The Best Laid Plans...

Some things can be planned and some resist you like a two-year-old full of birthday cake. And you can't always tell which are going to be which.

One thing that seems to be working pretty well for me right now is coming home after I shop at my favorite grocery store and remembering to do their online survey. I've mentioned this before because, while I have a few friends who are so much better off financially than I am that it really doesn't matter (within reason) how much they spend -- on groceries or anything else -- most of the people I know have to count their pennies more or less.

I'm not sure when the store implemented the practice of offering a five-dollar coupon for filling out the survey. I mean, by the time I spend an hour reading labels at the end of a long day and go through the process of checking out, I'm pretty brain dead. So past the perfunctory "thank yous" I trade with the cashier, there's little real communication going on at that stage.

One evening, though, I heard a quickly delivered, "...and if you take our survey online you can get a $5 coupon to use the next time you buy $40 worth of groceries." Though my brain had already shut down at that point, the idea intrigued me enough that I tagged it for later attention. And the following day, I went on the internet, completed the survey, and downloaded the coupon to my phone (so I didn't even have to print it out).

Since it's insanely easy to spend forty dollars on groceries these days, when I reached the cashier on my next trip to the store, I had her scan my coupon and my bill was suddenly five dollars less. I liked it. Five dollars isn't a fortune, but it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. So I got to thinking...

I live by myself, so I don't do a lot of cooking in the old school sense. I eat "right." I eat fairly well. But I don't need recipes to get through the week, as a rule. So it occurred to me that I could probably make it a point to fill out a survey every time I come home from the grocery, spending just over forty dollars on each trip and, over time, I could save a respectable amount.

I've been following my plan for about four months now, and if I keep up what I'm doing and they keep offering the coupons, I should save more than two hundred dollars over the next year! Not bad, huh?

It's also worth noting that when I'm tallying my groceries on my cell phone calculator as I go along, trying to stay close to forty dollars, I tend not to make those "impulse" purchases that may not do either my purse strings or my blood glucose numbers any good. Which means I'm simultaneously saving my money and my health. Win-win!

Unfortunately, on Friday night, my best laid plans about another matter let me down. I had looked forward all week to going to an art exhibit where I expected to see a number of my friends. I knew that exhibits at that gallery typically involve hors d'oeuvres and treats. I took my insulin and then ate an early dinner of various salads (including pasta), deliberately not eating as many carbohydrate grams as I usually do so I could enjoy the tasties at the gallery without feeling guilty. I took a shower, did my hair and make-up, and went downtown only to discover as I started perusing the art pieces that there was no food. At all.

My mind said, "Weeeell, maybe the pasta will be enough." And my body said, "You better get your two Werther's Original caramel-filled candies out of your purse and into your mouth. Now.

Friends wanting to tell me what felt like interminably long stories kept me in the gallery for thirty minutes, but after that, it was break-for-the-door time. And the only question was, am I going to go straight home or grab something quick before I drive?

Since I had also planned to pick up some pico de gallo before I went home, I decided to treat myself to one scoop of Jamocha Almond Fudge ice cream in a cup at Baskin Robbins to lessen my disappointment at having my evening ruined after getting myself all gussied up for nothing.

Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. We plan because we can. But people with diabetes learn to think fast on their feet and have more than one plan. Just in case.
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Note: Today marks my 52nd blog post on managing diabetes. It's been one year today since I started writing it. It doesn't have a lot of readers, but I've gotten used to doing it. Do you think I should keep it up or give it up?