I’m the one who does the grocery shopping in my family, mostly because no one can stand to shop with me. We have occasional debates about the “menu first” vs. the “buy the deals at the store” philosophies, but since I do most of the cooking, I shop the way I want (I get the specials and then make my menu–unfortunately it’s mostly in my head, and no one but me knows what we’re eating on any given night).

So I went to Giant on Saturday armed and ready with my special 10% off coupon.I got it a few weeks earlier as a “Bonus Buy” coupon and it had to be used by February 28th. Now was my chance to stock up, so I went at it with a vengeance.

Unfortunately, as I reached the frozen food aisle I realized that I’d made a terrible miscalculation. If you decide to really stock up, you need to make sure that you can handle everything you get. I was only two-thirds through the store and I’d filled my cart to overflowing. So much for the logical attack.

Sooo, I called Denise and asked her take to the kids and meet me at the store (what else could I do?). In the meantime I got a second cart and began filling it up.

By the time Denise got there, I’d filled up the second cart.

At checkout time, is $450 of groceries too much? Maybe it is, but after my discounts it was $113 less, so I rolled out of there with $337 of groceries.

I made a written menu after a “discussion” with my wife about the purchase and I came up with a month of meals fully laid out on paper. So I think I did pretty well. Say what you will, but once again, single-mindedness triumphs. I rest my case.

Now if only my wife would stop shaking her head.