I went shopping last week, back when the weather was a bit more pleasant. Seriously, it was a nice day - snowed in the morning, and then the sun came out and it was practically balmy. That isn't the point, but what's better than talking about the weather? It's practically the only thing anyone talks about these days. Cold, cold, cold.Anyway, shopping. I usually look over my receipts before I leave the store, just to be sure everything rang up right. It just seems to be that, if I look at it in the store, everything will be fine, and if I don't, something will be wrong. Not always, but looking at the receipt in the store means I can take care of any problems right then, while I'm there. This time I did look it over, but not well enough, I guess. That evening I noticed that the broccoli crowns I bought had been rung up as just regular broccoli. So instead of paying 99¢ per pound for approximately 1 pound of broccoli, I paid $1.99 each for 2 bunches of broccoli, or $3.98.
If I still lived in Wisconsin and had to drive 15 minutes to get to the store, I'd probably have let it go or called the store to see if there was anything I could do about it the next time I got to the store (probably not for 2 or 3 weeks). But, since the store is only 5 minutes or so away, I decided I'd run back to the store the next morning and get it taken care of. And, since they recently opened a Starbucks in the store, I thought I'd treat myself to a salted caramel mocha from Starbucks.
So, I did. I ended up getting the broccoli for free, and I grabbed a few things I forgot to grab the day before. They were things we could have lived without, but since I was there...
Next time (because there will probably be a next time, no matter how careful I am) I'm just going to skip the coffee. I'll make coffee at home. I got $4 back from the broccoli and spent $5 on stupid coffee. Do people really do that all the time? (Obviously they do; just search Starbucks on Flickr.) How? Why? I mean, it was good, but it just doesn't seem worth it. I can buy an entire bag of coffee and make my coffee at home for weeks for that same $5.
I might buy a flavored syrup to use occasionally, should I want something a bit different. I have been mixing my coffee up with some coconut oil and milk in the mornings - whir it up good in the Ninja so that it's foamy, and that's pretty yummy. I bet a little syrup would be nice once in a while. And not quite the waste of money Starbucks seems to be.
