I'm an idiot.

Men, your wives need to read this post. It will either make them grateful you're not as much of an idiot as I am, or it will help them see you're just like many other men (or at least there's one other man in the world like you...)

Leatha gave me simple instructions before I left to run errands yesterday, "Stop by Aldi and get the following...Here's a note with everything I want you to get there." Easy enough.

I ran some of my errands then went to the grocery store and got EVERYTHING on the list (no more, no less). It was a success. A huge success. She even gave me $22 cash (we use an envelope system), and the bill came to $20.96. I thought, "Wow, she's good at estimating, but good thing I went for the no-name stuff (and sale items). I called her, proud of my accomplishment.

I said, "Babe, I'm just 10 minutes away- I'm just leaving Fareway."

"FAREWAY!!!!!????," she exclaimed.

"Yeah...uh..." (I look at the top of the note and realize my mistake)

"Mark, you spent at least $8 more than you would've at Aldi"

Even as I post this, she's saying, "That makes me sick to my stomach [with a smile of course]"

Well, when things are tight financially, it's never fun to work so hard at saving money here and there, then to watch your husband flush cash down the toilet.

It might have been worth the laugh this time, but seriously- think about it. The difference between a cheap grocery store (Fareway) and an even cheaper one (Aldi), was $8 on 10 items! If I made the same mistake every week, or if we just didn't go to Aldi for certain items (we don't get certain items there...) that's about $380 over the course of the year. That's a mini family vacation. Or a weekend long date with Leatha. Or eating out for date night a couple times every month.

I know we shouldn't obsess over pinching pennies, but there is something to be said about shopping smart. By shopping with shrewdness, it's like Leatha is making money for us.

The only problem is me.

Maybe next time I'll remember to go to the right grocery store.

Now I just need to turn my attention to not getting anymore parking tickets. Shhh....