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?
Glad to hear your knees are getting better.
Sounds like your strategy of having Jai buy the inexpensive shelf prices is a good one if you want to keep it simple. Another idea is for you to spend a little time online checking out the sales at one or two local stores, then put together a list and a few coupons that Jai can use to save a bit more money.
Hope your recovery continues and you’re all better soon.
Thank you for the nice comment Sue! Good tip. I sent Jai to the store with some free Bagel Bites coupons last month and that worked out well! 🙂
My oldest daughter had this problem too she got it from dancing. It took 2 years to completely heal but now she is fine. It does get better. I had to do the therapy with her here at home and man that got old. They gave us this great big rubber band thing she had to work with a lot. I also know even after she was 100% the doctors told here whenever she had to stand and wait in line for any long period of time she should keep shifting her weight from one leg to the other and not stand completely still for very long at all. Hope some of that helps.
Thanks Janet, it really does help to hear other people’s experiences with this – I’m so sorry your daughter had to go through it. I’m doing an outpatient physio program at home with those rubber bands too, and I totally hear you on how old it gets!!
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