Day 1: buy 6 yogurts, 1 bag blueberries, 6 bananas, 3 salads, 1 tub
cranberry-grain salad. Est = $20
Day 4: buy 6 fruity drinks, 6 bananas, 3 salads, 1 tub cranberry-
grain salad. Est = $25
In an attempt to set a new low bar, even for the Lazy Chef, in sheer
laziness, I am attempting this week to survive entirely off products
purchased at Central Market with no home preparation AT ALL.
The "Central Market" part of this means that it is not entirely cost-
conscious, but we will work out the kinks as we go. For right now,
Central Market wins because it has a marvelous salad bar and assorted
fruity drinks and prepared foods.... pretty convenient, if not cheap.
First purchase is four containers of yogurt and one bag of frozen
organic wild blueberries, total cost $7.37, which means each
breakfast costs $1.84. There is a little prep involved here, really
-- at home, you have to open the bag of blueberries and put them into
separate containers.
Second purchase is three salads, total $4.19, or $1.40 each. The
reason this works is that Central Market allows you to completely
make your own salad -- and they have cranberries and bacon bits. I
can eat almost anything with cranberries and bacon bits. Their lemon-
oregano salad dressing is mighty tasty, and they provide little
containers for the dressing -- which means in less than ten minutes
at the store, you can assemble completely packaged salads. My
downfall, apparently, is having to unbundle the spinach and make the
salads at home, and I always wind up with waste items -- extra
croutons, or spinach that wilted before I used it, whatever. This is
so simple and easy that it's a world-beater.
Three days seems to be about the longest the salads can go in the
fridge without starting to look a little suspect. So I'd have to go
by Central Market every three days if I did this for real.
Four bananas ran me 89 cents, so 22 cents each.
The killer was really the fruity drinks. I got four fruit-puree-no-
additives smoothie type drinks, which cost the earth -- $2.50 and
$2.60 apiece. However, they taste pretty good, and they purport to
supply 2 or 3 of your day's fruit servings.
And a tub of Central Market's marvelous 9-grain salad was $4.49, or
$1.50 for each of three generous and tasty portions.
So say for example that each day I ate.....
Vanilla yogurt with blueberries, $1.84
Banana, 22 cents
Purchased lunch, $7
Salad, $1.40
Banana, 22 cents
Grain salad snack, $1.50
Fruit smoothie, $2.50
My total food expenditure for the day is $14.68. (That's not counting
the $3 in Dr Peppers I will probably buy.)
This is a lot, but essentially I am grazing all day rather than
having three meals. If I ate three meals and each meal cost $5, it
wouldn't sound quite as bad. It's still paying a pretty steep
premium for the convenience, notably those fruity drinks.
However: My prep time at home is nearly nil... my fruit and veggie
intake skyrockets... I think this might be worth a try for a while.
So to break that back down: I'll need to make two visits to Central
Market each week. The yogurt/berries keep pretty well, and so do the
fruit drinks, but the bananas, salads and grain-salad need to be
fresh every couple days.
So if I go to the market twice a week...
Day 1: buy 6 bananas, 3 salads, 6 yogurts, 1 pack blueberries, 1 tub
cranberry-grain salad. Estimated cost: 1.3+4.2+5.4+4+4.5= $19.40
Day 4: buy 6 bananas, 3 salads, 6 fruity drinks, 1 tub cranberry-
grain salad. Estimated cost: 1.3+4.2+15+4.5= $25
This works until I get sick of eating the same things, at least! I
think I'll give it a try.
Addendum: My nutritionist friend weighs in on expensive fruit drinks:
The more expensive juices are usually less processed, so probably retain slightly more vitamins than other juices, but I am guessing it is not a huge difference. Things to look for are 100% of Vitamin C&A. I would also limit any with added sugars, even ones that sound healthy like evaporated cane juice, or just think of those as equivalents to soda.
