Catching Up On Technology

Aside from folding laundry, one of the most tedious housekeeping tasks I can think of is grocery shopping. Everything else is irritating, sure. I hate cleaning toilets. But you put in the cleaner, you scrub, you’re done.

With grocery shopping you have to get in your car, drive to the store, walk up and down the aisles with your list (hope you remembered your list! If not you’re in big trouble), and make your selections of the best quality, least expensive, most earth friendly products. And by earth friendly I mean, least packaging, most local, least pesticide, no GMO, and least processed food available. Also, you’d better remember to get the right kind of pickles, not the bread and butter pickles, the dill pickles. But not the zesty dill pickles, also not the ones sliced lengthwise, but sliced into little rounds, and not the ones in the little container, but the big one. (hint, these pickles don’t actually exist. I’ve looked for them.) If you get the wrong kind of pickles, someone will complain, and then tell you you’re making a big deal when you throw a fit because these kinds of pickles don’t exist, or at least aren’t carried in the grocery stores you’ve been in.

Ahem. Excuse me.

What was I saying?

Oh, yes. Grocery shopping is tedious. After the frustration of actually finding the food, you have o stand in line at the grocery store while a teenage boy keeps trying to put orange juice on top of your bread, and you think it’s because he’s angry you have reusable bags. The girl at checkout ignores your coupons until the end, when she realizes she needs the price, but can’t remember it, and asks you if you remember how much the greek yogurt was, and when you don’t she has to search through your cart to find it, and then is all grumpy eve though you placed the two side by side at the very front of the counter when you started to unload.

And then you have to drive home.

Once you get home, it’s still not over because you have to lug everything into the house, and then you have to put things away, but your family, who is hungry by now and wants lunch, is walking around the kitchen going through the bags, opening up items and making sandwiches, asking for yogurt and juice. “Can I have Yogurt?” “Did you get the rainbow goldfish?” “These are the pickles you got?”

I have found that making a menu for the week, and then making a detailed list, will cut down on the things I forget to buy, and also on poor impulse choices, like donuts or cookies. I still forget things (even if they’re on the list) and I still slip up and buy unlisted items (cookies!) but I think I’m far more responsible than I otherwise would be.

The other thing that really really helps is…. Music.

A few months ago I started plugging my headphones into my phone and listening to music as I shopped. It really helps. I am not held prisoner to the music pumped over the speakers, or the “attention shoppers!” announcement. (the guy always pronounces coupons “queupons”, or “Q-pons”. The right way is “coup-pons”, or “koo-pons”. It really annoys me, especially since they are always for ice cream or oreos.) I take the headphones out at the deli and the checkout, because I am actually dealing with people. But it really really helps when I’m browsing through piles of meat or sugary cereals.

I now keep headphones in my car just for this reason.