The torture of grocery shopping

Last night I went grocery shopping - not your "pick a few things up" trip. But a massive - restock of the pantry trip. I wait until our cupboards and fridge are almost completly empty because I dread this kind of trip so much.
Produce was first and produce I usually don't mind so much. $60 or so of fresh produce(including 50 lbs of russet potatos for the really low price of $11!). See I had planned to buy 20 lbs - but couldn't pass up an "extra" 30 lbs of potatos for only $1 more!

Then on to superstore - I hate superstore - too many people, garish store colors, and huge sizes. The huge sizes are an evil necessity when you have a large family. $335 all told and with any luck it'll be 2 months before I have to do another big stock up. It has been suggested to me that I should "go more often" but really - who wants to drive 40 min round trip and battle crowds of people for a 1 gallon jar of mayo or pickles? Much better to do it all at once.

So I get home - we put away food, we cook and freeze food that won't fit into our fridge. Yes - I'm not yet used to our smaller fridge size! Then just as I was finishing up - my sister phones at midnight. Followed by the babies wake up from 1 until 2:30 am. I figured my planned for bicycling to Curves before Allan got up was out the window.

See that's the thing about the grocery shopping - it's NOT just the shopping, it's the wasted time. I spent from 6:30 to midnight last night - driving, shopping, loading, unloading, putting away, freezing green and yellow beans. Allan cooked up even more stuff and made frozen dinners for him to take to work. So Allan had to deal with kids and food all evening as well and didn't get any work done - and it desperately needs to be done. I didn't get to practice cello for the second day in a row AND I didn't get to exercise. Plus the house is a mess and desparately needs a good cleaning. That didn't get done either. The whole evening lost with having to deal with food.