The High Cost of Being Poor

I didn't have anything better to do yesterday, so I went shopping.

Exciting? Maybe if it hadn't been for groceries.

Since I had some time to kill, I did a little comparison shopping.

We've got four places to buy groceries here:

I can shop the Pig, Pick N Save, Brennans or Wal-Mart.

Brennans is top notch, but waaaay too expensive and more of a niche story anyway. Although, I love the free samples!

The Pig is kind of worthless.

They don't even sell beef jerky... wtf?

That leaves Pick N Save and Wal-Mart.

Pick N Save is my normal grocery store, but except for Natures Valley Peanut Butter granola bars, it sells all of my comparison items at a higher price than Wally World (on average $0.34 per item).

However, Wal-Mart doesn't sell the environmentally friendly, non-animal testing cleaning products and paper products that I normally buy. So, I'll have to go to Pick N Save for that stuff anyway.

Even though it may make a little pin-prick in my soul, I think I'm going to have to shop for some of my groceries at Wal-Mart. I just can't justify spending that much more money per item for the exact same thing right now when every dollar counts. Ugh.

Honesty

For future reference, salmon chowder does NOT taste like clam chowder.
The use of the term "chowder", in addition to them both being seafood based, might lead you to believe they are similar, but they are not.
I'm in class today, so I get a free lunch.
I wanted something hot (because it's fucking freezing in this building) and they only had two soup options at work, a potato soup and a salmon chowder.
Not a fan of potato soups, so I tried the salmon.
Eh, I'm not sure whether I liked (eventually) it or if I was just won over by the warmth it provided.

In the interest of full disclosure, I was unreasonably naughty and had two fudge cookies with white chocolate chips for dessert to console myself for the crappy soup.

I know you don't care, but I have to hold myself accountable somehow, so suck it.