The 'For Shame' series is an ongoing series wherein I attempt to shame myself into buying healthier food, by posting and critiquing my grocery purchases right here in public. Results so far have been uniformly mixed.
That was a catastrophe, but a mitigated one. I suppose.
I just spent close to $900 on groceries, a lot of which I didn't need, but I bought anyway because I was starving and hurrying and scurrying and just tossing whatever looked good into the cart. I bought stuff I haven't bought in years, such as donuts. Come on. That's unnecessary.
But it's a mitigated catastrophe, because in with all the 'impulse buys', I did get some healthier-type stuff as well. Admittedly, not all "health food," but a lot of staples and good healthy food of substance. Stuff like carrot juice, tangerine juice, whole milk, water, beer, (I wasn't just starving, I was thirsty too!), rye bread, black forest ham, provolone, eggs, cream cheese, english muffins, waffles, fresh peaches & nectarines, Weetabix, and an onion.
But then there are the other purchases, not-so-easily justified. Potato chips - two kinds! 3-cheese dip with pepperoncini! Entenmann's glazed buttermilk donuts. Salsa. Okay, there's nothing wrong with salsa. Except I didn't get any tortilla chips! What a dip! I guess I can't give myself too much shit on the paprika, either. Paprika is something that every house should have in the spice cabinet. It only counts as "junk food" once you start dipping straight into it with a spoon. Which I've cut way down on, since the last time I was called upon to make perfect deviled eggs and found myself humiliatingly paprikaless! That was what they call "a wake-up call."
So yeah, that probably doesn't seem like much of a catastrophe, does it? Well for that, I take full credit because after I filled up my cart and was about to turn its grinding, squeaking, protesting wheels toward the checkout, I snapped out of it for a second. Looked at all the food I had chosen. There was a damn coconut layer cake on there in a pink box! I made a grim face, and another whole trip back through the whole store, putting stuff back. My cart prior to that had been brimful.
The donuts only survived the cut because I'd hidden them under a huge bag of celery. Although, then I put back the celery, too. Wasn't in a celery mood. Not sure how I missed seeing the donuts after that. I suppose on some level, me purchasing those donuts was a deliberate move. A deliberate attempt to self-sabotage. I'll have to watch that, about me.
The worst part of the whole episode was when I left. I was starved, okay? And that McDonald's was right there. I don't blame myself. I blame my friend. We went to dinner Wednesday, we were talking about movies, which led to documentaries, which led to Morgan Spurlock's Super-Size Me, which we talked about and dissected in depth and at length, and ever since then I've had a horrific and overpowering McDonald's urge! Just rising and cresting within me. That's not my fault, it was inflicted upon me.
So OK, it was on balance, kind of a catastrophe. But I'm going to go have a nectarine, and try to keep moving forward in a positive direction. And maybe a donut, too. Those things are good on a level that can only be described as cracktified.
EDIT: Holy shit, what a typo! I originally put "I just spent close to $100 on groceries," but really it was $91.35, which is a lot closer to $90 than to $100. So I changed it. I was like, "no need to inflate the drama." Except unfortunately, I left the extra zero in there! Heck, that's a typo too funny not to keep. Round it up to a grand at that point, dude! Even at Nob Hill, that buys a lot of groceries!
I did buy a ton of food, though. Not $900 worth, but a ton.
Comments
Nine hundred bucks worth of food?
I was wondering if you were like never leaving home again.
Then the cake would've been totally justified.
With help from supportive friends, and a little self-discipline, I think I've finally kicked my debilitating paprika habit. I'm on cardamom to "ramp down." Cardamom is the paprika addict's methadone.
I had to do it, though. I don't have one of those elevated cake platforms, with the glass lid. You need that, to do a cake like that justice.
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/9123/donuts.png
Glad to see WeetABix made it into the trolley!
That's a lovely, professional shot of those donuts, though! Very nice. Nice focus plane.
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a387/bluela/TopPotJellyhalfeaten.jpg
@blue - I need to go shopping with you, that's what I need to do! You seem to know your way around the good stuff. I didn't get a giant tin of paprika, just a 2 oz jar of Morton & Bassett paprika. The packaging doesn't specify the raw material country of origin, though.
As for eating the nectarine and a donut - this is what is meant by a "BALANCED" diet, no?
(and Blue - BOY does that look good!)
@The Vegetable Assassin - that's got to be the second-most provocative typo I've ever made! Hoo! I couldn't say what the first-most was, I just like to leave a little room in the top spot. I feel like there must have been one more provocative. Surely, there must.
Oh, I ate the nectarine right away, about 4:30pm. I didn't break into the donuts until 9pm or so. But yeah, balance is definitely what I'm aiming for! Just not right at the same time.
I remember my favourite typo of yours Joe, when you said you were one of 98 children. I was like, whoa, that's prolific!
:-)
And now I want donuts.
The grocery receipts, especially long ones, go on the refrigerator door. Not sure why, my father always did that (so we couldn't complain about nothing to eat) and it just seems normal.
Plus, I like seeing how much I saved on each trip. The 'Buy One, Get One' tags in the meat department are fantastic.
@Elliott - you're saying you've continued the fridge-door receipt tradition? That's awesome!
I just thought the fridge was a magic box that filled with food automatically by complaining about it. No I'm kidding, I used to catch mom sneaking the food in there from time to time. But the receipt trick would've put some subtle point home about the value of the dollar adding up, etc etc.
But Elliott, that's definitely another time when I've spent a lot. I was going to mention that just going to another person's dinner party, you often have to grab a few things to make a special dish, and then if you add wine on to that, perhaps an extra dessert for your host(s), and maybe flowers, so there's nearly $100. Even just buying stuff for a special dinner for two you can spend a fair amount. I remember once buying a whole bunch of shots of espresso because I needed them to make tiramisu and didn't have my own espresso machine. Really, how are you supposed to get the espresso for that recipe? And that was expensive, even though the counter guy was amused and gave me a deal. That plus two bottles of wine, veal for the main course, and even smaller things like the produce: arugula, endive, fresh basil, three lbs of organic roma tomatoes. . . it all adds up pretty quickly and it's easy to get well toward $200 and even above. I would often think about that when I was in a habit of making dinners for my ex-boyfriend, wondering if he realized I spent as much on groceries when I made dinner for us as he did when he took us someplace fancy. And that's not even counting the labor! Turning those tomatoes into sauce and making tiramisu is fairly labor-intensive. :)
If I cooked the way I wanted to for the two of us, our bill would be far higher. Meat boosts the bill some, but fresh produce is much worse on the bottom line, I've found.