31 Things to do before Christmas - Holiday Grocery shopping

(This is #22 of 31 in the 31 Things to do series)

Holiday Grocery Shopping

After you have planned your menu, you can (and should), once again, make a list, before going to the grocery store. In fact you should always shop with a grocery list for a number of reasons. Number one, if you are forgetful like me, your list is your friend and will save you many trips back and forth to the store. Number two, your list will save you money because you will know what you need and only buy what you need, instead of buying things "just in case", because you couldn't remember if you have it at home already or not. Been there and done that, many times.

Also, DO shop early.... At Christmas time, people are so busy shopping for gifts that they save the grocery shopping for the very last minute. Seriously, I have noticed that since the grocery stores are typically the last thing open on Christmas Eve, everybody knows that so what do they do? They do their last minute shopping for gifts on Christmas Eve until about 6:00pm when most of the malls and retailers close up shop. Then that same crowd rushes the grocery stores, everybody all at once looking for the same things. It's really kind of funny and predictable. So since it is so predictable, it is easily avoidable.

I have made the mistake of putting the grocery shopping off too. I'm a Publix shopper, and I have about three near my house, so I should have been smart and spread the trips out to all of the stores. But one of them is like right around the corner from my house, so of course it's my favorite. But you know it's bad when the grocery store manager knows your face and can remember how many times you've been to the store.

Well I remember one year I kept making trips to the store the whole week before Christmas, because of my lack of making a proper list I admit. And you would think after about three trips to the store that week that I had everything I needed for my Christmas dinner. Well when I showed back up at that store one more time on Christmas Eve in the middle of that rush, I guess it was just too much for the grocery store manager to take. I tried to hurry down the aisles before he saw me, but I got caught red-handed. He said "I know YOUare not here in this crowd today!" All I could do was smile, because he was so right. That was a shame for me to even put myself in that situation. But it was all because I didn't plan it right.

So this year, I will not do that again. And if I do I'm safe because that manager has moved to a different store.