I spent most of the day "on the road again" - taking my daughter back to college. But instead of buying pre-made food on the road today, I packed a couple of PB&J sandwiches and some raisins. I did buy some coffee on the way home which jacked up today's spending, but otherwise I stayed pretty well on track.
I trucked in to work for a few hours before I headed out. Bitter, biting cold, -4 F without considering the wind blowing and how much colder it makes you feel. This kind of weather makes it hard to exercise outside. And this was day 2 without getting any intentional exercise. One of the good things about working on a college campus is you get a fair amount of walking in, just as a matter of course in your day. I accomplished a little more than 6,000 steps without doing any formal exercise. Unfortunately most of the rest of the day was spent sitting in a car, so that's how it goes.
Breakfast in the office was a cup of Chobani yogurt ($1.79; 140 cal) and a banana ($0.00 - included in the price of the yogurt at Circle K; 90 cal), and some coffee for a total cost of $2.07.
As I said, lunch was on the road - PB&Js and raisins.
On the way home I stopped at a Circle K somewhere on Rte 2 and picked up a cup of coffee ($2.43; 6 cal) and a bag of honey roasted peanuts ($0.59; 320 cal). It was a peanut heavy day.
When I got back to Dover I realized I really didn't have anything for dinner - I was even running out of bread - so I headed to Tedeschi. I was pleasantly surprised to discover they carry a store brand called "Best Yet" for several items. I picked up a Best Yet peanut butter for $3.79, giving me a per serving reduction from $0.43 for Skippy to $0.27 for Best Yet. I also discovered cans of peas for $0.99 - a dollar less than I had paid previously! Also the store has it's own brand of bread - Tedeschi whole wheat - $2.79 for an 18 oz loaf. Now the Country Kitchen loaf was 20 oz, so it had slightly more, but it was retailing for $3.99. Cost per slice dropped from $0.20 to $0.13.
The fact that there is healthy, inexpensive stuff available in these stores, but you have to know where to look, and you have to know that they all carry different things represents a concept I talked about in the $3 Diet - the cost of searching, traveling around looking for deals, and keeping track of all this information in your head is called a "transaction cost" by economists. Transaction costs are the additional (monetary and non-monetary) costs incurred to acquire a resource in the market. What I am finding in this diet, as I did in the $3 Diet, is when you try to eat both healthy and cheap, there are higher transaction costs. The fact that I have to shop at multiple locations to acquire all of the ingredients I want is a great illustration of transaction costs. A full grocery store reduces transaction costs by giving shoppers lots of options in terms of quality and price all in one place. One need only stand in the canned foods aisle and survey the prices of the 10 different brands of peas. This is much less costly than traveling to three different convenience stores to discover the least expensive peas.
So dinner was, you guessed it, peas. I decided to be simple. Growing up, I remember my parents occasionally eating a simple dish of pasta, peas, olive oil, garlic, and Parmesan.
Now look, the dish is a lot better with fresh peas, or even frozen peas, I'm not going to argue that. Canned peas are mushy and don't have the same level of flavor as fresh (or frozen). But this wasn't bad. The olive oil has a nice flavor. For a cold day, this was a nice dish of Sicilian comfort food, and relatively inexpensive, even though I used the entire can of peas.
Day totals:
Cost: $8.63 (if I hadn't bought that coffee on the road, the price would have been $6.49)
Calories: 1,820
Weight: 168.6
Exercise: 0 - no credit, insufficient steps.
Breakfast in the office was a cup of Chobani yogurt ($1.79; 140 cal) and a banana ($0.00 - included in the price of the yogurt at Circle K; 90 cal), and some coffee for a total cost of $2.07.
As I said, lunch was on the road - PB&Js and raisins.
| Lunch | Quantity | Cost | Calories |
| bread, wheat | 4.0 | $0.80 | 320 |
| peanut butter | 1.0 | $0.27 | 180 |
| jelly | 2.0 | $0.35 | 112 |
| raisins | 0.7 | $0.30 | 90 |
| coffee | 2.0 | $0.19 | 5 |
| $1.91 | 707 |
On the way home I stopped at a Circle K somewhere on Rte 2 and picked up a cup of coffee ($2.43; 6 cal) and a bag of honey roasted peanuts ($0.59; 320 cal). It was a peanut heavy day.
When I got back to Dover I realized I really didn't have anything for dinner - I was even running out of bread - so I headed to Tedeschi. I was pleasantly surprised to discover they carry a store brand called "Best Yet" for several items. I picked up a Best Yet peanut butter for $3.79, giving me a per serving reduction from $0.43 for Skippy to $0.27 for Best Yet. I also discovered cans of peas for $0.99 - a dollar less than I had paid previously! Also the store has it's own brand of bread - Tedeschi whole wheat - $2.79 for an 18 oz loaf. Now the Country Kitchen loaf was 20 oz, so it had slightly more, but it was retailing for $3.99. Cost per slice dropped from $0.20 to $0.13.
The fact that there is healthy, inexpensive stuff available in these stores, but you have to know where to look, and you have to know that they all carry different things represents a concept I talked about in the $3 Diet - the cost of searching, traveling around looking for deals, and keeping track of all this information in your head is called a "transaction cost" by economists. Transaction costs are the additional (monetary and non-monetary) costs incurred to acquire a resource in the market. What I am finding in this diet, as I did in the $3 Diet, is when you try to eat both healthy and cheap, there are higher transaction costs. The fact that I have to shop at multiple locations to acquire all of the ingredients I want is a great illustration of transaction costs. A full grocery store reduces transaction costs by giving shoppers lots of options in terms of quality and price all in one place. One need only stand in the canned foods aisle and survey the prices of the 10 different brands of peas. This is much less costly than traveling to three different convenience stores to discover the least expensive peas.
So dinner was, you guessed it, peas. I decided to be simple. Growing up, I remember my parents occasionally eating a simple dish of pasta, peas, olive oil, garlic, and Parmesan.
Now look, the dish is a lot better with fresh peas, or even frozen peas, I'm not going to argue that. Canned peas are mushy and don't have the same level of flavor as fresh (or frozen). But this wasn't bad. The olive oil has a nice flavor. For a cold day, this was a nice dish of Sicilian comfort food, and relatively inexpensive, even though I used the entire can of peas.
| Dinner | Quantity | Cost | Calories |
| macaroni | 2.00 | $0.31 | 210 |
| olive oil | 0.66 | $0.23 | 80 |
| peas, canned | 1.00 | $0.99 | 245 |
| parmesan | 1.00 | $0.18 | 14 |
| $1.72 | 549 |
Day totals:
Cost: $8.63 (if I hadn't bought that coffee on the road, the price would have been $6.49)
Calories: 1,820
Weight: 168.6
Exercise: 0 - no credit, insufficient steps.
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