Impulse Shopping

Yesterday, I was in the natural foods section of my grocery store, looking for a Game On!  approved cold cereal, when I discovered these:

I've heard about Mrs. Meyer's cleaning products.  Somewhere--but I can't remember where--I've read extremely favorable reviews.  Supposedly, they are made with natural ingredients and they smell incredible.  In the last few months, I've been leaning towards a greener (read: fewer chemicals) home, so I've been wanting to try out Mrs. Meyer's stuff.

There was only one problem: when I looked online for their retailers, the only one listed in my area was Wal-Mart.  Have I told you about my issues with Wal-Mart?  We won't go into that, right now, it's enough to say that I have sworn never to darken the doors of any Wal-Mart, anywhere, for the rest of my life.  So, if it's not at Target....I'm out of luck.



Needless to say, when I stumbled upon them in my local grocery store, I threw caution to the wind and put them in my cart.  I say that I threw caution to the wind because a) I'm not an impulse shopper and b) they cost more for cleaning products than I would normally pay.  It was such a big day for me, splurging and impulse shopping, all at the same time.

As a side note:  Don't you think Bionic Man is a lucky, lucky man?  He has no idea how good he has it, married to a woman who considers a "splurge" to be paying $8 for cleaning supplies.  


I came home from the store with two of Mrs. Meyer's little helpers:

The spray bottle said "countertop spray" and the bottle said "all purpose cleaner".  This really was an impulse purchase.  If I had studied the bottles more carefully, I would have noticed that the spray bottle says when you run out, you can "add 2 tablespoons of Mrs. Meyer's All Purpose Cleaner" to your spray bottle, fill it up with water, and you are good to go.  Oh well, now I know and I won't have to hunt for a spray bottle, right?

My island needed to be wiped down before I prepared dinner, so I sprayed it with Mrs. Meyers and wiped.  The bottles say "aromatherapeutic" and they are not kidding.  They should probably also say, "curiously addictive scent".

I couldn't stop cleaning.  I wiped down all the countertops, cupboards, and even mopped the floors, barely breaking for dinner.  I would tell you how long it has been since I last mopped, but that would be embarrassing.  Um, that Lemon Verbena scent is something pretty powerful, if it makes me want to clean.

This is good stuff.  Now, thanks to my clean kitchen, the whole house is smelling like lemon verbena and I am delighted.  We do have a dog, you know, but thanks to Mrs. Meyer, that might not be obvious until Hunter runs up to lick our guests.

Just a note:  the all-purpose cleaner was about $8.50, which seems like a lot to pay for that much cleaner.  However, it is concentrated.  As I mentioned, 2 tablespoons of that will make you a full bottle of countertop spray.  2 tablespoons = 1 ounce, so that means you could potentially get 32 bottles of countertop spray for $8.50.    That means, if you make your own 16 ounce bottles of spray, they'll cost less than $0.30 each! (The countertop spray I purchased was $4.50....which means I totally got taken by not reading labels.  This is why I rarely impulse shop.)

Anywho, I checked online at Mrs. Meyer's website and discovered that Lemon Verbena is not their only scent offering.   You can tailor your aromatherapeutic experience with scents like lavender, basil, and geranium.

And, I am afraid to say, if there is one thing that just might entice me back to Wal-Mart......it's the thought of BASIL.  If only we had scratch 'n sniff computer screens.

Please, just pretend you don't know me if you see me at Wal-Mart today.