Publix (and I hate driving) - October 1, 2010

About 43% savings at Publix - not bad.

I hate driving. I hate it so much. I hate bicyclists who don't yield. I hate trying to maneuver around bicyclists on a two-lane road. I hate people who don't signal when they turn. I hate iiiiiitttttttt. But, look, I'm doing it. I'm doing it, and I'm going places, and I'll just have to suck it up. I'm going to vent about it here though.

I also hate rude cashiers. And I had one today, and I actually wrote an email to the store about my experience. In this economy, with jobs being so hard to come by, I feel funny about complaining. However, if someone grunts at me, waves their hands at me, puts my car keys (which I handed over so my UPromise card could be scanned) at the other end of the aisle without telling me, scrutinizes every. single. word. on. every. coupon. and doesn't even make eye contact, she's not doing her job. A job I want her to keep, for the record. But when I go to other grocery stores and am smiled at, talked to, and acknowledged as a human being, I start to realize that being grunted at isn't really acceptable.

Whew! That said, I did pretty well, I think. I saved 43%, which is an unusually high percentage for me. What did I get? Fresh and frozen vegetables, milk, bread, cereal, cough drops (18 cents a package!), salad dressing, lentil soup, pimentos (for my cashew mock-cheese sauce that I make sometimes), low-fat ice cream, yogurt, city-mandated trash bags, whole wheat pasta and pasta sauce, tofu pups, coffee, straws (my daughter uses them because she can't yet drink from an open cup), Cascade Action Pacs (dye/scent free), and some taco dinner packs that were 25 cents each (one to keep and one to donate, probably). Oh and they had the NEW FLAVORS OF LAUGHING COW CHEESE as promised (well the OTHER Publix near me promised they'd have them October 1, but this store did too) and there were $1 off coupons right on the display so I got another queso fresco and chipotle (my faaaaaavorite - I heat up two and eat them melted with chips - and I also got a herb and garlic one) and am hoping that Laughing Cow will go on sale for $2 before the coupons expire because I took, um, a few extra. And I got some Babybel cheese too because it was on sale plus I had a coupon.

Essentially, that's everything I got. And look, it's things we'll eat or use, it's things that are moderately healthy and not entirely processed, and it's a bunch of non-food items. And a lot of it is brand names, but some of it is store brand because Publix store brand is good.

Thank you thank you Coupon Mom and I Heart Publix - those two sites are the reason I saved so much. And I definitely save more by forcing myself to drive to the store so I can go alone. Which almost makes up for hating driving. Almost. And I do still need to go to YDFM for more fresh things, but shopping for the week is more or less done.

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