The Beginning by Jenna Mendell

Last week I found $40 in the pocket of my flannel. This week...I will be living on it. Walking through the aisles at Trader Joe's to get food for the upcoming week was the most interesting shopping trip I have had to date.  When shopping, typically my primary goal is to find the freshest, best ingredients that will contribute to my moderately healthy, vegetarian lifestyle.  This time, I had two goals: get the most bang for my buck and still only buy healthy food (and veggie of course).

There were a few trends I encountered while pushing my cart through TJ's aisles.  One, was that I consistently had to pay more for organic foods. The only fresh fruit that I felt I could afford were bananas, which were 19 cents each (compared to an 80 cent apple). Greens were too expensive, as was brocolli and tomatoes. However, I could easily buy their canned equivalents (and i got sodium and chemicals for free too!). My first trip to the store ended up totaling $17, and I bought eggs, butternut squash, bananas, oatmeal, an onion, canned beans, canned corn, canned tomatoes and paste, brown rice, and whole wheat pasta. A pretty good effort!

My first day was not overly successful. I had planned to eat all my meals at home, but I was so hungry at the end of the day that I slipped and went to Subway (thank god for  $5 dollar foot longs!). I got something I have never gotten at Subway before: cheese on my sandwich. I always try to be as healthy as possible but when I was in the position of adding more calories for the same price I was paying in hopes that it would keep me fuller for longer...I couldn't turn it down. This is one of many examples I am seeing of eating healthy as a costly lifestyle. I had eggs in the morning and a veggie sub on wheat at night...planning on saving 6 inches of it for the next day...oops!

Yesterday I spent a total of about $7 dollars, a couple over my $5 goal. However, I am back on track for today! If I am going to keep this up I need to find some cheap hot sauce because eating cheap is turning out to be pretty bland!