Four weeks whittled down my groceries past even the most undesirable of edibles to nothing but baking powder and maple syrup. After paying off Christmas-related bills, student fees, and after impulsively buying orchestra-level tickets to see Morrissey in April, funds are stretched so tight they're see-through. And so it came to pass, that I had to significantly decrease my grocery-related expenditures. The hippie-bullshit aisle, my very favorite aisle of the grocery store, has to be bypassed like a fat-clogged heart.
My dad likes to talk about how when he was in medical school, he ate kidneys and cow tongue in order to save money. This has always been a key part of any frugality-related sit-down with my parents. While I appreciate my dad's thrift (and suspect sometimes that this was an amusing game for him...figuring out the cheapest way to cook for himself, the guy whose eyes light up at the sight of the giblet gravy on Thanksgiving), I always dismissed having to scale back on food in order to survive. I can eliminate or reduce all kinds of unnecessary costs in my life, but groceries? Annie's macaroni and cheese is just so much better than Kraft. Say it isn't so, my checking account!
So I said goodbye to Kashi granola, and stocked up on Kroger-brand Nutri-grain bars. I sent carrot-cashew-ginger soup packing and welcomed Campbell's vegetarian vegetable. The landlord left a bunch of her canned vegetables in the basement (among many other strange things...which is a whole other blog post in itself). If she's not supposed to live here anymore, at what point can I bust these open? I'm in survival mode, here, guys! Pickled beets could mean life or death!
In all seriousness, I think it's worth pointing out that if you press my dad on how the kidneys tasted, he'll say, "Oh..kind of like urine. You know, I really only did that once."
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