So here I sit...

Pondering my shopping list.  Today is my first trip to the city in what feels like forever.  Tonight is the boys' first night back to cadets.  Back to routine.  What few trips we have made into the city through the summer were always a mad dash here and about, with a million things to do, and I'm too tired to care anymore, and I forgot the list at home...  Disorganized is putting it mildly.  Routine is good.

So I have my list.  The problem is, it's a little on the long side.  Complicated by the money being a little on the short side.

I've got my grocery lists.  I check the sales flyers online every week and write out the items on sale that we normally buy, the size, brand & price.  Normally I would pick the store with the best sales, and stock up on everything on sale.  But this isn't normal.  This is, we've been out of practically everything for a month now...  So I think I'll see how things work out at Basics.  They're the cheapest for off the shelf, never on sale, non-perishables that I need to get stocked back up on.  Then we'll see if time permits a stop at another store.

The pantry will get stocked up again over the next few weeks.  No real worries there.  More disconcerting is the other list.  The list of non-grocery items.  The one that never seems like a big deal from week to week, when we're following routine.  But over the course of the summer...  It's daunting.  Not so much because it's huge.  It really isn't.  It's the odd ball assortment of crap that I need to buy that has me disillusioned.  I only have three hours to shop!  To get the best deals I'd need to make at least ten stops.  That's not going to happen.  So...  What to do, what to do?

Bottles to return.  Dollarliar.  Canadian Tire.  Walmart.  Outdoors store.  Those will be the priorities.  After groceries of course.  We'll see how far we get.