Zannee’s Blog at BargainsLA.com

OM Gosh! Hubby gave me a new mobile phone for Christmas. I didn’t just get any phone, I got a Blackberry Curve. I am so emotionally technology challenged that I didn’t immediately bounce up and down with gleeful enthusiasm.

But since I am down with a cough or cold or some viral menace keeping me off the roads, I decided to get on track with my brand new Blackberry Curve.

The Blackberry is really a mini computer right in the palm of your hand…. I can text, I can surf the internet, I can get Google map directions, I can take pictures, I can look up any or all of my bargain sources (that’s hundreds of sources), I can leave voice messages, I can plan my day using their calendar, I can receive e-mail… I can! I can! I can!

That is, when I learn how.

I am technology challenged, but I don’t give up easily either. I need this Blackberry to keep me connected and organized. It’s better than lugging around a day runner, Thomas map guide, laptop computer and a phone.

I won’t tell you how many computers I have permanently killed or data bases I have lost when I first starting goofing around with computers and technology. Back in the mid 1990’s my mother… I repeat, my mother fired me ‘cause I messed her data base up so badly. You know you’ve screwed up when your mother fires you.

Since I learn better by doing, (don’t ask me to read a manual till after I have played with my new toy), I am going through the Blackberry 101 website taking tutorials. So concise and simple even a technology moron (like me) can figure it out. I’ll be a wiz at it very soon.

Like most people, I like saving money without having to work too hard. But unlike most people I will work at it when required. I will wait to pounce at a sample sale, drive out of the way to get a great deal on an appliance, gadget or piece of furniture. Do what ever it takes in most cases. Where I am at my weakest is grocery shopping. Though I will look at the price and compare, I tend to buy what I like to eat. Prices be damned!

I do know enough not to shop when I am hungry and to buy in volume and pounce on store discounts, but use coupons…. No way. My husband is the king of coupon shopping, consistently saving near 50% every time he shops. That’s why he does the bulk of the grocery shopping.

However the king is out of town with a tour for a couple of weeks leaving me to blow the family budget! I promptly went out and bought items I knew I’d like: Pesto sauce, mushrooms, zucchini, wine, breads, yogurts, cottage cheese, elaborate salad ingredients and such. Yummy, healthy stuff. A grocery bill that would normally run my hubby $50 is $80 when I grocery shop.

But the “piece de resistance” was when I blindly went in to buy large round Globe  grapes for a Halloween Haunt at my daughter’s school… $2.99 a pound at Ralph’s ended up being $35 for 4 bags of grapes. I was too dumb founded to object at the register and walked out of the store mumbling to myself.

I have failed grocery shopping 101. I hadn’t planned ahead, I hadn’t compared grocery ads…. I hadn’t done anything to insure I wasn’t overpaying. I just went and mindlessly bought.

The Bargain Queen’s crown is all a-twitter.  I’d better come up with some spectacular bargains to return to my normal self. I’ll keep you posted.