Grocery Shopping...The Smart Way. Or The Alicia Way.

Last night I was asked by my mom to go to the store... It was a simple trip. Milk, orange juice, and bread were all I was asked to get. This is something that I took for granted when I moved out of state.
You see, when I was out of state, I went to the store, and the odds of my knowing anyone there were slim to none. I would go in, get what I had to, and get out. It was easy. Now that I'm back home, it's never that simple. We have two (actually three, but I don't go to the third option) grocery stores in town that I shop at. Both stores jam full of people that I went to high school with working there. Then, once you get past the employees there's the customers. A friends mom and grandma, someone else you went to high school with, an old teacher, the creepy guy that you used to catch staring at you all the time... Something of that nature.
Last night, it was an old friend from high school. If I were a friendlier person, I would have spoken to her. Instead, I called a friend of mine before I even got on the road to go to the store. I told him that he had to stay on the phone with me when I saw all the people there that I knew. I knew that if I didn't stay on the phone I would inevitably be stuck in a conversation that would turn a quick trip to the store into an hour away from home. So, I manage to avoid this person the entire time I'm in the store, get everything I need (and some stuff I don't) and realize that oh crap, she's in the check out line and there is only one open. I make the beeline for a different section of the store and accidentally run over another customer's foot with the grocery cart in the process. Yes, it really happened. I watch for this friend to check out and start walking to her car. I run to the checkout lane. The cashier tries to talk to me and I say hi and mumble something about an important call...
After successfully getting out of the store, I throw my groceries in my car, only to realize that my old friend is parked two spaces down. She waves and says hi and starts to talk over. I wave back, motion to the phone, roll my eyes and laugh, hop in my car and speed off.
I know it seems rude, but honestly if you're from a small town, you know as well as I do that there is no such thing as a quick trip to the store... Every one of them last for at least an hour even if you only went after one thing. You do what you have to do to survive!

Alrighty... Now that I've probably severely ticked some people off, I'm on my way to class! =)

Thanks for reading!
Alicia

Penny Pinching

It really didn't occur to me until I made a Facebook post today that so few people share their money saving secrets... I don't have a lot, but I will share mine, and I hope that you will share yours with me and whoever else may desire to read this.
My FAVORITE thing to take advantage of is Sears' KidVantage program! I have two boys that are very rough on EVERYTHING... Toys, clothes, shoes, animals, and definitely mommy. Well, KidVantage helps with part of this. Any clothing or shoes that you buy from Sears can be put in the KidVantage program for FREE. And what this program does is if your child wears out the article of clothing or pair of shoes before they outgrow it, you bring it back with the receipt. I take it a step further and save the shoe boxes and tags off the clothes just to be on the safe side and I have never had a problem. A few extra dollars up front saves my family HUNDREDS, if not THOUSANDS, of dollars a year.
Here's the shoes returned today:

As you can tell, Micheal had really torn them up... And he had only had them for three weeks. But they exchanged them, no questions asked.
One of the extra measures that Sears has done with their reward program is allow you to have your receipt emailed to you now. This also helps with these exchanges if you have little hellions angels  at home who love to help you throw things away. I have a special file in my Gmail that I put all of my digital receipts in so that if I can't find the original, it's just a click and a print job away! =)
Please feel free to write me with your tips on saving money! aliciacanington@gmail.com

As always, thanks for reading!