AldiAldiAldiAldiAldi

This may sound strange, but I am having fun finding ways to stretch a dollar. Saving money has become like a game for me. I think a long-dormant 'spend-thrift' gene has been recently awakened; all I know is that nowadays my seratonin levels spike whenever I realize that I can save 35 cents on a can of green beans, or that we can borrow a movie from the library instead of renting, or that Chauntelle can turn a half-pound of ground beef into 48 meat balls that comprise the cores of 3 different meals. This stuff makes me crazy happy, for some reason. It's fun.

So, I went to Aldi today, just to look around. For those that have never been to one, Aldi is a chain of very strange discount grocery stores. The company is based in Germany, so some of the oddness may just be due to cultural differences. For example, you check out a shopping cart by depositing a quarter to unlock the cart from the cart-rack. To get your quarter back, you have to return the cart. Not a big deal, and it eliminates both the problem of carts in the parking lot and the need to hire staff to retrieve said carts. Easy peasy. Also, bring your own shopping bags, or be prepared to pay extra for them. Another European touch: the cashiers (really, cashier singular, since I've never seen 2 employees working at the same time) sit at their registers, just like at ASDA in Trowbridge (ASDA is owned by Wal-Mart, by the way).

Ok, so you've checked out your cart and you're now in the store. First thing you notice- no shelves. No racks. Dry goods and canned goods are left in their cases. The cases have been cut open and stacked in columns and rows. Everything is visible and easily accessible- just not on shelves. Next thing you notice is that almost nothing is a name brand. The whole store is store-brand, with some exceptions. That said, it probable that many of the store-brand items at an Aldi store are actually name-brand products incognito.

You'll also notice the odd German beer that you've never heard of, and European chocolate (real European chocolate) for, like, $1.25. See, that's the big thing about Aldi- everything is really cheap. So, yeah, they don't have Campbell's tomato soup, but the tomato soup they have costs 32 cents. So, if you are already used to buying store brands without complaint (which we are), the fact that you will not see the words "Kraft", "Nabisco", or "Coca-Cola" in the store won't bother you.

This was a scouting mission, plus I had a restless 13 month-old with me, so I limited my purchases to some German beer ($4.99, hard to beat that for a six-pack), sugar, cola, and vinegar (thumbs up on the cola and the beer). Barely cracked $8.00. Crackers and dairy products looked good, canned goods seemed fine, and their coffee is supposed to be good ($2.99 for the premium). The meat selection was meager, but hey, they have great prices on ground beef, and I know I can get cheap chicken at Bloom, so that shouldn't be a problem.

I'll have to grab some of that chocolate next time.

Cataloging.

+Chauntelle is in Georgia tonight and will be there for the next 2 days attending classes on the art of "staging" a house, which means that when she returns on Wednesday evening, she will have a heightened sensitivity to all that is wrong with the way our home is decorated. Also, she should be adequately qualified to host a show on HGTV, which I suspect is her true motive for taking the classes.

+Chuck and Liz are in Florida this week to oversee the regrading and re-graveling (?) of the driveway to their Carrabelle house. Which means that...

+I am sole caregiver to Junior Melonhead! Since my employer does not permit preverbal, prepedal, urinally-challenged individuals on the work premises, I will be taking tomorrow and Wednesday off to hang out with He-Who-Gums. I suspect that I will spend some of that time...

+Waiting for a call from Costco, Inc, since I applied and interviewed for a part-time position at their new store in Greenville. The interview was this evening, right after work. I rushed home, changed into the interview-wear that Chauntelle had selected (thank you, Chauntelle), grabbed the folder containing my resumes that Chauntelle had compiled (thank you, Chauntelle), and headed off to meet the folks from Costco. I think it went well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. It could be a good thing. Chauntelle has been working courageously to hunt down leads and host open houses and compile information packets, driving ex-coworkers around the greater Greenville metroplex for hours on end, fielding countless interminable phone calls from her "partner", but so far has not closed a deal. The market is tough right now, and the result is that our current income is less than expenses. We have been working very hard to tighten our budget, and we've done a great job with clamping down on our spending, but we're still in the hole, and we need another source of income. Costco is a great company, the pay sounds like it will be more than fair, and I will be happy to take the job. Dig us out of the hole, and build up a nice reserve (again), and this time not fritter it away...

The end, the beginning, and a bunch of other stuff-

'The End' means that I am no longer working at Volvo, no longer traveling to Asheville daily, no longer traveling for IDG at all except for a few miles in the morning, a few more at lunch time, and pinch more at 5 PM. If I gas up my family truckster today (July 4), I shan't need a refill until this time next month at the earliest. "The End' means that I am done with the out-of-town shuffle.

'The Beginning' means that I am home now, finally, and for good. Now we can start some stuff. Now I can rub my hands together very vigorously and get down to brass tacks, whatever that means. In essence, I have been working and traveling for 2 years to reach a place where I can start to move from having a JOB to having a CAREER. 'The Beginning' means that I can start trying to have a complete life.

'A Bunch Of Other Stuff'- So, do I mean that I don't think I have a complete life right now? Am I not thankful for my smart, beautiful, patient, loving wife? Or for my handsome, clever, funny, miraculous son? Or for the countless other gifts with which I have been blessed? Absolutely. I am very thankful for my blessings, none of which I particularly deserve. But, full though my life may be, I'm not sure that it is complete. I haven't done many of the things in my life that I'd like to do. The truth is that in my adult life, I've never really pushed myself or worked hard for any purpose. By virtue of my having met and married Chauntelle, my life is full in a way that I could never have imagined. But I have never proven to myself that I can be more than just some guy that some great things happened to.