THAT woman.

Something occurred to me Sunday night during my trip to the grocery store. I had a flash back from when I was a newlywed. Remember now, that I got married at the tender age of eighteen. So wise (or so I thought) in the ways of the world! I remember going grocery shopping and feeling oh so grown up. I would march into the store, arm-in-arm with my hot husband and buy all kinds of unhealthy, expensive things. If we wanted chips and dip for supper, that's what we'd have. I loved that WE were in charge. Money was no object back then, so we got whatever we wanted. And it was fun.

But. No matter where we shopped, or the time of day we chose to go, there was always THAT WOMAN in the store. You know who I mean. The woman who marched into the store armed with her grocery list, her pencil, and oh yes...her coupon book. We always seemed to meet up with THAT WOMAN on every aisle. We'd round the corner needing ketchup and there she'd be. Taking up more than her share of the aisle while she critically looked at the different ketchup choices, squinted at her grocery list, and rifled through her coupon book. On every aisle. Maybe I'm exaggerating a little. But you get the picture. It seemed that we were doomed to follow her throughout the store. And then, somehow, we always wound up behind her in the check out line, where she watched the cashier like a hawk to make sure she didn't get over-charged and that all of her "deals" rang up correctly. Finally, just when we thought she was out of our hair, she would whip out her coupons. Her many, many, coupons. By the time she finally got out of her way, Chris and I would be smirking and rolling our eyes. How we scoffed!

What a shock to realize that I am now THAT WOMAN. Seriously. I am. And I'm not ashamed! I take great pride in the ability to feed our family of 4 for around $60 per week. And that's with all of our diet restrictions, too. The fact is, I feel downright naked if I go into Kroger without 1) my Kroger Plus card, 2) my grocery list, 3) my copy of the store flyer, and 4) my coupon book. Thanks to the wisdom of my baby sister, I am now an annoying, anal, coupon-clipping, bargain-hunting, price-comparing grocery shopper. I used to be self-conscious about it. Then I realized how much money we're saving.

Not to sound snooty or anything, but we spend way less than some of my friends who use convenience foods (Hamburger Helper, those boxed chicken dinners, etc). I had a conversation with a friend the other day who spends $150 per week on groceries for her family of 4. Wow. I told her what I usually spent and she didn't believe me. She asked if we ate only rabbit food. Ahem...NO! I explained that the kids have food sensitivities that required us to eat fresh, natural foods. And that, with the help of coupons and a little extra time price-comparing and menu-planning, I can indeed feed us all good, nutritious food for $60 per week. And I couldn't be more proud. So there.