You KNOW you are a parent when at the end of a very loooong day, you offer to do the family grocery shopping just to get out of putting the kids to bed!! Works every time! :0) The perfect opportunity to sneak in that take-away coffee on the way, to turn the radio volume up high and sing along very loudly a) with the windows wound all the way down to be embarrassed in public (the car doesn't really count as usually I don't encounter familiar faces!), or b) if it is a chilly evening, a roasty, toasty car heater turned up full throttle is the ticket to enjoying warmth, while the rest of the world outside chills like Popsicles heading to Antarctica!
So I do my weekly shop, feeling like I did back in the day when I was a student watching every penny! A tad "old school" I key in the numbers into my trusty calculator, to meet the family budget. Lucky for me, I have a sharp memory, because once I got halfway through my shopping and I accidentally clicked on "CL" and the whole calculator cleared any trace of my adding up! I really should figure out how to use one of those scanner things!!
One of our family's "decluttering" tips is to use a weekly meal planner. As tedious as it may sound, this actually saves us money in the long run, as it prevents the temptation to impulse buy.... well, I did purchase some Impulse Deoderant..... :0)
Meanwhile back at the check-out counter, I pay up for my trolley of eats and treats. Not bad; only $2 over budget!! The cashier looks to be about sweet sixteen or thereabouts. He asks me if I have had "a busy day". I tell him I have four children under the age of seven (including twins!) and that I love to shop when they are all asleep. Mr Sweet Sixteen looks rather pained to hear my "life story" - that's quite enough to hear; he looks like he would rather head for the hills than face a deliriously happy-shopper mother who acts as if she is on parole!
About 15 minutes later I pull up into our driveway. The lights are off in the children's bedrooms, signalling they have been asleep a while! The coast is clear!
Prince Charming and I smuggle the shopping bags into the house and unpack. And then, it happened. The GASP! "Honey! Why oh why, did you buy another can of fly spray? We already have one!".
Me: "Put your reading glasses on!! It is HAIRSPRAY, not fly spray!".
Prince Charming: "There ain't no flies on my wife!"
Both the fly spray can and my hairspray can are the same colour blue. (The "Budget" colour.... I'm not ashamed to admit we are on a tight budget for a family of six!). Just imagine if, for a moment, we switched cans! The rogue late-Summer flies would suck in the hairspray, and they might actually succumb to the horrid fumes. And then I would really have my day to shine! My own home-made "recipe" for fly spray... a chance to make a million bucks.... dream on!!
I'll let you in on a little something I know firsthand about hairspray! On our wedding day, we released two boxes of Monarch Butterflies. For the rest of the ceremony, one Monarch butterfly clung to my hair! Some say it was the beautiful bride; others say it was the hairspray!
Next grocery shop, I will be upgrading from Budget to something better. I really could have gone one better with the extra $2 I had!
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