Thanksgiving 2005: The Revenge - Purchasing of foodstuffs

Last year, I ended up hitting the grocery store three times in the day
before and the day of cooking, and blew a pretty substantial wad of cash on
the meal (fortunately, the cost was spread over a week or so of tasty
leftovers)

This year, figuring that I could save myself some dough and some time, I
itemized every stinking thing I though I'd need. And then pruned the list
for duplicates, adjusting quantity as necessary. And then took stock of what
I actually already had. The final list came down to about a page.

Deciding I wanted to miss the better part of the last-minute bloodbath, I
blew off work (this is why I never have vacation time stored up) and headed
out.

But, not feeling so good about the $2.84 Wal-Mart roasting pan from last
year, I upgraded to the $8.44 Wal-Mart roasting pan. I want to paint flames
or racing stripes on it or something, but I don't know what sort of toxic
addition that might add, so it looks like I'm going to pass. Picked up some
cleaning-supplies and a cheap fine-mesh strainer, and counting the 20
minutes in line at the checkstand and I was out of there in half an hour.

Across the street to Albertson's. Grabbed a cart (which Amanda usually won't
let me steer, because I'm a madman, but she wasn't around! Ha!) and started
my first pass of the store. Quickly realized that I should've better ordered
my list, because I ended up hitting the same aisle four or five times. Got
all the nonperishable goods, helped a few other customers, and then started
for pass 2: The perishables. Went pretty quickly except for being waylaid by
a nice asian man in amongst the turkeys that did not understand the sign
saying "Buy One -namebrand- Turkey, Get One Free (must be identical turkeys.
Minimum $25 purchase)". Neither did he understand the employee at the
butcher section's explanation, nor several other customers. I did agree that
wasn't sure how identical the turkeys needed to be, and whether the turkey
had to be minimum $25, or his whole store purchase, but when he started
repeating himself, I showed my cowardice and ran. Off to the checkout.

Total shopping time: 1 hour, 38 minutes

So it's still a bit early to determine if I'll be heading back, but it looks
pretty solid. Had to do some serious excavating in the fridge to get
everything in. Came in just slightly over half the cost of last year's run.

And I think I set a new record on my grocery store loyalty card (saved
$35.38)