Posts made in November 19th, 2008

Blither about bags… oh and a giveaway (not mine)

Posted by Michelle on Nov 19, 2008 in Life | 1 comment

I remember the days when I used to just hop into the car and go to the grocery store, wander the aisles and leisurely pick whatever I wanted from the shelves. Coupons? Pfft. I was lucky if I remembered to bring my club card.

That was a lifetime ago. These days, going to the grocery store isn’t so much a trip as much as it is a carefully planned and orchestrated excursion, with careful stock taken of what is already in the fridge leading to menu planning that correlates to a list of items need and at which stores to get them from. Oddly, I am not a coupon maven though I have tried, honest. I don’t have enough brand loyalty to any one thing to keep an eye out for manufacturers coupons and just keep an eye out for the best price. We have no CVS or stores that double coupons in this area so for me, couponing doesn’t have a great of ROT for me.

I have made myself stop just short of mapping my route through the stores for maximum efficiency. Believe me, I WANTED to map the stores but thought that was a little excessive. To write it down, at least. I do have a mental map in my head of how best to tackle the grocery stores.

Yet with all this planning, I tend to forget something very important when I go shopping. My reusable bags!!

I’m still trying to convince myself that I’m not a crunchy mama despite my breastfeeding, babywearing, co-sleeping, cloth diapering, etc. ways. We also don’t use paper towels much and strive to use reusable items whenever possible. Still, I maintain that this is not because I am crunchy or green — I am just cheap!

In the case of grocery bags, I opt to use reusable whenever I can. Reusable bags are a godsend. They don’t multiply like tribbles and most are stronger than the flimsy plastic bags. Plus, I am sick and tired of having plastic bags taking up space in my kitchen junk drawers. They are icky, nasty and if you’re not careful, they multiply like tribbles! We’ve been in this house only since July, with no plastic bags and now we are swimming in the nasty buggers! Every single darned establishment on this earth seems to give out plastic bags and I just hate them!

The biggest problem with reusable bags is, as I have discovered, remembering to bring them with you. For the record, I’ve placed them by the door, with my clip board with my meal menu/list, by my purse and every other place you can think of to remind myself to bring them. But when you’re rushing out the door, trying to shoo the dog  while making sure to grab the baby, your keys, your purse and diaper bag while turning on the alarm… yeah, easy to forget that pile of bags sitting patiently wherever you left it with the helpful note: “TAKE ME WITH YOU!”

(Yes, I leave notes to myself. I can’t be alone in this, can I?)

Until I can figure out a reliable way to make sure my current bag stash makes it with me to the grocery store (and others), I will oogle the Flip n Tumble line of eco-friendly bags. These are awesome because they scrunch down into itty bitty sockball like, well, balls, that you can toss into your purse and go about your day.

Interestingly enough, Simple Mom is giving away several different types of reusuable bags including my much oogled after Flip n Tumble bags. So go, read that entry and comment! You might win