Dear Marthas

Today, I knew I wanted to make something tasty this morning, and I had some time, too.

I used the last piece of (expired) bread and a banana to make one of my old favorites.

For breakfast, I ate:
– 1 slice of toast, w/ a sliced banana, peanut butter and honey
– 1 small pot of black tea

Then the starvation began. When I was hiking around up to campus, I started to really feel it. I ate that meal around 8:45, and didn’t eat again until after 2. I usually snack too much!

My sister was on her way up to do homework with me, so I waited for her to eat. We went to get falafel and the Falafel House on Walnut Ave. and it was amazing! I also had a mango tea. It was free for me, but cost Briana $14+ bucks, which was probably unfair for her. I asked to try Briana’s drink and told her to try mine. She tried mine, and I grabbed her bottle and shook it before taking a sip…except the lid wasn’t on and I drenched myself with pink lemonade.

We got coffee at Coffeetopia, and I used my gift card…for myself. Jeez, that was pretty selfish. I only have a dollar left on it, but I could have put it towards her drink since she bought my lunch. We also got baklava, which was so so good. This was the first pasty/sweet anything I have had since Sunday. I don’t usually buy or eat too many sweets, but when I want them, I don’t usually resist them like I have had to this week. I guess if I am going to make the choice to go out to eat, I shouldn’t just rely on someone else to pay for me. That’s pretty inconsiderate.

Later that night, while Briana and I were doing homework together, we ate the last bag of popcorn that I had in my cabinet.

Before she drove back home, we walked to CVS and got some much-needed candy and ice cream. I faltered! A week of decent eating and really good show of constraint on my part, and I finally gave in for some sweets.

I surprisingly didn’t end up spending all of the cash that I had allotted for the week: the $21 available to those on the “Welfare Diet” in America.

Tags: diet, eating, economics, food, kitchen, politics, shopping, welfare

WHAT! This week flew by. I thought it was going to be so difficult to get through. Somehow it wasn’t excruciating…well I guess I’m only half way through, but I still have a good amount of money left.

I have been eating a ton of gum, which I haven’t thought to mention yet. It’s been helping me a lot though.

For breakfast, I ate:
– 1 or 2 bowls of Raisin Bran: freee at home
– 1 double Americano: from Coffeetopia $2.75 (but actually free because of the gift card)

For lunch, I ate:
– 1 carrot: at home
– 1 banana: at home. I was given two organic bananas and an organic apple by my house mates before they left town. These people are so sweet and generous, even before I embarked on this project.
– 1 apple

For dinner, I ate:
– leftovers! chicken, rice pilaf and fresh broccoli: freee obviously

I went kind of crazy tonight. I searched in every place I could think for some chocolate or something sweet…anything! I ended up eating more Raisin Bran, which really did satisfy my sweet tooth!
Something completely absurd occurred to me when I found a small box of chocolates in my refrigerator. This box of local specialty chocolates from Donnelly’s cost $21 exactly. I bought them to take back to Philadelphia to my mother-in-law-to-be and forgot them. Even though I was dying for some chocolate, I couldn’t bring myself to open them.

Tags: diet, eating, economics, food, kitchen, politics, shopping, welfare

For breakfast, I ate:
– a slice of toast with grape jelly at home. I also discovered this morning that my bread is 3 days expired. It still looks and tastes totally fine though, so I’m not worried. I bought the bread last week… and it’s a good thing, because I probably would not have been able to afford it this week. I think it was somewhere between $3 and $4.
– a bowl or two of Raisin Bran at home: $2.50.

I rode my bike to Safeway early to pick up a few things to get me through the rest of the week, including the aforementioned cereal. Cereal is something I can eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner pretty happily. Although typically, it is my late night snack.

Other groceries I bought at Safeway:
– 1 broccoli crown: $.80 (this should be enough to eat with two meals)
– .21 lb bag of mixed spring greens: $1.26 (might be able to make 3 or 4 salads)
–  3 carrots: $.50 (for snacking & slicing in salad)

Before heading up to campus, I went to Coffeetopia and used my gift certificate again for a small coffee: ($1.75, but technically free)

For lunch, I ate:
– another tuna sandwich that I made at home and toted to the library. I had refrigerated the leftover tuna from the big can that was given to me months ago by my housemate. I had never been really too interested in eating it (even though I like tuna) so it just sat in my cupboard. I have been rediscovering lots of things in my cupboard that I usually look over…or don’t even see anymore because they’ve become a part of the scenery.

There was a bit of a long break in between when I ate again. I just kept thinking about the great dinner I was going to make when I got home.
That lull made me realize how often I eat/snack throughout the day. When I want a $3.29 Odwalla juice, I buy one. When I want a muffin, a bagel or snack, I just stop at any of the cafes on campus and buy one.

For dinner, I made a feast!
– a bowl of spring mix of salad, with only sliced carrot to add. Normally, I would add cucumber, tomatoes, avocado, nuts, and mushrooms.
– half a crown of broccoli, steamed
– a cup or so of a box of Near East of roasted chicken and garlic flavored rice pilaf: I bought this a few weeks ago and it was between $2 and $3; yet another thing I wouldn’t be able to afford if I didn’t already have it. I refrigerated the leftovers.
– the remaining meat off a roasted chicken (which was a good amount). My house mates are too generous, and let me pick at their leftovers from dinner. Since they’re leaving town they also put their leftover lemon couscous in a tupperware for me in the fridge.

Dinner was great! And I will have it again tomorrow… I forgot to photograph the beautiful way it looked on my plate!

And I am done with tuna sandwiches.

Overall expenses today: $5.04

Tags: diet, eating, economics, food, kitchen, politics, shopping, welfare

For breakfast, I ate:
– 1/2 cup dry oats cooked (w/ a tablespoon of grape jelly to sweeten): free at home. I didn’t have any sugar, agave, or brown sugar left, so I improvised with the jelly, which was okay.
– 12 oz cup of coffee: $1.75/free at Coffeetopia. After wasting  $2 yesterday on coffee, I decided I would have to go without it. But then! after lamenting the absence of coffee in my life, my house mate gave me a gift card for $10 to Coffeetopia! I was apprehensive about accepting it, because I wanted to have a “no mooching” policy. In reality, though, if this were my budget, I would gladly accept free food.

For lunch, I ate:

– a tuna sandwich that I made at home and ate on campus.

For dinner, I ate:
– 1 packet of chicken flavored Ramen: $.67. I made this into more of a meal by adding a scrambled egg and some frozen corn. (This also made me think of a new food project idea: only eating one color food a day. In this case, everything I ate was yellow.) It was good, but probably not too nutritional.

I got the munchies, and I ate:
– 1/2 a bag of popcorn
– 1 cup of hot chocolate
–  a bunch of unsulfured, sweetened & dried mango
I found all of these things in my cupboard

Overall expenses today: …wait, did I spend any money today?!? I bought the Ramen on Sunday…

Wow! Good job, me.

Tags: diet, eating, economics, food, kitchen, politics, shopping, welfare

Today I began my “Welfare Diet” project. I was sort of dreading it and trying to prepare myself, but this was difficult.
The goal: spend no more than $21 on food for a week. I can easily spend that in a day, and often do probably.

I woke up early and brewed a small pot of black tea, knowing I wouldn’t be able to afford the $1.75 for my usual small coffee or $2.75 double Americano at Coffeetopia.

For breakfast, I ate:
– 1 piece of toast with grape jelly at home

I walked to the busstop heading to campus early. Instead of waiting for a bus for 7 minutes, I desperately walked over to On a Mission coffee stand. Why couldn’t I just resist getting coffee?? I was already well-caffeinated from the (free & plentiful) tea. I stared at the beautiful pastries on the counter while the barista brewed my coffee. I usually abstain from these sticky sweets for health reasons, but I think the fact that I knew I couldn’t buy one made me want it more? The coffee wasn’t even very good. Definitely not worth 2/3 of my daily allowance.

For lunch, I ate:
– 1 banana: $.50; I bought it at Bay Tree’s express store. I frequent this place for snacks throughout the day, because I am so often near the library. What an expensive banana! I think they go for $.19 at TJ’s.
–  1 veggie tamale: FREE! Even though I had packed a PB&J sandwich that I made earlier that morning, and had already spent $2.50, when I saw a bunch of kids walking around eating tamales (one of my very favorite foods) I decided I should eat one for lunch instead. (Impulse control failure). When I located the tamales with my nose, I found out that the Campus Agroecology Network (CAN) was giving them out for FREE! Lucky break.

I ate my PB&J later at home in between lunch and dinner.

For dinner, I ate:
– 1 cup of frozen bag of TJ’s mushroom risotto: bought this last week, was a couple dollars. Wasn’t very good.
–  1 bowl of the last of the Raisin Bran, which was basically crumbs. I also had purchased a $2 quart of milk earlier in the week.

So far, I’ve really been relying on food and condiments I already have at home. That free tamale went a long way!

Just to backtrack a little bit/put this project into perspective:

Last week, I spent ridiculous amounts of money on eating out. I spent $20 taking my mom out for lunch for belated Mother’s Day, which isn’t too bad. (Well…yes it is if you only have $21 for a week.) Then my sister and I took her out (again, this time together) and I spent $36 that time. We visited my grandma in Merced and took her out to dinner. That ran me another $20. So in one weekend I spent about $80 on three meals. AHH!
Any given time I go grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s, I end up spending between $40 and $70. But I do come home with a ton of food which lasts a while; however, with a limited budget, it’s not possible to front the money for that kind of trip.

Anyway, let’s see if I can do this.

Tags: diet, eating, economics, food, kitchen, politics, shopping, welfare