23 September 2010, Thursday

My colleagues have been helpful this morning.

Don't buy six eggs at Sobeys for $1.89!

But I've got to get protein from something this week.

Buy 12 eggs at Shoppers for $1.99.

While I know that some Shoppers Drug Marts carry food, I didn't know that Shoppers promises low prices on staple items like milk, bread, and eggs. Shoppers is another place within walking distance of home.

And don't buy produce at the Kitchener Market. Produce is cheaper in grocery stores this time of year.

I had a vision of great deals at 2 p.m.--bushels of fruit and vegetables offered for almost nothing at market closing. I may still go.

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Grocery flyers came with today's paper. I poured over them. I've researched 10 different places within walking distance. Researching food prices this week has taken hours. Shopping for food this week at so many different locations will take hours.

The food I'm supposed to be consuming is consuming me. Finding food that's cheap has been hard enough. Finding food that's balanced and healthy has been even more challenging.

But I've finally got a working draft of my shopping list--what, how much, where. Shopping list as Work in Progress.

In some ways, I'm lucky in what I don't eat, don't crave. Don't have to list milk (allergy). Don't have to list meat (I eat red meat three or four times a year, have many vegetarian days). And I don't have a sweet tooth.

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One of the speakers at the event kickoff this afternoon told us that his meal yesterday--he used the singular--was a can of tuna, a can of tuna for which he was grateful.

Because I'd taken public transportation to the event, I stopped into a nearby Valu Mart and bought no-salt-added tomato sauce for $1.49, two cents more  than tomato sauce at the dollar store. My first purchase.

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At church this afternoon (I have an office job and a church job), I filled two empty water bottles with tap water.

No bottled water next week. No flavoured water. No vitamins. No mints. No coffee.

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My husband brought home a gift of apples from a friend who works at an orchard. Eight apples. I've taken four. I wouldn't have had fruit this week if this gift hadn't come from the blue.