Forgot Shopping List

As inflation boosts prices, I've gotten to a more purposeful trip to the grocery about once a week.  The weekly ad arrives at midweek.  I read it usually the day it comes, marking what I want to get and what I might purchase, then create a mental sense of what I might like to do with what I bring home.  On Sunday, the ads from the circular take effect, so I log onto the Shop-Rite site and mark onto my electronic card what coupon requiring goods I might like the shopping card to recognize.  Then pick a day to go there.  Before I go, I return to the circular, putting what I am definitely planning to buy, including things I need not in the weekly ad, onto the left column and the maybes into the right column.  And so I did.

When I got to Shop-Rite, though, I had left the list on the kitchen table.  I could have gone home to retrieve it but took my chances at letting visions of the products on the shelves prod my memory.  Turns out I did very well without the list in my personal possession.  Only missed one item on the must list and considered all from the right column.  Not bad.  And I didn't deviate a whole lot from what I had intended, though a reduced half turkey breast is hard to pass up even if it forces me to make something else bulky from the freezer for shabbos.  I now purchase with what I plan to use it for in mind.

Hot dogs on sale.  Didn't need them as I already have some but they last forever.  Vegetarian beans on sale, not part of circular, but now I have two, maybe even three suppers.  No lettuce, always throw it out.  Yellow squash becomes accessory to shabbos dinner.  Scallions and red pepper and cucumber become salad for shabbos dinner and beyond.  Pretzels and corn chips become munchies.  My new desk lamp from IKEA could use a modern LED bulb, also on sale.  Added a multivit to correct borderline low iron on my last lab results.  Won't neglect the GI investigation but it gives me a fighting chance of returning as a regular platelet donor.  Some berries and Luigi's Water Ice for pareve desserts.  Everything purposeful, but sale price directs the purpose.  Best way to go in time of rising food prices.