June 23, 2009

Two-fer Tuesday!

Tuesdays are awesome. First of all - the garbage truck comes. Any of you with one or more children (or husbands, or hobbies) knows how quickly the garbage can fill up, and after our recent bout with illness the diaper pail was super full so I was extra happy to see those lovely garbage men coming down the street this morning.

The second reason I love Tuesdays, though, is because Tuesday is the day that the grocery circulars come out.

"Hold up!" I hear you say. "There are circulars in the Sunday paper. Don't you get the Sunday paper?"

Yes, I DO get the Sunday paper, but I recently found out the HARD way that some of the stores put out special "Sunday/Monday/Tuesday" sale circulars with prices that are ONLY good for those three days! I had coupons for the family's favorite juice (Ocean Spray No Sugar Added Cran-Grape, btw, just in case anyone ever has a hot tip on a sale or coupon to send me) and had seen in the Sunday circular that it was on sale as a BOGO item at Publix. But when I got to the store on Wednesday that week, there were none in the front of the store and there were no sales signs in the juice section indicating that sweet nectar of cran-grapey goodness was still on sale. When I inquired about it at the managers desk, I was told that sale had ended the previous day. Lesson learned.

That discovery changed everything about the way I shop. I used to sit down on Sunday, clip my coupons, and then pour over the circulars to make my shopping lists and plan of attack for a Monday shopping day. Now I still clip my coupons on Sundays, but I wait until Tuesday to make my lists and shopping plans and head out to the stores on Wednesday. This change has had a couple of unintentional benefits. One is that shopping during the week makes for far less crowds. This comes in especially handy when I'm shopping with the baby because it makes for a faster trip. The other is that waiting until mid-week to get to the stores gives them a chance to restock after most people hit them up on Saturdays and Sundays. I love to have a fresh selection!

This is not to say I never look at the Sunday circulars. I do glance through them and if something is a deal I can't pass up (like the juices would have been. I'm still bitter about those darn juices!) I will make a special trip. But that hasn't happened yet since I changed my habits, so that tells you how "special" those Sunday circular specials really are!

I'm still a little behind due to illness with my shopping, so I probably won't get to the store this week until Thursday, but I have a huge backlog of coupons to use before they expire on the 30th, so I hope to have a banner shopping week.

Only 2 weeks and one day until the experiment commences!

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