Shopping Day

Today was monthly shopping/pay bills day. I am worn out.

Since we began getting Social Security, our habits have slowly changed to having one big shopping day a month--payday, we call it. And as we've adjusted to this new schedule, we've made other adjustments.

Like I sit down on "payday" and pay the bills. First things first, right? Some things come out of our checking account automatically, others I still pay the old-fashioned way.

Then there's groceries and cleaning supplies. We've morphed to one big shopping a month, filling in as the month goes on with things we run out of. I know how much laundry detergent I need for a month, how much toilet paper and dish soap and so on, so I get it all on shopping day. Less worry the rest of the month about running short.

I take stock of things like spices, baking powder, salt and such that we don't buy as often but that make life awfully unhandy if we go to get it and find it's out. I also stock up on wipes (we use a lot of them on furniture projects), Brillo (cleaning old dishes and pans) and paper towels (for shop and house).

And pet food and bird seed--we buy the big bags and they usually hold us for the month. Usually.

It has made life smoother, without a doubt. I used to stop at the store on the way home to pick up this and that because we never seemed to have time to take stock and plan ahead. I hated those words "stop on the way home" because with an hour commute and usually leaving late anyway, it was often seven or after before I got home.

We're not Costco or Sam's Club people because we don't need mega amounts of stuff, and would have nowhere to store it anyway. For two people, once a month is fine for stocking up what we need, and the nearest of those big stores are an hour away anyway. No savings if we have to devote that much time and miles to it!

It is interesting how these changes happen in our lives without really being planned--they just seem natural. We try hard to make as few trips to town as possible and over the past year have really cut back on that kind of running with this monthly shopping and online buying. It allows us more time for home, for projects and for relaxing.

When my boys were young and I had no vehicle most of the time, Saturdays were my day to go to town. I had no phone back then, and few neighbors so it was my big opportunity to get out and see people. Now it's Tuesdays, the day the grocery store gives a 5% senior discount, and the Goodwill offers 10% off for seniors. You can bet there are plenty of gray heads in town on Tuesdays!

What about you? Do you do anything similar to this?

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.