From Diamonds to Diapers

We went to Costco today – you know… the place where I buy my jeans (see previous post). We always go with a little list of things we need and then end up with WAY more stuff.

What is that about anyway?

Unfortunately we never walk out with the big rock (a.k.a. diamond) that I always make my way over to first (just so happend the big rocks are in the front of the store). I can always hear it calling my name, “Come over Elaine and look at the splendor that is me. I could be on your hand, all big and obnoxious, if only you had 20 Grand to spare!” Then I hear another voice calling,

“Elaine – Let’s go!” That would be my husband and his actual voice.

Of course sometimes I just walk away on my own because I know I have to come back to reality and Tim is NOT calling me because he has gone over into his own dream land, also known as the electronics area. So, it just depends who can separate themselves from their coveted items first.

Sometimes it’s a tie and we both end up back near the clothing section, which is our next stop. Yeah, see, we kind of have our Costco route mapped out. After clothes we check out a few of the aisles in the kitchen/home gadget and parephenalia section. Here I usually find about 3 things I want but don’t want to fork over the cash for. Although today I did end up with a 20 piece glass bowl set that I “need because we aren’t supposed to store stuff in plastic anymore!” I can rationalize almost any purchase. It’s a gift.

We then move on to the seasonal area which of course right now has outdoor furniture and stuff for your lawn, etc. Then there’s the wine and refrigerated foods and the baked goods and most importantly, the promise of a few good samples being doled out. Yes folks, we really go for the samples. Today they had key lime cheesecake. And today, Little G ate his first Costco sample, and quite happily I might add. He was NOT happy when it was gone. Like mother, like son.

Then we hit the paper goods. The mountains of paper goods. I mean do we really use that much toilet paper? Oh yes we do.

Then there’s the frozen section, all 4 aisles of it.

Chicken nuggets. Check
Talapia filets. Check
Cream Puffs (oooh yummy – there’s that voice again…) “NO, YOU CANNOT HAVE THOSE!!” (there’s the REAL voice again.)
Frozen peas. Check
Some random other frozen food that looks good. Check.

We round out the trip by meandering through the dry goods aisles to see if there is anything else that we “need” and the last stop is usually diapers and wipes.

Then there is the matter of payment. Sometimes I will look at Tim and say, “What’s the damage??” Sometimes I just don’t even pay attention. I mean we do use ALMOST everything we buy there. There have been occasions when we tried a particular food item on a whim and it doesn’t quite work out. You know like the organic wasabi crusted raisins… Ok, I made that one up, but you get me.

The worst part of all this bulk shopping? Brining it home and finding a place to store it all. Thank goodness we have a decent amount of storage in this house. Of course it might be good if we didn’t then I wouldn’t feel compelled to buy 12 cans of mandarin oranges. Hey, we’ll eat them… eventually.