Spring break day two!

Yesterday morning began slightly later and more slowly than the first morning of spring break. In fact, I awakened to my dear husband kissing me good bye as he headed out the door, so needless to say I didn't even attempt to fix breakfast for him.

But once I got moving, what a busy day it was. Despite thoughts in the back of my mind to simply get a pedicure I decided to handle some of the more mundane household chores in a more unusual way. So surprise, surprise....because when I actually got into my car I decided it was time to pay some bills and then go on a quick jaunt out of town to Big Lots and Sam's Club. So off to the stores I went!

It took about an hour and a half round trip to do my shopping, but I had a spectacular time. I piddled on my way out of town and really enjoyed the time listening to music in the car. Then when I finally got to Big Lots I found many of the things we "oh so needed" while I was there. Actually I did procure a few items I'd been promising my husband I'd pick up as well such as a replacement cover for the grill and a power sprayer for the hose. Both of which were somehow destroyed by our dear four legged babies. Nonetheless, I found really good deals on them. And of course I picked up a few treasurers to spoil our Rachel and Abby.

Then after cleaning out Big Lots of most of their spectacular deals, it was off to Sam's Club. I always find myself in a state of awe every time I go into a Sam's Club. Honestly I think a large portion of the awe is a result of the fact that for so many years I couldn't get into a store without a friend who had a membership. I never had one, until I was married. So until a few short months ago, I always felt like a child in a candy store with a chaperone when I visited a Sam's Club. Not only did I have to have the "chaperone" to get into the store, but they also dictated what I could and could not buy because a membership card had to be displayed even to pay.

So now, that I have one....WOW! I'm able to visit Sam's Club all on my own. I feel all grown up and chaperone free. The thrill still hasn't worn off, but I am trying to make wise purchases while I'm there. And after visiting Sam's on Tuesday, I'm realizing even more benefits of belongs to it. More specifically, I'm finally figuring out what purchases are really good deals verses the ones that only appear to be, but truly don't save us any money.

So on Tuesday I began my first real shopping expedition at Sam's for groceries. Since I regularly find myself running back and forth to the grocery for canned tomatoes and corn several times a month, I purchased those in bulk (but still in normal sized cans). They were all just packaged into cases...so I ended up with 16 cans of tomatoes (8 stewed and 8 diced); 8 cans of corn, and 6 cans of green beans. Needless to say we are set for canned veggies for the month.

Also, I typically run out of breakfast food most months. But amazingly I found a good deal at Sam's on granola bars. The bulk container (also a case) had 35 granola bars for about $7 which is much less than I would have spent for my weekly version at Walmart or Winn Dixie.

Then there was the extra large container of hummus, and the bulk container of pesto. Wow! Finally I picked up some spinach pasta and a huge bag of stir fry. And as I excitedly shared all of my purchases with my dear husband he asked me to start getting our toothpaste from there too. Needless to say I think I made some wise decisions and that we won't have any of them go bad (since most of these are nonperishable or frozen). Now granted I'm uncertain about my purchase of the two pound block of cheese, but I doubt it was a bad purchase. After all, so many foods do require cheese.

I'd think eggs would be another good thing to get there and I know that dish washing detergent is too. The possibilities are endless! Wow! I truly am figuring out this Sam's club thing! And I'm doing all chaperone free!!

Also I have to admit before I had this membership I always kind of thought it was silly for families that weren't extremely large to have one of these. After all, only large families would need to buy in bulk, right? Not necessarily. Now, I'm discovering the secrets of buying in bulk for even your small sized families. And I'm realizing that when I choose the right bulk purchases it actually saves us money in the long run, both through gas and for the cost of the items as well.

However, Sam's Club was not my only adventure for the day. I also decided that it was high time to set up a recycling station in our laundry room. Now this may seem to be an odd activity since so many towns have recycling facilities readily available and many people already currently participate in recycling, but my dear town of Moultrie is not one of them. In fact the closest recycling center is an hour a way in Cairo (where my husband works). So after many weeks and months or regularly filling several bags of garbage a week, I decided I've had enough. We are going to become more environmentally friendly.

So I've placed three bins and a basket in our laundry room. I've divided them into the following categories, plastic, glass, aluminum cans and canned good cans all go into bins, then shopping bags into the basket. The plastic and glass are going into the same bin for the time being and can be separated once they reach the recycling center. The rest will be cleaned and divided before leaving the house. I was uncertain how Josh would feel about this new endeavor, but he's all for it. He actually let me know we could organize our new laundry room (when we build a house) so that there's an area for larger recycling containers in it too. WOW! Recycling success already.Yay!

So tune in tomorrow for even more discoveries and exciting proclamations occurring during my small town spring break. After all, life doesn't get better than this right?