You may have noticed that I haven’t posted any shopping trip recaps lately. The reason for this is that there simply haven’t been any! After having knee problems for an extended period of time, I finally got a diagnosis of dislocated patella. Turns out I had been walking around with two dislocated kneecaps for over a year – that explains why I’ve been having so much trouble for so long!! Luckily, the treatment for this does not require surgery. I’m following an outpatient program and do 1-2+ hours of physiotherapy every day. The upshot to this is that I have been pretty much housebound. I’ve had several backslides in recovery when my knees started feeling better and I tried to add more activity back into my daily life. In order to make sure that I heal up for good this time, I have to strictly limit all my activity – doctor’s orders. This means I pretty much have to stay put, sitting either here at my desk or on the couch, with my feet propped up and icepacks on my knees.

Because of all this, coupon shopping has been an impossibility. Jai is in charge of the shopping while I recover, so our strategy to minimize costs at the moment is to just buy food with inexpensive shelf prices, and take advantage of online sales whenever possible. We also have to keep it simple with foods that are quick to prepare, because I can’t stay on my feet for long. It’s unbelievably frustrating to be so limited, but the good news is that my efforts are paying off and my knees are getting stronger. My physiotherapist estimated that I’d start seeing real improvement by the end of next month, so my hope is that I will be able to resume some of my normal activities by then.

So readers, I’m curious: Have you ever been in a situation like this before? What did you do to reduce your expenses when you couldn’t clip coupons?