A note on food

In Baltimore I am living in community with 5 other volunteers. We are learning that money is tight so we try to save on food. This means we pool our money together and take turns shopping. We have more buying power this way. Each person contributes $15 a week and so we have $90 to spend on 6 people for one week. We each also have about $30 a month for "personal food". We have found that food can be quite an adventure.

Thankfully we have Rebecca aka domestic goddess in our house. Last night she was like oh we have everything for barley soup lets make it. And in a short amount of time we had barley soup and vegan molasses biscuits ready.

We have also found that we have to be creative with snacks, as things like going out for ice cream can become expensive. Last night we were all in the mood for a snack and found that non-microwavable popcorn is really cheap (read $1.50 for a pretty big bag). When we arrived home we quickly realized that all of the random spices, sauces, and toppings found in our house that have been left from previous volunteers can all go with popcorn. (Actually butterless popcorn has no flavor so really anything goes with it). So a popcorn bar was set up. It was fun and delicious, I fully expect popcorn bars to become the next big thing. 

We have also learned a valuable lesson. While 2 for 1 giant bags of potatoes and melons are great for your budget, they are not so great when you walk to the grocery store.