Emily Baer
Student and Neighbors Project Student Coordinator for Special Events
It is 10:30 am on Sunday and I am exhausted and starving. I have just spent the last three hours shuffling between 3 different grocery stores buying groceries for the week and I have not had any coffee or breakfast. I am miserable and the challenge has not even officially started.
My cooking load for the week is intense. I have planned five dinners and I am hoping I will have leftovers from all of them to cover lunch the next day and the two missing meals. On Sunday, I made homemade bagels (my budget did not cover buying already made ones), baking rigatoni with sausage and pizza dough for later in the week.
After I came home and put away all of my groceries, my mom looked at me and said "where is my protein?!" When she discovered the only meat I could afford to buy was chicken breasts and sausage - neither of which stretched very far - she told me she never promised me that she would not complain. She then compared the food I had bought to a "carbohydrate heaven." And it is - ever single one of my meals is built around a central carbohydrate with for the most part, very few vegetables and proteins to supplement it. Oh, and the coffee I was forced to buy...I have found that it tastes better when I do not smell it. Lets just leave it at that.
Also, in case you have not noticed from the picture, I did not plan for snacks or pretty much anything outside of meals. And MILK - I did not buy MILK. It did not even occur to me though I actually drink it pretty regularly. So instead of buying snacks, I am buying a gallon of milk...
What did you have to give up today?
I work at a high school. This Wednesday is our holiday turkey feast for which one signs up and pays $6 for turkey and all of that stuff. It's only one of us eating, 1/4 of my food budget, but I am committed and soooooo looking forward to everything on my plate!
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