(Only $25 away from my fundraising goal!)
It looks like I’m going wheat-free next week.
After hitting Food Basics (for VERY meagre fruit and veg) and Bulk Barn (for sweet and spicy crutches), I realised that I only had 95 cents left in my budget. Not including the 50 cents I had set aside for cooking oil and salt. So I had to give up one of my previous purchases (whole wheat flour) so that I could buy afford a can of tomatoes at Loblaws (where it was only slightly cheaper because NO TOMATOES WERE ON SALE).
Cheating? Possibly. Disheartening? Definitely.
Please note that I did not buy licorice cigars; dude punched something in wrong. Also note that I lost a penny in this transaction – Canada’s eliminated the penny, so change from shopping is rounded off and it’s dumb.
I had been hoping for a cheap bag of wonderveg, like sometimes you find in the 50% section, but to no avail. I bought garlic, an onion (one onion!!!), two bananas, one carrot (ech), and one potato. I could cry already, even though I had a giant homemade chocolate chocolate chip cookie for breakfast. I went into Starbucks because I hadn’t had coffee today, but balked when I saw the prices.
You may wonder why I didn’t shop around more. Because shopping between 20 stores to get the best deal is impractical for me, a person with a car, and even more impractical for someone who has to factor every bus fare, ever cL of gas, and their time, into their budget. I went somewhere that is ~40 minute walk (though I ‘cheated’ and drove there) from my home and chose three stores basically adjacent each other. Previously purchases were made at a store between work and home.
If I had had to drive another 15 minutes, or walk an hour, or spend $3.40 on OC Transpo, to go to Produce Depot instead, that is a money drain that would not have been negated by slightly cheaper bananas.
Also, I am GROUCHY because of that cookie I had for breakfast because apparently the sugar’s worn off.
And I just noticed that I was overcharged on my lone potato. THE RECEIPT SAID SWEET POTATO IT WAS A REGULAR POTATO. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck. ONE POTATO DOES NOT COST THAT MUCH.
DAMN YOU FOOD BASICS.
I’m also fairly furious because I bought a half-pound carrot for 43 cents, when a 2lb bag would have cost me $1.44. Loose cooking onions? Gone, but a bag of them would have been $1.99. I probably should have done that. They were also out of the 99 cent/lb apples and I couldn’t justify spending more than a third of my weekly budget on a bag of apples. And yes, Canadians bafflingly switch between imperial and metric, but only when it comes to height, weight, and produce.
Apples. Dammit.
These things were on crazy sale. I don’t buy them often, but when I do, I eat at least half at a sitting. Which is more than my budget for each day allows.
Dr. O, you’re a genius.
Also, fucking pierogies are still taunting me wherever I go.
Eat ME, pierogies.
And I couldn’t afford pasta in the end. The sales were not in my favour after all.
$3.36 in previous purchases
-$.56 for ww flour (not being used)
+$1.89 at Bulk Barn
+$2.55 at Food Basics
+$.99 for a can of chopped tomatoes
+$.50 for oil and salt budget
______
$8.76
One penny over budget.
(No, not the same one from above.)
Son of a BITCH.
Let’s just say the sweet potato/potato thing more than compensates for it, OK?
Can you donate to Live Below the Line? Proceeds to to fighting poverty in Canada and around the world. Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far; you’re all wonderful and I apologize in advance in case I start ripping y’all’s heads off next week.