Meal Plan and Target disaster

I am here to list what we will be eating this week, made up of what we already had in the pantry combined with the great deals that I found at Publix. I also want to tell you about our disaster of a morning at Target. It wasn't good. Preview--it ended with me carrying a screaming Ada out to the car, and I felt like joining in the screaming. It was bad, ya'll.

First, though, our menu for the week

Tonight--little smokies in barbecue sauce, mac and cheese, baked beans
Tuesday--baked chicken leg quarters (this is a first for me; I have only cooked boneless skinless chicken breast in the past), rice, veggies
Wednesday--Pinto beans and sausage with rice
Thursday--cereal night because of tutoring and bible study (there is no time for cooking)
Friday--having friends over, I am cooking santa fe soup, and they are bringing salad and bread

Breakfasts--fiber one pop tarts, fiber one bars, waffles, slim fast bars

Lunch--leftovers, sandwiches, chips, yogurt

Here is where you will find hundreds more menu ideas.

And for our Target trip. Okay, I am not supposed to be spending any money at all this week on groceries because I am already over budget. We have just switched from getting paid once a week to every other week, and I am having to adjust. Anyway...we started our day at CVS, which did not go well because they were out of the item that I needed to start my transaction. I ended up paying 10.00 more than planned to buy 4 cases of diet pepsi and four bags of chips. I did walk away with 10 ECBs, though. Okay, so at that point, I still needed to buy chili sauce and grape jelly to make sauce for tonight's dinner. I stopped at Super Target because it's on the way. I don't normally do my grocery shopping there, so I wasn't familiar with coupon policies. We get inside, and immediately Ada fusses about getting in the buggy. She locked her legs, and I couldn't get her in the seat, so I told her we would get a cookie. That did the trick. I had a 5.00 bill in my wallet, and I wanted to buy everything we needed and use only cash. I immediately realized that the 5.00 wouldn't cover it, so I decided to buy a bottle of barbecue sauce instead of the chili sauce and jelly. I also needed a loaf of bread, and Sara Lee was on sale. I remembered that I still had coupons for free Kotex pads, so I also threw those into the buggy, and I was fairly sure the 5.00 would cover the sauce and the bread.

Okay, so we finish our transactions, and the total is 4.86. So far, so good. After she scanned the coupons, the cashier tells me that they can't take the manufacturer's coupons on top of the Target coupons. I told her that they did it last week, but she said not all cashiers follow the rules, and she leaves to ask her manager. Meanwhile, the line is backing up, and Ada is trying to climb out of the buggy in order to play with the credit card machine. Side note--I would have told her not to worry about it, but she left to ask the manager before I had a chance. Okay, so she finally comes back, and tells me that she can't take the manufacturer's coupons, which means the pads will not be free. This changed my total to 7.00, and I had to use my debit card. I was so frustrated because I didn't even need the stinkin' pads, I just wanted them because they were free. At this point, Ada is standing up in the buggy, the line is backed up, and I am trying to get out of the way. I finally just pick Ada up because she is locking her knees so that I can't get her to sit down. I am holding Ada, pushing the buggy, and carrying bags. All while Ada is crying and clinging to me because she is so afraid that I will make her sit back down. I mean, it's such torture to sit in a grocery cart, you know? I needed to get a better grip on the bags before we walked out to the parking lot, so I put Ada down beside me. Amazingly, she immediately stopped crying, and was in awe of the fact that she was standing, completely free, in the middle of Target. I readjusted my bags, and picked her back up, ready to head to the car. At this point, she starts screaming because now she wants to walk around on her own. She is so angry with me, that she hits me in the face, and it appears as if I have the most unruly child on the planet. We are seriously causing a scene. All I wanted was to get out of there, so I walk out with a screaming child, who just hit me, and I try to somehow maintain my dignity. It was so very bad. We went straight home, and I put her to bed. And here we are. And that is a picture of motherhood. I say again, I'm just living the life, ya'll, living the life.