For years as soon as my kids were at their dad's for the weekend, I would run to the grocery store for a box of Kraft Dinner. Just so I could have those fake cheese, white-bread carbs smothered in ketchup. The exciting wonderful life of a single mom. It brings a tear to my eye. No, really I'm crying.
Then Asshat #2 started high school and all of a sudden there were all these chocolate bar wrappers, and Ranch potato chip bags hidden in his room. WTF? We're all doing without and you're stuffing your face with crap that's chock full of modified milk ingredients?
So we started eating scalloped potatoes again. In a house with two young men it takes two or three packages of scalloped potatoes for a meal. I would cook more, but that's my biggest casserole dish already. Still there will never be a chance for me - the vegetarian - to have seconds. There is always meat leftover though - go figure.
Sunday at the grocery store I was confronted with a deal so fantastic that I felt like I'd won a lottery or something. Knorr Sidekicks on sale for a buck. One single dollar! And they make scalloped potatoes. So I bought six packages, which is only two meals. I would have took more but my cart was heaping and I was already trying to figure out if I could get another mortgage to pay for it all.
Even though I was generous enough to leave at least four packages on the shelf, this older man sees me throwing all those scalloped potatoes in my cart and gave me the worst stink eye ever. Now I've been practicing my stink eye for 21 years and it is nothing compared to the evil death glare I got. Over scalloped potatoes. Then he storms over to the shelf and took - wait for it - one package of scalloped potatoes.
I'm still ticked off with myself for not just clearing the shelf like they do on Extreme Couponing, because then I would have at least felt like I earned that damn death glare. Plus? One Single Dollar. I'm sure I had at least another four bucks on me.
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They make scalloped potatoes? Who'd have thunk it?
ReplyDeleteThey do! They even have a cheddar bacon one for the bacon lovers out there! They are smaller packages though so it takes 3 to feed my guys.
DeleteStink-eye Dude has obviously never had to feed a teenage boy.
ReplyDeleteThat thought did run through my head as I was getting the death glare.
DeleteI feel your no-seconds-ever pain...my grocery bill triples during the weeks when my 13 year old is with me
ReplyDeleteWait until they're grown and working. Any seconds you dreamed of scoring are now lunch.
DeleteLOL! There's no judgement like that of a fellow supermarket shopper. I'm always careful to hide things in my trolley I don't want other shoppers to see for fear of getting the disapproving looks.
ReplyDeleteMaybe if the big galoots had been with me, he would have realized I wasn't just being greedy. Nobody gave me the stink eye over the six packages of Bits & Bites that were also a dollar!
DeleteThat is a good price! And those things hardly ever go on sale!
ReplyDeleteIt was a fantastic price. I should have bought at least 30 packages.
DeleteI had a similar experience grocery shopping - my favorite dressing packets are discontinued! So I bought ten of them. Still left 5-7 left. Because I'm nice
ReplyDelete(But if they're still there next week, I'm taking those too!!)
I'm seriously considering stopping back in sometime this week for more. We've already had them once so there's only enough left for one meal now.
DeleteMy 3 boys love those scalloped potatoes, too!
ReplyDeleteLove the humor in this. Nothing beats the stink eye at the grocery store. I mean, really. It's not like there's a true food shortage or anything. Old dude needed his fake potatoes, I guess.
Glad to have found your blog!
I never even touched the Cheddar Bacon ones! He could have had those.
Deletewow - who would have known there was such a demand for scalloped potatoes!! wow again!! but i can't argue a buck deal. :)
ReplyDeleteI love to stock up on sale items. Especially toilet paper. I have a toilet paper tower in my bedroom - just so I never have to settle for no name.
DeleteThis is why I leave the shopping to my husband. ;)
ReplyDeleteYou have my undying envy.
DeleteYum I loooove scalloped potatoes. And I hate grocery store judgment.
ReplyDeleteIn the winter, when the oven is going anyway for your meat? I love em too. Yummy potatoes you put in the oven and forget about for at least 45 minutes. Perfect.
DeleteWhat is it with people? Sour grapes it all it is. He'll live.
ReplyDeleteSure he will. He just felt the need to glare at me in a "there had better be some left on the shelf" way first. I'm pretty sure there was an entire display on the end cap too so really, the guy should either chill or order take-out.
DeleteI wish my kids would eat potatoes. . .actually, I wish they would eat anything but hot dogs and cheesy popcorn. . . damn kids, can't live w/ 'em. . . pass the beer nuts. . .
ReplyDeleteI have a cousin that made it into adulthood on nothing but mashed potatoes, bologna, chicken, canned ravioli and candy. Now she's pregnant so she makes some sort of vegetable paste she hides in her hamburger. Perfect prep for making baby food I guess.
DeleteThis was a good laugh. Today I had to give the stink-eye to all the people who had cleared out the 12 snack package of Cheez Its. I ran in the store at 6:15 this morning to because my child had to bring snack. Because they were on sale they all were bought out. So I had to pay the regular price for the Honey Maid ones.
ReplyDeleteThese days groceries are so expensive. Stores really have got to stock up on sale items.
DeleteKiller deal - I LOVE Sidekicks! They went on sale about six months ago and I bought over a dozen of them - but there were still tons on the shelf (whew!). And don't feel bad about the old guy. I think most old people's faces are permanently stuck doing the stink eye glare. Or...maybe that's the way their face contorts when they see Me. Either way...old people are just plain grumpers. Ha!
ReplyDeleteHe really wasn't even that old. Just older - maybe 60? Not old enough to be that crabby.
DeleteThose Sidekicks are awesome--well worth a little stink eye!
ReplyDeleteAt a buck a bag? You bet your knickers they were worth it.
DeleteHey, you HAVE to stock up when things are on sale. I always clean out the pink lemonade. I can't stand it but my 9yo is crazy for it. Sounds like you need a secret stash of potatoes!
ReplyDeleteI really did think about it, but he was glaring at me when I put the 5th and 6th in my cart.
DeleteWhat a weird guy. Or maybe his face is stuck that way from making the stink eye too often. He's a cautionary tale.
ReplyDeleteCautionary tale of why I should go grocery shopping at 9 am instead 1 pm. At 9 am on a Sunday, the store is so dead I could have cleared the shelf and nobody would have been the wiser.
DeleteI wonder if Mr. Stink Eye even intended to buy scalloped potatoes in the first place or just wanted them because you had a cart load. Too funny!
ReplyDeleteIt wouldn't surprise me if he didn't even want them. He did only take one package and that would barely feed one!
DeleteI have two boys (and we would like to have another someday) who are bothe little now. I fear the days ahead when their appetites reach full male-level. I hate to cook and I hate to grocery shop but I will have to find a ways to feed them...and afford to feed them.
ReplyDeleteI hate cooking and grocery shopping. So far they haven't starved!
DeleteI've never seen those in the store. I usually go for the Betty Crocker. Yes my potatoes come from a box. Last time I tried to make them from scratch I chopped of the tip of my finger. Hurt like hell, but it made for a hilarious blog post.
ReplyDeleteI'll get the Betty Crocker ones too but they weren't on sale this week! Betty Crocker makes bigger packages though so I only need two for a meal.
DeleteI made scalloped potatoes from scratch once. They tasted exactly like the ones from the box - only not all of the potatoes cooked. I won't be doing that again.
Haha! Hey, if you find something on sale that you love, go nuts!!
ReplyDeleteThat's the way I see it too. Ya snooze, ya lose. It isn't as if I go shopping the first day of the sale and clear the shelf. I'm usually going in on Sunday and picking through whats left.
DeleteMmmm, Sidekicks. Yummy. And I'm a vegetarian too! I LOVE your ass! So to speak. As pictured.
ReplyDeleteSidekicks rock. Nothing could be simpler when you need a quick side dish. I'm quite proud of my ass - Thank you!
DeleteI think his stinkeye made him a jerkface. :)
ReplyDeleteI kind of thought so too - but hey, now we're all laughing about it.
DeleteI'm a vegetarian, too! But I cook for a bunch of carnivores. It's a little bit of a downer, but I do have a huge casserole dish when I feel like making potatoes, so I will count myself lucky.
ReplyDeleteSame here on cooking for the carnivores. Which is why I always find it so ironic that there is always meat leftover but good luck on getting seconds of anything else.
DeleteWow, I think the stinkeye is one of the finest weapons in modern life. I use it all the time. And the potatoes? I am totally craving them now.
ReplyDeleteThe stink eye is completely useless against my guys. They see it and figure since they're half way there why not try to get me frothing at the mouth too.
DeleteI've never understood people who feel the need to glare at strangers. Maybe they need a hug.
ReplyDeleteHe either needed a hug or one of your penguins!
DeleteOh man! The teenage years are going to be hell on my budget.
ReplyDeleteCoupons. That's all I've got to say.
DeleteMy boys are just starting to embrace potatoes. When my oldest was a baby, he wouldn't even eat french fries. Of course I had to finish them. Duty calls, ya know. If he didn't look so much like us, I'd have sworn they switched him at the hospital because what kid of mine doesn't like potatoes? I'm from the Midwest, for godssake!
ReplyDelete