The Choosey Shopper

Is any other mom out there overwhelmed with shopping choices?

Do I buy the cheap stuff?
Do I buy organic?
Do I buy all natural cleaners?
Do I buy health food for Caroline and diet food for me?
Do I buy stuff that's easy?

Is there any possible way to reconcile all the things that I want from my groceries?

I've been shopping using the grocery game for several months. I've never had so much fun watching my coupon amount add up at the register. This month, there were a lot of cleaners on closeout at Kroger, so I was stocking up. But then on Monday's "The View" I caught a segment (while I was working out) about using "green" cleansers. Darn... why isn't the green stuff on sale for a buck?

I got a free trial to relishrelish.com. They plan your menus and print out your shopping list. But while that sounds really simple, those won't necessarily be the things that are on sale that week. As far as easy meal planning and prep. goes, I'd buy seven bags of Chicken Voila a week and just be done with it. And I could probably lose a little bit of weight if I'd splurdge on the pricey 100 calorie snack packs.

Especially for Caroline, I try to make healthy food choices. I'm pretty careful about sugar intake. I read my labels for ingredients. Luckily, it's pretty easy to get all natural applesauce without venturing to the "naturally expensive" section of the grocery store. I peaked over there today to price the Sunflower Butter... $6 a jar.

I'm not really looking for any purchasing advice. I'm pretty resigned to shopping my coupons - I do like to stretch our sole income, but I do make those few exceptions. I'm going to start using Burt's Bees soap for Caroline (whenever I make it over to Target). And if she ever starts chugging down the milk, I'll for sure be heading for the hormone free stuff.