A brief follow-up...

...to the previous post about price matching. I thought of a couple other things I did not mention. :)

While shopping, I try to keep all my price match items separate, if possible. It's much easier come check-out time to put all those items either first or last, and helps the cashier if I have all those items grouped together and can run through those prices (written on my list) at once. It's also easier on me to do it all at one time, rather than watching each item as it is scanned.

I'm not sure how this works on store brand items... never tried. :) I did, however, use this with produce last week. A store I am NEVER at was having a sale on mushrooms -- eight ounces for one dollar. I honestly hate mushrooms, but I bought four cartons and made cream of mushroom soup in my crock pot one day. I realized that, with the sale price, the homemade stuff was significantly cheaper than the canned! I froze it in Ziploc baggies, and have already used it in one recipe. I don't really expect to stop keeping at least one of those red-and-white cans in my pantry, but it's sure nice to know you can save a few dollars by making a homemade version with not a lot of effort.

Jenni asked how long the whole organization process takes. It's a good question, and to be honest, I'm not sure if I have an exact answer! :) I usually organize in stages. I'll start by cutting out all my coupons for that week and looking through the ads, usually on Sunday afternoon. Then on Sunday night, I'll plan out my meals (generally based on what's on sale that week, what I have coupons for, and what we just haven't had in a while). I try to organize coupons and make out my shopping list that evening also, but it doesn't always happen. Sometimes that falls to Monday night, meaning I go shopping on Tuesday morning. It just depends. :) I would guess it takes around an hour from start to finish.

It's hard to fit everything in during the course of a day, week, or month! There are definitely areas that are lacking around here. I've spent the past three days trying to finish dusting my living room because I have a clingy little one who is apparently quite offended by a clean house. My vacuum cleaner is about as handy as as the toy vacuum that hides next to it in the closet (banished because it has too many little pieces that drive me batty). I fell off the exercise wagon months ago, but I'm too out of shape to run and catch it. But, this is at least one small area that seems to be working for me at the moment. :)

And with that, it's time to go clean the bathroom sinks.