T- 1: Hunger Challenge Shopping!

Safeway haul

LET THE CHALLENGE BEGIN! Today I went grocery shopping for this week's Hunger Challenge. I tried not to take too long scrutinizing prices since I imagine not everyone has the luxury of time. I still decided to hit up two stores. I went to Safeway for most things and to my local produce mart for fruits and veg. 

produce corner market

I had already decided I was gonna rely heavily on rice and eggs this year. So I had a pretty good idea what I was going for at Safeway. HOWEVER, I had the best luck! I wasn't even going to buy raw meat but I decided to see what was there and LOW AND BEHOLD...Hot Italian Turkey Sausage! There was one package and it was on clearance. I BOUGHT RAW MEAT ON CLEARANCE! Don't tell my mom. She already calls me to warn me about recalls on Spinach in Arizona and Strawberries in Oregon. Clearance meat might give her a heart attack.

Turkey Sausage SALE!

Last year, I took the Hunger Challenge for the first time. I suffered. The average food stamp allotment last year was $4 a day, this year it has increased to $4.72 and I can already see the difference! You wouldn't think $5.04 would make a big difference, but it certainly does.


My Grocery List:
Brown rice: $3.58
Lentils: $2.58
Eggs: $3.68
Frozen green beans: $1.67 (sale! 3 for $5, but I only bought one)
Frozen spinach: $1.67 (sale! 3 for $5, but I only bought one)
Huge container of oatmeal: $2.50 (sale! 2 for $5, but I only bought one)
2 cans of tomato paste: $1.18
Hot Italian Turkey Sausage: $2.29 (clearance 50% off usually $5.79)
Plain Non-fat Yogurt: $3.49
Frozen Blueberries: $2.99 (I cheated, I already had these and they are from Trader Joes)
2 onions: $0.51
4 carrots: $0.34
Celery: $0.69
Purple cabbage: $1.68
2 apples: $1.14
1 orange: $0.39
Total: $30.39 I still have $2.67 cents! I guess I should charge myself to drink the free coffee at work since not every job offers free coffee. Maybe I will be good and put my $2 and change towards that...or maybe if I start to get grumpy at the end of the week I will buy some more food. :)
See you tomorrow for DAY ONE of the Food Bank Hunger Challenge!

Side note: Last year I calculated to price of every meal and it was highly annoying. So this year I will just know what I spent for the week (the maximum is $33.04) and however I divide it on certain days, I'm not going to worry about it.