The Purchases

Each time we move, it only takes one visit to the grocery store or to the PX to discover what items are no longer available for me to purchase. There are always brands or items that I can't find in each place we live. Entennmanns glazed donuts, limeaid, fresh seafood, corn on the cobb..... really standard things are surprising unavailable in some parts of the country. When I moved to Virginia I quickly found that the commissary, Giant, Food Lion, Bloom and Shoppers did not carry Tillimook cheese. However, after living there a few weeks I discovered Safeway did! They also carried really tasty sourdough bread which I had given up hope on long ago when we left Washington. I couldn't get Hostess products in Alabama and Tennessee so people sent me random packages including Orange cupcakes and Berry pies. There have been a few items here and there that I couldn't find, but nothing too drastic.

Now, I'm here in Germany and there are quite a few items I cannot get. To name a few: more than 6 flavors of Yoplait yogurt, baking potatoes, Krusteaz pancake mix, Boar's Head turkey pastrami, Tillimook, more than 2 brands of boys' socks, jeans that cost less than $100, clothes in general, Baja Fresh, Panera, BoneFish, Cold Stone and Chick-fil-A. Naturally, these are the things I purchased in Virginia. All the food items were consumed on location except this:

If you have ever visited my house on a Saturday morning you know that we almost always have pancakes, bacon and eggs on Saturdays...sometimes on Sunday if we skip church.

But we don't just have pancakes, we have Krusteaz buttermilk pancakes. I'm confident my mom always used Krusteaz, so naturally when I went shopping for the first time as a young bride, I went with what mom bought.

For 13 years I have bought the blue Krusteaz box of pancake mix and just figured I always would. However, here in Mannheim they haven't figured out that Krusteaz is hands down the best pancake mix ever and all they carry is AuntJamima and Hungry Jack. So, as I went through a grocery store the day before I left Virginia I knew I had to bring home some pancake mix.

I miss the food and the ease of purchasing things like socks, bras and jeans but I realized that when those items are not readily available or at least not available at a decent price, I save a lot of money!