21 Dollars, Eaten

This is it.  Twenty-one bucks.  No contingency.

There's four apples, one lemon, one chile, one onion, one small head of su choy, and a knuckle of ginger.  There are carefully measured quantities of flour (1.5 cup, pizza), red lentils (1 cup, dal), coconut (0.5 cup, sri lankan mallum) peanuts (1 cup) and rice (3 cup).  There is a can of tomatoes, and one of starchy peas.  There is a small stick of butter to cook with (not pictured) and salt, pepper and curry powder to keep things interesting. Heck, there's even coffee thanks to the grocery stores decision to liquidate their bulk coffee.  This is a bachelorette's lot, and there was no economy to be found locally for a single lady.

With a busy workday ahead of me, I made for lunch a thermosful of the same peanut-rice porridge (it's a thing! they eat it in Burma!) I had for breakfast.  I threw an apple in there to keep the doctor away.  My morning coffee wore away not far into the mid afternoon drive to an out of town work meeting, and this time there would be no stop for an americano (can you feel the privilege in my text?).

I conceded today that if twenty-one bucks was all I had for groceries, I'd certainly be a food bank client and hamper recipient.  Though it doesn't feel as though I've put a significant dent in the stores right now, I still worry for making it to Monday.


-S