Monday
morning - I’m starting the SNAP challenge today. I’m heading out on
my first shopping trip. Since I’m usually a convenience shopper, I plan
to do some research before I buy. (I remember when we were first married and I
comparison shopped in three stores with my list in hand before I bought anything.
I was followed in one store and accused of being a spy for a competitorJ. I’ll be careful
today!)
Overall,
I think it will be easier (by no means easy) for me than for many. I am
not a big eater and have few foods or meals that I “love”.
I’ve
thought a lot about my eating habits. I know I will have to compromise in
a lot of ways. I’m a vegetarian, so I am already used to getting my
protein from sources other than meat, poultry, fish, or seafood. So I
don’t think protein will be challenge for me.
One
big challenge will be produce. I eat organic produce as much as
possible. I’m sure this will not be possible. I will probably end
up peeling all my produce instead of just washing it. Not a great
sacrifice, but still a change in my normal habits.
Another
big challenge I anticipate is coffee. While I’m not passionate about too
many foods, coffee is one of them. I made a pledge to myself years ago,
that I will not drink coffee that is not fairly traded. (Hooray that
Hopewell is now serving “Cave Bird Coffee!!) I’m not sure I can go a week
without coffee because I’ll get headaches, so I’m hopeful I’ll figure something
out.
Well,
off I go. I’ll let you know what happens.
Monday
afternoon – I just got back from my shopping excursion. I found that
Schwan’s was by far the cheapest for many of the things on my list.
Wegmans and Giant were about the same for the other things. I ended up
getting a few things in each store,
I
was able to get fairly traded coffee at Wegmans. Two of their specialty
coffees that you can buy by the pound are fairly traded. So I was able to
fit 2 ounces into my budget. I believe that Giant carried Equal Exchange
coffee by the bag, which would be my choice if I found myself on a limited
budget long term.
I
got organic apples, but nothing else I got was organic.
The
only thing I had planned to get but didn’t was hummus. Fortunately, I
remembered while I was shopping that I had committed to bring fruit to a
women’s group meeting on Wednesday. So I skipped the hummus and will try
to get some grapes on Wednesday morning.
