In my continuing analysis of life in the idiocracy timeline, today I present another grocery run…
A few variables:
- I do my grocery shopping at around 0630 on Saturdays, because that’s when my local grocer marks down all of the fresh food that’s close to expiry.
- I clip coupons and use them whenever possible.
- I buy myself one (1) snack thing per trip – usually popcorn.
The above is
- a half loaf of discount wheat bread and enough lunchmeat / cheese to make sandwiches out of it
- a discount box of chicken tenders for three meals this weekend
- four breakfast bowls for work next week (coupon – buy 3 get 1 free)
- three potpies for dinners next week (coupon – $0.30 off each, making them $3.49 for the big ones)
- three cup-noodles and two frozen burritos for work lunches next week
- two pints of store-brand milk, a small box of store-brand stick butter, and two Knorr pasta sides
- and a bag of pepperjack popcorn (coupon – $0.50 off).
Total? $82.52 ($77.63 after coupons)
When the tech bubble burst the early 2000’s I ate a lot of Knorr pasta sides because they were $0.49 each and made two meals. Three years ago they were $0.79 each. Today they are slightly smaller and $1.49…
Back in the 70’s / 80’s my mom would make an olympic-class event out of coupon clipping, which is something I’ve taken to as well – when possible. Coupons really only work if you’re meal-planning for a family where the economy of scale kicks in though – and I make meals for just me. And while I do tend to eat a lot of leftovers, I can’t get through family-of-four portions before they go bad in the fridge – so I avoid ‘family size’ discounts.
Anyway, that’s today’s window into life in 2023… I really hope I can look back on this in a decade and chuckle.
Listening to "Mixtapes" by Moonrunner83