Life Lessons | Proverbs 31:14

"She is like the merchant ships; She brings her food from afar."

I believe that in this verse we can learn from the Proverbs 31 woman to be thrifty shoppers. Yes it is easy to just go to the closest store, buy the first thing we see, and drive off, only to go to a store the following day and see the item we purchased at a fraction of the cost. I guess I could say this was another lesson I learned from my mother as well. I don't think she ever paid full price for anything she ever bought. She taught us to check the circulars, cross check prices at different stores, and figure out the math in our heads when comparison shopping at a supermarket.

Because of that, grocery shopping, or any kind of shopping for me for that matter has always been a long experience- Brian hates having to go shopping with me for this reason. You see, I don't just buy what is available or any particular brand, I go to where the sales are even if it means driving a little ways. Yes, grocery shopping takes a few hours for me- little person in tow (I must say, Addie is a trooper, and I'm sure little Mr. Easy Going will be just as wonderful when I decide to take him shopping with us).

A couple of years back, I saw a coupon in the paper for $10.00 off a child's carseat at Toys R Us. I still had 3 $15 gift cards from baby showers, and since Addie had almost outgrown her car seat, we were going to have to get a carseat soon. I mapped out all of the stores I needed to stop at along the way (want to save on gas as we are "buying our food from afar"), and we made a day of it. Our carseat cost us a total of $32.79. I decided to use only two of the gift cards and paid $2.79 in cash for the carseat. We did our grocery shopping at different stores along the way back home (using coupons for almost everything we purchased), and I had a good time talking with Addie about the provisions of God (always make sure you have enough food and diapers for a day like this).

                                                                                                                                           

I look at shopping as a game- see how much you can buy while spending as little as possible. Just make sure that the items you buy are things you will actually need and use, or the whole point of shopping sales is worthless. The dress that Addie is wearing in the digital scrapbook layout was a find at Target. It was  just after Christmas and the dress was $4.48. Mom (she was still alive at the time) and I calculated how old Addie would be around Thanksgiving/ Christmas during her first year and picked the size accordingly. Any time I buy Addie clothes, I always buy something larger than she will use now, and it has to be on clearance. I buy my clothes the same way- on clearance and usually at the end of the season.

In today's economy, I think the Proverbs 31 woman would have no problem surviving, and her family would be well fed. Let us go and do the same.

Memorize Proverbs 31:14