Shopping day!

For the past few months, I've had the truck one day per week for some shopping. This has helped tremendously since Rusty and I both have students on Saturday. Trying to fit a week's worth of shopping into about four hours fighting weekend traffic was no fun at all! Now on Monday mornings I take Rusty and Adam to school at 9:00 then drive about forty-five minutes into town to my first stop. Then I drive back to pick them up by 3. It makes for a short shopping trip, but thankfully I only shop the stores that are within a 8 kilometer loop from our house.

My first stop is the size of a WalMart supercenter, but it isn't quite the same. I can skip probably 80% of the store because it doesn't have anything for me. I take a quick turn through some areas that I know have some clearance items, and then I mainly buy my meat here. I've tried to buy my meat elsewhere, but the odors in some of the stores can be overwhelming.

I also check their store ads and check to see if there are any lowered prices on imported items. I found these great tortilla chips from Greece that were marked down to a little over $1 per bag (normal price is close to $3), and they came with some packets of picante sauce. They're not bad at all for a freebie!

When I made it to the checkout counter, I found I had scored some free toilet tissue! It's not my favorite brand, but it will be useful to have around. I like free stuff!

Then it was off to the mall to order our new laminator. It took three salesmen to get it ordered for me after I convinced them that they really did sell Fellowes brand laminators. Haha! They had trouble finding it in the catalog and then went off to find an older catalog. I didn't really understand what the age of the catalog had to do with anything, but another salesman walked up and was able to find it in the index. Once that happened I had my new unit ordered in no time!

Three days later it was delivered to our house. This unit is so quiet and quick! It's a popular unit sold on Amazon, but of course it's more expensive here!

Since I was at the mall I checked out the Top's Supermarket in the basement. I really like the selection of imported goods in this store, but it's not as convenient as my neighborhood supermarket. I get to try a lot of items from Europe, but the prices are not always reasonable. This is my first container of custard powder. I'm still not sure if the price was a mistake, but it rang up cheaper than it was labeled. Win!

Of course when you're buying stuff from Europe, you might have to develop some serious language decoding skills! This is a box of 2 instant vanilla pudding envelopes. You'd better grab them when you find them! I can make pudding from scratch, but these are great to use in recipes for special occasions.

And just so you know we enjoy trying Thai products as well, I have this picture as part of our latest coconut water craze. We've always enjoyed buying the fresh young coconuts at the market, but we can now buy it in boxes! twill be nice to be able to keep it on hand. Our favorite is the roasted coconut followed by the chocolate, melon, and Thai lime. The plain flavor is pretty tasty as well! We have one more box chilling in the fridge--match green tea. Maybe we'll break into it this weekend.