Breakfast Friday 10 February 2023
Tea now, later coffee & scrambled tofu with veggies later.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Good to see you back Iris!
No, not really. But if it wouldn't make me sick to my stomach I'd eat all the ice cream in the house.
(Yeah, I'm about to go on a rant, but I'm so angry I could spit nails and I have to get it off my chest. I'm sure this isn't the place, but I really have to find some way to unload.)
Finances are CRAZY tight in our home since we were faced with an unexpected veterinary bill (and of course, it came just at the same time as the need to heat the house). Things were tight before the dog fell ill, but now, despite all the help we've been given, we have to make tough choices every month.
The overwhelming majority of the food we eat in this house these days comes from the food pantry. That's not what I'm angry about--I'm thankful for it.
We keep a running shopping list, mostly of items that we regularly use but are most often not able to get at the food pantry. I had the list with me when we made our trip to Wal-Mart to get our pet food. I had expressed to Al that instead of making a separate trip to a different store, we should get what we could while we were there. (Gasoline costs money too.) He argued that if the prices were better at the grocery store, it would be better to get ONLY what we ABSOLUTELY NEEDED while we were at Wal-Mart, and we'd sort out the rest later.
So, while I got one package of my tortillas and a jar of salsa, that would not typically get me through an entire month of breakfast. I told him that since things were tight, tater tots (which I enjoy in my breakfast wraps) could be left off the list.
Other items left to be sorted-out later included: onions, carrots, celery, more eggs. and hamburger and hot dog buns.
Butter was on our "we need to buy this NOW" list, but somehow, despite the fact that we use a lot of butter, we managed to forget it while we were at Wal-Mart. (I think we forgot it when we were looking at the eggs--egg prices are insane. We also had sticker-shock when we went to buy pet food, as the price of the 12-count box of "moist and chewy" bits (the dogs usual breakfast) went from $3.98 to $6.58.)
The next day, Al went to get us pellets for the pellet stove--also a big MUST-HAVE item, but when we went to get them the day before, the store only had single bags. I reminded Al that we were completely out of butter, that he should pick some up.
Thank goodness, he remembered the butter. He also got FIVE 1.5 quarts of premium ice cream. That's roughly $20 worth of ice cream, purchased by my diabetic boyfriend. No onions. No celery. No hotdog or hamburger buns. No second package of tortillas. Oh yeah, we're going to be short on eggs too.
Then just yesterday, I was looking at one of the sales flyers for next week, and just casually mentioned that $1.99/lb was a good price for boneless/skinless chicken thighs and breasts. (I did not comment that we should go and buy some. We've been very lucky to get proteins at the food pantry so we have options in the freezer.)
Anyway, after commenting on the sale I was treated to a lecture about how *I* had to realize that there was no more money for food this month and how *I* needed to understand that we needed to stick to necessities.
I had a wrap for breakfast today. I have enough tortillas for 4 more this month (and today is.... the 10th). But there's plenty of ice cream in the house, so all is right with the world. 
Sorry for the rant. I thank you all for putting up w/ it so I could get it off my chest. I hope it worked. I can feel myself gritting my teeth in my anger.
