I'll tell you why I like Aldi

We started shopping at Aldi primarily in the fall. Our grocery bill has been cut by about 1/3. The food is good enough, but the price is right! They help you save money by doing the following.

1. You rent your shopping cart for $0.25, but are given a refund if you return it. This saves them money since they do not have to hire people to bring the carts back in, but who instead sit around smoking outside all the time. Also you do not have to worry about carts being in your way when you are trying to park because there is incentive to return them to their original spot.
2. The parking lot is small, and I can almost always park in the front row. At Wal-Mart I feel like I should catch a shuttle from the "Mickey Mouse Lot" just to get in the place. Even at our local Marsh there is usually a hike to get in the store.
3. The store is small and there is space to maneuver around your cart. Have you ever been at Wal-Mart on a Saturday when the whole trailer park is doing their grocery shopping? You will occasionally come around a corner and see a 15 cart pile up down an aisle. I have just thrown my hands up in the air and not bought items on my list to avoid going into that mess.
4. You bring your own bag or you pay for a bag. I love this nudge towards being eco-friendly. Finally a great financial reason to be green! We bring our own bags anyway, so I am glad that the cost of those "free" bags is not built into the price of my food!
5. They scan your stuff so fast! They just scan it and throw it back into your cart. They are able to do this and skip the bagging because...
6. You bag your own food. They make it easy for you, however, and have a separate area when you can take your time and load up the bags you brought. Again, not paying someone to do something I can do myself!
7. They have a limited selection! I know what you are thinking. How is this a benefit? I think in life we have too many choices. This makes the buying process so much easier! It's great for me because if I was at Wal-Mart, Meijer, or Marsh I would be comparing prices. At Aldi I know I am getting a better price anyway.
8. Credit or Debit? The answer is Debit. Banks charge more to the merchant when you say Credit because that is when you get "rewards," cash back, or whatever perk your bank/credit card is offering. Debit is considerably cheaper for the merchant, so the savings can be passed along to the customer. Staci and I use cash for groceries anyway, so I am not subsidizing those rewards credit cards at Aldi!

I hope there is an Aldi nearby where you live. Try it out some time. Just go in with an open mind. Don't expect to find deals on your favorite brands because they don't carry any brands you will recognize. But if you are like me, you were going to buy "Great Value" anyway.

Great Video

This is a video by Ok Go who had that awesome video of the band doing choreography on treadmills. That video was good. This might be great. They have constructed a "Rube Goldberg" machine, which is a series of actions, while typically simple in and of themselves, but when put together form a more complex machine. Typically they serve little purpose, but to be fun. They often perform a very simple end task, but creativity is king. I think this one takes the cake.

Our cat is a dog!

12 Years Old

Kind of a funny story goes with this one. For our bank's celebration of 120 years of service to communities in Indiana we are having a week long party. The number 12 is being thrown around for a few reasons. One, 120 years is 12 decades. There are 12 letters in Ameriana Bank. We have 12 locations. One of the things we were asked to do is provide pictures for when we were 12 years old (Makes sense as not everyone at our bank has eclipsed the 120 year old mark, and everyone has 12.) The picture shown was one of my options to pick that Staci selected from our collection of photos. I asked her if she had ever seen a 12 year old before. Apparently, she hadn't. To make matters worse, the numbers 1991 were etched in the back of the photo. (In her defense, she did not look at the back.) Kenneth and Jessica are standing to my left, and more than likely both have full diapers.

hhhmmm.... wondering why I'm not talking about those awesome green and yellow knee highs.

Also the pattern in those shorts is mesmerizing.

I did rock a pretty sweet crew cut back in the day.