Sunday was a good start to my $21 week–I got free food! My friends Misty and Lindsey, who know about the food challenge and are fellow social services gurus, watched as I made three trips to the snack table at Quaker meeting during social hour and filled up on cheese and crackers. I spent the rest of Sunday afternoon and evening with my boyfriend, working on the grant renewals I am responsible for while he read pending legislation and puttered, and I admit that the likelihood of free food with him was on my mind, which has never before been a consideration when I thought about spending the day together.
I feel oddly mercenary.
The downside to the free food on Sunday is that, since I was not home, I did not have a chance to cook a pot of black beans. That was my plan to get me through the beginning of the week. Now it’s Monday, and all I have that’s ready to eat for lunch is yogurt. Making a small food budget work assumes time available to go to the grocery store and prepare food, if there’s any hope of nutritional value. I didn’t have that time, and as a result, I am really hungry–and really tempted to take the remaining $8 dollars or so and buy something that’s already prepared, but will take a big chunk out of my budget that remains.