In the store, it gets real

After a long day of work and an after-work event, I took myself to Schnuck's, a local grocery store chain, to do some looking. Not really shopping, just looking. Bought a few things, but I reserve the right not to use them next week.

In the refrigerator aisle, I ran into Mother Wit! For those who don't know, Mother Wit had folks howling with laughter as they drove to work in the mornings, as she was part of the Soul Classics 103.5 radio team (until they ditched local talent for syndicated crap).

 

Mother Wit had seen my column in The Commercial Appeal (you can read it here) and had suggestions for me - since her income has shrunk dramatically since she has been off the air and is supporting herself doing local comedy shows wherever will have her. 

She steered me to the frozen veggies section, where they have mixes you can put in a stew. Like tomatoes and okra. (BLECH!) and other veggies. I'm not sure I'm ready for that, but I did find a bag of rice for 79 cents. We used to eat rice for breakfast, so that may be what I do. And I can eat it for dinner - if I can find some cheap meat.

Mother Wit also suggested Sav-A-Lot - where the place doesn't always smell so fresh and you have to pay for your plastic bags. There's one near me, so I'll check that out. And I've got my eyes on some carrots at Aldi's. And I hear Easy Way has a discount table. 

Just going through the store with my notepad, writing down prices (which I'll compare to what I find at Aldi's and Easy Way and Cooper's and Kroger) was a sobering experience. I still have to eat between now and when the experiment starts on Monday, so I did pick up a few things, but spent just $10. I can't tell you when that's happened before, and I had three bags full of stuff.