24 September 2010, Friday
Shopping Day One.
Travel--a kind of chosen poverty--prepared me a little for this day. I have good walking shoes and Tilley travel socks and a rolling backpack (advantages that a person who is poor doesn't likely have), and I used them and two bus tickets to get around.
It took 3.5 hours to spend $10.65.
Zehrs
4.99 Cheese
1.79 Onions
6.78
Dollar store
0.69 Macaroni
1.50 Peanut butter ($.50 more than budgeted)
0.69 Spaghetti
2.88
Shoppers Drug Mart
0.99 Bread ($.80 less than budgeted)
And I was exhausted. Actually welcomed the 35-minute wait for a bus. Saw an old friend on my rounds--I red-faced, sweating profusely in the 28-degree heat, he taking a leisurely stroll on his lunch hour. How does a person who is poor manage shopping in winter?
Some foot discomfort, in spite of good walking shoes and Tilley travel socks, and unaccustomed knee pain. How do people without good shoes and socks manage their shopping? How do people with chronic pain?
Went to bed at 9 p.m.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
The Shopping List
1.79 Bread, Shoppers Drug Mart
0.99 Cabbage, Sobeys
0.99 Cauliflower, Sobeys
4.99 Cheese, Zehrs / Valu Mart
1.99 Eggs, Shoppers Drug Mart
0.69 Macaroni, dollar store
1.79 Onions, Zehrs / Valu Mart
1.00 Peanut butter, dollar store
0.69 Spaghetti, dollar store
1.47 Spaghetti sauce, dollar store
1.00 Tea, dollar store
0.69 Tuna, Zellers
0.69 Tuna, Zellers
18.77
01.23 Discretionary
20.00
The Pantry
Challenge Team members are assumed to have various pantry staples already...and will not need to purchase these basics.
No Name Peanut Oil
No Name Light Whipped Dressing
No Name Sweet Green Relish
Cayenne pepper
Oregano
Salt and Pepper
1.79 Bread, Shoppers Drug Mart
0.99 Cabbage, Sobeys
0.99 Cauliflower, Sobeys
4.99 Cheese, Zehrs / Valu Mart
1.99 Eggs, Shoppers Drug Mart
0.69 Macaroni, dollar store
1.79 Onions, Zehrs / Valu Mart
1.00 Peanut butter, dollar store
0.69 Spaghetti, dollar store
1.47 Spaghetti sauce, dollar store
1.00 Tea, dollar store
0.69 Tuna, Zellers
0.69 Tuna, Zellers
18.77
01.23 Discretionary
20.00
The Pantry
Challenge Team members are assumed to have various pantry staples already...and will not need to purchase these basics.
No Name Peanut Oil
No Name Light Whipped Dressing
No Name Sweet Green Relish
Cayenne pepper
Oregano
Salt and Pepper
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.
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.
*
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.
*
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.
*
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.
*
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.
22 September 2010, Wednesday
Twenty dollars. The newspaper said this morning that we were going to be given $20 for the week. A knot of something like fear in my stomach. I'd been told that we'd have between $20 and $25. I never thought I'd find the loss of five imaginary dollars so distressing.
Twelve minutes to the plaza (dollar store, bulk food store, and grocery store). Took out notebook and pen in the dollar store and began listing prices.
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? Store manager red, swollen with anger.
Comparing prices. But she had shaken me.
Oh. She began to unpuff, unredden.
I told her about the challenge.
Oh, she said again. Almost gently.
The bulk food store clerk was helpful, measuring out 100 grams of dried lentils for me (at $.28 per 100 grams) so that later I could eye what I could afford.
Lentils? Dried lentils? What am I thinking? I've never cooked anything with dried lentils in my life. I know that beans and rice are healthy in combination (iron, vitamin B, protein, and all the essential amino acids). Nutritious staples for millions in the developing world. But I can't imagine buying beans and rice when I shop on Saturday. I'm more likely to go with what I know.
Maybe everyone is.
Which might be a problem.
Twenty dollars. The newspaper said this morning that we were going to be given $20 for the week. A knot of something like fear in my stomach. I'd been told that we'd have between $20 and $25. I never thought I'd find the loss of five imaginary dollars so distressing.
Twelve minutes to the plaza (dollar store, bulk food store, and grocery store). Took out notebook and pen in the dollar store and began listing prices.
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? Store manager red, swollen with anger.
Comparing prices. But she had shaken me.
Oh. She began to unpuff, unredden.
I told her about the challenge.
Oh, she said again. Almost gently.
The bulk food store clerk was helpful, measuring out 100 grams of dried lentils for me (at $.28 per 100 grams) so that later I could eye what I could afford.
Lentils? Dried lentils? What am I thinking? I've never cooked anything with dried lentils in my life. I know that beans and rice are healthy in combination (iron, vitamin B, protein, and all the essential amino acids). Nutritious staples for millions in the developing world. But I can't imagine buying beans and rice when I shop on Saturday. I'm more likely to go with what I know.
Maybe everyone is.
21 September 2010, Tuesday
The Social Planning Council's Put Food in the Budget / Do the Math Challenge arrived in my e-mail box yesterday. I decided to undertake it because I'd undertaken a similar social justice challenge a few years ago without entirely respecting its parameters. I want to make up for that.
I've never been in the country called Hunger (they do things differently there). Glad I'm not visiting in winter.
I'm also lucky. There's a grocery store within a few minutes' walk of my home, a dollar store, bulk food store, grocery store, discount store, and farmers' market within a few minutes' walk of my place of work. I have time to prepare for my week of poverty, doing comparison shopping at different places before the first day of challenge begins (scoped the discount store this morning).
I'm also able to fly back to More Than Enough when the week is over. Thousands in our community aren't.
The Social Planning Council's Put Food in the Budget / Do the Math Challenge arrived in my e-mail box yesterday. I decided to undertake it because I'd undertaken a similar social justice challenge a few years ago without entirely respecting its parameters. I want to make up for that.
I've never been in the country called Hunger (they do things differently there). Glad I'm not visiting in winter.
I'm also lucky. There's a grocery store within a few minutes' walk of my home, a dollar store, bulk food store, grocery store, discount store, and farmers' market within a few minutes' walk of my place of work. I have time to prepare for my week of poverty, doing comparison shopping at different places before the first day of challenge begins (scoped the discount store this morning).
I'm also able to fly back to More Than Enough when the week is over. Thousands in our community aren't.
Questionnaire for Food Challenge Participants
Name
Sheryl Loeffler
Occupation
Director of Philanthropy, YWCA Kitchener-Waterloo
Favourite food
Pasta
Guiltiest food pleasure
Wine, salty snacks
Family size
Two
How much do you spend on food in one week?
$75 each
Why are you participating?
Because no one should be hungry in The Most Intelligent Community in the World
Why is the issue important to you?
Because I believe in social justice.
Name
Sheryl Loeffler
Occupation
Director of Philanthropy, YWCA Kitchener-Waterloo
Favourite food
Pasta
Guiltiest food pleasure
Wine, salty snacks
Family size
Two
How much do you spend on food in one week?
$75 each
Why are you participating?
Because no one should be hungry in The Most Intelligent Community in the World
Why is the issue important to you?
Because I believe in social justice.
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