Friday, finished:

Met with Mary and Natalie to catch up at a Mexican Food Restaraunt. Mary paid for me, but if i had paid, it would have been 6.50. I had an enchilada from the a la carte menu. And lots of water.


After that, Mary and Natalie and I went to Dilletentes- I had a steamed milk with almond in it, and we split a slice of cake three ways. The cake was 8.00, the milk was two dollars. Mary and Natalie both had mochas that were about four dollars a piece. Mary and I treated Natalie to this and split the total bill two ways.

Total expenditure for Friday was, in terms of amount eaten, fifteen dollars, amount expended, 12 dollars and fifty cents.

Saturday I spent the night at Sophias, and babysat for fourteen hours. All the food I ate that day was food I ate sort of on the job that was paid for me by Irene, Sophia's mom, and food that I would have access to were I on food stamps.

Breakfast- we made pancakes from scratch. No idea. I had coffee from across the street, which cost 2 dollars, but Irene had left money specifically for me to get coffee.

Lunch- We ate at the pad se ew place (?) where Irene takes Sophia on Saturdays. Irene gave me the exact amount of money to buy the exact thing that she buys Sophia every Saturday. It came to 15.75 with tip, and there was enough food for the two of us to split easily, and to take home for Irene.

Dinner was Pizza- again, Irene left the exact amount for us to get a large cheese Pizza from Zeeks. 17 dollars.

Total food spent for my food consumption: 17 dollars. Total food I spent on myself: 0 dollars.

(I had forgotten how low my food costs were as a nanny!)

Sunday (Today)


Skipped breakfast totally, had some finger snacks at church (swedish meatballs, crackers with goat cheese (that I assure you was a total accident/mistake), sliced apples, coffee. Free to me and I have no idea how I can figure out how much that food actually cost. Maybe let's say three dollars worth of food I ate?

Mike and I went for one last fling of eating out for a late late lunch/early early dinner at Cedars. We split Nan, Chicken Tandori, Coconut Curry. I had a chai tea. It came to 26 dollars, we split it between us.

Total food spent on myself today: 13 dollars.

I've really really really used eating out as a mood of social interacting a lot recently. That will be a big challenge for me to deal with, the sudden change in that. Also, I'm really beginning to appreciate that one of the ways that I am personally quite priveleged is that people are generous to me, and that I have a lot of social relatonships in which food is purchased for me. (I noticed, also, that i purchase a lot of food for other people- I haven't been tracking money that I spend on food for other people as a food bill that would be covered for food stamps. Should I?)

Overall, I'm averaging spending about 13 dollars on myself per day. With a food stamp budget, it will be about half than that. Also, I do frequent coffee shops so much- my gosh, I am personal friends with the coffee shop owners in my immediate vicinity! So that will also be a challenge, too.