looked in the appliance shelf in the garage. I looked in our kitchen cart. The whole time I'm steamed because honestly? How do you lose a jar of PB? How is it even possible?

I should also mention here that he is a teacher, but doesn't have a room that is his alone, so there was no way he took the jar and left it at work. There's no break room or locker for him to leave the peanut butter.

He realizes at this point that I've been searching frantically for it and says, "don't worry, I'm sure it's somewhere. I'll find it."

We went to bed and I drift off to sleep thinking, this isn't like a set of keys or a cell phone. This isn't a hammer or a measuring tape. Those things can be misplaced easily. This is a jar of food. Don't people usually make the sandwich and leave the jar at home?

The story was way better a few days ago because I've since solved the mystery. I was cleaning up the kitchen and noticed a two wadded up Publix bags with cans of soda, a bag of chips and a jar of peanut butter in each. Apparently, he took his lunch in a Publix bag and accidently left it in the back of his SUV. We're back to two jars of peanut butter and peace is restored to our home.

Sorry if this story was a huge let down.

Do any of your husbands misplace things routinely?

Publix BOGOS: Are you tired of hearing about it yet?

Yesterday was my weekly Publix shopping trip. I am so in love with this store, it's amazing. I mean honestly, I've never been that attached to a store before. Usually trips to Walmart start out positive, but end in a spiral of anxiety and panic. I've never been unhappy during a Publix shopping trip. Come on, Publix, find my blog and make me your spokeswoman and give me a million dollars!

Anyway. Mom went with me and was able to witness first-hand the power of my superior coupon-ing skills. But I learned them from her originally, so I guess it's really like the ultimate cumulative exam. And, y'all? I passed with flying colors. I spent $41 and saved $49. She was impressed and amazed. Or so I'd like to think.

Some of my purchases included:

• Special K cereal
• Betty Crocker boxed potatos
• Gorton's Shrimp
• Aunt Jemima Frozen Pancakes (for Hubby's breakfast)
• Campbell's Healthy Selects soups
• Hunt's canned tomatoes

And my favorite purchase of all,  Loreal Color Vive shampoo and conditioner. They were BOGO ($4.99) and I had one coupon in  my stash, went to Loreal Paris's Web site, pretended like I needed their help with some hair color products and downloaded a $1 coupon for my troubles (SUCKAS!) That made the shampoo and conditioner together only $2.99. Usually I just get the cheap stuff, so this was very exciting to me.

Hubby and I have been thinking about starting a diet that works for us, so I'm trying to shop more strategically. It can be hard to diet and spend less money on food because it seems like the less expensive food is the stuff that's really bad for you. Have any of you tried diets that won't break the bank, but will help an always hungry 30-year-old man get skinny?

Publix BOGO day is my favorite day

One of the best things about living in the south is the abundance of Publix Super Markets. Inevitably, visitors who have never seen a Publix get a kick out of the name and the tagline, "Where shopping is a pleasure", but to me, Publix is serious business.

In my first months at work, my coworkers used to say I'd find "my Publix", the store closest to my house that I would get to know like the back of my hand, learn the names of all the cashiers and become great friends with the manager. And I'm all, but Publix is so much more expensive than Super Walmart and besides, that's totally lame. Who loves a supermarket that much?

The problem in the first few months was that the closest Super Walmart was 40 minutes away. I will shamefully admit that there were times we would spend almost an hour and a half on the road to drive to Super Walmart and back JUST to save a few bucks. Super Walmart is VERY CHEAP, so of course Publix seemed expensive to us, especially comparing brand name to brand name. Actually, Publix brand stuff was more than Great Value stuff, too. So we thought that was a sound financial decision.

And then I discovered BOGOS and it changed my life. And now I love a supermarket that much.

Every week, Publix has certain items that are buy one, get one free. And it's good stuff, too. Name brand cereals and cookies and frozen bagged meals. Yogurt and butter and Lays potato chips and my fav fav favorite, RANCH FLAVORED GOLDFISH CRACKERS. I could literally eat a bag of those in one sitting. Meaning I have really done that.

So we started clipping coupons and using them on BOGOS, which you can totally do AND a lot of times coupons are "buy 2 and get $1 off", and the BOGO counts as two. Every Thursday I log on to Publix.com, eagerly click on the BOGO link and wait in anticipation as the deals load on my screen. It's like Christmas morning. That's why I walk into work on Thursdays with a little skip in my step.

I started realizing that Publix was great for other things, too. Their deli is amazing, the meat and produce is always fresh and actually not that much more expensive. And the best part -- it's ridiculously convenient. I mean, I could actually walk to my Publix. I think the coolest thing about Publix is that the people are so nice there. Customer service is a huge priority for them, so there are employees crawling all over that store just dying to help you.

Once I was buying a BOGO and it rang up wrong. i noticed the mistake and told my cashier, and she said, oh, sorry about that, I'll fix it. Then I handed her a coupon for the BOGO item that she fixed and she said, "I don't think I can use this for a free item." I told her I'd used coupons before on BOGOs, and she said, "but it's the Publix promise." Noticing the confused look on my face, she explained further: if an item rings up incorrectly, Publix GIVES YOU THE ITEM FOR FREE. I'm not even joking. So you basically pay nothing for two products. I don't know about y'all, but that makes me want to shop there even more.

My friend Miranda recently posted about how she's reading a lot about how to save money, create a budget, etc. So in a round about way, this whole post is about saving money. I spend less than $250 on groceries each month. Hubby and I only eat out once a week, so that's breakfast, lunch and dinner every day on that price. It's all about shopping smart -- reading the circulars, clipping coupons and stocking up.

I hope to start posting ideas for saving money that I have regularly here, and also get ideas from  you guys! Thanks Miranda for starting this topic!