Groceries

     Out of sight, out of mind has never felt truer to me lately. I've been working in a grocery store for about six months now. I've been the main grocery shopper of my house for about 17 years.  It's a completely different animal being there every day, seeing all that good tempting food! As a shopper with a limited budget and, usually a small child with me, I'd get in get what I needed and get out. I'd stick to my list and maybe, if possible, add in an extra treat or two if I saw something yummy and had the extra cash to pay for it. Usually it'd something for said child and most often eaten and gone before we even got home.
     Going through other peoples' grocery orders and up and down all the aisles about four nights a week I'm finding so many products I didn't even know exsisted. And once you see it, it's stuck there in your head. Especially yummy treats that your dying to eat. At least that's how it works for me. Things get stuck in my head and I keep thinking about it. The hunger for it grows and grows until I finally give in and treat myself to it. It was so much easier avoiding it all when I didn't work there. Now to see it a couple nights a week the pull to have it becomes that much stronger. And I get that much weaker.
     Many items I've had before, but maybe not in years, that after seeing over and over I just want sooo bad I can't help myself anymore. Some things I've given in for are: flavored pretzels, pierogies, munchos, teddy grahams, onion rings, liverwurst, root beer, double chocolate oreos, vodka sauce, french toast sticks, fresh garlic bread and new items like dulce de leche Cheerios and Krave cereal. I'm in the store so often it's easy to grab a little something here and there. Spend a few bucks on me here and there or on stuff to bring home and let the family treat on too. It is really easy to justify many of the purchases as the kids wanting them too. Although, sometimes I eat them at work, or hid them at home because I just don't want to share them. They'd have never been the wiser if I hadn't posted about it but it's ok. We all need to treat ourselves sometimes.
     All that is the things possible to buy in the grocery store itself. I'm not the only one working there, and everyone is always eating. Most of my coworkers are aged 16-22. They've got money to burn and teenage appetites. Needless to say fast food is constantly around me. I have gotten to try the new Burger King fries and Mcdonalds chicken mcbites thanks to them though. There is so much other stuff out there though. Many of them constatly talk about Pizza Hut and their cheesy bread. Can't tell you how much I want some cheesy bread but have yet to go for it. Have had quite a few mozzarella sticks lately because of it but they're just not the same. White Castle is another fav as it's a hop, skip, and jump from the store. I swear soon I'll be bribing one of them to bring me some back. That would mean I'd have to have cash on me. I make a point of not bringing any to work very often as I if I have it I'll use it.
     The few adults I work with usually wind up ordering dinner from Chili's right next door to our store. There are plenty of goodies I won't even look twice at. It's the quesadillas that have been killing me lately. Mike had one a few weeks ago and Liz just last week. I want one sooo bad I know i'll be giving in to that craving much sooner than later. Quiznos is right with us too but thank goodness for picky eaters- I had someones' sandwich when they decided they didn't like it. So that fix has been checked off. At least for now.
     The problem with food is you have to eat it every day. You are hungry every day. And they make so much incredibly delicious, different tasting things. There's always more to try and to just plain want. Eventually I've got to give in to that want. I'd love to have a large sum of money to take to the store and just buy anything I wanted. Anything that looked good to eat, that was so yummy I had to put it in my cart. Or maybe just some stuff I know my kids would want to have or try, or my husband. I wouldn't have to look at how much it was or see if there was a cheaper version. Grab and go and savor. I played around on the stores' website just adding anything that looked good into my cart. I didn't even get through about half  the lists and I was already close to $300. Thought I did hit on health and beauty and some of those products can get expensive, especially when you don't look at the price. And bakey/bread I'm such a sucker for bread. The smell of it is so awesome.
     I guess if I could treat myself and my family all the time that would really take the fun out of the treats. We'd also probably be rather large people. Neither of those are good things. But it would be a lot of fun to shop and try anything my heart desired. Just once to not go with a list. To go and have fun picking out food. Not picking out meals and dinners and whats good for all of us to eat. To bring home a ton of tasty treats just because it was fun and it looked good. That could be some good eating. Although my kids' stomachs would probably be better able to handle it than my hubands and mine.