(no subject)
Oct. 13th, 2011 03:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sorcyressSo, adventures in grocery shopping continue to go apace. I'm...really bad at it, but I enjoy immensely the sense of wandering around and comparing prices and looking at things and figuring out what sacrifices to make and the like.
Today I went about two bucks over my weekly budget (Officially, 20.00, with the understanding that I owe Nurit/Genni money for other food staples since they cook a lot more than I do) which is acceptable, as I was being very impulse-savvy.
The text under the cut is not especially interesting. It's at least partly a post for my own future reference --if I'm really good, I'll start making these every time I go shopping, but I don't think I'm that organized.
My list, before I got there:
Sour cream (for Nurit)
A certain type of cereal (for Genni)
Yogurt
Chips
Cereal
Ramens
Oatmeal Cream Pies
Oatmeal
Kibble? (which means granola bars, or other things I can eat when I can't think well enough to make food)
What I actually bought:
*Sour cream (for Nurit)
*Yogurt, which always means "32 oz tub" --both my roommates buy the individual flavoured stuff, but I've found it easier and no less delicious to just scoop some of the raw stuff into a bowl and add jam and maybe granola for flavour. Raspberry jam is recommended. Oh that's right, I need to buy mint jelly when I have the budget for it.)
*Chips, as part of an affectation picked up from jere7my --my traditional lunch meal has become sammich, chips, and something else --yogurt or carrots or whatever --he does dried fruit, but I don't usually buy that)
*Oatmeal, in a can, which is a new and exciting experience --I grew up on individual packets, but man, they're like twice as expensive. We have sugar and stuff here, I can learn how this works.)
*Oatmeal Cream Pies, because they're worth the two bucks
*A bag of peanut butter and chocolate flavoured Bugles. Nurit brought these back from Wisconsin when she visited and we descended like a pack of jackals. Knowing that we can get them just down the street is...dangerous.
It's worth noting that this was a *completely* eye-level impulse buy. I was walking to the checkout when I saw them on an endcap. "Fuck" goes I, because I must then buy them for the house. Not every time, but at least THIS time.
*A box of Jiffy corn muffin mix, and a can of no-name creamed corn. This is an experiment I've been meaning to run for more than a year now --apparently the combination is *delicious*. Need to talk to Sparr to talk to his friend to get the recipe --am I still supposed to throw an egg in there, for instance.
Eye-level impulse while staring at the canned veggies, which are conveniently directly across the aisle from the cake and muffin mixes. That's very evil of you, Foodmaster.
*Two cans of tuna. I already have ranch dressing, and pickles, so that's totally makeable. And it keeps pretty well, and I will totally put it in my moufs.
*Instant hot cocoa mix. I actually went with the packets over the tub, which might have been the wrong answer, but it will help me to be a little more controlled at this. This was a semi-impulse buy, in that I hadn't written it on the list beforehand, but I have been thinking about hot chocolate a lot lately. I'm probably not going to drink it for three months, but when it happens, I will be so happy to already have it.
*Baby Carrots, one pound. It was about seventy cents more to buy a pound of baby carrots than a pound of not. I decided it was worth the seventy cents to have someone else do all the peeling and chopping necessary to make carrots look cute and adorable and delicious. This was guilt over the fact that I'm not buying any other fruit or vegetables. I am not very good at healthy. :(
*Can of orange-pineapple juice blend. I have been craving orange juice fiercely, and this was the cheaper than orange juice by itself, which is okay, because it also tastes better. This was technically not an impulse, I had just forgotten to put orange juice on the list.
This is apparently cheaper than "juice" (I buy juice for 2$/half-gal or less. It's a rule and means I don't get as many interesting flavours. And if I want real juice, I'm pretty much stuck with apple, which is okay, as I like apple juice a lot.) which is a useful thing to know. I will have to price out at a bigger store and see if this is true of straight orange juice.
*Egg nog. Pumpkin flavoured egg nog. I saw this when I was going back for carrots and said aloud "I'm just going to pretend I never saw that". It didn't stick. I put my cereal back so I could get this instead --I can survive on just oatmeal for a week or two. And it's _really_ good.
My brain sorta wants to register a complaint about having egg nog as early as October, but I think the best response is to slap it and point out that that's like complaining about finding Cadbury Cream Eggs in June. Who CARES if they're not in season just then?!
*Bagels. We've got about 4/3 loafs of bread at home, so I wasn't planning to pick any up, but these were sitting all alone and abandoned on the halfprice shelf. I had to tear myself away from getting a half-price lemon crumble pie. If it wasn't so messy, I would totally go back and bring that to dance tonight or something.
At any rate, I'm a pretty huge fan of the half-price shelf, because, well, I like cheap food more than I like delicious food (and the difference isn't usually THAT much). And I like egg bagels, and for a quarter each, I will happily buy five of them.
Things I didn't buy:
*Cereal for Genni --they didn't have the kind she wanted
*Cereal for me. Guys. Guys, I think I have terminal adulthood. I didn't buy sugary cereal, not just because it's expensive (Seriously, a box of Lucky Charms would cost more than any two other things I bought) but because it's not filling enough to really be worth a meal some days.
I feel really bad about this. Like I have burned a part of who I am, on a fundamental level. Hangon, I think I have to go eat like three oatmeal cream pies just to make up for this.
*Peanut butter, jam, bread --because I had them all already. Same ranch dressing and pickles, which are usual suspects.
*Juice --I forgot to put it on the list, and figure the orangepineapple will serve.
*Kibble. I feel guilty about getting this in general --I *shouldn't* be so useless I can't make food. Especially not when some of my food options are _oatmeal_, which takes virtually no prep time at all. Also, I currently have two or three packets of pop-tarts, which remain my emergency noms.
*Ramen. I already have two packets, so this was always a maybe. Did you know that the convinience store up in Teele sells ramen for _69 cents a packet?!_ I find this utterly astounding. Ramen should never be that expensive.
Altogether, it feels like a reasonable amount of food for twenty bucks. The eggnog might not last the day though. I am torn between being a good roommate and offering it to Genni, and telling her in no uncertain terms that I will set her hair on fire if she touches it. This is because I am a terrible person and I really like pumpkin flavoured things, especially creamy drinky pumpkin flavoured things.
At some point soon, I need to go shopping and get the materials for at least one of the recipes hosted over at Cooking Comically. Because they all look _motherfuckin' delicious_.
Anyone want to come cook with me sometime? I dislike cooking, but I like being in kitchens with people. It's complicated.
(Other things I should do: Talk to Mr. Belm about Iron Chef: Belmhaus and find the ingredients to make properly delicious pasta and cheese, since it's like the only even remotely fancy thing I can cook. Also, I should bake many many things with pumpkins in them.)
~Sor
MOOP!
Today I went about two bucks over my weekly budget (Officially, 20.00, with the understanding that I owe Nurit/Genni money for other food staples since they cook a lot more than I do) which is acceptable, as I was being very impulse-savvy.
The text under the cut is not especially interesting. It's at least partly a post for my own future reference --if I'm really good, I'll start making these every time I go shopping, but I don't think I'm that organized.
My list, before I got there:
Sour cream (for Nurit)
A certain type of cereal (for Genni)
Yogurt
Chips
Cereal
Ramens
Oatmeal Cream Pies
Oatmeal
Kibble? (which means granola bars, or other things I can eat when I can't think well enough to make food)
What I actually bought:
*Sour cream (for Nurit)
*Yogurt, which always means "32 oz tub" --both my roommates buy the individual flavoured stuff, but I've found it easier and no less delicious to just scoop some of the raw stuff into a bowl and add jam and maybe granola for flavour. Raspberry jam is recommended. Oh that's right, I need to buy mint jelly when I have the budget for it.)
*Chips, as part of an affectation picked up from jere7my --my traditional lunch meal has become sammich, chips, and something else --yogurt or carrots or whatever --he does dried fruit, but I don't usually buy that)
*Oatmeal, in a can, which is a new and exciting experience --I grew up on individual packets, but man, they're like twice as expensive. We have sugar and stuff here, I can learn how this works.)
*Oatmeal Cream Pies, because they're worth the two bucks
*A bag of peanut butter and chocolate flavoured Bugles. Nurit brought these back from Wisconsin when she visited and we descended like a pack of jackals. Knowing that we can get them just down the street is...dangerous.
It's worth noting that this was a *completely* eye-level impulse buy. I was walking to the checkout when I saw them on an endcap. "Fuck" goes I, because I must then buy them for the house. Not every time, but at least THIS time.
*A box of Jiffy corn muffin mix, and a can of no-name creamed corn. This is an experiment I've been meaning to run for more than a year now --apparently the combination is *delicious*. Need to talk to Sparr to talk to his friend to get the recipe --am I still supposed to throw an egg in there, for instance.
Eye-level impulse while staring at the canned veggies, which are conveniently directly across the aisle from the cake and muffin mixes. That's very evil of you, Foodmaster.
*Two cans of tuna. I already have ranch dressing, and pickles, so that's totally makeable. And it keeps pretty well, and I will totally put it in my moufs.
*Instant hot cocoa mix. I actually went with the packets over the tub, which might have been the wrong answer, but it will help me to be a little more controlled at this. This was a semi-impulse buy, in that I hadn't written it on the list beforehand, but I have been thinking about hot chocolate a lot lately. I'm probably not going to drink it for three months, but when it happens, I will be so happy to already have it.
*Baby Carrots, one pound. It was about seventy cents more to buy a pound of baby carrots than a pound of not. I decided it was worth the seventy cents to have someone else do all the peeling and chopping necessary to make carrots look cute and adorable and delicious. This was guilt over the fact that I'm not buying any other fruit or vegetables. I am not very good at healthy. :(
*Can of orange-pineapple juice blend. I have been craving orange juice fiercely, and this was the cheaper than orange juice by itself, which is okay, because it also tastes better. This was technically not an impulse, I had just forgotten to put orange juice on the list.
This is apparently cheaper than "juice" (I buy juice for 2$/half-gal or less. It's a rule and means I don't get as many interesting flavours. And if I want real juice, I'm pretty much stuck with apple, which is okay, as I like apple juice a lot.) which is a useful thing to know. I will have to price out at a bigger store and see if this is true of straight orange juice.
*Egg nog. Pumpkin flavoured egg nog. I saw this when I was going back for carrots and said aloud "I'm just going to pretend I never saw that". It didn't stick. I put my cereal back so I could get this instead --I can survive on just oatmeal for a week or two. And it's _really_ good.
My brain sorta wants to register a complaint about having egg nog as early as October, but I think the best response is to slap it and point out that that's like complaining about finding Cadbury Cream Eggs in June. Who CARES if they're not in season just then?!
*Bagels. We've got about 4/3 loafs of bread at home, so I wasn't planning to pick any up, but these were sitting all alone and abandoned on the halfprice shelf. I had to tear myself away from getting a half-price lemon crumble pie. If it wasn't so messy, I would totally go back and bring that to dance tonight or something.
At any rate, I'm a pretty huge fan of the half-price shelf, because, well, I like cheap food more than I like delicious food (and the difference isn't usually THAT much). And I like egg bagels, and for a quarter each, I will happily buy five of them.
Things I didn't buy:
*Cereal for Genni --they didn't have the kind she wanted
*Cereal for me. Guys. Guys, I think I have terminal adulthood. I didn't buy sugary cereal, not just because it's expensive (Seriously, a box of Lucky Charms would cost more than any two other things I bought) but because it's not filling enough to really be worth a meal some days.
I feel really bad about this. Like I have burned a part of who I am, on a fundamental level. Hangon, I think I have to go eat like three oatmeal cream pies just to make up for this.
*Peanut butter, jam, bread --because I had them all already. Same ranch dressing and pickles, which are usual suspects.
*Juice --I forgot to put it on the list, and figure the orangepineapple will serve.
*Kibble. I feel guilty about getting this in general --I *shouldn't* be so useless I can't make food. Especially not when some of my food options are _oatmeal_, which takes virtually no prep time at all. Also, I currently have two or three packets of pop-tarts, which remain my emergency noms.
*Ramen. I already have two packets, so this was always a maybe. Did you know that the convinience store up in Teele sells ramen for _69 cents a packet?!_ I find this utterly astounding. Ramen should never be that expensive.
Altogether, it feels like a reasonable amount of food for twenty bucks. The eggnog might not last the day though. I am torn between being a good roommate and offering it to Genni, and telling her in no uncertain terms that I will set her hair on fire if she touches it. This is because I am a terrible person and I really like pumpkin flavoured things, especially creamy drinky pumpkin flavoured things.
At some point soon, I need to go shopping and get the materials for at least one of the recipes hosted over at Cooking Comically. Because they all look _motherfuckin' delicious_.
Anyone want to come cook with me sometime? I dislike cooking, but I like being in kitchens with people. It's complicated.
(Other things I should do: Talk to Mr. Belm about Iron Chef: Belmhaus and find the ingredients to make properly delicious pasta and cheese, since it's like the only even remotely fancy thing I can cook. Also, I should bake many many things with pumpkins in them.)
~Sor
MOOP!