In which a frustrating and embarrassing situation all works out in the end - kinda

My sister-in-law does amazing things with coupons.  She's constantly giving away stuff that she got free or freakishly inexpensive because she had a coupon. 

Me?  I can barely drag myself to the store to get food, let alone plan ahead enough to hunt down coupons!  I mean, I like saving money, but I just can't build up any enthusiasm about the whole process.

My version of coupon-searching is looking at the Kroger website prior to going shopping, and downloading some coupons onto my card.  If I'm feeling majorly ambitious, I'll head over to the Kroger (and maybe Publix) websites and look at their weekly ads.

Just so I'm buying seasonal stuff, of course.  After all, can't expect Easter Eggs when they're selling Halloween candy.

Yesterday evening I went to the store with a mission.  I had at least $10 worth of coupons, and between that plus what was on sale at Kroger, I was looking forward to spending and saving some money.  (That, and we had no food in the house.)

I spent about an hour and a half wandering Kroger, meticulously crossing things off my list, marking things that I'd have to go to Publix to get, and making triple sure that the items I was getting matched the coupons.  Finally, exhausted, I headed to the checkout.

The lady rang up my groceries.  I reached in my bag ...

to find no wallet.  No ID, no credit card, nothing.  I did have my checkbook, but without my ID, it would do me no good.

I was so utterly embarrassed.

The checkout lady (a very nice lady named Marie) kindly told me that she'd keep the cart in the cooler for me, so that I could go look for my ID.  I thanked her, and left the store, wondering frantically where my wallet was!

Well, it wasn't in the car.  And it wasn't at home.  John got home about an hour or so later, and we found it in his car, but by that point, it was so late that there was no point in going back to the store.

I almost forgot about it ... until I went looking for a bedtime snack, and remembered why I'd gone to the store in the first place.

The worse thing?  I lost all those coupons.