December Grocery Shopping

Decorative Pot Holder

Decorative Pot Holder

These decorative pot holders were crocheted by my mother; they are double sided, but the decorative Santas are only on one side.   The fabric Santas were purchased (probably at the same time as the snowmen for the wreath) for under $1 each.

On Monday, my daughter woke up early and hearing her move around woke me up, too!  It was barely 6:00 a.m.!  A couple of hours later, we had breakfast - I ate half a bagel and my daughter ate rice, chicken curry, and green beans because she liked the chicken curry, so much!  Later, I picked two oranges from the new crop of oranges, and we had that as a mid-morning snack.  Then, around 11:00 a.m., my daughter helped me to place an order of groceries, online, for curbside pick up between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.

Around 4:30 p.m., the grocery store sent a text stating that, due to the high volume of orders, they were running late with getting the pick up orders ready and said the order will be ready between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.  Shortly after that, someone from the store called and asked us to come between 6:45 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.  My daughter had an online acrobatics/conditioning class from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., so we went to the grocery store around 7:00 p.m.  (she drove to get some practice driving, again). 

Usually, when I go to pick up groceries, I go in the mid afternoon - I drive into one of the 4 spaces reserved for curbside pick up orders, call the store, and someone is out with my groceries within 5 minutes, or so.  I am usually in and out in about 10 minutes.  On Monday, however, there was a line of cars waiting for a parking spot for curbside pick up and they were parked up and down two aisles in the parking lot, not just the 4 reserved spots! 

We had to wait for at least 30 minutes before we got a parking spot!  Then, when I called the store pickup number, I was told that they had my order, but, because of the volume of customers waiting to pick up (it being just before the holidays), they were running late and it would be another 30-45 minute wait!  They gave us the option of waiting and returning at any time the next day.  Well, we decided to wait, because, we figured that, there might be even more people, on the following day, since it would be one day closer to the holiday (plus all the people who had scheduled to pick up on that day!).  We waited until it was past 9:00 p.m.!  Finally, our order was brought to the car!

The wait wouldn't have been too bad - we had the radio playing Christmas carols and we were singing along - but, eventually, I needed to go to the bathroom and then, the waiting became less pleasant!

Once we got home, daughter brought in all the groceries and helped me to disinfect and put things away.  That was nice - having her help!  She is quick and efficient; the disinfecting and putting away took a lot less time than usual!  

The store didn't have a few of the items we wanted, even though they substituted with different items where they could (another brand of oil than the one that was on sale for $2.50 per bottle, a crunchy cheese snack instead of the puffy one that was requested,  etc.), but, they charge the lower price for substitutions and we now have plenty of fresh vegetables, milk, the half and half she uses for her coffee, and more chicken to cook.

We had ordered a tray of regular (with skin and bone-in) chicken thighs, on sale for $1.29/lb.  They had substituted boneless, skinless chicken thighs ($1.99/lb), instead, which was fine with us.  It was only when we got home and I reviewed the substitution list and receipt that I noticed that they had not charged me for the chicken, which amounted to $4.24!  That made up for the long time we had to wait to receive the groceries, I guess!  That chicken is now marinating with spices to be made into a chicken curry which will be taken to my daughter's friend P's parents home, along with other curries and rice, as a surprise dinner for them, along with their Christmas gift of an assortment of my homemade jams.

My groceries included a bag of egg noodles to make turkey tetrazzini, 6 cans of cream of celery soup (@ $1; a stock up item), two bottles of oil (another stock up item), two bags of hot cheesy snacks for my daughter, half a gallon of milk, two half gallons of half and half, a container of mixed salad greens, a bag of frozen corn, some frozen burritos for my daughter, a loaf of bread, a container of 18 mini croissants, a container of refrigerated flaky biscuit dough, a bottle of hot sauce, a can of pineapple chunks, a 3 lb. bag of onions, a jar of dry roasted peanuts, 8 oz package of mild cheddar cheese, sugar snap peas, a container of sliced mushrooms, 1 cucumber, 1 zucchini, 1 head of lettuce, 2 lb. green beans, broccoli, and bananas.  My bill came to a total of $64.36, which is well under my budget for December.  I don't plan on grocery shopping again until sometime in January.  

Have you gone grocery shopping lately?  Were the stores crowded?