I’m an Unemployed Librarian Living in Colorado — I Spent $120 for (Almost) 2 Weeks’ Worth of Groceries

Name: Allison 
Location: Montrose, CO
Number of people in household: 1
Age: 45
Occupation: Presently unemployed, often a librarian
Salary: $0
Where you shopped: Natural Grocers 
Weekly food budget: $100 to $200; I don’t always shop every week, so my budget varies depending on what’s in stock and how long my haul will last
Amount spent: $120.69

Editors’ note: The following grocery diary mentions pet loss.

Natural Grocers. 

I am guided by my whims, and my grocery spending is the one sector of my finances in which I’m truly extravagant. Food is one of the governing pleasures of my life and, it turns out, pretty necessary. I rarely eat (or drink) out, so what I spend on groceries tends to cover the total of my food (and drink) expenses.

I’m unemployed right now, so I try to space out grocery runs as much as possible. Prior to this errand, I hadn’t grocery-shopped in two weeks, which is typical for me right now. This grocery haul lasted me 12 days. 

I have the metabolism of a middle-aged woman and the palate and impulse control of a 5-year-old, so it’s always a balancing act, trying to appease those polarities. I do make shopping lists, but I’m impressionable, and I tend to let what’s in stock guide my choices. I know that as long as I keep certain staples on hand — eggs, cheese, tortillas, bread, some sort of leafy green (usually spinach), and Arborio rice — I will always be able to figure something out. As will soon be evident, if it’s a potato or potato product, it’s probably coming home with me. Coffee is also essential, and I’m a drinking woman (thank goodness). 

I have a very long attention span for the things I like — which is to say, leftovers don’t scare me. As an army of one, this serves me in good stead. I will often make something like soup or risotto, and eat it throughout the week. This week it’s colcannon, which, besides being delicious and nutritious, is just fun to say. 

Natural Grocers

• Oat milk, $5.45
• Potato chips, $3.99
• Olive oil potato chips, $3.99
• Avocado oil potato chips, $3.99 
• Frozen cheese pizza (“handmade in Naples”!), $13.49
• Seasoned waffle fries, $5.95
• Organic roasted red pepper & tomato soup, $5.39
• Bean & cheese burrito, $4.79
• Sardines with hot pepper, $6.99 (on sale)
• Lemon, $0.74
• Organic whole milk, $3.49
• Organic, pasture-raised eggs, $6.49 (on sale)
• Garlic, $0.56
• 2 sticks salted butter, $5.65
• Frozen organic peas and carrots, $4.85
• Organic green peas, $3.75
• Organic fresh-pressed apple cider, $6.57
• Organic baby spinach, $6.99
• Sunflower rosemary loaf, $7.99
• Organic Chardonnay, $14.99 

I tend to drink coffee before graduating to solid food, and this morning was no exception. Baby steps! The day is not to be entered into lightly. Later in the morning, I have a bowl of granola with cinnamon, maple syrup, and pumpkin seeds (all previously purchased), with more whole milk.

Lunch is a bean and cheese burrito with apple cider. I’m not particularly hungry, but as a hypoglycemic who doesn’t always get hunger cues, I try to eat semi-regularly. I’m also trying to drag my weary, unemployed carcass out on daily walks, and it seems like a good idea to eat lunch beforehand. No hanger episodes on the trail, please. 

I took a hike, and now it’s snack time: olive oil potato chips and (previously purchased) cider. This time the cider’s fermented (Snow Capped Cider’s Jalapearño). 

The recent Thanksgiving holiday has stirred cravings for colcannon. I made colcannon last night (with previously purchased Yukon Gold potatoes), and had some of the leftovers for dinner (using spinach instead of cabbage) while pondering the rocky road to Dublin (with apologies to the Chieftains). Chardonnay is involved.

The day starts with coffee with whole milk, again. Later in the morning, breakfast — which turns out to be brunch — is a breakfast burrito with a flour tortilla (previously purchased), scrambled eggs, garlic, and roasted Yukon Gold potatoes, sharp cheddar cheese, and hot sauce (all three also previously purchased). I have it with a glass of apple cider. I am about 75% breakfast burritos, at least.

This will tide me over until dinner (with maybe a snack or two), which is good, because my cat is sick, again, and we’re headed to the vet this afternoon, again. Do you remember that scene from Dumb and Dumber, where they lament that their pets’ heads are falling off? I swear, I’m the only one who does. Anyway! I think of it often, because that’s my poor little Irie Bear, alas. 

Well, Ireland (aka Irie, aka Irie Bear, aka the loveable tripod known as iPod) crossed the rainbow bridge this afternoon. His health was fragile, so I’ve had time to mentally prepare myself, but it’s still, of course, devastating.

Tonight it’s more colcannon and Chardonnay (in the Phew! mug because I need to run the dishwasher).

The day begins with more coffee with whole milk. Later in the morning, I have a slice of almond butter toast, with Maranatha creamy almond butter and Dave’s Killer Bread (thin-sliced), along with an apple on the verge of becoming applesauce, due to neglect. These items are all from a previous grocery run.

My heart hurts, my stomach rumbles, life has the audacity to go on. Lunch is a grilled cheese sandwich dipped in doctored aioli (Sir Kensington’s, a minced garlic clove, garlic powder) with some of the low-sodium potato chips and a glass of apple cider. This is a pure expression of my inner 5-year-old, who I think I get to indulge today (and every day). The grilled cheese has spinach in it. Middle-aged woman! 

I just published the first edition of my newsletter. To celebrate, I have oat milk and one of these fancy chocolate bars.

Dinner is the last of the colcannon and an abstemious glass of water.

The day begins with — wait for it — coffee with whole milk. Breakfast, which again turns out to be brunch, is another breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs, garlic, sharp cheddar cheese, roasted Yukon Gold potatoes, and hot sauce. I have it with a glass of apple cider.

After making an affectionate, albeit slightly creepy, painting of my dear, departed Irie Bear, wherein I render the poor boy cross-eyed (I’m a “budding” artist), it’s snack time: avocado oil potato chips (potatoes again!) and cava (previously purchased), because this is an Irish wake, by way of Spain. I drink the cava from a mug because I need to run the dishwasher, again. 

Dinner is basically glorified (previously purchased) fish sticks with frozen green peas and more doctored aioli. Ordinarily I’d eat this meal with roasted potatoes, but even I have to draw the line somewhere. 

I hope you’re sitting down, because today I started my day with … coffee with whole milk. 

Brunch, which is more akin to lunch by the time I get around to eating it, is a fried egg sandwich with spinach and Sir Kensington’s (I love his work!) on toasted Dave’s Killer Bread. It might not surprise you to learn that I accompanied this with more apple cider. 

After a decently long walk, I want a sweet snack, so I finish the last of the granola, again with cinnamon, pumpkin seeds, maple syrup, and whole milk. 

Dinner is the astronomically expensive frozen cheese pizza, “handmade in Naples.” with some previously purchased Pinot Noir. Is the pizza worth it? Yes, yes it was, which somewhat surprises me. I do love a good white pizza; this one is a sourdough crust, olive oil, mozzarella, and basil, and it is delicious. I go back for a third piece, and I would buy it again! I mean, it’s not like anyone’s getting out of the pizzeria (does anyone call it that?) for less than $13.49 anyway, and in this case I don’t have to tip. Plus, according to the packaging, this pizza biz is carbon neutral, so I’m feeling pretty righteous right about now. 

I dip the pizza crusts in more doctored aioli. I also blame Texas for my affinity for creamy white sauces, which I had avoided like the plague prior to living there. Also, while I waited for the pizza to bake, I had four (previously purchased) Castelvetrano olives — not that anybody’s counting, no, sir.

Finally, snow! My ongoing Montrose gripe is that the only weather here is “variations on a sunny day,” which I find incredibly monotonous. To be fair, this is (I think) the fifth time it’s snowed this fall, so I guess I’m just greedy. I greet this welcome reprieve from Monsieur Soleil with coffee with whole milk. 

Brunch is two (previously purchased) freezer whole-grain waffles with maple syrup.

Lunch is the last slice of cheese pizza, reheated in the oven, crust dipped in doctored aioli, and a glass of Pinot Noir.

This turns out not to be sufficiently substantial, so drunch (the nebulous gray area between lunch and dinner) is this potato and spinach soup with a slice of the sunflower rosemary loaf, toasted and generously buttered. I resort to drinking water with it. Snow day = soup day, and I’ve been making a variation of this one for years.

I use olive oil instead of butter, omit the bacon, and use water with a clump of vegetable bouillon thrown in instead of chicken broth. Today I used two large Russet potatoes and two large Yukon Gold potatoes, because that’s what I had. This also helped to account for a significant portion of the vat o’ spinach purchased earlier this week. Also, I didn’t have a jalapeño on hand, so I used cayenne pepper (a bit too much, even for heat-seeking me), hot sauce, and 3/4 of the lemon I purchased on Tuesday. I don’t bother chopping the spinach, either, and the world has never ended.

I would happily have it with Greek yogurt alongside, but alas, there’s none to be found here right now. This will serve as lunch and dinner for the better part of the next week (at least). 

Dinner is a bean and cheese burrito. I took a can of (previously purchased) pinto beans, threw them in a pan (with the liquid), and added minced garlic, garlic powder, the dregs of a jar of salsa, salt, pepper, smoked paprika, and cumin seeds bloomed in avocado oil. Then I mashed the daylights out of them with a hand masher #cathartickitchentasks. I threw hot sauce on top of this situation and, yes, I did roll it post-photo-op, in my clumsy way. I think my fondness for puréed foods bodes well for my golden years. 

Fully committing to my kitchen day, I decide to give this chocolate chip cookie recipe a whirl — the inspiration being some leftover coconut sugar a friend sent me home with at Thanksgiving. I use 1/3 cup (1 stick) salted butter, and 2/3 cup virgin coconut oil for the rest, because that’s what I have, but I’m otherwise faithful to the recipe (well, I use vanilla bean paste instead of extract because, again, that’s what I have). 

She’s not kidding when she says they spread a decent amount, but of course using mostly coconut oil affected the structure, and I made them huge, because I only have one baking sheet and I’m impatient. They’re tasty, though, and they have a good texture. I have one (and several shards of its structurally compromised brethren) for dessert, with a glass of oat milk (I bought the whole milk to make colcannon, and I’ve now finished the rest). This is my first time baking with coconut sugar. Seems pretty on par with other sugars.

Well, what do you know, it’s sunny outside. Again. I greet the return of Monsieur Soleil with coffee with oat milk. 

Brunch is a huge slice of the sunflower rosemary loaf, toasted and generously buttered, with the last of the apple cider.

Lunch is some potato and spinach soup. 

For a snack, I have two of the chocolate chip cookies with a glass of oat milk. I refrigerated them, and they taste even better today. Later, I snack on an apple. 

Dinner is a rerun: a bean and cheese burrito with hot sauce, starring last night’s pinto bean concoction. What can I say? I have a short attention span for the weather, and a nearly endless one for my preferred foods.  

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