Buying Groceries For This Week’s Budget and Location Challenges

Post 2 in the Challenges.

I picked up my first round of groceries this afternoon. I’m doing budget and location challenges. The budget is twenty-dollars for food. For Monday through Friday. I’m limiting myself to a small grocery store near my apartment. It’s pictured above.

The reason for this is to simulate the food deserts here in Chicago. I plan to visit lots of neighborhoods, so this is a test run for the areas which limited options.

I spent $15.87 today. I’m taking a dollar out for existing spices, seasonings, and condiments. Which leaves me $3.13. I plan to buy more produce later in the week. To make sure it doesn’t go bad.

Here is my haul:

I started with rice. It’s a good base that I can use in different ways. I usually get brown rice. They only stock white rice, so I grabbed a bag.

I chose black and garbanzo beans for variety. It’s cheaper to get dried beans, but they need work. I’m soaking them tonight. I’ll cook them and rice tomorrow.

Here’s their produce section:

On a normal grocery run, I don’t weigh my vegetables. I weighed the potatoes and the onion. To stay on budget, I kept a running total.

The FDA issued a recall recently, or a throw-out statement, for red onions. I forgot to see if that was ongoing, so I chose a yellow onion.

The black beans, rice, onion, and red pepper make good meal prep bowls.

With the garbanzo beans, I can add some chopped onion, lemon juice and olive oil, and parsley for an easy salad. I can also smash them and add vegan mayo, crushed red peppers, and cilantro.

My normal breakfasts are yogurt first and oatmeal after working out. They don’t carry vegan yogurt or gluten-free oatmeal. I choose apple sauce as an alternative. I can alternate rice or a salad for the second breakfast.

The pineapple juice is for teriyaki sauce. It will need tamari sauce, apple cider vinegar, and garlic powder.

I completely forgot about almond milk and margarine for the instant mashed potatoes. They are a staple. The store doesn’t have almond milk. And, the margarine would wipe out the rest of my money.

I going to set the instant potatoes aside and use the $2.39 for produce. I grabbed two baking potatoes anyways.

Which leaves me with $5.52.

My choices have limits. No tofu, gluten-free, vegan bread, no oatmeal or yogurt, and no rice noodles. I looked for gluten-free pasta, but they don’t have it.

I was going to stock up on frozen veggies, but they only had Goya. With the owner supporting the president I don’t buy Goya.

The fresh produce was fine. I’ll get green onions and another head of lettuce later. Probably a carrot. Rice, carrots, green onions, sesame seeds, and teriyaki sauce make a great Asian bowl.

I’m fine with my food for the week. It’s different than what I’m used to, but I’m lucky to have lots of big-box grocery stores nearby.

I’m going to eat a lot of lettuce tomorrow. To make sure it doesn’t go bad. With chopped red pepper, garbanzo beans, and diced onion it will be a good salad.

I’ll share my meals as the week progresses.

I’m looking forward to working with this food this week.