SurvivingInfidelity.com^®

Gaby...

I have a Christmas folder that has all the past years Christmas lists and gifts we gave to friends and family.

I also keep individual file folders for all our vacations which includes, but not limited to hotels, types of cars we rented, places we ate and visited and all the fun little souvenirs like tour receipts, etc.

*sigh* I feel so validated by this thread.

Isn't it wonderful?!!!

If fWS and I go together we don't make a list but if either of us go alone we make out a list IN ORDER from bakery, through produce, meat, then the non perishable aisles, etc all the way to the frozen food, milk, cheese, bath products and finally drugs.

I cannot even think any other way. And when the bagger screws up the items. Well... it is not pretty.

[This message edited by HUFI-PUFI at 3:44 PM, February 21st (Friday)]

PurpleJacket joins the List Makers Group!!

I also keep individual file folders for all our vacations which includes, but not limited to hotels, types of cars we rented, places we ate and visited and all the fun little souvenirs like tour receipts, etc

These are sub-lists, categorized under the main lists of course!

*sigh* I feel so validated by this thread.

We're not crazy...everyone else is!

I buy cheese, crackers and wine. It used to be much easier in AZ & TX when I could buy my wine in the grocery store now it's an extra trip for the liquor store. Oh, the agony...

I don't write a list. Remember the old Family Circus cartoons where Billy goes all over the place to get from point A to point B? That's me shopping. And then I get home and figure out what I've forgotten.

I know. If I had a list this wouldn't happen. But it does because I always miss something on the list too.

It's even better when I run to the store for something quick only to get to the check out and realize I left my wallet on the counter back home.

Add me to the throng of highly organized grocery shoppers. This is indeed a validating thread!

Unless my eye skipped a line, no one's mentioned the overly-helpful baggers who want to help unload the dadgum cart. I, too, want my grocery bags to have some sort of logical order. I don't want to find my canned tomatoes with the chips! Parmesan cheese with the breakfast cereal! This disrupts the flow...

I don't quite need a nerve pill but sometimes it does rub my fur the wrong way...especially with some of the more insistent Helpful Harry's.

OMG I'm home here!

Don't forget:

Christmas Gift Lists (broken down by person, budgeted amount and actual spent)

Birthday Gift Lists (same break down as above)

Camping/Kayaking List which, of course, is different than the Vacation List....

Then there's the college dorm list, the college apartment list, the week at the beach house list...

A couple of weeks ago WH did the grocery shopping. I went to make dinner and a key ingredient was missing from the fridge. When I asked him where he hid it, he told me he didn't buy it becuase it wasn't on the list. A few miniutes later he sheepishly told me it WAS on the list, but it wasn't grouped properly with like items so he missed it. I had no idea he even realized the list was laid out to match the store aisles!

Ah, you people with your lists. I betcha dollars to donuts that at this very moment, NIK is making a list of people who belong on her list of people who use lists.

It would seem that there exists but a single man in this dauntless world who believes, in his heart and soul that there is a certain joy and specialness in a life that is built on extemporaneous spontaneity!

Camping/Kayaking List which, of course, is different than the Vacation List....

We have a camping list, jeeping list, boating list, vacation list.

But most importantly, we have a beer consumption spreadsheet broken out by attendee and how much we think they will consume for breakfast, lunch, dinner and nighttime. We NEVER run out of beer and we NEVER bring home more than about 5.

Hufi - I'm all for spontaneity, too. But there's a happy balance necessary between order and chaos. I just happen to have a little more order than chaos in my equation.

I have found OCD heaven!!!!!

Ok, what I didn't know, I have now learned and will implement as needed, like highliting the coupons I have on the grocery list!!!!

Not only am I super organized with the shopping, but I've trained both DSs in how I want things. We are like a well oiled and highly synchronized team. The baggers are not even allowed to touch the groceries for fear of the "Mama" looks I give. While I put the items on the conveyor belt how I want them, one boy opens bags and gets them prepped while the other boy put the items in properly. No bleach with my fruit, thank you, Sir!

highliting the coupons I have on the grocery list

This really IS a great idea and I'm stealing it too!

Hufi Pufi - I love being spontaneous when it comes to "fun", but I need order in the day to day things. Combine my swiss cheese memory with the number of people/animals in my home and the various schedules, etc chaos would reign without my trusty lists!

Oh you compulsive obsessive compulsive people make me smile ....

I'm still struggling with balancing your statement of " But there's a happy balance necessary between order and chaos. I just happen to have a little more order than chaos in my equation" and StillLivin's statement that she found OCD heaven!!!!!

I have a grocery list organized by food type on my ipad. I use a different color to mark an item for each store that I go to that has an item on sale or is the cheapest with the price on it. I also note the quantity and whether I have a coupon for the item (and how much it is off.) I take the ipad with me and cross off the item when I put it in the cart. I am rarely surprised by the amount I spend, and impulse buys are kept at bay, bc I go in to the store, get what I want, and get out. I do have a little cushion in my budget for "unadvertised" specials. I have almost every "cheapest regular price" memorized. (Yeah, bad, huh?) I have shopped like this for years. Every one is shocked at how I keep my weekly bill below $250 for a family of five - mostly athletic teens - and have lots of fresh veggies, fruit, and protein on the menu. LOL

I HATE grocery shopping - but that's why I make a list - I put everything in order according to how the store is laid out moving from right to left as I'm entering the store. I want to get in and out in as little time as possible. I also want my groceries bagged with like items. I put them on the belt that way, but some checkers mess it all up.

Now that I live with SO, it's all gone to hell. He doesn't like my grocery store, so sometimes we go to a different one and I don't know the order of the items in that one. So the list is willy-nilly and we circle back and forth through the store. Plus he just likes to shop so he likes to go up and down every aisle looking at everything - it takes forever! I must admit I become impatient.

I have tried to get him to shop on his own - he is retired and can do it any time, but he likes me to come with him - I suspect it is so he can torture me with his unorganized slow-moving shopping.

I used to be a coupon shopper, but I haven't done that for some time. I used to make the list and then go through the coupons to put them in the same order as the list. But I became lazy when I started shopping for one.

NL