La-Di-Da Shopping...

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In my old town I was spoiled. I had a ton of stores within ten minutes of my home and my favorite store, Target, was five minutes away. I could just run out to whatever store I needed to go to and it was no big deal.

Now that we moved my la-di-da shopping days are done. The only stores that are pretty close are Stop and Shop, Dave's Marketplace and Walmart. Everything else is a good twenty minutes away- twenty minutes may not seem like far to some people but when you are busy with three kids it is way far. Add in how much gas my suv guzzles and gallivanting out of town to shop is not something I am going to be doing often.

So, I will changing my shopping habits. No more trips to Target for this girl- I am going to become the queen of Walmart. I hate Walmart but we gotta do what we gotta do and my geographic location has tied my hands. Dave's Marketplace (a local grocery chain) and Stop and Shop are going to be my grocery stores. CVS and Rite Aid are going to be my drugstores. As for BJ's, well that will just have to be a once every few months kind of store. And then there is Whole Foods- I have been buying all of our meat from there and now the nearest one is twenty-five minutes away. Once you've had their meat the regular meat from the grocery store just is not up to snuff but I suppose I need to get over it and maybe give Dave's Marketplace a chance.

Not being close to stores is a blessing in disguise- the less I step foot in them the less I will be tempted to spend lots of money, though I will miss the wonderful Target clearance end caps. And who am I kidding, I have three kids I have to drag everywhere with me so why the heck would I even want to be out shopping anywhere? This whole thing may work to my advantage when it comes to not bringing random crap into my house that I don't need...

Kid Free Day- Yeah!

Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment with my OB and my mom graciously offered to have a "Mimi Day"- this means that she will take the kids for the day and let them driver her crazy instead of me. I love these days but don't get them too often- not that my mom wouldn't take the kids more. She always tells me that she will take them if I need time to myself but I always feel so guilty dumping my kids on others unless I have a good reason, such as a doctor's appointment, where there is no way I could take them with me. I'm of the mind set that I had them so I will suffer the consequences, even if it drives me to the looney bin. Plus, my mom lives about 20-30 minutes away so it can be a bit of a pain sometimes to bring the kids there and when I pick them up right before dinnertime they are little grouches from having an indulgent day with Mimi.

Anyways, so tomorrow I will have a few hours after my appointment to go to run errands and there are so many possibilities of what I could get done! Here are the things that are swimming around in my head:

• get some of the great deals at Rite Aid
• return some things at Walmart and do a little shopping there (cheap wipes and free soap)
• return some things to Old Navy and use my $20 Groupon
• go to Michaels to buy gift bag/stuff to decorate it with for Tyler's teacher
• go to Hallmark and buy Tyler's teacher a card (or maybe I'll make her one...)
• get Tyler's teacher a gift card to somewhere (maybe Panera, who knows)
• go to BJ's- we need wheat waffles, ground beef and dog food stat!
• maybe go to stop and shop and Shaws... maybe

I think that is everything... It seems like a lot but BJ's, Walmart, Michaels, Hallmark and Old Navy are all right in the area that my mom lives and there are Rite Aids along the way as well as a Stop and Shop, Shaws and Panera. By the end of the day I will feel stressed from running around but as a mom to two young children I need to take my opportunities to get stuff done when I can. Tonight I just have to sit down and write out my shopping lists and gather any coupons that I am going to use so that I will actually be prepared. Wouldn't it be nice to just lounge around the house kid free though...