Well, it’s been a long time since my last peek into my cart post. Rest assured I’ve been shopping, but it’s been sort of haphazard at best lately.
When things get real nutty, I end up shopping the loss leaders at all three major local grocer chains. It’s not ideal, but at least it’s price conscious. My poor coupon binder has seen better days.
And today’s trip is a good example of this kind of shopping. Not careless, mind you. Impulse shopping is not something I indulge in. But today’s trip to Shaw’s was event oriented, as I had an after-school party planned. There was precious little in the house to eat which is certainly a problem when you have tweenage girls coming over for fun and chow. Tweenage girls especially like good chow.
So, my shopping plan was pretty simple. Run in, grab just a few things that were on sale, exit as soon as humanly possible and jet back home to set up for the party.
And I did a pretty good sticking with this plan. I did get stuck in the juice aisle for a bit because after months of not having any juice on the shelves that was domestically processed, Shaw’s finally restocked the Kedem apple juice. The only kind of apple juice at my Shaw’s that’s made in the USA.
I think anyway. There’s a flag stamped on the bottle and it says product of USA but I’m not naive enough to believe that it’s fully harvested and processed here. I need to call them and get some questions answered on that front.
I don’t usually purchase white bread. But I wasn’t sure if the other girls that were coming to the party would eat wheat. So, white it was. White bread with Nutella and peanut butter cut into butterfly shapes. Because I’m a crazy mother who can’t serve a square sandwich, apparently.
Guess what I’m having for lunch tomorrow. Yup. Sandwich crusts. C’mon you know me better than to toss perfectly good food. Nevermind that I don’t like Nutella. I will for the next two days.
Not too shabby of a spread. Everything was on sale except for the fruit dip. I just didn’t have time to whip that up from scratch.
Oh, and I forgot to tell you what kind of party this was. A spa party. I’ll be telling you more about this in an upcoming post, but I promised the kids I’d give them manicures. CVS was kind enough to offer an ECB deal of $5 back for $10 spent on Sally Hansen polishes. That certainly was good timing.
After a relaxing day of working all morning for my real no kidding paying job, shopping at Shaw’s and CVS for the party and then throwing the actual spa party for very loud enthusiastic girls, I finally got to do this tonight….
And while I might not have scored any amazing coupon deals today, this bottle of wine came with a rebate. So, I’m not totally off my game. I think.
As of late, when I attend mom blogging conferences it’s for one of two reasons. Either I’m going to them on behalf of companies to find bloggers that might be interested in working with them or I’m attending in a role as mentor/volunteer.
The Grand Floridian is quite spectacular. The most deluxe of the deluxe hotels at Disney World, the Grand Floridian is exquisitely posh and the staff oh so very gracious. When we visit Disney we usually stay at the economy hotels. So, this was a very decadent weekend indeed.
Our conference was held right at the Grand Floridian at their conference facility which is located just minutes away from the hotel rooms.
A food blogging conference wouldn’t be quite right without some food. We were treated to all kinds of whimsical creations made by the Disney chefs. While they had some delicious appetizers, I think most of us were enamored with the very magical dessert table.
And of course there was swag. Mostly edible swag. This was one conference where no one could say that they were hungry.
And if that wasn’t enough stuff to drag home, some of the attendees participated in a food swap. Myself and about 30 others brought food items that represented our states and we swapped in the Grand Floridian lobby.
Oh, I had to save room for one last thing in my suitcase. In Downtown Disney there’s this shop called Goofy’s Candy Company where they hand dip treats in chocolate. My kids just love the chocolate dipped Rice Krispie treats. And even though my suitcase was bursting at the seams, I couldn’t leave without those.
